Since its conception in 2006, Facebook has continuously updated and altered their newsfeed in hopes retaining, building and pleasing their user base. In 2013 and 2014, Mark Zuckerberg began making instrumental changes when it came to what people could see and access through their Facebooks. From allowing users to “unfollow” their friends’ posts, creating a more curated feed, and cracking down on “spam” or “click-bait” posts (Associated Press, 2018), both of which proved to be a good call for the social site. Unfortunately, the upcoming changes to the platform, which were recently announced by Zuckerberg, were not as well received by a large portion of Facebook’s user base: brands and the media. The changes in the platform’s algorithm are ultimately stripping brands and news outlets from their free, or “organic,” circulation.
With #Facebook's recent algorithm updates, brands are going to begin to experience a decrease in their organic reach. Combat these changes by effectively targeting your ads to those who are most likely to notice, and publish humanized #content that offers the reader value👈👌 pic.twitter.com/vo1OM6tmYV
— Taylor Jacobson (@TaylorJayLive) January 21, 2018
Best stated by a Bank of American researcher, “the goal appears to be realigning Facebook as a social platform and less of a media/news outlet” (Vanian, 2018).
Ever wonder why you see what you see in your News Feed? Every time you open News Feed, we use a tool called Ranking to help determine what content you might find the most relevant. pic.twitter.com/NYvzJBCrt4
— Facebook (@facebook) December 15, 2017
In regards to their most recent changes, if I were to advise Facebook, I would suggest that they market their algorithm changes as an opportunity for brands and news outlets to generate content that both appeals to consumers and relates to them on a human level. Although companies are taking this as a sign that they should buy more ad space, Facebook should partner with them in order to create a more natural and integrated form of advertising within the platform. It’s clear that Facebook’s end goal is to cultivate the human relationships within the platform, which is something that most brands are constantly trying to tap into, making the perfect partnership and, in a way, a symbiotic relationship.