More Timely Facebook Stories

Via Facebook Newsroom:

Our goal with News Feed is to show everyone the right content at the right time so they don’t miss the stories that are important to them. We’ve heard feedback that there are some instances where a post from a friend or a Page you are connected to is only interesting at a specific moment, for example when you are both watching the same sports game, or talking about the season premiere of a popular TV show. There are also times when a post that is a day or two old may not be relevant to you anymore. Our latest update to News Feed ranking looks at two new factors to determine if a story is more important in the moment than other types of updates.

 

Moving forward, Facebook will begin to give trending topic posts much higher rank within the News Feed. That way users can know what their friends or pages are saying about a particular popular topic right away. According to Facebook: “Early testing of a small percentage of posts has shown that this update on average leads to a more than 6% increase in people engaging with these stories (e.g., more people share, comment, like or click).”

So what does this mean for brands? Every now and then, you see brands jumping onto trending topics. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I always feel a little sympathetic for a brand that tried just way too hard and failed.  In my opinion, brands should only post about current pop culture events if it makes sense for the brand. For example, should all brands be posting about about a Dancing with the Stars premiere just because it’s trending on Facebook? The simple answer: No. If you’re trying too hard to make a connection, then you shouldn’t be posting about it.

Similar to some comments I made in my last blog post, Facebook is attempting to be user’s go-to news resource and this update may benefit news publications more than brands.

In addition to a trending topics update, Facebook also made an additional update that will take into account the rate at which a post receives engagement. Moving forward, Facebook will determine where a post is ranked within a user’s News Feed based off of when users are liking, commenting, and sharing.

From Facebook:

If people are engaging with the post right after it is posted, and not as much a few hours later, this suggests that the post was most interesting at the time it was posted, but potentially less interesting at a later date. Based on this signal it is more likely to appear higher in News Feed earlier on and lower at a later date.

We are also going to start taking this signal into account when considering which stories we bump in News Feed. Bumping is when we resurface stories that people did not scroll down far enough to see but are still getting lots of engagement. This is one more way that we’re working to identify timely posts so we can show them nearer the top of your News Feed sooner.

As always, my best advice is for brands to create content that is most relevant to their brand’s voice and target audience. Don’t stretch too far beyond your social mission just to appease every little Facebook News Feed change.