Facebook updates News Feed to push popular posts and punish boring content

[Matt]

Facebook is rolling out changes to its News Feed to allow older, more popular posts to resurface in a bid to please page owners and advertisers.

In a blog post explaining the update, Facebook revealed that each time a user logs on to Facebook, there are an average of 1,500 potential posts that could be displayed at any one time. These include simple stories such as photo tags to more significant changes such as relationship status updates.

Facebook revealed exactly what interactions change the likelihood of a post displaying in a user's News Feed, which is the first page users see when they log in:

1. "How often you interact with the friend, page, or public figure (like an actor or journalist) who posted

2. The number of likes, shares and comments a post receives from the world at large and from your friends in particular

3. How much you have interacted with this type of post in the past

4. Whether or not you and other people across Facebook are hiding or reporting a given post"

Previously, up to 43 percent of a user's feed was unread, but the changes Facebook is implementing means that posts users failed to reach when scrolling through their News Feed will now resurface at the top of the feed in non-chronological order. Posts already appear in the feed out of order, but this update will further alter that system.

This change will also force page owners to ensure their pages receive interactions – such as likes and comments – on a regular basis. Users whose posts are ignored or hidden by their friends will receive little coverage.

In the first blog post of its type, Facebook attempted to explain in more detail how page administrators, such as small business owners, can make better use of the News Feed.

Facebook is still rolling out its new News Feed to users, after announcing it at the beginning of 2013. However, the new design has yet to make it to all users, meaning page owners and advertisers are having to grapple with multiple user interfaces for which they must design adverts and other content

Last month, Facebook posted better than expected profits of $333m and pleased investors by significantly bolstering its mobile user base, with 819m monthly mobile users.

Sursa V3.co.uk