On June 29, 2016 the USA Today reported “Facebook is tweaking its algorithm to show you more of your friends’ posts rather than posts from publishers.” Link: usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/06/29/facebook-limit-posts-pages-news-feed/86512200
First, let’s take a moment to review Facebook’s current algorithm, which looks something like this:
What this new update suggests is that the “C” part of this equation – the Creator – is now going to receive more positive weight if the Creator is your friend or family member, and more negative weight if the Creator is a business, celebrity, or other non-friend Page.
This has big implications for any business paying to Boost its posts or running a Facebook Ads campaign. The update means a business will have to be more creative, more interesting, more engaging, and participate in more social conversations in order to get noticed. Oh yeah, and it will cost more.
Just how much more is yet to be determined. Facebook Ads have been one of the most affordable and effective options for targeted digital advertising in the last three years. Since we all share so much of our lives with Facebook (age, gender, location, interests, marital status, life events, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg), the ability for a business to laser-focus on a specific audience on Facebook’s platform is truly unique. On a cost-per-click basis, Facebook Ads have been a fraction of the cost of a Google Search ad (we’re talking pennies per click vs. dollars per click).
The choice by Facebook to rank your friends’ posts higher than a publisher’s post in your News Feed is an attempt to keep its 1.65 billion users engaged with the content they prefer and to further leverage its advertising platform by forcing advertisers to be more compelling with their messages and more aggressive with their monthly budgets.
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