On January 11th, Mark Zuckerberg made a public post about new changes coming to the Facebook’s Newsfeed Algorithm.
Essentially, “meaningful” content from family and friends will now be given much more priority over business pages. This is no surprise, as that has always been Facebook’s main reason for changing the algorithm.
However, this coincides with two other important changes:
- They now consider “meaningful content” to be content that has the user engaging – leaving comments, sharing, etc. This is opposed to passive consumption such as watching videos but not commenting.
- “Suppression” of what they call “Engagement Bait.” For example: “Like for puppies or Love for kittens” or “Tag a friend who might enjoy this” or “Share this content for a chance to win.” There are no longer any shortcuts for building engagement.
Whether this new change applies to Facebook Ads, or what impact it may have on Ads, wasn’t explicitly mentioned in his announcement post. Nor was how the change applies if at all to not-for-profit and charitable organizations.
However, knowing Facebook and their long-term strategy, it makes more sense that neither ads nor not-for-profits and charities will be affected. Facebook has continually done its part over the last few years to decrease organic reach and to encourage brands to use ads – their main revenue stream.
With this in mind, what are the practical, actionable steps we should now take?
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