Facebook is an ever-changing beast. The popular social platform is always reviewing user trends and feedback to create a stronger, more relevant network and news feeds. For content marketers, staying abreast of these updates and considering them within an editorial calendar can be a challenge. But many Facebook algorithm updates can benefit businesses, as the platform tends to focus on what is important to user groups. Thus, successful content after updates often reaches more relevant audiences.
At the beginning of 2017, Facebook announced the signals updates to further authenticate content presented in user news feeds. These updates were more recently followed with additional changes to continue enhancing user experience.
Here are some of the major points to consider as you tame the megalithic social media monster and craft authentic content for your brand.
Signal Information
To evaluate and rank post authenticity within user news feeds, Facebook looks at both personal and universal signals. A user’s personal signals demonstrate how close the user is to a page. Universal signals take overall post engagement into account. Facebook has added additional universal signals to assess content authenticity including engagement trends such as post-hiding.
Minimizing Low-Quality Experiences
Facebook believes its users desire an entertaining, informative experience.New Facebook updates, including the use of artificial intelligence will appraise the substance and ad content within current and new websites shared on the platform. Among other factors, this update, beginning in May 2017, will focus on reducing financially-motivated spam links containing low-quality content and aggressive or malicious advertisements.
Reducing Clickbait Headlines
Clickbait headlines are exaggerated or withholding content, designed to draw attention and lure users into clicking misleading or spammy links. In an effort to reduce this sort of content, Facebook will begin scrutinizing headlines at the post level, examining withholding or sensationalized headlines separately, and testing the effort in additional languages.
So, what do these updates mean for your business? The focus remains on the audience. Facebook wants to provide a strong user experience. As long as you are crafting genuine, relevant content for your target groups, you should not see any negative consequences from these updates. In fact, Facebook suggests that some pages could see slight referral and outbound click increases. If you remain focused on your audience and quality content, Facebook remains a strong communication tool and perhaps a friendly giant rather than a fiendish brute.
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