The world’s biggest social network has altered its newsfeed algorithm to present users will more ‘high quality’ content.
Writing in a blog post earlier this week, two Facebook programmers said that the changes were made in response to the results of a survey. It was found that people on the social network want to see more news content, such as posts about the sports teams they support.
The update means that users could have access to more relevant content than they do on other social networks, such as Twitter. Newsfeeds on the micro-blogging site differ from those on Facebook in that users are presented with a chronological list of every post from each of the profiles they follow – whereas on Facebook, people are now shown posts in priority order.
Facebookers do have the ability to tweak their feeds, changing settings to give precedence to chronology rather than importance. Additionally, people can click a button that lets them see similar posts in the future.
The social network’s updated algorithm will see more news content on users’ feeds, and will also see older statuses that have garnered a significant level of interaction – in the form of likes, shares and comments – bumped nearer the top.
For brands, the changes only emphasise the importance of using Facebook to engage with users and publish quality content. An interesting, industry-relevant article published on a main site could be shared on Facebook, for instance, and is likely to draw interaction from fans of the brand.
With an increased number of people clicking through to the main website via the article, companies stand a greater chance of experiencing higher levels of site traffic.
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