Facebook announced today it will be making an important change the the News Feed. It will now favor posts that have been shared by your friends and family over posts that come from brands, businesses and publishers. From now on, when you visit Facebook via mobile device or the web, the majority of images, stories, videos and other posts you see will be there because your friends on Facebook have shared them, and not because a a business or brand page that you had “Liked” has posted a new update.
Facebook is and still will be a great way for businesses to reach their target audience. This change does not entirely mean that brands and businesses will see a huge decrease in engagement, however it does mean that you will need to focus more on creating content that is, most importantly, “shareable.” Using high quality images and rich video content is a great way to increase the “shareability” of your posts, as well as straying away from potential boring news and updates. Ensure that your business page has a good focus on entertainment-based stories and imagery, as this is help entice the user to click that all-important Share button.
This isn’t an entirely new concept from Facebook, as this is how the News Feed has been working in the past. It just appears that they will be “doubling down” on that philosophy. In a statement from Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s vice president of product management and the News Feed, “Facebook doesn’t favor specific kinds of sources — or ideas in the News Feed, and that the feed should both inform and entertain.”
Just remember, when it comes to content on Facebook, the Share button is king!