Why Facebook’s news feed changes are making my head spin
Mumbrella’s Josie Tutty considers what Facebook’s potential new pay-to-play news feed means for publishers who rely on the site’s two billion active users to find an audience.
Facebook page owners in Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Bolivia, Guatemala and Cambodia woke up last Thursday to the realisation that their posts had been moved from the main news feed to an obscure new ‘Explore’ feed.
If you happen to be in one of those fated six countries, the only non-sponsored posts that are visible in your news feed are those from your friends.*
So far, the results of the trial have revealed a major drop in interactions (up to four times, according to Filip Struhárik, journalist at Dennikn).
Biggest drop in organic reach we’ve ever seen. Pages have 4 times less interactions, reach fell by two-thirds https://t.co/KhAtCR0yvu
What a clever piece of camouflage, sorry, I mean native advertising for this website. Seriously, that was a brilliant way to promote Mumbrella’s glowing traffic figures, all under the guise of serious analysis.
Well played Mumbrella, wel played.
What are you talking about? They cover their numbers with great enthusiasm like every month
The most important point of this article is hidden in the second last paragraph (of course) – and that is about consumers getting comfortable with the Explore feed.
So many people underestimate how adaptive the social media audience can be when it comes to finding a way to consume the content they like.
Of course publishers have seen a drop in traffic in the first few days of a radical platform change – why is this a surprise to anyone?
What I would be keen to see are the results of publishers after 3 months when the Explore feed forms a more natural part of a users content consumption – rather than the dozens of “The Sky Is Falling!!” articles I have read.
And this is Facebook – a gigantic, smart, and well resourced social media company – who are doing nothing more than testing new way of content consumption.
One of two things happen: the audience adapts and the platform is rolled out globally. Or the audience doesn’t adapt and the trial is scrapped.
Why would Facebook ever go ahead with something that hurts its consumers (and therefore, publishers – who are the content creators)?
Expect unpaid reach to head towards zero. (And even paid reach to be throttled if it doesn’t meet Facebook’s arbitrary and unexplained standards.)
Highlights the risks for publishers becoming so dependent on FB as a source of traffic and audience. This may well be about delivering users a better experience — but it is also about squeezing more $ from publishers hooked on FB traffic.
My Google phone gives me all the news and info that I need.