Back in August, Facebook implemented an algorithm update aimed at encouraging managers to provide better-targeted updates and less low-value material. The social media giant seems to have made it a priority to limit low-quality posts from news feeds. This week, it announced an update to its news feed ranking, which will put more emphasis on shared news posts as opposed to memes and the like, which are popularly shared on the site.
Facebook defended its move by saying that people had a preference for quality content over memes. The update will see the company track the frequency of articles being clicked on mobile news feeds, to deliver more relevant posts. Users can expect more story and news links on News Feeds. To promote more conversations, posts and stories that have received comments from users’ friends may be slotted to the top. Facebook will also recommend related articles to users who click on a link from their feed. The company has been sending data trends to various media companies and prompting them to post more posts to the site.
The company’s latest move is said to be a response to Twitter’s domination as a news platform. Pew Research suggests that while 47 per cent of Facebook’s users get their news on the site, 52 per cent get it off Twitter. Facebook has also revealed that its referral traffic to news publications increased 170 per cent in 2012, implying that more people are clicking on articles than they did previously.
Pinterest and LinkedIn have also made an effort to become more effective platforms of quality and targeted news delivery.
.png){kind=link}