Well, it was clear that Facebook was going in this direction… The social network has announced its next News Feed update that will mean bad news for business pages.
In its announcement on Wednesday, Facebook detailed how it is to further strengthen the News Feed content preference for “friends and family” over the brands, celebrities or media publishers a user follows. Simply put - get ready to see way more annoyingly repetitive posts from your aunt, instead of the usual mixture with content from the brands you like.
“Stories in News Feed are ranked — so that people can see what they care about first, and don’t miss important stuff from their friends,” Adam Mosseri, vice president of product management said in a statement. “One of our most important jobs is getting this ranking right."
A more detailed statement by Lars Backstroke, engineering director at Facebook, acknowledged that this may result in a drop in reach and referral traffic, especially impacting those not receiving many shares or interactions. So news publishers (like….us) will probably see a decline in reads.
So why did they do this? Simple - revenue. Forcing the hand of businesses to invest more money is going to be at the sheer detriment of smaller pages.
Brand pages, we feel your pain.
Alongside the scientists, 50% of the British public and the future health of young people across the nation, I have one simple request: delay Freedom Day, please.