Effects of the Facebook News Feed Redesign for Brand Pages

There has been a lot of discussion over the past week about the recent changes Facebook has put into place surrounding the home page news feed.  As of October 23rd, Facebook re-introduced the “pre-filtered” news feed which has been missing since March 2009, when the real-time live feed was introduced.  Users now have a choice to view the pre-filtered “news feed” or the real-time, un-filtered “live feed.”

So, what does this mean for managers of brand pages?

Because the pre-filtered news feed is the default option for all users, it means less fans are going to see your posts, by default.  How much less?  By analyzing customer data collected in Vitrue’s SRM (Social Relationship Manager) application suite, we’ve determined that, on average, there are approximately 57% less interactions and 30% less clicks on wall posts.  By interactions we mean likes and comments. This analysis compared multiple categories of posts from the 3 weeks prior to the change versus one week after the change and covered multiple Vitrue clients.

Effects of the Facebook News Feed Redesign

Why is this happening?

According to many industry insiders, including Justin Smith @ Inside Facebook, the algorithm which determines the content included in an individual user’s pre-filtered news feed takes into account the following:

- How many people (and especially your friends) comment on and like stories from Pages you’re a fan of
- Which Pages you visit frequently
- Which Pages you interact with frequently

With this change, it appears Facebook is adopting an “earned placement model” similar to Google search, at least with regards to this new default pre-filtered view.  Users that like the real-time “live feed” view can always change to it very easily and leave that as their default, but it’s likely a significant portion of users will continue to use the default served up to them by Facebook (as demonstrated by the 57% reduction in interactions measured by Vitrue SRM).

Another interesting element is that pages you frequently visit and interact with are more likely to appear again in your news feed.  This makes sense that your news feed would have items Facebook “thinks” are more relevant for you, but it also means Facebook is encouraging brand pages to have fans to visit their brand page instead of leaving Facebook for external sources through wall posts. There is also what appears to be a “Catch-22″ when it comes to earning more engagement on a wall post to earn placement in the pre-filtered news feed.  How do you get engagement on a wall post if users never see it in the first place in order to engage with it?

So, what do I do now?

All this is definitely encouraging page owners to create higher quality content which begs to be engaged with, which will keep users coming back for more interactions and more page visits, within the Facebook ecosystem.   How do you know what’s higher quality content? Facebook has a generic “post quality” rating they introduced this year which is a directional indicator of all of your posts.  But if you’re looking for more detailed information, the Vitrue SRM provides comprehensive information on click-throughs, comments, likes and moderation capabilities to analyze each post in detail.

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9 Responses to “Effects of the Facebook News Feed Redesign for Brand Pages”

  1. Interesting, and not surprising. Hopefully this will even out as people and page owners get used to the new system. Hopefully the catch-22 with the pre-filtered feed will be offset by the increased engagement that smart page owners will achieve with the fans that have the Live Feed selected.

    Of course, there will inevitably be another change sooner or later that will have everyone scrambling to figure out what to do next. Best case scenario for now - all of the changes encourage page owners to focus on quality content and ongoing engagement. Worst case scenario, some brands may get discouraged by the dropoff in interactions and focus elsewhere. This only underscores the need that brands have for ongoing guidance in this area.

  2. Chad Estes says:

    Brandon - great points all around. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

  3. sue rodman says:

    Question - if the feed is determined by interaction on the site, how do you encourage that interaction? I’ve also heard that you can’t do contests or give-a-ways on Facebook. That’s a real reason for fans to come back if they can “get” something for it.

  4. Chad Estes says:

    Sue - to encourage interaction on a fan page you have to have something of value to provide to fans. It might be an offer or a coupon or some engaging content you’ve highlighted and made it easy for fans to share with their friends. Remember, Facebook is a place for sharing.

    And you can do contests and give-a-ways on Facebook, you just can’t use standard Facebook functions for an entry into the contest or for communicating with winners. More details are available on our most recent blog post:

    http://vitrue.com/blog/2009/11/12/is-your-brand-ready-to-capitalize-on-the-new-facebook-promotion-guidelines/

  5. Chad,
    Thanks for the summary, very helpful!
    Is it worth seeking Facebook approval for a contest promotion to be run through a fan page, or is it best to create a microsite for contests and merely link to them from the page? I’ve heard it can take months to get a response from Facebook.
    Karen

  6. Chad Estes says:

    If you’ve already got a contact at Facebook and have a budget to create a 3rd party app - then do the contest on Facebook. Your account rep should be able to help you get a speedy approval. It’s far more powerful with regards to having user actions published to friends (such as contest entry and voting actions, etc).

    But, if you don’t have a budget or a contact then go with the microsite route and use FB as a front door.

    Good luck and let us know if Vitrue can help.

  7. Thanks, Chad!
    Forgive me for all the questions, but…with regard to the new fan page algorithm: Would the user’s subscription/use of an app be considered an interaction that would earn the fan page a presence in the pre-filtered news feed?
    Thanks so much for sharing your expertise.
    Karen

  8. Chad Estes says:

    Karen - no worries on the questions, sharing is what social media is all about!

    I’m not 100% sure because nobody really knows what is in the algorithm, but I don’t believe interactions with an app would be considered interactions with a page unless that app was an app-supported tab enabled on that page.

    For example - check out the “Featured” tab on the iTunes page: http://facebook.com/itunes.

    That is an example of an app-supported tab.

    Chad

  9. Got it, thanks Chad.

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