According to many sources, including this one, Facebook has once again kept everyone on their toes by changing how they determine which posts actually show up in a person’s newsfeed. But there is actually a silver lining in the changes for Extension folks – Facebook has declared they will give more “credible” and “high quality content” posts the upper hand; meaning posts linking to blog links or news articles will win the battle over silly memes and over-shared photos (“Back to the Future” date pic anyone?!?). We’ll have to see how this plays out, but I think it definitely could help our cause instead of hurting us. Although promoted posts (i.e. paid-for ads) will always appear in a newsfeed more than any other post… and this has many beginning to think that Facebook is morphing into a giant commercial (but that’s a discussion for another day.)
Facebookers still do have somewhat of a say in what shows up in their newsfeed… as long as they’re willing to take some extra steps. Individuals will need to go to their favorite pages and make sure a box marked “Follow” is checked.
This will ensure the page’s posts (most of them anyway) show up in the newsfeed on a routine basis. If you are an administrator of a Facebook page, you should let your followers know that these settings have changed and prompt them to take the extra step to “Follow” your page. Like the example from a National Weather Service page, below:
We’ll continue to keep an eye on the newsfeed algorithm and how it’s impacting posts. Until then, how you noticed a difference in how many people your posts are reaching? How have you circumvented this issue in the past?
~Jamie