Facebook's News Feed Changes — What You Need to Know
Story Bump gives you a second chance to be interesting. Why is that important? Read below.
Facebook has generally adhered to a chronological listing of your friends and pages – there was always some amount of shifting, but with Story Bump, they take their algorithm a bit further.
While you may make a very interesting post that could drive a sale if a specific demographic reads it, that post could be ill-timed and that potential sale could not be online to see it within the 15 minutes you post it.
Story Bump gives your post a second chance to be seen hours after it’s been posted – it does this based on a number of factors:
According to Facebook:
- How often you interact with the friend, Page, or public figure (like an actor or journalist) who posted
- The number of likes, shares and comments a post receives from the world at large and from your friends in particular
- How much you have interacted with this type of post in the past
- Whether or not you and other people across Facebook are hiding or reporting a given post
Some interesting facts released about the change also show:
In a recent test with a small number of users, this change resulted in a 5% increase in the number of likes, comments and shares on the organic stories people saw from friends and an 8% increase in likes, comments and shares on the organic stories they saw from Pages.
Previously, people read 57% of the stories in their News Feeds, on average. They did not scroll far enough to see the other 43%. When the unread stories were resurfaced, the fraction of stories read increased to 70%.
What this does for business owners is allow a post to grow organically if it resonates with your fans – so, as always, the #1 rule of writing Facebook posts should be: write content to specifically engage your audience. Each Like, comment, and share is another value point that can get more eyes on your message for free, even hours, and days after you post it. Start conversations and share your passions – it’ll only help garner more engagement and make your page more relevant to an audience you’re sculpting with every post.
In the past, a post had a very small window of time to catch on and go viral; with Story Bump, it may not make you the next Psy, but it could help you answer a question a curious customer might otherwise not have seen. These missed opportunities are something to watch out for – Facebook also measures how well you engage with your fans, even down to messages sent to a Page. So always be responsive whenever possible, it can only help your brand in the long run.
For more info on this change and others, check out the newly released Facebook For Business Blog: https://www.facebook.com/