When Facebook adjusted the algorithm in December 2013 to determine what a user sees in their Newsfeed, anyone that had a Facebook Page saw a dramatic drop in organic reach in posts. Today, Facebook explains what happening.
In a post by Facebook ads product marketing lead, Brian Bolan, there are two reasons why those posts are being seen by fewer Page fans: first, there’s too much content. The average Facebook user has upwards of 1,500 posts that can be shown to them every time they log in to their account. Pages are competing with potentially hundreds (or thousands depending on how popular a person is) of friends posting photos of babies, posts about their day, and videos of someone falling down. Plus, more and more Facebook users are becoming fans of more Pages. All that content creates a huge signal to noise problem which is what Facebook is trying to solve with the second reason Pages have less reach.
The Newsfeed algorithm, like it or not, is designed to show users what’s most relevant to their interests. So instead of showing someone the potential 1,500 posts when they log in, Facebook picks approximately 300 posts of those posts to add to their Newsfeed. That means a user sees 20 percent of what’s posted by their friends and Pages they like.
Bolan also goes into why Facebook doesn’t show everything like Twitter. He explains that the company wants to present a more engaging Newsfeed. He also addresses ads and the accusation that Facebook uses the algorithm to force Pages to purchase ads for a wider reach. He says it does not.
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He also explains the value of targeted Facebook ads and shares a few success stories from various businesses. He also explains that Facebook will continue to innovate. The recent redesign of the Pages layout is a good example of Facebook working to make the social network easier to navigate.
If you have a Facebook Page, you should definitely check out the post. While the company has explained some of this information before, it’s good to have it all in one place. It may not get your organic reach back to pre-algorithm Newsfeed days, but it at least explains what’s happening to that reach.
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