What Facebook’s news feed shift could mean to users and businesses
Associated Press
NEW YORK — In coming days, Facebook users will see fewer posts from publishers, businesses and celebrities they follow. Instead, Facebook wants people to see more stuff from friends, family and other people they are likely to have “meaningful” conversations with — something the company laments has been lost in the sea of videos, news stories (real and fake), and viral quizzes on which “Big Bang Theory” character you are.
People who use Facebook know that it has made several tweaks to its news feed over the years. And for most, these latest changes may be subtle. It’s likely you’ll still see news articles or even notifications about good deals prominently on your feed, as long as they’re posted by your friends.
What will change, however, is the way Facebook prioritizes what to show you first. In the past, Facebook has placed more emphasis on serving up posts that match your interests. Now, it will give more weight to those that, for example, have lengthy comments or that have otherwise generated a lot of debate.
So, why is Facebook doing this?
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been doing a bit of soulsearching about the negative effects his company may be having on society and its users’ psyches. He has come a long way since November 2016, when he dismissed the notion that fake news on Facebook could have influenced the U.S. presidential election as a “pretty crazy idea .”
Now it’s his personal goal for 2018 to fix the site and weed out hate, abuse and meddling by malicious nation-states, while also making it more “meaningful” and less depressing for users.
Although he acknowledges that Facebook may never be completely free of malign influences, Mr. Zuckerberg says that the company currently makes “too many errors enforcing our policies and preventing the misuse of our tools.”
The company also faces pressure from regulators in the U.S. and abroad, and a growing backlash from academics, lawmakers and even early executives and investors about the ways in which social media may be leaving us depressed, isolated, bombarded by online trolls and addicted to our phones.
Facebook would much rather make changes on its own than have its hand forced by regulators — or to see disillusioned users move on to other, newer platforms.
In some ways, this new focus takes Facebook back to its roots, having started as a way to connect students on college campuses before eventually allowing all people to join in 2006. The move may help Facebook stem a drop-off in “organic” posts — the kind that Facebook is now trying to highlight — that has been a problem for the network for years, and has irked users who mostly want to use the network to connect with people they love.
“This is recognition of the issues they’ve faced with toxic content,” said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group. “People are frustrated with the Russia revelations and fake news and have taken it into their own hands and stopped engaging.”
Nielsen data showing that in September — the most recent month for which this data is available — core Facebook consumption failed to grow year-over-year for a second consecutive month.
Facebook’s stock price dropped almost 6 percent on the morning of Jan. 12 before regaining some ground. That suggests investors take Facebook seriously when it says the move will likely make users spend less time on its service. Less time, of course, means fewer advertising eyeballs at any given time.
This is a huge shift for Facebook, which until recently has been laser-focused on keeping users glued to the service by offering a bevy of notifications and “engaging” but lowvalue material.
Analysts said that Facebook’s revenue is likely to take a hit in the short term but added that this step to make its network seem more authentic is probably necessary for the company to keep people’s trust over time.
“While the news-feed changes just announced could be worrisome in terms of an ad growth hiccup, we believe this overhaul was the right move for longerterm user engagement and driving ‘meaningful content,’ which remains the core ingredient in Facebook’s recipe for success for the coming years,” said Daniel Ives, analyst for GBH Insights.
Facebook “is already experiencing declines in consumption, and the company is responding with these changes today,” Mr. Wieser said. “Good on Facebook — they are doing the right thing, long-term. It may not be good for the business in the short term.”
Facebook has been doing very well financially. Its stock hit an all-time high earlier this month, and the company’s market value is more than $522 billion. Its quarterly results routinely surpass Wall Street’s expectations.
So arguably the company can afford to shift its focus a bit away from quarterly profit gains and metrics like “user engagement” that get advertisers salivating. Mr. Zuckerberg already signaled this would happen late last year, when he said the company’s planned investments in preventing abuse would hurt profitability.
Although the changes could hurt Facebook’s business in the short term, happier users could make for better profits over the long term. At least, that’s what the company hopes.
Many news organizations, bloggers and businesses have grown reliant on Facebook to spread information — articles, videos, infomercials — to their followers without paying for ads. The changes could jeopardize that route to their audiences, though some speculate it could be a ploy to force these companies to buy more Facebook ads.
“It’s obvious that the days of getting exposure as a business on Facebook are coming to an end,” said Michael Stelzner, the CEO of social media marketing company Social Media Examiner. Although Facebook has made plenty of changes to its news feed algorithm in the past, he said, this time might be different.
That’s because Facebook is being “far more explicit” in its wording about what sorts of posts will diminish. “It has never been this black and white,” Mr. Stelzner said.
A large part of brands and media companies’ strategies is to post articles and videos from their pages to engage consumers — items that aren’t considered “meaningful interactions” between people. Downplaying those posts from brands and businesses may put revenue at risk, said James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co.
“There will be less opportunity to expose Facebook users to brands,” Mr. Cakmak said. “But those opportunities to get in front of users will be that much more impactful if it’s more selective.”
The latest news feed changes raise the question: Won’t this just reinforce the “filter bubbles” that trap users among the like-minded?
Do you enjoy arguing with people you disagree with? Maybe, maybe not. But Facebook’s goal is to make people happier using the site — not to expose them to opposing views. So yes, this is possible.
Meanwhile, admitting that its changes will likely reduce the time people spend on Facebook less was a big deal for the company. Video, especially, has been a big focus for the social media giant — and videos have been especially good at keeping users around. This latest move, however, will de-emphasize videos, too.
So, will the changes make people happier or sadder?
The jury is still out on how seeing mostly exuberant posts from friends and family affects people over time.
Facebook obviously believes most of its users enjoy keeping up with what’s happening in their social circles, even if the material being shared mostly revolves around parties, vacations and other fun times while omitting life’s inevitable challenges and tedium.