Facebook News Feed Update: What it Means for Digital Marketing
By Marc Purtell | Director, SEO
Facebook has once again decided to update its News Feed with a new look and algorithm. This update is meant to give members more control of what they see on their own customized News Feeds. What this means for marketers is that there is a higher importance than ever in successfully engaging with consumers and providing useful, compelling information in order to maintain or increase their current level of visibility.
One of the major changes to the News Feed that will need to be addressed by digital marketers is the ability for users to filter the feed for media types such as images, music, videos, news, or apps. This makes it essential for a Facebook marketing strategy to focus on a range of media types. For example, If a brand is doing a great job regularly sharing status updates, that messaging will be missed by people who are filtering only for images. By diversifying the types of content shared, a brand will be able to penetrate multiple filters and maximize their News Feed presence. Specifically for the image feed, Facebook will be displaying images from both Facebook and Instagram, so brands should be uploading photos to both.
The other expected major change is to Facebook advertising, as alluded to by Mark Zuckerberg himself. The revamped News Feed will allow advertisers to provide richer ads including larger images and videos, therefore opening greater potential for reaching and engaging with consumers through paid media. By including compelling rich media in paid Facebook ads, marketers can expect a much higher click through rate than they have seen in the past, opening up Facebook advertising as a larger piece of a digital strategy.
Whether or not these News Feed updates will stick will depend largely on the user response. As we have seen with other Facebook overhauls, such as with the timeline, it often takes members some time to warm up to major change. The potential, however, for these updates to provide a better user experience and open up new opportunities for brands should not be overlooked.
Are you looking forward to using the new Facebook News Feed for your business?
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