Facebook gaat in het nieuwsoverzicht veel meer de nadruk leggen op vrienden en familie. Het is een gebaar van grootste sociale media netwerk ter wereld, dat niet over goed valt. De aandelenkoerst daalt en nieuwsaanbieders vrezen voor hun bereik. Ook zal het aantal kliks uit organische posts afnemen Zuckerberg motiveert:

One of our big focus areas for 2018 is making sure the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent. We built Facebook to help people stay connected and bring us closer together with the people that matter to us. That’s why we’ve always put friends and family at the core of the experience. Research shows that strengthening our relationships improves our well-being and happiness. But recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other. It’s easy to understand how we got here. Video and other public content have exploded on Facebook in the past couple of years. Since there’s more public content than posts from your friends and family, the balance of what’s in News Feed has shifted away from the most important thing Facebook can do — help us connect with each other.

We feel a responsibility to make sure our services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being. So we’ve studied this trend carefully by looking at the academic research and doing our own research with leading experts at universities.

Oktober 2017 al begonnen

Het platform experimenteerde oktober 2017 al met het nieuwsoverzicht, maar kreeg ook te maken met veel kritiek op het te laks inhaken op fake-nieuws. De news feed zou te makkelijk be-invloedbaar zijn.  Er was toen een versie waarbij er twee nieuwsoverzichten waren:

• een met nieuws van vrienden en familie;
• een met nieuws van media.

Dat had grote gevolgen voor uitgevers: de bezoekersaantallen daalden sterk. Een definitieve scheiding blijft nu dus uit, maar de gevolgen kunnen groot zijn voor uitgevers. Die zijn ook nu in ieder geval weer bang voor dalende bezoekcijfers.

Zuckerberg motiveer verder de verandering:

As we roll this out, you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media. And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard — it should encourage meaningful interactions between people.

For example, there are many tight-knit communities around TV shows and sports teams. We’ve seen people interact way more around live videos than regular ones. Some news helps start conversations on important issues. But too often today, watching video, reading news or getting a page update is just a passive experience.

Now, I want to be clear: by making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down. But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable. And if we do the right thing, I believe that will be good for our community and our business over the long term too.

At its best, Facebook has always been about personal connections. By focusing on bringing people closer together — whether it’s with family and friends, or around important moments in the world — we can help make sure that Facebook is time well spent.

Het effect

Het effect zal groot zijn. Waar het organisch bereik al af aan het nemen was door de invoering van een algoritme. Uitgevers willen minder afhankelijk gaan worden van Facebook, maar bekend is dat vooral jongeren Facebook als primaire nieuwsfeed gebruiken. Facebook motiveert het effect op hun FB.com:

Page posts that generate conversation between people will show higher in News Feed. For example, live videos often lead to discussion among viewers on Facebook – in fact, live videos on average get six times as many interactions as regular videos. Many creators who post videos on Facebook prompt discussion among their followers, as do posts from celebrities. In Groups, people often interact around public content. Local businesses connect with their communities by posting relevant updates and creating events. And news can help start conversations on important issues.

Using “engagement-bait” to goad people into commenting on posts is not a meaningful interaction, and we will continue to demote these posts in News Feed.

Does this mean you are eliminating Page content from News Feed?
No. This update is not the same as the recent tests where all Page content was moved to the Explore Tab. Page posts will still appear in News Feed, though there may be fewer of them.