Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, so people can interact with people in meaningful ways.But, along the way, the focus shifted from people to making money. The good thing is that Mark realized his mistake and made major changes in the Facebook Newsfeed right in the beginning of the year 2018.

In an update on January 11, Mark disclosed his Facebook plans for the year 2018:

“One of our big focus areas for 2018 is making sure that the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent.”

What is the Actual Update?

You can think of Facebook as a successful cookie mogul that somehow stumbled upon a way of making huge bucks by giving away scrumptious cookies for free. However, soon afterward the cookie empire begins to crumble since scientists started fretting over the fact that people were gouging on so many cookies a day that they were making themselves sick. Why don’t they simply stop guzzling in more, you may ask? because whoever said no to free food! These cookies start giving normal food a run for its money, and soon the rising cookie addiction starts wreaking havoc on the political state of the country.

So the owner of the cookie empire decides to step up, convenes with his best bakers and asks them to take a holistic approach to the overall cookie experience, regardless of how many cookies they still give away. So in an effort to make people eat less cookies, he decides to make the free cookies “more meaningful”, and “less addictive”, perhaps by putting in more broccoli and kale in them mayhap. But what sort of a global giant wants their consumers to eat less cookies in their right frame of mind, all for the greater good? The Answer is Facebook!

Previously, Facebook capitalized on signals to determine how many people react, share, or comment on a post and based on that, the news would appear on your Facebook news feed.

As part of a series of efforts to turn the social behemoth into a force for good, your news feed will now be programmed to lend a high priority to posts that elicit what Facebook dubs as meaningful interactions with family and friends, and ward off stuff such as videos and articles, which encourage people to scroll their News feeds passively, without actually paying attention. This means, if you have watched a video, or commented on a page couple of times, Facebook will prioritize it as important and show more of it.

Furthermore, Facebook will prioritize and show posts based on something known as the Newsfeed values.

“We feel a responsibility to make sure our services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post. 

Related: How to use Facebook Algorithm to Increase Your Organic Reach?

 How will The Facebook Newsfeed Update Affect the Pages and the Public Content?

Since there is limited space on the Newsfeed, Facebook will now only show those content pieces that spark conversations with people, and less of public content.For instance, videos and posts from pages will be limited(Unless they are paid).

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The good news for Pages is that they now have a chance to create meaningful content, and once people interact with that content or share it, Facebook will automatically mark it as important and show more of it.

Pages are already feeling a drop in their traffic due to the low quality of content, but Pages that keep up a stream of shareable content will retain their position and traffic. This is bound to compel Pages into producing content that has a propensity to spark conversations.

Now, the question is, will people be able to see posts from pages they follow at the top of their news feed? The answer is, yes. People who want to see posts from their favorite pages will be able to do so, only if they have marked the page as First in their news feed preferences.

Which type of Posts Are Poisedgain Popularity in News feed?

Facebook posts that initiate conversations have the best chances of popping up in your News Feed. For instance, if a live video generated a reaction and people started discussing it, it will show up.

In groups, people often talk about public content. Local businesses interact with their communities and events to create hype. User engagement will be used as a bait to force people to comment, share, and generate traffic.

So, does that mean that Facebook is eliminating page content from news feed?

Certainly not. This update is not like recent tests where the updates were moved to Explore Tab. Infact, page updates will show up in News Feed, though a little less frequently.

To Conclude it all

Zuckerberg expects that these changes will cause people to spend less time on Facebook, but in that time, there will be meaningful content meant boost their engagement level.

Mark Zuckerberg also said “But I also expect that 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.”