Facebook EdgeRank has officially been retired, but that still doesn’t mean every single user will see every single post you write. Facebook has a new feed algorithm, and if you’re managing a page on this platform for your business, blog, podcast, or web series, it’s important to understand how Facebook’s changes are going to effect you.
Storybumping: It’s Good News
The feature everyone is talking about right now is called storybumping. In the past, Facebook annoyingly decided which posts users would and would not see based on a calculated value. A post that got a lot of attention quickly could go viral, but if you didn’t post at exactly the right time, it didn’t matter what your update was about: people wouldn’t see it. In a few hours, that post would be buried by newer posts.
Now, Facebook is “bumping” stories that you haven’t seen yet, instead of just looking at the publish time. That means Facebook users still have a chance of seeing your posts, even if they’re older. Post timing isn’t as important as it was before.
The results are extremely positive for those of us wanting our page updates to be seen. In initial tests, TechCrunch reports that these changes mean an “8% boost in interactions for stories from Pages and public figures” and that people are seeing about 70% of all possible updates in their stream, as compared to just 57% in the past.
As a user, this means that Facebook will be more interesting for you, since you’ll see new updates whenever you log in, even if the posts are a bit older, instead of just seeing recent stories that you’ve already read.
Last Actor: It’s Even Better News
Even more interesting that storybumping is the “last actor” concept. This way of showing posts to users runs on the theory that the people/pages you’re interacting with most (by looking at their profiles/pages, liking, commenting, browsing their photos, etc.) are the updates you want to see.
This is good news for anyone actively engaging with users on Facebook. If people are interacting with your page, that means they’ll be more likely to see updates from you in the future. It keeps your most rabid fans involved with what’s going on with your page.
So What Does This Mean for Your Page?
It’s all pretty good news, in my opinion, for people who are consistently sharing awesome content and actually engaging with fans on Facebook. It’s bad news for people who just “check in” occasionally, even if your posts do tend to be interesting.
But more importantly, what it means in a broader sense is that if you market a business online or create content online, you have to be flexible. The rules for any platform are fluid, so being stuck in your ways of doing things will bite you in the behind in the the end. Always be experimenting, learning and evolving, on Facebook and otherwise, so you can continue to tweak the way your share and create content. If you stop, you’re really just going backward.
Hi Allison…
Thank you very much for the post… 🙂
I believe “Storybumping” is the best feature so far… It is very realistic feature… It will definitely increase the interaction….
Interesting article. Just tweeted it.
Picky commenter’s observation: There is a typo in the very first sentence. The use of “don’t” should be changed to “doesn’t” so it is grammatically correct.
This is really a good move from Facebook. The news feed must be user friendly and not just Fanpage oriented. Also heard that Facebook is coming up with Treading Hasgtags soon. So well played, Facebook, well played!
What’s this? Facebook is actually listening to its long frustrated user base? Could it be moving toward a point where it’s actually useful again? Maybe there’s hope for this world after all.
On the other hand, it is Facebook we are talking about…
I totally recognize all of your points, but let me ask one more question: what about the passion? I mean, I know it’s all about some SEO stuff and link building and traffic generation etc. but I still believe in the content-is-the-king theory and I am glad that Google tries to push the things in this way as well with the latest updates of their search algorithm. You have to be passionate about the topic you are writing about. Every blogger should build up the trust with their audience in a short way, but if you lost that trust, it is really hard to get it back…
Yes, I definitely think that passion about your topic should be your most important metric when figuring out what to write. HOWEVER…passion without strategy leaves you dead in the water. If no one reads your blog, it doesn’t really matter how passionate you are.
Great post, and I’m glad you made it. I was kind of regretting spending time on Facebook, because I rarely get any traffic from it. I now feel like I have a shot to get some of that sweet, sweet Facebook traffic. Hopefully these changes will help us site owners out!
Hello Allison,
Very Interesting article, I’hv just by default come to your website and find it full of knowledge. Great Article, Hope to see much more article in your blog…
Happy Blogging
Hello Allison,
Very Interesting article,
This is really a good move from Facebook.