Everyone knows Facebook has been under fire for allegedly sharing their user’s private data with companies that use it to clog personal feeds with targeted ads and spam.
However, in an effort to quell some of the rumors circling the web they’ve taken steps to clean up the ne feed for all their users. This way, when they logon, all they see are stories and posts that are pertinent to their interests.
The question is, why? Is it to improve their user’s experience, or is it just another way to show more ads? Let’s take a detailed look at the steps taken by Facebook so we can uncover the truth.
What Has Facebook Done To Improve The News Feed?
Link Baiting: Link baiting refers to posts which explicitly ask for an action (i.e. like, share, comment). Studies show these types of stories are 15% less relevant on average, and thus have a negative impact on the user experience. Facebook has unveiled an update that will detect stories that explicitly ask for likes and/or shares and ensure they are not displayed in your news feed.
Frequent Content Circulation: Content is now king, and sharing relevant content on Facebook is a huge part of creating engagement with friends and fans. Many organizations on Facebook consistently share great, unique content on their pages. However, there have been frequent complaints that certain pages always upload the same videos or photos over and over again. In an effort to stop this re-posting, Facebook will keep tabs on these types of posts/images/videos and limit the amount of times they are displayed in the news feed.
Spammy Links: Everyone has clicked on a post that turned out to be spam at least once in their lifetimes, and Facebook is no different. There are certain images/video posts on Facebook that trick users to click and then direct them to a website full of ads.
Below is an example of a spammy link:
Content shown to the user in their news feed:
After clicking on the link, the user lands on website full of ads:
Facebook is taking steps to remove these types of posts and guarantee that when you do click, you are brought to a relevant page.
What’s The Real Reason?
So what’s the answer to our previous question about Facebook’s true motives? As you can see, Facebook has taken the recent rumors to heart, and is making a sincere attempt to clean up the news feed.
In addition, by removing irrelevant and spammy posts, Facebook is not only providing a better virtual experience for their users, but also creating more space for digital advertisers to promote their ads to people that want to find them.
To learn more about Facebook’s latest updates and how you can take advantage of this extra digital real estate, click here: http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/04/news-feed-fyi-cleaning-up-news-feed-spam/
What do you think of the steps Facebook has taken? Do you find the experience to be better? Leave your comments below.
