Your Facebook Feed - What You Need To Know Now
Your Facebook feed can be confusing today. I met a woman I'll call Sally about a year ago. She is a customer of mine and only used Facebook minimally. She wanted to grow her business and realized she really needed to have a Facebook page and more knowledge of using Facebook herself.
It really helped me to understand how non-bloggers and non-marketers use Facebook. They may look for photos of family members and post rarely themselves. They use it as a personal news source.
It's more of a communications necessity vs. using it as a marketing tool or as a business.
Your Facebook Feed - Lists
As Sally and I went over how to use Facebook she had no idea how lists worked or why even to create them and use them. I went on to explain that her family members might not want to see her postings related to her real estate business. Or her real estate customers may not want to see pictures of her with friends vacationing, etc. She was starting to get the picture and began getting excited!
Now, cut to the latest Facebook Newsfeed Algorithm changes. AND BOY, am I ever so glad I started Sally on Lists. The Facebook Lists we had created now continue to help her navigate the latest changes made to the Newsfeed.
Facebook is ever-changing and their priority is to have us talking to each other, engaging in deeper and meaningful interactions, and leaving comments that lead to conversations. This being said, we truly need to stay on top of things or else we will get left behind.
How to Use Facebook Lists
You can create lists out of your Facebook friends so that you don't share everything to everyone. Facebook Lists gives you the control over what shows up on your news-feed. With only a click of a button, you can go from talking to friends to switching to business information.
These lists you create help you to share things only to the people you have added to those lists! There are also "interest" lists that can be created. Things that you are interested in and use the lists likewise. It's also a great way to see what people in your lists post.
You can go to your list and see just that feed instead of your mainstream Facebook Feed. It can save you a lot of time. (Just as Twitter lists do!)
Check out " 100 Awesome Facebook Lists to Follow (and bypass Edgerank)" written by Scott Ayres! Scott states, "Facebook quietly launched "Interest Lists" about a year ago - around the same time Timeline launched.
Before that, lists were mostly used for organizing friends. The new Lists let users include people (including non-friends) AND pages. The 100 Interest Lists are arranged by categories such as - social media, business, sports, politics, music, art, food, etc.
Facebook Feed - The new Lists let users include people (including non-friends) AND pages. Click To Tweet
Close Friends Facebook List
When you make someone a close friend, you will see their posts in your feed almost every time and in your notifications. Sally really liked this feature and wondered why she hadn't been seeing some of her friend's posts. She would see them in person and they would ask her if she saw something in particular about this or that on Facebook. She was dumbfounded.
Acquaintances Facebook List
When you don't want to see someone's every post, choosing to make them only an Acquaintance is a great option. You know the person who shares everything with everyone? You no longer have to see it all. Nice, Right?
Restricted Friends on Facebook
This is for people like your parents, kids, bosses that you want to be friends with but don't want them seeing your posts. A little sneaky but it works.
Other Ways to Change Your Facebook Feed
Adjust your Newsfeed to "Most Recent" -
This is great if you are tired of seeing the same old stuff and start receiving the most recent things
See First Option
Did you know you could change whose posts and pages you see first? You can choose up to 30 pages and people whose posts you will see first in your Facebook feed above all the others. See the Slideshare below for more details.
This is a great way to see posts from pages that tend to get lost in your Facebook feed. Sally may use this one for her new Facebook Page so her fans can see all of her posts. Of course having a professional looking Facebook page is helpful here too.
You can choose up to 30 pages and people whose posts you will see first in your Facebook feed above all the others. Click To Tweet
Notifications
If you don't click turn on notifications you won't see them in your notifications. That's usually what I look at first. And if you set your mobile to make a noise or vibration you will be notified instantly. You may want to be extremely selective in which you choose to use notifications. Notifications can get annoying if you have too many.
Click on Posts
If you are seeing posts that don't interest you - you have an option. You can click on the right side of them and see the selection of choices. Some choices include: Hide Post, Unfollow XYZ, Hide All From XYZ, or turn ON notifications.
Story Preferences
You can change what you see from people with this option. You can customize by life events, photos, games, etc. Nice if you want to avoid seeing games that your friends are playing and yet want to see their new photo updates.
You really can have more control of your Facebook Feed and save yourself valuable time when on Facebook. These options are available on desktop and mobile as well.
Different Facebook Feeds for Your Facebook Feed
Also, note that there are several different feeds to choose from. There is the Explore feed as well as the Pages feed. Helping your fans and clients learn how to look into their Pages feed will help people who enjoy your blog postings and articles to locate your business page!
You really can have more control of your Facebook Feed and save yourself valuable time while on Facebook. These options are available on desktop and mobile as well.
Facebook Algorithm Changes
There are over 1.5 billion people now using Facebook. Facebook has over the years had to change the ways in which people view their Facebook feeds. An average Facebook user looks at 300 posts per day.
Therefore it is really almost impossible to see everything everyone posted. Even if you had a just a few friends and liked several pages. There are now sponsored posts and related posts. There are Facebook events and ads. You need to cut through this Facebook clutter.
There are over 100,000 different factors now that play into the Facebook Algorithm. A few top ones to take note of are:
Top Facebook Algorithm Factors
- Engagement - If you comment on a friends post or a pages post you will more likely see more from them.
- Relevancy - If topics are relevant to what you post about, etc you may see their posts more often.
- Sharing - If a post is shared by you, you may see more posts from that person or page.
- Time - How much time one spends reading a post is also a factor in your Facebook feed. The more time you spend reading one, the more likely you will see more like it in the future in your Facebook feed.
- Liking a Post - Likes have decreased in value over time but are still a small factor.
- Hiding a Post - This will likely show you less from that person or page in the future on your Facebook feed.
- Links - How you post a link may also impact how many people see it. It's best if you can start with a comment about it, share the link url and image. Uploading your own image sometimes helps too, especially if it is larger than one from the website. If you are sharing a link it is best to use the link preview format. If you are sharing just a photo it's best not to post a link within a caption.
Continue Reaching Customers On Facebook
Although the changes to the Facebook news-feed has affected business pages drastically, it doesn't mean there is no hope in reaching loyal and valued customers. We just need to change the way we do it.
Comments are the key on the Facebook feed. Just don't goad people to comment because that's considered "Engagement Bait" and that is a serious NO NO today.
Asking open ended questions, but don't tell them to "share if you agree" or "click like". Find a way to get people talking about your content by writing about relevant and timely topics. You can also invest in making Live videos, Podcasts, and creating a Facebook Group Page. Don't give up!
Of course this may all change the next time Facebook makes yet more changes to its algorithm. They have become more like Google with constant changes of how we view things online and how one can get their links and stories shared across the web. In the meantime - Be Patient, keep working towards your goal, and keep your posts fresh and interesting!
'Comments are the key on the Facebook feed. ' Click To Tweet
Your Take on Your Facebook Feed
How Are You Using Your Facebook Feed Today? Do you use Lists often when sharing? What is your favorite thing about your Facebook feed that you can customize? What other advice would you have for Sally? I'd love to know more in the comments below.
*This post has been updated since January 201623 Absolute Best Blogging Apps For Android (All Are FREE)
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