Are you getting sick of seeing posts that seem to be begging for Likes and Shares on Facebook? You’re probably going to start seeing less of them now. Facebook recently announced a few improvements that will help clean the spam out of your News Feed.
Facebook’s update specifically targets three types of spammy News Feed posts:
Like Baiting
People who rely on “like baiting” explicitly ask Facebook users to like, comment on, or share a post for the sole purpose of boosting their posts’ visibility. Based on a survey Facebook conducted, only 15% of these “like bait” posts are 15% less relevant than other stories with a similar amount of likes, comments, and shares. Facebook concluded that this leads to a poor experience for users “since [these posts] drown out content from friends and Pages that people really care about.”
Frequently Circulated Content
Great Facebook posts can be shared over and over again, but it’s a different story if the same person or page uploads the same content over and over. Facebook’s update aims to “de-emphasize” pages that frequently reshares and reuploads the same content. Their initial tests showed that the new change reduces the number of stories people hide from pages by 10%.
Spammy Links
Facebook is also cracking down on shared links that lead users to spammy websites that are full of ads and “frequently circulated content.” To detect these spammy links better, Facebook measured how often users who visit a link Like or Share the original post. The News Feed update reduces the instances wherein these spammy links appear. Initial testing has resulted in a 5% increase in clicks on links that take users outside Facebook.
What Does This Mean for Your Facebook Marketing?
Does this mean you should stop posting your Facebook marketing and promotions? There’s no reason for that (unless you are guilty of any of the three types of spammy posts listed above). As long as you know your target audience very well, create awesome content that is relevant to their interests, and don’t bug them for Likes/Comments/Shares, you don’t have to worry.
