Facebook Launches ‘See First,’ A Level Above Likes For Pages

Facebook has been asking auto dealerships and other businesses to buy Page Likes for many years, saying that it’s an effective method for reaching users through the News Feed. However, the reality is a natural increase in competition for space in the feed, coupled with restrictions on promotional and marketing posts, has eroded the reach of Pages over time, and subsequently has decreased some of the value of Page Likes.

To deal with this dilemma, Facebook has now created a level above Likes, with a new bar for Pages to strive for if they want a closer, and potentially more lucrative, relationship with users who are interested in their business. The new feature is called “See First,” and users can now go to Pages, friends, or public figures’ profiles and add them to their See First list that is managed in the revamped News Feed Preferences. If you can get a user to add your dealership to their list, it guarantees that all of your posts will appear at the top of their News Feed, marked with a blue star. This is obviously a massively powerful tool, and marketers on Facebook will certainly be coming up with innovative ways to utilize its abilities.

Page owners on Facebook have been well aware for quite some time now that there is a small and dwindling fraction of Page fans that Like a business who actually see each of their posts. This reality truly makes “See First” the new Holy Grail for social marketers, and if they can get added by users, they’ll benefit not only from their most popular posts reaching those users, but also from having anything that they post reach those same users, including overt marketing or sales messages Facebook typically buries in the News Feed. These posts that actually sell products or drive traffic away from Facebook are the ones that generally earn marketers the most revenue, and the social media company’s new “See First” functionality can ensure that users see all posts from a Page, provided that they add the business to their list.

Facebook’s new feature seems like it could mark a big change in the way marketers utilize the social media platform to further the reach of their brands. Facebook users will now be able to tailor their feeds to very specific purposes if they choose to, rather than simply seeing a mix of everyone they’ve friended or followed. For example, if a user sets a few auto dealerships and car manufacturers as “See First,” their News Feed will basically turn into an auto industry page. It’s an interesting prospect for sure, and there will undoubtedly be a multitude of methods that are developed by marketers in attempts to increase the number of users who include their Page on their “See First” list.

Greg Marra, the Facebook product manager in charge of See First, downplayed the impact of the change on marketers, saying, “I don’t think the impact is going to be very large.” However, it’s hard to imagine that the new feature won’t significantly alter the way that marketers approach the social media network in the future, and we’ll be watching to see if “See First” gains popularity amongst users as it rolls out.