Facebook Makes News Feed Algorithm Changes To Boost Trending Stories

Facebook has been under scrutiny a lot lately, with many users complaining that the social network’s News Feed algorithm often displays stories that are already old news. While Twitter’s unfiltered feed is always up-to-date, Facebook’s method of displaying items in its News Feed has been criticized as being ineffective.

Facebook has clearly taken note of these complaints, as the company has announced changes that are being made to its News Feed algorithm to ensure that more timely posts are displayed to its users.

“Our goal with News Feed is to show everyone the right content at the right time so they don’t miss stories that are important to them,” wrote software engineer Erich Owens and engineering manager David Vickrey in a blog post. “We’ve heard feedback that there are some instances where a post from a friend or a Page you are connected to is only interesting at a specific moment, for example when you are both watching the same sports game, or talking about the season premiere of a popular TV show. There are also times when a post that is a day or two old may not be relevant to you anymore.”

Facebook’s algorithm changes are being rolled out gradually, and will boost stories that are trending as soon as they occur. “This means that when a friend or Page you are connected to posts about something that is currently a hot topic of conversation on Facebook, that post is more likely to appear higher up in News Feed, so you can see it sooner,” the company’s blog post explained. “Early testing of a small percentage of posts has shown that this update on average leads to a more than 6% increase in people engaging with these stories (e.g., more people share, comment, like or click).”

Additionally, Facebook will be taking into account the rate at which people are engaging with a post, favoring posts that are currently getting a high number of likes, comments and shares as opposed to simply judging the quantity of that engagement. The company’s blog post explains that if users are engaging with a post immediately but not as much a few hours later, it suggests that the post was more interesting at the time that it was posted than it was later on. A post that performs in this way will now be more likely to appear higher in the News Feed early on and lower in the News Feed later on.

The change to Facebook’s algorithm may create new opportunities for marketers who can target trending topics with relevant information to appear higher in the News Feed. It’s too early to know the full effect of the change however, as it will be gradually rolled out, and it’s unclear exactly how far Facebook will turn the immediacy dial and just how noticeable the News Feed change will be to users.