As of late there has been much controversy about Facebook pages not being seen by fans. Only a small % of fans actually are shown each post from pages run by businesses and brands. Many Facebook page owners have become upset with Facebook’s tactics; which has been basically to inform page owners that more people can see their posts if they pay to promote them. Last week Facebook launched a new feed for all the pages that a user follows. The “Pages Feed” can be found in the left column in the “Pages” section. Initially, many page owners were even more upset about this new segregated feed for pages, fearing that even less of each pages’ fans would be shown updates. The good news for Facebook page owners is that is not the case. Facebook page updates are still being integrated into the regular news feed that users see along with updates from their friends and family. Of course, if a user wants to see all updates from a particular page, they can click on the page to catch up on past posts, or a more efficient way to keep up with important topics is through interest lists. Interest lists can benefit both users and page owners. Users can set up interest lists as a way to customize their feed into separate lists that can include both friends and pages they have liked. To set up interest lists, go to a fan page, clicking the gear symbol on the top right, a drop down menu will appear, just click on “add to interest lists”, then you can set up new lists or even browse from the categories of lists already there. Page owners can take advantage of lists by setting up interest lists that relate to their page in different categories or different ways. When users start looking to set up or add interests, if the page they like is already part of the related category they are interested in, and add it out of convenience.
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There are several factors that Facebook uses to determine when a post from a page shows up in the regular news feed. If a user has interacted with the page more, commenting and liking posts, it is more likely that new posts from that page will be shown in that users’ news feed. On the other hand, if a post from a page is not popular and doesn’t have any likes, comments or shares, then it is less likely to be shown in the regular news feed. If the type of post has been popular in the past, for example if a user seems to interact more with photos, then it is more likely to me shown in the news feed. Lastly, if users have hit the complaint button about a post or reported more complaints about a page, then it is not likely that posts from that page will appear in the general news feed.
Page owners can use this knowledge to maximize the visibility of their posts while gaining relevance and adding value to their fans’ Facebook user experience. Engaging fans is more important than ever with these new developments on Facebook. Pages should try a variety of techniques and a variety of topic angles to reach fans and entice them to like, comment, and share.
