It is well known that Facebook operates and profits from its News Feed, so the feature is vital for the social network.
The company today announced small but important tweaks to its News Feed algorithm to show more content your friends are interested in, and potentially less from Pages. But the social network also explained for the first time the “core values that have been the guiding principles behind every improvement to your News Feed for several years.”
Don't expect any major announcements, Facebook's values are pretty obvious overall, but it's nice to see the reasoning behind each little tweak the company has made.
“Friends and family come first”
Facebook says it prioritizes posts from close friends and family over all other types of posts. It tries to learn your preferences for the exact type of posts you want to see, based on the things you upload (photos, texts from specific people, etc.), and displays them at the top of your News Feed.
After friends and family, the company tries first to “inform you” with stories from current events, celebrity stories, or recipes.
And secondly, “to entertain you.” Sometimes that means seeing viral videos or funny photos. Facebook wants to make sure your feed isn’t boring.
“A platform for all ideas”
Facebook says it's trying to connect people with the ideas and stories they find most meaningful. That means it won't just show you stories you might find enjoyable, but rather ones you might find exciting.
For example, a Facebook study last year showed that over a quarter of the links you see in your News Feed are from opposing political views, and people are interested in hearing the opposition, no matter how strongly they disagree.
Facebook says that while it doesn't favor specific types of ideas, it does show stories that most people want to see more of in their News Feed.
“Authentic communication”
In other words, honesty. The company says it works hard to spread genuine stories and not hoaxes or things that are “misleading and spammy.”.
“You can control your experience”
It gives you the option to delete, follow, or hide messages (posts), as well as a “See first” button to prioritize. If you hide a message from someone, it indicates that you probably want to read fewer stories from that person, and the News Feed algorithm reacts accordingly.
“Continuous repetition”
Facebook says it sees its project as “1 percent final,” so it’s constantly tweaking the design and taking feedback to improve your News Feed. It says it wants a more transparent News Feed moving forward, hence today’s update.
Pages will appear less and friends and family will have higher priority.
As part of this change, Facebook says it expects “this update may cause a decrease in traffic to some pages.”
The amount of the reduction depends on who follows you. If your posts tend to be the kind that your followers share with their friends and family, your page will do better. But if you mainly share uninteresting posts, your pages will suffer….
