Hello, my name is Dan McDonnell and I am a Community Manager at the American Evaluation Association (AEA). Facebook recently announced a couple of key changes to its user experience – one that has already taken place, and another on the horizon – and I wanted to share how that may impact how you use the social network. Both changes focuseon how you interact with and receive content from Fan Pages that you like, and ultimately seek to give you a better user experience on the platform.
The first change took place on November 5th, and saw Facebook removing the ‘Like-Gate’ feature available to Fan Page owners. Ever seen posts or ads that invite you to ‘Like’ a page on Facebook to receive access to unique content or to enter a contest? No more! Facebook felt that by allowing Page owners to entice people to like their pages through artificial incentives (enter for a chance to win a free iPad!) created a poor user experience, lessening the likelihood that those who ‘Liked’ pages would actually engage with the company or brand. Like-Gating is history.
The second change will hit Facebook in January 2015, and will change the way in which the algorithm that informs the posts in your Facebook News Feed handles organic (non-paid) posts from Fan pages. In the past year, Facebook has placed an increased focus on promoted posts and pages, and encouraged companies and brands to spend money to get into user’s news feeds. Further limiting the amount of non-paid posts from Fan pages that will be served in your news feeds is Facebook’s way of doubling down on this strategy. You’ll soon see less clutter and spam from Fan Pages you like, and the posts you do see will likely be advertisements or promoted posts – subject to Facebook’s rigorous guidelines to ensure relevancy.
All in all, it seems that these changes are mostly a net positive for users of Facebook, and create some challenges (and opportunities) for companies and brands who manage Fan pages on Facebook. What do you think of these changes?
Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.
Love these facebook and twitter updates from Dan! Really helps keep me up-to-date on relevant social media changes. Thanks!