Facebook improves News Feed experience
(BI Intelligence)
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Two upgrades to Facebook's News Feed could improve the quality of news discovery and mobile page loading times.
The first affects the "Related Articles" module that appears below frequently shared stories in the News Feed, even before a user clicks on them. Launched as a test in April, Facebook said it's rolling it out more broadly after receiving positive feedback on it. It will also use machine learning to identify and send more stories to third-party fact checkers. As a result of the second upgrade, faster-loading web pages will appear more prominently in the News Feed.
From Facebook's perspective, these changes are pretty clearly aimed at improving the user experience. Weeding out false information and surfacing fact-checked articles could help improve users’ view of Facebook as a trustworthy news platform, and stay engaged for longer periods of time. This adds to Facebook’s other recent efforts in combating fake news, and helps improve its reputation as a proponent of the echo chamber. And guiding users to faster-loading websites obviously reduces frustration and allows them to consume more content.
They could also have potentially significant implications for publishers.
The Related Articles change could help with publisher discoverability. Related Articles provides boosted exposure for certain publishers, as it provides another area for these articles to show up. Publishers may in turn be incentivized to post more content if they find their articles to be posted within Related Articles often.
Prioritizing fast-loading websites will incentivize publishers to speed up slow pages. Publishers that retain slow loading webpages will subsequently suffer from lower exposure and user engagement. Optimizing webpages for speed should be an important priority for all publishers, but Facebook’s update can spark a flame for publishers with lagging tech.
Attract more publishers to join Instant Articles. Publishers that do not want or can’t invest in optimizing their webpages may choose to post content to Instant Articles instead. However, publishers that already have fast loading webpages and find their posts prioritized in the News Feed may begin to question the need to stay within Instant Articles.
The Digital Trust Report, a brand new report from BI Intelligence, examines consumers’ perception of major social platforms. It rates Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn on security, community, user experience, and content authenticity and shareability. These insights help brands and marketers make informed decisions about where to spend their marketing and branding dollars.
All of the information in this survey comes from our proprietary BI Insiders panel, made up of more than 15,000 specially selected and recruited Business Insider readers. This panel is designed to be a leading indicator of what’s next in digital. The panelists are business and tech savvy, they have buying power, and they’re highly engaged. The survey revealed some fascinating insights into how millennials and decision makers view today’s most popular social media platforms.
Here are some key takeaways from the report:
Digital trust has been shaken by a proliferation of malicious content and data breaches, which has significant consequences for brands that use these platforms.
The top platform won by a huge margin on most attributes. Content on this platform is more likely to be viewed as forthright and honest, which increases the persuasiveness of ads and marketing messages that appear alongside it. This also creates ideal conditions for thought leadership and branded and sponsored content to flourish.
The second-ranked platform was bolstered by users' confidence sharing content they find there. Users were most apt to share content they found there, which, together with its massive audience and high engagement, makes it the right platform to maximize reach.
The social platform that finished dead last did so because of its abusive comments section and extremely annoying ads. Still, this hasn’t dissuaded people from visiting, as evidenced by the time spent monthly and massive user base. This platform also resonates more with older generations.
The Digital Trust Report is only available with a subscription to BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To access this report, plus hundreds of other deep dives into the future of digital, click here.
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