Facebook is currently testing out a secondary News Feed feature just for posts shared by Pages. With the new dual-feed setup, it will make it easier for users to identify which posts are shared by friends and family, and which posts are shared by the pages they’ve liked. While this sounds like a great way to keep your News Feed organised, it may not be such a positive thing for publishers.
According to The Guardian, the new feature is currently being tested out in six countries including Slovakia, Serbia and Sri Lanka. It puts all the original content shared by your friends and family into the main feed, along with ads, while posts by pages are separated into a secondary feed. It’s been only a few days, but several Pages are already seeing a “dramatic drop” in organic reach.
According to a journalist from a Slovakian newspaper, Facebook’s new feature has already affected the country’s media landscape in a negative way. He says, “the reach of several Facebook pages fell on Thursday and Friday by two-thirds compared to previous days.”
The Guardian also reports that smaller sites are already experiencing a loss of traffic and Facebook engagement. Bigger sites such as Buzzfeed who relies heavily on the social network will be affected too. Sponsored posts will still appear in the main News Feed. Of course, it’s been less than a week since Facebook rolled out the changes to these countries, and it’s still too early to draw any conclusion.
If you own a Facebook Page, don’t be too worried though. Facebook is constantly testing out new things to see what works and what does not. Facebook also told The Guardian that they “have no current plans to roll this out globally”.
(Source: The Guardian via: Engadget)
