Tuesday 2 February 2016

You won't believe how Facebook is combating click-bait

All jokes aside, Facebook is working to bring a much more relevant News Feed to your Timeline, hopefully without the click-bait.

Previously, Facebook's algorithm pushed posts to the top of your News Feed that you were more likely to interact with by either commenting, liking or sharing, and unfortunately, this also included more click-bait type posts.

Starting today, however, Facebook says you will now be seeing both stories that you would interact with, as well as those you wouldn't necessarily interact with, but would want to see at the top of your News Feed anyway.

What you want to see

Facebook began targeting click-bait headlines back in 2014 by looking at how long a user kept a link open before returning back to their News Feed and reducing their visibility based on that.

This time, the change in algorithm of which stories get more visibility and top News Feed billing comes from the social media giant asking its Feed Quality Panel and surveying tens of thousands of users around the world to rate posts on their News Feed every day.

Questions ranged from choosing which types of stories they'd prefer seeing and if a post seems more like an ad.

"We saw through our research that people reported having a better News Feed experience when the stories they see at the top are stories they are both likely to rate highly if asked and likely to engage with," Facebook said in a blog post.

So now, Facebook says it will rank stories higher that it thinks people might take action, as well as those that might want to see near the top of their News Feed, while some pages and stories will see a decline in ranking and traffic "if the rate at which their stories are clicked on does not match how much people report wanting to see those stories near the top of their News Feed."

Instead of click-bait, the social media giant encourages you "post things that your audience finds meaningful.