Feature Image From user kalhh on Pixabay
With a history of controversial experiments on its users ranging from seeing if they could control emotions through negative content on a user’s news feed to testing if the implementation of adverts in users messenger would cause a decrease in activity, Facebook has continued to be on the forefront of using their users as guinea pigs. In the latest trial ran a little over a month ago in 6 countries including Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Guatemala, Bolivia, and Cambodia, Facebook tested a major change to its platform that would see users regular news feed limited to just their friends content and paid adverts, while a second news feed would feature only non-promoted posts from your favorite pages like Buzzfeed, Washington Post, and other pages.
While Facebook has stated that their goal here is to cater to their users by providing them more meaningful content and connections, the data behind the effects of this change seem to support something different in my opinion. Filip Struhárik, a journalist at Slovakian newspaper Dennik N, reported that 60 of the largest Facebook pages saw 66%-75% of their organic reach drop and additionally, interactions like shares, likes, and comments fell by 65%. It seems clear to me that this is just another ploy at attempting to gain more revenue through the exploitation of Facebook pages that have generated organic likes, while at the same time geniusly providing more meaningful content to its users. In other words, a win-win for Facebook.
Image from Flickr User Sean MacEntee
Interestingly enough, this new trial seems to coincide with what we mentioned in class regarding Facebooks playbook for how they decided to build up a massive user base before figuring out how to generate revenue. In this case, Facebook allowed these Facebook pages to build up massive organic followings before slowly tweaking the algorithm so that pages like Buzzfeed, Washington Post, and others are gradually forced into purchasing ads on Facebook. This trial is just another step in that direction, as the data evidently shows that these Facebook pages experienced a massive loss in engagement and thus will be forced to purchase ads which remained unaffected in this trial.
While I only joined Facebook as an advertiser 2 years ago, it’s clear to me that through the last year Facebook has gradually lowered my organic reach which was at 30% down to 10%. This might be in part due to the low engagement on my content, which results in it appearing less in our follower’s news feed; however, the low engagement could also be due to the fact that they have restricted my organic reach. In conclusion, while this was just a trial that will not be rolled out globally, I think it’s important for advertisers to start focusing their attention on multiple platforms as opposed to just Facebook.
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