Keeping up with the continual updates to Facebook can be a full time job. The latest change, announced last week, will significantly affect the way in which fans engage with brands and their content on the network. In case you missed last week’s news feed update, here is a breakdown of what the changes are and how they will impact on content marketing strategies.
What’s the latest Facebook news feed update?
Last week, Mark Zuckerberg announced some major changes to the news feed, largely focused on design and functionality. Perhaps the most important revelation came in the opening moments of his announcement, when Zuckerberg said that almost 50% of News Feed content today is comprised of photos and visual content. In response, Facebook has overhauled the design of the feed to be far more visually focused.
Change 1: ‘Rich Stories’ – photos and images take centre stage
The focus is on “bright beautiful” stories, with the redesign ensuring that photos and visual content are displayed prominently. The updated feed highlights the content being most shared on Facebook, with larger, more vivid photos now taking centre stage.
What it means for content marketers: Now that an entire feed has the potential to be solely comprised of images, it’s imperative to create visually compelling content. This can require a modicum of creativity. Brands more comfortable with text-based posts could think about making jazzy text-based visuals – prioritise design to ensure your messages stand out from the crowd.
With the emphasis now on shared content, the onus is on brands to create posts that are so compelling, fans will be driven to share them with their communities.
Change 2: Shared articles now feature a larger image, more prominent titles and a longer, richer article summary.
What it means for content marketers: As well as the fresh emphasis on visuals, the updated feed calls for snappier, more compelling copy to complement articles and images.
There is also a change to photo captions. While captions were previously scripted underneath photos, in the new feed captions will overlay images. Since photos will be the main way in which people engage with your visual posts, aim to craft succinct captions which complement rather than distract.
Change 3: News Feed stories incorporate more visual elements
Stories shared in the News Feed also now comprise more visual elements from that person or brands, including their cover photo and thumbnail images of their fans or friends.
What it means for content marketers: The overarching emphasis on visuals means thinking beyond the bog standard photo-style Facebook post. Cover photos are important –not only do they serve as a welcome mat to company pages, they also now represent the brand more upfront within feeds.
Change 4: Video content appears much larger on screen
What it means for content marketers: According to Facebook, video posts generate about 100% more engagement than text posts. This is lower than the respective engagement levels for photo albums (180%) or image posts (120%), yet is healthy enough to mean that well-crafted, highly shareable video should be incorporated into a Facebook marketing strategy.
Change 5: Content shared through third-party apps gains greater visibility in news feeds
We are seeing increasing integration between the social networks, as exemplified by the deal between Facebook and Instagram which finally closed last September. Now, Pinterest activity will be showcased in feeds.
What it means for content marketers: Streamlining Pinterest activity into Facebook feeds is a big deal, since 98% of people surveyed by Hubspot with a Pinterest account are also active on Facebook (and Twitter). We discussed recently the direct and powerful influence of Pinterest on purchase decisions and for driving sales, so it makes sense to integrate Facebook and Pinterest activity for maximum impact.
Over to you
Will you be adapting your content marketing activity to align with Facebook’s updated news feed? Tell us how below.
