FACEBOOK’S NEW ALGORITHM – IN FAVOR OF MARKETERS?

Facebook seems to play with its algorithm from time to time, it keeps on experimenting with it  in tune with the needs of the FB Users.

Facebook now has come up with the idea of “SEE FIRST” feature, which gives the Facebook users the right to decide which stuff they want to see in their news feed and which not .

This algorithm seems interesting , giving full rights to the people to chose over or between facebook pages and their friends , whose updates they want to see in their newsfeed page. Its very easy to predict; the ball is all in the court of the users.

However "will it have any positive or negative impact on the marketers , that use facebook for their business and for their promotions"?

As in the recent years we have seen marketers continuously  voiced about their decreasing visibility in the Facebook News Feed. “That’s  not fair!” they argued. “Users are interested in seeing our content!” they claimed. “Give them more transperancy for that!”.

And here the word goes..the facebook has finally given the remote control in the hands of the users. Now the first question that arises is “WILL THE USERS ACTUALLY USE THIS NEW FEATURE OF FACEBOOK ?”

Taking into mind the past launches of facebook , just think about all of the features Facebook has created to give users control that have mostly gone unused. Adding friends and people  to Good Friends lists and Creating interest lists. Choosing to see most or see some content from a user or page. The “Pages” tab.a handful of people used this stuff. So while it sounds amazing and interesting, will people actually use “See First?”

How many know about this feature till now, leaving the marketers and some other people whose one of the interest is to discover facebook deeply ? hardly anyone !!!. and if this feature is installed deep inside the roots of facebook , then sorry people like me who are lazy to discover,will be least bothered about it . They would rather be happy looking at the  stuff they are looking in the present. And adding on to the bitter truth is that -- these people constitute a large audience to many facebook brands and pages. If a quick tutorial is shown at the top of your News Feed that walks you through it, that might help, too.But right now, it just looks like another shiny object that we’ll forget about in a few months. 

WILL IT HURT BRANDS OR WILL IT ACTUALLY  PROMOTE IT ?

Lets imagine for a minute that facebook gives more emphasis on educating users of how to use this feature and this feature does not need any digging like earlier and its easy to use it now ‘ and therefore people start using it as well . but then what?? Will it be like any bonus to the marketers, who always wanted something like this feature ?.

Lets have a fair discussion on it !!!! you are a good brand on facebook and your reach is also very high and your page content is preety good as well. But do you truly think that the users will choose your page over their close friends to see in the newsfeed ?

It may happen that some of the very big brands may profit from this feature (there will be exceptions too)but all those brands who are average, which constitute a large percentage, will have to suffer.

In my opinion, this feature — if used — only does the antithetical of what brands are aspiring for: Its making it a doodle for users to avoid you.

THEN WHAT WILL BE THE REACTION OF THE MARKETERS?

We have a rough idea of what would be the counter reaction of the marketers, with each new feature launch of facebook ,” brands have different strategies to swindle it”.

Earlier the “GET NOTIFICATION”`feature was screwing the brands in the same way , then what the marketers did was to send annoying posts to the users highlighting to like their page, as their content wasn’t seen by everyone on this planet. This seemed annoying to most of the users , I guess because it did to me !!!.

Brands will again use this marketing technique only, but rethink about that , these silly and maddening notifications can make the users go really mad.they are going to beg their fans to see them first. So if you’re going to use that feature, it’s probably going to be for only a handful of people and pages. But unless you’re excepcionally impressive, you’re essentially expecting people to use this feature for countless people and pages. That’s something senseless and imprudent.

But again, how practical  is that? I might add 20-25 people and pages to the “See First” list. But unless your content seems interesting and extratraordinary, I’m not adding you tomy “see first” list . And I’ll be pretty vexed  by the request.

The problem is that a very large percentage of brands are going to fall in the group that isn’t “exceptionally impressive.” So your heeded request to have people add you first in their list will be ignored. Even worse, users may lose respect for you and hide your content or may report to facebook.

Research Sources: Secondary Information available on Public forums and iMET Research division ( www.imetglobal.com)