Overview

• Facebook as a platform with an enormous number of users makes its services become the main content distribution channel.
• The change of the Facebook algorithm makes a lot of content media and creators have to do a lot of adaptation, and not a few that collapse.
• Technology giants tend to create dependency effects, including Facebook.
• The value of the content is the key to the policy change of each service.

---

The number of users who reached 2.1 billion per month brought Facebook earned a profit of US $ 4.7 billion (approximately Rp19 trillion) in the third quarter of 2017. But in the same year Facebook also received many reports related to their platform.

Facebook is aware of many things that happened during 2017, ranging from platform abuse, fictitious news spread and the debate about the real usefulness of Facebook as a social media.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg did not close his eyes to the condition. Through his status he said that the platform that enlarges his name has shifted away from its original goal as a network of friends that allows individuals to interact in cyberspace.

2017 becomes an important year for us. Many anxieties and divisions that started from Facebook. Our platform is widely used for undesirable things. Misinformation and mere sensational and unfounded information.

We have a responsibility to understand how our services are being used, and make sure everything works as it should. This is a challenge for me personally in 2018.

Based on that Facebook take steps to change the algorithm on a large scale on News Feed or their homepage. Here are the goals of the ChangeNews Feed on Facebook:

• Friends and family come first: The main purpose of News Feed is to prioritize user relationships with the people closest to friends and family.
• A platform for all ideas: Facebook intends to deliver stories based on their interests and what they like. This will be taken from the actions and feedback that users provide.
• Authentic communications: Bored with spam, rumors, or information that seeks to lead opinion? Facebook's new algorithm will minimize this.
• You control your experience: Every individual must know himself best. So Facebook makes features (like Unfollow and See First) to make it easier for users to manage what they want.
• Constant iteration: Facebook strives to be a better platform all the time by paying attention to every user feedback.

The fate of media and content publishers

The high number of active Facebook users becomes an opportunity for content publishers to increase traffic. Nevertheless, Facebook's algorithmic changes that occur many times certainly impact the content publisher.

One of the Little Thingyang's websites from March 1, 2018 decided to close its site and its main cause was a major platform algorithm change that contributed traffic to them.

In addition, SimilarWeb analysis measures the percentage of content publishers that rely more heavily on social media in increasing traffic. Of the twelve content and media publishers, SimilarWeb revealed the most noticeable drop occurred on Buzzfeed, Huffington Post and Mashable sites.

Two years ago the three sites gained one-third of their American traffic from social media including Facebook.

EquWeb's marketing chief Ethan Chernofsky says publishers are over-prioritizing social media to increase traffic on popular platforms, so that when platforms are down or changing, they will also have an impact on them.

"The publishers are more vulnerable because they not only rely on social channels for viewing, but also to build brand awareness," explains Chernofsky.

Meanwhile, Dotdash CEO Neil Vogel says most media or content creators who rely on their content on a particular platform have the potential to experience business miscalculations. "That's where the biggest effect, there is a real dependence of a big mistake," explained Vogel.

Not the first change

For parties affected by alteration algorithms may feel aggrieved and feel Facebook and other service providers such as Instagram and YouTube only want to win alone.

Though changing the algorithm of the first month for Facebook. Since 2006, this social media giant has enacted it. And here are the significant changes throughout 2016-2017.

2016

• January - Facebook introduces tool called Audience Optimization. Content and media creators can tailor content to specific audience preferences tailored to interests, demographics, and geographic conditions.

• February - Facebook begins to implement algorithms that allow an audience to choose what they want to see in the topmost News Feed.

• March - Facebok prioritizes live video broadcasts in News Feed.

• April - Facebook begins filtering on clickbait content based on the length of time users consume content.

• June - Facebook prioritizes posts coming from the nearest person to appear in the topmost News Feed of each user.

• November - Facebook enforces the ban on hoax sites to advertise on their platforms.

2017

• January - Facebook measures the success of tingkan video consumption from watch time. The higher the duration, the user will get a similar video recommendations in News Feed.

• March - From what used to sort News News by Like, Facebook is now personalizing with Reaction.

• May - Links to low quality sites begin to sink deeper in News Feeds, increasing the potential for site distribution with quality content. .

• Juni - Sites with even low value start getting drowned from News Feed by Facebook.

• August - Facebook prioritizes sites with faster loading times to get into News Feeds. At almost the same time Facebook also presents Trending News which has a self-contained navigation link in their mobile app. December - A "fake" invitation aimed at manipulating engagements such as "Enter number 1 in the comment field to see ..." or "All say Aaamiin ..." will not get a place in the News Feed anymore.
  

User convenience is definitely a priority, including for giant business players. On the other side of the algorithm is a Facebook effort to anticipate or stop content publishers who try to outsmart News Feed.Algoritme is rarely changed potentially making publishers know the gap where they can take advantage of promotion.

Content publishers who can outsmart the News Feed certainly do not require the official Facebook advertising service, in order to display their content at the top of the News Feed. This is of course only beneficial to one side, the content publisher.

Bufferapp in a resolutions blog discusses how Facebook Feeds works in 2018. In determining the possibility of publisher content appearing in News Feeds, it is important to distinguish between active and passive interactions.

Active interactions such as sharing, commenting and reacting will result in more weight and possible content appearing in News Feeds than passive interactions such as just clicking or even just viewing a content.

What should the media or creators do?

The latest Facebook algorithm changes require media focus or content publishers on meaningful interaction. This means that the interaction that occurs should have value for each user.

Then how best strategy to succeed in Facebook with its alterations of algorithm. Still from the official blog, Bufferapp distributed three tips that applicative.

• Focus produces content that makes your audience feel connected. Embarking the emotional element will increase this feeling to the user, which in turn encourages interaction such as commenting or desire to shareCreate content that naturally encourages interaction.

• Video is one type of content that can naturally increase more meaningful interactions between users.
  
  

• Maintain the existence of the community through Facebook groups. More than a billion people worldwide use Facebook groups. Groups are a perfect way to build an active community and engage directly on a topic
  
  

The algorithm change does not just happen on Facebook. Other giant platforms like Instagram and YouTube are also doing similar steps. Each platform certainly has its own reasons when taking a policy.