Recently, the most controversial topic is Facebook’s testing in specific countries, where they’ve split the “News Feed” into “Personal Feed” and “Explore Feed”. The Personal Feed appears on the main Timeline, showing only updates from family, friends, and Sponsored Feeds; while Page Feeds have been moved to the Explore Feed Timeline. In other words, if Page Feeds want to appear on the Personal Feed, they need to pay for advertisements. Facebook hopes that users’ Personal Feed Timelines will only show updates from friends, but this move will decrease the Organic Reach of Page Feeds, and pages might need to use advertising to increase their exposure and reach their target customers!
Although this test was implemented in countries like Serbia, Bolivia, and Sri Lanka, Facebook has stated that they have no intention of fully rolling out this feature. Online voices have expressed concerns that this approach forces brands to spend significantly on platform advertising, neglecting content quality. However, some KOLs support this, believing it helps filter pages with substantial and quality content.
Regardless, we must prepare in advance and improve the quality of our page content to retain “habitual viewers” and ensure that our “Loyalty Fans” actively follow our updates! In the long term, brands should consider other content platforms based on their needs, such as Instagram and LinkedIn, which are continuously growing in user numbers. Understanding the unique characteristics of different platforms and developing strategies tailored to the needs of their target customers can mitigate the impact of major changes made by Facebook on their brand.