Facebook is to begin its crack down on “clickbait” articles that feature eye-catching headlines but go on to show poor-quality content. The social network giants have agreed to introduce changes to the news feed to reduce the number of spam articles popping up.
Facebook users have become accustomed to headlines that begin with “You’ll NEVER believe…” but then don’t give any further information. Facebook product specialist Joyce Tang and research scientist Khalid El-Arini, commented: “Posts like these tend to get a lot of clicks, which means that these posts get shown to more people, and get shown higher up in News Feed.”
They are now making sure that luring users through to stories will not be enough to guarantee a top spot on users’ news feeds. The position of a story will be determined by the length of time users spend away from their Facebook page. If users click through to a link and then come straight back to Facebook, it suggests that they didn’t find something that they wanted.
Therefore, Facebook said they would start measuring how long users spent on a site after clicking on a link, and whether they went on to share or discuss the story themselves. Joyce and Khalid continued: “With this update we will start taking into account whether people tend to spend time away from Facebook after clicking a link, or whether they tend to come straight back to News Feed when we rank stories with links in them.”
Facebook believe only a small number of publishers will be punished through this, they do not want to drown out content that the site users genuinely want to see. Companies such as Buzzfeed and UpWorthy are thought to be in the firing line however it is unlikely the two will be affected due to the genuine interest and discussion both sites attract.
If you would like help in deciding the best social media platform for your business, or would like help in implementing a successful social media strategy contact The Ideal Marketing Company for a free 1 hour meeting on 01858 374 170.
