In an attempt to “give the people what they want”, Facebook announced a new update to the news feed for users. Individuals can now prioritize their news stories to show their friends, family and favorite pages before seeing stories from everyone else they follow.
The rest of their news feed will still update as normal beneath the prioritized information, but now people don’t need to see the mindless updates about spiders on porches and their former roommates’ seventh kitten before seeing their cousin’s engagement photos and favorite band’s newly announced tour dates.
The update also gives users the ability to unfollow people, reconnect with people they previously unfollowed and discover new pages based on previous liking activity.
As always, this change to the platform can be either harmful or helpful for brands. The challenge brands now face is being relevant enough to be deemed a priority by your audience . In that challenge, though, is the opportunity to be seen above the clutter by the people that care the most about your brand and the people that are more likely to take action based on your messages.
In the struggle of being heard among the masses, loyalty is key. Loyal followers are more likely to deem your information important and prioritize your posts above your competitors. So, you don’t get lost in the crowd of brand page posts and your treasured audience’s attention is all yours.
Last year, Facebook started making changes to the news feed based on user complaints about the promoted content of pages they followed. These updated news feeds resulted in pages being penalized for overly promotional and unoriginal content.
As Facebook continues to weed out overly promotional content from pages, brands have the opportunity to reform their sales pitches into genuine transparent relationships with the people that care about their message.
Brands have the opportunity now, more than ever, to give individuals personal relationships. People are increasingly interested in the behind-the-scenes exclusives that brands have to offer.