It was announced this week that Facebook is exploring changes to one of its core features- the News Feed. Currently Facebook uses some black box technology/magical algorithm to determine what pieces of information actually get shown on a user's News Feed. But now Facebook is working to create an unfiltered News Feed, one that would show a user EVERY update ever made by any one of their friends. So if you have 400 Facebook friends and they each make 2-3 updates per day....well, you can do the math.
So why are the change? Apparently advertisers are unhappy with the current News Feed system because their Facebook posts are not getting seen by their entire fanbase, thus "limiting the impact of the campaigns". However, advertisers have been complaining about this problem for quite some time now and Facebook is only just responding. So why now?
I'm assuming this has been brought on by the rising threat of Google+, since the new social network features an unfiltered news feed and has gotten a lot of press for being more marketer-friendly (eventually). This theory was further reinforced when I read that Facebook was also looking to expand other features for advertisers, such as the "like" button options. Coincidence? I think not.
I'm not sure what the solution is. By having an unlimited News Feed, advertisers may be able to reach more people with their brand messages. However, if each of these people are then bombarded by 500 extra Facebook updates per day, these advertiser messages will probably get lost in the shuffle. Regardless of the medium, we always seem to come back to the question of, how does a brand break through the clutter? Perhaps, social media isn't the answer anymore.
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