Facebook is featuring a new change to the News Feed in an attempt to be the go-to site to read conversations about trending news. The social network announced Thursday that real-time events will be pushed to the top of the Newsfeed to show more "timely" updates about trending topics.
The social network still wants users' News Feeds to be full of vacation photos and statuses about the mundane, but the change will focus on showing content that wil alsol be relevant to users.
"We've heard feedback that there are some instances where a post from a friend or a Page you are connected to is only interesting at a specific moment, for example when you are both watching the same sports game, or talking about the season premiere of a popular TV show," writes Facebook software engineer Erich Owens and engineering manager David Vickrey in a blog post.
Facebook will also use analytics to "bump" stories to the top of a user's feed if the story is performing well hours after it was originally posted. Bumping means resurfacing stories that users did not scroll down far enough to see, but are still high in engagement. Facebook is working on identifying these posts and moving them higher up on users' feeds.
Social media users tend to gravitate towards Twitter when it comes to trending topics, such as major news events. "If you look at any sort of major event on TV, it's always this hashtag or that one. You don't see Facebook as much anymore," says Dave Yoo, chief operating officer of the digital marketing company 3QDigital.
The changes come after the company recognized a need to prioritize posts to compete with Twitter to be the social media site known for real-time news coverage.
"Facebook is recognizing that they're not as real-time as Twitter, that they have to move to real-time advertising models or else they're going to fall behind," Yoo says. "With more and more mobile adoption, the industry is heading towards instantaneous news and interaction. Wearables are a good example of how the whole industry is leaning towards information delivery in a nanosecond."
Facebook says that early testing of a small percentage of posts revealed that the new News Feed update results in an increase of more than six percent in engagement (more likes, comments, shares, or clicks).
These changes to the News Feed will roll out gradually.
