Facebook to Favour User Generated Contents. Here’s What to Do!

Facebook’s new algorithm change will favour user generated contents over publishers. This means the algorithm will rank posts (contents) by real people (your family and friends) over those from publishers and brands. This is bad news for content publishers and brands because they’ll need to do more to get their posts seen by Facebook users. However, for the sake of authenticity and thought leadership, I think this is good news! What do you think?

Why is Facebook Favouring User Generated Contents?

The main reason for this is because at the top of the list of Facebook’s news feed values (a list of guidelines Facebook Inc adheres to when making changes to its almighty algorithm) is “Friends and Family Come First.” This means you’ll soon see more posts from real people like your cousins or your school roommates.

 
Facebook VP Adam Mosseri, who manages the News Feed product teams, confirmed that publishers will see a “small but noticeable” decrease in organic reach.

“It will vary a lot by publisher mostly based on how much of their referral traffic or their reach is based on people who actually share their content directly,” Mosseri said.

 
The algorithm will negatively affect brands and publishers that rely on their official Facebook page to reach their audience on Facebook. However, publishers and brands that derive traffic from users sharing their stories might not notice much of a difference.

 
As a small business owner relying on Facebook for massive traffic, this is a call to update your approach to getting traffic and clients via Facebook organic reach. Instead of ONLY relying on publishing quality contents, you should also incorporate a system where your contents can be easily shared around by users. This is the way to go and you need to do that for the sake of the survival of your business.

 
User generated contents is beneficial for your online business because it improves your social proof, helps build trust in your business and helps you leverage your relationship with your loyal customers.

 
So, what do you have to do? Rely more on user generated contents by doing the following;

 
1. Ask for Users feedback and reviews: Let users generate contents for you through their feedbacks and reviews of your products/services. Your user’s (customer) opinion is invaluable.

 
2. Encourage social sharing: Give your users reasons to share your contents with their friends and families.

 
No doubt, the algorithm change will affect you but it is also an opportunity for you to step on your game. Give room for much more content democratization by your users.