Study shows the new Facebook newsfeed impacts negatively on small Facebook Pages

Facebook analytics site Edgerank Checker has released a study into the impact of the new Facebook newsfeed, one month into its release. When Facebook rolled out the changes to the feed last month, moving from a two tab system of ‘latest news’ and ‘most popular’, to the real-time updates and single stream, it meant that users were exposed to more content, as we were now seeing every single update made by any of our friends, no matter what page we were on within Facebook. The impact for businesses however, was that Page content was getting less exposure, as you were now competing more heavily for space. The study from Edgerank Checker has found  that over a sample of over 5,800 random Pages, 82% experienced a reduction in the amount of impressions on the Page.

This also comes amidst a general decrease of engagement, as they found that overall, comments and Likes also decreased :

What is interesting however, is that while the figures above show a consistent decrease among all indicators of interaction on an average Facebook Page when looking at the median  (i.e. a Page that sits in the middle in terms of size of all Pages analysed), the figures were rather different when looking at the ‘average’ Page. This showed a decrease in impressions as with the median, but a much more positive performance for Comments and Likes :

Page size matters

What is perhaps most concerning, is that the study unveiled a reason for the discrepancy between the two analyses above. With the new Facebook newsfeed, the size of your fanpage now has much more of an impact on your engagement rate. This is not to look at it relatively, as obviously a larger page will likely have a higher number of individual comments and Likes, but to look at the increase/decrease experienced when the new newsfeed kicked in. Pages with less than 1,000 fans saw a decrease in engagement. Pages with more than 1,000 fans saw a steady increase in engagement, right up to Pages with over 100,000 fans, which saw a 27.8% increase in the rate of engagement.

When you consider how the newsfeed now works, with the vast amount of content and updates being shared, it is evident why the number of fans will become more important. You need a higher number to increase the chances of your content being found. The data should not be misunderstood however, to take the number of fans as an indicator of your talkability. We recently showed that a high number of fans doesn’t mean a high rate of engagement on its own.

What can you do about it?

A study like this, which should be understood as an indication and not absolute, inevitably leads brands to question what they should do in order to avoid a drop in engagement. While Facebook would likely want you to buy your way to fans through ads on the Page, this will only go so far and it is not an option open to smaller businesses with limited budget. What it does show is that frequency of posting is now more important. You may have previously had a schedule of Facebook comments that worked, for example 3-5 updates per week, to avoid bombarding your fans or clogging up their newsfeed. This is now less of a consideration however, as the fact is that when there is less chance of your content being seen, you need to update your Page more frequently to fit in with this new Facebook way.

This is not to encourage spamming, but I think brands need to change the way they update their Page, or they risk getting lost completely. Now more than ever, the type of update matters more as well. The new newsfeed lends itself to shorter updates, that can be expanded on when they’re hovered over, by embedding an image or video. A couple of lines is all you really have to catch people’s attention, or you may risk getting unLiked if you’re writing long updates that take over the feed.