Facebook posted a Q&A on organic reach of Facebook stories and feeds. Meaning, why you see some of your friends posts and why you don't.
First thing, they admit that the organic reach of this content is indeed declining but they explain why:
(1) There is simply too much content being produced that is competing for showing up on your timeline. So Facebook needs to make decisions on what you see and do not see.
(2) The newsfeed is tailored to you, so of the 1,500 items, Facebook will typically show you about 300 or so. They use "factors relative to each person" to customize what is shown to you.
Facebook says money is not a factor: "Is organic reach dropping because Facebook is trying to make more money? No. "
A WebmasterWorld thread has several webmasters who simply don't believe it all.
WebmasterWorld's admin, Engine said:
It doesn't answer my question, which is why something I have genuinely liked just doesn't show up at all.For the record, I very selectively "like" on FB so that I can see the pages and stories of interest, but they don't show up at all. It really does suggest a push for page promotion (advertising) is on the agenda.
The forum moderator wasn't too happy also, writing:
Personally I think they are buried beneath a barrage of promotional vs. informative vs. fun, friends and family, vs. networking, vs. business relationships that there is no way to sort. I personally think that their promotional efforts have been weak and lame and more apt to drive people away than engage them.I am far less likely to even give a "Like" to something I appreciate seeing just because if I do, it is immediately followed by their insertion of from 4 to 12+ more totally unrelated things that are sponsored and unwanted. This has to give less weight to the things you really want to see just because of the way they try to leverage any interaction. I used to stop in once a day to see what's new and interesting. Since their changes I may visit once a week. For things I'm specifically interested in, I visit their page and interact there. When I have done that I notice those are pages that will show up in my NewsFeed. I have seen suggestions to actually visit, interact and "Follow" things that are important to you.
I am not a big Facebook user, so honestly, I am not sure what I am missing out on. That may or may not be a good thing.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
