Facebook makes suggestions for you based on several factors. The main goal of these suggestions is to show you content that Facebook thinks you will find relevant and engaging. This helps keep you using the platform longer and more frequently.
How Facebook Knows What To Suggest
Facebook gathers a tremendous amount of data about you and uses it to determine what types of suggestions to make. Here are some of the main ways Facebook figures out what content to suggest to you:
- Your profile information – Location, age, gender, interests, pages you’ve liked, groups you’ve joined etc.
- Your activity on Facebook – Posts you’ve liked, commented on or shared, clicks on links, friends you interact with frequently.
- Information from third-party sites and apps – Many sites and apps share data with Facebook through Facebook Business Tools like the Like or Share buttons.
- Your browsing history – Facebook receives data about the websites and apps you use through Facebook Business Tools as well as its own data gathering methods.
- Your connections – The activity of your friends and people you’re connected to is a major signal for the types of suggestions Facebook will make.
Facebook runs all this data through complex machine learning algorithms in order to find patterns and make predictions about what you might be interested in. The more data Facebook has about you, the better its suggestions will become.
Types of Suggestions
Here are some of the most common types of suggestions you might see on Facebook:
- Pages to Follow – Suggestions for new pages that Facebook thinks align with your interests. These could be pages about hobbies, public figures, brands, local businesses, news sites etc.
- Groups to Join – Facebook suggests groups where you might find people who share your interests and could become connections.
- Friends You May Know – People you have overlapping connections with who could make logical Facebook friends.
- Events – Local events that Facebook thinks you’d be interested in attending based on your location, interests, connections attending etc.
- Marketplace Listings – Items for sale on Facebook Marketplace that relate to your interests or recent activity.
- Reels/Videos – Fun and informative video content based on your viewing habits and interests.
- Suggested For You Feed – A separate feed of posts, links, videos, and more that Facebook specifically recommends.
As you can see, Facebook suggestions come in many forms spanning multiple areas of the platform. The goal with all of them is pushing content in front of you that is highly relevant to your tastes.
Why Facebook Makes Suggestions
Now that you understand how and what Facebook suggests, let’s explore why Facebook puts so much emphasis on suggestions in the first place. Here are the main reasons:
- Increase Engagement – By suggesting posts, videos, and other content you are likely to interact with, Facebook boosts the amount of time and activity you spend on their platform.
- Improve Ad Targeting – The more data Facebook gathers about you through your activity on suggested content, the better it can target advertisements.
- Connect People – Suggesting pages, groups, and friends aims to get you better connected on Facebook so you keep coming back.
- Drive Traffic – Suggestions allow Facebook to drive traffic to certain posts, videos, and other content in order to prioritize their own and their partners’ interests.
- Collect More Data – Every suggestion you interact with gives Facebook additional information to enhance its data profiles of you for further improving suggestions.
While Facebook suggestions can sometimes feel a little invasive or overbearing, they exist for these core reasons of driving engagement, ad revenue, connections, traffic, and data collection for the platform.
Managing Facebook Suggestions
If you feel like you’re seeing too many suggestions from Facebook, there are a few things you can do to cut back:
- Adjust ad interests in your Facebook Ad Preferences.
- Be more selective with pages you like and groups you join.
- Limit third-party app integrations that share your data.
- Use your News Feed Preferences to see more or fewer posts about certain people, pages, or topics.
- Hide or unfollow suggestions you don’t like by clicking the three dots next to them.
- Limit your activity on Facebook if you want their suggestions algorithms to have less data about you.
While you can’t completely stop suggestions, these steps can help minimize the frequency and improve the relevance of what Facebook shows you.
The Future of Facebook Suggestions
Looking ahead, here are some ways we may see Facebook suggestions evolve:
- More personalized and granular suggestions powered by even deeper data mining.
- Suggestions seamlessly mixed directly into the normal News Feed.
- Suggestions based on contextual signals like time of day, location, current events etc.
- Expanded suggestions on Facebook-owned properties like Instagram and WhatsApp.
- Suggestions for taking specific actions like messaging certain connections, posting about topics, creating content, etc.
Facebook will likely continue expanding and refining its suggestions to maximize the time you spend engaged with content on its platforms. This allows Facebook to show you more ads, learn more about you, connect you with the right people, surface the most addictive content, and ultimately fuel its business model built on data and attention.
Conclusion
Facebook suggestions are driven by advanced data collection and machine learning algorithms designed to keep you active on the platform as much as possible. While they can sometimes be creepily accurate, you do have some control over managing the types of suggestions you see through your activity, preferences, and privacy settings. Finding the right balance for your personal preferences is key to getting value from Facebook without feeling overwhelmed by everything it tries to show you.
| Type of Suggestion | Goal | Managing Options |
|---|---|---|
| Pages to Follow | Increase Engagement | Adjust News Feed Preferences |
| Groups to Join | Connect People | Be Selective When Liking/Joining |
| Friends You May Know | Drive Connections | Limit App Integrations |
| Events | Increase Engagement | Hide/Unfollow Suggestions |
| Marketplace Listings | Drive Traffic | Limit Facebook Activity |
| Reels/Videos | Increase Engagement | Adjust Ad Preferences |