In recent years, many Facebook users have noticed their news feeds filling up with more and more suggested posts, instead of updates from their friends and family. This shift towards “suggested for you” posts has left some users frustrated and wondering why Facebook’s algorithm seems to be showing them less of what they actually want to see.
The Evolution of the Facebook News Feed
When Facebook first launched in 2004, the news feed was a chronological list of updates from a user’s connections. Over time as more people joined Facebook and the average user had hundreds of connections, this chronological feed became impossibly cluttered. In 2006, Facebook introduced an algorithmic ranked news feed, which used metrics like engagement and relevance to surface the most interesting stories higher up in each user’s feed.
This shift to an algorithmic feed was the first step towards the prevalence of suggested posts that many users see today. While it solved the problem of information overload, concerns emerged that important updates from friends could be buried if the algorithm didn’t deem them engaging enough.
The Rise of Suggested Posts
In an effort to keep users engaged on the platform for longer periods of time, Facebook began introducing different types of suggested content into the news feed. Some key developments include:
- Pages – In 2007, Facebook launched Facebook Pages, allowing businesses, brands, celebrities and organizations to create profiles. Posts from Pages users had Liked started appearing in their feeds.
- Sponsored Posts – In 2012, Facebook began inserting “Sponsored” posts from advertisers into feeds. This marked the start of monetizing the news feed.
- Suggested Pages – In 2013, users started seeing suggestions to Like new Pages their friends had Liked.
- More Video Content – In 2013, auto-play video was introduced to the news feed algorithm, leading to a spike in video, especially viral videos.
- News Feed Ranking – In 2015, Facebook made updates to further prioritize posts that spark conversation. This paved the way for more suggested video and link posts.
While users appreciated discoverability of new Pages and video content, some raised concerns about too many sponsored and non-personal posts. But the algorithm, designed to maximize engagement, kept showing these posts.
Why Suggested Content Has Come to Dominate
There are a few key reasons why Facebook’s algorithm has increasingly filled feeds with suggested posts from brands, publishers and advertisers rather than personal updates from friends and family:
1. Controversy Over News and Politics
In 2016, concerns emerged about the impact of social media on the U.S. presidential election. After the fact, Facebook admitted that foreign actors had weaponized Facebook to spread misinformation during the campaigns. This kicked off a major public reckoning, with Facebook pledging to fix the platform.
As part of sweeping changes, Facebook dialed down the visibility of news and political posts in 2018, even from reputable publishers. They were replaced with more lifestyle, entertainment and local content suggestions.
2. Video Viewership
Facebook has found that video posts, especially native videos, perform very well in the news feed algorithm. Users are more likely to stop scrolling to watch a quick video. Therefore, Facebook tends to suggest a lot of video content from media companies, brands and celebrities based on relevance to the user’s interests.
3. Advertising Strategy
Facebook has aggressively grown its advertising business in recent years. More sponsored posts means less room for organic reach. And by fine-tuning interest-based targeting, advertisers can make sure you see their posts.
Facebook is also increasingly pushing companies to spend more on ads if they want to reach their audience. Pages that used to get organic exposure are now often drowned out.
4. Publisher Strategy
To try to adapt to the algorithm, many news and content publishers have shifted resources to attention-grabbing video and viral posts that are more likely to be suggested in feeds. Investigative reports and longform stories often take a backseat.
Publishers also target Facebook users with content designed for engagement rather than public discourse – listicles, personality quizzes, polls etc. This the type of content the algorithm tends to reward.
The Business Imperative
While personal sharing was the initial draw of Facebook, suggested posts drive more consistent engagement day-to-day. The predominant role of suggested content stems from Facebook’s evolution into a data-driven advertising platform.
Facebook needs to maximize user time on site and views per post to generate ad revenue. Suggested content achieves those metrics. Even if certain users don’t love the change, Facebook has a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders.
Facebook’s AI algorithms will only get better at optimizing suggested content. Users frustrated by irrelevant suggestions in their feeds do have some tools to manage what they see, like filtering posts with Unfollow or See First settings. But the prevalence of suggestions is likely here to stay unless public pressure leads Facebook to change course.
Conclusion
The rise of suggested posts on Facebook was driven by a desire to keep users engaged, monetize through advertising and adapt to changes post-2016 election. While users may feel like they are seeing fewer relevant posts, Facebook’s feed algorithm is optimized to drive traffic, views and sharing.
Videos, sponsored posts, and content targeted to users’ interests will likely continue to populate feeds. Those dismayed by the lack of personal updates can try filtering settings, but Facebook’s business model incentivizes suggestions.