One place I get my news from is the Facebook news feed. It tells me what’s going on in my circle of friends, and sometimes the world in general. Today, Facebook revealed the new Facebook News Feed User Interface (UI) which is in beta starting today and will roll out slowly over the coming weeks and months.

The big change for marketers is four – fold.

• Marketers will need to increase the amount of pictures you use in your posts. Facebook is purposefully using images because they make up 50% of all posts in the news feeds.
• Marketers will need to use more links. Links will also be more prominent to redirect people to websites.
• Marketers will need to think about how they reach people; as Facebook is allowing people to self select what they want to see in their news feed, be it news, family updates, music news, etc.
• Search is taking on a bigger role in the UI; as Facebook uses its data to help you find people and products that you may be interested in.

What was not mentioned were two very important items that we as social media marketing consultants will have to understand in short order. The first is no one has any idea how or if the actual news feed algorithm will change and what effect it will have on whether or not your post is seen by many or a few people.

Our Guesses

Our guess, is the algorithm will continue to be dictated on the things you select, like, and comment on. As well as what your friends like and comment on. Even more, with the time of day and the last time you logged into Facebook. What may change, would be the use of photos and links. These could boost you up both directly if Facebook looks to promote media over text; indirectly having a more prominent link or photo would get people to click on it.

The second item that wasn’t mentioned was advertising. Facebook has started to let people advertise within the news feed. We believe this will continue and take a more prominent role on both mobile and desktop as well as be incorporated within search. We also believe, Facebook’s bottom line will increase, as larger richer ads will have better click through rates and therefore more money to Facebook.