Facebook PSA: Support Your Favorite Sites
If you use Facebook and like websites – you NEED to read this right away.
Facebook is Changing
The biggest change to Facebook in years is rolling out right now and you need to be prepared. The social media giant is updating News Feed, the default feed of posts that users see when they log into Facebook. Users across the world in the last few days have already checked in on Facebook and said “What the Heck is Going ON!”
In the face of a public and political pressure over their actions of the last couple of years Facebook is now emphasizing posts from friends and family. In a way this isn’t new – it’s a return to the old, old paleo-facebook. Some folks remember way back when you needed a .edu email address to even get on Facebook (those were the days). Back then the only thing on Facebook was a bunch of your fellow college students, so by definition all that was available to see was friends.
Facebook – circa 2005
Back then folks used the internet very differently. The vast majority of internet users were on computers (no smartphones then) and actually visited the websites they liked. Over the last decade, many people have grown up in a world where to them Facebook IS the internet, and get ALL things from the platform – the dream that AOL always reached for but never achieved.
Maybe not this old of a computer…
What is Going to be Different?
But this is 2018 and Facebook’s change is dramatic.
What is occurring is the removal of the vast majority of content coming from company and organization pages of any type from appearing in newsfeed.
So every page you have liked and told Facebook you want to see content from is being pushed to the side by Mark Zuckerberg. Everything from Ford, to BBC, to Games Workshop, to BoLS, to your favorite band, video game company and everything else is going to be showing up less and less in your Facebook feed by default. On Facebook’s mobile app, expect to see almost no content that is not from individuals, or paid ads. Desktop facebook is still in flux right now.
How much smaller are we talking about?
Companies are reporting seeing their Facebook posts only being seen by 3% of their followers as of January 2018 and Facebook is planning on pushing this down even further. That means a sample Facebook page with 100,000 followers are having 3,000 people see their content on average. Of course if companies and organizations want Facebook to show their posts to their current followers (who have already told Facebook they want to see their favorite pages’ content) Facebook is more than happy to take hard cash to force them into their current follower’s newsfeeds.
What Can I Do?
In a lot of ways this change is going to be no big deal for older internet users who still visit a variety of their favorite websites each day. If you love your favorite website’s content, you should make a point of actually visiting their websites regularly. You can no longer rely on Facebook to tell you what any website you like is doing automatically – because Mark Zuckerberg knows what he wants you to see – and it’s certainly not company and organization pages.
#1 Bookmark and Visit Your Favorite Websites
So right off the bat, we suggest bookmarking your favorite sites in your browser (hopefully this one amongst others) and visiting them directly. Don’t let Mark Zuckerberg tell you what you really like and don’t like any longer.
#2 Set Your Favorite Facebook Pages to “SEE FIRST”
Next, you CAN make Facebook show you the posts from your favorite pages by selecting them to “SEE FIRST”. Here is a image and a link to where you can set your favorite pages to automatically appear in your newsfeed. Just visit your favorite Facebook page, pull down the “Following” tab, and click “SEE FIRST”. We respectfully ask that you BoLS fans set the BoLS Faceboook page to “SEE FIRST” in Facebook.
#3 Set Your Favorite Facebook Pages Notifications to “ON”
Finally, you CAN tell Facebook to notify you when your favorite pages put up special events. When you open up the following tab (see image above), go ahead and check the “NOTIFICATIONS On”.
The internet – it’s SO cool!
No matter what happens, BoLS and all your favorite websites are still here and kicking out all the posts and content you like. But in 2018, you can no longer rely on Facebook to tell you about anything besides what your friends and family are up to. So take some time, explore the internet yourself and enjoy the feeling of spending a little less time with what Mr. Zuckerberg has decided you should be seeing.
~ From everyone here at BoLS – thanks for reading, and visiting!
