What Facebook’s Latest Algorithm Change Means for Your Video Strategy

As of this week, Facebook has given its algorithm a major overhaul when it comes to how it finds and organizes stories in your News Feed – specifically when it comes to video. The changes were a response to feedback from users that said just because they don’t like, comment on, or share a post, it doesn’t mean that post wasn’t meaningful or useful to them. As a result, Facebook will begin weighing other factors when it comes to News Feed ranking for videos.

According to Engineering Manager Meihong Wang and Software Engineer Yue Zhuo, in a post in the Facebook newsroom, “We have learned that certain actions people take on a video, such as choosing to turn on sound or making the video full screen, [or enabling high definition], are good signs they wanted to see that video, even if they didn’t want to like it. Today, we want to share an update to News Feed ranking that takes into account these actions to help people see more of the videos they care about and fewer of the videos they don’t.”

So what does this mean for you? Facebook says they “do not expect most Pages to see significant changes in distribution as a result of this update,” and the truth of the matter is they’re probably right. If you’ve been focusing on creating engaging video content all along, that’s been getting likes, comments, and shares then this change should only serve to give your posts a little extra boost. However, this change should reveal to you the importance, more than ever, of creating content that will stand out in the News Feed.

In a recent blog post on formatting your videos to entice views on Facebook, we stressed the importance of including the following in your videos:

• A clear visual hook to catch people’s attention as they scroll down the page
• Something that indicates there is audio so viewers will click to listen
• A strong hook to keep people watching after they’ve clicked to hear audio

Tim Schmoyer of Video Creators shares more in the video below.

Facebook will be rolling this change out over the coming weeks and we’ll keep you posted as Page owners report on how the change has affected them. If you share video on Facebook, we’d love to hear from you – has the algorithm change affected the reach of your videos? Let us know in the comments below.