Which Businesses Should Love Facebook’s Clickbait Algorithm

by Lisa Cabral

Facebook is at it again. This time they’re changing their algorithm to improve the content that people see in their newsfeeds. This is great for regular users, but may not be so great for your business. 

At least, not if your business relies on clickbaiting to get attention.

Clickbaiting (or linkbaiting)  is when a company uses links with sensationalistic headlines and minimal information designed to catch readers’ attention and prompt click-throughs to draw traffic to their stories and websites.  Usually headlines are along the lines of “You won’t believe WHO was arrested this weekend in Hollywood!” followed by a link that goes God-only-knows-where.  

When enough people click to satisfy their curiosity, these empty posts get bumped up on the priority list, filling your newsfeed with drivel.

Or they used to.

According to AllFacebook.com, Facebook is cracking down on clickbaiting by using a new algorithm that will track how much time someone spends away from Facebook once they click on a link in their newsfeed. The longer time they spend away after clicking a link, the more valuable the link and information is perceived to be. The less time spent after clicking, the less valuable the link (clickbait!).

Additionally, Facebook is measuring engagement, tracking whether people like, comment on, or share the links they click.

Facebook says that businesses that frequently post clickbait posts “will likely see their distribution decrease in the next few months.” This is being done to ensure that people are actually seeing things that they want to see on their newsfeeds, including links that are clearly visible in posts and not hidden in photo status updates.

Obviously some businesses are going to suffer from this new algorithm and policy, but some are going to benefit and should love this! Why? Because the previous algorithm gave priority to number of clicks, which meant legitimate stories were being buried in the newsfeed by spammy stories that elbowed their way in via a bunch of empty clicks.

Want to make sure your stories will make the cut with the new algorithm? Here

are some tactics to use:

• Use the link format to share your stories, and never bury links in image captions
  
• Include a snippet of the piece as well as the link and headline—people are more secure when they can see where the link will lead
  
• Be sure the payoff matches the headline or they won’t keep reading; give them something that lives up to the bait
  

It will be interesting to see how this change plays out on Facebook. Most businesses will benefit from it, and so will users. I for one can’t wait to see all the posts I’ve probably been missing!

What do you think of this new Facebook policy, and who do you think will benefit most? 


IMAGE CREDIT: Mike Licht