{"id":226739,"date":"2016-06-30T06:40:41","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T06:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=226739"},"modified":"2016-06-30T06:40:41","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T06:40:41","slug":"facebook-gives-friends-higher-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/06\/facebook-gives-friends-higher-priority\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook gives friends higher priority"},"content":{"rendered":"
Facebook is to give posts by users’ friends and family greater prominence in their News Feeds.<\/p>\n
The social network said its members had expressed concerns that they were missing “important updates” from the people they cared about.<\/p>\n
The move reverses a trend towards giving more space to content posted by the news media and brands.<\/p>\n
One expert said it highlighted that newspapers and broadcasters’ interests did not always match those of the firm.<\/p>\n
Facebook said that in several surveys it had carried out, users had told it they wanted to see more “friend content”, and it was altering its algorithms to accommodate this.<\/p>\n
“We are not distinguishing in this change if my friend shared a photo of their daughter or if they shared a link to an article about current events,” the company’s vice president of product management Adam Mosseri told the BBC.<\/p>\n
“We think both of those are content that connects people with their friends… and are valued more highly now in our system.<\/p>\n
“It is possible that some publishers may see a small but noticeable drop in reach, but I don’t think this will be a very big change.”<\/p>\n
The action means that organisations that have focused on accumulating lots of likes to drive traffic to their posts might not see as much benefit as before.<\/p>\n