{"id":3996,"date":"2018-03-28T01:48:20","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T01:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.e-cbd.com.au\/blog\/?p=3996"},"modified":"2018-04-24T07:00:25","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T07:00:25","slug":"getting-in-facebooks-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.e-cbd.com.au\/blog\/facebook\/getting-in-facebooks-head\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting in Facebook\u2019s Head"},"content":{"rendered":"

Understanding the Recent News Feed Changes<\/h2>\n

In case you missed it, on Jan 11 2018, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook made an announcement that Facebook\u2019s Newsfeed algorithm would be changing rather dramatically to show more personally relevant and oriented posts that encourage real engagement with other people.<\/p>\n

This move is designed to get away from the passive consumption of \u201csocial media fast food\u201d purveyors which has caused this particular marketer to cynically rename Facebook \u201cWastebook\u201d because of the time sucking nature of the platform (I\u2019m not sure that this has changed but we\u2019ll see). Basically, it appears that The Zucks was trying to get back to the roots of Facebook:<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zuck\/posts\/10104413015393571<\/p>\n

 <\/h3>\n

Facebook: The Big Campfire for Everyone To Gather Around<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe built Facebook to help people stay connected and bring us closer together with the people that matter to us. That’s why we’ve always put friends and family at the core of the experience. Research shows that strengthening our relationships improves our well-being and happiness.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Now whilst I don\u2019t doubt the truth of that statement we all know that Facebook is a very expensive platform that went public in 2012 at $38USD per share (that\u2019s $90B clams); by August of that year a share was worth $20.11 (ouch) however by Feb 2014 Facebook hit a cruising altitude of $68.06 per share (that\u2019s $173.35B). Today you won\u2019t get much change out of $200 per share for Facebook as it sits at $180+ per share.<\/p>\n

Okay enough boring stuff. Facebook was expensive to build, it is expensive to run and it\u2019s worth a lot of money to a lot of people. Facebook needs to stay in the game and this is their long game strategy coming into play.<\/p>\n

Further to his January 11th<\/sup> statements, Zuck made the following comments on the 31st<\/sup> of Jan:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe estimate these updates decreased time spent on Facebook by roughly 5% in the fourth quarter. To put that another way: we made changes that reduced time spent on Facebook by an estimated 50 million hours every day to make sure people’s time is well spent. That’s how serious we are about this.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 \u201c\u2026 Now, building a stronger community also means delivering on our product roadmap for the next 3, 5 and 10 years.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Like I said, this is a long game strategy.<\/p>\n

No Seriously, So What\u2019s the Rub<\/h3>\n

\u201cIn this case, it intuitively makes sense. If people interact more, that should lead to a stronger community. And we already know that time in News Feed interacting with people is more profitable than time passively consuming video or news. When you care about something, you’re willing to see ads to experience it. <\/strong>But if you just come across a viral video, then you’re more likely to skip over it if you see an ad.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Whoomp<\/p>\n

Yep. If you want to sell ads you need quality programming to make the ads work. You also need to stop giving away air time for free.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we’ve studied this trend carefully by looking at the academic research and doing our own research with leading experts at universities.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t think they were just paying for those university studies to make sure we feel like we\u2019re being embraced by a pink fluffy life-sized panda doll we won from the Sydney Easter show, do you?<\/p>\n

I know. I\u2019m being cynical but I think we need to get real about why this change was made. I want to believe that Marky Mark is thinking about people but I think it\u2019s more a case of the old Australian adage of shearing the sheep rather than shooting them.<\/p>\n

Not Enough Information<\/h3>\n

I have a suspicion, but not the time or the skillset to research it (if someone reading this does please let me know). I have a suspicion that seeing how Facebook and Google (as well as any other company who saw what was coming down the pipe when it comes to big data \u2013 Cambridge Analytica anyone?) is so invested in AI to make sense of the masses of data they have at their disposal that potentially the current Newsfeed setup wasn\u2019t giving them the sort of data they needed to reach their long term goals. Those goals being to make themselves inextricably embedded in a significant portion of the average person\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Just consider the future of these developments:<\/p>\n