Dive Brief:

• In a blog post, Facebook announced new changes to its news feed algorithm that will more prominently display stories that are personally informative and better reflect its stated core values for the news feed.
• The news feed algorithm will predict the content that is most informative for each user, according to Facebook. Facebook plans to showcase content "related to [users'] interests, if they engage people in broader discussions, and if they contain news."
• The blog post said the impact on brand Pages should be minimal. In its post, Facebook advised brands to continue posting stories that are relevant and informative for their audience.

Dive Insight:

With the last two algorithm updates, Facebook has been emphasizing the user experience. The latest update to Facebook's news feed algorithm comes only a month-and-a-half after it updated the algorithm to emphasize posts from users' friends and family, including photos, videos, status updates and links. The move inherently de-emphasized posts from publishers and brands.

The latest change will put the onus on users, brands and publishers to post content that users find informative. The update comes as the social media giant has been moving more and more toward a pay-for-play advertising model for brands.

The new predictive algorithm signal will rank stories on a scale of one to five on how informative users might find the story, “taking into account things like your relationship with the person or publisher that posted, or what you choose to click on, comment on or share — to best predict stories that you might personally find informative," Facebook wrote in a blog post. "Informative stories are therefore different for each person and will likely change over time.”

For brands with dedicated followers who engage with content shared on Facebook, the algorithm change could help get that content seen by more followers. For that reason, it's worth testing some highly relevant content to find out if it boosts organic Facebook traffic.