Facebook announced in January that the algorithm that controls the news feed – the list of posts from friends, pages you follow and paid advertisers that you see when you click home – will be changing to prioritize friends, family and groups. In a post on his Facebook page, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that users will now start seeing “less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media.”
Whether you run the social media account of your law firm or you are one of Facebook’s over two billion users, you know that Facebook is a major source of information for the public. As a result, changes to the algorithm can have an outsize impact on the information you are consuming on a daily basis.
The news feed has never shown all the posts from all the pages or friends or law firms that you “like” on Facebook. Rather, what appears on that page is the result of a complicated algorithm that takes into account many different factors, including what is popular or “trending” across the social network overall, the kinds of posts that you have interacted with in the past, and the individuals with whom you interact the most.
We won’t know the real impact of Facebook’s changes until they are up and running for some time. But here are a few ways to ensure you continue to see what you want to see on Facebook:
Change your settings. You can actually change your Facebook settings so that you see every post from the Facebook pages you care about most. To do so, go to the Facebook page you want to follow. Under the cover photo, you will see a series of buttons, including one that says “Following” with a small upside-down arrow next to it. Click or hover your mouse on the arrow, and then scroll down to “See First.” Once that is checked off, you should not miss any posts from that page.
Engage with the content you like. If you see something useful posted from the NJSBA Facebook page, share it on your personal Facebook page. Comment on our photographs. Help us get the word out.
For those running social media accounts: keep posting engaging content. Facebook says their reason for changing the algorithm is to encourage more meaningful interaction. The first and best thing you can do is post content that your followers will want to comment on and share. If others are interacting with your posts, there is a greater likelihood that Facebook will prioritize that content in news feeds. But do not write posts with calls-to-action, that directly ask your followers to “share” or “comment.” That kind of language will get your posts de-prioritized in the news feed.
Finally, keep in mind that
Facebook is only one way to get the wealth of information disseminated by the NJSBA. All of our members, of course, receive the morning “Daily Briefing” emails, which are chock full of information and opportunities for our members. NJSBA section and committee members also get access to our own “social network” and online forum, CommunityNET, where you can ask practice questions, share tips and more. You can also follow the NJSBA at our other social channels:
LinkedIn,
Twitter and
Instagram.