The “Show in News Feed” Myth

For the past weeks many Facebook Pages have started to post comments informing that “Facebook does not show our page status updates to all of our followers” and apparently the reason is because some of them have not activated one option available under the “Like” button. So, they continue their post asking these followers to ensure the “Show in News Feed option is activated”

Well…that is only another Facebook myth; but the funny thing is, this false information is also mentioned in many blogs an Pages of people calling themselves “Social Media Experts”, which is probably why the myth is spreading so quickly.

So let’s explain all this confusion:

The truth behind the myth

When you “Like” a Facebook Page, the above mentioned “Shows in News Feed” option will get activated by default (as shown on the side image). In fact, this is the main purpose of “Liking” a page: be informed on your News Feed about all the updates about that Page. Some of these “experts” claim that this option gets automatically deactivated on those pages that are very old. Once again, an error.

It is true that Facebook may not show your page status updates to all your followers and in fact, in some cases they may reach a very reduced number of those. There are two reasons for this:

• Users may decide not to receive your status updates but still follow your page by changing some Facebook settings. This means that if you have some content restricted only to followers, they would still be able to see it by accessing your Page, however they will not receive notifications from you. This reason is out of your control and the only way to avoid it is making sure your followers are really interested and engaged in your Page.
• The other reason is the Facebook algorithm, and believe it or not, although the code behind is a secret, it is something that could become your best tool if you know how to use it.

How does the Facebook algorithm works?

Having a secret algorithm does not mean it is not possible to have an idea of how it really works. We are talking about Social Media which, in other words, it’s all about establishing and maintaining relationships with people and companies. What Facebook really does is calculate what is your Social Media impact on others, and thus shows you only those updates that are of your interest.

Why? Just to make your life easier.

If the average Facebook user has 200 friends and makes 10 actions per day (Likes, comments, posts, etc…) it would mean that without Facebook’s algorithm people would receive 2,000 updates per day. That is 2 updates per minute awake if you sleep 8 hours on average. And this raw calculation does not consider other breaks (eating, transport, etc…) and does not include Pages !!!

Getting the point yet?

Facebook shows only updates from those friends or Pages who connect more often with you – either you interacting with them or vice-versa. It also gives priority to pages that may interest you the most, as well as showing updates from people and Pages that interact the most with your most active friends, even if those are not so close to you.

So, if Facebook is not showing your Page updates to all your followers, and they have not unsubscribed from you, the reasons could be:

• They don’t visit your Page very often
• They received your updates in the past, but they never did any action on them – that is: like, share, comment, click on the post, see the full time picture, etc…
• They do not have many (or any) friends following you
• The list of their interests on their Facebook settings do not include the area that your page relates to
• Your posts are very sporadic, and thus Facebook do not consider you as an active Page.
• Your Page does not generate enough buzz among all your followers
• Etc…

The best solution? Provide good and regular content, have a loyal follower community and most importantly: ENGAGE with them.