Latest Facebook News Feed Algorithm Changes (Plus Growth And Engagement Stats For May 2017)

Welcome to our Facebook Page growth and engagement study for the month of May.

We look at the performance of 5,000 Facebook pages to help you understand what the standards are regarding page likes growth, post reach, content engagement, post format performance, and the use of Facebook advertising to boost the organic content.

This helps you compare the performance of your own pages against the standards and understand the results of your efforts.

Do you want an even deeper comparison to the standards on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook? Take a free Locowise trial.

Facebook page growth and engagement study for May

Page likes growth in May was at 0.11% of the total audience. This is a 10% increase compared to April.

Post reach was at 10.6% of the total audience and this is 7.18% lower than in April.

14.17% of all pages used Facebook Advertising paying for 33.41% of their total reach.

Post engagement rate was at 4.67% of the people reached. This is 1.06% lower than in April.

Photos overtook videos in the number of people reached on average. Photos reached 11.13% of the page audience, while videos reached 10.9%. Links reached 6.56% and status updates reached 4.13%.

Video is still the engagement king. Videos engaged 5.66% of the people reached, status updates 4.98%, photos 4.48% and links 4.25%.

Clickbait headlines will now appear lower in newsfeeds

Facebook has announced some algorithm updates during the month. The company has announced additional efforts to decrease the number of misleading and spammy posts in the newsfeeds. Clickbait headlines will now appear lower in newsfeeds.

Facebook explained clickbait with these two examples:
“When She Looked Under Her Couch Cushions And Saw THIS….”
“WOW! Ginger tea is the secret to everlasting youth. You’ve GOT to see this!”

And the advice is this:
“Publishers that rely on clickbait headlines should expect their distribution to decrease. Pages should avoid headlines that withhold information required to understand the content of the article and headlines that exaggerate the article to create misleading expectations. If a Page stops posting clickbait and sensational headlines, their posts will stop being impacted by this change.”

Downrank of low quality content

Facebook has also announced that the newsfeed algorithm will further downrank low quality content. Low quality website is a site that contains “little substantive content, and that is covered in disruptive, shocking or malicious ads.”

More on how Facebook classifies a low quality website:

– A disproportionate volume of ads relative to content. This includes advertisements, and not legal obligations such as cookie policies or logins to private content, such as paywalls.
– Featuring sexually suggestive or shocking content.
– Pages that contain malicious or deceptive ads which include Prohibited Content as defined in our policies
– Use of pop-up ads or interstitial ads, which disrupt the user experience

Internal rulebook with policies guiding content moderators has been leaked during the month too and it provides an interesting look into how Facebook reviews the content posted on the platform.

More engaging live broadcast comments

Facebook says there are 10 times more comments on live videos compared to regular videos.

This means that there is a lot of noise (and spam) within the comments on a live broadcast. A new feature called “Live Chat with Friends” allows you to start a chat about a specific live broadcast, invite your friends only, and have a more meaningful, personal conversation. This should contribute to a more engaged live broadcast audience.

At the same time, Facebook has announced that they will crack down on fake live videos such as polls, countdowns, and unmoving or ambient broadcasts.

“Live With” is a perfect opportunity for interviews

“Live With” feature is now open to all too.

Previously this was only opened to public figures, but now any person or page can invite someone else to live chat with within a split screen style or picture-in-picture broadcast. This is perfect for Q&A sessions with your biggest fans, your ambassadors, and other influencers and celebrities.

Facebook is licensing original shows from video producers

You can expect to start seeing more of longer videos on the platform. Facebook has signed deals with BuzzFeed, Vox and other entertainment producers to get them to produce longer original videos exclusively for Facebook.

The deals are split into two tiers. One for videos between 5 and 10 minutes in length and the other for videos between 20 and 30 minutes.

“The world’s biggest social media company is set to pay up to $250,000 for the longer, scripted shows which will be owned by Facebook… For the second tier of shorter shows, Facebook will pay $10,000 to $35,000 for each show and give creators 55 percent of revenue from ads, the sources said. Ads will run during both the long-form and short-form shows.”

This all is in addition to the live sports broadcast that Facebook has agreed with Major League Baseball.