Curiosty Killed My News Feed
November 11th, 2013These days with Facebook struggling to make its earning quotients advertising on the site has been beefed up most noticeably so in the users News Feed. In the majority of past iterations of Facebook the News Feed was used exclusively for updates on a user’s friend’s recent activity on the site. The News Feed now also displays large (and I emphasize the “large” part) sponsored advertisements among these posts. Of course the ads posted are targeted towards the user and this is all to make them seem less invasive but also, from a marketing standpoint, it’s to ensure that the user’s targeted by a brand are getting the messages that branding is sending out. This seems logical sure but users should be aware of how this targeting is done by Facebook.
Now I’ve clicked on random Facebook ads before, out of boredom maybe, curiosity maybe, but usually not because I actually wanted to buy/enlist for whatever was advertised. These liberally given clicks however, have come to play a major part in the way my News Feed looks now. Anything I’ve clicked on in the past seems to keep appearing in one way or another. My reckless abandon has been misinterpreted as a genuine interest in creating my own website using Wix.
The reason for this is of course Facebook’s algorithm used in determining what ads appear on which feed. The algorithm responsible for populating News Feeds is called the EdgeRank algorithm which uses a three-tier ranking system based on affinity, weight, and time. The most important factor here is time. Recent activity becomes the most relevant activity for Facebook so that errant click from last night is liable to continue to stay relevant to your advertising profile for an extended period of time if you are like me and are relatively inactive on the public side of Facebook (public being outside of private groups and direct messages). If you want a truly relevant News Feed, think before you click.