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FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

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Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#341

Post by JohnFen »

Vrondi wrote: post #168
kevstev wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was actually going to post vacation photos a few months ago, after my first real trip post Covid. But... it just felt really awkard to do so all of a sudden. My feed is just stuffed with shared content and other crap, it no longer felt like something I would be welcome doing. Its been making me wonder if its time to sell my shares, which I have held since the IPO. It just feels like FB errr "Meta" is really losing…

This makes absolutely no sense, and is totally your own mental trip. Your friends (at least some of them) want to see stuff from their friends. Now, Facebook might not show your photos in their feeds, but most people would rather have that than more ads.

I think it makes a great deal of sense. The concern (I assume) is that his posts will be surrounded by all the nonsense that FB is filling people's feeds with.

The context in which you share stuff is incredibly important. If the platform will bookend your posts with crap, it reduces the value of your own post.

Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#342

Post by pmayrgundter »

yamrzou wrote: post #280
fairity wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this isn't a consequence of the status quo newsfeed algorithm. This is a consequence of Facebook making a purposeful strategic shift away from in-network content to suggested content. This strategic shift was highlighted in their last earnings call as a way to compete with TikTok, whose success is partly explained by their focus on suggested content. On the earnings call, they signaled that they were shifting mor…

Yes, here is a chronology of key events: 2020 — Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels: https://www.axios.com/2020/08/05/facebook-launches-its-tikto... 2021 — TikTok overtakes Facebook as world's most downloaded app: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/TikTok-overtakes... Feb. 2022 — Facebook loses users for the first time in its history — https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/02/02/face…

Maybe? Beuller?

Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#344

Post by mingfli »

rightbyte wrote: post #284
mingfli wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The French Laundry is a very niche product, which Facebook is not. I think a more apt analogy is suggesting McDonald's to include more "healthy" options or a coffee bar because the competitors do it and it's a successful business strategy.

More liking pushing "healthy" options in your face in the menu and hiding the BigMac & Co in some obscure small print somewhere. "Do you want plus sized carrots with your meal?"

Not saying either is a good strategy, I'd rather see more posts from my friends than random pages. Just pointing out the analogy.

Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#346

Post by themagician »

ineptech wrote: post #61

Crazy idea: FB should stop trying to lure people back from Tiktok with weird features and just lean in to its one remaining strength, which is that among social media sites, it's the most generic and boring and ubiquitous. Being the default place for non-influencers to do quotidian stuff like hearing about school closings, joining the PTA or HOA, coordinating family gatherings, see your nephew's school photos, etc wo…

FB's core strength today is the boomer market. Definitely something I did NOT see coming 10 years ago. The 60+ crowd practically lives in Facebook Groups now and they will buy basically anything that they see in an ad on FB. You can sell people who are 60+ basically anything on FB if you target them. The pandemic really solidified this, and now the conversion rates are higher than anything I have ever seen anywhere.

It's interesting to me because many older FB users barely know how to use the platform and they have invented their own tricks and conventions—my favorite of which is commenting "Following" because they don't know how to follow something, but know that if they leave a comment they will get notifications about responses. I see that every day and I always find it interesting. Every now and then someone calls them out on it and they just don't care. They have developed their own memes and are probably the only group that uses those Bitmoji-esque "What's on your mind" cards.

FB can lean into the boomer market and basically print money. FB is going to replace QVC. Hell, they should just buy QVC.

Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#347

Post by JohnFen »

foobarbecue wrote: post #322

I really miss having a way to talk to my friends online. It was possible in the early 2000s with multi-network instant messaging clients, and then in the late 2000s to a few years ago with Facebook. And then Facebook destroyed itself (as described in this thread) and now I honestly can't find a frictionless way to get in touch with people. My most common use case was posting "hey I'm going climbing / surfing / caving…

But there are a ton of replacements for the use case you describe. Telegram and the like (even WhatsApp), or just plain old email are useful for what you're describing.

Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#348

Post by spiralx »

mrtesthah wrote: post #306
fullsend wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Users click more on big brands. The average internet user doesn’t want to browse hobby websites, they use the top 10 sites and never leave them. Accept it. Some of them never leave only Reddit or TikTok.

Cynical proclamations tend to sound authoritative, but that’s not the same as being true. Sources?

I was interested as well, but couldn't find anything specifically answering the question. According to the link below social media, email and watching videos counts for about three-quarters of most people's internet usage, which could easily mean they spend most time on just three or four sites. The two smallest categories - searching and shopping - could also just mean Google and Amazon for the most part, so it's the "Surfing content (19%)" that's ambiguous... although even then I assume that Google is a big part of that, and otherwise surfing for content is pretty much the opposite of visiting a site regularly, although I guess it probably includes news websites, which probably are a regular visit.

I'd guess that it is possible most people visit a dozen or fewer websites regularly, of which half a dozen or so are in the Top 10, and the rest include things like news/media sites that are most likely to be popular (if only nationally). Seems likely the older the person the narrower range of things they do online, apparently the most common activities for the over-60s are email and checking the weather lol.

https://www.creditloan.com/blog/how-the-world-spends-its-tim...

Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#349

Post by aleksandarbos »

this is what my latest interaction with instagram looked like before i deactivated the account:

1. i'm consciously opening instagram to see what people/pages i'm following have to offer

2. i'm watching some random "suggested" reel of lion saving baby giraffe from two crocks

3. ads

4. closing the app and asking myself of what am i doing out of my life?

Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#350

Post by drstewart »

legitster wrote: post #231
ok123456 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marketplace is the only reason a lot of people still use the site. This is since especially true for people looking for beater cars since Craigslist started charging $5 to post ads for cars. If Apple or someone else with an ax to grind with Facebook really wanted to bust Meta's kneecaps, they could off to subsidize this charge. Maybe also help them out with fraud and spam detection, since that's where most of the ove…

FB is also actively making Marketplace worse. They keep relegating their local pickup products and trying to turn it into a generic online marketplace.

It's annoying, but welcome. As soon as Marketplace dies, I can delete FB forever
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