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How to control your feed on Facebook - "Explore feed" can change everything

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Facebook is constantly changing its algorithms, which affects both what individuals see in their feeds and the opportunities for business owners (and bloggers) to reach out. The latest news is that Facebook is testing something they call "Explore feed". If this is launched globally, it could kill all organic reach, according to an article in Dagens Analys.

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What do you see in your feed?

What determines what you see in your Facebook feed? Well, it's determined by Facebook's algorithms and is related to who you're friends with, which pages you've decided to like, which posts you've clicked "like" on in the past and which companies have chosen to pay for you to see them.

Exactly very few people know what this algorithm looks like. What entrepreneurs (and bloggers) have noticed in recent years is that it has become more and more difficult to appear in people's feeds.

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For example

Let's take an example! We have over 2000 followers on our Facebook page. When we share a post there, it automatically reaches about 2-6 per cent of those followers. If a large proportion of these followers like, comment and share within a short time - then the post will reach many more. Otherwise, it stops. But aren't there other ways? Well, you can pay.

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Facebook is a company

Facebook is a company and wants to make money, which is understandable. Why should they offer companies free advertising? However, what I find tricky is that some followers and friends seem to think that they should get all the updates from our blog via Facebook because they actually made an active choice to "follow" the blog.

A friend said the other day that "I always read when you share on Facebook, but you don't do that very often, do you?". Well ... yes, but it's only once in a while that we can afford to sponsor a post so that we reach all those who have chosen to follow us.

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What does this mean for you as a Facebook user?

First and foremost, this means that you should be aware that your feed is governed by a complicated algorithm and that it is by no means certain that you will receive updates from a page just because you have clicked to follow it.

For myself, I noticed a while ago that I was getting a lot of advertising from travel agencies in my feed (because I liked their beautiful pictures) and an awful lot of "wise quotes" from acquaintances I barely know (no, I don't really know what Facebook's algorithms were thinking there...).

Time to take matters into my own hands! I went to lots of travel agents' Facebook pages and kept "liking" the pages but stopped "following" them. Then I went to the quote friends' pages and continued to be a friend, but clicked "unfollow", and finally I went to my favourite pages and clicked "show first". Now I'm much happier with my feed!

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What does 'Explore feed' mean?

As part of a new test in six countries, Facebook has removed the all content from publishers and companies in people's regular feed and instead put it in a separate, more difficult to access feed that they call "Explore feed".

For individuals, this means that they will only see content from family and friends in their regular feed, and will have to click elsewhere to see posts from newspapers, blogs, associations, political parties, restaurants, schools and shops - even if they have made an active choice to follow them.

Now, it turns out that Facebook has been criticised so much for this latest move that they are backing off a bit, saying that this is just a test to see what users think and that they have no plans to spread it - yet.

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With Explore feed, the regular feed becomes just for family and friends.

What do you think?

Is it entirely reasonable for entrepreneurs and publishers to pay for those who have chosen to follow them to see their posts? Would it be nice to have a feed where you only see posts from family and friends? Or maybe you don't care about Facebook at all?

Gilla
All images in the post: Pixabay

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