This week, Facebook is making some changes to how posts are displayed in your timeline. The company will now begin demoting spammy or “engagement bait” posts that ask users to take actions, such as liking, commenting, tagging, or even sharing. Facebook posts that ask users to “Tag a friend who likes to nap!” Has been quite popular because they work around Facebook’s algorithm, and then causes those posts to be prioritized even more in News Feeds.
Facebook says that posts that ask users for advice, recommendations, or help like raising money for charity or travel advice will not be affected by this change. The company further added that it will implement stricter demotions for Pages that repeatedly have bait engagement in a few weeks to give publishers time to adapt to these upcoming changes. This will help them not be penalized immediately.
“Moving forward, we will continue to find ways to improve and scale our efforts to reduce engagement bait,” Facebook said. “We want to reduce the spread of content that is spammy, sensational, or misleading in order to promote more meaningful and authentic conversations on Facebook.” Facebook added that Pages that repeatedly make posts that bait engagement will see “significant drops” in their reach, so be warned.
