How Facebook Is Using Surveys to Improve Its News Feed and Give Users What They Want

Facebook is taking more of a "survey says" approach to what users will see in their news feeds. In a blog post published today, Facebook software engineers Cheng Zhang and Si Chen explained that the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company's traditional ways of determining what shows up in feeds—likes, clicks, comments, shares—don't always give a full picture of what users want. And the changes could weed out publishers that rely on clickbait for traffic. Facebook asked more than 1,000 users to rate their daily experience and provide feedback on how it can be improved. It also surveyed tens of thousands of people around the world to better understand how well feeds are being ranked. Respondents were asked to give stories a rating of up to five stars according to how much they wanted to see each one show up in their news feed. Facebook uses algorithms to determine what people see based on each user's connections and activity on the platform. Updates to the news feed algorithm will include the probability that users want to see a given story and how likely they are to engage with it. "We saw through our research that people reported having a better newsfeed experience when the stories they see at the top are stories they are both likely to rate highly if asked and likely to engage with," the engineers wrote. So, how will this affect Pages, the section brands use to manage their Facebook page? That depends on the scope of the audience, how frequently a brand posts and what it... Continue reading at 'AdWeek'

[ AdWeek | 2016-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #-based company #full picture #provide feedback

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BookNet Survey Finds Facebook is Favorite in Canada

Facebook is the top social media platform used by book buyers in Canada, according to a new report on social media use by book buyers from BookNet Canada. YouTube is second. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Started Indexing News Pages to Determine Which Publishers Belong in Its Ad Archive

Facebook announced that it has begun the process of indexing news pages in order to determine which publishers should be included in the Ad Archive that it introduced in June. The Ad Archive, which is available globally, gives people the ability to search for ads related to politics or issues of... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2018-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook rolls out system to include news publishers in its controversial Ad Archive

Facebook is moving forward with its controversial Ad Archive with a new system that will decide whether to include individual publishers in the archive. The post Facebook rolls out system to include news publishers in its controversial Ad Archive appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-09-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wednesday Wake-Up Call: Gawker's rebirth, Facebook's new video series and other news

Welcome to Ad Age's Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. You can get an audio version of this briefing on your Alexa device. Search for "Ad Age" under "Skills" in the Alexa app. What people are talking about today: Gawker, the gossip site, is staging... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #video series #daily roundup #audio version #alexa device #alexa app #gossip site #bryan goldberg


Continuing charm offensive, Facebook creates tool to boost news publishers’ reach on the platform

Facebook has been testing a tool with five publishers including BuzzFeed to help them improve their reach on the platform. The post Continuing charm offensive, Facebook creates tool to boost news publishers’ reach on the platform appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-08-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Just use cat videos': New York Times boss wants Facebook to cut out news

Mark Thompson says site’s attempts to rank news outlets sounds like ‘controlled society’Facebook should consider completely removing news from users’ feeds unless it can find a way to avoid low-quality stories clogging up the site, the chief executive of the New York Times has said.Mark Thompson... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Is Committing Another $4.5 Million to Initiatives for News Publishers

Facebook announced Thursday that it is pumping another $4.5 million into Facebook Journalism Project initiatives for news publishers. Global head of news Campbell Brown said in a blog post that Facebook will put $3.5 million toward the Facebook Membership Accelerator pilot program and contribute... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2018-08-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The First Batch of Facebook-Funded News Shows for Watch Is Debuting Monday

Facebook announced last month that it was funding an initiative to create news shows from 10 to 12 U.S. publishers for its Facebook Watch video platform, and the first slate of those shows will begin streaming Monday, July 16. Head of global news partnerships Campbell Brown and product manager... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2018-07-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook quiz app maker exposed data on over 120 million users

While Facebook tries to close the book on its Cambridge Analytica scandal, it's still dealing with many more. The FTC is conducting a non-public probe into the company's behavior around privacy data, the EU's stricter laws are making it hard for the... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2018-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook creates Orwellian headache as news is labelled politics

Archive of political content becomes batleground between publishers and platformsGeorge Orwell wrote in his essay Politics and the English Language: “In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics’. All issues are political issues.” When Facebook constructed a new archive of... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-06-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sports publisher theScore’s Facebook Messenger bot has 500,000 monthly users

The publisher formed a six-person emerging platforms team to experiment with new products and features. The post Sports publisher theScore’s Facebook Messenger bot has 500,000 monthly users appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Are people becoming less reliant on Facebook for their news? | Paul Chadwick

Two new surveys suggest the public still value traditional news publishersWhen you try to imagine a media diet consisting only of retweets, random blogs or the Facebook posts of family and friends, you grasp the value of journalism created by professional media organisations. Traditional news... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Won’t Exclude News Publishers From Its Political Ads Policy

Facebook head of global news partnerships Campbell Brown explained in a blog post why news publishers will not be exempted from the social network's recent introduced policy on political ads. Facebook announced last month that all election-related and issue ads in the U.S. on both Facebook and... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2018-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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News groups ask Facebook to stop treating media ads like political ads

News organizations want Facebook to stop treating them like political and issues-based advertisers, claiming that the social network's new rules could negatively impact how the public views journalism.On Monday, media advocacy groups addressed a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg requesting that... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook advertises for 'fake news' fact checkers

Firm changes initial ad for ‘news credibility specialists’ to ‘news publisher specialists’Facebook has advertised for “news credibility specialists” to fact-check content that appears on its site, after accusations of bias and the ongoing controversy over fake news. Almost two years after the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Rundown: With Watch news shows, Facebook still holds the cards

Facebook is paying news publishers, but the terms show the power is still with the platform. The post The Rundown: With Watch news shows, Facebook still holds the cards appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Users Will Be Able to Add Licensed Music to Their Videos

Sing along with Facebook? The social network announced Tuesday that it is testing the ability for people to include music in the personal videos they create, and it introduced a new feature, Lip Sync Live. Facebook now has licenses through millions of songs through deals with music publishers... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2018-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Is Giving Scientists Its Data to Fight Misinformation

For the first time, researchers will be able to access Facebook's data and publish their findings without pre-approval from the company. Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2018-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook says it wants to do right by news organizations

Back in January, Facebook announced that it would henceforth de-emphasize posts from brands and publishers in users’ news feeds in favor of ones from friends and family. Media organizations—which have long been dependent on Facebook for traffic, albeit more than a trifle embarassed by that... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2018-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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