We’ve all seen the headlines. “You won’t believe what this celebrity said,” “what that celebrity wore,” or “which famous couple split after two years.” The status provides just enough to pique your interest while withholding the key details of the story. The practice of enticing you to hit the link has come to be known as ‘click-bait.’ Media sites employ this practice on Facebook, Twitter and other social sites as a way to drive traffic to their stories whether or not you knew what you were clicking. And for a while, this worked.
As a website, you could report the hits you received from certain mystery articles as genuine site traffic, but then Facebook got smart. They realized that many people were going to a click-bait website only to return to Facebook a few seconds later, not having found what they thought they were looking for. People weren’t commenting on or liking these articles because they had been duped. Once Facebook was able to track the traffic (or lack of) that these articles were generating, Facebook realized it had a real problem on its hands.
That brings us to today. Facebook has decided to crack down on the art of the click-bait and pump some real transparency BACK into the Newsfeed. Hurrah! The world’s largest media company also redefined the rules for article sharing. They will give more priority in the newsfeed to articles that allow the link to populate in the status, not just using a link and then enticing picture underneath. As digital marketers in an ever-dwindling organic reach game, we can agree that it’s all about the priority in the newsfeed.
Bad:
Good:
My suggestion? Heed Facebook’s advice and make the necessary changes to stay relevant. Gone are the days of luring fans and your social media audience to gain a quick hit to the website. We’re now in a time that loyalty takes precedence and crafting a concerned, educated and engaged readership will pay off in spades.
If you’d like help maximizing your presence on Facebook and Twitter, talk to the digital marketers at Agency Entourage. We’re a downtown Dallas-based advertising agency and we’d love to help your brand. Give us a call today at 214-414-3035.
