Looks as though you can finally weed out annoying (to you) types of trending stories in Facebook with the release of a new tabbed trending news box, but like many Facebook changes, it will have a negative impact on Facebook Pages.
They have broken trending news into 5 tabs, the primary which is the main trending news tab for “all news.”
The second tab is politics, which I am sure many will appreciate. There have been many complains about users seeing trending news stories about politics from the “other side” that they would prefer not to see.
Next is the science and technology tab.
Then comes the sports tab.
Then lastly, entertainment.
This is a great feature, since many have stopped paying attention to the trending news area as it seldom has stories that are of interest to them. However, with this change, users can change to just the sports tab, or choose to view all the tabs except the political one if they wish. Depending on the number of trending news stories available, they can be expanded to show additional stories.
The one downside is that Facebook (at least not at this time) will not remember your preferred tab, so if you want to always see the sports one, you would need to reset it not just on each visit, but on each refresh. If Facebook allows users to set the tab by default, it won’t be quite so bad for marketers.
For marketers who regularly get their stories featured in the trending news area, especially if you are in one of the three tabbed areas, they could definitely see a reduction in the exposure they get from being featured there, unless they manage to make it onto the main “all news” tab.
There does seem to be some overlap, showing that the “all news” tab can contain trending news from other tabs. For example the story about the Simpsons appeared in both the main trending news tab as well as the entertainment one.
So while this is a great move for users, it could definitely have a negative impact on those sites and Facebook pages that tend to be showcased via the old trending news tab.
Jennifer Slegg
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