Sometimes it seems difficult to visualize what kind of messages Facebook shows and distributes in the organic news overview. In September 2021, Facebook came out with the Content Distribution Guidelines. This shows exactly what kind of content is less likely to be displayed in the news overview. 

Grey area 

With Facebook you can reach a huge number of people, so as a marketer it is of course very useful to know which types of content are less likely to be displayed. The types of content in these guidelines are not rejected or removed, but are distributed less quickly. There is a large gray area regarding content that does not go against the guidelines, but is shown less quickly. In this article we provide more clarity about which content Facebook is less likely to show in the news overview. 

1. Clickbait is outdated

Posts containing clickbait used to do very well. People were curious about the content of articles with extreme titles. However, these titles are usually misleading, which means that Facebook almost no longer shows articles with clickbait in the title in the news overview. This not only concerns misleading or sensational titles, but also titles with excessive use of punctuation marks or caps lock. Facebook recommends using titles that are relevant to the content of the article.

2. Engagement bait is also not appreciated

Engagement bait is another factor that Facebook doesn't value. This concept relates to creating content that requires engagement. Engagement can be in the form of responding with a certain Emoji, or in the form of sharing a message on your own timeline. As a result, these messages are perceived as spam by Facebook Users. Such messages will therefore be less likely to be displayed in the news overview.

How do you reach more people?

Now we have the two biggest factors in whether or not to display content on Facebook have discussed, the question remains which content helps to reach more people. Facebook's goal is to inform people and provide them with the content they are looking for. When creating content, it is important that you know your target group: what are they looking for? What do they find interesting? 

A/B Testing

When you adapt your content to the interests of your target group, you will notice that your content will be shown more quickly in their news feed. It is therefore also important that you use an informative and relevant title that informs readers about the content of the article. On Facebook you can easily A/B test different types of content. It is advisable to test multiple variants of the same message, so that you can find out which types of titles or images work best to reach your target group.