Facebook to Make Sure the Right People See Publishers’ Posts
Facebook keeps coming up with ways to reduce the amount of bloat in people’s news feeds. But while recent efforts have angered those putting out that bloat — advertisers and social gaming firms — Facebook’s latest move seems intended to pre-empt any pushback.
Facebook unveiled a few new tools on Wednesday to give publishers a better shot at making sure people on Facebook see their stories.
One tool lets publishers target their Facebook posts at a subset of their fans interested in certain topics. Another lets publishers put an expiration date on their posts so that timely stories like “What time does the Super Bowl start?” don’t pop up in people’s feeds a week after the big game. And a third tool serves as a backup for publishers who might not be aware a story has struck a social chord. Called Smart Publishing, it identifies a story that a lot of people are linking to on Facebook and, for publishers who opt-in, then posts it in the news feeds of people who like that publisher’s Facebook page.
