The Indian media, and all content websites, need to change their web strategy. They need to optimize their News Feed for mobiles. Reason: Facebook is tweaking its algorithm to push more links of high quality articles on mobile phones.
The social media giant in its blog dated December 2 states: “People use Facebook to share and connect, including staying current on the latest news, whether it’s about their favorite celebrity or what’s happening in the world. We’ve noticed that people enjoy seeing articles on Facebook, and so we’re now paying closer attention to what makes for high quality content, and how often articles are clicked on from News Feed on mobile.” (Emphasis added)
What does this mean for media, content websites and bloggers? Explains Facebook: “What this means is that you may start to notice links to articles a little more often (particularly on mobile).” (Emphasis added)
The news websites that take notice of this shift in Facebook strategy, and tweak their reports accordingly, stand to benefit more. They can expect their mobile traffic to register a spurt.
The news sites have already been enjoying an upswing in referral traffic from Facebook. In a blogpost in October this year, Facebook had stated that in the last one year the referral traffic from its site to media sites went up by 170 per cent.
This is a huge spike, and no media site can afford to ignore it. Says Facebook: “In the last year, more people found news on Facebook than ever before”. These users travelled to a media site by clicking on a news story link in their News Feed.
These links are like peer recommendations. People trust the judgment of their peers more, and are more inclined to click on them.
With content moving on to mobile, the media sites too need to rethink their strategy. The early movers will surely benefit more.
You too need to get on the bandwagon before it is too late.
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