Facebook tests posting only to profile or to News Feed to spur more sharing
Facebook is allowing its users to be more choosy with where their posts are shared.
The social network is testing a status option that lets users select if a post shows on their profile or just in Facebook News Feed. The feature was spotted by The Next Web's Matt Navarra on Friday.
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Another button in testing lets users share a new post only to News Feed and to Facebook Stories and exclude their Facebook profile, Navarra also shared on Friday.
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Both tests could encourage more sharing overall since users are now able to be more selective with what part of Facebook it appears in.
For years, Facebook has had to overcome a decline in sharing of original content as people turn to private channels and other social networks (read: Snapchat). Of course, Facebook has its own private messaging app Messenger and has attempted to create its own Snapchat-like experience with Facebook Stories.
The News Feed is still the top portal for people on Facebook, as the company itself has admitted.
"Today, the majority of video discovery and watch time happens in News Feed. News Feed provides a great opportunity for publishers and creators to reach their audience, drive discovery, and start to build deeper connections for their content," reads Facebook's blog post on Thursday about adding longer videos to News Feed.
And yet, because of that, it has been continuously crowded with more and more types of content — from Russian propaganda to long-form video.
Facebook has been experimenting with breaking up the News Feed. A small test separates posts from Pages into one feed and posts from profile in another. Facebook rolled out Explore to all users as a feed of posts from Pages users do not follow. Watch is a separate tab for original video. And then there's Marketplace, a tab for selling and buying items.
Meanwhile, Facebook would like to remind users that the app — no matter the feed — may cause negative effects to users' well-being.
UPDATE: Dec. 15, 2017, 7:13 p.m. EST “We’re exploring ways to give people more choices about where their posts appear on Facebook,” a Facebook spokesperson wrote in an email.
Topics Facebook Social Media
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
