Facebook recently rolled out new settings granting users more control over which content they see for Pages they follow and how they are notified. Followers of your Facebook page can now choose if they want to follow all of your posts, some or just one type of posts. With this new update, users can choose to follow your: Posts, Videos, Live Videos, or Offers.
Available options
If a user wants to follow your Facebook Page Posts, they can choose: Standard notifications (up to 5 new posts per day), Highlights (suggested post notifications), or they can choose to turn off all notifications for Posts.
Following other content types on your page
Users who want to follow your Facebook Video posts or Live Videos have the option of getting all notifications, just the highlights, or turn off notifications all together. Your followers can also choose to switch On or Off notifications for Offers.
Here’s a Mobile screenshot of the new settings
What does this mean for your business?
Changes to the settings are very new and everyone is still trying to figure out the effects, but we do know that Facebook is always working to improve the user experience on its platform. I imagine these changes will result in higher engagement rates for your content, because followers can be more selective in what they see and customize their settings to suit their interests and how they interact with your content. Better engagement rates could lead to higher reach. On the hand, we’ve seen over the years that Facebook has been limiting the reach of organic posts, forcing businesses to pay to play.
We’ll have to monitor how this change plays out and what kind of insights Facebook will give us. If we can see what people are choosing to follow most, that can guide what kinds of content to focus on.