Facebook recently announced it will be making new changes to its mythical algorithm, the formula that decides what postings you see in your timeline. According to the company, it will give emphasis to content published by "friends and family" over content published by news organizations and pages that you like.
In practice, this means that the average user will miss valuable news updates and other content produced by news organizations and other pages.
Want to make sure that doesn't happen? Here is a step-by-step guide of how to ensure a page's content shows in your timeline. We will be using WLRN's page as an example, but you can use these same steps for other pages.
Ready? Click hereto go to WLRN's Facebook page.
If you're reading this on a desktop or laptop computer, check out the upper right hand corner of the page just under the banner image.
- If you see the word "Like," move your mouse over the icon and click to change it into "Liked." If you want WLRN stories first in your feed, press the button again, then scroll down to "See First." This makes sure every news story we post will be displayed in your news feed. If you want to have Facebook choose which news stories you see based on your engagement with WLRN, choose "Default" instead. If you want to continue watching our morning anchor and producer discuss daily headlines, make sure you click "On (Live Videos)" under notifications. Congratulations! You did it. Feel free to finish drinking your delicious cafecito now.
- If the icon says "Liked," click on it, move your cursor down highlighting the words "See First" and click again. If you want to change how you receive notifications from WLRN, press on the pencil icon and another window will open displaying more options about notifications for posts, videos and events.
- Press "Done" in the bottom right hand corner. Voila, mission accomplished!
If you're on a tablet or phone, click here to go to WLRN's page on Facebook. If you haven't already "liked" our page, tap on the thumbs up icon. Then watch the "Save" bookmark icon change to "Following."
- If you've already liked our page and you can see the word "Following," tap the word to open a secondary navigation bar. Choose which setting of control you want.
- If the word "Follow" is there instead, click on it then tap "See First." Then you're good to go.
- If you're already viewing the words "See First," well done, you've already completed the job!
