Facebook has had another change of heart – it’s decided to alter its algorithms, again.

Whereas previously, content was presented in news feeds to those who interacted more often with the pages, it will now take in to consideration the amount of time spent looking at the posts.

Facebook seem to be recognizing the fact that we don’t all comment, like and share whenever we take an interest in something. Whether that’s down to embarrassment or fear of ‘over-liking’ we can’t be sure, but the fact is that people do take the time to look at external links and photo albums, especially within the Facebook app.

Before all the marketers start jumping up and down with joy, no, this isn’t going to mean that your ad spend can decrease. Take some comfort in that it also doesn’t mean it needs to increase.

In their blog announcement, Facebook very clearly stated: “We do not expect Pages to see significant changes in distribution as a result of this update.”

This does seem like a contradiction, doesn’t it? Facebook is saying ‘ok, we’ll make sure more people see content that they are interested in’, but it’s making a pretty plain statement to highlight that this won’t increase reach.

Perhaps images are the key to this update. Create bold, eye-catching images that people won’t scroll past too quickly, and you might just notice that a few more people begin to interact with you.

As always, Facebook is trying to make its platform more interesting, image driven and newsworthy. Keep this all in mind when putting together your creatively genius posts!

Catch up with the Facebook blog post about this update here.