Facebook is already the most important platform for online publishers. Now, the social network also wants to be the favorite.
Facebook launched a new set of publisher tools on Wednesday that provide greater ability to target posts and promote timely content, as well as greater automation.
The move comes at a time when publishers are basking in the massive amount of traffic that Facebook sends, while also voicing some concern about increasing reliance on the social network.
The biggest addition is the interest targeting, which uses Facebook’s vast trove of data to create subject areas that can be added to posts. Just about anything can be a target, including locations, celebrities and sports teams. A user does not need to have “liked” LeBron James on Facebook for this to work. Rather, if a user has clicked on a LeBron James story recently, they may end up being targeted by posts that have selected James as an interest to target.
Social managers will also now be able to put end dates for when posts should stop receiving promotion in News Feeds. The purpose of this tool is to encourage news publishers to post more timely stories, such as weather forecasts or game recaps. The stories will remain on Facebook, but will not receive promotion after the set end date.
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