Will Facebook Offer “Weather Reports” About Changes To Its News Feed Algorithm?

At this morning’s SMX West Keynote with Grady Burnett, Vice President of Global Marketing Solutions for Facebook, Grady said Facebook may offer marketers what we might call “weather reports” for News Feed algorithm updates.

The content and shares that show on an individual’s News Feed can play an important role on the traffic marketers see on their own web sites. Understanding the News Feed algorithm, also known as EdgeRank, is important for marketers. When a web site notices a huge increase or decline in traffic from Facebook, it may be due to Facebook updating their news feed algorithm.

Danny Sullivan asked Facebook’s Grady Burnett if we may get notifications from Facebook when they do algorithm updates. Grady Burnett said it is possible. Burnett said, “we can certainly do a better job of communicating and offering clarity on things.”

He added that in the last algorithm update last fall, they saw a 20% decline in people hiding things and spamming the news feed.

Weather Reports is something Yahoo introduced when they had their own search algorithm and Google has been providing them with Penguin, Panda and other major search algorithmic updates. We are hoping that Facebook will soon provide these weather reports for social marketers. You can learn more about weather reports at Search Engine Land.