Martin here and apologies to David Bowie but Facebook’s at it again and I couldn’t help myself.

Earlier this month, the company announced that in January, 2015 people will start seeing fewer promotional posts from brands, that is, things that push you to enter contests and sweepstakes, install an app or buy a product.

Joe and Gini think this is a positive shift because it puts the onus on brands to earn their way into a user’s news feed with relevant and useful content.

I say this goes well with the way Facebook lets folks mute brands and friends we may not want to hear from so often. Then I wonder about coupons. They’re both commercial and yet important to some people. Is Facebook treating coupons as pure promotion too? We’re interested if any of our listeners have insights on that.

We switch gears and Gini talks about Facebook’s Rooms app, which is trying to connect people through a common interest and not necessarily their social graph. Gini likens it to the early days of Internet communities and anonymous posting. Here’s a blog she wrote about it and why you may not be as anonymous as you think.

Joe says Facebook’s two recent changes – offering a less commercial newsfeed and simplifying their privacy offerings – are driving more value to its business. He thinks they’ve got their mojo back.

I close off by talking about the latest meshmarketing conference and some highlights, including Ann Handley’s fun and informative keynote.

What do you think about Facebook’s algorithm tweaks? Will it improve your experience and, as a result, will you be spending more time on the platform? Will you be changing your privacy settings? We’d love to hear what you think.

Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the FIR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini DietrichJoseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de SzegheoRoger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR is produced by Ashlea McGrath.

Comments

  1. I am a PR student who is 21 years old. I have noticed within the past year or so that myself, and many of my friends and peers, barely use Facebook anymore. When I go on Facebook, it is to see how people who I haven’t talked to in a while are doing or because I belong to groups who post important information frequently. One thing that has always annoyed me, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, are sponsored ads. I believe that if I don’t like that business or company’s page or follow them, then I don’t want to see their ads. I was unaware until now that starting in January, we will start seeing fewer promotional posts from brands. This is good news to me. I hope that these changes will improve my experience on Facebook to the point that I might actually start using it more again. My current Facebook is pretty much private unless you are my friend, and I plan on keeping it this way. I’m interested to see how these changes will affect mine and others’ Facebook experiences once they are implemented.

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