Facebook has been intentionally vague about their algorithm since the beginning. What do they promote? What gets buried? If you’re a publisher, it can feel like your entire social media load is figuring out how to trick platforms into showing your audience what you post. In a rare moment of transparency, Facebook ‘s new Content Distribution Guidelines have been published to help shed some light on how they’re distributing content.

Just to be clear, this is not about Community Standards. Some things are not allowed on the platform. Violent content, exploitation, hate speech, spamming, plagiarism, etc are all a no go.

What are Content Distribution Guidelines?

Content Distribution Guidelines exist to add clarity to content prioritization. What content receives reduced distribution on News Feed because it’s problematic or low quality?

According to the guidelines, there are three main reasons content can be demoted by Facebook:

• Responding to People’s Direct Feedback. We’re always eager to receive people’s feedback about what they do and don’t like seeing on Facebook and make changes to News Feed in response. This means that if you are sending people to an ad farm, serving click bait, or spamming your audience, you’re going to get in trouble.

• Incentivizing Creators to Invest in High-Quality and Accurate Content. We want people to have interesting, new material to engage with in the long term, so we create incentives that encourage the creation of this type of content. This is going to be your fake news, copied articles, and inaccurate presentation.

• Fostering a Safer Community. Some content may be problematic for our community, whether or not it’s intended that way. We make this content difficult to encounter for people who aren’t actively trying to see it. This can be content that is borderline in violation of Community Standards, unsafe reporting, and content posted by people who consistently violate policies.

How do Facebook’s new Content Distribution Guidelines impact your newsroom?

Most of this is pretty simple. But let’s start at the beginning. Let’s apply those guidelines to what you’re doing every day.

Your content should be high quality

Don’t post junk. Your website, video, and text content is all ranked and if you are offering a poor experience, users will report it, bounce, or otherwise let Facebook know that you are not providing a positive experience.

• Ad Farms
• Clickbait Links
• Comments that Are Likely to Be Reported or Hidden
• Engagement Bait
• Low Quality Browsing Experiences
• Low Quality Comments
• Low Quality Videos
• Sensationalist Health Content and Commercial Health Posts

In short, watch your ad ratio, don’t post low-quality content, and don’t post poor quality content.

Facebook Reels

Quality particularly matters when posting Facebook Reels. There is not as much data available for Reels in the feed, mostly because they’re new. However, there are some things that we know can help you succeed with this format.

• High quality video. This means that you should light it well and frame your shot.
• Be entertaining. Humor goes a long way!
• Shoot the video vertically. Nobody wants a landscape video on a vertical frame.
• Use in-platform tools like sounds, stickers, text, captions, etc.
• Don’t make every video the same! Try different things, different faces, and different formats.

Just because something didn’t work the first time doesn’t mean that nothing ever well, so don’t get discouraged!

Your content should be accurate and unique

This doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes. However, do your best to be transparent about your sources, provide clear bylines, and thoroughly fact check your information. Additionally, unique content rules apply to more than just avoiding plagiarism. This includes all of the following:

• Domains with Limited Original Content
• Fact-Checked Misinformation
• Inauthentic Sharing
• Links to Domains and Pages with High “Click-Gap”
• News Articles Lacking Transparent Authorship
• Posts from Broadly Untrusted News Publishers
• Posts from Pages that Artificially Inflate Their Distribution
• Posts from People Who Hypershare Into Groups
• Unoriginal News Articles

Your content should be safe and in line with community standards

Facebook tries to keep their community safe from shocking content, misinformation about suicide and content that violates (or comes close to violating) community standards. and links to shocking content. Make sure that your content does not get too graphic. You have a responsibility to keep your content safe to protect your audience.

• Content Borderline to the Community Standards
• Content Likely Violating Our Community Standards
• Content Posted by Repeat Violators of Our Policies
• Links to Landing Pages Containing Sexual and/or Shocking Content
• Posts from People Who Likely Have Multiple Accounts
• Posts that Indicate Suspicious Virality
• Unsafe Reporting About Suicide

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