Social media networks started as a way to easily communicate with your friends or meet people online. It then transpired into a labyrinth that has been reduced to getting the most shares and likes and it can be quite annoying.
This also happens on the world’s biggest social network, Facebook. The company says that people have told them that they don’t like spammy posts that implore them to like, share or comment. They go like “Like this if you’re an Aries!”
“This tactic, known as “engagement bait,” seeks to take advantage of our News Feed algorithm by boosting engagement in order to get greater reach,” Facebook explained.
To counter this, Facebook says that starting this week, they will begin demoting posts from people and Pages that use engagement bait.
Facebook has been able to do this by coming up with a machine learning model that was developed from hundreds of thousands of posts that can detect different types of engagement bait. The different kinds of engagement baits include vote baiting, react baiting and share baiting.
They will also employ strict demotions for Pages that repeatedly use engagement bait to gain reach in the News Feed, which will be implemented in the next several weeks.
However, Facebook has pointed out that people who ask for help, advice or recommendations will not be adversely impacted by this update.
Facebook has been on a roll trying to improve the quality of posts you see on the News Feed. They have had efforts to demote clickbaity headlines and links to low quality web experiences, which is good for the overall health of the posts we see on the News Feed.
