With engagement on Meta’s apps appearing to be declining according to various reports, it’s increasingly keen to cash in on its profits wherever it can, which is why it’s introducing a new way to drive more engagement via a new community chat option Promoting Facebook Groups facilitates topic-based discussion groups within Messenger.
As you can see in these examples, community chats launched today for testing with a limited number of users will allow people to create a Facebook group, start chats and audio channels and invite others to join your new group, all from Messenger.
As explained by Meta:
“The experience seamlessly connects Messenger and Facebook groups so people can connect when, where, and how they want. Admins can now start a conversation on a topic and get replies right away instead of waiting for others to comment on a post. And instead of navigating through multiple topics in a single Messenger group chat, the person creating the community chat can organize chats into categories so group members can easily find what’s most interesting to them.”
So they’re Facebook groups, but in Messenger instead, which could encourage more immediate interaction and discussion around your top interests.
If people really want that. For the most part, it seems that people would probably prefer to keep those two elements separate – you visit Facebook groups to catch up on the latest updates, while your messaging groups are for your closer friends and family. Some group members are probably already branching out into Messenger and WhatsApp chats too – but I’m not sure if a direct linking feature is needed in that regard.
However, Meta is sure it can drive more engagement by capitalizing on the rising trend of people sharing more in private discussions.
As explained by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg:
“Most people use feeds to discover content and use messaging for deeper connections. We are developing community chats as a new way to connect with people who share your interests.”
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri recently remarked the same thing:
Friends post a lot more in Stories and send a lot more DMs than they post in Feed. If you want to make sure you don’t miss a friend’s feed post, add them to your favorites and they’ll be featured at the top.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) July 26, 2022
Meta is attempting to use this as leverage to fundamentally change its approach, migrating users from a feed of content driven by their social graph — i.e. the updates they’ve specifically chosen to see in each app by following and liking people and Pages. to one based more on popular, trending content in related fields.
That’s why your Facebook and IG feeds are now filled with content from sites you’ve never heard of – Meta seeks to replicate TikTok’s entertainment-centric content approach, allowing it to highlight the most popular trending content from across the app, not limited by your connections to maximize user time spent.
Meta seems to think it can get people to spend more time in its apps if done right – although early feedback suggests this isn’t working as users become less connected to these increasingly unfamiliar content feeds feel.
Because that’s not what Facebook and Instagram are for, they’ve built their apps on personal input, showing you content posted by friends and family. Meta says people are posting less on the main feed, but it’s also worth noting that Meta already has an algorithm to sort your feeds because there’s too much to show based on your chosen follows.
So maybe instead of just cramming more stuff in, it could just dump the algorithm instead?
Meta started its feed algorithm on Facebook based on the fact that people had liked and followed too many other people and Pages, which meant there was just too much content to show them each day . So it had to be sorted and the best posts highlighted – resulting in a lot of people missing out on content they wanted to see because the algorithm started prioritizing different posts based on engagement.
But when people stop sharing as much with the feed, then there is no need for feed algorithms.
Of course, Meta isn’t getting rid of its algorithms because the data shows that algorithmic sorting increases user retention. Instead, it’s chosen to clutter your feeds with more junk, making it harder to see all the posts from profiles you actually want to follow – because Meta thinks it can show you stuff you really want to see. Whether you know it or not.
Because that’s what TikTok does — but Meta hasn’t found a recipe for success on that front yet.
But people still engage in groups and in DMs, so Meta is now trying to figure out a way to boost those elements instead, hoping to shore up the declining time spent stats.
It will not work. It’s a silly idea that adds next to nothing to the group or messenger experience, but Meta is trying to present it as some sort of major improvement in engagement.
“Admins can start a chat for group members on a specific topic, e.g event chat for an outing or meeting, a View-only broadcast chat for admins to announce group-wide updates and a Chat for admins only to collaborate with administrators and moderators. Administrators can also create audio channels So group members can share live comments or get real-time support.”
You could already do all of this in a variety of ways without a direct button, so it doesn’t really add anything other than a means for meta to hopefully increase engagement.
Honestly, this reeks of desperation. Again, Meta’s engagement numbers are down, and even Reels, its big hope of negating TikTok, is now losing ground.
In a way, Zuck’s focus on the Metaverse seems to have distracted the company from the now — though Meta really couldn’t do much about the engagement it’s losing to TikTok, which is focused on entertainment rather than social connections.
According to Meta, people aren’t using its apps for socializing like they used to, and when they’re looking for entertainment instead, Meta is way behind TikTok and YouTube.
For years, Meta’s key market advantage has been its social graph — everyone is connected to everyone on Facebook, and Instagram offers another way to keep in touch with friends and family.
When that element isn’t as engaging as it used to be, Meta loses. And no amount of recalibration of the approach will correct this.
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