News is hitting Facebook in a major way. The social network just announced the roll out of several design changes meant to showcase trending news in more prominent ways. Even more than that – the new changes now let multiple publishers be showcased for a trending topic!
The results page for a trending topic (the page you land on after clicking on any trending topic) has been entirely redesigned. The new design showcases what different news outlets are writing about a specific topic – displayed in a graphic-friendly carousel. This carousel consists of news stories surrounding a specific topic that have been selected based on engagement popularity & article backlinks. Following the severe criticism Facebook received back in 2016 when they were accused of suppressing conservative news – Facebook made it a point to state that there are no restrictions on who can be displayed within the new carousel.
Here is how the original trending results page looks compared to the new one :
Facebook is clearly making it a point to showcase more than one publisher for a trending topic. A great way for multiple publishers to compete for a specific topic.
Next up is a new design that’s currently in testing phases only. This redesign brings the list of trending topics directly to your Facebook newsfeed by placing the topics underneath your status text box. This obviously offers publishers a tremendous opportunity to be at the top of someone’s newsfeed. As such I am sure that this will end up increasing the amount of attention that news publishers dedicate to Facebook.
Keep your eye out for these changes to your Facebook newsfeed! The redesigned trending topics results page is rolling out for iPhone users right now! Android and desktop users should expect to see the update soon.
Finally, If you are rolling out a news-related website, make sure that Facebook is a key priority for you. Getting your news featured on Facebook is a great source of traffic – and traffic pays the bills when it comes to news!