Facebook Starts Trending and We Like It
Rosi Linda Sanchez | @lindarosilinda
Facebook recently introduced its own version of trending and it’s pretty good! Unlike Twitter’s trending topics, Facebook makes its trending personal. Twitter’s trending topics are about what everyone is talking about everywhere. You probably don’t care about what strangers are talking about in other cities, so Facebook improvised trending and made it just for you and your friends, what you like and where you live, this is how Facebook makes trending personal.
Facebook’s trending shows a range of topics in the top right corner of your news feed. A news feed is all about conversations, but up until now you weren’t able to see what conversations were the most interesting on Facebook. Facebook personalizes the content based on what you have shown interest in.
Trending topics are automatically generated when there is a sudden increase in updates across the social network, much like Twitter’s trending. Facebook’s trending, however, will show different topics for every person on the network.
Chris Stuhar, a software engineer at Facebook who works on the site's news feed, said the feature is designed to uncover the most interesting content across the site and fits into the company's broader effort to make Facebook "your personal newspaper."
Here is a breakdown on how Facebook makes it personal: You and your friend Sara like the Real Housewives of Atlanta’s page. Every Sunday night when there is a catfight/hair pulling scene it will show up on your page as well as Sara’s page as "trending." This will only show up as trending to individuals who liked The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Your guy friends who don’t watch any housewives show will get trending updates according to what they like, such as football games, UFC fighter updates, and so on. Facebook has made trending personal by trending accordingly to each one of its users. This also means that Facebook trending is a great channel to reach specific target audiences.
What trending means for businesses is that businesses will be able to see what their audience/following are trending about. This can help brands and businesses get personal with their consumers and be able to monitor the conversations being had about their brand. What could be even better for businesses is their ability to see if their services and products are trending. According to Josh Constine, if Facebook users find the "trending" section atop the right sidebar of their homepage useful, it could encourage public sharing, drive return visits, and most importantly — make Facebook better known as a news source for current events.