Every digital platform is constantly changing, it is sometimes difficult to keep up. Think back to 2004 when Facebook was first launched and only used by college students. Most of us did not have the internet fully integrated into our lives until the smartphone age began. Now, even looking at our smartphone app updates, you’ll see your most used applications have updated in the last week.  Everything around us is rapidly changing to better serve users and improve the services provided by companies such as Facebook.

What Is ‘See First’?
The newest feature “See First” is definitely something to check out. Simply put, it is Facebook’s way of optimizing every users news feed and ensuring they see what they want to see at the top of their news feed. If you sign onto Facebook and are not interested in anything on your news feed, you will most likely not be inclined to sign on and browse again. Facebook’s job is to give users an exceptional experience.

Users can navigate into their News Feed Settings and select Pages, friends, or public figures’ profiles and add them to their “See First” list. This means those special, select few post to Facebook will always show up on the top of your news feed, guaranteed.

The Echelon Above Likes 
There are several ways to look at this. Let’s be optimistic first.

If a page is added to someone’s See First list, it is guaranteed that every single post will be seen. This makes boosts, engagement levels and quality of the posts irrelevant.  Did you know that Facebook uses roughly 100,000 metrics to formulate what shows up on your news feed?  This includes your personal interests, post performance (or ‘relevance score”), overall performance, type of post and relebance as the main metrics.

Whether you’re advertising for a business, running their social campaign, or running your own for your business, optimizing these metrics will not matter if you are on someone’s See First list.  Once you’re on their list, you’re essentially asking to see everything they see – a huge compliment to your brand!  Secondly, for sales opportunities on Facebook, many times the advertisement gets hidden among many other posts within a news feed. Now the viewer will see all of your posts, whether trying to sell something or not, if you are part of their ‘VIP list’.  This can drastically reduce your advertising costs to reach your followers.

On another, yet more obvious note, it seems very difficult to get on this exclusive list. It is simple to hit the ‘Like’ button on a Facebook page. If you choose to like something, there is really no commitment. You may see posts from this page depending on how Facebook decides to deliver it to you. Now, with the See First feature, liking a page and having the option to add it to the See First list is an adjustment to someone’s news feed. The posts will no longer be scattered throughout. They will be, well…seen first!

Growing Possibilities 
Facebook has countless, effective tools to make your Facebook presence outstanding. The features are only evolving and the opportunities are infinite. It is a matter of exploring and testing what the features can do for you and your business. Stay tuned for what the See First feature will bring, and beyond.

How do you feel about the evolution of Facebook? What is your experience with See First?