Meta initially created the Broadly Seen Content material Report back to counter the suggestion that Fb is dominated by controversial and divisive content material, amid experiences that right-wing political posts had been gaining extra traction than anything within the app.

And together with Meta’s efforts to cut back political argument in-stream, there does appear to have been a transparent discount within the prevalence of political-type posts, with the newer Broadly Seen Content material updates exhibiting a variety of light-hearted, humorous posts, versus argumentative updates.

So what’s gaining traction on Fb in 2023?

Largely, Fb customers are taken with a comet that’s set to be seen within the night time sky someday subsequent 12 months, which accounts for 3 of the highest ten most considered referral hyperlinks from the app. There are additionally superstar tales, a report on Netflix cracking down on password sharing – it’s all fairly innocuous stuff, particularly compared to the divisive political debates that after seemingly dominated Fb feeds.

When it comes to essentially the most considered Fb Pages, it’s additionally dominated by viral development posters, recipes and pet clips.

So sure, Fb is just about as you’ll count on – cute cat movies and superstar traits, with political content material nearly non-present amongst its most-viewed lists.

Which, as famous, is just not sudden, on condition that Meta has sought to cut back the presence of political posts, based mostly on suggestions from customers.

Again in January 2021, within the wake of the Capitol Riots, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg defined that:

 “One of many high items of suggestions we’re listening to from our neighborhood proper now’s that individuals don’t need politics and combating to take over their expertise on our providers.”

That sparked Meta’s workforce to re-align its algorithms so as to cut back the attain of political posts, which has since seen a discount in such publicity on Fb. And whereas this push additionally confirmed that some customers do nonetheless need to see political content material in-stream, Meta has clearly taken a step again from this factor, by shifting its algorithmic incentives away from political debate.

As an alternative, Meta’s now emphasizing Reels, and consumption of short-form video within the feed, which has seen general Fb utilization on the rise in current months. But, the secondary impression of that’s that customers are posting fewer unique updates, in favor of consuming video in feed as an alternative – so Fb is de facto changing into extra of an leisure supplier on this context, versus a social community, the place folks look to submit their very own private updates.

That’s additionally mirrored on this stat, which is especially worthy of be aware for social media managers:

“92.3% of the views within the US throughout Q1 2023 didn’t embody a hyperlink to a supply exterior of Fb.”

That determine is on the rise – within the first Broadly Seen Content material report, printed for Q3 2021, 86.5% of the posts considered didn’t embody a hyperlink exterior the app.

The regular rise in views of posts that don’t embody hyperlinks probably correlates with the growing consumption of video content material, and customers partaking in-stream, nevertheless it’s probably additionally led to a major discount in referral site visitors from the app.

So when you needed to know why your Fb site visitors is down, this might nicely be it.

These are some fascinating notes on Fb consumption behaviors, and the way the feed is shifting in keeping with new utilization traits. And whereas the referral site visitors numbers are taking a success because of this, it additionally looks as if a optimistic that divisive political debate is lowering in presence, which may see much less angst and debate general.

Or extra of that dialogue is shifting to personal teams and DMs. Whether or not that may be a greater consequence, I don’t know, nevertheless it’s fascinating to notice the newest Fb shifts nonetheless.

You may learn Meta’s newest Broadly Seen Content material Report right here.