Update to the Facebook Newsfeed Algorithm

Facebook has announced an update to its algorithm leading promoted posts to become more visual.
Their goal is to have better and more relevant content sent to the users. This requires richer media to be shared. These include images and videos instead of posts with only links in them.
This was already a common trend identified by a number of people, with images returning a higher click-through-rate than plain text with a link. However, Facebook will now be actively promoting ads and posts with images and videos with an overall goal of showing people more content they want to see.

Above is an example of a Facebook post with the thumbnail preview displayed. These are the type of posts Facebook is looking to now promote. It engages the audience and has an increased click-through-rate when compared to its plain text version.

This is the same post, once the X is clicked. No image, no attractive visuals, and no love from Facebook!
While there is no magic formatting style that will capture all your audience, Facebook’s product manager Chris Turitzin suggested to “use the story type that best fits the message that you want to tell – whether that’s a status, photo, link or video.”
We recommend that you try to include a visual element into each Facebook post you make. This will not only promote your post to your audience and increase your impressions, but hopefully increase your social interactions to lead to conversions.