Facebook already suggests pages to members based on the pages that their friends are engaging with in their network. But today, Facebook is now helping new members curate their interests as soon as they join the network. Now, any new member will see a list of Pages that other people in a similar demographic to them also commonly like.
Facebook says that it will only suggest Pages of people and organizations that are actually seeing engagement on the network. The new feature is powered by an algorithm, assures Facebook engineer Ziqing Mao, so the suggestions are not sponsored. It’s also unclear what demographic considerations Facebook is evaluating when making suggestions to new members.
Unsurprisingly, the new feature resembles a functionality on Twitter. It’s similar in theory to Twitter’s suggested user list, which shows a list of suggested users to follow based on topic. Like Facebook’s pages suggestions, Twitter’s suggestions are based on an algorithm that determines who users are engaging with on the microblogging network. And on Facebook’s suggested list, you can choose to like all of the suggestions
Twitter’s Suggested User List hasbeen controversial, because it guaranteed anyone on it hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers. Facebook’s new feature is expected to have the same effect. In January, Twitter actually changed its suggested user list format from just a list of users to suggestions based on topic. This could be something that Facebook might explore in the future to make suggestions of Pages more streamlined (and less random) for users.