Instant Articles: How authors can have their destination sites & please Facebook’s algorithm too
Isn’t Facebook’s algorithm tweak (i.e. prioritizing “original content” that’s created on-platform & suppressing external links to 3rd party sites) a way to incentivize the use — and proliferation — of its “Instant Articles”?
That’s not to say that the tyranny of the platform is altruistic, but there does seems like some room for authors to maneuver. Although employing Instant Articles is submitting to Facebook’s demands, you get to maintain your own off-platform destination and reclaim good-standing with FB’s algorithm. That seems like it would satisfy you more than the 3 options you, AlexandraSamuel.com, describe.
What I do find interesting is that your data reveal Facebook’s solution to the decline in “original sharing,” which appears to have triggered crisis-mode within the company. Your data suggests that FB tweaked the algorithm so users are conditioned to create content on the FB platform.
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