New data (by SimilarWeb) shows that Facebook traffic is declining for many publishers who may have been looking to the platform to increase readership and reach.
SimilarWeb looked at the performance of 300 of the biggest publishers on the platform during the first quarter of 2016 – comparing the data with the same period in 2015. Its data was collected before algorithm changes made by Facebook which will reduce the amount of publisher content showing in news feeds, suggesting that the decline, for some at least, will continue.
139 of the top 300 publishers experienced a decline in Facebook traffic. The losers included Huffington Post (Facebook traffic down 44%); Time.com (down 33%); Mashable(down 17%); Buzzfeed (down 11.5%); and the New York Times (down 10%).
Some publishers however were experiencing large increases (e.g. Vice's Facebook traffic was up 31%; and CNN's increased by 14%).
Additional research supports SimilarWeb’s findings. SocialFlow released data in June 2016 showing that the average reach of a Facebook story had fallen from 117,000 at the beginning of 2016 to just 68,000 by May.
Source: Media Post.