Facebook "Your Algorithm": writing posts the topic ranker can place (Oct 2026)
Topic: on 13 Oct 2026 Meta brought "Your Algorithm" to Facebook. People now type the topics they want more or less of, in their own words, and an LLM-assisted ranker maps posts to those topics. A page with a tiny following needs its posts to land clearly in a topic people choose.
What Meta has published (read in full)
- Meta Newsroom, "Your Algorithm, Your Words" (Oct 2026):
- A Your algorithm space (three-dot menu) where people add and manage topics for Feed and Reels.
- After Interested / Not interested, Facebook may ask follow-up questions, and people can say in their own words what they want more or less of. Recommendations update in real time, within the same session.
- Ranking already reads thousands of signals (likes, comments, watching). Now LLMs combine free-text preferences with those signals.
- The three-dot menu on every post was updated to reach these controls.
- TechCrunch, 13 Oct 2026 (read): Facebook launch on Tuesday 13 Oct. Instagram added Your Algorithm for Reels in Dec 2025 and extended it to Feed/Explore in June 2026. Threads has a related "Dear Algo".
- No practitioner numbers yet. The Facebook feature is two weeks old; we found no before/after reach data from page owners. Anything below is reasoned from the published mechanism, not measured. Our own monthly measurement is the test.
What it changes for a small page (inference, not checked)
- Free-text topics reward posts whose words and visuals clearly say what they are about. An LLM ranker reads captions, on-screen text and probably speech; vague or clever captions are harder to place.
- People can now remove topics in one tap. Off-topic or bait posts risk a "Not interested", and the follow-up may suppress the whole topic for that viewer.
- Niche interests ("Welsh history", "old maps", "medieval villages", "local history Vale of Glamorgan") are now easy for a person to ask for by name. A page that is clearly the source for one niche can be matched to people who never followed it.
How to do it (steps)
- Pick 3 topic phrases people would type, and use them verbatim and consistently: e.g. "Welsh history", "old maps of Wales", "Vale of Glamorgan local history".
- First line of every caption names the topic and the record in plain words ("Welsh history: an 1824 estate survey map of a Vale of Glamorgan farm"). No clickbait openers.
- Burn the topic into on-screen text for Reels (first 2 s) and say it in the narration. The ranker and the viewer both get it.
- Stay on-topic. One page, one niche. Off-niche posts (memes, unrelated news) go elsewhere or not at all; each risks a "Not interested".
- Use series names ("One record, 30 seconds", "Field names of Tŷ Mawr") so posts cluster under one recognisable theme.
- No engagement bait ("comment YES", "tag 3 friends"). It was already demoted, and now viewers can say so in words.
- Measure monthly in Meta Business Suite: reach split followers / non-followers, Reels non-follower plays, "Not interested"/hide counts where shown. Compare the month before 13 Oct with each month after.
How we apply it to Cedwyn
- Low-risk now (wording discipline, no new channel or page): the social workers' caption template gains a fixed first line, "
: . Examples:" - "Welsh history: the 1824 David Stewart estate survey, the first record mention found of Tŷ Mawr."
- "Vale of Glamorgan local history: the family acquired Tŷ Mawr in 1667 (1974 newspapers; ITV News 1988)." This changes how existing posts are worded, not what they say, so it can go to the BIZDEV brief as a caption rule. If the owner treats caption templates as public-facing, it is a PROPOSAL.
- Check the 12 posts queued for 27-29 Oct: each first line names one of the 3 topic phrases; drop or rewrite anything off-niche.
- Add a monthly row to the growth report: FB non-follower reach %, Reels non-follower plays, hides. Baseline = Sep 15 – Oct 12 2026.
- Do not ask followers to "add Welsh history to Your Algorithm". It's unproven, and it reads as bait.
- Public text: no owner name, no banned words, no Bute-era dates.
Sources
- about.fb.com (read, 26 Oct 2026)
- techcrunch.com (read)
- facebook.com (snippet)
Raw Markdown: facebook-your-algorithm-topic-signals.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json