Facebook's Your algorithm lets people tell Feed what they want in their own words. What a business Page should change

On 13 October 2026 Meta started handing Facebook users a text box for the algorithm.

The Meta newsroom post calls it Your algorithm. People "can directly add and manage the topics you want to see in Feed and Reels," and it sits in the three-dot menu on every post.

That menu is the same one sitting under your Page's posts.

So a viewer who scrolls past your reel can now tell Facebook why, in a sentence, and Meta says "your recommendations will update in real time."

Here is the complication. Meta's post says nothing about what a Page sees when that happens. No report, no count, no notice.

You get the effect without the reason.

Step 1: Read what changed, in Meta's words

Three things shipped together, by the newsroom post.

1. Your algorithm. A place to add and manage topics for Feed and Reels, found in the three-dot menu.
2. Follow-up questions. After someone taps Interested or Not interested, Facebook "may ask follow up questions for more detail on what you liked or disliked."
3. A new three-dot menu. Meta says it was redesigned "to make it easier to access these new customization tools."

And the part that matters for reach: Meta says large language models now let ranking read "the interests, context, and intent behind natural language," adapting "within the same session."

So feedback used to be a tap. Now it is a sentence the ranking system reads.

Step 2: Accept that your Page is filed under a topic

A viewer does not type "less from Joe's Plumbing." They type something like "less home improvement" or "more cooking."

Your Page lives or dies inside those words.

If your posts jump between a product demo, a meme, a team birthday and a holiday greeting, there is no single topic a viewer can ask for more of. There are four topics they can ask for less of.

This is where most business Pages are exposed. They were built to fill a calendar, not to be about something.

Think about how the follow-up question works from the viewer's side. They tap Not interested on your post, and Facebook asks what they meant.

Whatever they type describes your post to the ranking system. If the post was clear, they will name its topic and you lose one viewer who never wanted it.

But if the post was muddled, they will reach for whatever word is nearest. And the nearest word may be the very topic you want to be known for.

So the risk is not one lost viewer. It is being described badly by the people who scrolled past.

Step 3: Pick one topic and say it out loud

This is the contrarian part.

Post less variety.

The old advice was to mix formats and themes so the Page never felt repetitive. With Your algorithm, variety is a liability, because every off-topic post is a fresh chance for someone to tell Facebook they want less of it.

So write down the one topic your Page is for, in the words a customer would type. Not your brand line. The search a stranger would make.

Then hold every post against it. If a post does not belong to that topic, it goes to Stories, to the team's personal profiles, or nowhere.

When VALORAE Media takes over a client's Facebook Page, this is the first document we write, before a single post goes out. It is one sentence long and it decides most of what follows.

Step 4: Put the topic in the first line, the first frame and the caption

Meta says ranking now reads intent "behind natural language." We don't know exactly which parts of a post it reads to match a viewer's words.

So make the topic impossible to miss everywhere.

• First line of the caption. Name the topic in plain words, the way the viewer would.
• First frame of the reel. On-screen text that says what the video is about before anyone hears a word.
• Spoken line. Say the topic early, in the first spoken line.

This is boring work. It is also the cheapest change on this list, and it costs nothing to do on the next post.

Short-form has run on this rule for a while. VALORAE Arc, the group's clipping agency for podcasts and founders, has delivered 500+ videos and writes every hook so a stranger gets the subject in the opening seconds, because that is the one part of a clip every viewer tests.

Step 5: Stop fighting the people who said no

Someone who types "no more sales posts" has told Facebook something true about themselves.

You cannot win them back with a cleverer sales post. You can only stop sending them signals that you are a sales Page.

And here is the undercut. We don't know how much weight one person's sentence carries, or whether it spreads beyond that person's own Feed. Meta's post describes a personal control, not a Page penalty.

So treat this as a slow drift, not a cliff. Expect reach to non-followers to shift over weeks as more people use the control.

Step 6: Measure the one number you can see

You cannot see the feedback. You can see what happens after it.

Open Professional dashboard or Meta Business Suite and track reach from people who don't follow the Page, post by post, grouped by topic.

Then compare. If posts on your core topic hold their reach and the off-topic ones fall, you have your answer without Meta ever telling you why.

Write the date of each change you make next to the numbers. On 13 October 2026 the ranking system changed under you, so anything before that date is a different baseline.

Keep that log in writing, because a month later nobody remembers which week the caption style changed.

Step 7: Check the claim before you rebuild the Page

Every Meta launch arrives with a wave of posts saying the algorithm is now dead, or rigged, or reset.

Read the source before you react. The group runs four checks on every platform announcement before any VALORAE blog quotes it, and the newsroom post is the only thing this one rests on.

Meta's post, read again on 6 November 2026, still says "rolling out." That means not every user has it yet, and your audience may get it later than you do.

So there is no reason to delete old posts or rename the Page this week. Tighten the topic, fix the first lines, and watch the numbers.

The short version

• Read Meta's 13 October 2026 newsroom post before anything written about it.
• Write the one topic your Page is for, in a customer's words.
• Move off-topic posts to Stories or personal profiles.
• Name the topic in the first caption line, first frame and first spoken line.
• Track non-follower reach by topic, with the date of each change.
• Leave the Page structure alone until the numbers say otherwise.

This is the kind of Page work VALORAE Media does every week at valoraemedia.com.