Facebook is looking for new ways to give users more control over the content they see in their News Feed. Today, the company announced it is testing a new “Keyword Snooze” feature that will allow users to snooze posts with selected keywords or phrases for a 30-day period.
“If you choose to ‘snooze’ a keyword, you won’t see posts in your News Feed containing that exact word or phrase from any person, Page or Group for 30 days,” writes News Feed Product Manager Shruthi Muraleedharan, on Facebook’s news blog.
While organic content from friends, Pages and Groups will be impacted, Facebook confirmed with Marketing Land that the Keyword Snooze feature will not apply to ads in the News Feed.
Since this is still in testing mode, not all users are able to snooze keywords right now. Per the announcement, those who have access to the option will find it in the upper right-hand menu of a post (where the three dots are located).
The feature sounds a lot like Twitter’s “muted words” option — but on Facebook, it will only last 30 days. For some time now, users have had the option to hide posts from individuals and publishers and “snooze” people for 30 days. This is the first time Facebook has played around with letting users hide content that includes specific words or phrases.
Facebook is promoting the feature as a way to prevent TV show, film or sporting event spoilers, but, with the upcoming elections looming, there’s a good chance many will be snoozing more politically charged keywords versus trying to hide “Antman and the Wasp” spoilers.
About The Author
Amy Gesenhues is Third Door Media’s General Assignment Reporter, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs.com, SoftwareCEO.com, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy’s articles.