Facebook is giving people a new way to tell its algorithm what they actually want to see.
On October 13, 2026, Meta introduced Your Algorithm to Facebook Feed and Reels. Instead of relying only on what people watch, skip or interact with, the feature lets them type what they want to see more of and what they’d rather see less of.
Meta says the feature is rolling out, so it may not be available to everyone yet.
For an El Paso business page, there’s a question worth asking. If a potential customer tells Facebook what interests them, would the words in your posts make it clear that your business fits?
We don’t know whether this update will help business pages reach more people. But we do think it gives owners a good reason to look closely at how they describe what they sell.
What Facebook’s Your Algorithm feature actually does
Meta says people can describe their interests in everyday language. Someone who taps Interested or Not interested on a post may also get follow-up questions asking why.
Want to look for the feature yourself? Check the three-dot menu on Facebook for the Your Algorithm option.
The changes apply to both Feed and Reels. TechCrunch reports that recommendations can update in real time, while Meta says they can adapt within the same session.
The feature first appeared on Instagram. As The Verge explains, its expansion to Facebook also involves more use of large language models in content ranking.
Meta says those models help its systems understand the interests, context and intent behind what people type.
There’s an important limit to what we know.
Meta hasn’t said whether these typed preferences change how ads are delivered. It also hasn’t promised better organic reach for business pages. PPC Land notes that Meta’s announcement provides no figures.
So we’re not treating this as a secret trick to get more views. What follows is our take on making posts clearer, not a claim about how Facebook will rank them.
Why clear Facebook posts may matter more now
Imagine two Facebook posts from a bakery.
One says:
“Happy Thursday! 😊”
The other says:
“Fresh conchas out of the oven this morning in Northeast El Paso.”
Which one tells you more?
The second post names the product, gives it context and tells the reader where it’s relevant. You don’t have to guess what the business is talking about.
Here’s our thinking. If Facebook is using language models to understand what people want, posts that clearly name their topics may be easier for those systems to match with someone’s interests.
That’s a reasonable possibility, not a confirmed ranking advantage.
Even if the update changes nothing about your page’s reach, clear posts still make sense for the people reading them.
Choose three to five topics your El Paso customers would actually use
Small-business owners know their services inside and out. Sometimes that familiarity makes it easy to write like a business instead of like a customer.
Think about a hypothetical tire and alignment shop on El Paso’s east side.
The owner might call the business an “automotive solutions provider.” But someone looking for help is probably thinking about something more specific:
- Used tires
- Flat tire repair
- Alignment before driving to Las Cruces
Or picture a made-up nail salon near UTEP. Its customers may be thinking about gel nails, quinceañera nails or a walk-in manicure, not the broader phrase “beauty services.”
Those are the words worth paying attention to.
Choose three to five topics that reflect what people actually come to your business for. Use them consistently so someone visiting your page can quickly understand what you offer.
And if your customers come from both sides of the border, think about language too. Some topics might sound more natural in Spanish. Others might work better in English.
Use the words your customers would use, not just the ones that look good in a marketing presentation.
Put the topic in your Facebook caption and Reel hook
You don’t need a complicated formula for this.
Start with the first line of your caption. If someone only reads that sentence, can they tell what the post is about?
For Reels, make the topic clear in the first few seconds. Say it out loud and include it in the on-screen text.
For example:
“Here’s how we patch a nail in your tire while you wait.”
The caption can reinforce the same idea using slightly different words.
You don’t need to repeat the same phrase five times or force keywords into every sentence. Just make the subject easy to recognize.
A clear opening also helps people decide whether to keep watching, ask a question or move on.
Get your Facebook business page ready for the 2026 holidays
Black Friday is Friday, November 27, 2026. Small Business Saturday follows on November 28, and Cyber Monday falls on November 30.
That gives El Paso business owners a few weeks to look over their pages before holiday promotions begin filling the feed.
Start with two places people may check when they visit your page: your About section and your pinned post.
Do they explain what you actually offer? Are you using the same words your customers would use to describe those products or services?
Next, scroll through your posts from the past month.
Some will be easy to understand without any background knowledge. Others might make perfect sense to your staff but leave a stranger wondering what you’re advertising.
Those unclear posts show you where there’s room to improve.
When planning holiday content, name the product or service and make the location relevant when it helps.
For example:
“Gel nail specials this Small Business Saturday on Mesa Street.”
That gives someone a specific reason to pay attention.
“Big deals coming soon!” doesn’t offer nearly as much information.
You can still be playful or build anticipation. Just give people enough context to understand why the post matters to them.
Four Facebook posting habits worth dropping
We see a few common approaches that can make otherwise useful posts harder to understand.
- Mystery teasers. “Something exciting is coming…” doesn’t mean much without a hint about the product or service.
- Image-only information. If every useful detail is buried in a graphic and the caption is one emoji, the written post tells people very little.
- Generic holiday greetings. A post that could come from any business in any city misses a chance to say something specific.
- Inside jokes without context. Your staff might understand the reference immediately. A new customer probably won’t.
You don’t have to eliminate personality from your posts. Personality is part of what makes a local business memorable.
Just make sure the person seeing your content understands what you’re talking about.
And remember, getting someone’s attention isn’t the same as earning their business. We covered that next step in our guide to turning social media followers into customers.
Test clearer Facebook captions on your own page
You can try this without changing your entire content strategy.
Pick a post you were already planning to publish.
Write two opening lines. Make one vague, then write another that names the product, service or topic in the words your customers would use.
Publish the clearer version.
Keep that approach going for the next couple of weeks. Then compare comments, shares and messages with similar posts you published before.
Don’t treat one good post as proof that Facebook’s algorithm prefers your new wording.
There are too many things you can’t see about how Facebook distributes content, and a good week could simply be luck.
What you can learn is whether clearer captions are practical for your business and whether your audience responds to them.
That’s useful information regardless of how Your Algorithm develops.
If you’re looking at your Facebook page and wondering which topics deserve more attention, take a look at how we help businesses with social media and content. We can help you make those topics easier for customers to recognize.