For years, the Facebook algorithm has been something that happens to you. You like a few posts, linger on a video, and suddenly your feed is wall-to-wall air fryer recipes and someone's uncle's caravan.
That's changing. In October, Meta rolled out a feature called Your algorithm, which lets people tell Facebook, in their own words, what they want to see more of in Feed and Reels. Not ticking a box. Typing it.
That's great news if you're fed up with your own feed. It's also a quiet but important shift for anyone posting as a business, because when people start choosing topics, your posts need to be clearly about something.
Let's take both in turn.
What is Facebook's Your algorithm?
Meta announced Your algorithm on 13 October 2026. It's a dedicated space where you can add and manage the topics you want to see in Feed and Reels. You find it through the three-dot menu on any post.
The interesting part is that you can describe what you're into in plain language. Meta says it uses large language models to understand what you mean, and that your recommendations respond straight away, in the same session.
It sits alongside everything Facebook already uses to rank your feed. Meta says its systems use thousands of signals, things like what you like, comment on and watch. Your algorithm doesn't replace those. It adds your own words on top.
Meta also added more ways to give feedback on individual posts, including saying why you don't want to see something, so you can steer away from topics as well as towards them.
If it feels familiar, that's because Instagram got there first. Instagram introduced Your algorithm on Reels in December 2025, and has since carried it into Explore and the main feed. Facebook is the latest app to get it.
How to use Your algorithm to reset your Facebook feed
If you came here because your feed has gone a bit strange, this is the closest thing Facebook has to a reset button.
Open Facebook and find any post in your Feed or Reels.
Tap the three-dot menu on that post.
Choose Your algorithm.
Add the topics you want to see more of. You can type them in your own words, like "small business tips", "Liverpool food and drink" or "beginner running".
Remove or reduce anything you're sick of seeing.
Come back in a few days and tweak it as your interests change.
Can't see it? Meta is rolling it out gradually and hasn't said which countries get it when. Update the app and check again in a few days.
A tip from my own feed: be specific. "Marketing" is huge and vague. "Social media tips for small businesses" tells it far more.
Why this matters if you post as a business
Here's the shift. Until now, Facebook mostly worked out what people liked by watching what they did. Now people can simply say it.
So picture someone typing "home décor ideas" or "local dog-friendly cafés" or "help with my business finances" into Your algorithm. Facebook goes looking for posts that match.
Would your posts turn up?
A lot of small business accounts are full of posts that aren't really about anything. A "happy Monday!" with a nice photo of a mug. A blurry team photo with "busy day!" underneath. A reshared quote. There's nothing wrong with any of those now and again, but when people are choosing topics, a post with no real subject has nothing to match against.
That's the practical change. Being friendly is still good. Being vague is more of a problem than it was.
What to do about it: make every post obviously about something
You don't need a new strategy. You need to be clearer about the one you've got.
Pick three topics you want to be known for. Not ten. Three. A local florist might choose wedding flowers, seasonal arrangements and flower care tips. An accountant might choose tax deadlines, cash flow and running a limited company. Write them down.
Make every post sit clearly in one of them. Check the opening line, the caption and the visual. If a stranger saw the post with no context, would they know what it's about within two seconds?
Use the words your customers would use. People will type Your algorithm topics the way they talk, not the way your industry talks. If your customers say "bookkeeping help" and you say "financial administration solutions", you're harder to match.
Say it in the caption, not just the picture. Facebook can read your words far more reliably than it can guess what your photo means. A caption that names the topic gives it something to work with.
Turn your topics into series. "Flower care Friday" or "Tax tip Tuesday" makes your topic obvious to people and to the algorithm, and it makes your content easier to plan.
Keep it consistent across your profiles. What you say you do in your bio, your About section and your posts should line up. If your page says one thing and your posts say five others, you're giving mixed signals to people and to every algorithm reading them.
If you'd like an outside view on whether your posts are clearly about anything, that's a big part of what we look at in a Social Insight & Content Review.
Does this mean reach will drop?
Not necessarily, and I'd be wary of anyone who tells you it definitely will.
Most people won't open Your algorithm at all. Plenty of features like this get used by a small group of keen people and ignored by everyone else. For most of your audience, Facebook will carry on ranking posts the way it does now, based on what they engage with.
But the direction is clear. Meta is giving people more say, Instagram already has the same controls, and platforms are getting better at understanding what a post is about. Content that's clearly about a topic people care about will do better over time. Content that isn't about anything will keep getting quieter.
So treat this less as a threat and more as a nudge to tidy up something that was worth doing anyway. If your reach has been dropping for a while and you can't work out why, our guide to why your marketing isn't working is a good place to start.
The same thing is happening everywhere
Your algorithm is one example of a bigger pattern. Search engines, AI tools and social apps are all trying to understand what your content is about, so they can match it to what people ask for. The businesses that get found are the ones that are easy to understand.
Meta is also changing things on the paid side. If you run Meta ads, product browsing was switched on in existing sales ads on 28 October, which changes what happens when someone taps your ad. I've covered what it does and how to turn it off in Meta ads update: should you turn off product browsing?
What are your three?
Try it now. Write down the three topics you want your business to be known for, then scroll back through your last ten posts and see how many clearly sit in one of them.
If the answer is "not many", you're not alone, and it's very fixable. If you'd like help pinning down your topics and turning them into a plan you'll actually stick to, get in touch. And if you'd rather work it out alongside other business owners, with someone to ask between sessions, that's what Qrios Minds is for.