Facebook announced a brand new update to users News Feed algorithm that has shocked brands on Facebook. Brands who solely rely on posting organic content need to take note and change their strategy immediately in order to retain their audience and engagement numbers.
Here is exactly what Facebook is doing, and how brands can actually benefit from the new changes!
What is new?
In summary, Facebook is focusing your news feed to show more content from friends and family rather than content from brands and publishers. Their mission is to make interactions on Facebook more meaningful.
Here’s how:
“To do this, we will predict which posts you might want to interact with your friends about, and show these posts higher in the feed. These are posts that inspire back-and-forth discussion in the comments and posts that you might want to share and react to – whether that’s a post from a friend seeking advice, a friend asking for recommendations for a trip, or a news article or video prompting lots of discussion.”
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, made his own announcement on Facebook that outlines is 2018 goals.
This announcement goes hand-in-hand with Zuckerberg's new year's resolution to fix the issues that have come to light from this past election, and make the user experience more enjoyable on the social network.
What your business page should do.
Limit Frequency
Something that we have been pushing brands to do is limiting the content that they publish on Facebook. Hourly/daily posts on Facebook have already been limited by a previous algorithm change, but this new update is the game changer. There is no reason to just post for the sake of posting. Your content needs to be HIGH QUALITY and ENGAGING. Frequency does not trump quality.
These are the types of posts that will show higher in your news feed:
- Content that generates a conversation in the comments
- LIVE content (live videos on average get six times as many interactions as regular videos)
- Video posts
- Facebook Group content
- Events
- News
Stop Engagement Baiting
Asking users to Like, Comment, or Share posts are now a thing of the past. Facebook limits the reach for any post that asks users to take immediate action. Check out our latest blog for more information regarding the engagement baiting update.
Paid Advertising
BRANDS NEED TO STOP ORGANICALLY POSTING. The competition is stronger than ever to get organic attention. Your social strategy needs to allocate a portion of the budget to paid advertising on social media, or else you are going to waste your time and your content calendar. This has been important for brands for quite a while now, but it is even more important now.
Why this is a good thing for brands:
Facebook isn't saying that Business Pages can no longer participate on the News Feed, they just want to enhance their user experience. Facebook recently conducted a study it published last month, which found that people who aimlessly scroll through News Feed without interacting with the stuff that they see walked away feeling crummy.
The changes rolling out now are intended to encourage people to interact, which would theoretically help them walk away feeling less crummy."
Brands do NOT want to make their audience feel crummy. So this is a challenge to brands to reinvigorate their content strategy and creativity.
The change will make Facebook a more enjoyable place, and therefore increase the lifespan of the social platform.
Your Comments :