At first glance, social media platforms seem like one of the most organic ways to reach new potential customers and clients. After all, social media pages are free to set up and provide you with an outlet to billions of users across the globe. However, with recent changes to Facebook's news feed announced, there's no doubt that things are changing. Read on to explore a summary of Facebook's proposed changes, how they could affect your business, and what you can do to make the most of your social media marketing strategy.
What's Changing at Facebook?
In the simplest of terms, Facebook seems to be moving away from letting published content dominate users' news feeds and towards a higher prioritization of users' friend updates. This means users will begin seeing fewer posts from pages they like and more posts from friends. Furthermore, for users who don't have many Facebook "friends" or "like" many pages, Facebook is relaxing a bit on their news feed regulations, allowing multiple posts from the same source to show up on a user's feed.
Finally, there will be fewer instances of "random" page likes and comments by friends showing up on users' news feeds. For example, you likely won't be shown a story about a distant friend "liking" a page that you have no interest in.
So, what do these changes mean for business owners and their marketing strategies...?
Increased Need for Relevant Content
First and foremost, producing engaging, relevant, and unique content will be more important for business pages than ever before—especially with Facebook's announcement that they're going to be moving back towards prioritizing friends' posts. In order for your business' page posts to show up on users news feeds, then, they need to remain as relevant and interesting as possible. Otherwise, they won't have as wide of a reach. Not to mention, the more relevant and unique your content, the more likely it is to be shared, which is one of the most organic ways to reach new users and gain new "likes."
Less Opportunity for Organic Reach
Perhaps above all else, however, the "organic" nature of social media seems to be slipping away with this latest Facebook algorithm update. Instead, if businesses want their posts to be seen by the widest possible audience on Facebook, they need to consider viewing the platform as more of an advertising service than a social media site. This means, if you're not already setting aside at least some money to boost the reach of your posts on Facebook, you need to start allocating those funds as soon as possible. Even if your marketing budget is minuscule, you might be surprised at how far even a small amount of money can take you on Facebook.
In fact, Facebook has even recently started offering conversion tracking for business pages that have paid ads and boosted posts—further evidence of them turning into more of an ad platform for businesses.
So What?
No business with a Facebook presence will go unaffected by this algorithm change, so be sure to keep these tips in mind for staying on top of your game.
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