Will Your Brand Be Affected By the Facebook Algorithm Change?

On the 11th of January, 2018 Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg made an announcement that would change the way businesses use the social media site. It was announced that Facebook’s algorithm would be changing, shaping the way that we see our News Feeds. He announced that “You’ll see less posts from businesses, brands and media”. Facebook was making the shift in order to create more interactions between people by making sure that content from friends and family was seen first. This would mean that content from business such as organic advertising would be buried at the bottom of the news feed. At Smarter Digital Marketing we specialise in social media marketing. These are some of the ways brands will have to change the way that they use Facebook.

Post Quality, Engaging Content

You should have already been doing this by now. But no time like the present and now it matters more than ever. Zuckerberg has made the point that Facebook will value “meaningful interactions” over everything. This essentially means that comments matter the most. It was also stated that “pages making posts that people don’t react to or comment on could see the biggest distribution. Pages whose posts prompt conversation between friends will see less of an effect”. You – as a brand – now need to focus on creating content that is going to ignite conversations between people. This can be done through talking about relevant topics or including questions in your posts to spark a reaction from the public.

Don’t Beg For Interactions

Trying to deceive this new algorithm won’t work. You may be tempted to put things such as “COMMENT if you like this post” on some of your content. This is not a good idea. Facebook has already said that these type of posts won’t be considered as meaningful reactions. It is also found that audiences don’t like them as well as they find them as off-putting and as spamming their news feed. It’s a double no-no.

Encourage People to Follow Your Page

While it seems to be all change over at Facebook, there is one part of the news feed that is staying. Currently, users have the ability to follow pages that they want to see the content of. If you are smart and don’t push audiences too far then you will be able to encourage people to follow your page. You can even influence the most loyal of customers to “see first” so they prioritise your content. This is about one of the only ways you can get around this new algorithm.

Increase the Advertising Budget

The organic reach that your content gets on social media has been declining for several years now. You should already be using Facebook Ads, as it is a great tool. But if it wasn’t before then it should definitely be a priority now. Businesses that know how to use Facebook ads and target the right audiences will prove much more successful in this new news feed world.

More Live Videos

One thing that Facebook wants more of is videos. They are favoured in the new algorithm because they bring more interaction than posts or photos. Mark Zuckerberg has said, “live videos lead to discussion amongst viewers on Facebook – in fact, live videos on average get six times as many interactions as regular videos”. If you are making and prioritising live videos then you will shoot straight towards the top of that news feed. It is clear that Facebook wants interactions and the best way to do this is by making creative, engaging live videos. It is one of the few airtight examples of content that we know is going to perform well under this new algorithm.