There’s been another nail in the coffin of the Facebook business page this week as the world’s largest social network has announced another change to the algorithm, making it even harder to get posts seen in the news feed.
In its latest announcement, Facebook explained that it will be prioritising friends’ posts over business pages more than ever:
“The goal of News Feed is to show people the stories that are most relevant to them. Today, we’re announcing an update to News Feed that helps you see more posts from your friends and family.” Adam Mosseri, VP, Product Management, News Feed
Businesses have reacted predictably. Fear, panic, dismay.
If posts from friends and family will be weighted more heavily in the news feed, where does that leave posts by business pages?
Facebook is still the king of social media with over 1.6 billion monthly active users, 1 billion of whom log in every single day to catch-up on what’s happening, so ignoring it isn’t an option.
But how can we increase the chances of our posts getting seen by these millions of users?
Here are a few ideas on how to beat the latest Facebook algorithm change:
Turn on notifications
Facebook’s latest algorithm change suggests that Facebook doesn’t expect users to turn to the newsfeed for news. Ironic, I know, given it’s called a “newsfeed”.
But if we’re only seeing posts from friends and family, then we’re missing content from publishers and businesses who are sharing educational, breaking and informative content.
To make sure you catch posts from your favourite publishers, you can manually turn on notifications for your favourite page by clicking the dropdown arrow next to the ‘Like’ button and selecting ‘See first’.
This should ensure that posts from this page show up in your newsfeed.
As a business, you could invite your audience to do the same to make sure they never miss one of your posts.
Be authentic
The feedback we’ve gotten tells us that authentic stories are the ones that resonate most. That’s why we work hard to understand what type of stories and posts people consider genuine — so we can show more of them in News Feed. Adam Mosseri, VP, Product Management, News Feed
So what does this mean for businesses?
Sales posts just aren’t going to cut it – special offers and sales posts will be seen even less than Boris Johnson after an EU Referendum.
People are using Facebook to be entertained, informed, educated or amused, so plan content that’s going to meet these needs.
Use live video
A third of all online activity is spent watching video, 87% of online marketers use video content, and video posts have 135% greater organic reach than photo posts.
But when it’s live, the stats are even more persuasive.
People spend 3x longer watching video which is live compared to video which isn’t live.
I did a how-to post in March showing you how to get started with Facebook live video, and now is the time to start using it before the algorithm changes again and you’ve missed the boat!
Encourage sharing
Nutella is just one of the brands doing a great job of engagement on Facebook – they always seem to find a way to link with national days, however bizarre they may seem – whether it’s National Toast Day, Fathers’ Day, or National Best Friends’ Day:
By inviting their audience to “tag your BFF below” they are generating a massive amount of reach and new views.
Why would you readers tag their friends in your posts? What reason might they want to share your content?
Get some more baskets
You know the risks of putting all your eggs in one basket – if you rely entirely on Facebook for your online marketing than you’re building your business on rented land, and that land could be demolished at any moment.
Instead you need to look outside Facebook – use Facebook to get people to join your email list, then nurture that relationships by sending regular helpful emails that they’re going to enjoy reading.
So before giving up completely on Facebook, consider asking your audience to turn on notifications for your page, post authentic content, use live video, encourage sharing and spread the risk by using other online marketing tools and techniques.
What do you think about the latest changes to the algorithm? How are you rethinking your strategy? Share in the comments below 0r on the Facebook page 😉