Co-founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that users can expect some big changes on the platform in the coming weeks, changing the way it ranks posts in our News Feeds.
In short, posts by Facebook friends will have greater reach and be given higher priority than business pages. If you’re a personal user, you’re probably thinking this change is long overdue. However, if you’re a small business that relies on organic (otherwise known as free or unpaid) posts to reach your audience, you may need to rethink your digital strategy.
With the social platform making a big shift back to social connectivity roots, here are some tips to keep in mind for your business or brand in 2018.
1. Quality over Quantity
There’s never been a bigger reason to focus on quality over quantity with your Facebook posts. Don’t waste your time posting an update every day if no-one is going to see it. Take notice of what has worked in the past, what has generated the most comments and reactions and only continue to post what your followers want to see
2. Engagement
If you haven’t figured out how to create engaging content on Facebook yet, it’s likely these changes will affect you most. More than ever, creating engaging and relevant content for your audience will be increasingly important. Think more deeply about posts that will connect with your community, start conversations between friends or bring people together around a common interest or cause.
3. Effective Advertising
Many businesses have benefited from using Facebook as a free or very low cost tool for building awareness of their products and services, connecting with new customers, sharing company news or getting referral traffic to their website. Learning how to use Facebook advertising effectively will be vital for all businesses – small, medium and large – to reach their intended audience. To keep up with the new changes, businesses will need to consider implementing a budget, if they don’t already, into their digital marketing strategy. This will ensure that your important posts are seen and not lost by the changes to the algorithm.
4. Use Other Platforms
Instagram sits right beside Facebook as an effective platform for digital marketing. Despite being bought out by Facebook in 2012, no changes to Instagram have been mentioned as yet, so this can continue to be used organically as a marketing tool for your business. And don’t ever neglect your good friend, Google. Search still plays one of the most, if not the most, important roles in getting your business found. Maintain your website, keep up your blog posts and continue to optimise your SEO.
5. Don’t Give Up
These changes don’t mean you should close up shop on your Facebook account. Having an online presence is still not only good for your engagement levels, but for your brand trust. Facebook is a great tool for business information and even though these changes will change the way your business is seen in News Feeds, it’s still crucial that you remain active and responsive for current and future customers.
Check out the full article from Facebook here.
