As you may have read, Mark Zuckerberg announced early this month that he will be changing the way users see their Facebook newsfeed. He explained that the newsfeed algorithm will prioritise “meaningful social interactions” over “relevant content”.
Soon, Facebook will de-prioritse content shared by Facebook pages and prioritise posts from your friends and family instead. So, this means you’ll see your friend’s baby pictures or what they had for dinner at the top of your newsfeed (we’ll let you make up your own mind if that’s a good thing).
Less importance will be put on viral videos or comments your friends have made on a business pages post.
Why is this happening?
Facebook thinks people are getting frustrated with the amount of videos and articles that are shared by popular sites like Buzzfeed and it’s crowding out the updates from your friends and family.
It’s also thought that people are relying on social media outlets for news and as a result reading unverified news or ‘alternative facts’….
So what does this mean for you and small businesses across the country?
The organic (or free) reach from your Facebook page will be reduced to pretty much ZERO!
But this has been happening for a while already, you may have noticed that the reach on your Facebook posts has slowly been decreasing for years…
Unless you’ve been creating good viral content you’ve probably already found that it’s tricky to get your message out there.
So, for most business owners the change won’t be that dramatic.
The real effect will be for businesses who have relied on these viral videos. Think of all the funny cat or cooking videos you see daily. These all rely on organic commenting and sharing which Facebook has now said it will be taking the focus away from.
Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s head of News Feed, explained further:
“The impact will vary from page to page, driven by factors including the type of content they produce and how people interact with it.”
What can you do now?
Still create content
You can still post to your business page but the content you create needs to be collaborative and discussion based. So posts that are simply looking to sell something or asking someone to leave facebook and go to your website won’t be shown.
To create posts that Facebook will now support and potentially show is going to be hard. You’ll need to create content that’s collaborative without directly asking for comments or shares.
Create a group
Facebook will continue to show posts from groups you are a member of in your newsfeed.
So you could create a group to promote your product or service in. However, the problem with groups is they take a long time to manage and moderate and if they aren’t active… they don’t show up on the newsfeed.
Advertise on Facebook
To guarantee people still see your content you can advertise on Facebook.
The potential with with Facebook adverts is endless and I’m sure you’ve heard numerous success stories but beware, without the right content and planning they can quickly put a big dent in your bank balance.
If you’re thinking of advertising on Facebook we’ve created a FREE 3 Step Guide To Help You Plan Out How to Create Your Facebook Post.
We’ve also shared in the guide the exact ad copy we’ve used in successful campaigns and more importantly WHY we’ve used it so you can apply the same techniques for your business.
Too many people go into Facebook advertising blindly and quickly live to regret it, don’t be one of them.
You can download it here: