Chances are, you’ve heard about the changes to Facebook that have recently been announced. Mark Zuckerberg made a statement that 2018 will see the social platform reduce the amount of business, brand and media posts on people’s timelines. He states that there will be a deeper focus from “helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions”. The little amount of public content (i.e. business posts) that will show up on users’ timelines, will be expected to meet a much higher level of engagement. Instead of meaningless videos or photos to browse past, businesses will have to actively strive to start conversations and captivate their audiences.
While it’s still unclear to determine exactly how the algorithm will change, there are ways that businesses can start preparing for the new alterations. Engagement, in Facebook’s terms, is measured by reactions and comments - so each of your posts will need to focus directly on gaining an audience response. That could mean asking more questions, posting about things your audience will have opinions about and of course content that is ‘tag-worthy’. However, it won’t be as easy as ‘baiting’ your viewers. Poorly orchestrated posts that directly encourage comments or tags, can often seem spammy and far from the ‘meaningful social interactions’ that Zuckerberg is aiming to encourage.
Videos will continue to be encouraged by Facebook’s algorithm, with specific focus on live streams. This sort of content is gaining popularity extremely quickly amongst businesses, so you may need to start looking into this if you aren’t already.
One way to ensure your most loyal customers will continue to see your posts is by using the ‘see first’ feature on your Facebook page. When following you, you can encourage them to select this function so that your content will appear first on their timeline. You can post this or verbally encourage them during purchase (if you have a physical storefront). Alternatively, users can also select the ‘get notifications’ function so they will never miss out on your content. Of course, the better your posts, the more likely your audience is to actively engage in these ways.
So, in the most basic sense, the recent Facebook changes will mean that businesses will need to try harder to actively engage audiences, with new content and in new ways. For more information or support with your business’s social media marketing, get in touch with Solute Digital.
#socialmediablog #solutesocialmedia #socialmediacontent #socialmediastrategy #socialmediacompanyauckland #socialmediacompaniesauckland #socialmediacontenthelp #socialmediaagency #socialmediacompany #buyerpersonas #facebookforbuisness #facebookplanning #facebookcontent #facebookstories #facebookexpert #facebookadvertising #facebook #socialmediaconsultant