Note: This was featured as part of our Web Wednesday segment on Charleston’s 105.5 The Bridge with Box in the Morning. You can catch us every Wednesday morning at 8:20 am ET for your dose of social media & digital marketing news. You can listen to the segment below:
It feels like we talk about changes to Facebook’s algorithm at least 6 times each year because they are constantly updating and making improvements to their platform.
And every time they do, it gets harder and harder for businesses to get their posts shown in the news feed.
Sure, that can cause some initial panic. But we want to let you in on a secret: we’re not worried. And no, Facebook isn’t dying. Rest assured, this platform will likely be around for awhile.
But what Mark Zuckerberg is trying to do with this radical new update is “fix” the news feed by showing more posts from your family and friends, and keeping posts from businesses and brands from clogging up the feed. Essentially, he wants to create a happier Facebook user base.
Which, sure, maybe this is a nice change of pace for the average user. But what about those of us using this platform for our businesses? Where do we go from here?
Essentially, you have to be more creative.
Facebook wants you to post engaging content
Want a sure-fire way to get your content into the news feed? Post something that resonates with your audience so much that it drives reactions and comments. Comment-heavy posts (more than just a quick one or two word comment) are what Facebook wants to see from its users–businesses included.
Businesses can’t post generic links to their product pages with a cute caption anymore. It’s time to get creative and share unique and engaging content.
It wants you to create more video
One type of content that’s not losing quite as much traction is video. And that’s because Facebook has made some wild predictions (that may or may not be off base) that their entire news feed will be video in just five years.
And while video content is seeing quite the uptick (and 85% of businesses would like to create more this year) we’re not quite there yet.
So video content is one type of content that the algorithm favors. Especially live video. According to the same study linked above, only 31% of marketers have done a live video broadcast.
Quality over quantity
I’m sure you’ve heard this a million times. We just talked about it in our newsletter that was sent out today.
But it’s true! Quality is so much more important than quantity. You should not be posting just for the sake of posting. That’s not strategic marketing at all!
Instead, you should be putting thought into your content. And if you don’t have the time to post? Skip that day! It’s better to skip a day’s post rather than post something that your audience might not like or want to interact with. Any posts that aren’t receiving engagement is just one more post that could hurt your Page in the algorithm in the long run.
If there were ever a time to hire a marketing agency to work on strategic, creative, and engaging content, it’s now. Contact us today for a free, absolutely no-obligation consultation to see how we can help your business counteract Facebook’s new algorithm.
