They’re all at it this week!
Firstly Google with their mobile algorithm update and now Facebook’s algorithm change to make posts from your Facebook friends more prominent. Always keeping us on our toes!
Facebook’s latest blog post hints at News Feeds becoming more personalised to you, as in, you’ll see a lot more of what your friends are doing and less of what brands want you to see…
According to Facebook, “Referral to media publishers from Facebook has more than doubled in the 18 months”, and they’re exploring more ways in which to optimise the consumption of these posts.
‘‘We’re committed to helping publishers find the right audience for their content’’…
This is completely understandable, Facebook is after all a social media platform and sometimes it can seem to be more like an online magazine with adverts popping up all over the place from brands you’re not really interested in, so they're changing it up!
From today, you’ll notice three changes on Facebook. FYI – these changes are based on News Feed reviews from Facebook users.
- If you don’t have a lot of content to view, you’ll now be able to view numerous posts from the same source consecutively. Facebook previously had a rule in place where you weren’t able to view multiple content from the same source. This rule is now relaxed so News Feeds that are fairly content free can see more.
- Posts from friends will appear more regularly. Content published by people you interact with will appear higher up in the News Feed. They have also mentioned that brands you interact with will still appear but your feed will be more balanced.
- The third update will reduce and even remove the posts you see where your friends have liked and commented on a status.
This means a number of things for business pages. It’s going to be harder to grow your brand’s audience with friend posts taking preference and with the update where the audience is now unable to see what their friends have liked and commented on.
Posts are going to have to work much harder to engage with the audience and posts need to become more targeted to hit the right people. Facebook has hinted that the best way to deal with these changes is to follow their ‘Page Posting Tips and Best Practices’.
Here’s a quick rundown for you but read the full best practice guide here:
- Post consistently – quality, types and timings of your posts matter
- Target your posts – use the new targeting feature when posting from Facebook
- Keep it fresh – post relevant updates and respond to your audience ASAP
- Boost posts – promote posts which will drive traffic to your website
- Create Ads – promote exclusive offers for Facebook fans; Flash Sale
- Connect creatively – quality imagery and content will interest your audience
- Review – refine your posts to suit your most engaged audience
We are well aware that Facebook changes it's algorithms almost as much as Lady Gaga changes her wigs so it's really important that businesses learn to evolve with it!
Do you need a hand with your social media strategy? Give us a call and we’d be delighted to help you achieve the results you want.
