Laura Donovan — January 12, 2018 — January 12, 2018
PublicDomainPictures / Pixabay
Facebook has announced a change to the News Feed and publishers, marketers, and businesses are concerned.
As explained in a blog post by Adam Mosseri, Head of News Feed in a Facebook Newsroom update, “Facebook was built to bring people closer together and build relationships” the News Feed will now focus on connecting users to more meaningful posts from friends and family.
This change may create some drastic changes in Business Page updates, causing a bit of a panic.
The Update
Facebook will begin to prioritize updates that “spark conversations and meaningful interaction between people.” The change will begin to predict which updates users would want to interact with and will show these updates higher in the users’ Feed.
At its best, Facebook has always been about personal connections. By focusing on bringing people closer together — whether it’s with family and friends, or around important moments in the world — we can help make sure that Facebook is time well spent.
The Fight for News Feed Real Estate is Harder
Space in the News Feed was limited to begin with, in the past Facebook tweaked its algorithm to bump content from friends and family to the front of the line, though still implementing the ranking of interest, showing users content that would be of most interest to them. Thus, if Facebook saw behavior toward a certain topic it would rank any updates in relation to that topic and place it in the users’ News Feed.
Business Pages had to create content that would meet these criteria, if they provided content that seemed of interest the update would make it into the News Feed.
However, this update goes a step further. Facebook explains that it will rank updates that “inspire back-and-forth discussion in the comments and posts you might want to share and react to.”
“As we make these updates, Pages may see their reach, video watch time and referral traffic decrease. The impact will vary from Page to Page, driven by factors including the type of content they produce and how people interact with it. Pages making posts that people generally don’t react to or comment on could see the biggest decreases in distribution. Pages whose posts prompt conversations between friends will see less of an effect.”
What Can Business Pages Do?
People who want to see Business updates will still see updates from the Pages they follow. By simply interacting with the content posted or by designating the Page content as “See First” in their News Feed Preferences.
Additionally, Page updates that inspire conversation will still show higher in the News Feed. One of the best ways to ensure your content shows higher is to do a live video. Facebook Live Video “averages 6 times as many interactions as regular videos.”
Local Businesses will continue to connect with their followers and communities “by posting relevant updates and creating events.” As well as creating content that will start conversation on important issues.
10 Tips for Business Pages
1. Curate and create informational content.
2. Curate and create inspiring content.
3. Post high-quality, interesting, visually appealing content.
4. Encourage engagement.
5. Do Facebook Live Video.
6. Start a conversation with followers.
7. Create and manage a Facebook Group.
8. Post updates consistently.
9. Monitor Page for Comments and respond.
10. Increase advertising budget.
Businesses Must be Diligent
Facebook is still the top Social Media site. Marketing and advertising on the site is still the best way to reach a large amount of people and to reach a very specific targeted audience. This is not the time to throw in the towel.
Businesses may see their engagement or traffic decrease initially, this means it’s time to step up your efforts and create top-notch marketing campaigns.
Mosseri explains, “as we make these updates, Pages may see their reach, video watch time and referral traffic decrease. The impact will vary from Page to Page, driven by factors including the type of content they produce and how people interact with it. Pages making posts that people generally don’t react to or comment on could see the biggest decreases in distribution. Pages whose posts prompt conversations between friends will see less of an effect.”
See more from Mosseri and Zuckerberg about this update on the Facebook Newsroom Blog.
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