For years, Facebook has been an excellent and cost-effective way to extend the reach of your brand and draw new clients to your company. Recently, however, many pages have noticed their overall reach has been dropping and many of the people who have chosen to follow their pages simply aren’t seeing their posts as often as they used to, regardless of how often they post. This isn’t by accident. Facebook has been polling users for the last couple of years and asking them what they prefer to see in their newsfeeds. The overall consensus is that Facebook users want to see more posts from friends and family and fewer posts from businesses, groups, and other pages.
In a recent post, Facebook announced that it will increasingly prioritize posts shared by friends and family over those from businesses, groups, brands, and other pages. This leaves page users with many questions: namely, how will this affect marketing efforts? And, should I even continue to post to Facebook? Here are some of the ways this new algorithm will likely affect your pages and how to make the most out of the new Facebook landscape.
Overall Organic Reach Will Decrease
This is something that you might already be noticing in your Facebook insights. With Facebook prioritizing posts from family and friends, posts from pages will be less and less likely to wind up in users news feeds organically. In particular, posts that are overly promotional in nature (this does not include paid boosts or ads) make your reach go down to less than 1.6%. Promotional posts would include:
- Posts created solely to push people to buy a product
- Posts that include calls to action (click here, buy now, etc.)
- Posts that promote giveaways or contests
- Posts that re-use the same content from ads
Paid Ads and Post Boosts Will Become Increasingly Important
While organic reach may be falling, boosted posts and other Facebook ads will still be threaded into users’ news feeds. The good news here is that Facebook ads have always been a very low-cost way to garner attention to your Facebook page, website, landing pages, etc. You can spend as little as a dollar a day to actively advertise on Facebook and stay in front of your audience.
The Type of Content You Share Will Matter Even More
Visual content – engaging images, videos, etc. – has always garnered more attention, and will likely continue to do so. Some of the most successful content we create for our own page is highly visual and features inspiring messages.
It will be important to experiment with different types of content — some visual, some text, a mixture of both, links, videos, etc. to find the right mix to generate engagement with your audience. Be consistent and you’ll generate growth, but more importantly, your target audience will get real value from your effort.
Facebook Will Remain an Important Space for Small Businesses
The average Facebook user checks Facebook between 11-15 times a day, and 60% of consumers say they visit a company’s Facebook page before visiting their website or location. 80% of consumers are more inclined to purchase from you if they find a Facebook page associated with your business, and 62% say Facebook is the most important and useful channel to research small local businesses. With so many consumers consulting Facebook before purchasing from companies, it remains important to keep your Facebook pages active and up-to-date. After all, you wouldn’t want a potential client landing on a Facebook page that hasn’t had any posts in a year or more. And don’t forget that social media still plays an important role in your website’s SEO.
In short, Facebook may be deprioritizing posts from pages, but it is hardly the time for small businesses to deprioritize Facebook. The social media giant still plays a massive role in SEO, online reviews, and general research among consumers, all of which are vital to your overall marketing strategy. If you need help adjusting your Facebook marketing strategy, contact corecubed. Our social media experts stay in the know and can help you maximize your marketing efforts.