Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently released a game-changing statement about what’s in store for our Facebook News Feeds this 2018 – they’re going back to basics.
In his lengthy Facebook post the young billionaire entrepreneur announced that this year, Facebook will be altering its algorithms to give us more valuable social content on our News Feeds. This means more available content that actually helps us better connect to the people we care about.
Before Facebook became a place for public, professional content and viral memes, it was a place where friends and family shared content about their lives to help build meaningful connections. However, over the past couple of years, passive content such as videos from businesses, brands and media have taken over our News Feeds and are “crowding out” the more personal posts from our actual relationships.
A conscientious and relatively humanitarian decision, Mark Zuckerberg explains that:
“We feel a responsibility to make sure our services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being…I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.”
It looks like Facebook has taken a step back to reevaluate its current services, so what does this algorithm update mean for businesses and publishers on Facebook?
In Facebook’s NEWS FEED FYI video, they explicitly say that over time, users will see “more posts from people they’re connected to, and less content from publishers.” Person-to-person posts will receive higher rankings on News Feeds compared to person-to-page posts.
That sounds like bad news for businesses, especially those who may rely on Facebook as their main social platform.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom for every business or brand page on the platform. For starters, the change does not impact the Facebook advertising algorithm (at least for now), just organic page posts. And there are other strategies businesses can employ to stay visible amongst their followers.
One way your business can network on Facebook without relying on things like passive video content is through active networking.
Active networking is more than just publishing content that may or may not be relevant to your customers – it’s about creating engaging content that sparks conversations, generates back-and-forth discussion and encourages meaningful interactions between users. Facebook Live and Facebook Groups are also great ways for your business to continue engaging with your audience.
Another important way of staying connected to your audience with this new algorithm update is to ask them to change their following preferences to “See First”. This ensures that users can still see posts from their favourite pages.
Read more useful Facebook Page advice from Head of News Feed Adam Mosseri’s blog post here.
To conclude, the biggest move businesses and publishers will have to make this year is investing more time and energy in actively connecting with their customers. Things like gaining feedback in the comments section for products and services, making deeper connections on a personal rather than a business level, and other active networking habits will keep you on your customers’ News Feeds.
Facebook is aware that the overall time people spend on the platform is expected to go down due to this algorithm change, but it wants that time spent to be more valuable and better for the well-being of its users. As long as your page provides this valuable, engaging content, Facebook will continue to be the right platform for your business.
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