(Surprise!) Facebook’s Algorithm Changes not Good News for Marketers & their Brands...

In the last few weeks, Facebook has made yet another change to its algorithm (yes I know another!). This change proposes a number of questions to the marketer, such as, ‘how will the new algorithm affect the user experience’ and ‘what repercussions will there be for the social media marketer?’

I will aim to answer them here and am always open to your own comments if you have them. So let us begin as it were. What have Facebook done exactly?

To breifly sum it up in bullet points, Facebook have brought in 3 main changes, which, they hope will give more control to the account holder and user. These changes were announced by Facebook to enable a more balanced approach between what the user sees from friends, businesses and community organisations in their News Feed. 

The 3 Updates

1. The first update, introduced, will let people choose what they see FIRST in their News Feed. Prioritised posts will appear with a star displayed in the upper right-hand corner of the post.
2. The second update means you will be able to adjust the personal settings of your account and pick your favourite posts by accessing your user preferences. In doing so Facebook aims to give users more control over their feeds themselves without outside interference. 
3. The last major change is that there will be a relaxation of the multiple post rule. Previously, Facebook prevented you from seeing multiple posts from the same source consecutively on the timeline. This will now be changed and the same person or brand will be able to create multiple posts.

 

 

The Bad News for Marketers?

Whilst this is good news for the Facebook user it does have certain implications for the Facebook Marketer; especially if you post and interact with your client lists and database via this medium on a daily basis. 

In terms of brands, it's not great news either. Facebook will now serve up photos, videos, status updates or links from friends higher up in News Feed, which could potentially mean brand content from Business Pages will see even less reach than before.

So how can brands make sure their message reaches their target audience on people’s News Feeds?

This is where it’s not all bad news. Shares on posts are now going to be the most important way for people outside your network to potentially see your content. But that does not mean that you should ignore likes and comments. Instead single impressions still build imperative brand relationships and loyalty and continue to be key metrics; but not with the power that they used to.

In reaction Facebook commented, by saying;

“The impact of these changes on your page’s distribution will vary considerably depending on the composition of your audience and your posting activity. In some cases, post reach and referral traffic could potentially decline.”

So is there any good news for the marketer?

You’ll be pleased to know that yes there is!

It comes in the form of a 'new discovery section' that gives people the opportunity to find new Pages to follow. Pages Facebook believes are relevant, based on behaviour and what similar people like, will be flagged up for users to follow, and these could potentially be yours, if you've optimised your Business Page enough.

The other good news is that businesses and publishers are now able to ask consumers to prioritise 'their' posts. And the only really effective way of doing this is to pay Facebook to boost a post. (asking to be granted top of the News Feed access)

Facebook’s reasoning was that ‘The thing we were constantly hearing was: 'there's a few people that I really care about and I want to make sure I don't miss stuff from those people,'"

On a personal note what I’m hearing is: Facebook do not want businesses to be able to post and engage on their social platform without paying, and if businesses do this then their posts will simply be lost at the bottom of many people’s feeds. Instead by paying for Facebook Ads and Boosting posts; only then will your marketing reach the audience it is targeted for to gain interest and engagement.

To me this is just another mimic of Google and it’s Search Engine Optimisation. Google is a business after all and so is Facebook. They don’t want you to be able to carry out your digital marketing at their expense, when they could be making a lot of profit from paid ads. So as organic searches in Google loose out to paid ads, Facebook too is giving Boosted posts and Adverts priority over all other Facebook posts.

It was inevitable if you think about it and social media managers everywhere will have to rethink their strategy. What I am thinking now as I sit here writing this blog is: ‘How long before Twitter start the same process?’ Answer: Not Long. 

As a 'Tips & Hints' section I have compiled a short list of: - 

‘what do you need to do next?’

1. You’ll need to keep an eye on your metrics and note any key changes.
2. Like, Comment, and Share call-to-actions can also help, but can burn out quickly and can get flagged negatively by Facebook’s algorithm. Instead, use content that actively engages users.
3. Leveraging small budgets to highly relevant and targeted audiences (including your current fans!) can engage an audience that you already have, but may not be seeing your content. So creating shareable content will be a key way to get your content seen by people outside your network in the coming months. 

Until Next Time and any questions let me know!

Kelly ‘The Marketeer’ x