How your business can optimise changes to Facebook

Facebook changes constantly, however, the latest changes, made public early in 2018, will have the greatest effect on businesses to date.
 
The changes to be introduced early this year include:

• A different Facebook stream for business pages and posts from family and friends.
• Less organic (non-paid) reach for businesses resulting in fewer interactions with your brand and a significant decline in engagement.

​Initially these changes will affect Facebook, however as Facebook owns Instagram it is thought that changes will be rolled out on that platform later in the year.
 
As marketers, and small business owners, we need to be savvy in how we go about posting to Facebook in future in an attempt to maintain reach and engagement with our audience.
 
Below are some tips designed to help your business stay ahead of the game.

Image courtesy of Facebook

Tip 1. Go Live

​In order to break through the noise, we are being encouraged to develop video content for Facebook and Instagram. The use of Facebook Live continues to grow and it is recommended to create regular videos, or use Facebook Live to engage and interact with your audience. It is not recommended to post links to third party sources like YouTube. 

Tip 2. Be Real

You can generally tell when someone is faking it or not being authentic. Users want to see more authentic content, stories, and newsworthy articles in their feed. They want to be able to interact with your posts. The more people interact with your posts, the more reach you will have on Facebook now and in the future. 

Tip 3. Stop selling

​It seems strange, particularly if you have a business that is selling a product or service, however you need to stop and revise your social media strategy. Posts which are deemed overly promotional, or link back to your website or blog will be penalised, meaning they will be way down the feed. You will need to create a new content plan with alternative types of posts. Mix up your content with advice, humour, tips and news, plus of course videos! Make your content engaging and timely.

Image courtesy of Facebook

Tip 4. Use Facebook features

​If you have set up a third party social media management tool such as Hootsuite, Buffer or Later to help schedule your posts to Facebook you will need to make some serious changes. It’s fine to use these sites for other platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn, but if you haven’t already, please stop using them for Facebook. Set up your posts and schedule directly through Facebook, use the features provided to business pages such as audience targeting, and links to messenger. 

Tip 5. Consider advertising

​You may have been fortunate enough to avoid advertising on Facebook up until now, but it is possibly something to consider in the future as it will be the only way your business will be featured within the friends and family feed.
If you’re going to advertise, set a daily budget, create a call to action, target your audience and make your ad count. Whatever you do, go through the proper advertising process, do not simply boost a post as they do not have the same targeting options as ads do, and will not give you the results you’re after. 

Tip 6. Be Strategic

​I’m sure you’ve always had a plan for your social media content, but the goal posts have changed, therefore the plan must change. Remember although Facebook is a highly used platform, it is not the only platform. Investigate other platforms where your audience may be frequenting and start using these to your advantage. In the meantime, by using Facebook in a less promotional, more socially engaging manner your followers will appreciate it, after all, that’s what they want, which is why these changes have been made in the first place.

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​If you have any questions or concerns and would like to discuss how these changes will affect your business, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I’m happy to conduct one on one or group tutorials, or Skype/Facetime sessions. Please email me at [email protected]. 
Watch the video here.

Author

Nicola is the owner and director of Out of the Box Consulting and has a keen interest in helping businesses and non-for-profit organisations with their marketing and promotion. She is also the mother of two boys and loves to spend time with her family.