Earlier this week, Facebook rolled out yet another set of updates which are intended to balance-out the content on your News Feed from your friends and the pages that you follow. The average adult user has over 300 Facebook friends (this number is higher amongst younger users), and with all those updates, you’d expect the New Feed to need a little cleaning-up from time to time. However, the latest update could have major implications for businesses who use Facebook to reach their target audience and stay top-of-mind.
The Facebook updates that just rolled out
Prior to this update, there was a rule in place to prevent Facebook users from seeing consecutive posts from the same source in their News Feed. This rule has become more lax so that users who run out of content to view- but aren’t done viewing content- can stick around on Facebook for a little while longer. As a result, you may start to notice a spree of consecutive posts from the same account filling up your News Feed.
Content that’s posted by your close friends on Facebook is going to appear higher in the timeline. The same goes for brands that you like to read about, comment on, and share with your friends. Facebook will determine which accounts you interact with the most and then give that account’s content more weight insofar as where it ranks in your News Feed.
Stories about your friends who are liking or commenting on posts will now appear lower in your News Feed. Compared to other types of content, users generally don’t interact with these stories as often. Not surprisingly, many users have reported such stories as being a nuisance. For businesses, this update has major implications for secondary, organic reach. A lot of the reach you’re achieving with your posts is coming from users seeing secondary stories about the post.
What this means for you
Organic Reach will drop for your business page. One could argue that this move (to help users see what they want to see) is designed to help Facebook make more money from businesses that want to get their content out there. Facebook has been trending this way for some time now, and will eventually get to 0% Organic Reach for business pages. And why wouldn’t they?
Your News Feed might become yours again. If these updates are successful in doing what they aim to do, your News Feed should feature content and relevant stories that you care about since you’ve interacted with it in the past.
What you can do
Increase your Facebook Ad budget.
Take a look at the post that I ran last week to promote an open house in Clifton Park, NY. Five days before the open house, I allotted $25 to boost the post, and targeted users between the ages of 25-50 who live within a 50 mile radius of Clifton Park, NY. (This is an age group that’s likely to be at the stage of their life when they’re interested in buying a home, and their geographic location puts them within close enough proximity to attend an open house nearby.)
What were the results of the boosted Facebook post?
Did the post get tons of likes and comments? No, not really.
However, over 1,500 people clicked on the link to get a closer look at the property.
That’s $25 for over 1,500 page views!
Have a special going on for the 4th of July? A $20 boost on Facebook can help you get that special in front of a few thousand people. Are all of these people going to interact with the post or click on the link? No. But they will see your post, and if your campaign is targeting the right audience, then those users might comment, share and click through for more information.
Staying Relevant and Up-to-Date with Facebook
Facebook is constantly tweaking the timeline so that users see what they want to see (or what Facebook thinks they want to see).
Maybe Facebook should take a page from Twitter’s playbook by showing you every single post from the people and brands that you follow. Don’t want to see a user’s content? Then stop following their account. I’ll get Zuck on the phone to run this by him- he probably hasn’t thought of that yet 😉
