If you keep up to date on digital advertising news, you’ve undoubtedly seen headlines regarding Facebook’s plans to update users’ news feeds, to “prioritize posts that spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people” and to “prioritize posts from friends and family over public content”. Having an active Facebook presence, including social advertising, has become a staple for many Brands across their digital campaigns, thanks to its great ability to catch a consumer’s eye as they scroll through their news feed. However, this advertising tactic has bombarded consumers, leaving them less than satisfied with their experience. According to Chief Executive Officer of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, the change is being made in hopes of bringing back more meaningful social interactions with friends and family rather than showing users posts from various brands and news sources, one after the other.
As a Facebook user, this may come as a welcome change, but what does it mean for your business? While it is easy to worry how the change will affect your business, there are ways to use this change to your advantage.
Instead of looking at this update as one that will remove your content from news feeds, think about it from a more positive fact that it will move your content to be seen now by those who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. When your posts and ads show up in any and all feeds, those viewers include people who are just passing by, scrolling to find something engaging. However, digging into the data to better understand who your customers and Facebook fans really are, what types of content they react to, and what other things they enjoy, and then cultivating your Brand’s content experience to those needs will allow your content to be pushed to the ones who are more likely to purchase your product or visit your site, because your content will be synonymous with relevant content.
Several media and social executives agreed on a handful of strategies that businesses can use to keep their brand visible on the platform:
- If you are used to sharing multiple posts, start to scale back, only sharing items that are extremely relevant or engaging to your audience.
- Utilize Facebook Live whenever it makes sense. These videos are receiving much higher interactions than non-live videos posted.
- If you are a local small business, make sure you are included in Facebook Local.
- Respond to your customers with one-on-one conversations via Messenger. Likewise, provide content posts that encourage meaningful conversations with your followers.
- If you haven’t already, use groups, as the social media platform is most likely building more on this feature.
As with any type of ongoing marketing strategy, it is also important to update your goals frequently, and check back to make sure your strategy aligns with those goals. The engagements to any particular post should not be what is important, but rather the resulting outcome. As these changes roll out, make sure your social strategy is ready and your business is ahead of the game.
If you have questions as to how this may affect your advertising campaigns, or which strategy may be best for your business, contact us today!