Much like the famous Google updates designed to improve the quality of search engine content that gets shown to users, Facebook recently announced its own ‘meaningful interactions update.’ The goal here according to Facebook was to prioritise Facebook posts that fostered genuine user engagement, with emphasis on posts coming from family and friends – family and friends will most likely put up posts that connect to the user, Facebook is reasoning.
And they’re right; brands want to sell their products, marketers want to influence users and celebrities are hell-bent on boosting their fame. Friends and family, on the other hand, want to interact with their loved ones genuinely and this is what Facebook wants.
So, where does this reality leave the entrepreneurs and small business owners displaying their services on Facebook?
On New Grounds in the Facebook New World Order
Of the many things that affect a post’s visibility and ranking on Facebook, the new algorithm is tilting the oars to focus on signals, particularly signals that suggest such a post is delivering active interactions. Basically, ‘active interactions’ is fancy words for the likes, shares, and comments a post generates once it goes live on Facebook.
One thing to note, however, while it was formerly considered good practice to goad the target audience into doing one of the aforementioned three with like, share and comments bait, Facebook is upping the game significantly. Users must genuinely like or want to share and discuss content. A hint of any bait techniques with the new update will most likely attract content demotion.
The way forward
It’s however not all doom and gloom for business owners and entrepreneurs, there’s still a handful of things to do to adapt to Facebook’s user biased changes.
Here the most important tips:
1. Creating attractive yet valuable content.
This should come as no surprise. Content is king, and it is as simple as that. If you’re debuting relevant content, your audience will find it easier to relate and in extension connect with your post. And if they can relate to your content, their family and friends would in most cases find such content relatable. So more shares, likes, comments and invariably audience reach for you. You’re doing what Facebook wants – actively engaging its users.
2. Build a community of like-minded individuals who will always see reason in your posts.
While the average Joe might find your content seemingly uninteresting, there’s probably a Facebook user somewhere who’d give everything to have a sneak peek at what you’re presenting (assuming you’re churning out quality content). With every average Joe that scrolls past your post uninterested, the chances of it finding the preferred audience gets slimmer. This is where Facebook groups come in handy. They allow you pool together a community of like-minded users who are more likely to see the light in your content.
3. Now’s the best time to increase your ad budget.
It’s hard to admit, but the truth is the days of organic reach in the social media world are numbered. Facebook’s tacit ‘we want our users to see family and friends first’, unless you are paying us to put content ahead of family and friends resonates this fact.
Business owners and entrepreneurs looking to derive better results must now (sadly) hone in on their ad management skills. Thankfully, this is something that requires less effort than traditional methods of obtaining organic reach.
4. Finally, live videos.
One surefire way of leapfrogging the tactical embargo brought on by the new facebook algorithm is to invest more in live videos. Live videos are one of Facebook’s recent additions to its feature-rich ecosystem, so it comes as no surprise that they’re actively pushing for its adoption and success. What this means is that, unlike regular content, live videos are less likely to go through the laser-eyed screening of Facebook’s new algorithm. Whatever content you push through live videos Facebook will back you up on that (at least for now) because apparently, they want to further improve on the already record-breaking 3 billion live video views per day. Time to get that camera rolling!
There is nothing to be worry about this new Facebook algorithm, follow these helpful tips for publishing your content on Facebook and all the other social media platforms, keep providing the good value and the quality content to your customers and everything is going to be alright!
If you want to learn more about how to use Facebook Ads to reach your ideal customers, generate new leads and drive sales in your business, feel free to check out our Facebook Advertising Course here at the Internet Business School.
Karina Motelli is a successful Online Entrepreneur and current Coach at the Internet Business School. When she’s not helping her customers to become successful in the Online Market World, she’s mentoring entrepreneurs through the Internet Business School. She currently lives in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.