In January of this year, Facebook made some major changes to its News Feed algorithm which has seen a shift in content creation and how it is prioritised. Ultimately, Facebook has shifted its focus back towards posts from friends and family. This is a move away from businesses and media outlets, as Facebook feels that businesses, brands and media are crowding out personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other.

What does this mean for the Facebook page of your business? In short, measures of engagement such as reach and referral traffic will more than likely go down as the new changes roll out.

Does this mean you should shine focus away from Facebook? We don’t think you should. With over 2 billion users worldwide and ad platforms, Facebook is still a quick and cost effective way of reaching your target audience. The best option is to adapt to Facebook’s new direction.

Tips for adapting to change for Facebook Business pages:

• Generate content that creates conversation among your audience. Facebook will still prioritise personal, local stories as they encourage meaningful interaction between people
• Think about what your audience really wants and capture that in your posts, rather than chasing numbers of followers. Think engagement over followers.
• Utilise video content as much as possible. Facebook prioritises video content, especially if the content is posted often, drives community engagement and creates conversation
• Make a priority to engage with people who message you privately. If the new algorithm is affecting your reach, it is more important than ever to provide excellent service to the customers that do reach you
• Implement a paid strategy for posts that you want people to see. Very rarely can a business now rely on organic reach alone to connect with their target audience. Boost posts and promote your page to get seen!

Instagram has also recently rolled out major changes that will affect the engagement and reach of your posts. Engagement on your posts from now on will be based on your engagement activity. Your exposure will decrease if you don’t respond to comments left on your posts within 60 minutes, with comments shorter than four words no longer being included as engagement activity.

Hashtags will also get a facelift, with recommendations to use five unique hashtags instead of the maximum of thirty which will get you ‘shadow banned’. You should be sure to change the hashtags you’re using from time to time as well as using the same ones will also bury your post in people’s news feeds. All hashtags must also be written in the caption of your post for it to be shown in that feed, rather than in the comments section.

If you are interested in reshaping your social media marketing plan, Brilliant Logic has a team of professionals who specialise in content creation and social media strategy.

For a consultation or quote on how Brilliant Logic can assist with your social media strategy, please call us on 02 4324 6962 or email ksmall@brilliantlogic.com.au.