Just when you think you’ve got your Facebook strategy figured out, they go and make yet another change to the news feed. How will the latest Facebook news feed change affect your organization? And what can you do about it?
In an announcement from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg last month, the social media platform stated a new emphasis on “better,” more meaningful uses of Facebook, brought about by promoting interactions between people, rather than between a person and a Page. For marketers, this means that Page reach is going to go down., because posts from business Pages with be downgraded in user feeds and posts from user friends and families will be boosted.
Facebook has not yet shared how or when this change will occur. But while we wait to see what happens, there are steps you can take to counteract the change.
- Increase engagement. It is well known that video gets more interaction on Facebook than other types of posts. Using live video can generate increased discussion among Facebook users, and posts with a lot of discussion will show up higher in the news feed. Polls are another way to increase engagement with your page.
- Ramp up brand ambassador efforts. Do you have friends or family members who volunteer with a nonprofit organization and who frequently share posts from the nonprofit and even generate their own posts about it? Business organizations can use this tack as well. Encourage employees to share posts about special events, new locations/services and other social content from your organization. When you sponsor or participate in an event, such as a health fair, fundraiser or other community event, get photos of your employees participating and share them on social media. Your employees will most likely share these on their pages as well. If you have social influencers that you use, consider working with them to create more social exposure.
- Increase your social media arsenal. Is your organization on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn or other platforms? While each of these platforms has a different focus and requires a somewhat different strategy, many organizations use some—or all—of them very effectively to promote their brand.
- Pay to promote. We all want the most bang for our buck but organic reach will only take you so far. Sponsored posts and display advertising are paid options to consider. Facebook offers tools for targeting audiences, so you can tailor messages for specific campaigns.