The writing is on the wall (errr… News Feed?)—Facebook wants you to pay to engage with your followers and prospects. The social media giant has been moving in this direction for years—with algorithm changes that add more emphasis to your friend’s content and downgrade that of the brands and publishers you follow. A recent announcement pushes this even further—ensuring that content from the brands users “like” is far less likely to show up organically in their feeds.
An announcement on the Facebook blog claims this move is an effort to help users spend more meaningful time on the site, and says it will prioritize posts that “spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people” using predictive modeling. Reading between the lines: The update will primarily decrease the reach of organic, non-boosted posts and filter out any click-bait style promotions.
While there is no official policy in place for this algorithm update, users may have already begun to see changes in their News Feed.
What does this mean for marketers?
Don’t panic—the recently announced change will likely have little effect on most marketers’ organic Facebook reach: It’s been on a generally downward trend for years, and will remain relatively low. Brands can attempt to maintain organic reach by posting content designed to drive meaningful conversations—questions to their followers for instance—vs. content that encourages passive consumption (links to articles, videos, etc.).
If there was ever a time to get on the Facebook advertising bandwagon, it’s now. Changes to News Feed will have no real impact on paid campaigns—meaning marketers can still get face time with a highly targeted audience if they’re willing to pay.
Facebook continues to up the ante with new ad features, products and targeting options that are driving results in many of our clients’ online campaigns. Facebook Dynamic Creative, for example, is making it much easier to test, iterate and generally optimize our clients’ ads—a crucial key to our success in the channel. Facebook Lead Ads and Canvas are two other tactics we plan to implement in the near future.
Need help navigating social media advertising? Get in touch with us.
