Big Changes Afoot - What Does It Mean For You?

Well, Facebook has changed its algorithm again. No biggy! They are always changing it. However, this time it is going to affect you more than ever before.

You may have already noticed the same 20 people popping up on your newsfeed and you seem to be getting less choice about what you see?

Well, the explanation for this is that Facebook wants its users to be more engaged and stop people dropping off the platform because they are getting no value from it Well that is the stated intention. Those of us with a more cynical eye might say that whilst that is ONE aim, it is not the goal.

The goal of course, is to generate more advertising revenue. And naturally, if you have less users it will be hard to generate more advertising revenue, so they need to attend to users, but not because they have big hearts, but because it is good for business.

And there is nothing wrong with that, except perhaps a lack of transparency about the real goals. Every business has to make money, it has to grow or risk receding into nothingness.

But how will the algorithm change affect YOU?

Well, potentially negatively depending on your pint of view.

We have been advocating for some time now to get away from the me,me,me/ buy my shit style of social media posting. You need to Inform, Educate, Inspire or Entertain. You do none of that by just posting your stuff to sell.

You have to create engaging content that users will enjoy and want to share because ….wait for it….you can’t ask them to share it anymore. It is called ‘engagement bait’ and will be frowned upon by Big Brother. Of course there are ways you can ask people to like or share without asking tem – but you need to be a bit cleverer.

You have to do video this year. Full stop. No exceptions. If you aren’t ‘doing’ video (and again there are ways other than straight to camera on a FB live) of some kind this year you migh as well not do facebook at all. Seriously. Let me repeat

If you are not doing some kind of video this year – and ideally for the majority of your posts – then you may as well NOT do it at all.

You have to engage. As a business you need to go find related pages (who have the audience you want) or even competitors in certain circumstances, and like share and comment on this stuff. You also need to like, comment and share stuff from your followers. At least 10 times a day.

Why? Because if you don’t the people that FB show YOUR stuff to will become less and less. They will see you as someone who just wants to use their platform for free to promote your business and doesn’t care about FB itself (I now – but they have a point). You HAVE to add value and you HAVE to engage. Full stop.

This is vital if you want to get any customers long term, or perhaps attract or retainstaff.

And what if you don’t have the time to do it? Well, you should outsource it or forget it. Social media done infrequently inconsistently and badly (ie offering nothing but ‘sales spiel’ to your audience) is worse than not doing it at all.

So should you abandon Facebook? Perhaps.. If you can think of a better, cheaper, more wide ranging arena to find your customers. And if you can, then let me know!

If you would like a 20 minute free consultation on your social media and how the changes will affect you – click here and book a slot today.