Most recent Facebook news feed algorithm settings change for pages 2018

“We feel a responsibility to make sure our services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being …you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media.” -Mark Zuckerberg.

Am sure your digital marketing department is still trying to have a workaround through another Facebook algorithm released in December 2017. The one that blocks business pages/posts that use baits to lure users into their compounds. Whether they used the comments, likes, shares, votes etc.

As another major blow to businesses, they have rolled out yet another algorithm.

Rolled out on January 11, this algorithm is meant to keep off posts from pages that are not ‘friendly’ from appearing on user news feed. This means business pages will be less visible on news feed.

In this post, we will dissect this new algorithm and with a careful eye, look at what it means for businesses. As a PLUS we will look at the way around it.

Let’s begin…

What does this new algorithm mean for brands and businesses?

- More work.

For the businesses to reach their customers, whether existing or intended, they will have to put extensive efforts into doing so.

They’ll have to engage their customers in a friendlier way to gain more shares, comments, likes, and visits to their websites/blogs. Basically, they must have a way to spark and maintain conversations.

Quality.

Spamming being not an option, businesses have to be more careful when crafting their post on Facebook, they must be of the highest quality, otherwise, their pages will be ranked lower on the target audience news feed or not ranked at all.

Business page posts must open up conversations, this way the ranking will be much higher. Users will only see the most commented of your posts.

According to Facebook, using baits is not one of the ways of driving meaningful conversations. And this will reflect negatively on how your posts appear user news feed.

A bigger budget.

Businesses will have to spend more on advertising. They will have to use the Facebook Ad feature which is a paid advertising feature on Facebook meant for businesses.

But after all, this, could there be a way around this algorithm to keep businesses in reach of their customers?

Well, if they follow the 5 ways outlined below, they will still be reaching out to those who matter most to them.

To push your page post on the news feed, please do the following;

1) Boost every post on Facebook — Just a few $

Do you want more likes, shares, comments and a considerable traffic to your website? Then it’s time to boost your posts.

A boosted post is a post on your business page, at a cost, reaches a wider audience and ranks higher up on your audience news feed.

Boosting posts is a sure way to penetrate through to your audiences’ news feed. To do this, you need to allocate a budget.

How large the budget should be will depend on how much of an audience you want to reach and the time your post will stay boosted on Facebook.

Boosting a post can be done right inside the Facebook business manager. This a one-stop place where you manage all the assets that belong to you on Facebook. This includes, but not limited to your pages, posts, the ad account/settings and much more.

The Facebook business manager also lets you delegate the management of Facebook assets to someone else like your employee or a digital marketing agency.

By giving them access, you define their rights- what they can do and what they can’t. You still stay in control.

Boosting posts using the Facebook business manager gives you more control over your posts, your ad account and everyone whom you have assigned rights to this account.

2) Put a call to action in the post to gain likes and comments

Don’t forget to add this.

A call to action is a humble request to your audience to interact with your post.

It will also help you in assessing the impact the post has out there through the ad analytic feature found on Facebook

The call to action may be something like a share, like or visit us button placed on top or below your post.

It’s not limited to posts. You can add this call to action button on your page as well. To do this, from your page;

-click Add call to action button.

-Select the kind of call to action you want to add e.g sign up, use the app, book now, shop or play game.

-Select the website URL or resource it will be connected to.

-Remember to tick the mobile website box. Leaving it blank will make users on mobile devices not to see the call to action button.

-Click create. Sit back and wait. Traffic is on its way.

3) Make good content (Nice design)

To evade the harsh new algorithm, good quality content systematically arranged and with a nice design will go a long way in making sure your post rank higher in your audience news feed

Good content will spark and drive conversations leading to post shares, likes, and comments. The more of this that you get, the higher your post get on audience news feed.

A nice design should not be sacrificed. A business page should be crafted articulately with the audience in mind. This will help in initiating a natural appeal for interacting with your posts.

4) Join groups from your niche and share your post in that niche

In this latest algorithm roll out, Facebooks did not put a cap on groups.

It will be of beneficial quality if you consider using available groups in your line of business. Think of even starting a group and building it from scratch BUT don’t neglect your business page.

A group has fewer restrictions on post interaction. This is an open backdoor to help circumvent this new algorithm

You may think even of humbly requesting your available page audience to join your group. This ensures a smoother sailing.

5) Give lots of value.

It can’t be emphasized more.

If you want meaningful conversations, you should give your audience content that they can connect with. Content that solves their problems and makes their lives much easier.

With this kind of value, your customer base and conversions will naturally rise.

In conclusion.

Even if Facebook is emphasizing more on private conversations, those who deal with public ones, like businesses, should find a way to get close and personal with their audience.

Giving them what matters to them most.

This can only be done by following the above points faithfully. Although there may be shortcuts to the above, they may not prove viable in the long run. Considering Facebook is keenly watching its space.

It’s time to drive intimate conversations with your audience and one way of doing this is posting live videos instead of the passive marketing ones users are used to engage them more.

Isaac (Ishaq Mustaqim)

Digital Marketing Expert

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