Think: last time you logged on to Facebook, how much of the content you viewed was:
- Meaningful content from friends
- Content from pages (news outlets, tech blogs etc)
- Content from people you’re ‘friends’ with, but don’t really care about
In fact, do you even remember much of the content at all? It can be tricky to get right, and Facebook of course want to show you the content that’s most relevant and meaningful to you so that you keep logging in. In an update last year, Facebook said:
“People told us they wanted to see more stories from friends and Pages they care about, and less promotional content. Beginning in January 2015, people will see less of this type of content in their News Feeds. Pages that post promotional creative should expect their organic distribution to fall significantly over time.”
Simply put, Facebook are saying “don’t mention ‘sale’ or ‘% off’, otherwise we won’t show it to anybody (unless you pay us for an ad)”. It’s abrupt but accurate. That’s not to say Facebook are ditching business pages altogether and your content will never get seen again – but Facebook are now prioritising those posts that are written in a more friendly, conversational tone:
“Businesses should think about their Page as a cornerstone of their online identity, not simply as a publishing service. The businesses that are doing this well understand the discovery and communication that happens when people come to their Page.”
Now in April, Facebook have again updated their algorithms to try and make your ‘news feed’ more meaningful to you, this time on an individual level – tailored to the content you already like to interact with:
“Content posted directly by the friends you care about will be higher up in News Feed, so you are less likely to miss it. If you like to read news or interact with posts from pages you care about, you will still see that content in News Feed. This update tries to make the balance of content the right one for each individual person.”
What does this mean for marketers? Facebook is undoubtedly evolving to a point where Page owners are more tempted to create and run (paid) advertisements – which still represent great value for money for the extremely targeted results achievable. As long as brands maintain a friendly, relaxed tone of voice, and don’t harp on about sales or offers… the change shouldn’t be too shocking.
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