Facebook Armageddon…
Facebook Zero…
Whatever you call it, it is the biggest algorithm change we have ever seen on Facebook.
On January 11th Mark Zuckerberg and his Team went live with a few carefully constructed and well written posts on a new strategy for Facebook.
(make yourself a cup of tea and strap in as this is a long one…)
They’ve changed things up before, prioritised non-commercial content, told business pages that their organic reach will decline without engagement, encouraged ad spend on the platform… but this, this is so much more. This doesn’t just ask the business people on Facebook to change the way they behave, this is asking the personal user on Facebook to do the same.
Encourage meaningful social interactions between people.
Remember these words, you’ll hear them again and again…
WTAF does this mean you may ask? Well let’s dive in.
Let’s start with some quotes directly from Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri (his Head of News Feed) to get things in perspective.
“We’re making a major change to how we build Facebook. I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.”
(see there are those words – direct from Zuck himself)
“The first changes you’ll see will be in News Feed, where you can expect to see more from your friends, family and groups.”
“You’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media. And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard — it should encourage meaningful interactions between people.”
(I probably don’t need to highlight those words again)
“We will also prioritize posts that spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people. To do this, we will predict which posts you might want to interact with your friends about, and show these posts higher in feed. These are posts that inspire back-and-forth discussion in the comments and posts that you might want to share and react to – whether that’s a post from a friend seeking advice, a friend asking for recommendations for a trip, or a news article or video prompting lots of discussion.”
“Using “engagement-bait” to goad people into commenting on posts is not a meaningful interaction, and we will continue to demote these posts in News Feed.”
(that one is a good one… we like that one!)
So how do we do all this? How do we now exist and be seen on Facebook? Let’s break it down…
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Encourage meaningful social interactions between people!
OK, I know that’s a no brainer given all the information we’ve already read, but that’s it in a nutshell. Facebook is now officially a two-way street. Any one-way action will end up in deadmans land. If your post is simply there to inform someone of something, you’ll end up informing no-one. If your post is designed to evoke that meaningful interaction then Facebook’s dinky new algorithm will favour it.
And just writing “Cool” or popping your favourite emoji in the comments won’t do either, as that’s not encouraging any further interactions… another quick quote from Adam Mosseri to highlight this:
“… we’re going to be (weighing) long comments more than short comments, because we find regularly that if you take the time to actually write a more thoughtful perspective on something that correlates positively with a comment that someone actually would respond to or Like”.
Basically in the perfect Facebook world, you post something, and not only does someone take that time to write 2-3 sentences in response to it, but their response elicits another person to also comment, and another and another. Having a one on one interaction with one of your followers is great, but the more is definitely now the merrier.
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Live Video
Those words make so many of us (including me) cringe, but plain ol’ video is not Facebook’s shiny object anymore.
Why? Because Facebook’s research has shown that there are 6x more interactions on live video than on pre-recorded, which makes sense as it is by nature more interactionary. You can ask questions and make comments that the publisher/presenter can answer and respond to in real time, whereas watching pre-recorded videos is usually a far more passive affair.
That’s not to say normal video will no longer work. All roads lead to meaningful interactions, so if your video gets people talking then you’ll be just fine.
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Encourage your Followers to become ‘See Firsters’
Unbeknown to many, there is an option to become a ‘See Firster’. If you choose this option on a page that you like, any new post from that page will be at the top of your feed when you next open Facebook. It is a very nifty way of getting your followers to always see what you have posted, especially if they’re non-meaningful interactions type posts (like links to your blog for example).
How do we get them to do this??
Desktop:
If you go to a page that you like and put your mouse over the Button that says ‘Following’ (next to the Like button) you’ll see the Option to See First.
Mobile:
Same deal as above, click the Following icon, and choose See First.
You can have up to 30 in your See First group, pages or people. I encourage you to use them for your own profile as well as promoting to your followers on your Page.
Which brings me to my next point…
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Links are a no-no
Facebook have not been a fan of links for a while as essentially you are taking their user OFF THEIR PLATFORM and away somewhere else. Well this is now even more of a hot spot for them, as effectively you are encouraging that meaningful interaction somewhere else, aka your Blog, your YouTube channel or someone else’s website.
(I wrote a little about this a while back here)
If you previously had good traction on your blog posts from your followers then encourage them to become ‘See Firsters’ so they continue to see when you have posted one up on your website.
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Own your own Clients, don’t let Facebook own them for you!
This is a big one. As much as possible you should start trying to transition your followers to your own database. Even if you’re not ready to start email marketing, get them into your CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) now so that crucial contact information is in your hands and no-one elses.
If you don’t have a CRM already then set up something simple like a Mailchimp Account and start with that. It’s free up to 2,000 contacts, and you can set up sign up pages linking to your Facebook Page, plus much much more.
Start using social media as your platform to grow your email marketing list, because as we are seeing they can (and do!) change the rules at any time.
IMPORTANT NOTE: There’s a little thing called The SPAM Act 2003, and if you violate it not only could you get in trouble, but you will annoy potential clients and lose them forever. If you put anyone on a marketing database you MUST get their consent.
(if you need any help in this department let me know!).
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Groups will be prioritised… BUT will still be held to the same standards as Pages.
By their very nature Groups traditionally encourage conversation, as they are community based and usually filled with like-minded individuals. Already in my news feed I’ve seen a higher number of group posts than before.
BUT: they will still be held accountable to the same rules of play. No meaningful conversation, no organic reach.
Please don’t go rushing off to create a group thinking it’ll be your magic bullet. It won’t. You can’t just go posting your blog posts and sales promotions in a group and assume everyone will get them. It won’t work that way. The algorithm change will be applied to every piece of content on Facebook, not just Business pages.
PLUS: Groups are hard work. You need to really spend time on them and nurture them to get growth and engagement (much like a Page!), so think about whether that is something you want to commit to otherwise it will all just fall over.
Interestingly the same will go for your Personal Profile. If you think you can just start posting your business links etc from your personal page so everyone will see them, those posts will also be devalued in the algorithm.
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Less is More
Less posting with more thoughtful content is key. Gone are any days where frequency rules to break through the noise. Now it’s about creating really relevant content that is going to get people talking.
Take your time, think about topics that resonate with your followers, ask questions, pose problems…
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Facebook Ads, Facebook Ads, Facebook Ads
Yep, you guessed it… the rules don’t apply when it comes to investing in Facebook Ads. When you place an ad you can pretty much talk about what you want*.
The one thing we can count on its that ads will get more expensive. However, there are plenty of clever cost effective ways that you can utilise Facebook advertising that aren’t just boosting posts or advertising your products, including using pixels on your own site to retarget visitors or creating lead magnets for your email list growth and sales funnel.
* OK, that’s technically not true. Facebook have plenty of rules around ad placement. But none of them have anything to do with meaningful interactions!
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Diversify your marketing strategy
You shouldn’t be relying on just the one way of communicating with your clients. Eggs, one basket and all that.
That doesn’t mean that you should spread yourself thin and be on every social media platform that exists. Pick 2-3 that work best for your business and focus on them.
Ensure Facebook isn’t the only one.
More importantly though, as mentioned above, make sure some of your marketing strategy exists off social media, and in a space where you have more control. It might be email, it might be SEO or Adwords, it might be completely offline in a networking environment.
I’m not without questions…
…and it’ll be interesting how some things play out.
For example, given the new algorithm will apply to all content on Facebook, including personal profiles…
If I post a picture of my kids dressed up for Halloween, because most of my family and half my friends live in a different country to me, I know a vast majority of them will be interested to see it. They’ll either smile as they scroll past it, or they’ll engage. Usually that engagement will be a like, or sometimes it will be an emoji or a few words about how sweet/evil/cute/demonic my children may look.
I don’t expect a lengthy paragraph about the last time they dressed up for Halloween, with another unrelated friend commenting on how Halloween is for Americans and why is it here in Australia, and another friend disagreeing wholeheartedly and writing about kids being kids and who cares where the tradition came from let them have fun…!
In fact, if that happened on my sweet post about my angelic/hellraising children I’d probably defriend the whole damn lot of them!
BUT if that doesn’t happen, then how is the sweet pic of my brats going to beat the hordes of group posts that inspire maximum meaningful social interaction (even though I’ve NEVER MET any of them)?
Riddle me that Facey!
When all is said and done, it’s Facebook’s rules so we need to play within them. As Marketers and Business Owners we need to diversify our strategy, continue the great content, engage with our followers and most of all…
Encourage meaningful social interactions between people.
Let’s recap how:
- Live Video
- Encourage your Followers to become ‘See Firsters’
- Links are a no-no
- Own your own clients, don’t let Facebook own them for you
- Groups (but only if you use them correctly, and have the time for them!)
- Less is More
- Facebook Ads, Facebook Ads, Facebook Ads
- Diversify your Marketing Strategy
I’d love to hear your comments and questions! But do it on my Facebook Page underneath where I posted this Blog Post if you wouldn’t mind… meaningful interaction and all that 😉
Until next time,
Jodie