Oh Facebook, you tedious task master, why must you put us through this emotional rollercoaster? Over the years you have grown into a true character, a real presence within our lives. But watching you grow from a once innocent youngster providing everyone with equal love and post reach, to the shifty teenager who almost never wants to show those who care any love or post reach, has proved to be tough for us who want to grow with you and share in your joyous moments.
Facebook’s Changing the Game
As you’re probably aware by now Facebook has changed. People are even labelling it #facebookgeddon and we believe they are onto something. Facebook has become a powerhouse of the digital world, and it’s clearly played with our emotions here at Studio Culture (or maybe just mine? I’m unsure). However, time and time again we find a way to prevail through the wind and the fire of Facebook’s ever-changing page reach algorithm, which changes more than the weather in Melbourne seemingly. For those of you who aren’t aware, Facebook’s page reach algorithm is the dictator to rule all dictators if you run a Facebook business page. It controls just how many of your followers (that you have EARNED) see your page posts. Now the issue here is that once again like every so often, Facebook has released yet another loop in its algorithm, by giving the people ‘what they want’. Facebook has revealed that there will be a further decrease in post reach for pages, and an increase in your friend’s activities popping up in your news feed. Now for those of you who actually like and follow business pages to keep up to date with their posts or happenings, on behalf of Mr. Zuckerberg, I apologise, however I’m sure he doesn’t mean it (haven’t we all heard that before *broken heart*). There are two ways of looking at this, Facebook is either now ‘giving the people what they want’ or Facebook is revealing its hand and we don’t like it.
What Facebook’s mood swings mean for you: lower post reach unless you’re willing to spend big on advertising, it’s time to revise your social media strategy and get tactical or find a digital agency like us who are willing to throw down with this cheeky little monkey in an attempt to gain some dignity and respect for your brand in this brutal dog eat dog world of social media.
Our Weapons of Choice
Now it would be silly for me to go on this rant and not end up at somewhat of a solution for you lovely people. I believe I may be able to help in some way, shape or form, so let’s get into it. I hope you are aware of Facebook’s favourite toys (you know the ones kids share but get angry or jealous if you play with them to much?), multiple forms of content! Now Facebook lets you play with these and is suspiciously generous, they come in the form of Images (carousels/albums/single images/canvas/slideshow), Videos, Events, Discount Offers and statuses. These toys are a large contributor in pleasing Facebook enough to reach more fans, it’s just like any person, after a while they get bored with one thing so they move onto another or they will get jealous that you are using their toy for too long at one time. My point is why not keep them happy, rotate the toys and not get repetitive? Another factor is time of day, and figuring out when exactly is the best time of day for you to post. Facebook IS a moody little monkey, but Facebook is also very perceptive, keeping records of your followers in the form of demographic separation and peak times your followers are online. Thanks to this nifty feature hidden within Facebook’s Insights, we are able to gain some leverage over Facebook. We are able to use this information and test different times of the day where posts will gain more reach, we call this split testing, the same tests can be done with different forms of content (oh I love data). Who would have thought Facebook’s best feature could be its undoing.
Now that you have ammunition to fight the great social media war of the 21st Century, I encourage you to take a stand and not give into this privileged social media channel, but to fight and fight back well, do not pour your entire budget into this channel but develop strategy and become a fearless warrior. I shall see you on the other side of #facebookgeddon, I know I’m going to make it, will you? Oh, and one more thing, thanks again, Mark *shakes fist vigorously*.
Read about Facebook’s news feed changes
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