Facebook is rolling out a big change to its algorithm over the next few months that will see a decline in the visibility of business Pages in its news feeds. It’s doing this so Facebook users get to see more posts from their friends and family and less from businesses and brands.
In an article posted by Adam Mosseri, the head of News Feeds at Facebook, he said “As we make these updates, Pages may see their reach, video watch time and referral traffic decrease. The impact will vary from Page to Page, driven by factors including the type of content they produce and how people interact with it. Pages making posts that people generally don’t react to or comment on could see the biggest decreases in distribution. Pages whose posts prompt conversations between friends will see less of an effect”.
In a recent Facebook post, Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook, said he wants to help people find more meaningful social interactions. More public content has meant Facebook has “shifted away from the most important thing Facebook can do — help us connect with each other,” Zuckberg said.
“Now, I want to be clear: By making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down. But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable. And if we do the right thing, I believe that will be good for our community and our business over the long term too,” he said.
“Video and other public content have exploded on Facebook in the past couple of years. Since there’s more public content than posts from your friends and family, the balance of what’s in News Feeds has shifted away from the most important thing Facebook can do — help us connect with each other,” he said.
Here’s a video Facebook posted to explain more:
So, as a business with a Facebook Page, what can you do to help keep your content in the news feed? Here are our top suggestions:
- Create more engaging content that encourages people to leave comments and share your post
- Share your business Facebook Page content with your friends and ask any employees to do the same to help it reach more people and generate more interaction
- Ask a question to encourage people to leave a comment and interact
- Vary your content and keep an eye on what’s getting good engagement and then do more of that
- Try live video. According to Facebook, it leads to 6x the interactions
- Consider Facebook ads. They are not affected by this change so remain a great way to drive people to your site
The main point is that although Facebook gets its revenue from businesses advertising, it’s primary aim is keeping its users happy and engaged. If you help them achieve that, by creating interesting and engaging content, then things will work in your favour.