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Facebook's Newsfeed Changes Could Mean Bad News for Businesses

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Graphic of interconnected Facebook icons.

Posted on 02/21/2018 at 12:00 AM

Recently, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will be adjusting its newsfeed algorithm to give priority to posts from friends and family as part of a larger effort to connect people with each other, foster well-being, and create “more meaningful social interactions.”

A predicted outcome is that businesses, brands, and media will experience a significant drop in the organic reach of their posts in the coming weeks.

In a post on his Facebook page, Zuckerberg explained how the phenomenal growth of businesses on Facebook has resulted in people’s newsfeeds often having an over-abundance of public content compared to that from their friends and family.

To support the change, Zuckerberg cited academic research, which indicates that passively reading news articles and watching videos is not as beneficial to health and well-being as using social media to connect with people and strengthen relationships.

While this news creates cause for concern, there are ways that businesses can adapt to the changes. Hootsuite, a popular social media management platform, offers these tips for creating quality interactions and maintaining reach:

  • Post interesting, quality content that encourages comments and conversations.

  • Don’t use engagement-bait tactics such as “Share this post with 20 friends for a chance to win,” “Like if you agree!”  Tactics such as those are aimed at artificially inflating engagement rates and Facebook will penalize such posts.

  • Ask fans to follow your page and encourage them to choose “See First” from the “Following” drop-down list to ensure they don’t miss any updates.

Global Reach Facebook Newsfeed.

  • Invest in Facebook advertising. It’s flexible and affordable.

  • Consider Facebook Live videos. According to Zuckerberg, Live videos receive 6 times as many interactions on average compared to regular videos.

  • Create Facebook Groups in addition to your Facebook page to build a stronger community of super-fans.

As a business, your goal should always be to provide your readers with relevant, quality content and to build a loyal following. Facebook’s algorithm changes simply underscore the importance of quality content and building strong relationships. By incorporating these tips into your social media plan, you can help ensure that time spent on Facebook is “time well spent.”

Global Reach offers social media and internet marketing services. Contact us today about improving your engagement and reach on social media.

Categories: Social Media

Tagged As: Facebook

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