By Spencer Gray
Facebook is cracking down on the number of ads large businesses can publish – freeing up space for small businesses this year. The company announced it is heavying up its focus on the consumer experience this year rather than on the business or advertising experience. This will lead to a decrease in organic reach for business pages.
One might surmise that Facebook is also focusing on the user more than the business in order to prevent people from leaving the app, thus keeping their consumer pool intact for advertisers and businesses to target. Many were angered this year over political and COVID-19-related actions by FB that were considered “political” or “censorship” – no question, it is a slippery slope.
The new Facebook update has affected algorithms and Businesses Reach and Sales on Facebook
We at TLC Marketing Consultants are not fans of the new Newsfeed update.
Complaint #1: The biggest change with this update: you can no longer view who likes your page.
Complaint #2: Posts on mobile newsfeeds will now only show the first three lines of copy without clicking “see more” – yet there is no reduction in fees to SMB advertisers – funny how that works!
Complaint #3: Image size for mobile feed posts has also decreased.
According to the Marketing Academy for Small Business, the new update has also negatively impacted organic reach across the country for business pages.
Changes to Facebook’s Algorithm
Facebook is placing a heavier focus on prioritizing posts from friends and family rather than business pages on people’s newsfeed. There are several types of content Facebook is de-prioritizing:
- Posts with copy and pasted text from previous posts
- Posts with text that was copied from someone else’s post
- Posts that use “Engagement-Bait”: this refers to asking for consumers to like, comment, share, etc. your post
Ranking Signals
Ranking Signals are factors that determine how well your page’s content will rank on newsfeeds. Here are the big ones:
- How long a page has been active on Facebook
- Percentage of followers engaging with posts and your page
- How actively the page engages with followers – responding to messages, comments, reviews, etc. Note: we recommend that you reply within 24 hours
- Amount of time users spend on your stories (if stories are used)
Other Things to Avoid
There are a few other things that Facebook is supposedly looking at that can potentially decrease organic reach:
- Posts that are made solely to sell a product or a service
- Posts containing outbound links: Facebook wants users to stay on the platform – outbound links are any links that lead to somewhere other than Facebook
- Engagement-Bait – see reference above (asking for likes, shares, comments, etc.)
How is that for kicking off your 2021 marketing?! Remember, we are always available for social content and strategy. Happy New Year! – The TLC Team.