Over the course of last few years Facebook has been rolling out a number of algorithm changes. These changes have impacted organic reach of your posts.
The primary goal is to improve our personal experience on Facebook:
- We will see more content from our family and friends vs. random pages we followed. Creating better connection with people we care about.
- The meaningless viral videos will no longer be promoted in Facebook. The expected result is that we will waste less time browsing through these.
- Interesting, thought provoking conversations will find way their into our newsfeed more often.
In theory, these are all great changes designed to create a much better Facebook experience for all of us.
However, these created quite a bit of a challenge for marketers. Which means that you will need to continue to evolve how you market on Facebook.
What does Facebook Algorithm Change Mean to Businesses?
If you are using Facebook to promote your business expect to see both reach and engagement for your business pages to decline. You will likely have to come up with new ways for your content to be seen.
We’ve summarized 7 practical tips to help you succeed with Facebook marketing after the latest algorithm change.
1 – Add Live Video
Facebook’s NEW algorithm favors Live Video, especially video with engaging content. Facebook claims that live video will get 6x more engagement than regular posts.
This may mean that we will see a lot more poor quality videos recorded on the fly. It may also mean that some brands will step up and deliver unique, entertaining, thought provoking and educational content.
To develop your own simple live video strategy, try the following:
- Schedule a weekly live series to talk about breaking news in your field
- Break down one of your core offers into a series of “how to” live videos
- Create featured interview series with top experts in your industry
- Engage your viewers during the video: Ask people to like, comment, share your video
Facebook algorithm changes will continue to come and go, but the value of building your brand via memorable content will stay. It is your chance to shine. Determine a central theme to your brand and create a live video strategy around it.
2- Create Conversations
Focus on meaningful conversation. The goal is to increase active networking on Facebook vs. click bait posts asking people to tag friends.
Many marketers may opt-in for “shock and awe” type of questions. While these may create some hype around a specific post, it is hardly a way to create a lasting brand.
Instead of going after a short-lived entertaining types of questions design a longer-term content strategy:
- Focus on interesting, relevant, engaging questions and ways to create a dialog.
- Ask questions that may create a discussion and tap into differences of opinions.
- Listen to your customers and post answers to their posted burning questions.
- Engage people via polls.
Monitor engagement on your posts and constantly refine the strategy to increase focus on those posts that are performing best. Engagement comes first!
3 – Focus on Groups
Groups have been a great way to create a community around your brand. Facebook’s NEW algorithm does not impact content posted in the groups.
While groups are harder to build and manage, group members are more connected to each other. As a group admin you get to design and enforce the rules.
Some of the most successful groups are uniting members within a particular niche and/or a common goal. These common goals can be:
- Learning about a new topic, sharing best practices, top challenges, and questions.
- Going through similar experiences and making recommendations on resources, approaches; celebrating wins and overcoming failures.
- Sharing strong passions and interests.
The possibilities are endless when you combine passionate people in the same group.
4- Explore Messenger
Messenger created an unprecedented platform of connected people. Individuals can connect to one another in a matter of minutes. No wonder that popularity of marketing via messenger exploded in the past year.
Messenger bot campaigns boast 88% open rates (compare to an email open rate of 20-25%). Creating a messenger ad strategy for your brand will ensure that more of your messages are seen. But remember, avoid being spammy on messenger. Rather you should focus on a specific goal:
- Tap into messenger bots to create advertising strategy. ManyChat and ChatFuel are two of the top bot solutions.
- Create a conversation with your followers via automated conversations or improve customer service.
- Deliver valuable downloads to your followers via Messenger Ad campaign.
Messenger is an excellent way to keep in touch with your audience. Even if you are not ready to implement the strategy today, start planning for it.
5 – Practice Remarketing
Adding a paid social media strategy to your mix is a great idea (especially, with the ongoing algorithm changes). Some marketers speculate that the change will drive the cost of advertising up.
Targeting new audiences via ads may become quite costly. Facebook latest change will likely lead to less time spent on the social network. This, in turn, will mean less ad inventory and higher cost.
If your page has built a significant following, you can tap into this audience via remarketing. Remarketing is easier than you think. Try some of these simple remarketing techniques:
- Show a lead magnet people who engaged with your page or your page posts.
- Invite people who watched 25% of your videos to visit your website
- Retarget your website visitors with a low-cost offer
Even if you are not ready for retargeting today, Install Facebook Pixel to start learning about your audience.
6 – Lookalike targeting
Lookalike (LLA) targeting allows you to exponentially expand reach to people who are similar to your best customers. Instead of guessing who your audience is based on geography, demographics and interest targets, you can try the following lookalike audiences:
- Lookalike audience based on your email subscribers (you can upload a custom list to Facebook)
- Lookalike audience based on your website visitors (you will need to use Facebook pixel data for that)
LLA targeting is a Facebook goldmine. You have a benefit of tapping into Facebook’s extensive database of information on all of its users – and you do that at a fairly low cost.
7 – Experiment with other Platforms
Let’s face it – This is not the last algorithm change by Facebook. With Mark Zuckerberg’s commitment to “Fix Facebook in 2018” we may see more changes that will require all of us to rethink how we market.
It may be time to look at some other platforms:
- Niche Platforms (e.g. House, Quota, Reddit) – research niche platforms in your industry and join the conversation. These platforms may not have the massive audiences Facebook offers. However, as the rule, their members are more engaged and loyal
- Visual Platforms (e.g. Instagram and Pinterest) – both are excellent sources of traffic for any eCommerce business
- Conversational Platforms (Twitter) – these platforms may not be as glamorous, but they are still an amazing source of growth
Constantly evaluate platforms that may enable you to get better results for a higher ROI.
CONCLUSION
The final word is still out on what Facebook’s latest batch of algorithm changes mean, but if you start applying these simple tactics today, you will get ahead of the game.
Interested in further brainstorming your Facebook marketing strategy, apply for a FREE 15 minute consultation with our team.
