Last month, Facebook announced drastic changes to the way posts are ranked in users’ news feeds. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg said he was “changing the goal … from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.”
You may be asking yourself, what is a “meaningful” interaction? Meaningful interactions will be determined by the algorithm that drives the news feed. Posts that inspire back-and-forth discussion in the comments, as well as posts that Facebook thinks you might want to share and react to, will be considered meaningful. The result will be that content from friends and family will rank higher than public content, and posts that generate substantial conversation between people will also show higher on the news feed.
Success Strategies for B2B Companies
For virtually all companies including B2B brands, Facebook’s latest shift means person-to-person interaction will become considerably more valuable, and real conversation will be favored by the updated Facebook algorithm. Here are four strategies for responding to the news feed changes:
1. Turn your employees into brand ambassadors.
The new algorithm makes it more important than ever to encourage real people to talk about your brand on Facebook and create additional organic reach. Your employees are a natural fit for this cause. Leveraging employees to be brand advocates on Facebook, and all social media platforms, is a great tactic to combat decreasing brand reach.
2. Get creative with live video and other options.
This is a good time to expand your social marketing toolkit with tactics such as live video and paid ads to drive engagement and secure news feed placement. According to Facebook, live videos average six times as many interactions as regular videos. Paid ads will continue to be a crucial driver for success as they are not likely to be as negatively affected by the update.
3. Take a deep dive into Facebook Groups.
Facebook Groups now have more than a billion monthly active users. Facebook updated its mission statement to include groups and announced it will continue to emphasize groups to foster community. Facebook has launched features such as the ability for brands to create groups, associate existing groups with their pages, group analytics and more. Although this approach takes time and effort, investing in groups empowers brands to build true communities with their target audiences. A good start is to research groups to identify where thought leaders of your industry are likely to engage. Utilize this research to start a branded group to engage a specific audience and invite other thought leaders to join.
4. Get more personal with your buyers.
Continue to research your buyer personas to understand them better. This research will help you isolate keywords and tailor content and imagery to drive engagement among your target audiences. And don’t forget to be human! People want to interact online with pages that do not feel automated. Humanizing your messaging and responses will increase interaction and help your brand form a stronger relationship with buyers.