On 12 January, Mark Zuckerberg announced in person that the Facebook News Feed algorithm is changing. “Private posts” are to regain the upper hand over “commercial posts”. People are meant to use Facebook primarily to keep in touch with friends and family, so that the time they spend on the platform feels enjoyable and meaningful. What Zuckerberg did not say, but clearly intends: less organic reach on Facebook means a greater need for advertising. Competition for ad space will therefore intensify, which will most likely push up cost per click in the end.
According to Zuckerberg, Facebook already started changing the algorithm over the course of last year. We can certainly see the shift for our own clients: the organic reach of company pages on Facebook is falling. Metrics such as video watch time and referral traffic are affected too. The changes are apparently being made gradually, presumably so that page owners can slowly get used to the new rules of the game.
First of all: keep calm! Facebook is not throwing its entire philosophy overboard. Even after the changes, company posts will still achieve more reach if they trigger more interactions (such as likes, shares or video views). However, Facebook is taking a closer look at which interactions reflect genuine personal relevance and which were scrounged through comment competitions, clickbait and other tricks. We expect Facebook, for example, to pay closer attention than before to whether users who like a post linking to external content actually clicked on the link first, in other words whether they showed real interest in the content.
Facebook’s “relevance offensive” covers not only stricter criteria for the quality of content, but also for ad formats. In future, for example, the reach of video ads will depend even more than before, alongside the advertiser’s budget, on whether users actually watched the spot. Facebook is therefore pushing videos with a high completion rate.
Do you run a page and wonder what you can do to increase your Facebook reach? We have put together a few suggestions for you.
Eight Nine tips for more Facebook reach
- Focus on emotions: Not a new tip, more an age-old one, but it is not always followed. All too often, dry material (such as press releases) gets posted simply because it already exists and does not need to be produced specially. But that is not enough. Advertisers in every industry should explore what storytelling can do. Because nobody likes advertising. But everybody loves stories.
- Stage controversy: Trigger discussions. Ask questions about current and important issues. Ask for opinions. Passionate discussions also increase fan engagement, even if they can sometimes be hard to moderate.
- Use targeting: We have already explained that Facebook also puts paid content through a “relevance check” and rewards it with more or less reach depending on the quality of the ad. On top of that, page owners should make even more use of targeting options for organic posts in future. The motto: better to leave some reach on the table and select your target audiences more precisely.
- Concentrate your budget: Boosting every single post with ad spend is the wrong tactic. Instead, focus on content that has proven to be interesting and emotionally gripping. Promote it several times rather than wasting money on dull posts.
- Reach for the stars: Instead of chasing every like, we recommend that companies focus on lasting fan feedback in the form of reviews. Local businesses in particular (restaurants, retailers, tradespeople and so on) should ask their users to award stars. Facebook treats good ratings as an indicator of relevance.
- Own the trends: Topicality is a key relevance factor. Facebook knows very well whether certain topics are being talked about a lot or a little on the platform. Topics that are “trending” are clearly important. Users are also more likely to join in on current issues, which in turn leads to more interactions and therefore greater reach.
- Create groups: Adidas does it. So does Microsoft. And no doubt plenty of other well-known brands. They run not only pages but also groups on Facebook. The idea dates back to the days when everyone was talking about Web 2.0: above all, let the fans talk to each other. Move away from the brand as broadcaster towards the brand as platform. This approach is much closer to the nature of social media anyway. Perhaps Facebook’s reach capping will spark a revival of this actually rather old idea.
- Think cross-channel: Do not get too fixated on the idea that your Facebook page can only gain reach through activity on Facebook, or that reach is the only meaningful metric. Think about offline activities for fans as well, for example. Create incentives beyond the platform so that fans post brand-related content themselves. Isn’t it much better when your brand comes to life beyond your own page too?
- (UPDATE on 26 January 2018) Use chatbots: Automated replies can be very helpful when communicating with users. Facebook Messenger can also be configured and automated to a certain extent. This lets you handle a larger flood of enquiries efficiently and quickly give users the information they need. You do not need to go all-in on AI to improve the customer experience in this way. Analyse your users’ wishes and preferences, and useful ways to develop your chatbot will emerge “by themselves”.
Basically, Facebook is not doing anything new. It is returning to its original purpose: connecting people. The better Facebook fulfils this task, the more often and more intensively people use the platform. And that can only be in the interest of us marketers.
If you manage to break with some of the “rules” for successful Facebook marketing of recent years and realign your strategy along the lines above, you can get considerably more out of Facebook for your business.
