Most small businesses and nonprofits are using Facebook as part of their social media marketing strategy. They undertake various steps to increase the number of followers they have as a way to spread their message. Facebook business pages have been a key part of that process, but over the years changes to Facebook’s algorithm have made that less effective. And they have just done it again.
Many social media managers in my circle are complaining that suddenly they are seeing a big drop in the number of likes, shares, and
comments on their posts. Here is what you need to know about the change.
Before the most recent change, you could reliably count on around 10% of your followers to be served one of your posts. To increase that amount, you needed to either pay for a boost or get a lot of likes and shares – or both. With the latest round of changes, that number has dropped dramatically. Now, only about 2% of your followers will see your posts.
Who Sees Your Facebook Posts?
Your business page posts generally will be served to those who have consistently engaged with your content and/or have selected you as one of the posts they want to see first. The new algorithm reflects Facebook’s desire to have users interact with friends and see valuable and engaging content. As a result, some kinds of content are considered less desirable than before (at least as far as Facebook is concerned). This means you should avoid posts that link “outside” of Facebook – they don’t want anyone leaving their site! So linking back to your website is going to hurt your chances of your post being viewed. Unless, of course, you are buying an ad, and then you will have the option of adding a button to further engage your audience.
What does this mean for your brand? Just as with your website, the quality of your content is more important than ever before. Finding what engages your audience is critical and you can do that by looking at your Facebook Insights. The more organic involvement you have with a post (likes, shares, and comments), the better. Facebook will judge the quality of your content using those engagements. If they are robust, then Facebook will share your post with more followers. Facebook will show your posts to others in an ever-widening circle driven by the amount of engagement.
The Bottom Line on Facebook Business Page Changes
Bottom line: engagement counts more than ever. Be sure to remind your employees, board members, clients, etc. to like, share and comment on your posts. This is free advertising for you that also helps you meet your marketing goals. We’ll look at how boosts and ads connect to these changes in future blog posts.
Bonus Help
I like this video because it gives a good overview of how the Facebook algorithm works as well as some good suggestions to help more people see your posts.