Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. It first emerged in 2004 and has continued to stand the test of time. While social networks like Hi5 and Myspace were really popular at the time, Facebook was the one that stuck and has continued to dominate the market years later. One reason for their domination of the social media market is that they continually adapt their product to best fit the user’s wants and needs.
Recently, Facebook made changes to its algorithm so users could enjoy seeing more content on their news feeds that they connected to and wanted to engage with, particularly from their friends and family. This caused some worry to business page owners that their organic traffic would suffer drastically.
We’re here to explain some of the major changes and try to alleviate some of that worry by providing 6 Facebook business page tips for better organic engagement.
What Updates Did Facebook Make to Their Algorithm?
Last February, Facebook updated its algorithm to create a better overall user experience. Their worry was that user news feeds were getting inundated with posts from business pages, ads, news sites, and content sites while pushing out posts they really wanted to see from their friends and family.
So Facebook adjusted their algorithm to prioritize posts that created more “meaningful interactions”. In order to do this, they made adjustments to how their algorithm scores “Signals”. Signals are basically a component of the algorithm that considers the content of a post.
Previously, Facebook factored the following signals when evaluating content to be shown to users:
- Average time spent on content
- User sharing a link over messenger
- Multiple replies to comments on a video
- Overall engagement
- When it’s posted
- Engagement with a publisher or brand post shared by a friend.
- Comments or likes on a person’s photo or status update
- Story type
- How informative the post is
After the update, Facebook now heavily favors the following signals:
- User sharing a link over messenger
- Multiple replies to comments on a video
- Engagement with a publisher or brand post shared by a friend.
- Comments or likes on a person’s photo or status update
Facebook is deciding to favor person-to-person interaction over person-to-page interaction because they believe it’s more impactful and meaningful to the user – and they believe these signals help them identify which posts will lead to those types of interactions.
So this begs the question, what can businesses do to create content that will satisfy the algorithm so they can continue to reach their organic goals? Here are 6 Facebook business page tips for posting in the new era after the update.
1. Create Facebook-Tailored Content
One of the worst mistakes a business owner can make is to act like all social media platforms are the same. What works well for Instagram doesn’t always translate on Facebook. What works for Facebook doesn’t translate to Twitter. It’s important to know the platform and understand the content that people want.
With Instagram, it’s all about pictures and videos. And while visual content also does very well on Facebook, it’s also a more appropriate platform for sharing other types of content like articles or blog posts.
Further, understand that the nuances of different platforms and respect that the way you post to Instagram or Twitter will not be the same way you should post for Facebook. For instance, while you can use hashtags on Facebook, doing so typically results in less overall reach. Meanwhile, hashtags are incredibly effective on both Instagram and Twitter.
2. Go Live
When it comes to Facebook, live content is definitely golden. It’s a good idea to create a schedule for going live on Facebook. Once you create the schedule, create a graphic to announce each live broadcast. When you’re producing the graphic, make sure to include the time you’re going live and the topic of the broadcast. Share the broadcast a day in advance so that your followers know when to expect you.
Even if you’re uncomfortable at first, it’s a really good practice to get into. Facebook algorithms tend to favor video content because a lot of users usually respond positively to it.
If the thought of going live scares you, consider doing it with a friend until you get comfortable. This is one of the best Facebook business page tips of 2018 to use because a live video can create a personable interaction between you and your audience, especially if you’re responding to and answering questions from the live comments.
3. Create Meaningful and Authentic Content
If Facebook’s goal with their new algorithm is to create more meaningful interactions, then your job as a business is to create more meaningful content. Gone are the days of creating a long-form sales pitch.
People don’t want to waste their time with commercials, which is why Netflix is successful. So try to craft content that either tells a story that can draw in and connect with your audience or is useful and informative to the reader.
Netflix has over 125 million subscribers and no ads. Coincidence?
4. Focus More on What’s Personable and Relatable
As Alaura Weaver wrote in her superb Medium article:
“Instead of focusing on what makes content popular and attention-grabbing, we need to focus on what makes content personal and conversation-worthy.”
The most important signal to consider in the new Facebook update is comments. Posts with more comments will show up higher in the news feed. So if your posted content can spark a conversation with your audience, the better organic reach it will have.
Page managers need to be cautious, though. Facebook has made updates to identify posts with “engagement bait”. These are posts that are obviously trying to accumulate tags, likes, and comments. For example:
“Comment yes if you like peanut butter with marshmallows!”
“Tag a friend who is addicted to peanut butter.”
These posts offer little value to the user and can actually result in its reach decreasing drastically.
Focusing on more personable content that engages users either through emotion or intellect will also result in another important signal: shares. Facebook values shares because it signals to Facebook that the user values to content enough to share it with their friends and family.
The more shares a post gets, the more meaningful it’s to a large group of people, thus the more news feeds it will show up on. Sharing just isn’t valuable to Facebook, it’s valuable to your brand. It creates a buzz, reflects enthusiasm for your brand, and adds credibility to your content.
5. Curate and Share Niche-Friendly Content
It’s not enough to just share your voice and brand on your page. It’s wise to continue the generosity and share the content of others that’ll complement your niche.
Share information that complements what you offer. If your brand is one that teaches people how to live a vegan lifestyle, partner with other vegan food companies and nutritionists who agree with veganism. Share their content on your page. As you cross-promote with other complementary brands on social media, you’ll have an easier time with expansion and marketing.
Consider checking out the following tools that can help you find and schedule relevant content to share:
6. Engage with Your Followers
Auto-scheduling posts and forgetting about them is a huge mistake. Facebook is not meant to be a broadcast platform. It’s called SOCIAL media, after all. Take the time to follow up on follower comments, answer questions and respond to others’ posts on your page. Facebook marketing quizzes are another way to engage with people and could lead to finding out more about your audience.
Start up and manage Facebook groups related to your industry or participate in ones that are already there. In 2016, Facebook group users reached over one billion, with 850 million people using the feature each month. Just be sure not to over-promote yourself or spam your offerings and content.
Group admins are usually protective over pages promoting themselves on private groups. It’s best to be a helpful and contributing member of the group and offer your product or service only when in direct response to a user’s relevant question or query.
These six Facebook business page tips for 2018 will work effectively as a foundational effort. As you continue the process, you might find some Facebook business page tips that work even better. Don’t be afraid to implement new strategies and experiment. When you streamline a process that’s custom-made for your business, that’s when you’ll experience the sweet spot in building your brand online.
Want more tips to up your social media game in 2018? Contact us today, and we can take you through our process and give you some quick tips tailored to your brand. And while you’re at it, why don’t you go ahead and like us on Facebook?