The Latest Facebook Changes Marketers Should Be Aware Of

If you use Facebook for any reason at all then you know the platform is always changing. It is hard to keep on top of all the changes because they are so frequent. However, one recent change is very important to online or social media marketers. Facebook has changed their algorithm to penalise page posts asking users specifically to like, comment, or share the post.

Photo Credit: TechCrunch.com

No “Like-Baiting”

Asking Facebook users to like, comment, or share a post has become a common practice with pages but Facebook now considers this a type of SPAM and will be assigning less weight to these type of posts making them show up less often in the organic results. Facebook explained that they recently tweaked their algorithm to limit the prominence of what they call “Like-baiting”. Previously, the engagement factors of liking, commenting, and sharing on posts would push the posts up and make them more visible. However, Facebook explained in their Newsroom Update last month, “when we survey people and ask them to rate the quality of these stories, they report that like-baiting stories are, on average, 15% less relevant than other stories with a comparable number of likes, comments and shares. Over time, these stories lead to a less enjoyable experience of Facebook since they drown out content from friends and Pages that people really care about.”

How to Get Your Post Seen on Facebook

TechCrunch detailed how to make your business page posts show up in the news feed in light of the latest changes. In addition to posting often and choosing interesting and engaging content, here are their tips:

• Don’t explicitly ask users to like, comment on, or share your posts, either in text or photos. Facebook will detect this and reduce your reach
• Don’t share the same content repeatedly. Yes, it might be important to you, but your fans don’t want to see it in their feeds multiple times. If you need to share the same link, do it with a different description or photo each time.
• Don’t say a link leads to one thing when it really goes somewhere else. AKA don’t say “check out our photo gallery” and instead link them to an ecommerce purchase page or site with nothing but ads. Facebook will likely see that users start browsing their feed again a half-second after clicking your link because what was on the other side was a scam, and beat you up for it.

It’s all about the Quality

In addition to this algorithm update, in December, Facebook announced that they were moving in favour of higher quality posts versus memes and cute pictures. So if you have seen a reduction in organic Facebook engagement, think about the type of posts you have been featuring. It is still OK to post cute pictures and fun memes, especially if that is what your target audience loves. However, you should consider adding some rich and engaging content that matches the cute imagery and further informs and interests your Facebook fans, customers, or clients.