The Latest Facebook Changes and What They Mean for Your Business Page

If there is anything that remains the same, it is that things always change. Facebook is no exception; it is pretty well-known that users have been enraged many times with Facebook’s changes. It’s one thing if access to your friends and family changes around or looks different, but when Facebook makes changes that affect your business page and the advertising features, it’s definitely important to take note. Here are some of the recent Facebook changes that affect either company pages or advertising on the social network.

Facebook Pages Feed

In November of 2012 Facebook added a feed for the pages users like or follow. This is a separate feed from the news feed. According to Facebook, the news feed is for the most engaging content, the pages feed shows the content users are most likely going to want to see just from the pages they follow. Facebook uses a specific algorithm to determine what is shown from business pages both in the news feeds and in the pages feeds of users.

Here are the four main factors that Facebook says they look at in determining what content from pages are shown:

1. If you interacted with an author’s posts before: If you Like every post by a Page that Facebook shows you, it will show you more from that Page.
2. Other people’s reactions to a specific post: If everyone else on Facebook shown a post ignores it or complains, it’s less likely to show you that post.
3. Your interaction with posts of the same type in the past: If you always Like photos, there’s a better chance you’ll see a photo posted by a Page.
4. If that specific post has received complaints by other users who have seen it, or the Page who posted it has received lots complaints in the past, you’ll be less likely to see that post. This factor became a lot more prevalent starting in September 2012.

In the months leading up to this announcement, most Facebook page administrators had noticed and increasing trend that their pages were reaching less viewers. After this change was enacted just a few months ago, it incited a big controversy and much outrage that Facebook purposely reduced the reach of business pages in an attempt to increase advertising. Facebook denied the claims stating that they simply were trying to provide the most important information to users that have such a limited time to spend on the social network. So what does this mean to brands on Facebook? Make sure to be smart and selective about the content you post, do not spam the page followers with useless content that is too sales-related and not engaging or interesting to them. The other thing that you can do is to post a message to your Facebook page followers asking them to get updates from your page or add your page to their interest lists.The instructions are simple, mouse over the page, then mouse over the “liked” icon, a drop down will appear and they can select Get Updates, or Add to interest lists. The more often that Facebook users interact with your page, the more likely that your page posts will show up in their news feed and pages feed.

Facebook Ad Tool

Facebook recently added an Ad Tool that allows Facebook marketers access to tools that make creating, managing, and tracking sponsored posts much more easy and convenient. The Facebook Ad Tool gives easy access to manage and create sponsored posts and Facebook ads. The latest addition to this tool is conversion tracking. Facebook has highlighted published case studies that show how using the conversion tracking feature has lowered costs and increased ROI for advertisers who are already taking advantage of the newest features. The sponsored ads on Facebook now promote your ads and posts not only to those who follow your page, but also will be shown to those who are not yet connected with your brand on Facebook.

Facebook’s Guaranteed Inbox

One feature to watch is Facebook’s new inbox experiment. Facebook currently lets individual users send guaranteed inbox mail to other users outside of their network. Currently message can be sent to people users are not connected with, but it will be placed in the “other” inbox and has a large chance of being unseen or ignored. Facebook is testing out the concept of charging $1 to send mail that will end up in users’ inbox.  This feature is one to keep a close eye on because it may soon be released to businesses on Facebook. Having the ability to send a highly targeted email will be a great addition to companies’ Facebook marketing strategy.

Facebook is a great way for companies to interact with current and potential customers. Keeping on top of the latest changes on Facebook will help marketers’ efforts on the social network and insure that your business is getting a return on its investment in social media.