What the "New Facebook" means for brands

Earlier this year, Facebook’s creator, Mark Zuckerberg made the official announcement: “One of our big focus areas for 2018, is making sure the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent.”

In lieu of reading the long version of the statement, that of course, debuted on his platform – here’s what you need to know:

This year, Facebook has been slowly changing its algorithms so that people see less news, advertisements, and business posts and more from their family and friends. This decision was made to build stronger sense of community and have less passive experiences on the platform.

What does this mean for brands and businesses trying to grow through the application?

It’s simple. We’ve got to change our strategies…again.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For brands, it means that we’ve got to be adamant about community building and growing conversations and more personal connections.

It’s less about sales, more about relationships (which generate more sales and loyalty in the long run, so we might be on to something!)

So how do we go about doing this?

Use the new features and algorithms to your advantage. Zuckerberg said that the changes are coming, all 2018. Just easing into the second quarter, here’s what’s changed so far – and how your brand can use it for business.

1.    TALK ABOUT IT

Facebook is making sure that people are actively interacting with posts.

Zuckerberg made it clear that the folks over at Facebook are trying to bring the social back to social media. They’re honing in and rewarding active interactions on users’ content.

“Instead of focusing on what makes content popular and attention-grabbing, we need to focus on what makes content personal and conversation-worthy,” said marketing and storytelling freelancer, Alaura Weaver.

What’s the difference between active and passive interactions?

Active:

-        Commenting – you want comments! “Page posts that generate conversation between people will show higher in the News Feed,” said Adam Mosseri.

-        Sharing  -- this doesn’t only include public shares on people’s pages, this includes private shares within the Messenger app. There’s bonus points here too, for shared content that produce a new spark in conversation.

-        Reacting – these aren’t nearly as important, but it’s a third way to judge how well your post is doing and how it will be ranked in the land of Facebook News Feeds. Likes are great indicators, as well as the “haha”, “angry” and other emoticon responses.

Passive:

-        Clicking

-        Watching

-        Viewing or Hovering

Need more in-depth understanding? Check out this blog post on Buffer!

How to use this:

Instead of creating content that sells, instead focus on content that tells. Think about it like speed dating. In just a couple of minutes, you want to introduce yourself and share some key things about you and your life that make the person want to continue the conversation, and then tell others.

Your content should put your brand’s best foot forward and provide just enough information that gets users to ask more questions, share with friends, visit your website, or more.

Or as Brian Peters puts it, “Instead of creating content, for your brand, that people interact with, we need to start creating content, for the people, that will spark enough emotion to generate a comment or share.”

Be careful not to fall into click-bait or share-bait style posts. Facebook’s filters are weeding out bait posts whose caption contains “ ‘ LIKE’ if ______________ ‘ “ or “ ‘ SHARE this post if __________________’ “ Posts like this will de-prioritize your content on the strategic news feed algorithm.

2.    ORGANIC VIDEO IS STILL ON THE RISE.

Users are really digging video. Video is KING and with live streaming now on the rise. According to BuzzSumo, video is doing number on social, especially Facebook. People are logging on to the site and watch a record-breaking amount of content as of 2017.

How to use this: In short, make more videos! Here are some helpful stats to get you going:

-        The length of video that gets the most engagement: 60 – 90 seconds

-        The topics with the most engagement: Food, Health & Beauty, Animals, DIY, Humor

-        Facebook Live viewership has increased. The average watch time: 20 minutes

-        The most engaging videos had very short captions – an average of 89 characters long

For more stats and tips, check out that article here.

3.    ORGANIC COSTS MORE.

Much like when you’re shopping at your local Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, you have likely understood pretty quickly that organic costs more. In the past year or so, brands’ Facebook content has faced a serious decline in ROI in organic reach. When posting, you may be tempted to just post and forget, because it’s “great content.” While it may be, results prove that the new Facebook is better with “Pay to Play.”

How to use this: Create evergreen content. Try to produce posts that can last on someone’s newsfeed for longer than a couple days or weeks. Then, have a budget. Part of your new strategy should include some funds set aside for Facebook Ads. When you do this, you will be able to target the right audiences and will likely increase more active interactions.

Remember, more interactions mean higher rating on news feeds!

4.    MAKE FRIENDS

If you aren’t using Facebook Groups, it might be time to give it a try. Among many companies and solo-preneurs, groups have been a major key to their success.

Why?

It’s like one big pow wow of people bonding over a shared interest. Your Facebook group is your niche community. There’s room for a myriad of conversations relating to your group’s topic where you, as the brand, can guide engagement or allow the members to take them in all new ones.

How to use this: Start now. You don’t have to wait to get a huge amount of following to get started. Log onto your brand’s Facebook page and create a group. This will be your online Hub to grow your following and allow your followers to get to know one another. It’s about community after all

One great one that I’m a member of is “The Content Club” by Maya Elious. In it, more than 4,000 members come together to ask each other questions, collaborate on projects, share industry news, and ask for insight.

Final thoughts…

Every time there’s a platform or algorithm change, the internet is taken by a storm with gripes and dissatisfaction as it interrupts the current flow of business. Let me let you in on a secret: it’s going to keep happening. Over, and over, and over again.

What can you do to stay above the curve?

Keep up with social media trends. Thanks to some of my favorite social media stars: Hootsuite, Social Media Today and Buffer – we can keep up with the latest on socials: tips, tricks, and the dread, algorithm changes.

Then, adapt. Part of being a great social media manager, marketer, content creator, or user is having adaptability (and a lot of it!) Things will change, so learn how to change with it!

“Any time we see a new platform or a new feature, we immediately begin testing it to see how it can work for us,” Buzzfeed’s VP of Operations, Michelle Kempner told Forbes. They too, have been experiencing decreases in engagement from Facebook.

(I know, amazing, right?!)

Catch the wave.

Produce good content. A/B Test. Listen to responses, or lack thereof. Revise. Redo.

Facebook is changing – your strategy should too. Make it work for you!

Happy Facebooking!