To get the most out of a Facebook business page, you’ll need to understand Facebook’s latest changes.
Back in the day, your Facebook News Feed displayed posts from every person you were friends with and content from every page you followed. This was great news for businesses that used Facebook in their social media efforts – having content show up in the News Feed of their fans was a breeze.
Now, Facebook’s News Feed algorithm can be a minor annoyance for end users and a huge hassle for business pages. If you have a Facebook page for your business it’s important to understand Facebook’s latest changes and how they can affect your page.
Facebook’s ads have changed
Facebook has announced that the ads on the right-hand side of the page will be changing in coming months.
The new ads will be larger and look similar to standard News Feed images. Since there will be fewer ads, businesses who use paid advertising with Facebook will have to wait and see if prices increase. The good news is that these new ads seem to increase engagement, so if you have Facebook advertising dollars in your marketing budget, that money could soon get you better results.
Mobile ads have changed, too
Facebook’s mobile ad network has also changed drastically, with the intent of making ads more relevant to users and more lucrative to developers and advertisers. The Audience Network lets mobile developers choose the best ad formats for their app, and advertisers can also target their ads for certain apps.
Facebook is battling spam
Spam has been a huge issue for Facebook, with tons of irrelevant content cluttering up users’ News Feeds. Facebook is trying to fix that (which is one of the reasons that content from business pages is often hidden) in a few ways.
“Like-baiting” is being punished
If you’ve typically asked users to “like”, “share”, or “comment” on a post in order to increase engagement, your content could be hidden. This is called “like-baiting,” and Facebook is trying to hide it from users’ Newsfeeds.
How will you know if your page is being affected? Look at the Insights for your page and keep an eye on the reach of your posts.
Duplicate content is frowned on
Facebook’s changes make it so that duplicate content shows up less often in News Feeds. If you share great content from other sources, plus great original content of your own, your page won’t be affected.
Saying congratulations could rank your Facebook post higher
Facebook is always trying to improve its ranking algorithm so that more relevant content shows up in users’ feeds. Sometimes, the tweaks are tiny. For example, if you use the word “congratulations” in a post, it could show up in more News Feeds. Since the word is typically associated with big life events, Facebook’s algorithm ranks it higher.
Of course, don’t count on the small changes to game Facebook. If you want your Facebook marketing efforts to succeed, you’ll have to play the game with them, and understanding the platform’s latest changes is one way to do that.
