After the announcement was made by Adam Mosseri that Facebook would be changing its newsfeed, the world seems shocked and horrified. Brand Candy has been receiving lots of questions all of which ring slightly with alarm, “Facebook is doing what? What are we going to do?”
First of all, take a deep breath, have a cup of coffee, relax.
The world hasn’t gone mad. Facebook is making some changes to their algorithms, the same algorithms which decide what you will see first on your newsfeed.
Hold your horses – it’s going to be okay
The changes Facebook is making simply means organic posts made by brands and businesses will be seen less. Facebook wants its users to interact with their friends more. This will encourage a positive and happy experience online as users connect with loved ones more often.
This means businesses are challenged from a marketing perspective, especially if they regularly post promotional content. As a company that handles the brand awareness of various businesses, Brand Candy will naturally adapt as the environments we work on require us to, calmly and with the same energy and enthusiasm, we’ve always had.
Organic and Boosted Posts – A quick crash course
Facebook, like Google, wants the user-experience of their product to be positive, as we all do with our businesses, right? For this reason, Facebook’s algorithms display posts based on what they believe people will enjoy the most. Organic posts, created by both people and Pages, are generally ranked according to their popularity. For example, a post with 100 views will be given a lower ranking than a post with 500 views. Facebook sees that the post with 500 views is popular and shows it to more people.
Boosted posts, on the other hand, are paid adverts in the form of a post. Boosted posts are displayed higher on people’s newsfeeds because business Pages have paid to be featured. This is an important revenue stream for Facebook and it won’t be affected by the changes.
Facebook’s ability to display adverts to relevant audiences is so brilliant, people rarely notice they’re being advertised to, which is exactly what they’re going for and exactly why it packs a powerful punch.
The Brand Candy approach – sweeter than ever
Here in creative paradise, we ensure our clients’ content is of a high quality as we strive to add value to both our clients’ customers and to the online world, simultaneously. This translates into posts which are not spammy, overly promotional or lacking substance. It’s safe to say we’re not panicked about the changes, we will sweeten the taffy by implementing the following adaptations to our Facebook strategy.
- We will be placing more emphasis on increasing our clients’ interactions online, through increased engagement with the posts of others and showing a greater presence outside of posting to newsfeeds. This will require a more “human element” in our approach, exactly what Facebook is looking for.
- We will allocate time to creating different campaigns with our boosted posts, ensuring we attract brand awareness primarily, and promote products as a secondary goal. Once again, we want to add value to Facebook rather than simply broadcasting.
- While we will continue to produce the same high-quality content we always have, our focus will be to make it more shareable. This could mean more tutorials, more humour, more content that is in demand. We want our clients’ customers to talk about them simply because they’re drawn to do so.
Facebook changes? Candy can-can!
As they say: “that’s the way the cookie crumbles”, but these changes aren’t necessarily all that bad. Sure, we all have to step-up our game a bit, but keeping us on our toes is what has made Facebook one of the most popular online social platforms for the last 14 years. Being on our toes is great, Brand Candy has heels to match because, despite the challenges, this move is a positive one. MySpace is a reminder of where social platforms go to die, so let’s not forget that user-friendliness is what makes Facebook a relevant “thing”.
Facebook is just raising its standards which will keep audiences engaged and ultimately provide a more effective platform to market on. After all, no one turns on the TV for the adverts. Let’s make Facebook great again.
Here at creative paradise we always have new knowledge and wisdom to share. If you feel like you could handle a little “know-how” like the cool kids, join us on one of our social media courses. If you’ve already mastered that, level up and grab a spot in our content marketing course. Get in touch, or book your space here.