Like most of us, Face­book start­ed 2018 with a new year’s res­o­lu­tion to put fam­i­ly and friends first. Whilst for most of us, that trans­lates to fam­i­ly and friends being both­ered a lit­tle bit more, Face­book wants your fam­i­ly and friends to be both­ered a lit­tle bit less – by you.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

In one of Face­book’s biggest shake­ups, busi­ness­es and brands will see less promi­nence on peo­ple’s news­feeds, result­ing in some pret­ty big changes for users and for businesses. 

Bringing People Closer Together

Rem­i­nis­cent of Nokia’s con­nect­ing peo­ple, Face­book wants to bring peo­ple clos­er togeth­er by ensur­ing that time spent on Face­book, “is time well spent”. This is going to be achieved by pro­mot­ing con­tent that has “more mean­ing­ful social inter­ac­tions”, specifically:

1. Ensur­ing that users see more posts from Aun­ty Deb­bie and few­er posts from Uncle Advertising;
2. Ensur­ing qual­i­ty news, from trust­wor­thy sources (as rat­ed by Face­book users); and
3. Pri­ori­tis­ing local news, to bring com­mu­ni­ties togeth­er and encour­age civic engagement. 

Why?

Recent­ly, there has been a lot of focus on how social media can affect our health and hap­pi­ness in a bad way; and Face­book has tak­en note. Com­mis­sion­ing some of its own research, Face­book found that pas­sive social media makes us feel lone­ly and dis­con­nect­ed, whilst social media then encour­ages us to con­nect with peo­ple makes us hap­py and healthy and Face­book wants to pro­mote that. 

What’s Been The Reaction So Far?

Less time on Face­book. Facebook’s showed that since the change, users have been spend­ing less time on Face­book. 50 mil­lion hours less per day, to be pre­cise. That about two min­utes per user. 

What Does This Mean For You & What Can You Do?

You are like­ly to see a decrease in reach, refer­ral traf­fic and video watch time and you’ll have to work hard­er on your Face­book posts. We’re still wait­ing to see the full impli­ca­tions of the change but fol­low­ing these good prac­tice top tips, will help you to min­imise the impact and pro­mote the mean­ing­ful inter­ac­tions that Face­book is after:

1. Post engaging quality content

Ask ques­tions, divide opin­ion, seek com­ments — posts that spark inter­ac­tions, con­ver­sa­tion and debate will be pro­mot­ed by Face­book. It is impor­tant to under­stand your audi­ence and know what will cap­ture their atten­tion and make them inter­act with you. Embrace the changes to deliv­er inno­v­a­tive, diverse and share-wor­thy con­tent: Don’t be passive!

2. Do not use engagement bait

Like this post if you like piz­za!! This is not the way to get around the new changes. Engage­ment bait annoys users, annoys Face­book and will result in your con­tent being demot­ed. Plus, FYI, we all like pizza. 

3. Encourage followers

Remind your audi­ence that they can still fol­low your page and that,  if they want to see more of your engag­ing qual­i­ty con­tent and few­er pho­tos of their sister’s cat, they can, by select­ing See First in their news­feed preferences.

4. Create a Group

Since July 2017 pages have been able to cre­ate Face­book Groups and since Face­book Groups cen­tre around dis­cus­sions by super-fan, if they’re appro­pri­ate for your busi­ness or brand, they’re appro­pri­ate for being the per­fect way to engage with your users.

5. Work on your Facebook ads

Under­stand­ing how Face­book ads work and prop­er­ly tar­get­ing your posts to the right audi­ence is more impor­tant than ever. Organ­ic reach will decrease so using your Face­book ad spend strate­gi­cal­ly will help put you in front of the right people. 

6. Video

Face­book is still all for the video, espe­cial­ly Face­book Live, which they say leads to six times as many inter­ac­tions as stan­dard videos. Face­book’s announce­ment sug­gests that videos will see more pro­mo­tion than posts so if you haven’t delved there yet, con­sid­er it an impor­tant part of your 2018 mar­ket­ing plan.

7. Instruct an expert

Any­one can write but writ­ing qual­i­ty and engag­ing con­tent can be dif­fi­cult, espe­cial­ly when your social media promi­nence relies upon it. Don’t stare at a blank post screen – speak to some­one who knows.