By now you’ve probably noticed that your Facebook views, likes, and everything else on your brand’s page have been reduced dramatically. This could send you into a panic since you’re going to naturally assume you’re doing something wrong or, worse, offended somebody and didn’t know it.
However, that’s not the case (well, hopefully at least). Facebook has gone through some changes recently you may not be aware of that are affecting how many of your fans are noticing your posts. They’ve tweaked their EdgeRank algorithm to make “organic” views more difficult for you so you’ll buy promoted posts. It’s simply a way for them to make more money.
This doesn’t help you at all, though. You still need to reach the people you’ve already gathered plus get more fans. You don’t exactly have a ton of money at your disposal so you can’t promote every single post you make. What to do?
Lots of Work
The good news is you can come up with workarounds to get your world back in order. The bad news is it’s going to take lots of work. This means more time spent on social media in the future if you want it to succeed which could potentially take time away from other aspects of your job.
But it’s worth the work. Facebook has almost annihilated brand pages’ previous forms – now only 3% of your fans typically see your posts. If you post something to a page that has 100 fans, only 3 stand to ever see it. That’s abysmal and it only stands to get worse.
Facebook actually has some of their own ideas on how to proceed without buying promoted posts that, surprisingly, aren’t terrible. For one, they say to emphasize creativity rather than mindless posting. The better your content, the more likely it will be seen and shared by your fans so their friends and family can see it.
Another tactic they say to try is to concentrate more on gaining fans via other means. Link to your Facebook page from other websites like your blog or on Twitter or via content like press releases or even offline meet-ups. This way the people on your page are true fans and if they actually see a post they’ll be more likely to view it and share it.
Buying a Post
At some point you might actually want to consider buying a promoted post. While the whole scheme Facebook is pulling is to blatantly increase their ad revenue, they do make one true point. They argue that the web and social media is so crowded that your readers have less of a chance of seeing your posts than ever before.
There’s no denying this point. The online world is a sublimely busy place and while Facebook is aiding this by changing their algorithm, most people would bypass your post anyway. There’s simply too much to see and do.
So a promoted post could be worth your time and money. However, it has to be amazing to spend your hard-earned money on, so you don’t want to just throw any old thing out there. Again, Facebook has some good advice: testing. After you create a blog post, infographic, or whatever else you think is ideal, test it in other arenas first.
Maybe you’re doing an offline event soon and can use it as a handout? Whatever the case, you’ll be able to tell if audiences respond or not. Only then should you consider shelling out for Facebook’s new scheme.
Are you pulling back from Facebook after the algorithm change? What other social strategies are you trying?
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