Keep Calm and Keep Posting

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There has been a surge of panic amongst businesses since the release of the latest Facebook newsfeed algorithm change, prioritising “meaningful posts” from family and friends over those of businesses.

So what will this actually mean for businesses? Are they right to consider jumping from the Facebook ship entirely?

Well in a word, no. Rest assured there are ways to fight the change, however it really depends on your Facebook goals. Are you prepared to be in it for the long term, aiming to retain and build on a loyal customer base by putting in the effort and creating quality content, or does the idea of knowing ‘cheats’ and ‘hacks’ in order to gain some short-term ‘quick wins’ sound more appealing? The answer to succeeding on Facebook as a business actually requires a bit of both;

Increase your ad budget and target!

With the continuing decline of organic posts, for some time now Facebook has been very much a ‘pay to be seen’ platform for businesses. This still very much remains the case however businesses will need to pump more money into their ads and boost their posts to fight for exposure on Facebook.

Now is also the time that businesses need to become more savvy when using Facebook ads and take advantage of the multiple layers of targeting to maximise ROI and awareness. Rather than casting the net wide and advertising to a large, wide audience hoping for the best, the multiple layers of targeting allow you to target to the right quality audience who want to do business with you and so maximising your ROI.

Paying your way through Facebook requires some skill and expertise and as a freelance digital marketing consultant, the number of requests for help in managing this is significantly on the increase.

Ask a cheeky little favour from your audience...

There is a sneaky little way to overhaul the latest algorithm and remain in the eye of your customers… You can ask your customers to go to your business page, select ‘Following’ and then select ‘See First’ to realign their news feed preference so they see their favourite pages first!

However and this is a big HOWEVER, this will ONLY work if you have a very loyal fan base and are already providing them with engaging and meaningful content!

Increase your efforts and reap the rewards!

Businesses should not take their audience for granted and regardless of the latest algorithm, we should always aim to bring value and quality to our customers through QUALITY content. If you have been doing this all this time then you do not need to read on but if you have been panicked by this latest algorithm then read on…

As the saying goes, ‘what comes easy will not last and what will last will not come easy’…this applies perfectly to how businesses should tackle social media this year.

Content is EVERYTHING in 2018, in fact the latest digital marketing trends for 2018 have identified that this year is not about volume or reach, the focus is on targeting and segmenting high value audience and making them feel exclusive with the creation of intelligent content relevant to them.

Quality content does of course take time and effort, however the pay off will come as a result of this.

What does ‘quality content’ actually mean?

The latest Facebook algorithm no longer favours businesses using "engagement bait" posts which ask for likes, shares or comments nor do they like posts directing audiences away from Facebook, directly to their business website either.  Instead, businesses must ramp up their efforts and focus on creating quality, engaging, authentic, timely, on trend content that most importantly is relevant and valuable to your audience to attract as much natural and meaningful engagement as possible.   

Facebook want to be seen as  a source of quality content; if it’s good, they won’t mind sharing it with others in order to become better known as the place users should go to find content which they can be confident will be relevant and of high standard. Remember, if users enjoy your content on social media, then they will want to visit your website without you needing to direct them.

Consider engaging Facebook Live videos, high quality images and well written, original posts that show your business and your team at their best.

Get Creative and have Fun!

Rather than seeing it as a slog and a chore, use this opportunity to find your creative side and allow it to take over in 2018. Invest your time into creating and planning the best content possible to bring real value to real customers that will make them want to stay and listen to you!  

If you don’t have time to produce quality content yourselves, it is definitely worth the investment of paying somebody else to do it for you.

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