How the New Facebook Will Affect Your Business
Facebook has always been a great tool when it comes to growing your business for free. You can engage with customers, market your product or service, and increase your brand awareness all through one social media platform; however, within the next several months Facebook will be altering their newsfeed algorithm, and it could affect your business more than you realize.
Have you noticed that fewer people are seeing your posts? Did you think you were doing something wrong? Well don’t worry, it’s not you. Facebook has explained that they’ve altered their algorithm to more often display posts from friends, family and groups you’re apart of, rather than posts from businesses. Facebook claims that this is what their users want to see more of.
Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, said that they will no longer prioritize helping their users find “relevant content”, but that their new goal is to help users “have more meaningful interactions”. Zuckerberg believes that a more “active and communal approach” to the site is better for users, and he wants to promote more posts that encourage that. We understand why Facebook feels this is necessary. In the past, Facebook feeds have been over saturated with advertisements and business posts. There were times when many personal posts were missed due to the over saturation of these posts. With this change, businesses will have to strive to make content more engaged and note-worthy to followers so that they are sharing the posts.
Because this new algorithm is designed to benefit users, not marketers, businesses will have to find a new way to approach the site. In order to continue building a thriving business, make sure you’re building your audience on multiple platforms—don’t just rely on Facebook. But with that being said, Facebook can still be an amazing resource. While businesses enjoy Facebook because it’s free, buying ad space guarantees that your content will be seen. Encouraging engagement on your posts will also increase the likelihood of Facebook showing that post to more people. Use Facebook Live, ask questions to spark discussion and respond to user comments! Building real relationships with your audience is the key to continue building your business on Facebook.
