Facebook's Latest Change Could Help or Hurt

In January, Facebook announced another change to its algorithm, the mechanism that determines what shows up on the news feed. 

Not again. Why?

You may have noticed that your reach, which is defined by how many people see your post, has drastically shrunk over the past year or so.  Facebook's answer to this is simple -- there are far too many posts occurring to have everything visible on the news feed. Posts are ranked based upon audience engagement, rewarding quality content by appearing on more news feeds.

So, what is quality content?

The Facebook developer team described quality content by the following:

1. Is the content timely and relevant?
2. Is the content from a trusted source?
3. Would you share it with friends or recommend it to others?
4. Is the content genuinely interesting to you or is it trying to “game” (or trick) the News Feed algorithm?
5. Would you complain about seeing this content in your News Feed? 

What other changes took place in 2014?

Facebook also announced a crack down on "like baiting", in other words, downgrading posts that ask the reader to "like" something -- a page, picture or post which artificially creates higher engagement. Basically, if your content can't stand up for itself as being engaging, don't expect Facebook to reward you.

Which brings us to the changes announced in January, 2015
 
Stop promoting!  No, really, Facebook will devalue posts that are promotional. Best practices for Facebook content follows the 80/20 rule (80% of your content should be useful, relevant, educational, engaging, etc. while only 20% should be promotional). 


Here's an example of one post written two ways:

Let's say you are a veterinarian clinic, posting about flea/tick prevention.

Example #1:  "Ever wonder when you should apply flea/tick medicine?" which includes a photo of a dog and link to a blog post on their website which educates the reader and includes a link to the product.
Example #2:  "Don't forget - now is the time to buy flea/tick medicine for your best friend. We're offering 10% off all month." which includes a photo of a dog and link to the product on their website." 

Both posts get the reader off Facebook to the website, which is good, but post #1 will be preferred by Facebook. So, whether you're a restaurant, hair salon, lawn care company, dentist, or photographer, keep the self-promotion to a minimum. If you want to promote, use the paid advertising feature.

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