Good news today. Yep, reeeeeally good news…
The news on the web is spreading like an oil stain. Facebook has changed his algorithms so that only a fraction of your fans will receive your updates on their wall. This will massively change the approach that several Facebook marketing strategies campaigns will take. What can you do about it?
It all started here, where Geoffrey Colon spoke in his blog about Facebook changing his Edgerank to shorten the reach that Facebook pages has on their fans.
This change, Geoffrey says, “comes at a time when Facebook is trying to maximize the amount of paid advertising it has on the platform, in an effort to bump its share price after a struggling stock share post-IPO.”
Around September 21, Facebook tweaked a major part of his Edgerank algorithm . With this tool, Facebook decides which posts (and how many) your fans are receiving in their timeline. This change resulted in a decreased reach of your page’s fans at around 40–50%.
Yes, Facebook essentially stole your fans and slashed in half your page’s value. How about that for your Facebook marketing strategy?
But there’s more! Several reports from different bloggers (starting from Jeff Doak and Geoffrey Colon) and more articles state that now you are organically reaching only around 12–15% of your fans. If you want to reach the other 85%, heh, you have to pay. A lot.
Yes, Facebook stole your fans and now he wants money to give them back. How nice of them! You may actually say now that Facebook Marketing is not worth your time anymore.
After understanding that we are going to reach 150 of your 1000 fans with our postings, spending almost 60$ per day (with 2–3 sponsored postings per day) to reach the other 850, what solutions can we find to solve this problem and the implement it in our Facebook marketing strategies?
Solution #1
Get out of Facebook!- Leave your buttons on your blog, leave your facebook autopost plugin on and just leave your facebook page alone. Just let it grow naturally, post automatically your new articles on your page and don’t do anything else. Focus more on Twitter and Google+ and stop caring about Facebook. Let your fans know that you’re focusing more on other platform and offer incentives for following your Twitter account or your Google+ profile
Solution #2
Keep posting on Facebook, but differently – You still think that Facebook is worth your time, or maybe it’s the only social platform you ever cared about since now. What can you do to still reap benefits from it? Here are 5 tips for ya:
#1 – Pay Them
If you have the money, then pay them. Pay to reach the fans you previously interacted with for free. You can find the button right when you publish something.
#2 – Post Media Rich Content
Instead of just links and text, post images, videos and podcasts. Post videos on Facebook (instead of Youtube) and share them, comunicate through images instead of text.
#3 – Post With The End In Mind
You know, like Stephen R. Covey (bless him) says: “Begin with the end in mind”. You should post with this end in mind: “I want to engage my peeps like they are my best friends and family”. So treat them like friends, show them that you care, share the hell out of your life (not only your business), be more personal. And also be viral.
#4 – Participate In Groups
Go out and write in Facebook Groups. Engage in conversations with members, be resourceful and helpful, give them extremely good content and answer their questions.
#5 – Notify Your Fans About The Edgerank Change
Tell them what happened with your no-more favourite social platform and ask them a favour. That is to add your page in their “Interest Lists”. This is a message you can copy and paste on your FB wall. It was taken from here
“ATTENTION FACEBOOK FANS…
Facebook now requires page admins to pay to promote their updates if we want our content to be seen by our fans who have already like our page. If we do not pay to promote our posts, only about 10% of the fans receive the updates on the Facebook home page feed.
To keep RECEIVING ALL POSTS FROM US you have to hover the mouse on the “Like” button near our name. In the drop-down menu select ”ADD TO INTEREST LISTS”. Then create an interest list (and make a name for your favorite sites). When you select that interest list you will again get all of our posts and not 10% of them.We recommend that you follow the above instructions for ANY Facebook page you care about, so you can continue seeing all the posts from the pages you already like.”
Or you can create an image, like Razer did.
So, on conclusion we can see that when a platform decides to screw with their user base because of money, the user base will revolt. Take this as a lesson. When you are marketing a product, always keep the customer needs in mind, solve them a problem and make a profit, but always keep the customer satisfaction on your mind and don’t be greedy.
What I will do in this scenario? I’ll still start my Facebook Page and plan my Facebook marketing strategies accordingly, because traffic needs to come from different sources, but the time I’ll spend on Facebook will be significantly less than on the other platform. Google+, here I come!
And on a last note, I wish to leave you with this quote from a Facebook representative that replied to the complaints of several businesses and blogs.
We’re continuing to optimize News feed to show the posts that people are most likely to engage with, ensuring they see the most interesting stories. This aligns with our vision that all content should be as engaging as the posts you see from friends and family.
Yeah, sure…
Please leave a comment below telling if this post was helpful to you or tell me your thoughts about the matter. Do you have any other tips to share with us? Write them in the comment’s section below.
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Hmm interesting read Luca.
I’ve only recently started using Facebook for business and not long had my fan page so I guess I don’t know how it was before the algorithm change.
I am pleased to see however that I am doing quite a few things that are on your list there.
For now I am happy enough with the amount of traffic that I get from Facebook, for the amount of effort I put in. I guess I will just have to see how it goes.
Thank you Michelle for your comment. People with big facebook pages are all concerned, and I should say that I’m not seeing any of your updates on your page either. I think this is something worth addressing. But of course, I’m not saying that now Facebook is completely useless, but that we need to approach it in a different angle than before.
Very interesting Luca, thank you for sharing!
Thank you Chiaretta for your comment!
This is the reason why I am not big fans of facebook fanpage. I prefer to use facebook group. Most people joining groups are more active than people joining fanpages. The only problem with groups is that you need to moderate it well else you will get spams.
BTW I like the video and image solution, they are more viral than text alone.
I think Facebook Groups and Pages serve different purposes. Groups are like forums, and I wouldn’t accept advertising on it, while on a Page I can advertise the heck out of my products and websites without any issue. But groups are a awesome way to promote the page and to keep the conversation going with other people that maybe liked your page.
When I start your Feed it appears to be to be a lot of junk, is the issue on my side?
When Someone googles something that relates to one of my wordpress blogs how can I get it to appear on the first page of their serach results?? Thanks!.
Collinson
This question needs a big reply. I’ll tell you two terms that you need to look up on google and implement in your marketing strategies: on-page SEO and keyword research.
Hey Luca, great post! I was not aware of this and appreciate the valuable information. I am just getting a fanpage started. So I will need to take a close look at how this will fit into my overall traffic strategy. Thanks again for the information!
No problem Donna. If you’ll ever need any assistance setting up your facebook page, just send me a message