Facebook is rolling out an Armageddon-like slew of
Algorithm updates which we expect will cause a steep decline in organic reach for most businesses and brands. But don’t fear – we’re here to help with 5 Facebook strategies that will ensure you continue to reach your community in this post-apocalyptic Facebook world.
Leverage Facebook’s ‘See First’ Function
We’ve been saying for a couple of years (since the See First feature launched!) that businesses need to run campaigns that encourage users to make their page “See First”. Surprisingly, we still don’t see a lot of this kind of promotion happening yet. This is likely because it
is a complicated ask compared to a simple “share this post” promotion.
Having a user follow your page and make it “See First” will mean that ALL of your posts automatically show at the top of their News Feed every time they log in to Facebook. It’s essentially your way around the Facebook Algorithm! Pretty valuable, right.
To do this, you could run time-sensitive competitions or promotions with a call-to-action of “make us ‘See First’ so you don’t miss the update!”.
Leverage the "See First" button on your page with paid Facebook campaigns.
Types of campaigns where this call-to-action would work:
- We’re launching a new product, but stocks are limited! Make us ‘See First’ in your News Feed to be the first to hear about it.
- We’re giving away a [product/prize] to the first 5 people who reply to our competition post. Make us ‘See First’ in your News Feed so you’ve got the best shot of getting in quickly!
- We’ve got a 24-hour sale coming up one day this week and we’re ONLY announcing it here! You’ll need to keep an eye out so you don’t miss it. Make us ‘See First’ in your News Feed to be the first to hear about it.
Quality Over Quantity
Of course, if your users do make you ‘See First’ (or even if they don’t!) you now have a massive opportunity to make an impact on them by posting high quality content that is entertaining, educational, and engaging in a way that suits your brand.
But ‘See First’ strategies aside, your content should always be consistently high quality to ensure you’re viewed favourably by Facebook’s algorithm. If you’re posting consistently but 80% of your posts aren’t very engaging – they’re salesy, promotional, spammy and don’t provide value – then even if you
do post highly engaging content 20% of the time, Facebook will have already flagged your page as low quality.
Think hard about what value you can offer your community – what is going to entertain, engage, promote discussion, and leave an impression? Ask yourself, “if I was following my businesses Facebook page, what would I want to see from them? Why would I follow it in the first place?”. Provide your community with that!
Post quality content on a consistent basis. Posting for the sake of posting could be doing you more harm than good.
Example of quality content for your audience: our client Adreno Spearfishing has learned what type of content works. For this client, sharable content is key, where content tends to encourage their audience to comment other spearfishing friends.
Groups
As Facebook roles out these new algorithm changes, you’ve probably noticed a massive spike in the amount of content you see from Facebook Groups. Facebook Groups instill a sense of community, and are a forum for discussion. Discussion, Zucks has said, is what he wants to promote more of in the News Feed.
The benefit of getting onboard with Facebook Groups is that once people have joined the group they will receive notifications directly in their notification centre about Group activity including new posts, posts their friends have liked or commented on etc.
At a time where we’re all vying for the attention of our communities, having a front row seat to the notifications centre is
priceless.
Adreno Spearfishing recently jumping to the trend of creating Facebook groups.
To capitalize on this trend, you can:
- Create Facebook Groups within your business page. Don’t make it spammy or promotional – make it a valuable forum for people to engage with your business in a relevant way. For example, if you run a local sporting goods store consider starting a social club and promoting social events. If you’re a trade services business, use the group as an FAQs forum where the community can seek advice and post photos on issues you might be able to help with.
- Join forces with local community groups. If you don’t have a group of your own yet, get in touch with the admins who run local community groups or groups that are relevant to your business. Join forces and run a promotion together to get exposure for your business as the majority of people in that Facebook Group will receive a notification about your promotion. As always, don’t make it spammy – make it valuable.
Here’s a prediction for the future – just like businesses can create audiences of people who have engaged with their Facebook page, Facebook video, Facebook event and much more, we predict that soon businesses will be able to create audiences of people who are members of specific groups.
Think towards the future with your strategies, get on board with Groups now and it will pay dividends in the not-so-far future.
Live Videos
Videos are still favoured under the Facebook algorithm. This is because Facebook want to give YouTube a run for their money. Afterall, YouTube are the second largest search engine in the world after Google, and Facebook wants a slice of that attention!
In his announcement, Zuckerberg wrote that
“live videos often lead to discussion among viewers on Facebook—in fact, live videos on average get six times as many interactions as regular videos.”
Live videos are quick and easy to do – there’s no editing required, and you can simply use the tool that rarely leaves anyone’s side – your smart phone!
Adreno Spearfishing captialising on live videos; in this case, supporting Valentines campaigns!
Increase Your Facebook Ads Budget
All of these strategies will be highly valuable investments of your time. But at the end of the day, organic reach is not something to be relied on. It’s not a stand-alone strategy and it must be coupled with a decent advertising budget.
Facebook ads are the single best way to engage with people who matter to your business. Coupling a strong organic strategy with smart and efficient paid ad campaigns will see your business excel. We’ve proven this with every client we’ve worked with!
