Yeah, I know -- your Facebook reach is down.
Everyone's is.
It's a result of Facebook's rapid growth. But you shouldn't take it personally.
It just means your content strategy needs to evolve if you want to outpace competitors.
Let's face it -- the game of growing your business with Facebook has changed
And there's no better time than now to invest in your company & learn how to take your Facebook marketing campaigns to the next level.
The 20 Facebook resources in this post will help!
20 Must-Follow Facebook Resources to Improve Your Page's Reach
By now you've probably heard about the latest Facebook news feed announcements.
Here's a quick summary:
1. Less Visibility for Text Updates
First, Facebook told us text updates from pages wouldn't be shown as often:
The latest update to News Feed ranking treats text status updates from Pages as a different category to text status updates from friends. Posts from Pages behave differently to posts from friends and we are working to improve our ranking algorithms so that we do a better job of differentiating between the two types.
This will help us show people more content they want to see. Page admins can expect a decrease in the distribution of their text status updates …
So in a nutshell, text updates by pages aren't going to get as much reach in the news feed.
You can handle that, right?
2. Like Bait Gets the Axe
Then we were told that Like-bait posts wouldn't show up as much in the news feed:
'Like baiting' is when a post explicitly asks News Feed readers to like, comment or share the post in order to get additional distribution beyond what the post would normally receive.
People often respond to posts asking them to take an action, and this means that these posts get shown to more people, and get shown higher up in News Feed. However, when we survey people and ask them to rate the quality of these stories, they report that like-baiting stories are, on average, 15% less relevant than other stories with a comparable number of likes, comments and shares. Over time, these stories lead to a less enjoyable experience of Facebook since they drown out content from friends and Pages that people really care about.
The improvement we are making today better detects these stories and helps ensure that they are not shown more prominently in News Feed than more relevant stories from friends and other Pages. This update will not impact Pages that are genuinely trying to encourage discussion among their fans, and focuses initially on Pages that frequently post explicitly asking for Likes, Comments and Shares.
So in a nutshell, if you ask for Likes, comments or shares, you may get punished by Facebook.
Got it.
>> Click to Tweet <<
3. Frequently Circulated Content a No-No
Then we found out that Facebook is cracking down on pages that post the same content other pages have published over & over again:
People and Pages on Facebook frequently reshare great content, but people tell us there are occasionally instances where photos or videos are uploaded to Facebook over and over again. We’ve found that people tend to find these instances of repeated content less relevant, and are more likely to complain about the Pages that frequently post them. We are improving News Feed to de-emphasize these Pages, and our early testing shows that this change causes people to hide 10% fewer stories from Pages overall.
For example, this could affect non-official Facebook pages of a sports teams or brands who re-post a lot of over-posted images.
Ok, fine -- most of these pages aren't legitimate businesses anyway.
4. Say Goodbye to Spammy Links
And here's the recent Facebook news I really support:
Some stories in News Feed use inaccurate language or formatting to try and trick people into clicking through to a website that contains only ads or a combination of frequently circulated content and ads. For instance, often these stories claim to link to a photo album but instead take the viewer to a website with just ads.
By measuring how frequently people on Facebook who visit a link choose to like the original post or share that post with their friends, we’ve been able to better detect spammy links. The update we are making today improves News Feed to reduce cases of these spammy links, and in our early testing we’ve seen a 5% increase in people on Facebook clicking on links that take them off of Facebook – this is a big increase in the context of News Feed and is a good sign that people are finding the remaining content in their News Feed more relevant and trustworthy.
There shouldn't be a place for links on Facebook that don't take the user to the website they intended to visit.
>> Click to Tweet <<
What this All Means for Your Page Reach
These updates spell death for some Facebook pages -- there's just no way around it.
And that's ok!
When silly, spammy content starts to take over Facebook, that's when people will leave the site.
And that's bad for everyone -- especially business owners trying to get engagement from fans.
Fewer people using Facebook means fewer opportunities to sell your product.
Your Facebook Reach may suffer if you post the type of content described above. But if you've posted high-quality stuff all along, recent news feed algorithm updates might actually improve your results.
Still confused? Don't worry, we all are.
But hopefully the 20 links below will help improve your page reach moving forward:
Leverage the News Feed
These 5 articles help you understand news feed algorithm changes & ways you can benefit from the tweaks.
- How to Visually Brand Your Facebook Posts and LIGHT UP the News Feed
- 9 Ways to Game the Facebook News Feed (this Stuff Really Works)
- Here’s the Only Way to Guarantee Your Fans See ALL Your Facebook Posts
- 5 Things Facebook is Trying to Tell Us With Its New Algorithm Update
- RANT: I Mean It This Time, STOP Complaining About Facebook!
What You Should Post on Facebook
We spend most of our time at Post Planner helping small businesses figure out what to post on their pages.
Here's a handful of resources to help your business:
- 7 Surprising Places to Find Awesome Posts for Facebook
- STOP Thinking Facebook is Trying to Screw You! Take Action Instead
- Your Facebook Posts Will Probably Go Viral if You Follow These 5 Steps
- 8 Facebook Contest Ideas You Can Run on Your Timeline TODAY
- How to Find Viral Photos from Forbes’ Top 50 Social Media Influencers
- What to Post on Facebook When You Don’t Know What to Post
- Here’s the Easiest Way to Run a Facebook Timeline Contest for FREE
- 4 Annoying Facebook Habits Your Business Needs to Stop RIGHT NOW
- How to Create Stunning Social Media Graphics WITHOUT Photoshop
Facebook Ads & Insights
Your posting strategy is only 1 component of your Facebook marketing strategy.
You also need to understand how to measure results of your posts using Facebook Insights -- and how to run Facebook ads to expose your posts & page to more users.
These articles can help:
- How to Use Promoted Page Ads to Get Tons of New Likes on Facebook
- 3 Facebook Ad Strategies that Won’t Break the Bank
- Never Get Confused by Facebook Ads Terminology Again!
- Stop Promoting your Facebook Posts to Non-Fans. You’re Pissing People Off!
- How to Find the 3 KEY Gender Ratios of Your Facebook Fans
- Instantly Discover Which Posts Work Best on Your Facebook Page
Conclusion
Here's my bet:
If you read all 20 articles here, you will have more knowledge about Facebook marketing than a lot of people who blog about it for a living. ;)
But don't tell the experts I said that.
And if you really want to keep learning & improving your page, you should:
- subscribe to the Post Planner blog
- use our app to discover viral photos & trending content to share with your fans
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