Articles
Adapting to Facebook’s New Algorithm
by Jeremy Banks EvolutesixMany of those who manage Facebook business pages may have noticed this by now:
The organic reach of their posts has drastically decreased.
It is not because they have made a mistake with their interactions, or that their posts are inherently bad. It may just be time to adjust to Facebook’s new algorithm.
Recently, Facebook has begun prioritizing content from user friends over those from brands and companies. Giving more importance to user-created posts means that businesses will have a more difficult time gaining attention through organic means alone. They will have to rely on paid advertising to have more exposure with Facebook users.
Online marketing news site Marketing Dive states that the price for an ad on Facebook increased to a staggering forty-three percent during Q4 2017. However, the number of ad impressions only increased by a mere four percent.
Not only that, but users were reportedly spending less time on the social media site. It was estimated that the time spent by users now decreased by five percent. That’s around fifty million views, according to news publication Quartz. This is directly related to Facebook’s new changes with News Feed content.
While at first glance, this is bad news for a Facebook ads service provider, it might actually be the opposite.
Despite the bleak outlook shared by some experts in digital marketing, the sheer size of Facebook’s user population still makes the social media platform highly attractive to advertisers. Brands will still be willing to shell out extra cash for their Facebook ad budget because of that, and they already are. Facebook’s revenue is still growing despite the new changes that have turned off some users and advertisers.
There is another positive point worth pondering upon. This shift to prioritizing more relevant content means that more effort will be made into improving advertisements. Think of it as Facebook bringing the good ads out of the sea of bad ones. Brands will now be obligated to post higher quality content to Facebook’s users. In the long run, quality will win more views, engagements, and followers than quantity.
It is a dangerous thing to grow complacent as a digital marketer. Perhaps this is the mistake that many advertisers have made, and is the reason why many of them watch Facebook’s change with a more pessimistic perspective. They have been brought out of their comfort zone. It is true that Facebook is a very useful channel for businesses to promote themselves. It provides them with the tools they need to start marketing, and more.
But it should always be remembered that Facebook did not start out this way. It’s original purpose was to connect people together; the feature that allowed businesses to have their own pages did not come until later. Perhaps it is time that advertisers do the same and connect better with their followers through, as Facebook would say, “more meaningful content”.
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About Jeremy Banks 
Evolutesix
72 connections, 3 recommendations, 318 honor points.Joined APSense since, December 1st, 2016, From Oxsfordshire, United Kingdom.
Created on Feb 8th 2018 23:35. Viewed 421 times.
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