In January, Mark Zuckerberg announced his plans to “fix Facebook” by redirecting user experience to have more “meaningful interactions”. He wrote, “one of our big focus areas for 2018 is making sure the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent.” This was bad news for marketers and brands who were assured their content found a niche in the News Feed through automated placement for free. 

Zuckerberg doesn’t seek to get rid of them, but he does want to guarantee users see more posts from friends and family than advertisers. Outside of paid sponsorships, having to advertise on Facebook suddenly seems more complicated now… without the right tricks up your sleeve.

Facebook is increasingly gaining favour of video, beginning in 2016 with Zuckerberg establishing Facebook’s move to make the platform “video first”, and following the launch of Watch—Facebook’s video portal. So what exactly does this information mean for marketers seeking to advertise on Facebook?

It means we’ve found a loophole.

Mark Zuckerberg foresaw the future of visual content in 2016, emphasizing how video will be at the center of information consumption in five years. It’s only been two years since his statement, but his move to make Facebook video-centric is already felt. About 45% of people watch more than an hour of videos on Facebook or YouTube, and over half a billion people watch videos on Facebook every day.

Because videos are widely viewed, shared, and commented on, it is an outstanding (and albeit, resilient) tool for advertising, even after the algorithm change. Here’s where Zuckerberg’s “meaningful interactions” come into play.

Facebook has downplayed the page-to-person interactions, and placed person-to-person interactions at the top of the news feed. For people seeking to advertise on Facebook, the most important thing to note is that a “meaningful interaction” is person-to-person. 

This means businesses are encouraged to get creative with content to reach audiences in a person-to-person.  Like always, it depends on how interesting and relevant your video is, but this time, marketers have to up the ante. Given that Facebook now demotes pages and posts initiating engagement baiting—spam-like content that gets a bigger reach without organic engagement, i.e., posts that say “like if you love sandwiches”—getting viewers to respond is even more challenging.

Consumers like engaging with brands that seem relatable, because it feels more like interacting with a real person, and not an establishment. After all, social media was made for people to interact with each other. 

Notably, Facebook ranks posts higher on the News Feed the more interactions (likes, comments, and shares) it receives. Therefore, the key to gaining more interactions is by creating content that is personal, relatable, and ultimately as Zuckerberg would intend, worth people’s time.

Another method involves utilizing Facebook Live. Livestreams get six times more interactions than videos, and Facebook ranks live videos ahead of other posts. This serves as an opportunity for your brand to level with your audience and capture their attention.

The new algorithm on Facebook does not mean doomsday for your business. Brands just need to get more creative with the content they release to get audiences engaged, and videos seem like the number one way to get around that dilemma. If your company is needs to advertise on Facebook, there is a group of people who can help you with that.

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