Facebook is constantly evolving in an effort to stay relevant and with the hopes of making the user’s experience they best they feel they can make it.
Of the changes currently being rolled out, one is sure to offer a double edged sword: seeing the likes and comments of your friends on various pages that you may not subscribe to.
As a user, I think I have to give a thumbs up; but only partially. While a good portion of the time, I scroll right past these items without giving them much thought or care, there are times that I find new pages that I did not know about prior or I find articles that I truly enjoy reading; again, that I would not have found otherwise.
As a marketer, I know the benefit of having this show in a person’s feed and have already seen the effects of this on at least one page with a fairly decent drop in eyeballs viewing the published material. This is a hard thing to stomach when you know you’ve not done anything different on your end but yet, that very same content is not working for you as it once did.
How to beat this?
GET NOTIFICATIONS
Depending upon your audience, the suggestion to have them “Get Notifications” might be a welcome idea. To do this, instruct your audience to hoover over the LIKED button under your header image and select Get Notifications. What this does, is it allows for users to be notified with the little red 1 in the upper right side of the screen, in the same manner that one would be notified that someone liked or commented on your post. This is certainly ensure that they don’t miss a thing.
If you are one to post numerous times a day, this may not be something your audience will want to do as it may end up being a turnoff and work against your brand.
INTERACTION IS BIG
When your audience interacts, it lets Facebook know that this might be something of greater interest to that person and it could help your posts get more traction. While I am not a huge fan of LIKE this for….. it brings interaction. Asking a question in relation to a post or simply in connecting on a more personal (non-business) level such as “What are your top 5 planned events for this summer?” can also be a creative way to drive interaction.
SHARING
When someone in your audience shares, this will allow your content to go out to their friends as always. I probably wouldn’t suggest you ask for shares (but on occasion) so publishing strong content will be key so they find value and want to share that value with friends who may agree.
PAY TO PROMOTE
The dollar wins and is a sure bet to get an audience for the material you are putting out. To do this, simply select BOOST POST under the post (once published) and here, you will find a great variety of options to help bring your material to the best suited audience. You will need to select if you want to go with a Desktop News Feed boost or via a Mobile News Feed, select the people you want to reach, the budget you are will to spend for the duration of the campaign, the method of payment, and with that, you should be all set!
While we all prefer the organic (non-paid route), there are times that spending a bit of money to get your best work out is recommended.
When these changes come down the pike, it tends to make us cringe and dread the idea learning new ways to beat the system. On the positive side though, it keeps us on our feet, keeps us looking for new ways to promote, and really pushes us to publish only the material that our audience most connects with and skip the rest that tends to end up just being the filler.
If we can help you find new and creative ways or even take over the reigns for you, don’t hesitate to let us know! We’d love the opportunity to work with you on building your social presence.
