Happy New Year to Business Pages, eh Zuck?
Just when you had gotten into a rhythm of posting great content resulting in solid engagement and leads, Facebook changes it up again. Nothing new here.
Facebook rolled out some big changes in January that will affect your Facebook Business Page. Basically, even if folks like your page, they will not be likely to see the organic (non-paid) content that you share with them because Facebook has decided to prioritize the “interpersonal experience” – rather than be a place where news outlets, brands and businesses are king.
What can you do about it? There are definitely things you can do to be seen.
- Pay to play. Not everyone is going to like this one, but it is the most obvious. Facebook offers businesses one of the most robust advertising platforms with insane amounts of targeting options out there. Facebook Ads and Google Adwords are extremely powerful tools to leverage when it comes to advertising your business. If you have done direct mail or print ads as part of your strategy but cringe at the idea of Facebook Ads, you should definitely rethink where you are spending your money. Don’t be intimidated by the platform – hire a professional to help you or watch a few video tutorials and then begin testing ads.
- Work on building your other social channels. You can’t rely on your Facebook Business page alone as your social strategy anymore. Put more time into other outlets like Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to drive traffic to your website.
- Perfect your sales funnel. Adjust your efforts towards capturing email addresses rather than focusing on facebook likes. It is great if at the end of the day your business has thousands of likes, but those likes belong to facebook — not you. Make sure you are capturing information another way, such as an email signup on your facebook page, or linking to email signup modals on your homepage and landing pages.
- Embrace Facebook Live. I have been telling clients this ever since it launched – if Facebook launches a new way to present engaging content, you bet your butt they are going to prioritize that content over other content. Facebook Live will be one of the only ways you can ensure your followers will see your videos – use it!
- Be real, be authentic, be yourself. I have been preaching this for years. Nobody, including facebook wants to hear about how great your business is and all of your special sales 24/7. They are on to our games of asking our followers to “like, share, tag” in posts. They aren’t standing for it and are hiding those types of posts. So what can you do? Be yourself – be authentic and ask questions about things that provoke thoughtful engagement. Talk about things that matter to your audience and that they can get excited about. Linking to your site with special offers regularly will impact your page visibility in a negative way. You have to be a resource to your audience if you want your posts to be seen.
