Facebook has made some recent changes to the way they prioritize content for users and it’s made many businesses nervous. Until recently, local businesses found Facebook to be a relatively good resource for getting them in front of current and potential customers. Now that Facebook has made changes, this may be in question.
Read on to learn more about the algorithm change and what it really means. If you’re interested in improving your presence on social media, then consider social media marketing services from a digital marketing company. Webstract is happy to help and even offers a free consultation and estimate.
Changes to Facebook’s algorithm
The purpose of Facebook’s changes was to ensure that their users were seeing the content that’s most relevant to them. As a result, it’s true that some businesses will now have to work harder and be more deliberate in order to provide content that their customers will engage with and share. Following are a few options and our thoughts on them.
Organic Facebook reach vs paid Facebook reach
Facebook made another change that involves the way they report information to businesses. If you’ve used Facebook paid advertising in the past then you know that what Facebook used to define as reach was when a post was viewed on a person’s screen – not just when it was somewhere in their News Feed. On the other hand, a post that’s organic (i.e. not paid) would show as having reached when it showed up in a News Feed – not necessarily when it was actually on a viewable screen.
Facebook has changed this. Organic reach is now going to be calculated identically to paid reach so that only posts that are viewable on a person’s screen will count as having reached a person. As a result of this change, some may think that their organic reach has gone down significantly and that it’s not working.
What you need to know about organic reach
The first thing to keep in mind is that this supposed drop is just perception. It used to be that all a post had to do was show up on a News Feed – not actually on a person’s screen – to be counted as organic reach. Now it must actually show up on someone’s screen to count. This is great for those who want more accurate counts of who’s seeing their content, but it is challenging because it means that there’s a new baseline that you won’t have anything to compare it with.
Is paid advertising still worth it?
It depends on your company and what service or product you offer. In some cases, paid Facebook advertising may be even more valuable. Why? Because fewer and fewer commercial posts are likely to show up on a user’s page. As a result, they may be more likely to take note of those they do so.
If you’re not sure what your best method is for any type of digital marketing, from Facebook marketing to local advertising, reach out to Webstract today for your free consultation and estimate.