Get with the algorithm: Facebook’s News Feed Changes
By: Joanna Ayre
Tags: Algorithms, Facebook, Content Strategy, Social Strategy, Social Media

Get with the algorithm: Facebook’s News Feed Changes

We Are Social hosted a talk on Facebook’s recent News Feed change announcement. Here’s a quick summary of some of the key themes that came out of the discussion.

The end of organic reach?

Facebook’s News Feed announcement may have come as a surprise to many but organic reach has been dropping off in recent years. We are Social’s, Chief Strategy Officer, Mobbie Nazir says on average their clients are seeing an organic reach level of around 4%. Lauren Davey, Head of Social Media & Display at Barclaycard Business said that the company doesn’t post any organic content on Facebook — only paid posts. She said that marketers need to stop seeing social media as a free commodity and see it as another paid marketing channel. I agree with this somewhat — but you can still get great results on other channels such as Twitter and Instagram without putting a budget behind your posts — creativity is key. However, you do still need to invest in a great social media manager to make this work.

No more ‘Tag a mate’ content

Facebook pages like LADbible have traditionally used ‘Tag a mate’ posts to quickly gain high reach and engagement levels. As part of the newsfeed changes — Facebook’s algorithms will no longer favour these types of posts.

LADbible have always had a Facebook-first approach — it all started as a Facebook page, even before they had a website and they now have around 150 employees and billions of views per week. Peter Heneghan, Head of Communications at LADbible says they have diversified the types of content they share — moving towards more ‘meaningful’ content. They recently polled their followers on what topics are the most important to them — mental health came out on top — so they’ve created content sparking the debate around mental health — crucially, targeting young men.

Meaningful Content

‘Meaningful Content’ was the buzz phrase of the morning. Many organisations pump out crap branded content for content’s sake said Leo Ryan, Vice President of Customer Success (EMEA) at Spredfast. Brands must carefully consider the content they create and ask themselves if it’s actually interesting to the people it’s aimed at. The ultimate goal of creating meaningful content is creating meaningful conversations, it’s all about quality over quantity.

Conversations & customer care

Yes — organic reach is declining — but we need to put less emphasis on reach. Direct conversations with customers is by far the most engaging form of social media. Make sure your brand is ready to chat to its followers - providing them with a great customer experience will seriously build a brands reputation.

Nobody really knows what impact these changes will have on social media marketing, all we can do is predict.

Personally I think it’s important (and brave) that Facebook want people to spend less time on the platform. Social media has a powerful grip on many of us — having both a positive and negative effect on our lives. Recent research reveals the negative impact it is having on young people’s mental health — its important that the platforms act responsibly knowing this.

Facebook’s most important asset is its users —keep them happy or risk losing them.