Facebook revenues are higher than ever. But at the same time, Facebook engagement is decreasing day-by-day. The social media platform is experiencing a decrease by 11.41% in engagement year-by-year.
Why Facebook engagement is decreasing?
One of the biggest reasons of decrease in social engagement is due to less personal content being shared on Facebook. There was a time, when users can login to their Facebook account and checkout the content shared by their friends and family. However, now people get to see large number of feeds of “boosted” and “paid” content on their timeline. This has caused a sharp drop in engagement. Noticing the issue, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced some changes being made in the Facebook algorithm.
What has changed?
According to Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement,
“Facebook will be changing its News Feed algorithm to prioritize content from ‘friends, family, and groups’ and less from “businesses, brands, and media”.”
This may reduce user engagement for pages across the board. Pages may experience decrease in reach, video watch time and referral traffic. The impact of the new Facebook algorithm will vary from Page to Page, depending on factors such as the type of content they share and how people interact with it.
What do these algorithm changes mean?
The goal of the changes in the algorithm is to bring back the user to user connection, consumption of real and meaningful content i.e., productive engagement. For businesses and brand pages, to achieve this kind of engagement, they need to change their content strategy. More people driven content that gets shared by users and their friends would see better engagement.
Creating creative and engaging content will perform better in the news feed. However promotional and services based pages on Facebook will notice a decline in user engagement and page interactions. Facebook, being one of the major social media platforms, digital marketers will have to find new ways to adapt to these algorithm changes rolled out by Facebook.
How can you avoid being punished by this algorithm?
In December 2017, the company began demoting posts and pages that were using engagement baiting. Pages that use click bait headlines that lead to low-quality landing pages will receive advance warnings as people get adjusted to the new rules. As the new Facebook algorithm has been rolled out, many pages have already been affected. Brands and marketers need to focus on sharing more user engaging content rather than popular, viral and attention-seeking content.
Here are some tips that can help you deal with the 2018 Facebook algorithm upgrade.
1. Publish creative, relevant & high-quality content
Quality and relevance should always be the top most priorities of your Facebook marketing strategy. You need to share relevant and engaging content to reach more people. Sharing irrelevant content won’t help you much in getting traffic to your page. As Facebook is focusing more on quality, you better make sure what you are publishing has the ability to stand out. You can use various available tools to monitor the performance of your content. Keep an eye on what works well and what doesn’t. This will help you take right decisions about Facebook content strategy.
2. Focus on Your Audience Needs
Where sharing quality content is important, focusing on your audience needs is equally important. In order to adjust to the new Facebook algorithm, you will need to focus even more on the needs of your followers. If you want your followers to comment, interact or share your content, you must share things that are meaningful to them. This is only possible if you have a complete understanding about your target audience i.e., their struggles, challenges, fear, and needs etc. A thorough market research can help you understand your audience better.
3. Share Live Video
Live video is considered one of the most effective types of content on Facebook. It offers six times more interactions than regular video clips. Live video is the one that will continue to perform well under the new Facebook algorithm. For that reason, it’s a good idea to consider it.
4. Post Interaction-worthy Content
As Facebook new algorithm is focusing more on user interaction and engagement, it’s better to share content that helps you engage with your users.
- Videos and other visual content — Visual content is more engaging in comparison to other form of content. Videos (such as how-to videos, testimonial videos, animated explained videos and more) win the crown in terms of engagement. Just make sure that that the videos you share page must reflect the ethos of your brand. So if you can source or produce videos, go for it!
- Questions – Asking interesting questions from your followers on your Facebook page can spark interesting discussions. It will also help you understand your audience better.
- Timely, relevant topics – It is advisable to share content on trending topics. It will encourage your audience to take part in the conversation.
- Personal stories – If Facebook aims to be about personal connection, why not share your personal stories with your followers? Try to interact with your followers as you interact with your friends, it’ll leave more impact on your brand.
Aside from this, make sure that you reply to every comment. It will keep the conversation going and also push your posts up in the news feeds.
5. Avoid “Engagement Bait”
Baiting is one of the cheapest ways to get interactions and promote your post visibility. Engagement bait is similar to keyword stuffing for web pages. Baiting posts encourage users to “tag their friends or comment YES” on the post to grow their fan base. It looks spammy, unprofessional and doesn’t add value to people’s lives. So as per new Facebook algorithm, it’s advisable not to share such type of content as Facebook will actively demote that kind of content.
6. Encourage Your Audience to Follow Your Page
The people who follow your page can see your content in their news feed, especially if they’ve set their news feed preferences to See First. Ask your audience to follow your page. Moreover, remind them to set their page priority to know get the updates about your brand.
7. Harness the Power of Facebook Groups
Groups are a great place to share your content and talk with others. They are considered to be one of the best ways to build a community around any topic. People join groups to share their experiences, discuss their issues, and have meaningful conversations with others. Therefore, whether you join an existing group or create your own, they are a good place to get started.
8. Embrace Paid Reach
Since organic reach for Facebook pages has started to see a decline, many have turned to paid ads to make up for it. So it might be time to get educated on how to use Facebook ads effectively.
9. Branch Out to Other Platforms
There is no doubt that Facebook is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your site. However, there are many other platforms that can bring in qualified traffic. So rather than focusing on Facebook only, you should focus on other social media networks such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest etc.
What do you feel about the latest Facebook algorithm changes? Do you see any effect on your page? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
