29 May Don’t Write Facebook Off … Just Yet

Is the sky falling when it comes to businesses and Facebook? Not quite – opportunities still exist. But to survive the new rules of engagement, your Facebook marketing needs some solid rejigging.

Written by Daniela Cavalletti

6 min read

I’m not a huge Facebook fan and may not have ever joined, except my boss at the time (circa 2007) thought it was a great idea. Then I had no thoughts of data breaches or transparency, and even now I admit I am a little haphazard when it comes to my privacy settings.

At the end of the day, I would rather personally text or email someone, or God forbid, pick up the phone and actually call them.

Your Personal Data is for Sale

But many of my friends, neighbours and rellies are huge Facebookers – oversharers the lot of them, posting every event, thought and gripe. Sometimes three or five times a day. And the overly personal stuff that they happily put out in the public arena can make me laugh, cringe and often worry. But it’s their choice and who am I to judge?

But recently Facebook is the one that has been rightfully judged across the world, mainly because of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. It was alleged that the British company had harvested the data of 87 million, mainly U.S., Facebook profiles to try to manipulate the Donald Trump election campaign.

Trust Broken: Facebook is Hurting Right Now

In light of this Facebook has certainly taken a beating. The company revealed that overall usage of the platform has dropped by “roughly 50 million hours every day”.

We also saw the rapid rise of the ‘Delete Facebook’ campaign, and according to data, Facebook’s daily active user base in the U.S. and Canada fell has fallen for the first time, to 184 million from 185 million.

Locally, an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission public survey about how Facebook, Google and Twitter use personal information, showed less than seven percent of consumers were confident they understood how their data was shared; 83 percent were worried about how their information was being collected.

It’s a Facebook Freakout!

But what does this mean for small and medium-sized businesses who regularly use Facebook as part of their marketing campaign? Should you be putting your energies and marketing spend elsewhere or staying with your current social media strategy?

The biggest change affecting businesses is the company announcement in January, that Facebook was changing its news feed algorithm so that content from business pages will be bumped down in favour of updates from family and friends.

According to Mark Zuckerberg, users of the popular social media channel aren’t happy about seeing branded content filling up their feeds whilst their ‘friend’s’ posts are pushed aside and sometimes missed’.

And wow, didn’t that ‘Facebook Nuclear Bomb’, as it was labelled, get a response from the media and business world!

You’ve Been Demoted (But There’s Hope)

Basically, it means that Facebook is now penalising businesses and brands who use ‘engagement bait’ – posts that contain ‘tag’, ‘like’, ‘share’, or ‘comment’ within their content to encourage users to engage with their posts. If you do this you will be demoted, i.e. seen less and less.

Instead, you need to encourage your customers to engage with you without prompting. And there is really only one way of doing that: publish compelling content.

This doesn’t have to be a bad thing – it’s a great opportunity to revisit what you have been doing with your content and give it a much-needed refresh. Perhaps you have gotten a touch lazy in your social media posts – is that a ‘quote-of-the-week’ I see popping up in your feed?

#1. Act Like A Human

‘The Zuck’ himself said it like this: “You’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media. And the public content you see more […] should encourage meaningful interactions between people.”

Great content that will meet these standards needs to be original, entertaining, educational and useful.  You have the information you need, you just have to tap into it. What questions are your customers asking you either online or over the phone? Perhaps you could start collating and answering one of those creatively each week. And intriguing photos and infographics are always appreciated.

#2. The Year of the Video … It’s Back!

Video, it’s great for SEO and social media ranking. You’ve heard it before, I know, but when it comes to doing more interesting business videos this is a must-do time for producing it. At least if you want to keep your products or services visible on Facebook. They don’t have to be long, they don’t have to be all perfectly-produced. Do some relatable, personally-connecting behind the business scenes takes, or record live Q & A sessions. Tell your company story, create some ‘how to’ educational animations, or share testimonials and case studies. The possibilities are almost endless; but these are all great starting points.

#3. Have a Group Hug

Mark Zuckerberg also revealed that people can expect to see more from groups in their news feed. Increasingly, people are joining these, networking with like-minded people and tuning into the issues or company-sponsored events that interest them.

Why not start a Facebook group for your business? It will build a community around an issue that matters to your followers and (potential) clients. VIP groups (meaning, not everyone can just join – they need to be approved by you) work well, too, as they create a bit of mystery, a sense of belonging and exclusivity. But remember: it’s not about selling, more about supporting your customers, and making them feel special while building trust and loyalty.

BONUS TIP

It will take a little while to adjust your content and way of posting, and for the algorithm to catch up. So here’s one extra tip to tide you over.

Let your followers know that they can continue to see your content high up in their feed if they hover over the ‘Following’ tab of your Facebook page, and then click ‘see first’ in the drop-down menu.

Crank Up Your Personality

Whatever you do, you need to make your Facebook content and ways of connecting with your business followers authentic. Go deep. Create and post something that really shows the personality of your business. Yes, I know it means extra work. But if you (at least partially) rely on Facebook for your marketing (and sales), you need to ditch a lot of automatic, bog-standard postings. Add some flavour, some surprise, something new and engaging.

In order to stay in the Facebook game, do take some time to create some content only your business can offer.

Dare to be you.

Your business, it’s worth it.