Despite the fact that Facebook itself is about to celebrate its 14th birthday later this year, the world's most popular social network still happens to be among its most powerful - particularly if you're a marketer. As a platform, Facebook still averaged roughly 2 billion monthly active users as of June of 2017 - with about half of those users checking in at least once per day. Most people access Facebook an average of eight times per day according to comScore and it's a perfect opportunity for you to potentially reach as many as 68% of all adults in the United States at one time.
But just because Facebook itself shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon doesn't mean that it hasn't changed dramatically since its original launch. Facebook was originally exclusive to a select few college campuses, for example, before rolling out to every Internet-connected user worldwide. From a certain perspective, periodic massive changes are built into the site's very DNA.
Indeed, Facebook is about to go through another major change over the next few months - one that concerns the algorithm that allows stories to appear in the News Feeds of users around the world. It's precisely the type of major change that has marketers in particular on the nervous side... but we're here to tell you that it absolutely shouldn't for a number of important reasons.
facebook's news feed: what's happening?
The current "controversy" (if you can even call it that) stems from a recent post from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, in which he said:
"One of our big focus areas for 2018 is making sure the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent. We built Facebook to help people stay connected and bring us closer together with the people that matter to us. That's why we've always put friends and family at the core of the experience. Research shows that strengthening our relationships improves our well-being and happiness."
Essentially, what this means is that Facebook is going to be adjusting the algorithm that powers its news feed to prioritize content from our friends and family members more than the brands we follow and the businesses that are operating in our neighborhoods. If you're someone who primarily uses Facebook as a way to communicate with those distant loved ones, this is cause for celebration. If you're a brand with a business that depends on Facebook... maybe not so much.
Or at least, that's what people are assuming.
The most important thing to understand is that Facebook is NOT eliminating content from brands like yours from the News Feeds of people around the world. It's just that this content is basically getting moved to a new screen - the "Explorer" tab. The type of content that will rank highly in News Feeds are posts that people are talking about. If that happens to be about an upcoming family gathering, so be it.
But this is just one small part of a much larger story.
why you shouldn't worry
Maybe the most important thing to understand (and the major reason why these changes shouldn't worry you) has to do with the fact that content that gets a lot of interactions will still rank as high in News Feeds as they ever have. Content that A) people interact with, and B) creates opportunities for people to interact with one another will still be just as visible after these changes go into effect.
Which means that if you really want to make sure that these upcoming algorithm changes don't "hurt" you, the solution is simple: just work on creating the best content you can. Everything else will pretty much take care of itself.
At Christopher August LLC, we've already been using all of the best practices, tips and tricks that are out there in terms of creating terrific content for clients just like you since 2015. We (and they) have enjoyed a tremendous amount of success in that time because we've always focused on creating content that is meaningful, that is stimulating and that adds as much value to the lives of our audiences as possible.
Will these algorithm changes hurt some brands? Absolutely - the types of brands that are notorious for spamming News Feeds with low-quality content that amounts to little more than an advertisement with nothing of actual value to offer. Luckily for you, you don't fall into that category - you never have, and you never will.
If anything, these algorithm changes are only going to help our clients as they'll help make sure that the types of conversation stimulating content we work hard to create finds its audience in an easier way than ever before.
So if you ARE currently worried about Facebook's upcoming News Feed update, take it from us - you shouldn't be. You're already ahead of the curve, which itself is a very exciting place to be.
If you'd like to find out more information about Facebook's News Feed update, or if you'd just like to learn why you will never have to worry about changes like these when you're already armed with the types of high-quality content that we create on a daily basis, reach out to us by visiting the link to our site's contact page, HERE
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