(Facebook) Changes on the Wind…

Facebook marketing is about to undergo another major change. Yesterday, I saw the beginnings of a flurry of activity. Marketers are scrambling. Small businesses are scared. Big businesses are even more concerned. What is all the hype about? What Facebook is going to show its users.

Facebook Changes

Facebook has over 2 billion monthly users. Approximately 1.37 billion people use it daily.  Those numbers are staggering, hence the amount of businesses who clamour to take advantage of that. As a small business, who can afford to ignore that kind of audience? But Facebook has been criticized for what it shows in people’s news feeds and has responded with these latest changes.

So what are they exactly? As of yesterday’s announcements, Facebook plans to show its users more content from friends and family. Sounds good, right? Well, sounds familiar anyway. They have done that in the past. Many businesses were concerned with those changes, but ultimately it proved to weed out some of the pages which showed lesser quality posts. So again, why should businesses worry now?

How Changes Might Affect Business Pages

Now the change seems to affect business pages again. You might still post quality content on your page, but if your interaction is low, Facebook will take notice. Unless that content is creating adequate user interaction and conversation between people, then no one is going to see it. Your posts will just not be seen.

crickets…

Makes sense that publishers are worried then, right. It certainly makes content curation a little harder. I get that Mark Zuckerberg is pushing the whole person to person contact. And really, if it works, then it is a good thing. The theory is to again create better quality content and have the focus be on building a conversation. How many people passively skim through their news feed feeling lonelier and more isolated from the world with every post they see? Facebook was supposed to bring people together, but social media has seemingly isolated us even more so. But how are businesses who utilize Facebook supposed to react?

I suppose time will tell. Pages that share more videos and personal stories should be alright. Those who can throw enough money at their social media strategies should be able to figure out a way to cope with the changes. The small businesses who already struggle with what to post, how often to post, and how much to share just might get left behind. Without the money or time to figure out a strategy, those little pages will just disappear. And for me who often handles small accounts who are just trying to keep a Facebook page alive with minimum content… I’m not sure my stripped down services will be of much use if organic reach drops that much more.

Is it time I did more research, planning, and strategizing? I suspect so. Here’s hoping myself and my clients survive the most recent Facebook changes. I think I’ll need to have a few more conversations with people over the next little while, but we’ll see how things go. I think it’s safe to say that boosting posts will be that much more important again though.

Brace yourself friends…