We have been saying for some time now that Facebook has been reducing the reach of Business Pages (how many people see your Facebook posts) and also that Facebook has been testing moving Page content into a separate Explorer feed. This experiment ran in 6 countries and drastically reduced the amount of people seeing posts from pages.
Facebook has been planning the demise of Business Pages in their current form for a while now. Well that day has arrived.
Adam Mosseri, the Head of Newsfeed at Facebook states that “Over the next few months, we’ll be making updates to ranking so people have more opportunities to interact with the people they care about”
In addition Mark himself is promoting the change. Read this quote from Mark Zuckerberg in the early hours of this morning (12 January 2018 UK time)
“As we roll this out, you’ll see less public content from businesses, brands and media.”
This is further confirmed in a news update from Facebook Newsroom.
“Because space in News Feed is limited, showing more posts from friends and family and updates that spark conversation means we’ll show less public content, including videos and other posts from publishers or businesses.”
So what does this mean for the average Facebook Business Page?
If you simply post things on your Facebook page without promoting them, very few people will see what you say. Not many did before but now very few at all. You should focus your efforts elsewhere
If you follow the guidance of some social media trainers and post daily or multiple daily posts that get very little interaction, then you will see a huge drop in reach.
If you have been relying on Facebook to get your customers then quickly start looking elsewhere. I have been banging on about the risk of depending on Facebook for your business for a number of years. Some Business Consultants I know have been advising clients that they dont need a Website these days, it is all about having social media presence.
Why is Facebook doing this?
Basically, Facebook is hemorrhaging users. Specifically in the younger age groups who have moved to other social networks because Facebook is seen as for the older generation. Facebook has to change in order to keep its user numbers growing.
What do we think at InSynch about these changes? We think it is great!
We work with dozens of clients every month on sophisticated Digital Marketing Strategies that may or may NOT include Facebook. My opening statement to every Digital Marketing Talk I give is “Digital Marketing is not just Social Media”.
We advertise on Facebook every day for around 50 companies using low cost, targeted advertising. Facebook will still need revenue and this means that there will be a lot more space for our advertising.
People will have to put more focus on their Websites now and a more holistic approach to digital marketing. The agencies who charge to blindly post on social media for businesses will slowly disappear.
Very soon, instead of posting daily on Facebook, you will be better off standing in an empty field and reading out your news….. Watch this space.