In April, Facebook changed its algorithms… again. These most recent updates were meant to improve user experience by striking a better balance between the updates from friends versus those from businesses, public figures and local organizations. Their official announcement warned post reach and referral traffic could decline, citing impact “will vary considerably depending on the composition of your audience and your posting activity.” In other words, only time will tell how any of these most recent—or any future—changes will affect your business’s marketing strategies.
With Facebook, it’s all about “organic reach”, meaning the number of people your business page can reach with posts for free. It’s a decline in “organic reach” that raises concerns every time changes are announced. The fear their content won’t be seen by their followers is, indeed, a genuine concern. And here’s why. The fact that “sharing” information has become so easy coupled with the ever-increasing use of devices like smartphones has created an explosion of content. And now, with more content than ever before racing through cyberspace, there simply isn’t enough time to absorb all of those posts.
On average, 1500 posts have the potential to appear in a person’s News Feed each time said person logs on to Facebook . For those lucky folks who have lots of friends and many Page likes, that number can rise to as many as 15,000 potential posts. An utterly mind-boggling statistic. All of this “competition” makes it increasingly difficult for posts to garner exposure.
The Facebook News Feed feature is designed to show the content most relevant to each person, narrowing the pool of posts to approximately 300. It accomplishes this by ranking each possible story by importance, using thousands of factors relative to each Facebook user. Facebook maintains their News Feed ranking system provides a more engaging experience than do those platforms that use a real-time content system simply because the sheer volume of content would keep people from seeing the posts they’re most interested in. And organic reach would ultimately suffer, causing content to reach even fewer followers.
When it comes to Facebook, it appears the best bet is to adopt a things-will-change attitude. If you stay abreast of the changes and strive to understand them, you can adjust your tactics for the greatest marketing reach. Because the potential reach of Facebook is so monumental, that really, you don’t have the option to walk away.
In Part 2, we’ll explore Facebook best practices, the specific ways to ensure sure your content has the best chance of making it into that elite 300.
At ASJ Partners, we are the experts at accelerating revenues for Staffing and Recruiting Firms through unique, customized and highly targeted marketing programs. Contact us today for a consultative assessment.
