Once upon a time, “news” on Facebook typically consisted of someone announcing an engagement or the birth of a new baby. In a move that will see businesses changing the way they market their branded pages on Facebook, the social networking website recently announced a big change to its newsfeed algorithm.
This change will give “real” news that’s posted by users higher visibility on feeds. It will also promote links to articles from media organizations that are receiving good exposure. These changes will be especially noticeable on mobile devices.
While this shift is designed to give a major boost to popular, trending pieces of content, it will have a substantial impact on marketers’ ability to reach consumers on the platform through organic posts, which are already seeing a steady decline. Up until now, a popular marketing strategy on Facebook involved companies messaging their audience directly, frequently — meaning brands were essentially receiving free media exposure.
Now, in order to reach the same numbers as before, marketers will have to purchase premium ad space on Facebook. This likely means the birth of new marketing strategies, as brand outreach is no longer simply dependant on how many “likes” a page receives. And competing for viewer interest is no mean feat considering how hypersensitive consumers are to stock standard ads these days.
With this in mind, marketers will need to change the way they connect with their audience on social media platforms. Ad posts can still achieve exposure through comments and shares, of course, but social media marketers will need to look at new ways of creating content strategies that will resonate with their target demographic.