The Impact of Facebook’s Algorithm Change

With a whopping 1.37 billion daily active users, well over 20,000 employees and record profit growth and share price year-on-year, on the surface of things, Facebook is doing just fine. But after a recent statement made by CEO and Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, he highlighted some issues that if we took a moment to think about it, we’ve probably all been aware of for some time.

Facebook’s ultimate mission is to “give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together” but those who have been active on the platform recently will probably agree it’s falling short on that goal. Up until now, your Facebook news feed was far more likely to be cluttered with memes and public news stories than photos and events shared by the people you actually care about. And while we continue to devote such a big portion of our time on Facebook, it’s important, as Zuckerberg himself has, to question the quality of the time we are spending on it.

Reverting to its roots, the latest algorithm change will, in essence, seek to restore Facebook’s original mission of bringing people together, sparking conversations and helping promote and foster relationships worldwide.

What changes will you see?

As a result of pushing personal content, the first thing you are likely to notice is a change in your news feed. There will be a much bigger emphasis put on content shared by your friends and family, as well as any groups that you are part of. Great if you want to stay up-to-date on your friends’ day-to-day lives but not quite such good news for businesses…

By prioritising personal content, this will inevitably mean a reduction in the number of public posts that are shared. Essentially, you’ll see less stuff from businesses, brands and media. So, how will companies combat this? It’s predicted that business pages will see a decrease in their reach, video watch time and referral traffic. However, with the new focus centred around sparking genuine interest and engagement, posts that prompt meaningful interactions among friends are much less likely to suffer the effects of the Facebook algorithm change.

Reaching Customers on Facebook

It’s early days. And at this stage, nobody can say for sure exactly how much of an impact this algorithm change will have on businesses and their ability to reach customers, both old and new. To minimise the potentially negative effects of this, it’s more important than ever for brands to produce high-quality and relevant content that sparks genuine engagement. You could do this by covering topical events or including questions in your posts as a way of drawing people in.

Organic reach has been slowly declining over the years anyway. Both this and the Facebook algorithm change suggest that an increased ad budget might be wise. Facebook has a whole world of advertising tools that can help you connect with potential customers; if you need any advice on getting started, feel free to get in touch with us today!

FSM.