Yep Facebook is doing it again….

Many of you may be aware that Facebook has been making some major changes to its platform, including ads manager and newsfeed algorithm in a bid for both a better user experience and better business experience. Unfortunately it is hard to please both parties especially in this latest change.

Here are the three major changes announced in the latest blog post by Facebook product manager Max Eulenstein and user experience researcher Lauren Scissors.

1: “The first is improving the experience for people who don’t have a lot of content available to see. Previously, we had rules in place to prevent you from seeing multiple posts from the same source in a row. With this update, we are relaxing this rule. Now if you run out of content, but want to spend more time in News Feed, you’ll see more.”

2: “The second update tries to ensure that content posted directly by the friends you care about, such as photos, videos, status updates or links, will be higher up in News Feed so you are less likely to miss it. If you like to read news or interact with posts from pages you care about, you will still see that content in News Feed. This update tries to make the balance of content the right one for each individual person.”

3: “This update will make these stories appear lower down in News Feed or not at all, so you are more likely to see the stuff you care about directly from friends and the pages you have liked.”

Here is what they said about how it will affect business Pages:

“The impact of these changes on your page’s distribution will vary considerably depending on the composition of your audience and your posting activity. In some cases, post reach and referral traffic could potentially decline.”

My take on it is: Yes this will have a major negative impact on your business if you solely rely on posting to your Facebook business page to drive traffic to your website or for more sales. However if you post what you audience finds interesting, this means knowing your fans and what they like to see in their newsfeed and having this mixed in with a great advertising strategy, you should not see a negative impact in your business ability to use Facebook as a great marketing tool.

So my suggestion is don’t panic about the latest changes, just wait and see how it impacts your page, if at all. If you find you are getting less business from Facebook then I suggest you need to rework your strategy.

Sing out if you have any questions.
www.facebook.com/socialmediaplusone

Kerry x