What the Latest Facebook Update Means for Your Marketing

By investing time and money into social media marketing, you may think you’re doing all the right things. But if you’re not playing by Facebook’s rules, you’re fighting an uphill battle. There’s more to a successful strategy than simply getting people to engage with your posts.

Just this past week, Facebook introduced its third major update in only a few months; this time geared toward the legitimacy and timeliness of new content. Eric Owens, software engineer at Facebook, says “Our goal with News Feed is to show everyone the right content at the right time so they don’t miss the stories that are important to them.”

This goal is part of a larger effort to combat the spread of inauthentic news and content. And in order to determine which stories are more important than others in any given moment, there are two significant factors to know.

Authenticity of Content

Facebook truly values authentic communication, since users continue to say it resonates with them the most. This means content that is not spammy or misleading. In order to qualify the content, Facebook is now using existing spam behaviors as the standard comparison to ensure that content is getting likes and comments authentically. This new algorithm will measure the validity of a topic based on how many other Friends or Pages you engage with are discussing related content.

What does “Authenticity of Content” mean for your marketing?
The overall emphasis on producing authentic content isn’t a new concept, but achieving genuine likes and comments is a bigger focus than ever. The more unique ways you can create stories and posts that relate to the interests of your followers without prompting superficial engagement, the higher they’ll appear on their news feeds. It’s important to keep content relevant and strong, and not just post for the sake of having new posts appear on your Page. The strategy behind your content is more valuable than ever, so it’s important to understand how to execute it properly, so your content isn’t hidden from your buyers.

Timing of Likes and Comments

With this update, Facebook is also putting more emphasis on timeliness, or when people are choosing to like, comment and share. For example, if people are engaging with the post right after it is posted, and not as much a few hours later, it suggests that the post was most interesting at the time it was posted, and less so as time went on. This means that content receiving a lot of attention in a short amount of time will be boosted initially, then rank lower later on as it slows down.

Facebook will now take into account how signals change in real-time. For example, if a specific topic or post is getting a lot of engagement from Friends or on a Page, it is assumed that it is of more importance to the user and will be shown higher on their newsfeed. These signals are relevant to all posts, especially for Pages, but they tend to highlight live news and live programming such as Facebook Live.

This update is going to work in conjunction with a recent update, known as Bumping. This is when stories are resurfaced based on the fact they are getting a lot of engagement at a certain time, despite the user not having scrolled down far enough to see them.

What does “Timing of Likes and Comments” mean for your marketing?

Facebook Live, and videos in general, are benefiting more than ever as they have the most potential to generate engagement instantaneously. Utilizing this type of content as part of your social media strategy will help prioritize your posts in the news feeds of your buyers and followers. It also favors boosting Facebook posts in order to create a sense of heightened temporary importance, which generates more timely engagement, like breaking news.

 

With such high competition for real estate on any news feed, even the most minor change can have a big impact on your content. If you’re looking for more insight on how to create a strategy acclimated to the evolving Facebook trends, or would like an evaluation of your current strategy, contact Group Two today.

 

By Nicolette Miller
Online Content Strategist

 

 

 

 

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