Don’t let your content go unseen! Facebook has made changes to its algorithm that could affect the amount of exposure your business has to its customers. In this video, Brent Haeseker and Veronica Buhl from Netsource explain how to adjust to this change and use it as an advantage to promote customer engagement.
Read Veronica’s original blog post here
Full Transcription:
Brent Haeseker: Hi I’m Brent Haeseker here and I’ve got a co-worker with me here today. Her name is Veronica. And I’ll tell you here in a minute why I’ve got her here with me on Facebook Live. What I wanted to do is I wanted to do a Facebook Live video on the changes that Facebook is making to their algorithm which is impacting brands so if you’ve got a Facebook page that you’re using to promote your Web site then these changes that Facebook is making really impact how well your posts show up to the people who follow you. And so Veronica has already written a really excellent blog article on this particular topic so I thought hey instead of me talking about this why not just invite Veronica on and have her talk with you about these changes that Facebook’s making. So welcome Veronica this is Veronica Buhl. Tell us a little bit about yourself Veronica and what you do here at Netsource.
Veronica Buhl: Well I am a social media manager. I handle the social media marketing for all of our clients here. Most of our clients I should say. And part of that job is keeping up with what things like Facebook or doing and changing and knowing how to get the output from them I guess you could say.
Brent Haeseker: OK great great. And basically what I’ll do here is, I’ve kind of got some questions here that I’ve got for you based on this blog post that you shared with us, that you posted on our company blog which is at netsource.inc.com/blog you can see the full address to it because it’s a really long URL in the description of this video feed and the first function is what exactly is Facebook doing?
Veronica Buhl: Well Mark Zuckerberg came out on February 11th and stated that they wanted to make Facebook more of a family oriented thing again because they were getting a lot of feedback from people on Facebook that they weren’t seeing the things that were most important to them. It was getting blocked out by more brands and companies. Their news feed was being taken over by all these brands and stuff. So Facebook basically has decided to change their algorithm so that we see more of what’s more important to us which are our friends and our families posts and stuff.
Brent Haeseker: OK. So this is kind of something that’s been happening for a while. Facebook’s been making it harder and harder for businesses to have good organic showing, I don’t know if that’s the right word to use. Organic showing in people’s Facebook feeds meaning that more and more it’s becoming more of a pay to play by doing boosted posts and advertisements and things like that where you’re paying Facebook to get more visibility. But with this particular change and I know there’s still a lot of businesses that are on tight budgets. They’re trying to get as much as they can out of social media without having to go to pay per play method. So with that in mind how can businesses overcome this change. What are the things that they can do to kind of help combat against this change that Facebook is doing.
Veronica Buhl: Yeah,I don’t think it’s necessarily a horrible thing that’s happening. I think it’s going to have some positive effects for those who want to step up. Basically some of what it’s going to create is you’re going to have to be more effective with your posting. You have got to create more meaningful content basically some people have the misrepresentation that you could just throw anything out there and as long as you’re posting something it’s going to be seen, but that’s just not how it works. Your goal is always to be more engaging. You want to give the public things that they want to see. And one of the biggest things is to remember that although you may be a business and your goal there is to get more followers and to get more business. But the thing is, you’re there for them. You’re there for your followers. So you need to give them more engaging posts. Give them more meaningful content. Give them solutions to their problems. And that means writing posts and articles and stuff that you’re posting need to address their particular problems.
Brent Haeseker: You had mentioned a line that I thought was really good. Content is not king we always hear that content is king. But you wrote that content is not king, great content is king. So I think that’s kind of the key here.
Veronica Buhl: Exactly. Yes. It’s not the quantity of what you’re putting out there is the quality. And I always tell people it’s better if you don’t have anything a quality post is better not post at all. So just make everything that you put out there just pristine and make it quality product. It’s what people want and that’s what makes them follow you.
Brent Haeseker: What are some of the ways they can create quality content that people are going to be able to engage with?
Veronica Buhl: Well basically it’s finding out what the people that are following you want. It’s asking them questions. I mean part of social media is to be social, engaged with them. So ask what they want to see. Ask them what their pain points are. Ask them what their problems are and what solutions they’re looking for. Any kind of social media is about that connection. So connect with your followers. Let them know that you care about them. Let them know that you really want to help them. That’s what you’re there for. So the big part of it is just finding what they need to know and what they want to know and give that to them.
Brent Haeseker: True and a lot of times like I see a lot of customers when we start talking Initially they’ll say yeah we’re doing Facebook and pretty much what they’re doing is they’re just recycling posts that they see from other sources. Yes they’re curating content which in the past has been a good way of getting posts out there and things that people will share. But that’s not as effective anymore. And so getting more engaged with your customer base is important and There’s things too that you can do. Like for example right now we’re doing Facebook Live which is something that has much more of an impact on your Facebook account than just posting a photo or a text link or something like that. You’ll see that videos do much much better than if you just are posting photos or links or recycling stuff. So that’s something to think about too. Do you have information that you can share online with your customer base. You also mention about creating a community that’s kind of what you are referring to there. Facebook groups, that’s another thing too because I actually have a customer that I was talking to recently and I was saying how are you doing with your Facebook advertising with your Facebook page? And he said well actually I’ve got a Facebook group and they said changes that Google’s making is really not impacting me because I’ve got a Facebook group that everybody is engaged with. And so I don’t have to really worry about it you know whereas with my Facebook page of course people aren’t looking that as much but the group is doing really well because what people are engaging with. There’s a community there that people are engaged in. So you can think beyond just having a Facebook page but also having a group.
Veronica Buhl: Yeah in addition to that and you can have several Facebook groups actually on different subjects. What that does is it creates that community around that subject. It also creates a feeling of exclusiveness they belong to something that’s important and it starts a conversation whenever you get a group of people together that like the same things or are interested in the same things it creates that community and it starts a conversation not only between you and those people but among themselves. And it makes a really strong following and if you are constantly curating their content and getting more involved in it and more engaged in it, it becomes stronger and stronger and people get really committed to your brand because they know that you’re giving them something that they can’t get elsewhere.
Brent Haeseker: Absolutely, I mean I’m a member of a number of Facebook groups and I know anytime something’s posted on one of those groups it shows up in my feed all the time. So you know that’s another way of getting around these changes if you’re able to create a group has some followers that really engage with your brand. They’re going to see whatever stuff gets posted to that group. So that’s a cool thing too.
Veronica Buhl: Yeah because the new algorithm, what it does is that it decides who’s going to show up in news feed by how much engagement is there, how many likes there are, comments done and shares there are. And by creating this community where there’s constant talking in the there it will do it by itself as long as he can keep it going. So it’s definitely a really good way to go.
Brent Haeseker: Absolutely that’s a great tip there. Anything else as far as creating community or kind of getting around the changes that Facebook’s making.
Veronica Buhl: Yeah one of the things that you can do, some people don’t know about it, is that you can ask your followers for help. You can ask them to you know share and comment and stuff as long as it’s constantly moving the algorithm will show that there’s communication happening on your page. The other thing you can do is ask your followers to. There’s a thing on the link that says follow on the top of a Facebook page. If they click on that, You can choose to see your stuff first. If you ask your followers to do that then you know that they’ll see it in the News Feed first. And that way you know your content will be seen more regularly.
Brent Haeseker: Right. And that’s a great thing to do. But also keep in mind if you’re going to do that then make sure you’ve got good content that people will want. Because if they are thinking you don’t really have much good content, Why would I do that? Then that can backfire on you. But if you’re really producing a lot of really good, cool content then people will be like yea absolutely I followed you for a reason and that’s so I can get information from you. So if you remind them to make sure you do this and you can continue to see our posts. Most people are probably going to do that if they like your content.
Veronica Buhl: Yeah I know I do that a lot for brands and stuff and I really like a lot. And they get lost in the feed. I push them up to the top so I can make sure I see them on time.
Brent Haeseker: And I think you made a great point in your blog article too basically saying that this new change is an opportunity for you and your business to be better at what you do. So don’t think of this necessarily just as a negative of Oh Facebook’s making this change and now my stuff is never going to be seen unless I pay. It’s really great opportunity to prove what you are doing and to get better response from people who follow you.
Veronica Buhl: Exactly. It’s a chance to step up and to show that you’re better than the average bear I guess. It’s a call out to all businesses to really step up and excel at what you do. You’re an expert at what you do. You just need to show it now you need to prove it to people by giving them the stuff that they want. Give them the content and all the solutions that they’re looking for. You’re the expert. Prove it to them now and do it in a high quality way that they want to hear everything you say. That’s how you create followers and that’s how you create raving fans of your brand so you just get to keep that stuff going.
Brent Haeseker: OK great. Good information. Thank you for sharing that with us. And thank you for watching. And if you need anything need any assistance with social media or anything on line give us a call at Netsource. We can be reached at 1 800 7 0 9 3 2 4 0. Thanks for watching.