Many of you will have noticed that your posts on Facebook are now getting seen by considerably less of your fans (or likers) than before. The decline in the reach of your posts happened swiftly and quickly a couple of months ago. In December 2014, Facebook made some changes to its EdgeRank algorithm. This algorithm is how it determines what appears in your newsfeed. These changes had significant implications for business pages.
The changes to the algorithm now mean that only a tiny amount of your fans actually see your posts. Social media agency, Ignite, analysed some 689 posts from 21 brand pages just after Facebook implemented its changes. The analysis showed that the number of people who saw posts from brands declined by an average of 44%, with some pages seeing declines as high as 88%.
The unofficial word coming from Facebook is that the tweaks made in December are in fact, going to be the first of many that will make it harder for pages to reach their fans, for free, through Facebook. The words FOR FREE are key. Facebook has made it extremely easy for pages to reach their fans by spending money. I have written a couple of blogs about this but for more info, be sure to read my blog – Facebook wants your money (https://onlinesocialbutterfly.com.au/facebook-wants-your-money/)
Facebook has said that these changes are not a shameless grab at money from its business pages and that it is all about putting things in the newsfeeds of individuals which is relevant and interesting to them. This means that important personal posts will always get priority in a newsfeed over any business post, even if the personal post is several days old.
So where to from here? Firstly, you need to get it out of your head that the number of fans you have is the number of people that will see your post. This has almost never been true but now more than ever, this does not apply. Secondly, allocate a regular budget to promoting posts – consider spending $5- $10 at least once or twice a week on posts that you really want to reach all of your fans. And finally, don’t rely on Facebook to communicate important messages to your fans. Start collecting the data and building your own list, use other platforms and create a great website with lots of content that communicates your message to your audience.
There are many who work in my industry that are angry about these recent changes. Facebook moving the goal posts has meant that we must respond on behalf of our clients to ensure they are still getting good results via Facebook. Our challenge is to not only create content that is engaging but to also get it in the newsfeed of as many fans as possible. Spending money is one way but there are others too. If you would like to know what these are, please contact me for a consult.
