Manoeuver the facebook news feed makeover
by Krishnan Menon

This Thursday, the social media monolith, Facebook announced that they will be tweaking the News Feed algorithm to de-emphasize posts from brands and publishers on the users’ News Feed.

Over the past couple of years, there have been not so hushed conversations about how ‘FB’ may probably be having negative effects on people’s psyche. Which became quite the hot topic when Mark Zuckerberg further went on to dismiss the idea that fake news on Facebook could influence the U.S presidential elections last year. We all know how that went down.

Zuckerberg has decided to make Facebook a platform of “meaningful” engagement. What does this spell for you? This is where it gets funky. There’s good news and bad news. The good news is you will see more posts by your friends and family on your News Feed. And fewer posts like ‘Which fruit are you?’ and ‘Which Avenger would be your perfect teammate?’

On the other hand, if you run a business that depends on visibility through Facebook you’ll have to revamp your marketing strategy. As you must have already noticed, the organic reach for posts on company pages are on the decline. And with this new tweak, it’s going to plummet further. Which means, brands may have to depend more on paid promotions to get the reach they need.

This new challenge got our interests piqued, naturally. So we went about doing what we do best, we started researching and putting down some steps we believe could help maintain and grow your reach as these changes come into effect:

'See first' Feature: Encourage your audience to add your page on their ‘See first” option for their News Feed. It’s the best way to retain your existing reach and not fall off their radar.

Focus on Groups:Simply posting content on the company page is not going to be enough anymore. Experts say that the brand’s focus has to shift to the various groups on facebook . They by themselves, are a whole other dimension of the News Feed.

Facebook Local:Experts have advised Small Business Owners to join Facebook Local. Facebook is promoting it’s Marketplace as a separate platform for commercial purposes. Getting yourself into this will open up more opportunities to access customers and for them to find you.

Facebook Messenger:Take personalisation up a step. Have actual conversations with your audience. Engage with them one on one. Yes, it’s difficult but it is also effective. As we all know customers love being treated with a little extra!

Most people are of the opinion that these winds of change may be for the good after all. This decision made by Facebook is probably what social media needed all along!