What Do The New Facebook Changes Mean for Your Business?

Ensuring your business has a reputable Facebook page gives your business credibility.

Most businesses are reporting a substantial reduction in their reach across social media in general, but substantially so with Facebook, where 62% of users say it is the most important and useful social media channel to research small businesses.

Many of the changes Facebook has recently introduced are less than exciting for businesses to say the least. We can all agree that it's been an absolutely ridiculously crazy year, just getting this close to the end of 2020 is worth celebrating given everything the world has gone through, but we do have reason to be excited.

Now that Facebook and Instagram have rolled out the changes they announced were coming, almost a year ago, it’s time for us to understand what those changes mean for businesses.

REDUCED ORGANIC REACH

Organic reach is less than 2% now, for many small to medium businesses, this is a biggie. You really do need to leverage Facebook ads. For as little as $1 a day and with a specifically customised target, you will actually reach your real customers and not waste money on people who would never dream of supporting your business. Small businesses really do need to spend money if they want to achieve anything at all on these platforms. Having said that, with a minimal amount spent you can achieve a huge impact, especially if the region you service is a small one.

One of the simplest things you can do to ensure your organic reach is stable is to encourage your contacts to check their "Follow Settings".

The first thing people will see now in their news feed is a post from a friend or family member, adding your business page to their favourites will ensure they see your posts. Remember to ask your employees, friends and family to share, like and comment on your posts regularly as well.

How visible your page is to those not familiar really depends on;

1. How long a page has been active.

2. The percentage of your followers that actively engage with your posts and page in general.

3. The frequency and consistency of posts.

4. How actively you engage with your followers.

ENGAGE & ENCOURAGE

There are a number of ways you can engage with your clients. Don't be fooled into thinking you can sit back and watch the followers come, it takes work!

Facebook and Instagram are now limiting ads for larger businesses, freeing up valuable space for smaller businesses and lowering costs. It really is your time to shine.

1. Encourage engagements, by creating posts people want to share, be funny, inspiring, and avoid clickbait at all costs.

2. Focus on quality content, videos should be at least 3 minutes long and use clear, quality images.

3. Know when to post, use your insights tools to help, as a general rule between 9 am and 2 pm Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday is best if you are targeting business followers or Monday to Wednesday around noon for B2C connections.

4. Build interactions, ask your friends and family to share your posts and engage with your business.

5. Quick responses are critical, you really should be responding to comments within 24 hours and messages should be responded to even faster.

6. Leverage low-cost ads, on both Instagram and Facebook. You really DO need to do this if you expect to gather new followers and customers. Ads can also help to boost organic interactions, page likes, engagements on posts and followers.

WHAT TO AVOID

Don't be sucked into thinking organic is still working, it's not. With less than 2% reach now for organic posts, even boosting them isn't going to gain the traction you need. Organic engagements are now tougher than ever, and in reality, not sustainable.

1. Avoid posts that specifically push people to buy something, enter promotions, competitions or giveaways.

2. Don't be tempted to BOOST posts, doing so only targets those online at the time of posting and has a very low conversion rate.

3. Using outbound links will now lower your engagement, even more, user engagements mean keeping users on the site.

Facebook is improving its user experience and increasing user satisfaction, to ensure they stay on the site. Smart small business owners will adapt.

TIP: Build a funnel or circuit to build your own database, engage with clients on socials but encourage them to visit your business before they become distracted and ensure your focus is on users with the means and motivation to purchase or utilise your services.

Over the next few weeks we will be hosting a webinar on this topic, click HERE to register.

Please leave your comments and questions below and we will address them during the event as well as by responding to comments received.