Facebook certainly aren’t afraid of change!

This week, Facebook HQ has announced more changes to how your posts are delivered to your audience.

This news follows changes earlier in 2014 that saw a widespread reduction in the organic reach of Page posts. Anyone running a business page will be sure to have felt the effects of these changes.

So let’s go over the most recent announcements and how they might affect you.

Firstly “click-baiting” headlines are being addressed.

What’s a click-bait?Well, Facebook’s definition of this is when a publisher posts a link with a headline that encourages people to click to see more, without telling them much info about what they will see.

For example the post could read ‘Guess what this celebrity did on the red carpet last night….’ Or ‘We love these ten tips to help you lose weight…..’

The post essentially doesn’t tell you any useful information – rather all of the detail is behind the click, on a website.

According to Facebook, 80% of people say they prefer headlines that help them decide if they want to read the full article before they click through.

Whilst we believe a big part of social media is to encourage web traffic, it is important to give your fans something for nothing.

Our advice would be to mix up your content – some of your posts should encourage clicks but others can be tips, images, videos and snippets of news  that sit on Facebook without the need for your fan to do anything but read and scroll.


On to the second change.

It is easier to get links to content in front of your fans if they are included in the text part of a photo post.Facebook, after all, does tend to show photo posts to more people.

We think this wasn’t a bad thing as photo posts are indeed more engaging and can make the overall presentation most content more interesting.

Facebook is apparently killing this strategy. Here’s their statement:

We’ve found that people often prefer to click on links that are displayed in the link format (which appears when you paste a link while drafting a post), rather than links that are buried in photo captions. The link format shows some additional information associated with the link, such as the beginning of the article, which makes it easier for someone to decide if they want to click through. This format also makes it easier for someone to click through on mobile devices, which have a smaller screen. With this update, we will prioritize showing links in the link-format, and show fewer links shared in captions or status updates.

Our advice – if sharing a link keep the link in there and don’t ‘bury’ it as part of a caption.  Take a look at our Facebook page to see some examples of posts where the links appear fully.

Apparently these changes will roll out slowly – our advice, keep an eye on your Insights and see how your varied posts perform.


How to get that all important reach

Many many people have reported a dramatic reduction in  organic reach via their Facebook business pages – we’ve seen this with our clients too.

Engaging, varied content and fans who like, comment and share are crucial – ensuring your Facebook page is integrated with your other marketing activity is important.

Boosting posts is of course an option and as part of a strategic campaign, can work well…..we’ll be blogging about boosts and promotions soon so watch this space!

In the meantime if you’d like any bespoke advice just drop Claire Fryer an email Claire@onetothree.co.uk
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