Includes 5 Tips to help your Facebook Page today
Last week Mark Zuckerberg announced that the platform was going to be focusing on connection with friends and family. This is going to change what you see in your feeds and have an effect on how your business pages shows up. To summaries – less business pages, more friends, family and community.
This announcement was described by Social Media Examiner Founder – Michael Stelzner as “Facebook Apocalypse”!
The announcement (read here) highlighted that the changes are being introduced because people have said they want them. Facebook wants to help people connect or reconnect with each other.
Why is Facebook’s announcement causing so much panic?
It was interesting to watch the level of mass panic increase as the new spread. I completely understand that over the years your business has been using Facebook as a FREE marketing tool. FREE being the key. The problem is that so many businesses are now using the site, feeds have become less about connection and more about #buymyshit, business news, promotion and blogs – Yawn!
Check out some of the figures below about the levels of traffic to the site.
- 65 million business pages
- Only 4 million businesses advertise on the platform.
- Q3 2017 – Facebook had 2.07 billion users of which 1.15 billion users use the platform daily – that is a 23% increased year on year.
- 300 million photos are upload a day
- Every 60 seconds, 510,000 comments are made and 293 statues are updated.
That is a lot of traffic to handle and a lot of noise on our feeds.
What if this was YOUR Business?
We have all been there, the person who just wants some FREE advice or the customer who comes to browse your shop and then goes and buy the product online because it is cheaper!
This is a daily occurrence. Compound that over time in YOUR business and how does it make you feel? How do you really feel about giving away your advice, expertise, knowledge (which you have paid for) – on a daily basis? More importantly, how does it affect your profits, bottom line, energy, motivation, resilience?….. the list goes on.
You set up your business for a number of reasons i.e. provide you with an income or to give you some meaning and purpose in life. Would it be able to survive if you continued to give away free advice all day?
Wouldn’t you want to protect your business and realign it with the reasons you started it in the first place?
Isn’t it interesting that there is such uproar over Facebook looking after their own business! Honestly, the changes announced isn’t new news, they have been talking about it for a while.
What I see, is that they appear to be following the same strategy as Google. They want to keep people using the platform, whilst providing quality information. If you have been in business for a while, you will remember the panic over the changes to Google’s algorithms and how that affect businesses showing up in their feed.
What it REALLY did was it highlighted the websites that were compliant with Google standards and removed the ones who used bad practices to be on the first page.
Change is always inevitable. You can embrace it or ignore it.
Let’s take some positives steps to help your Page.
5 Tips to Keeping Your Facebook Page Alive
[if !supportLists]1) Stop Panicking!
It is a waste of your time and energy and it doesn’t help. There have been many changes to digital marketing over the years and we are still here.
If you are using the best marketing tools, practices and strategies and delivering value you will survive. Don’t try to out manoeuvre the system or do the minimum expecting maximum free returns. You will find yourself paying the price.
[if !supportLists]2) Create & Encourage Engagement
Mark has spoken, they want engagement – listen to them!
It is time to be strategic – plan what you are going to talk about. Create engaging posts using content, videos, images etc.
Encourage people to have a conversation. DONT ask for Likes or Shares.
Check your pages Insights, regularly. What posts are getting the most engagement and create more like.
Encourage your fans to chose “See First” in their News Feed Preferences. This will ensure you page gets prioritised in their feed.
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[if !supportLists]3) [endif]Quality v Quantity Always Wins
Fewer posts with more quality content is going to win. Be honest, who has the time to keep up with 10x pieces of content a day from each of the pages they following?
As above, it is about being strategic and create content that your audience is going to love and engage with.
Don’t just sit there daily and think – “I need to post xyz”. Sit down and work out what you want your marketing message to be for the next 12 months. Break it down and create quality content to support your objective.
[if !supportLists]4) [endif]Take Your Customers Off Facebook.
This one always amazes me – why would you build your business on a third party platform that you don’t have any control over? When that business changes the rules, it will affect you. Sound familiar?
Businesses learnt this the hard way when Google changed their algorithms a few years ago. What was on Page 1 was suddenly nowhere to be found. This is because they tried to play Google and it backfired on them.
For years people have been saying that email marketing is dead. I for one, think the business saying that are mental! It is the only piece of collateral you have in your business.
Encourage people to give their consent to be on your mailing list. Take the conversation off the social media platforms. Build engaging communications channels with them.
Remember to be compliant with the current Data Protection Act 1998 and the GDPR.
[if !supportLists]5) [endif]Back to Basics
There are more ways to marketing your business then social media. Quality will always win over quantity. Time to be strategic!
In no particular order here is a list to start you off.
* Your Website
* Connect – reconnect with people you have previous met (call them!)
* Start a Facebook Group
* Videos – You Tube
* Videos – Facebook Lives
* Networking
* Events
* Trade Events & Exhibitions
* Other sites – LinkedIn, Instagram
* Start a LinkedIn Group
* Connect with the Influences in field
* Email Marketing
* Newsletter
* Blogging
* Guest Blogging
* Speaking
* Start up a meet up group.
* Put on a free event
* Launch a Podcast
* Joint venture or collaboration with another business
* Write articles for other sites
* PR
* Get on the radio
* Get on TV
* Invest in promotional items
* Have your car wrapped
Keep Calm & Carry on Posting
Stay Calm. You have a window of opportunity. It is going to take Facebook a few months to roll out the changes. If Facebook is important to your business, start implementing the points above. Learn the best practices or seek advice from people who can help you.