Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerburg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, announced the latest update to Facebook’s algorithm, which will result in changes to the content that users are presented with on their news feed.
Originally intended to be a social platform whereby users can interact and communicate with their friends and family, Facebook more recently has become an effective advertising platform for many businesses, with business Pages and sponsored ads becoming increasingly apparent in our new feeds.
In this latest update, Facebook will begin to “prioritise posts that spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people.” Posts from friends and family will take the spotlight, appearing higher in your news feed. Facebook will be using their data to predict posts that will generate interactions between friends and display this content as a priority over business content.
How will this effect content from businesses?
With content from family and friends taking the top spot, this leaves less room for business content, therefore Page owners may see a decline in their post reach and fewer referral traffic to websites. Page admins who post content that encourages engagement may experience less of an effect compared to those who see little interaction on their posts.
So how can you protect your Page from diminishing exposure? As Zuckerburg has outlined, posts that invite interaction are safe, so focus on content that your followers are interested in, and want to share with their friends. As a broker, put yourself in your clients’ shoes and brainstorm what type of content they won’t want to miss out on. At AFG, we monitor our social platforms continuously, reporting on content that is most engaging, and create more of this type of content going forward. Content that we’ve found to be effective include the following:
- Information for first home buyers. Things like our real estate cheat sheet is always a big hit, with shares and likes higher than our average post, as well as information on the home loan process. Consider writing articles similar to these, and sharing them on your social platforms.
- Office award wins, birthdays or other celebrations. These are a great way of adding a personal touch to your business, and allows potential clients to put a face to a name. Award wins help to show that you’re a reputable company, and they often receive good levels of engagement from existing clients who wish to congratulate you.
- Settlement congratulation posts. Have you considered taking a quick snap of your clients outside their new home once their loan has settled?
This type of content is quick and easy to do, and attracts likes and shares from your happy clients, their friends and family, and potential clients who are looking for a home loan. Why not send a small gift as a congratulations, and tag the company supplying the gift in the post too? It’s another way to further extend potential reach and engagement, which could keep you visible in Facebook’s news feed.
So the final takeaway from the update; ensure you post content that encourages interaction and it will minimise the effect of the updated algorithm. Spend some time revising your social media strategy, and pay close attention to the performance of your posts over the next few months, analysing what type of content is working most effectively.
