Stay one step ahead of your competitors by planning and preparing for these 5 Facebook updates before they start taking effect.
Facebook is constantly changing and adapting its platform to keep up with new and emerging technology and to continue to offer users a valuable and engaging experience.
The constant stream of updates means that for businesses to succeed in the ever-changing landscape of Facebook marketing they must be constantly experimenting and adapting.
When you’re already running a business full-time, keeping up with all the latest news and trends from Facebook (not to mention all the other social media platforms) can be time-consuming.
To help you out we’ve compiled info on the 5 Facebook updates that we know about so far this year that we believe your business should be factoring into its social media marketing plan for the year ahead.
1. Newsfeed to show more social and less business posts
The update that all marketers are talking about so far in 2018 is the change to Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm. In a recent post on Facebook Mark Zuckerberg announced that in 2018 Facebook would begin to further prioritise posts from friends and family over public content, making it more difficult for businesses to reach their audience organically without paying.
If your business hasn’t yet given paid ads a go then now may be the right time to start experimenting!
2. City-specific content in-app
At the moment this update is still being tested by Facebook, but when it’s rolled out it could be very exciting for local businesses!
The update introduces a new section in the app call ‘Today in’ where a mixture of city-specific events, announcements and local news would appear.
3. Optimising Facebook Messenger for business’ customer care
In a recent blog post Facebook discussed how they were looking to streamline and simplify the Messenger app whilst implementing changes that would help businesses make it a more integral part of their communications.
Messaging a business on Facebook is quick, convenient and undisruptive to your day, making it a popular communication channel that many customers have come to expect businesses to offer.
In 2018, expect Facebook to make changes that will help businesses use Messenger more effectively for customer care and marketing.
4. Click-bait content to be penalised
Click bait content tries to trick users into clicking links or engaging with a post using sensationalised or misleading content.
Nobody likes to see spammy content and penalising click bait content goes hand in hand with Facebook’s decision to show more social posts and less business posts in their quest to show us more of what we want to see.
Posting click bait content isn’t best practice and if your business uses this method then it may be time to rethink your content strategy and start thinking about how you can create unique content that will really be of value to your audience.
5. Exciting new tools for video creators
It’s no secret that videos get the highest levels of engagement on social media and Facebook wants to give its users the tools they need to create lots of high quality, engaging video content.
Late last year saw the launch of the Facebook Creator app that makes shooting and uploading videos for Facebook easier than ever and this year we can expect to receive more free tools to aid with video content creation.
The first of these will be a free sound collection of roughly 1,000 music tracks and 1,500 sound effects.
With so many great free tools now available, 2018 is a great year for your business to get stuck into video creation.
Businesses that are onboard with Facebook’s vision for innovating customer communications and providing users with engaging content should find 2018 to be an exciting and progressive year!
