As marketers, it’s time we face reality and roll with the punches of Facebook’s seemingly weekly updates to its algorithms. Actually, one of Mark Zuckerberg’s mantras is “… to keep shipping code…” and he certainly lives up to that. The good news is that the experience is constantly improving for users but it’s back to school again for marketers to learn how to survive in this ever-changing world of paid media.
It’s hard to believe that ten years have gone by since Facebook launched the News Feed with the intent of showing stories most relevant to its users. Now, with more than a billion people on Facebook, the News Feed is cluttered and Facebook wants to make sure people stay connected to the people, places and brands that matter.
Recently the social media giant announced they are changing the News Feed so that it will more favorably promote content posted by the friends and family of users. Simply put, Facebook is now prioritizing posts and sending less traffic to content-based sites. This has happened before, and it will happen again.
While these updates are wonderful for users, it can make publishers sweat. The change will affect all types of content (links, photos, and videos) and publishers will start to experience a decline in reach and referral traffic.
As marketers we need to adapt, optimize tactics, leverage paid opportunities, and create new types of content that our brand advocates will want to share.
