Facebook recently announced changes that aim to reduce the stories posted by pages that are spammy, while still delivering quality content to the right audience. The announcement is a mixed bag of sorts for marketers already struggling to organically promote their brands on Facebook. The changes makes it harder to get distribution of shared content but promotes higher quality content.
Admittedly, Facebook is targeting true spammers who are pushing lousy content, asking for likes, or promoting spammy and misleading links. Facebook has assured marketers that those linking real content located on their own websites will not be affected by the update. They outlined three primary types of content that will fall under the spam category and result in lower distribution totals.
Like-baiting is officially a no-no, and Facebook will limit distribution of posts specifically asking for readers to like, comment or share the post. Generally, these are considered the chain letters of the modern age that we have all seen in our newsfeed (and hopefully never shared ourselves).
Some marketers have considered asking for likes and shares a legitimate practice that can help a small business extend their reach to the friends of those who follow their page, and it is common practice to ask for comments to engage page followers in a discussion on a certain topic.
Facebook has said the changes will only impact pages that frequently post like-baiting content, and won?t affect businesses encouraging legitimate discussion. Your best bet will be to publish engaging original content, and refrain from asking for likes.
In an effort to clean house, Facebook is cracking down on Pages that upload the same content?generally photos and videos?numerous times. Generally, uploading the same photo or video a second time does not generate additional buzz, and only annoys those who do follow your page.
Take the time to develop original content for your Facebook page that is not copied from another source. If you have content that is worth re-sharing, update it with new information or change up the format. Ask yourself whether the content is worth re-sharing, then consider how someone who saw the content the first time would respond after seeing it a second time.
The third type of spam content being targeted by Facebook is spammy links. This is good news for legitimate marketers sharing relevant content to their page followers, as it will cut down on fake links appearing in news feeds. Facebook has defined spammy links as those that use bait-and-switch techniques to trick people into clicking a link that is full of ads.
By limiting the amount of fake content appearing in news feed, company pages sharing valuable content will have a better chance at being seen, and may actually see an increase in content distribution from these changes.It may also encourage more people to click on shared content, as the risk of being taken to a site full of ads will be less.
How these changes may impact company and brand pages is yet to been seen. In the end, page admins need to utilize best practices for creating and posting content to Facebook, and avoid any behavior that may be deemed as ?spammy? by Facebook?s algorithm.
Facebook has assured those who operate company pages that they should not be impacted negatively by these changes, and that some may actually see a boost in engagement. It?s a good idea to utilize multiple social media platforms, and share content that best suits each on the respective platform.
Facebook is ideal for informational posts, and content that encourages fans of your brand to engage and interact with one another. Take inventory of each of your social media accounts, and develop a strategy that will highlight the strengths of each for the best engagement and ROI.