Did you hear about the new changes coming to your News Feed on Facebook?
Posts from public pages are going to take a seat back to personal posts, the largest social media platform announced on January 11th, 2018. This change will affect everyone — personal brands and businesses — equally. Those belonging to the outdoor industry will also take a hit too, which is why I’ll focus this blog post around News Feed changes for those in hunting, fishing, and shooting sports. Even if you’re not involved with a brand or business in these aforementioned fields, feel free to read along. This hopefully can ease some concerns you may have.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote they were receiving complaints of public page posts crowding our personal posts, particularly “posts from businesses, brands and media” are “crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other.”
He added, “As we roll this out, you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media. And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard — it should encourage meaningful interactions between people.”
Don’t panic… While your Insights will take a hit and it’ll be frustrating, here are three ways to ensure your outdoor brand can reach the intended audiences in spite of these changes to Facebook’s New Feed:
Enable or Turn on “See First in News Feed Preferences” to Not Miss Page Updates
In the memo announcing page changes, the author recommends users go to their favorite pages and select “See First” to ensure they don’t miss a beat.
In the screen shot above, I’ve included how to do this:
- Go to the page you frequent often.
- Click “Following” and open the menu
- Select “See First” and voila!
- Also select “On” for Notifications.
Very simple, no? Be sure to enable this and encourage your followers to do the same!
Post More Live Videos on Your Page to Boost Engagement
In the announcement, Facebook’s Head of News Feed wrote that Live Videos will still be relevant for your page’s insights. Although they’ll be negatively impacted by the News Feed changes, it’s still important to put effort into these kinds of videos.
The memo says, “…live videos often lead to discussion among viewers on Facebook – in fact, live videos on average get six times as many interactions as regular videos.” If you’re not already going live, remedy that today. You can choose to go live straight from your Smart Phone or through your Desktop. Best desktop broadcast programs? BeLive.tv and BlueJeans.
Keep Up Your Consistent Social Media Strategy Posting Schedule
Engagement—along with the rest of your Insights—will take a huge hit, or so we’re told. Nevertheless, hopefully the changes won’t be so dramatic. That’s why it’s important to craft or optimize your social media strategy to not get lost in these News Feed changes.
If you’re posting at the optimal times and getting great post insights, continue to do what you’re doing. If you’re not posting at the ideal times, change it up and you shouldn’t see much of a dip. Get a Social Media Calendar to organize your thoughts.
Worried about engagement? Don’t partake in the alternative: engagement baiting. The News Feed memo recommends you don’t partake in engagement baiting:
Using “engagement-bait” to goad people into commenting on posts is not a meaningful interaction, and we will continue to demote these posts in News Feed. Your posts will be demoted
It’ll be interesting to see the long-term effects of these News Feed changes. Hopefully we are proven wrong and don’t see a huge dip in Facebook Page Insights. Until then, let’s remain cautiously optimistic.
Unsure how to navigate these new changes? I’m available for hire! If you’re an outdoor company in need of social media strategy help or branding assistance, let’s get in touch!
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