While over the years we’ve seen Facebook slowly make changes to the way brands and businesses reach their audiences, this is the first time they have openly stated their intention: to reduce the exposure of brand and business pages.
This has sent the marketing community into a frenzy, as many businesses rely on Facebook for traffic, leads, and sales.
Adnews reports that in one of the most dramatic cases, one brand saw engagement on its post drop from 14,000 one week to just 500 the next on a similar post.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
The short of it is, you will possibly lose exposure to your page. As Facebook starts rolling out these changes, you may experience some drops in page views, engagement, and even followers.
Some business will lose more than others. As bad as it may seem, it’s not the end of the world. Remember, social media platforms are always changing; it’s the nature of a social media platform to always be evolving. This should hold true for you marketing strategies as well.
Here’s What You Can Do!
First, don’t panic. A general rule we recommend is that you do not overly rely on any single channel to reach your audience, particularly with Facebook where you have very little control.
What you need to consider is leveraging and strengthening your other traffic channels. This means search platforms, your website, and even your emailing list.
Focus on continually producing top-level content on your website, optimizing your SEO, and building a diverse content distribution strategy.
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What if Facebook is your biggest contributor to your business?
With this latest update it’s clear that Facebook is looking for engagement, so focus on a social media strategy that aims to start conversations between individual users and your business. Jump into threads and answer questions. Building this 1:1 relationship with your audience will boost your likelihood of being seen in the News Feed. Your goal is to become an account that people want to interact with.
Social media is still a great way to build an audience, but it shouldn’t be your only means. Just remember, diversify your traffic so that when one platform makes changes, it causes only a small ripple in your operations — not a full-on tsunami like this update has done to many businesses.
If you’re ready to take control of your business with a strong, diverse mix of online channels, schedule a call with one of our Pronto Marketing Experts and see how we can help make this happen.
