Facebook’s News Feed has been around since 2006. They often make changes to how content is shown based on their users’ preferences. The most recent changes led Facebook to create a set of five values to drive the algorithm that decides what information is seen on the News Feed. These five values are:

• Friends and Family Come First
• A Platform For All Ideas
• Authentic Communication
• You Control Your Experience
• Constant Iteration

The latest update focuses on the first value, “Friends and Family Come First.” Facebook is now prioritizing information that comes from friends and family before information from brands and pages. Users are now able to see more personable stories from the people they interact with the most – their closest family and friends. The more they engage with a certain person’s content, the more of that content they’ll be seeing from that particular person in their News Feed.

What changes will I see as a business?

As a business, you may see a drop in your overall reach. Facebook will still show your content, but the amount of reach you will get depends on how much engagement your posts get. Pages with high post engagement may not see a change in their reach, but pages with low engagement may see a “noticeable” drop.

What can I do to help my social content reach my Facebook fans?

Think of this new algorithm change as a challenge to create interesting content that your fans want to share and interact with. Here are some tips to keep up with the change and still reach your fans.

1. Share your brand’s personality by creating content that your fans want to interact with. Create a fun and interesting brand identity that sets you apart from your competition.
2. Invest in Facebook ads. Facebook ads can help boost your posts to increase engagement and reach. With a low investment cost and a low average cost-per-click, Facebook ads are an easy way to build your traffic back up.
3. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket! Today’s marketing landscape is all about connecting with people where they are instead of trying to bring them in. Utilize Facebook as just a piece of your Omnichannel Marketing strategy.

Facebook’s News Feed will constantly be adapting as Facebook usage continues to change. If you’re interested in seeing how our team can help you reach your potential customers both on and off of Facebook, give us a call! We’d love to talk about it with you.