In case you’ve not noticed Facebook seems to have
bottlenecked organic traffic of late, to our precious Business Pages. Rumours
are rife that Facebook wants our ad money so it’s stopping our possible
customers from getting to see what we’re putting out there. This is actually
pretty unjust and the facts are a lot less sinister, but just as troubling for
those of us relying on our customers finding our content through the platform.
It’s a simple case of numbers and algorithms.
doesn't seem fair - but appearances can be deceptive
There isn’t space for everything in our newsfeeds, so
Facebook uses an algorithm called EdgeRank to try to calculate what we want to
see most. This mostly works, though does make for a bit of an insular
experience that, long term, rather stifles what we see and who we see it from. Ever
noticed how some friends disappear out of your feed if you don’t keep chatting
to them? The same is true when it comes to people engaging with brands, and
unless you’re publishing something pretty kick-ass or got a dedicated niche following
than that’s invariably the case. The important basics are like this:
Time: Was it
posted recently? The fresher the better.
Weight: Different
things have a higher ‘value’, so the likes of ‘images’ and ‘video’ seem to rank
better than just links or simple comments. It seems the more effort you put in,
the better the content ranks.
Affinity: What’s
the relationship between the ‘edge’ and the user? Has the user commented on,
liked, shared, or whatever, things from the brand page before? The more the
better and different actions have different values. Probably.
The problem is simple. If people don’t interact then they
don’t get to see your content further down the line. Interest drops, and it’s
hard to rekindle once it’s gone.
try something different
Obviously this makes the likes of Facebook promoted posts more valuable. If you post good strong content, asking poignant questions or with details of small sweepstakes or competitions, this can rekindle a flagging follower-ship. If you do, remember consistency is key and you’re going to need to commit to your Page to get the community active again. It won’t do it by itself and you’ll need to get them sharing and liking again by giving them creative, humorous, and edgy content suitable for doing so. Something for your followers to get their teeth into.
In many ways I approve of this, at least for now. It
encourages good quality content and creativity. It does raise the question,
however, of how long Facebook can support using this system? In many ways this
is leading to the stagnation of the platform if we just see content from the
same people, and may even lead to it’s eventual downfall.
Regardless, for now this is just how it is. Let’s work it
the best we can.
One decent solar flare and we’re all out of a job anyway.