Today everything is in constant change, starting from people, information, tools, ideas, universe, and many other things. Social networks make no exception.

In this article, we will talk about the Facebook new algorithm and how you can continue to grow your business on social media without being affected.

Why are people using Facebook

Since February 2004 when everything started, Facebook has grown significantly, and now has more than 60 million active users. According to Facebook's statistics page, the number of active users has doubled every six months, with 250.000 new users joining each day since January 2007.

For one thing, having a Facebook account, it's an easy way to access information, to share your thoughts and ideas, to meet old friends and to make new ones, and last but not least, Facebook it's good if you want to promote your business and create a community for your brand.

From 2004 things have changed, and on January 11th, 2018, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be changing its news feed algorithm to prioritize content from "friends, family, and "groups".

According to Zuckerberg Facebook's News Feed values will be:

Friends and Family come first
Your feed should inform
Your feed should entertain
A platform for all ideas
An authentic communication
You control your experience
Constant iterations

Oook, Facebook News Feed is changed, that it's a fact, but:

What this change means for brands
How can brands continue reaching customers on Facebook

In a Facebook post, Mark Zuckerberg announced that these changes aren't expected to have much of an impact on pages:

"We anticipate that most pages won’t see any significant changes to their distribution in News Feed. Some Pages might see a small increase in referral traffic, and some Pages might see minor decreases."

However, there still are certainly ways for businesses on Facebook to work with this new algorithm and continue reaching meaningful interactions. Meaningful interactions mean nothing else but comments (lots of them).

How can brands continue reaching customers on Facebook

#1. Continue posting engaging and quality content. Add video content

In order to gain traffic and leads on your page, you need to have great content on your blog or website. It's true that this also means time and work, but with original content, your website will be better, and in time it will improve your site rankings, which can have a positive impact on your business.

Every time you write an article remember:

create original content
focus on strong headlines: 80% of people will read your headlines. But only 20% of those people will read the rest of your content!
create engaging and provoking content
add images and videos
write pointed content
make continual updates to your website and blog.
create videos for your Facebook page.

These days, Facebook is more a video-to-play platform where businesses could build brand awareness first, then build social engagement, and lastly convert the sale.

"Facebook becomes MAJOR player in video. Facebook will become a major competitor to YouTube." in 2018, Michael Stelzner, Founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner noted in a social media experts roundup about the future of Facebook marketing.

If you’re wondering how to build the best video marketing strategy on social media, Logan Young, VP of Strategy at BlitzMetrics have got the answers:

Before posting your article make sure you answer these two questions:

Have I given the readers the best information I possibly can?
Is it complete, or I can add more?

#2. Make Live Facebook Videos

Under the new algorithm videos are still favored, Facebook considers it a unique content type, and if you haven't posted a video on your page yet now, it's time. As a plus, live videos can still be discovered and viewed after the broadcast is over.

"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.”

#3. Organic reach is dead. Facebook Ads might help you

Facebook ads are purchased on an auction basis, where advertisers are charged based on either clicks, impressions or actions. You, as an advertiser, are in full control of all creative elements of your ads. You can choose the title, the image and the text that goes with it. Facebook can target your ad by demographics, location, interests, and behaviors and this thing allow you to access the exact people who are most likely to want to buy your products or services.

Different types of Facebook Ads to grow your business:

Awareness:

Brand awareness
Reach

Consideration:

Traffic
Engagement
App Installs
Video views
Lead generation
Messages

Conversions:

Conversions
Catalogue Sales
Store Visits

Also, when creating an ad you should consider the next five steps:

*#1. Choose an objective: Before getting started, Ads Manager will prompt you to choose an objective for your campaign. In this way, you're giving Facebook a better idea of what you would like to do and what is your final purpose.

*#2. Choose your audience: If you are looking to drive traffic, you will probably want to focus on one type of people, those you know are interested in your offering. If you are looking to build brand awareness or promote an offer, you should focus on a more general audience. Installing a Facebook pixel to your website could be a great help for your Facebook campaigns.

*#3. Set your budget: Facebook offers advertisers the option to set either a daily budget or a lifetime budget. If you want your ad set to run every day non-stop, you should go with a daily budget. The minimum daily budget for an ad set is USD 1.00. If you are looking to run your ad for a length of time, then you select the lifetime budget.

*#4. Schedule: Choose whether or not you want your campaign to run immediately and continuously or if you want to customize the start and end dates. You can also set parameters so that your ads only run during specific hours and days of the week.

*#5. Deliver: Your campaign is ready now, all you have to do is to choose the way you want it to be delivered. There are two categories: standard and accelerated.

If you choose standard, Facebook will show your ads throughout the day, and if you choose accelerated, you will reach an audience more quickly.

Your ads are ready now 😊

#4. Invest time in Facebook Groups

Facebook groups help businesses promote products, support customers and much more. Every business need to provide a way for customers to get help and creating a group is very helpful:

you can build a stronger relationship with your customers
collect honest feedback on what your customers might like or might not like on your product or service.

#5. Consider Facebook Messenger chat bots

In the simplest terms, a bot is a small application that works inside popular messaging program, in this case Facebook Messenger.

Once it is built and installed, the Facebook bot can automatically interact with users, allowing website visitors to access a wide range of services.

Facebook bots are often used for customer service applications, but can also be used to aid your marketing efforts, augmenting and enhancing the human marketing team and boosting their productivity in the process.

"Feels more human - chatting with a Facebook bot is largely the same as chatting with a human operator on a marketing or customer service line. The user simply types a question in normal language, and the Facebook bot provides the needed answers."

Final thought

Today we are living in a world where everything changes, and if you think deeper changes are not always bad, sometimes they can bring things that may help you and your business and also gave you the courage to do something different too.

What you have to do is to be 100% dedicated to providing your customers with valuable and quality content, and there's no reason to fear algorithm changes.

Start a free Socialinsider trial and get in-depth, easy to read graphs displaying your Facebook insights like
followers’ evolution, average engagement rate per post, reach, impressions and history data. Research your competitors on Facebook and optimize your page’s growth.