2021 Facebook Changes

2021 – not everyone expecting a third wave. But here we are. There are new changes ahead – for the better or worse. In this case, Facebook have announced new changes that will be coming onto their platform. Small business owners – take notes, this may help you.

ALGORITHM UPDATE

There’s going to be new options for the consumer when viewing the Newsfeed. They can select up to 30 favourites (people on their friends list & pages they follow), and the Facebook algorithm will do it’s work and score these posts according to the predetermined ranking signals (in chronological order) such as the last time they posted, what type of post it is, and more.

WHY AM I SEEING THIS POST?

There are times when I’m on my Newsfeed minding my own business and something irrelevant comes up. I always scroll past them but then another post similar to the one I scrolled past pops up and I’m just like “what the heck? Why am I seeing this?” Well Facebook is adding a feature where it will explain why exactly I am seeing this type of post, which will be neat.

REACHING MORE THAN JUST YOUR FOLLOWERS

Some businesses may only target a certain audience, but this new change will change that. It will have a page suggestion on the consumers page that may be suggested if other people they are connected with have previously interacted with the page, group, or post. If the user has recently engaged with a certain topic on Facebook, it then may suggest other posts related to that topic.

CHANGES FOR GROUPS

This section of the Facebook change got me excited. When a user has repeatedly violated terms in a group or page, they’re blocked from being able to post or comment in any group for a period of time. Usually when you’re in a group, an admin from the group would have to find that member and ban him or her for doing something inappropriate, and then wait for Facebook to approve of this. Now they won’t have too since Facebook will be taking care of that. 

REMOVING THE LIKE BUTTON

Now, this is still in the works. They are thinking about removing the like button on all of the pages and have the “follow your page” button as an option online. 

What does this mean for you marketers and small business owners? It means that you need to set some new priorities for your consumers. Here are 6 things that you would want to do to increase your brand awareness.

1.ENCOURAGE ENGAGEMENT

You want to avoid click-baits. Consumers don’t like the idea of clicking something they may be interested in reading or learning more about, just for them to realize that it was a misleading headline. It’s like saying “Click here to learn how to become a billionaire in 2 years”, only to find out they tell you information about their new book “How to become a billionaire in 2 years” that’s going to cost probably about $99. You also want to create inspiring, funny, or interesting posts that make users want to share. If your post is going to be something that’s boring, there’s a chance that someone like me will just scroll past it without a second thought.

2.FOCUS ON QUALITY CONTENT

Let’s be real – if you see a long text on a post, you’d be hesitant to want to read it. Instead of using just text on a post, focus on making quality content. Create videos that are interesting, funny, quirky – anything to grab the consumers attention. Have images on your posts that are interesting enough to have the consumer stop and take a quick glance at it. 

3.KNOW WHEN TO POST

Facebook offers a great thing called the page insights tool where you can check what days and times to post to best engage with your consumers. Usually for B2B, it’s 9am-2pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, whereas for B2C you’d want to upload around noon on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Of course, this depends on your business.

4. BUILD & FOCUS ON TIMELY INTERACTIONS

Everyone has to start somewhere. If you’re a business owner who’s just about to start building awareness on Facebook, make sure to have friends, family, co-workers, whoever you know to interact with your brand. By interacting with your consumers, it allows you to build customer loyalty and relationships. It’s great for a small business because you’ll be able to offer them a one-of-a-kind customer experience, and increase their customer loyalty. You also want to focus on timely interactions, so if someone comments on your post or even messages you, a good rule of thumb is to reply within 24 hours. 

Is this whole change a good thing? In my personal opinion, yes. Facebook is limiting the number of ads larger businesses can buy, which is great for smaller businesses. (Support local businesses!) By increasing and improving the user satisfaction, consumers won’t be leaving the platform. Not to mention that Facebook is such a great way to promote contests and sweepstakes that companies may be running.

 

Like what you’re reading? Check out our other blogs here!

 

Amy Chung, Oakville ON, April 2021

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