Public Service Announcement: The Facebook Algorithm & Your Business

We see a lot of news articles and individuals posting about the “NEW Facebook Algorithm”

Here is the secret sauce…

YOUR Facebook has been working under the same algorithm for 5+ years. There is a trick and we’ve always known it here at The Social Media Advisor. If you aren’t seeing posts from people or pages you want to see, we have the sauce. We can only get you there, but we can show you how to get your audience there as well.

1) For every single person you don’t want to miss a post from, mark them as a Close Friend. Go to your profile, select ‘Friends.’ From a desktop, you can select a ‘Star’ or ‘Close’ option for each friend you would like to get a notification from when they post an update.

2) If you don’t want to be connected to that person, select ‘Unfriend.’ Click those three dots on the page to ‘See Friendship’ and then you can categorize each person by how you know them (they won’t be notified about the category you’ve chosen for them) and you can even mark them with ‘Unfollow’ or ‘Restricted.’ Unfollow means you won’t see any of their updates. Restricted is when you want to limit them from seeing what you are posting – they will only see your profile pic, cover photo, and your public posts. (‘Public’ posts are for everyone, everywhere – friend or foe or stranger. ‘Friends’ posts are just for the people you’ve accepted friend requests from.) To mark Unfollow is super easy for those friends that are driving you crazy on Facebook: on your mobile, go to their profile, next to ‘Friends’ you will see a ‘Follow’ button where you can change your option to ‘Unfollow.’

3) If you want to follow a page and not miss an update, open Facebook on your desktop, go to the business page, next to ‘Liked’ you will see a ‘Following’ button – select that and change it to ‘See First.‘ You’ll receive a notification every time that person or page posts something to the platform.

4) If you want to see any updates from people or pages you follow, you MUST ENGAGE! That means you need to like, comment, or share. THIS ISN’T NEW! You have to train the algorithm to show you what you want to see. Otherwise, it will keep guessing based on your usage.

For a Facebook Business Page, you must:

1) Post on a consistent schedule.

2) If you want to see any updates from people or pages you follow, you MUST engage! That means you have to like, comment or share their content. THIS ISN’T NEW!

3) Plan to budget for minimal ads for boosting…low dollar amounts ($3-5 min / campaign)

4) Did I mention engagement is important? If you want to see any updates from people or pages you follow, you MUST engage! That means like, comment or share. Are you hearing me yet?

5) Invite your tribe (people you are connected to) to comment – like – share – ENGAGE!

6) Create and post content worth engaging with. Embrace brand storytelling.

7) Nurture your online community so you don’t have to convince them to follow and engage with your page – they’ll want to.

Would I be worried about said NEW algorithms? NOPE – I have taught these same practices for YEARS! NOTHING changed about them except for… KEEP ENGAGING!!!

If you aren’t posting, people can’t engage. If you aren’t consistent, people can’t engage. If you treat your social experience like a one directional website, you will not have engagement. If you are just posting content without a strategy and with no intention of being involved in your own social media, there is no one for your audience to engage with. It’s always been about engagement.

Social media IS NOT GOING AWAY ANY TIME SOON, it is barely scratching the surface of communication with your clients. We grew from MySpace when Facebook became popular. If Facebook isn’t playing nice, we will find a platform for you that will take over that space. We aren’t worried. We live in this space. Trust u to keep you updated and don’t worry about the Fear mongering media. If anything changes, we will be the first to let you know.

Want to learn more about how to use social media without fear? Join us on our new Social Media E-Learning Channel via: www.socialpowerprogram.com