How to make Facebook's algorithm change work for you - Turn a crisis for other brands into an opportunity for you - Reshift Media

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How to make Facebook's algorithm change work for you - Turn a crisis for other brands into an opportunity for you - Reshift Media
How to make Facebook’s
                       algorithm change
                       work for you
                       Turn a crisis for other brands into an
                       opportunity for you

© Reshift Media 2018                                            1
How to make Facebook's algorithm change work for you - Turn a crisis for other brands into an opportunity for you - Reshift Media
RESHIFT
   MEDIA
   Reshift Media is a digital marketing organization
   specializing in customized social media, search,
   design, development and software services. We
   proudly work with brands and agencies across a
   variety of industries in 20 countries worldwide.

   www.reshiftmedia.com

   1-855-367-3631

   info@reshiftmedia.com

   ! /reshiftmedia
  !     /reshiftmedia

   ! /company/reshiftmedia

    Attend Our Live Q&A About The News Feed Changes!

                                Don’t miss our upcoming Facebook Live session on
            JAN                 January 18th at 3:00PM ET where we will discuss

            18
                                what brands should be doing to maximize their exposure in
                                Facebook’s updated News Feed, and where we will address
         THURSDAY               live any questions you may have.

                                                                   http://rshft.com/fblive

© Reshift Media 2018                                                                         2
How to make Facebook's algorithm change work for you - Turn a crisis for other brands into an opportunity for you - Reshift Media
Introduction                                                      How Facebook’s News Feed
As you may already be aware, on January 11, 2018                  is Changing
Facebook announced a major change to its News Feed
algorithm that will profoundly impact brands’ ability to reach    Facebook announced last week that they are
people on Facebook through organic distribution                   updating the News Feed algorithm to prioritize
(see: http://rshft.com/announcement). The change                  posts that create conversations and interactions
prioritizes interactions between friends and family over
company-generated posts, meaning that content consumed
                                                                  between people. In their definition, these are posts
directly from business pages on Facebook will shrink and          that people share and react to, and that “inspire
content that is shared & talked about between friends will        back-and-forth discussion” in the comments.
grow.
                                                                              “We’re making a major change to how
In particular, posts that generate “interactions” such as
comments and shares will be weighted more heavily than
                                                                              we build Facebook. I’m changing the
posts that generate just likes or reactions. In addition, posts               goal I give our product teams from
with longer comments will be weighted more heavily than              focusing on helping you find relevant content
those with short ones.                                               to helping you have more meaningful social
                                                                     interactions.”
“Interactions” is the new                                            - Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook
“Engagement”
                                                                  Mr. Zuckerberg also stated that people browsing Facebook
                                                                  will see more content from friends and family and less from
Many news organizations and blogs are decrying the
                                                                  brands and publishers. In addition, posts that generate
move, using terms such as “apocalyptic”, “betrayal” and
                                                                  comments, shares and messages will be prioritized more
“nail in the coffin”. We here at Reshift Media are not quite
                                                                  than posts that only generate likes. Not only that, but
as pessimistic as others about the changes. We believe
                                                                  Facebook has also stated that posts with longer comments
that the reduction (or even the possible elimination) of
                                                                  will be weighted more heavily than those with short ones,
the “engagement bait” posts that have been dominating
                                                                  as longer comments indicate a greater level of engagement
Facebook’s News Feed for far too long is a major
                                                                  with the content. “As we roll this out,
opportunity for high-quality organizations with strong
customer engagement strategies to finally stand out from                            you’ll see less public
the crowd.                                                                          content like posts from
                                                                                    businesses, brands, and media.”
Declining organic reach is nothing new. Facebook has been
                                                                  Of particular note
decreasing the amount of organic reach brands are able                                - Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook
                                                                  is that Facebook
to achieve for some time – from 50% to 20% to 10% to 5%
                                                                  has explicitly said that pre-recorded videos, no matter how
and most recently down to around 2.5%, on average. Smart
                                                                  entertaining or informative they are, will be de-prioritized
brands and agencies that have already been pursuing
                                                                  in the feed as watching video tends to be a more “passive”
engagement strategies and building solid content to adjust
                                                                  exercise that typically does not inspire much conversation.
for this declining reach should see less impact than brands
                                                                  This is a major reversal for Facebook, as video has gained
whose Facebook content gets little shares or comments.
                                                                  incredible prominence in the News Feed in recent years and
                                                                  has been an effective way for brands to organically generate
The changes to the News Feed are happening quickly, so
                                                                  reach and engagement.
we recommend brands and agencies adjust their Facebook
strategies as soon as possible to minimize the impact to
their reach. We have several recommendations that brands                   “There will be less video. Video is an
can pursue to not only                                                     important part of the ecosystem. It’s
survive, but potentially thrive,                                           been consistently growing. But it’s more
on Facebook going forward.                                        passive in nature. There’s less conversation on
                                                                  videos, particularly public videos.”
                                                                  - Adam Mosseri, Head of News Feed, Facebook

© Reshift Media 2018                                                                                                        3
How to make Facebook's algorithm change work for you - Turn a crisis for other brands into an opportunity for you - Reshift Media
However, Facebook has specifically called out live video         Although companies will still be able to reach people via
          as a continuing opportunity, citing that live videos tend to     advertising, we at Reshift are advising our clients to expect
          generate six times as many interactions as regular videos,       the cost of advertising to increase. Facebook advertising
          which is the type of person-to-person interaction they are       has historically been a cost-effective way to reach a very
          looking for in the updated News Feed.                            targeted audience when compared to other advertising
                                                                           methods, however, with organic reach being greatly reduced
                      A bit of a surprise to some people was that both     we expect brands to increase their advertising spend, which
                      Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook vice president          will undoubtedly have an inflationary effect on cost.
                      Adam Mosseri have mentioned Facebook
                      Groups (see: http://rshft.com/groups) as             The degree of the impact won’t be known for several
                      a growing opportunity for person-to-person           months,but we are recommending that our clients be
                      interactions. In fact, Mr. Zuckerberg specifically   prepared for a 35-45% increase in cost in the short-term,
                      mentioned Groups alongside friends and family        depending on the level of competition in their particular
                      as an area of content people can expect to see       industry.
                      more of in their News Feed. This is something
                      that has been in the works for some time, as
                      Facebook has been recently increasing their          Why is Facebook Doing this?
                      focus on Groups and implementing several
                      improvements. The company held its first ever        Although many people have speculated that
                      “Communities Summit” in June 2017 where              these changes are being made in response to the
                      they announced a number of new features for          issues Facebook has faced regarding “fake news,”
                      Group admins to support their communities
                      on Facebook, which looks to have been a
                                                                           the company is has indicated that the update is
                      precursor to this latest New Feed update. They       not aimed at their
                                                                                                       “It’s not about
                      also announced Groups for Business pages             ongoing efforts
                          (see: http://rshft.com/group-pages),
                                                                                                       addressing false news
Source: Facebook
                                                                           to address this
                          allowing brands to create their own distinct                                 or other forms of
                                                                           concern.
                          communities and feeds.                                                      problematic content, though
                                                                                                      that is a continued area of
                    “You can expect to see more from
                                                                                                      focus and investment for us.”
                    your friends, family and groups.”                      Instead, Facebook says
                                                                           that the motivation for       - Adam Mosseri,
                    - Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook
                                                                           the changes is to improve Head of News Feed, Facebook
          The timing of the update has not been specifically               people’s happiness and
          outlined, but Facebook has indicated that the philosophy         well-being. Instead of simply spending time on Facebook, Source:
                                                                                                                                    Facebook

          of encouraging “social interactions” more than “popularity”      the company says that it wants the time to be “well
          will be rolled out across all of their products over several     spent”. To support this position, Facebook has cited
          months. The News Feed is the first area that will see these      studies conducted by academics and by the company
          changes, which are expected to be rolled out very quickly.       itself which differentiate “bad” effects of social media
                                                                           when it is being passively consumed versus more
                                                                           “positive” effects when the person is actively engaged.
          Does This Affect
          Advertising?                                                     Here’s a brief summary of the rationale (as provided by
                                                                           Facebook in a December 15, 2017 post):
          According to Facebook, this change will have no
          direct impact on how advertising works, as it is                       The bad:
          a separate system with its own algorithm. This
          means the reach and effectiveness of video ads                   In general, when people spend a lot of time passively
                                                                           consuming information — reading but not interacting
          and other ad units will not be directly impacted
                                                                           with people — they report feeling worse afterward. In one
          by the News Feed updates. Any campaigns that                     experiment, University of Michigan students randomly
          are currently underway or planned should not be                  assigned to read Facebook for 10 minutes were in
          impacted.                                                        a worse mood at the end of the day than students
                                                                           assigned to post or talk to friends on Facebook. A study
          © Reshift Media 2018                                                                                                         4
How to make Facebook's algorithm change work for you - Turn a crisis for other brands into an opportunity for you - Reshift Media
from UC San Diego and Yale found that people who clicked             as there will be more brands attempting to buy ads in an
on about four times as many links as the average person,             environment of shrinking inventory.
or who liked twice as many posts, reported worse mental
health than average in a survey. Though the causes aren’t
clear, researchers hypothesize that reading about others                      “I want to be clear: by making these
online might lead to negative social comparison — and                         changes, I expect the time people spend
perhaps even more so than offline, since people’s posts are                   on Facebook and some measures of
often more curated and flattering. Another theory is that            engagement will go down. But I also expect the
the internet takes people away from social engagement in
                                                                     time you do spend on Facebook will be more
person.
                                                                     valuable. And if we do the right thing, I believe that
       The good:                                                     will be good for our community and our business
                                                                     over the long term too.”
On the other hand, actively interacting with people —
                                                                     - Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook
especially sharing messages, posts and comments with
close friends and reminiscing about past interactions — is
linked to improvements in well-being. This ability to connect
with relatives, classmates, and colleagues is what drew many         How the Update Impacts
of us to Facebook in the first place, and it’s no surprise that
staying in touch with these friends and loved ones brings us         Brands
joy and strengthens our sense of community.
                                                                     Facebook’s News Feed has for some time
A study we conducted with Robert Kraut at Carnegie                   emphasized posts that generate interactions such
Mellon University found that people who sent or received             as likes, comments and shares between friends,
more messages, comments and Timeline posts reported
                                                                     but it has also surfaced other public content that
improvements in social support, depression and loneliness.
The positive effects were even stronger when people talked           its algorithm expects people will find interesting
with their close friends online. Simply broadcasting status          based on broader trends across the network. With
updates wasn’t enough; people                                                            the new update this will still
had to interact one-on-one with
                                                                                         be true, but the emphasis on
others in their network. Other peer-
reviewed longitudinal research and                                                       posts that come from within
experiments have found similar                                                           peoples’ social networks will
positive benefits between well-being                                                     be weighted even more heavily
and active engagement on Facebook.                                                       than previously.
Others have speculated that the                                                              As a result, Facebook has been very
update is designed to force brands to                                                        clear that they expect the News Feed
buy more advertising to reach their                                                          update to have a negative effect on
desired audience – essentially ending                                                        the reach of “public” content created
the “free ride” brands have enjoyed                                                          by brands and media outlets. However,
since Facebook’s inception. While                                                            this does not mean that organic reach
we can’t say if this is indeed one of                                                        is “dead.” In fact, the company has
the motivations driving the update,                                                          been careful to point out that brand
there is little doubt that the change                                                        posts are not being removed from the
will result in brands spending more ad dollars on Facebook to        News Feed, but that the new emphasis on person-to-person
reach their current and prospective customers.                       interactions will reduce the amount of content consumed
                                                                     directly from pages.
Facebook has publically stated that they believe the update
may actually decrease the amount of time people spend on             Companies that typically do not receive many comments and
their platform, but that ultimately people will be happier with      shares on their posts can expect to see a substantial decrease
their overall experience.                                            in organic reach – potentially to zero. Those who have content
                                                                     that drives conversation can expect a lesser decline.
If the amount of time people spend does in fact decrease,
this will likely contribute to the inflation of advertising costs,
© Reshift Media 2018                                                                                                             5
How to make Facebook's algorithm change work for you - Turn a crisis for other brands into an opportunity for you - Reshift Media
customers and drive business results, but
                                                                                          as we will outline it also opens up some
            “As we make these updates, Pages may see                                      new opportunities. Facebook continues to
            their reach, video watch time and referral traffic                            be the largest social network on the planet
                                                                                          and has incredible data and tools to help
            decrease. The impact will vary from Page to                                   any company – big or small – grow their
   Page, driven by factors including the type of content they                             business.
   produce and how people interact with it. Pages making
   posts that people generally don’t react to or comment on                                 Some companies may be tempted to
   could see the biggest decreases in distribution. Pages                                   implement strategies to “game the
                                                                                            system” by creating low-quality content
   whose posts prompt conversations between friends will                                    which encourages commenting, tagging
   see less of an effect.”                                                                  or sharing with little value created. These
   - Adam Mosseri, Head of News Feed, Facebook                                              strategies are called “engagement baiting”
                                                                                            and have been under scrutiny by Facebook
                                                                                            for some time. The company has developed
What this means is that companies who mainly blast out                   a machine learning model designed to detect different types
self-serving marketing messages with little value will, in fact,         of engagement bait and remove them from the News Feed.
see a major decrease in organic distribution.                            Pages that are found to repeatedly use engagement bait to
                                                                         artificially gain reach in News Feed will be demoted

To be successful, brands need to do a better
job of engaging and interacting with people and
encouraging them to interact with each other.

It is also important to realize that the value
of a “fan” has been substantially decreased.
Even if a person follows a brand’s page, the
odds of them actually seeing posts from that
company have never been lower. As such, we
do not recommend investing any ad dollars
in growing your fanbase. We are surprised to
                                                      Source: Facebook
find many brands continue to run “Facebook
Like” campaigns, which are designed to encourage people
to follow the brand’s page. These dollars are better spent on
attracting prospective customers to the company’s website                How to Make the Algorithm
or showcasing the company’s products.
                                                                         Change Work For You
Although we do not recommend spending money to
earn new fans, that does not mean that it is a bad idea to               We believe that the January 2018 update to
continue to grow your social audience through organic                    Facebook’s News Feed algorithm is good news
means. In fact, we see several opportunities for brands                  for brands who are engaging with their customers
to continue to reach and engage current and prospective                  and producing quality content. Based on what
customers, which we will outline shortly.
                                                                         Facebook is saying, we can expect “click bait”
                                                                         posts to decrease in volume, which frees up
What Not To Do                                                           space for higher-quality content that generates
                                                                         interactions to be surfaced.
 Don’t        Although there is a lot of speculation about
              how significant the impact will be for brands
 Panic!       and media companies, we have yet to see
                                                                         This means that fewer brand posts will be seen overall, but
                                                                         the ones that are seen will be the ones that generate more
              what exactly the outcome will be. Yes, we                  meaningful interactions between people. Although more
              expect that this update will have a significant            difficult to create, the upside is that these types of posts are
effect on how brands use Facebook to engage with                         of higher value to both the person and the brand.
© Reshift Media 2018                                                                                                                    6
How to make Facebook's algorithm change work for you - Turn a crisis for other brands into an opportunity for you - Reshift Media
As outlined previously, Facebook has been decreasing
organic reach for some time, so we at Reshift have
implemented several strategies to increase brands’
distribution opportunities. In light of the update to
the algorithm, we have developed a list of the top 10
opportunities for brands to consider in order to minimize the
impact of the update, and possibly even grow their exposure.

1. Integrate your paid and organic Facebook strategies

Many companies view their Facebook advertising and                 --   Geography (neighborhoods, cities, regions)
organic strategies as completely separate. Going forward,          --   Demographics (age, gender)
we recommend integrating organic and paid planning to              --   Interests (sports, travel, television)
use ad dollars as a means to “prime the pump” for organic          --   Language
reach.
                                                                   Once you know your audience groups, you can tailor your
In our view, whether a post is paid for or not is irrelevant. In   content to each audience individually in order to make it as
both cases the objective should be to create informative,          relevant as possible. The more relevant it is, the more likely
interesting content that results in activity on behalf of the      your fans will interact with the content which will aid in its
recipient. In the case of Facebook advertising you just            distribution. You can even take the same basic message
happen to be paying to distribute the content to a specific        and re-write it for your various audiences, if appropriate.
target audience – it should still be quality content.              You can then use Facebook’s targeting capabilities to share
                                                                   each piece of content with the correct target group.

2. Reach the right people with the right posts at the right time   In addition, you should time your posts to coincide with
                                                                   when your audience is most active on Facebook. Facebook
Traditional “mass media” facilitated a one-to-many means           metrics don’t tell you when each demographic is active, but
of communication, while the rise of social media opened            you can identify in general when your fans overall are online.
up the opportunity for a one-to-few or even a one-to-one           This will give you the best possible chance of reaching the
means of communicating information or ideas. However,              right people at the right time.
over time many companies shifted back into “mass media”
mode where they create a single “generic” post which is            The key to this approach is to challenge each piece if
syndicated to a large homogeneous audience.                        content to ensure it:

With the changes to the News Feed, posts that do not create        -- Is relevant to the audience
comments and shares will not gain distribution. General               • Is the copy written using language and a tone that will
posts that are aimed at a homogeneous audience typically                resonate with them?
do not inspire interaction, so brands need to get more                • Is the photo attractive to them?
serious about how they think about creating content on             -- Encourages interaction
Facebook. In some ways, the News Feed update is a good                • Are you asking a relevant question of your audience?
wake-up call to get back into the mindset of thinking about           • Is the piece of information you are sharing something
social media as a one-to-few means of communicating.                    they will care about?
                                                                      • Are they likely to want to comment on it or share it with
To achieve a one-to-few approach, we recommend analyzing                a friend?
your Facebook insights (see: http://rshft.com/insights)
to understand the makeup of your audience. Insights has
a tremendous amount of information about your fanbase              3. Produce content that generates interactions
and who typically responds to your posts and at what time
of day. If you have a local business page, you can even see        This recommendation may seem somewhat self-evident,
when people are physically near your business location and         but our list clearly would not be complete without it. Now,
what their age/gender is.                                          more than ever, companies need to challenge themselves
                                                                   to really think about the needs of their audience segments
With this information in-hand, you can then logically              in order to create and share content that people will react to
segment your audience into smaller focused groups along a          and converse about.
number of factors, including:
© Reshift Media 2018                                                                                                            7
How to make Facebook's algorithm change work for you - Turn a crisis for other brands into an opportunity for you - Reshift Media
The days of creating a funny meme that received a bunch of
likes to “go viral” are clearly behind us.

Again, we see this as good news. Few people actually
enjoyed seeing their Facebook feed crammed full of low-
quality click-bait, so by demoting these in the News Feed
Facebook is making it easier for legitimate companies
producing interesting information to be seen.

The issue is that what constitutes “interesting” varies from
brand to brand and from customer to customer. The key
point to keep in mind is that the content needs to generate
an interaction such as a comment or share to be deemed
of high value, so focusing on strategies to generate
conversation is key. Be careful not to fall into the trap of       Beyond creating more interactions, this approach has
accidentally producing engagement bait though, as this will        several positive effects:
have the opposite effect on your visibility.
                                                                   -- Helps solidify your relationship with the customer. By
      DON’T: Ask yes/no questions or purposely try to illicit         sharing their story from your brand page you make them
      low-value engagement:                                           feel special, which everyone enjoys.
                                                                   -- Positions your company as caring about customers. Your
                                                                      brand will feel more real and authentic which increases
                                                                      affinity.
                                                                   -- Introduces your business to new prospective customers
                                                                      in a very positive light. These customer stories essentially
                                                                      become brand testimonials.

                                                                   4. Focus on quality over quantity

                                                                   More than ever, the quality of your content should take
                                                                   priority over the frequency of posting. Many brands we
                                                                   speak to post on Facebook daily (or even more frequently)
      DO: Create relevant content and ask meaningful               in order to artificially increase their overall reach. The reach
      questions that spur community conversation:                  of each post is actually quite small, but because they post
                                                                   so frequently each little post adds up to a better overall
                                                                   monthly reach number.

                                                                   Under the new algorithm, this strategy may be extremely
                                                                   detrimental to your brand’s visibility if the majority of your
                                                                   posts receive little interaction.

                                                                   To be successful, quality is the name of the game. We
                                                                   recommend brands segment their audience as previously
One strategy we have found effective in generating                 discussed and carefully consider each post from the
interactions is to create posts that share customer stories.       perspective of the recipient to ensure it is relevant to the
This is particularly effective when your product or service is     audience you are targeting. In our experience, unless you
connected to a life event such as buying a car, building a house   are receiving incredible interactions and huge reach for
or getting a new puppy. Celebrating your customers’ stories        every post, 3-4 Facebook posts per week is more than
is a great way to generate conversation with the customer          enough. Anything beyond this may result in people ignoring
whose story you are telling, which in turn surfaces the content    your posts, which will lead to a decrease in the number of
to their friends and family who often interact with the content    interactions and therefore reach.
to congratulate the person or ask them questions.
© Reshift Media 2018                                                                                                                  8
How to make Facebook's algorithm change work for you - Turn a crisis for other brands into an opportunity for you - Reshift Media
5. Create a Facebook Group                                          What video you shoot depends on your business and
                                                                    customers. Some of the more popular ideas include:
                   Facebook has called out Groups
                   (see: http://rshft.com/groups) as an             --   Host a live Q&A
                   opportunity to generate user interactions,       --   Behind-the scenes/live tours
                   and has even mentioned Groups content            --   Breaking news
                   as receiving the same level of News Feed         --   Contest or challenge
                   distribution as posts from family and friends.   --   Demos/how-tos
                                                                    --   Events/conferences
Facebook recently introduced Groups for pages, allowing             --   Interviews
page admins to create or connect sub-groups to their                --   Product launches
pages. This creates a place for niche or smaller audiences          --   Explain a product
that may not have had a space to come together before               --   Reoccurring video show
now. Groups provide an opportunity for a closer relationship        --   Answer customer questions from your blog or Facebook
between brands and their customers. Businesses can                       page
communicate directly with their superfans and determine
how their customers really feel towards their company/              In order to ensure a successful live event, we recommend the
product/service. Group users are able to chat with each             following:
other, and to the page admins directly.
                                                                    -- Plan out the video ahead of time and ensure it is relevant to
6. Go Live on Facebook                                                 your target audience. As it is live, you don’t have the luxury
                                                                       of re-takes and editing to get it exactly how you want it, so
               If you have not already tried it, Facebook              be sure to have a solid script and plan before turning the
               allows any individual or brand to “go live”             camera on.
with video anytime. Although the company has stated that            -- Promote the event ahead of time to increase the number
pre-recorded video will likely be shown less, they specifically        of people watching. This can be done through promotion
mentioned live video as generating more interactions and               on your website, Facebook ads (including an event ad),
therefore being of higher value in the updated News Feed.              promotion on other platforms (Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn),
                                                                       promotion within your store(s) to existing customers
Facebook Live has several interesting benefits for brands:             via signage or word-of-mouth and/or an email blast to
                                                                       subscribers, among others.
-- Livestreaming receives 6 times the engagement of                 -- Ask users to submit questions ahead of time so that you
   regular video which helps you “break through” Facebook’s            have something to talk about in the first few minutes before
   algorithm to gain additional distribution.                          the live questions start coming in
-- Only 28% of marketers are using Facebook Live, which
   makes it an underused marketing opportunity.                     7. Watch Out For Facebook Stories
-- When you “go live,” Facebook notifies your page’s fans
   which represents a great opportunity to reach people. It is      Stories haven’t really taken off on Facebook like they
   unknown if this will change in the update, but as of now         have on Instagram, but that may change as brands
   the notification is still present.                               try to find more ways to get in front of people
                                                                    organically. Though Facebook Stories is currently
                                                                    limited to personal profiles, TechCrunch (see: http://
                                                                    rshft.com/stories) recently confirmed that this
                                                                    feature will be rolling out to all pages in the coming
                                                                    months.

                                                                    Before it becomes widely popular with brands,
                                                                    be the first to jump on Stories by implementing
                                                                    it as soon as it is enabled on your page. As we’ve
                                                                    discovered on Instagram, Stories are a great way for
                                                                    companies to reach people by offering interesting
                                                                    content such as behind-the-scenes videos and how-
                                                                    to instructions. Plus, Facebook displays the latest
Source: Facebook
                                                                    Stories at the very top of the News Feed on both desktop and
                                                                    the mobile app, offering incredible organic exposure.
© Reshift Media 2018                                                                                                                    9
How to make Facebook's algorithm change work for you - Turn a crisis for other brands into an opportunity for you - Reshift Media
8. Motivate people to share on your behalf                         networks. This is particularly powerful for brands that create
                                                                   experiences – such as restaurants, hotels, event companies
We at Reshift have often talked about the importance of            and other similar businesses.
engaging your customers and fans to share information
about your brand on their own personal Facebook page.              Outside of overtly asking people to talk about you on
This means that they create their own post about your              Facebook (which is often quite difficult), there are several
company and share it, as opposed to sharing a post from            proven strategies to encourage people to share their
your brand page to their friends and family.                       positive experiences:

This concept is crucial for all social media marketing             -- Create content on your website that is about them.
professionals because the reach of personal pages has long            This could be a celebration of their stories (similar to
outperformed business pages. With this latest algorithm               the car example in idea #3) or something as simple
change, it is clear that person-to-person interaction will be         as a “customer of the week”. The idea is to create
even more favored over business-to-person. This opens up              website content that is about them, their community or
an opportunity for smart brands to better engage their best           something they care about. People enjoy being part of
fans to increase their distribution and reach new potential           the conversation and will almost always share it to their
customers.                                                            own social networks on your behalf.
                                                                   -- Surprise and delight them. Give them an unexpected
           Being successful with this approach involves               surprise such as a table visit from the head chef, a
           developing high quality content and a strong               surprise credit on their account, or a discount for repeat
           customer engagement strategy.                              visitors. This is where your on-the-ground customer
                                                                      engagement strategy is critical - go the extra mile to
           One of the best ways to encourage people to                make their experience a great one and they will naturally
           talk about your company on social media is to              talk about it on social media.
           create a strong blog on your company website            -- Use your store to provide visual cues that your brand
           with interesting information about your industry,          “gets” social media. Bring social media into the “real
           customers, products or other relevant content.             world” by integrating social elements into your physical
           You should actively promote your blog to your              stores. This could include ideas such as displaying
           existing customers through newsletters, in-store           hashtags alongside menu items or prominently posting
           experiences and social media. You may even                 the company’s social handles.
           want to consider putting a modest ad budget             -- Give people some “fame”. The idea is to show that you
           against promoting your content on several social           care about their social posts and want to share them
           networks (not just Facebook). Ensuring the post            with other people. This could include ideas such as
           is search optimized is also important to increase          having digital screens in your facility display a running
           its discoverability via Google and Bing.                   feed of brand mentions so people can see themselves,
                                                                      or hanging up printed posters of a this week’s best
                                                                      customer photos from Facebook/Instagram.
A strong blog can encourage people to share your content
on social media                                                    9. Make your content a “must have” for your followers

                                                                   Although the News Feed determines what content people
Your objective with these efforts is to encourage people to        see, they can manually override the algorithm to select
come to your blog to read it. Once they are on your article,       people and pages that they want to see first in their feed.
encourage them to share their thoughts on social media             This can be done two ways:
(including Facebook, of course). When the person shares
the article via their personal profile, their reach within their     1) Via their personal “News Feed Preferences.” People
social circles will be superior to what you could achieve as         can click “News Feed Preferences” and then “prioritize
a brand page, which will allow you to reach new prospective          who to see first”.
customers. If they click through, read and share the article,
then you achieve even more distribution.

We earlier discussed how sharing customer stories from
your brand page is a good way to generate interactions.
This concept is also very powerful when the customer
shares their own story about your brand via their social
© Reshift Media 2018                                                                                                              10
2) On the brand page itself. People visiting your brand          b) Entertainment: Content that entertains people or
   page can click on “following” and then choose “see first”.       brings them some enjoyment.
                                                                    -- Comedy/satire
                                                                    -- Quizzes/contests

                                                                 10. Measure and manage the right things

                                                                 As they say – what gets measured gets done. To that end,
                                                                 we recommend taking a hard look at how you measure your
                                                                 Facebook performance to ensure it is aligned with the new
                                                                 algorithm update. When creating content for your brand
                                                                 page, less emphasis should be placed on “vanity” metrics
                                                                 such as page or post likes and more focus should be placed
                                                                 on post interactions (comments, shares) and reach. Posts
                                                                 achieving strong interactions and reach should be viewed
Although the ability to prioritize pages is not a well-known     as a success, even if they did not generate as many likes as
feature and involves some work on behalf of your fans,           other posts.
companies with highly engaged customers can achieve
some success in teaching people to take this step to ensure      Beyond measuring the reach of posts you create, we also
they receive content from the brand.                             recommend monitoring for brand mentions across all
                                                                 social networks to see how frequently people are creating
The key to this approach is to make your content a “must         their own posts about your brand. This will be an important
have” for your fans. Again, what exactly appeals to people       measurement to understand if your content and offline
varies from brand to brand and even between customer             strategies are encouraging people to use their personal
segments within a brand. We recommend conducting user            profiles to promote your brand.
profiling and segmentation to ensure you understand what
value you bring to your customers in order to create the type
of content they absolutely must have.                            Conclusions
We encourage brainstorming content within two major              Although a change of this magnitude will naturally lead to
“buckets”:                                                       a period of uncertainty and concern by those affected, we
                                                                 believe that the News Feed update creates an opportunity
   a) Informational/tactical: Content that informs people or     for brands to re-examine the low-engagement “mass
   provides some utility.                                        media” approach they may be taking today. At this point it is
                                                                 unknown exactly how profound the effect will be on brand
    -- Deals/offers/coupons/flyers: Some customer                reach, but there is little doubt that lower-interaction brands
       segments love a deal, which can be a strong               will see a decrease in their Facebook effectiveness. Now
       motivator to take an extra step to ensure they get “the   is the time from brands to be implementing meaningful
       best” deals available. One strategy we often use is       changes which will not only improve Facebook results,
       to offer some deals only on Facebook and use other        but also business drivers such as customer engagement,
       avenues such as the company’s website or email            customer satisfaction and new customer acquisition.
       newsletter to promote that exclusive deals can only
       be found there.                                           We at Reshift Media expect that the next few months will
    -- Menu items/specials/schedules: Many businesses            be a major period of adjustment as the impact of the new
       provide their products or services based on a             changes take effect. If you implement the recommendations
       schedule, which may be important information for          in this guide that apply to your business and are diligent
       customers to be aware of. For example, someone            about focusing on interactions as your main objective, your
       who frequently visits a particular restaurant may         company has a significant opportunity to out-perform your
       want to be kept up-to-date about menu changes or          competitors who are slower to adapt.
       daily specials.
    -- News/events: Become the “go to” information source                       For more information on this and other social
       in your field so that followers don’t want to miss an                    media, search and other digital marketing
       update, otherwise they will be “out of the loop”.                        topics, please visit our blog at
    -- How-tos: Become a resource in your industry for how                      www.reshiftmedia.com.
       to do things.
© Reshift Media 2018                                                                                                         11
Attend Our Live Q&A About The News Feed Changes!

                             Don’t miss our upcoming Facebook Live session on
              JAN            January 18th at 3:00PM ET where we will discuss

             18
                             what brands should be doing to maximize their exposure in
                             Facebook’s updated News Feed, and where we will address
           THURSDAY          live any questions you may have.

                                                                       http://rshft.com/fblive

Resources
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104413015393571
https://www.facebook.com/facebookmedia/best-practices/
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/01/news-feed-fyi-bringing-people-closer-together/
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10103899863723631&set=a.529237706231.2034669.4&type=3&theater
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/12/news-feed-fyi-fighting-engagement-bait-on-facebook/
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/12/hard-questions-is-spending-time-on-social-media-bad-for-us/
https://www.facebook.com/facebookmedia/get-started/audience-optimization
https://www.wired.com/story/facebooks-adam-mosseri-on-why-youll-see-less-video-more-from-friends/
https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/12/facebook-stories-for-pages/
https://digiday.com/media/theyre-saying-f-publishers-media-winners-losers-facebooks-feed-purge/
https://digiday.com/marketing/organic-reach-facebook-dead-advertisers-will-spend-reach-facebooks-feed-purge/
http://mashable.com/2018/01/11/facebook-news-feed-algorithm-changes-family-friends/#mnbqyL.ljZqi
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/technology/facebook-news-feed-changes.html
https://twitter.com/mosseri
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X15002535
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/06/our-first-communities-summit-and-new-tools-for-group-admins/
https://www.facebook.com/business/news/audience-insights
https://www.facebook.com/help/1629740080681586/?helpref=hc_fnav

© Reshift Media 2018                                                                                           12
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