Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Your Facebook News Feed 2018: Content from Friends > Content from Publishers & Brands

On January 11, Mark Zuckerberg announced significant changes to Facebook’s News Feed, partially resulting from the negative user feedback that "public content — posts from businesses, brands, and media — [was] crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other." Zuckerberg confirmed that Facebook would tweak its algorithm to ensure that users would see less of this content in 2018, which caused shockwaves through the marketing world, as brands feared dwindling engagement from their audience. "By making these changes,” Zuckerberg said, "I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down. But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable."



But is this really so bad for brands? Sure, it will be detrimental for small businesses or companies that do not have the budget or talent pool in place to produce engaging content that generates conversations. However, I would argue that this shift will force most publishers and brands to do what they should have been doing all along: create meaningful, engaging content that makes the brand feel personal and memorable. (Frankly, we should be thanking Facebook for this not-so-subtle nudge!)

In addition to producing better content, we will likely also see brands increasing their spend on Facebook advertising, and further diversifying their marketing mix to engage users on other channels.


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