Facebook has been making some changes

Social Media giant Facebook has rolled out some important changes over the last couple of weeks and we wanted to make sure that your’re aware of what’s going on!

No More ‘Salesy’ Posts

Facebook dropped a bombshell last week when they announced that they are going to penalise content that is too ‘salesy’! But what does that even mean? Are we all screwed now? Let’s take a closer look!

Straight from Facebook:

As part of an ongoing survey we asked hundreds of thousands of people how they feel about the content in their News Feeds. People told us they wanted to see more stories from friends and Pages they care about, and less promotional content.

It is no secret that Facebook sorts user generated content based on a complex algorithm. The typical Facebook user would normally see around 1,500 stories any given day if there wasn’t a system in place of what’s not newsworthy then you would see all posts, even if they are relevant or not. Facebook then narrows the published stories down to about 300 as they believe the user will most likely care about these. Based on Facebook’s latest insights, they believe also that users don’t want to see promotional content in their newsfeed. As a result, less of it will be appearing within the news feed.

What Does This Mean for Your Brand?

Facebook defines a promotional post as follows:

  1. Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app
  2. Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context
  3. Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads

Here’s one example of a post that Facebook says qualified as being too promotional:

Facebook promotional posts get penalised

The post would have been not penalised if it didn’t mention to buy a DVD. In our opinion, Facebook will base their judgement on what’s promotional on certain buying phrases or keywords. Like an email client, sophisticated software can detect keywords such as ‘buy, purchase, free, complimentary’, etc and will classify it as spam. As a full-service marketing agency, this is nothing new to us – the only news is that this may apply for social media marketing too now.

Here’s another example of a Facebook brand post that might be penalised in the near future:

How to write promotional posts for Facebook

Again, it is very easy to detect that this is a promotional post. It has a discount in the sales copy and a call to action to ‘Download NOW’. Apparently, this is exactly the kind of content Facebook users want to see less.

What to Do From Here?

If you manage your Facebook Fanpage on your own, you need to become more clever with your copy writing. Your content shouldn’t be about how awesome your company, your product or your service is. Your content should add value to the user. They should be intrigued to find out more about your brand or the people who work behind the scenes.

If you keep ignoring Facebook announcements you will learn quickly that Facebook isn’t messing around with this. Oppositely, Facebook is clear that brands that choose to post promotional content “should expect their organic distribution to fall significantly over time”. That’s some strong language there, my friend!

Facebook says all changes will go into effect in January 2015.

Why it’s Good

This and some other changes Facebook has rolled out recently, force marketers to become better. As we teach in our Media Bootcamps, every brand needs to learn to use social media channels natively. What we mean by this is that you need to use it in a way that doesn’t interrupt a user in their daily activity but your offers must be so intriguing that they want to:

a)      Follow your brand

b)      Want to see your valuable content

c)       Want to click-through to your website

d)      Want to opt-in to your newsletter / offer on a landing page or whatever goal you have to do social media marketing in the first place

e)      Want to stay connected with your brand on social media

f)       Recommend, review and refer your brand to their friends

g)      Look forward to receive updates from you

This is your chance to educate and entertain your target audience on Facebook rather than running around with a billboard on other peoples newsfeed claiming how awesome you are. Your promotional story NEEDS to fit in with hundreds of personal stories Facebook users see on an everyday basis. Unless you take a HUMAN APPROACH it won’t be worth posting! Remember, the user always comes first because at the end of the day, you and Facebook have one thing in common: You both need to cater for the user!

How to Get Around This Massive Change

There are two ways you need to adapt in regards to your social media marketing strategy. Firstly, you need to become wittier with your copywriting. If you feel this ins’t something that comes easy to you then talk to our team of copywriters at Digital Junkies!

Instead of posting something like…

It’s here! Click below to buy my new product NOW!

Do something like…

I’m so excited to share this with you! It’s been a long time coming.

Secondly, you need to get your head around SOCIAL ADVERTISING! Facebook says it will punish ORGANIC promotional posts. Vice versa, this means you can convert your organic promotional post to PAID ADVERTISING!

If you want to continue broadcasting promotional messages, you NEED to spend money on advertising for these specific posts. As long as these messages can be identified as ads, your page won’t get penalised. You don’t need a massive advertising budget to be successful on Facebook. With $1 per day you can have amazing results already. Check our latest blog post on this topic!

This is Even More Reason to Outsource!

Our experienced team at Media Junkies not only know the platform like the back of our hands but are also experts in social advertising. They know how to get the best results in the most efficient way for our clients!

Enquire today and we will show you some of the stunning Facebook ad campaigns we have run on behalf of our clients!

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