Have you noticed your Facebook post views dropped dramatically in the organic reach of your Facebook fan page?
If you’re not sure with what’s going on, take a few minutes to click around your Facebook Insights. You’ll find the link on the top bar in your Fan Page admin panel. Take a look at the recap of your Recent Posts Published. You’ll get the full picture of which posts are connecting with your fans by checking your Reach and Engagement numbers.
So what happened to all those Facebook marketing messages that you were posting that were getting Likes, shares and comments from your fans?
In January, Facebook quietly made another change to their programming that has directly affected how Facebook Fan Pages connect with their customers. It turns out that most Facebook users want to see more pictures from their friend’s vacation and less sales messages. They want to click on more hamster videos and see fewer Fan Page marketing promotions.
So Facebook decided to make a change to their algorithm (how we get our content in our home feeds) to provide their fans a better user experience. So what’s a small business to do? Well, you’ve got three choices.
My Facebook Post Views Dropped: What Do I Do?
1. Move on From Facebook
This may be the time in your marketing plans to shift your attention to your other social programs like Pinterest and Twitter.
Quite honestly, you may not need to do an official breakup with Facebook. But you should consider finding other social programs to spend some time with to reach a new audience.
2. Play the Facebook Game and Pay for Promoted Posts
I have always been a big fan of Facebook’s Promoted Posts. You can run a targeted marketing campaign for as little as $30 and reach thousands of people.
Not of all them will be your target audience, but at least by promoting your posts, your content will show up in more of your fans and friends of your fans news feeds.
3. Stay on Facebook and Make it Work
If you decide to keep posting on Facebook, you’ll need to make some changes to your Facebook strategy. Below are some ideas to help you create content that your fans will want to read and share.
Change Your Text-Only Messages into Link Share Posts
With the updated Facebook news feed algorithm, text-only updates are now less likely to be seen by your fans. But when you share a link, the new programming gives these “Link Share” posts a higher priority, meaning more people will see them.
Link Share Posts:
Facebook posts without the link appearing in your message but that are shown below it with an image – are now getting more engagement from fans. It’s really simple to do and makes your post stand out more in the news feed.
In the status post update section, do the following to create a Link Share:
- Copy the URL of the content you want to share.
- Paste it into the status update. Facebook will bring up the article title, image from the post (if there is more than one image, you can click through the options) and a description of the article.
- With the Link Share info now included below in your status update, delete the URL you just pasted.
- Add your comments or questions to your status then hit the post button to share with your fans.
Pay More Attention to Your Images
Visual content is still a great way to get your fans’ attention. So spend a little time making sure you add eye-catching images to your posts that grab your fans’ attention. The new content feed changes also brought new changes to the way images appear on your wall.
I’m sure it may change again. But right now, Facebook images are all about the square.
The Best Facebook Photo Sizes Are Now Square (504 x 504 Pixels)
If your images are smaller than the 504 pixel square, Facebook will fill in the extra area with grey bars. If you post taller images like infographics, your image will be reduced to 504 pixels tall and Facebook will fill the extra space on the sides with the same gray bar effect.
Note: These gray bars filling in the extra space won’t be seen in the news feed of your fans. Facebook is using the grey bars to make sure that your image fits into the 504 pixel wide space on the new Fan Page wall layout.
Conclusion
Whatever you decide to do with your Facebook marketing plans, make sure you take into account all of the new Facebook changes to ensure that your company’s content connects with your fans.
I look at my social media marketing plans this way. With all the latest changes on Facebook affecting my reach with customers, I’m not putting all my marketing eggs into Facebook’s basket. But I will continue to post, share and engage on this social site because Facebook is still the first place we go to check out a business. And if your last post was 6 months ago, then what message are you sending to a potential customer?
Facebook Photo via Shutterstock
