According to a new article from Post Planner, Facebook will begin penalizing what they consider to be “low quality” content.
As it is now, Facebook determines which posts show up more frequently in your followers’ news feeds by how engaging a post is.
If you post a story that get a lot of likes, comments, and shares, that post will show up in the news feed of more of your followers.
However, recently Facebook announced that it will begin to target the actual quality of posts.
Facebook announced, “Pages producing some low quality, meme content can expect to see a slight decrease. Pages that are exclusively posting low quality, meme content might see a bigger drop.
The magnitude of the change will be greatest for Pages creating high quality content. Generally, these Pages should see increased distribution.”
This has many people all up in arms as memes tend to be popular and sharable items to post. Critics have questioned whether or not Facebook can really accurately determine whether or not a page is posting “low quality” content.
What does this mean for you and your brand?
There are a few ways that you can sidestep this and make sure you are continuing to post high quality content so that your brand doesn’t disappear from the news feed of your followers.
Post Relevant Content
When you are posting an update to your page, make sure that whatever you are saying is timely and current. Ask yourself if this update would be interesting to you.
Ask yourself if your followers would want to see this information on their news feeds.
Post content that is relevant to your brand. If you sell shoes, don’t post news articles about the Affordable Healthcare Act.
Engage With Your Customers
Encourage your followers to post comments. Ask them questions in your updates. Don’t make it all about you and your brand.
Don’t come across like a car salesman, shoving your products and services in their faces. If you sell shoes, ask your customers what shoes they are excited about this season.
If a follower posts something on your page, respond to them in a friendly manner. You want to be approachable to your followers.
Get Creative With Your Content
Instead of just re-posting that meme you saw on the timeline of your friend from college, think of something new and creative that you and your brand have to offer specifically.
Is there an interesting video you could make and share? Are there informative and beneficial blog posts you could write?
Are there high quality and relevant news articles you could link to? Think outside of the box and come up with some creative ideas that will allow you to share unique, high quality content.
Only time will tell whether or not these updates have any real effect on the reach of posts from pages.
As SEO and marketing companies such as Everspark Interactive will confirm, one good way to stay ahead of updates like these in the future, though, is to make sure you are posting high quality, well-written, and interesting content that your followers will want to see on their Facebook pages.
This is the best way to increase brand loyalty and bring more traffic to your website and your business.
These ideas are good solid content creation and website strategies. The benefit of having a solid strategy and foundation built on user satisfaction is that updates do not really hurt you. In fact, by penalizing law firms that are not as diligent it is actually a help.
I agree with Sara, building strong roots on social media is the only way to survive in a competitive market where real human interaction will matter the most for Brand management. Half-willed effort will only mean “the end” for a Brand name.