Facebook shared some huge news with us yesterday, when Zuckerberg himself announced that the newsfeed was getting a major overhaul. The algorithm will change, once again, but this time it's impacting brands... big time.

In an effort to recover from a lot of heat in recent years (think: fake news & the general realization that FB can make us compare/be unhappy), Facebook will now be limiting the number of times its users see posts from brands and news sources.

The new Facebook algorithm will prioritize content from family & friends, thus, creating a more meaningful environment for its 2+ billion users. Queue the food pics and awkward family photoshoots.

Here's a short video from CBS News, just released yesterday.

Despite this important social media news, there's no reason to run and hit the panic button.

For businesses and brands, there are ways you can combat this issue and help your social content live longer in the newsfeed. After all, this news is nothing new to anyone in the social world. Organic reach for brands has been on the decline for months... and brands and businesses who participate actively on social media have been feeling it all of 2017.

1. Schedule in more personal & meaningful posts

First things first - if Facebook wants to share more personal and meaningful posts to its users, it would be a no-brainer that brands and businesses should share more of this type of content. We recommend kicking these types of posts into overdrive. Find ways to showcase your brand or business in a meaningful way, and you just might see more engagement from the community. If you need help coming up with ideas for creating meaningful, inspiring or personal posts, our marketing team can help.

2. Incorporate more Live Sessions and Participate in Stories

Chances are, most of you reading this are taking advantage of Instagram stories. If you're not, you're missing out on a huge opportunity for brand awareness, frequency, and engagement. If Facebook is going to show less branded content to users in the newsfeed, it's never been more important to take full advantage of the story function.

Let's talk live. I'm seeing some local businesses taking advantage of Facebook and Instagram live, but not many. There is a huge opportunity to jump on the bandwagon and go live. Facebook and Instagram are currently giving content priority and free outreach for your live sessions, and TBH, it's only a matter of time before brands will be impacted here as well.

Start going live once a week. A perfect way to start is to schedule & announce a 20 minute live session, where you'll be answering top customer FAQ's. This will get you comfortable with the live format. You can save the entire live session to repurpose on your blog, newsfeed, or youtube channel.

3. Produce Video Content Specifically for Social

Facebook has been giving priority to video posts over any kind of social content out there. They have made it very clear that videos are in high-demand and will have more weight in the algorithm. Incorporating more video into your social media strategies will, without a doubt, move the brand awareness and recall needles for you in 2018. Now that FB has announced this the latest algorithm overall, producing original video content has never been more important.

4. Focus on Strategic Weekly Social Content & Boosting Strategy

Facebook is going to serve less business and brand related content, so it will be imperative to make sure the content you post & create is as valuable as possible. The more limited your impressions, the more those impressions count.

We recommend being highly specific and strategic in terms of the weekly social content you create. Instead of thinking of quantity, focus on adding the most value to a select numbers of posts per week. For instance, instead of one post per day - aim for 3 per week, and boost them.

Your social media content should do 1 of 4 things: educate, motivate, persuade, or inspire. When you're creating social posts for your business or brand - be sure that your content checks one or more of these boxes each time. Focus your efforts on creating the best imagery & captions possible to capture the attention of your audience.

Outline 1-3 posts to boost each week (this should be in addition to running strategic monthly ad campaigns). You don't need to have a huge budget to accommodate this - even boosting for $5 each can make a difference when it comes to impressions. The top performing boosted posts each month can be repurposed into longer-term ad campaigns...which leads us right in to tip #5...

5. Run Monthly Social Ad Campaigns

It's not enough to boost your posts. Businesses and brands should be creating and running highly targeted ad campaigns throughout the month to gain brand awareness, increase engagement, and/or attract customers. Running social campaigns will ensure that your brand is getting consistent exposure each month. Videos ads are perfect to use for this and are currently performing at way lower CPM's compared to standard ads.

6. Invite Your Friends and Family to Like & Share Your Facebook Business Page

This may seem like a weak tip, but you'd be surprised how many Facebook business pages I've come across that neglect to do this. Inviting all of your friends and family to "like" your business page is the only way to get free likes, fast. Double-check that you have invited any and all possibilities.

Also, encouraging friends and family to share your Facebook business page on their personal timelines will help your brand get extra exposure, completely free. One way to do this is to send out an email blast to your database with a link to share your social page. There's always an option to offer an incentive for doing so, but you'd be surprised at how many are willing to help you get the word out for free.

7. Include Your Brand Hashtag Everywhere

A brand hashtag allows people to find your business quickly and easily. If you haven't created one, do it now. It should be relatively short and easy to spell. Include your brand hashtag on marketing materials from business cards, brochures, social graphics, signage, advertisements, etc. This will make it easier for others to search for your content online.

8. Consider Keeping Your Instagram Personal

I'm not sure if reverting an Instagram account from business to personal will be as effective, but if you're new to the Intsagram space, consider keeping your account personal. You won't have access to the detailed analytics, but you may notice your content extending a bit further in the feed vs. if you are a business account.

Again, we don't recommend reverting back if you are already a business on Instagram. This could potentially backfire and you could end up shadow-banned. But for new users, it can't hurt to test out the personal account theory.

9. Hire a Social Media Marketing Expert

*cough cough*. The easiest thing you could probably do would be to hire a true social media expert to help you manage your channels. Our team specializes in social media, and helps brands of all kinds maximize their social outreach. For a free consultation, just contact us!

Breaking News: Zuckerberg Announces Major Newsfeed Overhaul

Facebook shared some huge news with us yesterday, when Zuckerberg himself announced that the newsfeed was getting a major overhaul. The algorithm will change, once again, but this time it's impacting brands... big time.

Despite this important social media news, there's no reason to run and hit the panic button.