The new year is here, and with the new year there are new rules. New rules on Facebook that is. Facebook recently surveyed hundreds of thousands of users on what they could improve. One resounding answer was: less promotional posts.
Upon digging deeper Facebook found it was strictly those promotional posts that so many businesses have relied on as a free to advertise that were driving users batty, not the paid advertisements.
While Facebook admits this may seem counterintuitive they delved deeper into the data. What they found was while Facebook controls the number and quality of ads a typical users sees in a day, they were not monitoring the promotional posts so closely. Therefore, some of your audience may have been drowning in sweepstakes and other promotional offerings instead of puppy videos and pictures of friends’ babies.
Facebook Is Implementing New Controls Over the Volume and Quality of Promotional Posts
As of 2015 Facebook is implementing new controls over the volume and quality of these types of posts. On the Facebook news site, they list three examples of what users considered too promotional:
- Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app
- Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context
- Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads
So, what does this mean for you? Well, if you have been focusing a lot of effort on organic reach on Facebook you may need to rethink some of your strategy. Here are some tips:
Add social relationship tools to your site
Start engaging users when they visit your site. This can be done through an informative and relevant blog hosted on your site, entertaining games and videos, or an area where your clients can comment, ask questions, and hold conversations.
Spread your focus across multiple relationship building platforms, such as email
Emails are a great way to provide interesting content to your clients, their success rate can be easily tracked when using an email marketing site such as MailChimp or Constant Contact, and no one is telling you what you can or cannot say.
Engage across other social media sites
Host a hashtag contest on Instagram or Twitter. Create some leading and relevant boards on Pinterest. Just because you can’t promote on Facebook doesn’t mean you can’t garner attention on other sites.
Try paid Facebook advertisements
If you have never tried paid Facebook advertising it may be a little daunting a first. There are a lot of moving parts, but once you get the hang of it you can utilize their demographic tracking to target your perfect audience. Or if you feel overwhelmed by paid advertisements there are agencies who are more than happy to help you navigate and design Facebook ads…like Hot Dog Marketing.
Remember, one definition of social is “relating to society,” not “easy and cheap methods of advertising.” The loss of organic reach maybe uncomfortable, but instead try and be social on social media. It has actually been seen when you are less promotional and instead tell your story you gain your audience’s trust.
Lastly, before publishing it is always a good idea to review Facebook’s Page publishing tips and best practices. We are also here to help. We have plenty of experience of creating engaging content for a variety of audiences, an understanding of other social media sites, and developing and monitoring Facebook advertisements. Just contact us, and we will be more than happy to help with your needs!
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I’m a mom, a small business owner, and I’m a marketing professional with over a decade helping businesses with their branding and online presence. When I’m not spending time with my family or on my business, I love cooking (and eating) and snuggling with my dogs while I binge on TV shows. My favorite authors are Malcolm Gladwell and Steve Martin. My favorite movies are L.A. Story, Little Mermaid, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Trainspotting.