Facebook announced last week that they are changing – again – their algorithms. This time, however, it’s in a way that I as a regular Facebook user like. Facebook is going back to showing us posts from our friends and family members with fewer posts from companies, pages, and brands. As a person on Facebook who uses social media to keep up with people I don’t get to see on a regular basis, this excites me. I’m looking forward to not having to click on a friend’s profile to see what they’ve been up to.
As a brand with a Facebook page, however, this means that even fewer people will see my page posts. I’m not sweating it, though. Why? Because that’s not where I devote most of my promotional time and energy. My Facebook page is a great place to post things on the run. My branded Facebook group is where I spend the most time having fun and engaging with my customers.
Here are some of my thoughts on the changes and small business.
One, we shouldn’t put all our eggs in one basket. If you invest your savings in stocks, you wouldn’t chunk the whole lot in IBM or Apple; you’d put it into a mutual fund. We shouldn’t invest all our business promotion time/energy/money in one source, either. We don’t have control over what the stock market does, and we have no control over 3rd party entities, like Twitter, FB, Instagram, etc.
Two, Facebook will still make money from this move. It’ll just cost more to get the good reach. We might start seeing more ads from huge companies and fewer from small businesses. I’m not going to put my money there, personally, when I’d rather invest that money elsewhere, like new product development.
Three, while we can’t control what the social media/networking companies (yes, profit-making companies) do, we CAN control what we do. Social media companies do not have our best interests at heart. Their devotion is to their shareholders, investors, and employees. They started these great social networks and figured out a way to monetize them. So what can we as business owners do? We can blog and send those newsletters out. We can engage with our customers intimately. We can make and keep our customers happy and show them our love and appreciation.
I’m not going to change much about how I market, because FB posts to my page aren’t doing much for me already. I’ll just keep on doing what I have been doing. For me, that’s blogging, sending emails, engaging with my group, and making personal contacts with customers.
What do you think about Facebook’s coming changes? If you’re a business owner, how will Facebook’s changes impact how you market your business?
