Facebook tests removing organic Page posts from News Feed

Facebook’s new algorithms and plans aim at experimenting with a new “Facebook News Feed”, and this news has been angering social media influencers and managers world across. The reason? This news feed could become successful in removing all direct posts from the feed and shift them to a new tab or tag called “explore”. Now we have already seen a similar “explore” tag in instagram. This new campaign has been implemented on the initial stage in a few countries, which include- Sri Lanka, Slovakia, Serbia, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Cambodia.

                                               Facebook News Feed

The response so far hasn’t been that good. The posts from all the pages that you follow will be entirely removed and moved over to the explore part, whereas users will now get to see the post from other different pages. So Facebook News Feed basic motive is to create a separate platform for posts from fellow friends and family, and one for posts from different pages and ads, and so on. This has created a dramatic drop in the reach of various pages across the globe.  This basically means that Facebook News Feed is no longer a play ground for various advertisers as it was before. So it indeed is very bad news for publishers and managers. The “pay to play” concept is hence trending obsolete now. And the word used here obsessively is “organic”. Organic posts basically represent all those posts which reach a wide audience and gain viewership without any payment, which means all traffic solely on the basis of unpaid distribution. Now distributors who were promoting their business or account solely on the basis of organic feature, are definitely in a position to lose at this new game, aka, the new feature of Facebook News Feed.

According to one of the journalist from a newspaper in Slovakia, the new trial of removing the non- promoted posts has led to a significant drop in the engagement and interaction among people, almost by as large amounts as two- thirds of their usual engagement. Huge sites which have other ways to reach out their customers and various others networking options, this trial has not caused any major change in interactions yet. However, the case is different for small enterprises which rely solely on Facebook News Feed. And not only small businesses, but this problem has even affected “buzz-feed” kind of sites as they too rely on social media and organic posts. Facebook News Feed on the other hand has issued a statement saying that the aim of the trial is to show or present in a feed only what the people find most meaningful. This included the posts and stories from their friends and families. So facebook is experimenting two separate spaces, one for such posts that people want to see, and another as a dedicated place for pages. The problem, however, has seen no effect on those posts which are sponsored or promoted; they continue to be shown in the feeds just like before.

                                                          Facebook News Feed

A few points that you can keep in mind to ensure that your business is least affected by this new experiment, are listed below-

1. Don’t rely only on facebook- there are other social media websites that people use, like twitter. So do not rely only on facebook for your advertising purposes. Also if you feel that facebook is the only option you have, then not only do you have to market the product through a business page, but also ensure that your ads are promoted and sponsored for.
2. Content matters- make sure that you create a high value content in your website and ads. If you think that simply increasing your budget will make your ads reach a wider audience, then you are wrong. The content needs to be relevant to the people, and you need to make sure that your sponsored posts under the new algorithm do not hamper user security.
3. Embrace the platform- facebook for business is not the same as a personal account. So if you think the promotional advertising platform is same as the traditional advertising, then you are again wrong. The platform has been created to advertise not in the conventional sense, so ensure that the content is not too promotional, but just appropriate. Also, the business page gives you ample opportunities to analyze the performance as well.
4. Increase your budget- since now you already know that no matter what, to continue with facebook advertising you need to sponsor and promote your ads, a good step to get started would be by increasing your budget. This way you wont feel the shock of the change all at once.
5. Consult an expert- it is always a good idea to take help from those who have achieved mastery in a field. Even in this case. So consult an expert who will be able to guide you better on the cost effectiveness of advertising through facebook and even provide other valuable alternatives and advices.

 

Hopefully with these pointers you will not only try to deal with the situation as effectively as possible, but even try to stay up- to- date with recent news. Also, it is important to realize that Facebook News Feed is now a complex tool which requires proper understanding of the various methods. Therefore, it is always better to trust with the responsibility of creating valuable content to someone who is an expert in the field. And last but not the least, prepare a budget where you allocate a larger amount for advertising and marketing, and even strategize your expenses. Track the progress with the help of facebook business analytics and schedule your posts appropriately to gain wider reach. Also keep in mind that the business will not boost itself until and unless you put the users’ and customers’ wants and needs in the driver seat, so merely wasting money in advertising will not give you substantial results, unless you try to track their needs first. Hope that with this article you are now able to conquer any business challenges that make your way.

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