Facebook Apocalypse? Do you know what to do?

Let’s talk all things Facebook, the algorithm change, and a mini-rant about buying Facebook likes.

Buying Facebook Likes

I’m seeing posts from social media gurus saying that they can teach you how to get 10,000 followers a week for pennies on the dollar. They tout doing this and they tout giving you some sort of social proof.

Please, please, please don’t do this because it’s going to hurt you in the end and those that are recommending it either don’t know what they’re doing or they really don’t care. While it may make you feel good having a large following, buying likes will work against you and here’s why.

Why

Let’s say you go ahead and you get those 10,000 followers using the method that was mentioned above. These are cheap likes. They are not your ideal clients. You can’t get 10,000 followers that are the ideal client just for pennies on the dollar.

These cheap likes come from all over the world and they are people that will never truly be your customer and likely never interact with your content. How does this hurt?

It hurts your algorithm.

When you post content on your Facebook business page and it gets put out into the newsfeed, the algorithm kicks in. If the algorithm sees that your post is engaging to your audience, meaning it gets likes and comments, then Facebook is going to show it to even more people.

Organic reach is down so if Facebook sees that you have 10,000 likes but only one or two people are interacting with your content, it thinks that your content isn’t interesting to your audience and it will show less of it in the newsfeed.

Social proof, right?

Well, think again. Those that are social media savvy know that the number of likes a business page has really doesn’t matter. It’s how engaged the users are. If you look at pages that have 2,000 or even 250,000 likes, yet they only get a few likes and comments here and there, it makes you wonder how strong of a following they really have.

Like anything in life and in business, you need to do things the right way. You need to build an audience authentically. Trying to game a system a lot bigger than you are is really a bad practice and eventually, it’s going to work against you. The things that matter most on Facebook are reach and engagement.

Facebook’s New Algorithm

The algorithm is changing. Let’s focus on some suggestions for what you can do to move your business forward.

7 Ideas to help

1. Focus on relationships. You must create quality content that your ideal customer wants to see. Do not post for the sake of posting. You won’t get seen in most newsfeeds. You need to have thought, time and care put into anything that you’re going to be posting on your business page. What is not changing is commenting, liking and sharing on your page. The more your fans comment, like and share, the more Facebook will see this as a true relationship building post and it will get seen.
2. Facebook Live. Creating live video will still get top billing and won’t be hurt by the algorithm change. Facebook Lives get six times the interaction than any other kind of video on Facebook. So, make sure that you’re asking questions and encouraging interaction in your Lives. Remember that conversations and interaction are important.
3. Concentrate on your groups. Facebook, again, mentioned this specifically. People tend to interact more in groups than they do on pages. Facebook has also indicated that they’re working on creating community through groups with more features like insights and the ability to schedule your posts. We, in the Gwen Wolken world, we have one free group called the Savvy Success Circle and we have another paid group that we’ll be starting shortly that I’m really excited about that. Our paid group will actually have me showing up live and answering your questions!
4. Episodic content on your page. If you train your audience to expect regular content, they’ll remember that and seek it out. So, get them used to watching a Facebook live weekly or host a conversation every week.
5. Facebook ads. Facebook is moving towards a ‘pay to play’ situation. While this is another way to get seen in the feed, you will need a budget to play with and I know that Facebook is running out of ad space so, make sure your ads are high quality and engaging.
6. More than one marketing strategy. We’ve talked about this a little bit in the Savvy Success Circle. You want to have funnels. Facebook couldn’t be and shouldn’t be your only game right now. Make sure that your audience gets to a space that you personally own. You own your email list and your blog. You want to be able to own your space and talk to your tribe.
7. Chatbots. Facebook messenger and the use of chatbots are considered email for Facebook. Chatbots themselves have a 90% or greater open rate and they really work.

So, to sum it up, your audience consumes content in multiple places. Find where they are and find what is relevant to them. Then, make sure you build relationships. Building relationships are the most important thing you can do right now on Facebook.