OM x BFM is a recap of our monthly podcast with our friends at BFM (Listen to the full episode here). In January 2018, we’ll be looking at a few major updates from Facebook that will affect businesses on the social media platform.
1. Facebook Organic Reach Goes Down
Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg made an official statement about the direction moving forward for Facebook this year. To quote what he said,
“We built Facebook to help people stay connected and bring us closer together with the people that matter to us.”
What Facebook found was that content from brands and media outlets were flooding users’ news feeds, and they were missing out on important moments by people that actually mattered to them. That’s why Facebook has decided to go back to its core of helping people stay connected to each other.
The flip side of this is that brands will see organic reach plummet. According to digital agency Jellyfish, organic reach in Europe has gone down to around 2 percent. This means if you have 10 thousand followers, only 200 will get a chance to see your posts. Out of the 200, how many will actually interact or click for further information?
The fact is this: organic reach is becoming more and more regulated. If you haven’t been spending on Facebook, chances are you will need to start soon. For those of you who have been spending, there will need to be a greater emphasis on how your ad budget is being spent, and whether your ads are hitting your goals.
2. Facebook Page Posting Frequency appears
Facebook has been testing this new feature that lists out a Page’s posting frequency in the search results. This shows how Facebook is emphasising the importance of regular updates. Although organic reach may be dropping, all the more your brand needs to be consistent in posting meaningful content.
A person scrolling through the search results will be more likely to follow an active Page that posts at least once a day than a Page that hasn’t posted for months. A good rule of thumb is to keep to a minimum of 3 postings a week, and a maximum of 3 a day during peak periods.
3. Facebook AR Studio now in Open Beta.
Do you know all those cool filters you get when playing around on Facebook Stories? Facebook’s AR Studio, which was previously in Closed Beta is now available to all in Open Beta. This means brands can now create unique Facebook Frames/Filters with Augmented Reality capabilities.
In essence, Facebook is making it possible for anyone to create AR content on Facebook. This gives opportunities to brands to create interesting, meaningful content to share with their fans.
4. Facebook introduces a Messenger plugin for business websites.
In 2018, users will continue to expect faster reply times on social media. For brands who already have people handling the direct messages coming in on social media, this next Messenger feature will be very useful. This feature that’s being tested allows you to incorporate a Messenger plugin into your business websites.
How it works is that instead of the usual chat pop up that appears on your website, you can add a familiar blue Messenger icon to your website, and users can click on it to interact directly with your brand via Messenger.
For visitors coming to your website, this is something they are already familiar with and more likely to engage with. Dealing with queries there and then will also be helpful to visitors, who can get a real-time answer instead of filling up an email query form.
That’s all the updates we have for January 2018. Stay tuned for our next upcoming blog post!
