With everything you have on your plate as a small business owner, it can be difficult to keep up with the ever changing world of social media. However, learning about the latest social media changes can make a big difference when it comes to the success of your business on social media.
Both Facebook and Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) have rolled out a set of recent changes. These changes have a significant impact on the visibility of your business page.
Social Media Changes
Here is what you need to know about the latest social media changes on both Instagram and Facebook.
Instagram actually looks at the quality of posts. If they consider the post to be low quality, it will not make it to the Explore and hashtag pages. What this means is that low quality posts will have lower discoverability on Instagram now going forward.
One test that Instagram is currently running is removing likes from your posts. This is in an effort to reduce “vanity” metrics and accounts that compete for or determine the success of their post by their number of likes. So, if the next time you log-in, you do not see the number of likes on your favorite posts, you know why. The good news is that admins can still see the count, but followers cannot.
Following suit from Facebook, Instagram is also reducing organic reach for Stories & Posts.
The term “organic reach” for a Facebook post describes the reach that the post receives without any money being put behind it to boost it or further promote it in any way. There are best practices you can follow to help boost organic reach, and at Connections Healthcare Strategies we implement and follow those best practices.
However, organic reach for business pages maxes out at 1.6-2%. This means that if you have 100 followers on your page, at most, two of those followers will be seeing your organic post. This is important to know when it comes to understanding the results that you are seeing on your Facebook page.
[Related article: How A Small Business Can Succeed On Facebook In 2019]
One test that Facebook is currently running is combining Stories and posts into one feed. How does this affect your business page? It will likely result in further reduction in organic reach for business pages.
Facebook is also relying more heavily on user feedback when determining Newsfeed priority and will give lower priority to low quality content based on this.
Also, Facebook monitors the traffic to your business website and the percentage of traffic that comes from Facebook to your website compared to other sources. If a disproportionate share of website visits are going to your website from Facebook and Instagram, it will give lower priority to those types of posts and pages.
Facebook is prioritizing reactions, comments, and shares over likes. This is one way they are able to accomplish their mission of focusing on meaningful interactions.
What’s The Major Takeaway?
The major takeaway from these social media changes is that if you are not advertising on these social media platforms, your chances of being seen are difficult. Also, providing high-quality content and meaningful interactions to your fan base on these social media platforms is key.
If you feel like giving up on these platforms, don’t! You have to have a Facebook page for credibility, so the answer also isn’t to do away with your page completely. Statistics show that potential customers, clients, and patients will look at your Facebook page before contacting you, visiting your office, or deciding to spend money with you, so keeping your page is key.
[Related article: How To Leverage Professional Networking Online]
For help with implementing best practices to increase your business reach on Facebook and Instagram put the team at Connections Healthcare Strategies to work for you. To get started, schedule your strategy session today.
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