Massive Changes To Facebook Will Impact Your Business

Good morning, it's January 15th. I need to give you this update because there is a big shift happening with Facebook that is definitely going to impact your business and the way that you market, especially if you're using Facebook. And I bring attention to this post here on the screen by Mark Zuckerberg. Don't need to explain who he is, but on January 11th, focusing on big areas of 2018 with regards to Facebook and the newsfeed. I'm not gonna read verbatim from this, but I'm gonna pick out a couple key points in here, okay? Uh, it just talks about Facebook is about people connecting, staying in touch with each other, communicating. And that recently, as you see right here as I'm highlighting, we've gotten feedback from the community and that public content posts from businesses— this right here— posts from businesses, brands, and media is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect to each other. This is key. This is something we need to be aware of. Because they are going to be changing the algorithm and very soon. I'm not sure exactly when, but it's probably in the very, very, very near future to stop this type of posting, organic posting, from showing in newsfeeds, okay? And there are some ways around that. We're going to talk about that here in a few moments. But as we scroll down, it says here, based on this, we're making a major change to how we build Facebook. I'm changing the goal that I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions. Another key point to pick out here is because anytime somebody engages with you on Facebook, and it doesn't mean that you don't need to have a Facebook page, and it doesn't mean that you're not gonna get engagement or interactions there, it just means that when you're just creating content for the sake of creating content and you're not focusing on it being valuable, meaningful, engaging, that nobody's gonna see it, and it's gonna really harm your page if you're just pumping out bland content, okay? And I'm gonna tell you a couple tips here in a moment about that. So we wanna make sure that people are engaging with your content, okay? So as we roll this out, you will see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media, and the public content you see more be held in the same standard. It should encourage meaningful interactions between people. Okay, there we go. That's what we need to make sure. We need to make sure that the content you're putting out in your business is engaging, it's interactive, it is valuable for somebody to engage in. And how are we going to do this? We're going to need to give more insight and more thought into what we're creating. I mean, using things like like scheduling systems to just schedule posts so that you just show up, right? Those days are gone. Forget that. You know, if you're using a scheduling software like Hootsuite or anything like that— not to knock that platform because it can be used for other systems— but that's going to give you a negative mark with Facebook now because you're just generating content for the sake of generating content, right? You need to be creating content that creates value. Okay, completely different thing. And this is what I've said, I mean, for years, because we deal with helping people set up their CRM and their marketing, when you look at your list and driving all these Facebook likes and these Twitter followers and all that, you don't own that list. Things can change just like this. I mean, you've spent time building up this list of Facebook fans on your page, and now if you just went on to do a post about a basic update, you're gonna have less and less people seeing it. So the list that you actually own is your email list, and that is why it is extremely important to be using things like a CRM, like Infusionsoft, to be building value and getting people to opt into your list to have those meaningful segmented content releases with them. You know, not just say, hey, join my newsletter. Let's talk about what it is that you wanna know, okay? So that's just kind of a sidebar with that, but you need to be aware that Facebook and any other social platform can change a lot of this. So how do we get past this? Well, you know, when people opt into an email list, you usually get that email that comes from them that says, hey, click here to confirm, um, or, you know, whitelist your email. Now you're going to be doing things like that with your Facebook feed. If you want to receive your content on your page, what you're going to get people to do at the very top is there's a little dropdown option and they can say see first. So let's go ahead here and bring up our page. I'll show you where this, where this exists. So whenever somebody likes your page, under this dropdown here, under like— oh, not that one, following. It's under following. They can click on see first, which means that anytime you post something, they will see it first in the beginning of the day at the top of their newsfeed. By default, See First is not selected. So the first thing they'll do is they'll like your page, and then they'll need to click See First if you wanna make sure that they're gonna see that content. So you're gonna need to pass that message onto them. Second thing is using the features of Facebook, like video, Facebook Live, doing very in-depth value-added content, okay? Not just doing a 200-word blog post and sharing it out to Facebook. Right? You're going to need to go more in depth. You're going to be able to do series of things, you know, doing, um, you know, series of live videos, being able to go more in depth into the content, longer form content, engaging people, getting people to comment and share, right? This is what we need to focus on. And you may be sitting there listening to this saying, you know what, this is going to take a lot of time. Yeah, it is going to take some time, and it's going to take some attention to this, and it's gonna have a bit of a learning curve to get over that mindset of just posting content. All right, the other thing that you could do is you can say, hey, you know what, does that mean my brand can't push out to audiences? No, absolutely not. It does not mean that. The Facebook advertising system is still in place and is still a very valuable means of reaching an audience. But because you're using their advertising, there's only a certain amount of spots that can be available. So being able to target your ads and your sponsored content to very specific niches is is gonna give you a better return, as opposed to just sending it out to 2 million people in Canada. You're gonna be able to say, okay, I wanna see specific demographic between this age and this age, this gender, this interest, this like, right? Maybe you're running 5 different ads to different segments all for the same product, but with some different messaging. This again is going to be key in the way that you do Facebook. Also, another thing here, be aware that Facebook is not the be-all end-all. Instagram gaining massive momentum in the social media world because Facebook, or not Facebook, Instagram has that real visual appeal to people. If you're not on Instagram now, you need to be on Instagram. If you're not on LinkedIn as a professional, you need to be on LinkedIn. If you go over and looked at LinkedIn and you logged in and checked it out, the content there is becoming much more valuable than it used to be. So those are some things to consider. There are changes that are happening, and I can guarantee it's probably going to be in the next week or so, or even at the time you're watching this post. So whatever you're doing now, if you're just trying to drive content by just pushing it out and pumping it out, you need to stop. You need to focus that energy and make valuable content. Now here's my little pitch to you. Or my invitation, so to speak. If you're watching this video and you're interested in discussing a strategy and looking at leveraging this change to better your business, and you'd like to have a consult and we can talk, by all means contact me. Go to our page, click send a message, we'll start the discussion. If you don't have a CRM in place, if you don't have a way to capture leads on your website or build your own list, again, let's have a conversation. This is not one of those, hey, limited time offers. We're no longer doing anything like that. Not that we ever did anything like that, but you know, this is real. We are in a business here at Blue Cow Marketing to help small businesses succeed. That's the number one bottom priority with our business and what we do. So if you don't feel that you have the tools, the resources, or even the knowledge— which is okay if you don't— to succeed in your small business with this type of digital marketing, let's have a conversation and let's see if we can work together. All right, thanks for watching this video, and I wish you all the best. And again, have a great time growing your business.