Like the rest of us, Facebook has a New Year’s resolution, but guess what? It’s all about you.
Facebook is rolling out a new algorithm to better connect you with your friends on your News Feed. In short, this new algorithm will prioritise posts, stories and photos based on what your friends “…react to, comment on or share” in order to facilitate “deeper, more meaningful conversations with the people you care about”.
But what does this mean for publishers, brands and business pages? Well, it could mean a significant drop in page traffic if you don’t pay to play. Getting your message out there could get very expensive very quickly.
Bummer.
On the positive side, the new algorithm should clean out your personal News Feed quite a lot, hiding posts from pages you really aren’t interested in anymore but are too lazy to ‘unfollow’ or ‘unlike’. But by the same token, the content you’re sharing from your page is just as likely to go unseen.
So now, more than ever, the content you create must put your audience first.
It is no longer good enough to simply broadcast updates, facts, stats or promote ‘Buy Me’ call-to-actions. Do so, and the struggle will be real. If you focus on meaningful engagement, your audience will react with comments, tags and shares, and your content will perform much better.
But this shouldn’t be anything new. This type of content should always be the primary focus of your content strategy.
The first questions you should ask yourself when you’re creating a post for your page is ‘Why will people care?’ and ‘Is this shareable?’
According to Facebook data, on average we scroll through 93 metres of Facebook News Feed every day. To put that in context, that’s the height of New York City’s Statue of Liberty.
That’s an insane volume of content we’re scanning and consuming, so what you produce needs to be compelling and attention-grabbing not only in order to get someone to stop, even for a few seconds, but look at, read and interact with before they scroll on.
You must give your audience a reason to both engage with and share your content. Luckily, there is one simple way to do so: Solve. People’s. Problems.
For wine brands, it is no longer enough to just say ‘Visit our Cellar Door’ or ‘Buy my wine’. Your focus should be a broader narrative about who you are and where you’re from. How do you live?
As an example, if you want me to buy your wine, tell me why I should buy it, how I can buy it, where else is it available, in what wine bars, retail stores or restaurants and where are they in my area?
Then, once I’ve bought it, what should I cook with it? What recipe do you recommend? What kind of meat and where should I buy it? And if what you recommend is local produce, then who and where are they? Tell me about them. Tell me a complete narrative. How can your product integrate into my life?
The biggest problem we all have is a lack of time so help people solve it.
“OK. I’ll just boost my posts to my page fans.”
Sure. That’s an option, but it’s very much a scatter gun approach, and you’ll only really reach those who already like your page. Even then, you might not be reaching the people you actually want.
Data tells us only 3.9% of people who ‘like’ a festival’s brand page actually purchase tickets to that festival. Something to consider if you’re trying to sell your wine via your Facebook page or attempting to target someone else’s.
Strategic Facebook audience targeting is now more critical than ever in ensuring you reach the right people so the dollars you spend can go the distance. You literally cannot afford not to.
And the best way to start is to create compelling, engaging content that solves people’s problems.