What Facebook’s 2018 algorithm changes will mean for brands

This is supposedly an attempt to encourage meaningful interactions between friends on the platform.

So, does this mean as a business, you no longer need to use Facebook? In fact, it means exactly the opposite of this! Businesses will need to be smarter about how they use Facebook: relying on organic (no advertising) posting as a strategy will no longer be a viable option. Currently, the average organic post is only seen by approximately 10% of the people who ‘like’ your page, and this will no doubt decrease with this update. It is now more important than ever to be using Facebook’s paid (advertising) platform to achieve the desired reach and results.

The other focus will be on quality content; targeting your audience with appropriate, engaging and shareable material. Don’t be tempted to try and bypass the algorithm with click/engagement bait style posts, as these will not be considered as ‘meaningful interaction’, and as such, will be shown to your audience less.

As with previous changes to the algorithms, video will still be favoured over still images or text only posts, so this is worth bearing in mind when creating content. It is also believed that the changes will see a boost in performance of Facebook Live, meaning that we are likely to start seeing results similar to those that were achieved when live videos were first launched. So if video is something that you have not yet experimented with on your business page before, now is definitely a good time!

As always, we will closely monitor changes and keep you updated. The key points to take away at this time are: organic content for business is over, paid posts are now a must, prepare to see more live videos on your feed, and Facebook will now be rewarding the facilitation of meaningful conversation. It’s time to stop using click bait!