It is no secret that Facebook has gotten a tad greedy since it’s IPO and is now trying to squeeze the gajeezers out of every last one of us. If you’ve been out of the loop and have not noticed the latest Facebook “updates”, let it be known that if you have a Facebook business page, where –as prior to the IPO anyone “liking” your page would then receive any and all status updates that are posted, now, not so much.
So if you’ve been experiencing less than stellar post engagement and less Facebook likes on your organic (non-paid for) status updates and posts, this explains that.
It stinks for us business folk for so many reasons, but this is, for better or for worse, the new reality. Facebook now really needs to prove to it’s stockholders that it can make money, and if it means it is on the backs of the business owners , then so-be-it. DJ Thistle from Steamfeed wrote a great, if not sobering article on the decline of Facebook page reach here .
So I have been following oh so closely the Facebook nuggets that have been leaked out since the IPO, since the PR on these updates have been on the hush-hush-which so goes against the whole premise of social media-wait…rant rant…. retreating….on how we can if not scam the new algorythms and updates, at least manipulate them to our advantage a bit, so as to ensure the maximum visibility for our posts, without having to pay for every last one of them.
Here’s the latest Facebook Page Updates:
Where-as before when one posted, with a link on our page, we thought nothing of including the URL in the post itself, an embedded link-now that must go away. This is a tweak and we can handle it. Got this? No longer can we leave the URL out swinging in the wind. Example:
Where as before we could do something like this:
Now, Facebook tells us that we must eliminate the URL once it uploads and instead, create a Link-Share post.
What is a Facebook Link Share Post?
Not so different. A link-share is posting basically the same as before, adding a link to a post, which will in turn upload the title and the description automatically. When done this way, you not only have a finished product with an image on the post, but also the title and description will appear below in the image-also a link. You can then delete your original URL altogether, making the post appear more appealing and cleaner. This way the image is being highlighted, taking up more space in your news feed, which, according to Facebook is what encourages engagement (comments, shares, likes). It looks like this:
Facebook explained the latest change this way:
“The best way to share a link after this update will be to use a link-share. We’ve found that, as compared to sharing links by embedding in status updates, these posts get more engagement (more likes, comments, shares and clicks) and they provide a more visual and compelling experience for people seeing them in their feeds.”
We won’t complain about this, since in this case it looks like Facebook really does have our back in trying to assess the data to guide page owners and administrators to the best possible, most eye catching and engaging post format. There is no doubt that the studies all show that the more and the larger the image, (on a business page, not on our personal profiles), the more engagement and hopefully the more exposure each link share will receive.
Summary: less text status updates, and more images and link-shares= more exposure and engagement. We hope.
What methods have you found to increase your post visibility and engagement, besides paying for it?
The new Facebook algorithm change which has affected the number of people that can see and engage in our shared posts is going to kill Facebook and just as Google+ is picking momentum i won’t be surprised to see a shift towards Google+. Facebook is becoming so greedy for my liking, first it was on pages now they have extended it to personal profile. Why should one pay for his subscribers to see his shared posts?
I totally agree, Nwosu
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thanks!