Even though Facebook’s revenues are increasing, it’s no secret that engagement has declined. There is less personal content being shared between users due to the over crowding of posts from businesses and media publishers, as well as the controversies surrounding Facebook’s role in the “fake news” scandal of the 2016 election. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced earlier this month that their goal for the New Year is to “fix” the product and its reputation.
“Facebook has a lot of work to do — whether it’s protecting our community from abuse and hate, defending against interference by nation states, or making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. “My personal challenge for 2018 is to focus on fixing these important issues.”
Facebook’s goals include increasing user engagement and fighting off “fake news” and foreign manipulation. To achieve these goals, Facebook’s new algorithm will highlight content from users’ friends and family and prevent certain content from brands, businesses, and media publishers from crowding users’ newsfeeds. Posts that are more likely to generate conversations between users will display higher in their newsfeeds than others. Facebook will also focus on promoting creditable news sources in users’ newsfeeds from their local town or city.
Zuckerberg stated he anticipates “some measures of engagement will go down” for small businesses, brands, and media publishers. While there are theories that Facebook’s business interests may be harmed by these changes, this will ultimately drive more advertising for businesses trying to reach target audiences.
So what can you do to increase your chances of your posts being seen? Facebook advertising is a great way to increase impressions and reach target audiences. Brands can also create more video content. Videos generally prompt discussion among users, so these will likely show higher in someone’s newsfeed. Making sure your posts are genuine, relevant, and engaging and don’t try to trick viewers into engaging with content is another way to increase visibility.