I had the privilege of attending the Digital Summit conference in Salt Lake City UT. In one of the sessions, Carlos Gil from Gil Media Group shared some insights into Facebook that you should know.
Facebook is huge in its global reach and audience, so it is a channel we must be present in. Facebook is a “free” service to users like you and me. But, it isn’t actually free. Someone has to pay for that service and that someone are advertisers. Despite the way it feels, Facebook is not out to punish or penalize brands. Their algorithm certainly doesn’t help brands get seen by fans let alone new customers. But you can’t blame Facebook. We cannot really expect Facebook to work in our best interests. They are looking out for themselves. “You can’t build a mansion on rented land.” ~ Carlos Gil
Facebook has two goals: 1) Get as many people as possible to use Facebook as often as possible 2) Make money. Given those two goals, let’s look at how we as a brand can best get our message out to our audience.
How to understand Facebook Goal 1
If goal 1 is to get as many people as possible to use Facebook as often as possible, then any actions we take to support that goal will be favored by their algorithm. Create content and posts that encourage people to stay within Facebook.
Content that Facebook likes
- Posts which encourage conversation, asking questions and answering within the platform
- Posts that generate user engagement (likes, shares, comments, etc) get more promotion
- Loading your video into Facebook (native video) vs linking away. If you link the video, it is not as preferred. Creating video that is optimized for mobile viewing within the platform is best.
- Facebook Live video
Content that Facebook DOES NOT like
- Linking out to our site. Facebook does not want people to leave. So, when we drive people to other sites, that is not preferred. That may be important for our business (eCommerce, and content marketing, etc), but it must be balanced with content that encourages people to engage within the platform.
- Overly promotional and strong sales voice. If content is overly product focused and very “buy now” focused, it is not preferred.
- Long form text based content. Keep content posts short for quick and easy digestion. Better yet, post that are shorter than <85 characters appear larger and take a bit more real estate of the screen.
- Posts that excessively tag others is viewed as SPAM.
How to understand Facebook Goal 2
If goal 2 is to make money, then we have to come to grips with the need for media investment dollars. Without paying for your content to be seen, less than 1% of your audience will see your content, even if they have liked your page.
- Set aside a small budget to put behind each post.
- Talk to the Global Media Program to see what kind of budget makes sense for your audience and business goals.
Some tips to boost Facebook’s preference for your content
- Respond to ALL comments in a timely fashion to keep that post or older posts popping up to the top.
- For every native video upload, put a small ad spend behind it to boost and target anyone that seen at least 10sec of the video.
- Try a weekly Facebook Live update – users don’t expect these to be very polished.
- Create a group for fans. Facebook has yet to roll out ads to groups. Invite super fans to join a select group or a Messenger group
- Add captions to all videos as many do not have audio turned on - meta data as well for SEO value.