What Facebook’s News Feed Overhaul Means For Your Business

In the past, videos that were only a few minutes long were status quo and received engagement. In 2018, however, Facebook recommends that videos be 10 minutes long. You can even stay Live for up to four hours. When you stay live longer, you create more opportunities to capture the attention of your followers. To boost engagement, say hello to new followers and ask for viewers to leave comments and ask questions. The more frequently you run longer Facebook Live sessions, the more your followers will engage with your brand online.

Run Facebook ads

Unfortunately, one way to increase your brand visibility is to spend money on Facebook advertisements. Rather than clicking “Boost Post,” we’ve seen lower costs and more engagement from utilizing Ads Manager. One of the benefits of this is the fact that you have more control over the target audience.

Additionally, now that you are running more frequent Facebook Live videos, boost one that has already received decent engagement. If people already like what you are talking about, you can be fairly certain the ad will provide engagement as well. As a bonus, within the ad, place a link back to your website or a call to action.

Focus on quality over quantity

By now you should be focusing on quality in all aspects of your digital marketing efforts, but this is just a friendly reminder that you need to be conscientious about every piece of content you produce.

Engage with complementary businesses and influencers

Facebook’s goal is to create a community. Emphasize this in your own marketing strategy and reach out to complementary businesses and influencers to help support each other. It’s the old, “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” philosophy.

We all want our content to be viewed by our followers, so take the time to comment, like and share content from other pages that your target market will enjoy. After you’ve done this a few times, reach out to page owners and ask if they would feel comfortable doing the same for you and your business.

Create a Facebook Group

Now, I don’t recommend deleting your main brand page and only using a Facebook Group, but Groups tend to have more engagement between members. Additionally, members will receive better notifications when you post. I like to view groups more as forums, especially for B2B businesses. This is a place where you can provide software updates, answer questions and engage your prospects.

From the perspective of an average user on Facebook, these new changes may seem welcome. When you sign on, you will see top posts and not be bombarded with self-promotion from businesses. How do the changes to the News Feed make you feel for your business?

This article has been edited.

Caitlin McDonald is the co-founder of Boundless Internet Marketing Solutions, a self-proclaimed data geek and mompreneur. She helps entrepreneurs & business owners master digital marketing.