What is Facebook Zero and Why You Should Take Advantage

On January 11, Facebook published an announcement that sent the social media world into some sort of frenzy. Different words and phrases such as “apocalyptic” and “end of days” were used to describe the latest development.

As more information has now been made available several months later, the effect of this announcement on brands and their pages on the social network is now getting clearer. Have you heard about Facebook Zero? Are you wondering how the algorithm changes will affect your marketing strategy?

What is Facebook Zero?

Facebook Zero is an approach undertaken by Facebook to prioritize “meaningful” person-to-person interactions, with increased emphasis on content that promotes conversation. This is a significant news feed update and the idea behind this update is that posts that spark individual interest – those between family and friends are now prioritized over posts from business pages on Facebook.

Along with this update, Mark Zuckerberg announced that they had gotten feedback from users that too much “public content” were clogging up news feeds, and that Facebook users were not particularly interested in such posts. While it is the ultimate aim of the social network platform to make businesses happy as this would mean more money, there would hardly be any money to be made if the users ditch the platform in favor of other social networks. As such, pages would now see a big drop in their organic reach.

Why Businesses are Panicking

There is no more room for engagement baits such as “click like if you agree” or “tag a friend that…” and Facebook no longer encourages posting your blog or website links to direct users to your page. Such posts will no longer fly as Facebook has learned that users do not trust this type of content. They now realize that when users consume content that does not inspire any form of engagement, it is bad for the individual’s mood.

In the long run, decreased happiness will lead to an increased exit from the social media platform. As such, the update is designed to adapt to the changing habits of users in order to display content they are interested in.

How can you take advantage of Facebook Zero?

Quality content will help you survive. Keep in mind that Facebook marketing is not over, the strategy is now different. In order to survive these changes, the first step is to understand content ranking. The more user-generated content you provide, the more likely your target audience will see and appreciate your content. Signals such as feedback on a brand, overall engagement, level of completeness of a page profile, and how informative a content is, will affect your post ranking on Facebook.

How your Business Should Respond

To ensure your business maintains a reasonable level of organic reach on Facebook, posting about topics that spark conversations between people will help your influencer marketing strategy. This means that comments now attract more value than likes for business pages. Why should you take advantage? Facebook is still the social network of the majority. How should you respond?

• Facebook Live.  Facebook still encourages native videos on its platform, so using engaging video content will help you reach out to your audience. Since Facebook Live focuses on real time, it would continue to be effective. You may consider setting up live Q and A interviews and sessions or engaging in engaging discussions that address specific needs of your audience.
• Facebook Ads.  It is unlikely that the recent algorithm changes will affect the performance of Facebook ads. You can leverage the variety of advertising strategies on the network and improve the reach of your campaigns.
• Publish Fewer Posts.  Other social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter still encourage posting blog or website links to direct users to your service, so quit posting such on Facebook. And publish less content too. Consider your marketing strategy and work with other platforms that perfectly fit your needs.

Simply put, Facebook pages will suffer a dip. Posts from businesses will now be displayed less frequently and to fewer people as it now the ultimate aim of Facebook to bring people together. Maximize your Facebook marketing strategy to fit the current changes, and where necessary, leverage the potentials on other platforms for your business.

If you are still confused about Facebook Zero, and how to create additional engagement for your business online locally or regionally, reach out to one of our Sr. Digital Marketing Consultants here at Mixed Media Ventures.  They can be reached at [email protected] or 888.980.8170 to learn more.

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