In just one post, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Facebook, started a wave of panic that has business owners all wondering how they’re going to survive. Facebook’s news feed is set to drastically change, and we’re going to look at what that means for business owners hoping to market using the platform.

What effects will this have for Facebook Pages?

Unfortunately, the end result of these algorithm changes is clear. Your content is likely going to appear much less often on your audience’s home page. The worst affected will be pages that have posts with little engagement (such as shares and comments). However, content that actually prioritizes reader engagement is likely to fare better. Just make sure you avoid what Facebook calls “engagement bait”, posts with obvious calls to action like “comment if you agree, like if you don’t!”. Business owners have to think about crafting content that their audience will actually want to engage with.

Why is Facebook updating its news feed?

This isn’t the first update Facebook has done that is starting to push business’s posts off the home page. The separation of the Home Feed and the creation of the Explore Feed already pushed businesses off-focus. This trend might continue as the website continues to gear itself as a social experience, not a media company. Especially with the recent attention that the site earned itself due to alleged impacts on the US Presidential Election, it’s looking to distance itself from having a reputation of influencing its users’ decisions directly.

How to generate engagement on Facebook

It’s worth looking at sites like Social Media Examiner to find out the kind of content that generates real user engagement if you want your business’s Facebook marketing to survive the latest algorithm changes. If you’re including videos, think about what value the videos include. Do they have a demonstration of a much-awaited product or do they have instructions and tips that your market is interested in? Similarly, social-driven posts such as contests and questions to the community show a high engagement rate. The most successful pages mix up different content types, but the overall message is clear, if you want your posts to appear on your potential customer’s Home Feed, you have to make sure that it’s content people will actually want to engage with.

Creative Digital specialise in managing social media profiles for businesses of all types and create awesome content to stimulate engagement. We believe that social media marketing should not be seen as a platform for generating sales and conversions, but rather to build brand awareness and engagement.

What does the future hold for businesses on Facebook?

While the Home Feed content algorithm might be changing, a more engagement-driven focus could actually help you get much more attention than you would have, beforehand. But let’s not forget that the home page has lots of other ways to help you get the attention you want. Groups, the ad columns, instant articles, sponsored posts, these aren’t going anywhere. Ad revenue is a huge part of Facebook’s profitability and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

We recommend that all clients using social media marketing should supplement their effort with paid social advertising to help them meet their marketing objectives to generate clicks and conversions.

Facebook will still remain one of the most effective methods of marketing online. This algorithm might change how exactly you use it but so long as you adapt to the changes, it could end up being a net positive for your business