Business

Upcoming changes to Facebook for Business Pages

Upcoming changes to Facebook for Business PagesFacebook have for some considerable time pretty much required business Pages to pay to 'Boost' their posts in order to gain more reach. There have been ways for businesses to circumvent this by sharing their post into local interest groups or For Sale groups. However the upcoming changes to the Facebook algorithm are likely to put an end to this, or at the least be very restrictive. We've already seen some clients ability to share into groups disabled for up to seven days for this activity. Including ourselves!

There are ways you can still reach your existing customers and those who have 'Liked' your Page, but it does require some interaction from them. In order for your potential customers to see all your business posts it is necessary for them to select the 'See First' option. It may well be worth encouraging them to follow the steps below before these changes come into place:-

  1. Find your Page on Facebook.
  2. Click the down arrow on the 'Following' tab
  3. Change the 'In your News Feed' preference from 'Default' to 'See First'

Obviously not all businesses use Facebook as a promotional tool, but it is expected by the public for most types of business. Although the Boost post option will undoubtedly bring considerably greater numbers of views to a given post it is not the most targeted approach. For example, if you choose to boost within a certain geographic area this approach is similar to the old fashioned leaflet drop. You know for a fact that at least 90% of those leaflets will end up in the bin unread. On Facebook this can be a somewhat damaging one way street. Once a Facebook user has selected 'Block all from.....' you will never be able to present your products or services to them again, unless they change their preferences.

Many local businesses are now actively researching alternatives to Facebook. Many of whom are showing considerable interest in listings sites such as Gumtree. Once a very clunky and underused service Gumtree has not been stagnant. Vast improvements have been made over recent years resulting in a much more user friendly interface and considerably greater numbers of regular users especially in the UK. We are not suggesting that you put all your eggs in any specific basket, but you would be well advised to reappraise your approach regarding Facebook as a cost effective tool.

The official Facebook post can be found here

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