On the 11th Jan 2018 Facebook made an announcement that they will fundamentally change the newsfeed to prioritise posts from friends and family over brand pages. This is likely due to criticism from the Facebook Community over the scourge of #fakenews and its impact on last years US election – amoung other things. While Zuckerberg admits that this might in fact result in users spending “less time” on the FB platform – the time they do will be more valuable. Cue a truck load of advertising execs bumping up their FB ad budget in a panic.
So what does it mean for Facebook Business Pages? Well, it may mean that users will see even less posts than they already do making those who pay for sponsored posts a bigger priority. It may also mean that “quality” FB Page posts will now be prioritised (when were they not a priority?) and that only super relevant high quality posts will get seen. In short it will widen the chasem between high end socially driven campaign pages and Joe-soap shop owners who havent the time to become FB experts – so they will just have to pay.
In Jascom we ALWAYS advise to spread your bets across web, social, email, traditional and off line advertising. Having a social-only business model is a complex and increasing expensive model so we advise the old #notalleggsinonebasket thingy ….
As ever with FB … just when you think you know how to play the game they change the rules. Those pesky kids…
