Meta is changing its Facebook feed, and it could have consequences for businesses.
Facebook’s main feed, Home, will be filled — not just with the posts you love from your friends, groups, and pages — but with content that Meta thinks users will like from accounts that they don’t follow.
Users will also have a new Feeds tab, allowing users to toggle between feeds that solely feature posts from friends, groups, and pages. A new Favorites feed will allow users to further customize the content they want to see, letting them choose which pages will be included.
This experience is more in line with TikTok, which makes sense as the short-form video app is rapidly taking over social media, sending Mark Zuckerberg scrambling for ways to keep Meta’s platforms relevant.
The update might not be great news for businesses as it could push users away from the pages they follow. It’s also possible that the update is not as dramatic as it sounds. We took a peek at someone’s Facebook that had already updated and saw that their Home feed contained barely any suggested posts from strange accounts.
But there is a chance this could change. In the event it does, we’ve compiled a list of predictions we have for how business might have to change their social strategy to avoid disappearing from their followers’ Facebook experience all together.
Keep in mind, these are only predictions. Facebook just started rolling out this update last week. As time goes on, we’ll get a better idea of what works and what doesn’t.
Boosted posts and digital ads will be key
With Facebook diluting the influence of pages users willingly follow, it’ll likely be more important than ever for businesses to spend extra money to create Facebook ads and boost social posts. Ads will show up in all feeds, ensuring that users will still see your business, no matter how they choose to use Facebook.
More engaging content, fewer ads
To end up on users’ Home page, businesses might have to move away from producing text-heavy content that looks like traditional advertising. Some alternatives could be infographics with helpful information related to your industry, product posts in curated environments with little to no text, and behind-the-scenes content from your business featuring your employees.
You can still use your posts to promote your business goals. Just save your call to action and more advertising-oriented language for the caption.
Reels will be more important than ever
Meta is already heavily prioritizing Reels on Instagram. A small account with few followers can easily get thousands of views on a Reel by optimizing it for the platform and posting it at a strategic time. We expect that this push will continue on Facebook.
A comeback for hashtags?
Facebook says its new Home feed will be dictated by AI. Figuring out how to cater to this algorithm might involve sending out additional signals to indicate what your page and its posts are focused on. Hashtags have traditionally been used in this way, although they have not historically been as important on Facebook as other social media apps. Try throwing in a couple on your upcoming posts to see how they perform. #WhyNot?
Social media is ever-changing. Mediaura keeps up with the trends and provides expert social media management to clients. Interested? Reach out to us.
