fbIn an attempt to improve the News Feed experience for their users, Facebook News Feed Changes for 2015 will reduce overly promotional page posts in News Feeds.

Facebook surveyed hundreds of thousands of people, asking them how they feel about the content in their News Feed and the results where overwhelming – those surveyed want to see more stories from friends and Pages they care about and less promotional content.

Contrary to popular belief, people would rather see ads from Pages rather than being inundated by promotional posts by Pages. Though this is counterintuitive, it makes sense in that News Feed controls the number of ads shown and based on engagement, quality and ad interaction – controls that are generally not available on promotional Page content.

Page Posts that will suffer with these new changes include:

  • Posts that solely push promotional content
  • Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes
  • Posts that reuse the same content over and over
  • Posts that follow a similar theme across the brand

With the News Feed becoming an increasingly competitive place, expect to see organic distribution of content to fall significantly over time.

These changes will not increase the number of ads people see in their News Feed. The changes are designed to increase the relevance and quality of the overall stories people see.

Pages that post content that balances a mix of marketing content (what we do, what we offer, etc.), information and education about the industry they work in and showcasing a little personality are not expected to see the same level of decrease in distribution of their content.

Because these changes have the potential to impact a Social Media Marketing Plan, here are a couple FAQs to help you adjust:

  • What if we don’t have the budget to spend on Facebook ads?

Look at your Facebook marketing strategy and focus on creating content that will be seen on Facebook. The content needs to provide value to your audience – while considering the content you want to post on your page, ask if people would be interested (does this tell my audience that we are personable, funny, helpful and “in-the-know”, if one were to share the content how would it make them look in the eyes of their friends, am I providing something of value and would someone pause scanning their newsfeed to check out my post. Test your Facebook posts to determine which types of posts yield the greater engagement.

  • What if we have a small ad budget?

A benefits of social advertising is flexibility and therefore easier to accommodate smaller budgets. Businesses with small advertising budgets can also boost Facebook posts to target the posts to the right audience in order to increase your reach.

  • Know your Facebook audience

Use Facebook Insights (or other measurement tools) to find out the demographic breakdown of your audience. This data is useful as it gives you insight about content that resonates the most with your audience, and what communication style your audience responds to the best.

  • Don’t focus on selling

The main reasons why Facebook is changing what it shows in News Feeds is because more and more businesses are posting sales-driven content, as opposed to resourceful content that will provide value to their audience. Facebook wants to make the user experience more enjoyable and believe that if more businesses change their Facebook marketing strategy, there will be more valuable content given to their audiences.

  • Post your best content

Facebook wants people to see only the best content on their News Feed. Which means that in order for a business to see engagement on their posts. The golden rule: the best content is the content that provides your followers value.

  • Empower your employees to engage with your Facebook page

One of the simplest way to increase your Facebook organic reach is to empower your employees to engage with your Facebook page. The more engagement, likes, shares, clicks, your Facebook posts receive the more you can increase your Facebook organic reach.