The Good News about the Facebook News Feed for Businesses

If you use Facebook regularly, you’ve probably noticed that over the last year or so there’s been a few important shifts in terms of what you see on your news feed—and we’re not talking about an increase of baby pictures. Facebook has been shifting back to what started their success in the first place—the individual. Facebook has always maintained that the primary purpose of the news feed is “to show people the right content at the right time”.

If you’re running a business page on Facebook, however, this shift means that you’ve likely seen your posts reach fewer and fewer people. All that brainpower that went into your content doesn’t seem to be reaching as many people as it used to without paid advertising. Fear not, marketing crusaders-navigating your way through the chasm of information that is the News Feed doesn’t have to mean that your message gets lost on its way to your audience. During his first public town hall meeting last week at Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained the reasoning behind Facebook’s shift towards specialized content geared towards user preferences and its effect on businesses:

“…if you are a business owner and you’re thinking about how to use your free page on Facebook, focus on trying to publish really good content that’s going to be compelling to your customer and the people who are following you.”

That being said, here are three basic things to remember as a business using Facebook to reach your audience:

1) Know your audience! Facebook can actually be a great help in helping you find out more about the people you’re trying to reach. Use their analytics to find out what kind of posts they react to (behind the scenes pics of your staff, or a popular meme tweaked to suit your purpose/product), what time they’re most likely to see them, and what location they’re seeing your posts from.

2) Create your content with your audience in mind. It’s one thing to talk about how great your product or service is, but if you’re just broadcasting things, your audience will tune you out. Get them involved—ask questions and have discussions. You never know what vital info you might learn about them that may benefit you in the future.

3) Live a little! As Facebook has told us in on their blog, the average user could see about 1500 updates every day, yet actually see about 100. Being one of those 100 requires a little wit, but also being able to catch someone’s eye as they’re scrolling through the pictures, updates and announcements on their News Feed.

Above all else, it’ s important to remember why you got a Facebook account in the first place—you wanted to connect with friends, share some cool things, some silly things and have discussions with others. Business pages are somewhat of a by-product of that individualized experience; however, this is not necessarily a bad thing. The good news for businesses on the News Feed is savvy marketers will find a way to be a part of the user’s experience and online life.