As many of you are discovering the hard way, Facebook’s seismic algorithm shift in January has left even some of the best-performing retailers in a race to the bottom on their organic reach.
Additionally, many retailers are also finding their paid spend has been rising incrementally and consistently in price, but is losing its power at much the same rate.
Why? Because the powers-that-be have changed the game for everyone. In a really, really big way, to prioritise “meaningful connections” between users.
And what they mean by that is, giving higher weighting to content that garners positive interactions that support good relationships, rather than a never-ending stream of content that (while highly consumed), is more likely to propel users into hours of mindless, meaningless scrolling, when they should be heading to bed!
They know it’s bad for their users’ long-term mental health, but more importantly, they know it’s bad for their own long-term growth.
To make matters worse, we know that whatever Facebook trials successfully will eventually become the norm for all the others, so it won’t be too long until Instagram alters its algorithm accordingly, and that’s going to wreak havoc for your marketing plan.
The days of free and organic growth via socials are numbered, particularly for the smaller end of town, but on the flipside, this doesn’t mean you have to keep dropping more and more money on socials as part of your digital marketing spend, in order to get a good outcome – quite the opposite!
Facebook’s head of news feed, Adam Mosseri, published these guidelines way back in 2016, 18 months before its big overhaul. But it’s even more relevant now and well worth a read.
Just like anything else, it all comes down to understanding the landscape and working out what they need from you (while they tweak them often, but only overhaul them in this way every few years), but these big changes are also a reminder of the value of diversity in your overall digital marketing strategy, to make sure you’re reaching your audiences through a variety of avenues.
As you’re reading this today, we’ll have just wrapped up our first ever Digital Marketing Masterclass (and it was FREE!), in conjunction with News Xtend, where we covered off on a whole range of these and other issues in the digital marketing landscape, including the current and forecast trends and how to get, and stay, in front of them.
Retail digital expert Micky Kavanaugh, and Social Media Editor Alex Strachan joined me as guest speakers, in a format designed specifically for businesses wanting to take their digital efforts to the next level but without the time, knowledge or capacity to do so on their own.
Today’s masterclass was in Brisbane, however we’re putting the call out to all our members for expressions of interest in having us, and News Xtend, run a masterclass (did I mention it would be FREE?) in your area.
If you’d like to find out more on how to maximise your digital bang for your buck, increase your organic power, and manage your time and resources better, please let us know via [email protected].
Have a great week.
Dominique Lamb, CEO.