A New Way to Post Content: The Facebook 2018 Update
Facebook has recently been making a lot of headlines. Controversy over the personal information they collect and how it’s used has sparked Facebook to change many of the ways they run ads. A lot of brands and advertisers are worried about how this will affect their content. The answer is to keep providing good interactive content that engages users and their friends.
One of MiniCo’s goals is to provide insurance agents with content that enriches their agency’s growth and provide self-storage and collectible insurance needs.
What’s Changing?
- Meaningful interactions
- Reactions
- Sharing content
- Fewer sponsored posts
Uniquely, Facebook is pointing their direction more toward “meaningful interaction” rather than the amount of time spent online. Normally, websites measure their success by the length of time a user spends on their site. Meaningful interactions are things like commenting and tagging your friend, sharing a post to your timeline or, even better, sharing a post directly through a private message to a friend. These interactions spark conversations because they pull another user in. When someone likes or comments on a post, it only shows up passively in someone else’s newsfeed, not as a notification like with a tag. Two years ago, Facebook released new emoji reactions to join the “like” button. This is one of the ways Facebook has been monitoring how audiences react to the information in their feed that’s being shared by friends or sponsored by a brand. They want to eliminate spam, biased sponsored posts, and content that doesn’t encourage engagement.
What This Means for You and Your Agency
- More “meaningful” posts
- Less baiting
- More calls to action
Sponsored content will still be available. You will still be able to pay for ads on Facebook. However, the type of ads you’re posting will have to provide “meaningful interactions” or they may struggle to reach a lot of engagement. Facebook will also be weeding out posts “baiting” for reactions. Such as, “Heart react for option A or laugh react for option B.” On other platforms like Instagram, it’s more common and acceptable to use a call to action for a comment. For example, “Comment ‘yes’ if you’d love to be on vacation right now.” Facebook will boost your post and show it to more people if there is a lot of engagement happening. However, with the algorithm becoming more advanced each day, it now recognizes when people are wording their posts this way to “fish” for that reaction.
In order to keep up with Facebook’s trends, you may have to change the way your agency posts. To make your posts more meaningful, spend more time focusing on the content rather than the quantity. Engage with your audience and encourage comments and questions from your audience.
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