Facebook Changes, What They Mean, and What Is Ahead

Hello everyone! Let me start off this update by (finally) introducing myself and let you know  what my role is at Authentic Imaging.  My name is Ashley and for the last couple of years, I have been the person scheduling and finding relatable content for social media as well as performing small website updates as directed by Philip. Additionally, I try to keep up with the latest trends and algorithm changes behind each social media platform to ensure Authentic Imaging is doing our part in keeping our clients ahead in the digital marketing landscape.

As some of you may have heard, two weeks ago Facebook announced some major changes to their news feed and what people will (or won’t) be seeing from business pages and groups.  In plain terms, Facebook is limiting the amount of posts that people will see from business pages in an effort to connect people who care about each other in a more meaningful way. They have determined that mindlessly scrolling through posts that we do not connect to is detrimental to our health and are taking steps to correct this, even if it means spending less time of Facebook.

With that being said, a large number of businesses and social media marketers initially went into panic mode. The reason being is simple…Facebook has been a great source of extremely cheap, and far-reaching, advertising for a good number of years. Businesses, especially those who concentrated on e-commerce sales, could advertise to people all over the world that were interested in their products without much focus on creating meaningful relationships. However, this announcement really shouldn’t have come with too much shock. The reality is that Facebook was created to connect people, not a place for businesses to advertise their products.

The good news in all of this is that this announcement falls in line with what Authentic Imaging has been saying for over a year.  Make social media more sociable and relatable.  We’ve never been digital marketers that only focus on selling a product. We want followers of the pages we manage to find useful information that they can use in their lives and keep coming back to our clients as knowledgeable sources of the information they are looking for.

The bad news is that providing this relative information is no longer enough. We need to make sure that our client’s Facebook pages are a community for people to come and interact with business owners and staff who know what they are talking about.  We need to encourage dialogue and conversation that is useful to everyone involved. A personal relationship must now be developed on a digital platform.

What does this all mean for the future? It means that we need to develop a more in-depth and constant communication with our clients about what is going on inside their business in order for our clients and their followers to form the connection that Facebook is looking for. As to how we are going to make this happen, Authentic Imaging is still in the strategic planning phase and will let each digital marketing client know exactly what changes will be coming and/or be in contact for a more in-depth meeting in the following weeks.  In the meantime, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.  Thank you!