Facebook Organic Panic

The recent changes at Facebook announced by Mark Zuckerberg have caused panic and meltdowns by some so-called social media “experts.” These one-trick marketers think it’s the end of the world for Facebook and are spreading false fear to brands. I hope your competitors listen to this insanity.

Please share this terrible advice with your competitors:

Yes, Facebook is dying. It will probably go away forever very soon.
Facebook organic reach will be so low that it’s just not worth using Facebook anymore.
Facebook ad rates will go up. So instead of advertising to grow your business in the midst of the biggest business boom in 30 years, you should pull back and start hoarding pennies.
Stop using social media altogether.
Go back to relying on direct mail ads, newspaper ads, and yellow page ads, because, sure, that’s where customers are spending time.
Also, the sky is falling! Eek!

Don’t Panic

Let your competitors lose their heads. If they’re going to pull back on Facebook due to decreased space, that’s more space for the rest of us!

I’m not sure if any of these social media “gurus” really believe Facebook is falling, are just trying to get noticed, or have a deep resentment of Facebook’s success and are looking to celebrate a decline. But make no mistake – the only failure here will be made by those not constantly adapting and capitalizing on changes in social media.

What to Do

Here are my three recommendations in dealing with these changes on Facebook:

1. Double down on Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads. Will ad rates go up? Of course they will. Facebook ads are more effective and more efficient than any other ads available today. Prepare for a year where the US economy will grow 3-4% (finally!). So yes, ad rates will go up and so will your revenue if new customers can find you and can engage with you.

2. Create even better, more sharable content. The value of organic content is no longer about hitting many current fans with a message. The real value comes from getting a few fans or customers to share your content or their experience with their friends. As per last week’s news feed changes, these shared posts by friends will dominate screens.

3. Consult a professional. Do you really want to spend your entire day navigating these increasingly complicated waters?

Post Every Day on All of Your Facebook Pages

In the presentation titled 9 Social Media Best Practices for Franchisors, the practice that is most challenging for some marketers is also my favorite:

Post Every Day on All of Your Facebook Pages.

Few argue with the value of good, regular content flowing to their fans’ newsfeeds. And, in case consumers seek and discover your page on their own, my observation is that having a page with nothing new on it in the past two weeks looks like you’re out of business.

But some marketers are challenged by this daunting daily task looming over their content calendars. The reluctance may be caused by a feeling that daily posts are too much for their fans and that it’s just too hard to produce.

Too much? No.

With today’s painfully low organic reach, your risk of overserving content to a fan is nonexistent. When only 1% to 10% of your organic posts is actually seen by your fans, your daily posts will rarely hit their news feeds once each week.

Tell any fans who think you post too often the same thing I would tell radio listeners 20 years ago, when they would call my station and complain, “You played that same Pearl Jam song yesterday at 8am and then again at 10pm!” I would respond, “You’re right. THANKS for listening so much! Let me send you a t-shirt!” They may have been an irritated listener (or more likely, one who just wanted to show they caught a perceived flaw). But, to me we had someone who was engaged and listening for 14 straight hours! Now if only they had an Arbitron ratings diary…

Too hard? No.

Posting this much can be hard. It’s especially hard if it’s in addition to your current marketing workload or job description (whatever that is). But being too hard is no longer a reason to not do something. I frequently tell friends and groups with whom I speak that it’s now okay to ignore anyone who gives the excuse of not improving because it’s too hard. They will be soon gone from their current position and will no longer block you.

Exceptions? Yes.

Are there days when you shouldn’t post at least once? Yes, but it has less to do with the quantity of posts, and more about special occasions when your content is best throttled back. See these suggestions on days to skip posting.

How Your Brand Can Get 10X More Organic Reach on Facebook

As Facebook organic reach continues to drop, some marketers are completely abandoning all hope of having fans see any unpaid posts.

On Social Geek Radio and on this blog, we’ve recently discussed how Facebook Live is like “old school Facebook reach” (thanks to Nick Powills for that phrase!). But what if you simply want to drive fans to your website, landing page, or blog?

The prevalence of Facebook Live videos is further hurting the organic reach of your shared link. It’s a zero sum game; that great organic reach attained by other brands’ Facebook Live videos will take away from your posts’ reach.

How can we get old-school reach numbers on old-school links?

Override the Link

While all organic reach is down, links to posts and pages appear to be doing far worse than photos. Using that to our advantage, we can share a link just as we would share a photo.

Here’s how: Hold on to that copied link that you would normally paste in the posting area. Instead, select Photo first and upload an appropriate image for the post. You may want to first go to that blog or page and save an image from the page. After you’ve uploaded the photo, now you can paste the link. Add text before that link and you’re done.

I’ve been doing this consistently on pages I am managing over the past few months while also occasionally posting similar links as links on alternate days. My Photo + Link posts are all getting 20% to 45% reach each day! The Link posts are getting 2% to 10%.

The Photo + Link posts get 10 times more reach than the links alone. If you’re doing this now or will being trying it out, I’d love to hear about your results!

Days Not to Post on Facebook

I am a big proponent of posting shareable content on all of your brand’s pages every day. A steady cadence of a daily organic posts (and now coordinated with ads) will help you stay top of mind and in the newsfeed to your customers. But as I discussed at my recent Southeast Franchise Forum presentation, there are days when no post may be better than a post.

This is advice for any US brand’s national postings. If you’re a Franchise brand or have multiple locations in multiple markets, be aware of what’s happening in all of your local communities as well. Local emergencies and weather issues may be reasons to hold off on posting for a day or two. Obviously you will need the help and input from your field team and perhaps alerts from news sources within your geographic footprint.

National tragedies and major International tragedies:

When terrorists (domestic or ISIS) struck in Baton Rouge, Nice, Dallas, Istanbul, Orlando, Paris, San Bernardino, and the growing list of places, people took to social media to learn, grieve, and show anger with their friends. Your brand’s marketing message would at best be lost in the outpouring or at worst stick out like a clueless, poorly timed, insensitive faux pas. Just wait a day or two to get back on schedule.

Celebrity deaths:

When icons like Prince, Muhammad Ali, or David Bowie died, many brands posted ill-advised images complete with marketing tagline and logo. It works if you’re MTV or SiriusXM and you’re sharing an artist’s work for the day, but it doesn’t work if you’re selling fast food.

Political events:

Avoid posting after the first day / last day of the upcoming conventions. Also avoid the evening of and the morning after the Trump / Clinton debates and of course, Election Day. You will be buried in newsfeeds, so just wait a day.

Holidays:

Take a break on MLK Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and September 11. Unless you have an inspirational and relevant message, please avoid it!

Good Brands Build Their Communities. But Great Brands…

Many marketers are talking about organic reach on Facebook decreasing rapidly. It seems no one realizes that organic reach has been low – under 20% – for

well over a year. But as reach does continue to drop, it’s time to grow your community before it’s too late and there’s no organic content seen again. Or perhaps I should say it’s time to become part of your customer’s community.

Good brands grow their communities. Great brands become part of their customers’ communities.

This is going to take a three-step process that will rely on your community as well as some ad dollars. It will also require the best, most engaging content you’ve ever created!

Step 1: Create engaging content that people want to share

What do people want to share? Marketing messages? Flashy offers?

No. It must be something that makes them look cool / smart / sexy to their friends. You must create something that will give consumers the dopamine hit they crave each time they share a post.

Step 2: Pay for ads with that terrific content

What are you prepared to do? I hope the answer is spend a buck or two on Facebook ads. It’s time to see Facebook as an advertising channel, not a free news service. Mr. Zuckerberg, you created the most intersting communications channel since television. Here’s your dollar.

The good news is that it really only takes a dollar (or a few dollars) to be in the game. Facebook ads are really cheap right now considering the reach you can get versus TV, newspapers, or even email marketing.

What are you prepared to do?!?
All of this “new” Facebook work is going to take a bit of courage, faith, and maybe some of the Chicago way.

Step 3: This is the easy one…and it’s out of your hands.

Remember in Step 1 where I said you had to create the best, most engaging content ever? This is where it pays off. Your fans and their friends who saw the ads and posts will share them.

A typical overly commercial, online-banner-ad-looking piece of junk will get ignored just like TV commercials and banner ads do now!

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