Ways that Authors Can Move Forward on Facebook in 2015
I've been seeing a fair bit of information lately, opinions and pundits all renumerating on what may happen to authors, artists and other small business owners, contractors, and entreprenuers when Facebook implements major newsfeed changes after January 15th, 2015. Some have already decided they are going to close down their business fan pages, while others are wondering where exactly they'll go if they do.
One thing's already been clear to many authors, and that is the loss of eyeballs on their various posts in 2014. My own author page has always had low-to-no regular interaction, which has always been a disappointment. It was because of no interaction that I ceased looking for things to repin on a regular basis. No one was responding to them outside of a handful I could literally count on one hand.
What I have discovered gets the eyeballs, is the manual promotion of posts that I think need to be seen, to other groups around Facebook. Occasionally this has spiked the number of views from 0 or maybe 10 to as much as 60 or more depending on the subject matter.
Tip #1:
Therefore, tip #1 from me directly, is to manually promote the posts you want seen, to the groups where people will have the greatest interest in seeing it. This means searching Facebook for groups that fit the keywords you expect to reach toward. There are so many groups, many public, many closed, some private. Join the groups that match the content you wish to share, then when you create a post that would fit those groups, share them to those groups. It does increase the number of people who will see your content.
Tip #2:
Remind your fans periodically to use the "Pages Feed" link in the left-hand panel of their newsfeed. While this link unfortunately is not sortable by top or most recent the way your newsfeed is, it is still a great way to keep up with the pages you have chosen to like. In this manner, I myself keep up with the pages I want to stay current with. The more I click like on a page's post, the more I comment on a page's post, and the more I reshare content that pages I like share with me, the more often they show up in my actual newsfeed instead of staying in the pages feed only. Educating your fans about this link will go a long way to maintaining and maybe even increasing fan interaction, allowing your posts to grow their viewership organically, because Facebook rewards interaction with fans.
The next few tips are gathered from a few blogs that I've also linked to in case you wish to read the rest of each blog article. I agree that it's time to change tactics, and now I'm glad that I scheduled promotional posts via hootesuite for just one per day going into the new year. In keeping with the first shared point below, I will need to come up with creative ways of sharing content that is not overly promotional in the future. I am slowly gaining ideas for that and we'll have to see how they play out.
Don’t focus on selling on Facebook
One of the main reasons why Facebook is changing its algorithm is because more and more businesses are posting sales-driven content, as opposed to resourceful content that will provide value to their audience. Facebook is trying to steer away from this model, as they want to make Facebook’s user experience more enjoyable. Therefore, if businesses are prompted to change their Facebook marketing strategy, there will be more valuable content given to their audiences.
Post your best content on Facebook
Facebook wants people to see only the best content on their News Feed. Which means that in order for a business to see engagement on their posts, choose content that has been successful on other social media channels or your business’ content marketing platform. Content that has the most retweets, clicks, and traffic will more likely also do well on Facebook (and remember the golden rule: the best content is the content that provides your followers value).
http://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-marketing-tips/
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#1. Give real value. Post content that serves your followers and fans
You can still try and make an effort to create incredible valuable organic updates on your Facebook page. Facebook “promise” if your content is relevant to your followers it might show up. So one solution is to experiment with “what it takes” to create good content for Facebook. No one knows how much of these organic posts will end up in people´s news feed – most likely none. But if you are low on cash in your marketing budget this is worth testing in January before you make a new strategy.
#2. Boost your business on other social media channels
It´s time to think in alternatives; Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, 500px and Flickr are all suitable options for photographers and other creatives. And if you make good use of google+ it will rank your website much higher when it comes to search optimization.
http://christinagreve.com/new-2015-facebook-page-rules-what-it-means-for-your-business/
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7. Keep your details up-to-date
Even if you decide to scale back your Facebook posting in 2015, don’t overlook the value of using Facebook to help new customers find your business.
Review your business information like hours and location, and make sure you’ve completely filled out your bio so that new customers can find the information they are looking for!
http://blogs.constantcontact.com/facebook-organic-reach/
