Author Matthew Capala is an Internet entrepreneur, SEO strategist, international speaker, trainer, and author of Amazon best-selling "SEO Like I'm 5." He is the founder of Alphametic, an organic growth accelerator, with clients including L'Oreal. Matthew has launched several popular websites, including SearchDecoder.com, a place for SEO ideas for entrepreneurs. You can find his online course at IWillTeachYouSEO.com, dubbed "the number one SEO online training system on the Web."
Have you recently logged into your Facebook business page account and noticed some features have either changed or that you suddenly have new ones? On a monthly basis, Facebook implements a number of alterations to make their social platform more convenient and user-friendly.
If you manage a business page on Facebook, you may find it's not easy keeping up with all of the latest updates and new features. Let's check out the five most recent Facebook changes you should know about.
More Meaningful Page Likes
In early March 2015, Facebook started making page likes more meaningful. With the new changes, memorialized accounts (accounts of a deceased person) and voluntarily deactivated accounts will not count towards a pages' likes. The result of the new algorithm change guarantees that data is reliable and up to date.
It also gives updated audience insights on the people who actively follow your page. This makes it easier for you, as a business owner, to find a new viewership that's similar to your target audience through tools like lookalike audiences.
New News Feed Formula
According to David Holmes of Pando.com, as of April 21, 2015, news from your friends - such as status updates, pictures, or shared material - will be pushed higher to the top of your timeline than news from brand pages.
Even though your customers may like your page and want to hear the latest information from you, chances are they will be less likely to do so. Any story your business posts will be less likely to show up on your fans' news feed. If you analyze your post reach statistics, you will see declining numbers because many of your followers aren't getting your updates. How can you get around this? Facebook offers a paid service to boost your post, claiming you will see more engagement, traffic and sales. No pay, no play.
A common complaint among Facebook users, according to the results of a new user survey, is that their timeline is flooded with too many brand or business updates. Users are afraid of missing important news and updates from friends.
As a result, the new News Feed Formula reduces the number of brand stories on a user's timeline. This changes timelines from seeming less commercial and makes them appear more personal. This new update is detrimental to you and your business page because the most common way users find brand pages is through a friend's like or comment.
Instant Articles
Released on May 12, 2015, this new feature allows your fans to download stories ten times faster than standard mobile web articles. Instant Articles gives you control over your own story, brand experience and monetization opportunities - while you create quick and interactive articles on Facebook.
Your followers are able to get to the stories they want to read instantly and the tilt-to-pan photos, auto-play videos, embedded audio captions and interactive maps let them explore your stories in new ways. Take advantage of this new Facebook feature to optimize your social content.
Facebook Lite for Android
On June 4, 2015, Facebook came out with a new app for Android, Facebook Lite. It uses less data and works well over a broad range of network connections. It has also addressed issues of unreliability and lack of support seen in other apps. The new app is less than 1MB, making it fast to install and load.
All of your followers are still able to see your updates and photos in their news feeds and they get the same notifications when they like and comment on your posts. What's more, Facebook Lite is also available in Asia and will soon arrive in other countries around the world.
While not all of Facebook's changes are ideal for businesses, it's still considered a huge social media platform that can expand your reach and help put you on the map. How have you leveraged Facebook to expand your business' reach in your social media marketing plan?