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Facebook Updates

Recent changes will affect the way you reach your audience

JUSTIN BAZAN, O.D.

In January, Facebook made changes to the way certain content reaches a person’s newsfeed. This is an especially sore point for businesses, as many have seen a steady decline in the engagement their posts have had through the last several months of testing the changes.

Here are two big posting obstacles businesses will face in 2015 and how to get around them to ensure you’re reaching your target audience.

Obstacle 1: Organic reach is down

Facebook wants to fill its users’ newsfeed with customized content they enjoy, so it uses an ever-evolving and complicated algorithm to help determine what users are shown in their newsfeeds. When a post shows up in a feed in this manner, it is organically reaching the user.

However, Facebook has experienced tremendous growth in both personal profiles and business pages. In turn, there has been a dramatic rise in the total amount of content vying for your attention, which means that the likelihood of your post reaching your intended audience is potentially reduced.

Solution: Because of this increased competition, it becomes even more critical for businesses to post interesting, high-quality content that will increase user engagement and, in turn, help expand their overall reach. Review your posts from the last six months to determine which were the most popular — which garnered the most likes, shares and comments — and generate posts of similar content. For more tips on creating engaging content, see last month’s column, “Contact Lens Posts” (Jan. 2015 OM).

Obstacle 2: Promotional content will be limited

A recent survey conducted by Facebook revealed that users do not want to see a lot of promotional content — content that gets the user to buy a product or service, enter a sweepstake or contest out of context or is reused ad content — in their newsfeeds. As a result, Facebook began to limit it.

Solution: Focus on non-promotional content. This shouldn’t be difficult, as the majority of the content generated has never been promotional in nature. Sure, most offices will have an occasional promotional post, such as a holiday sale, but they are not a substantial component of their overall strategy.

Promotional posts should not be forgotten all together, however, as they do help serve a purpose. For example, a post highlighting a contest can help generate brand awareness and increase your fan base.

A great way to maximize exposure is to deliver the content to the newsfeeds of your desired target demographic via a paid Facebook ad. Facebook has a very robust ad platform, and now may be an ideal time to begin to explore its use.

Facebook still deserves your ‘likes’

Despite these recent changes, Facebook can still be a great marketing platform for the strategic optometric practice. Keep in mind that Facebook is evolving, and if you want to continue to maximize your success, you must also evolve. OM

DR. BAZAN IS THE FOUNDER OF PARK SLOPE EYE, IN BROOKLYN, N.Y. HE IS A MEMBER OF THE AOA, NYSOA AND THE AAOMC. IN 2014 HE RECEIVED FINANCIAL COMPENSATION FOR SERVICES FROM ALLERGAN, BAUSCH + LOMB, VISION SERVICE PLAN, LUXOTTICA, THE VISION COUNCIL AND FOSTER GRANT. SEND COMMENTS TO OPTOMETRICMANAGEMENT@GMAIL.COM.