What I learnt at Facebook Small Business Bootcamp
Recently business have been up in arms over the dramatic drop in reach their Facebook pages have been seeing but on Tuesday 20th November, SMB Marketing Consultant from Facebook Nick Bowditch put all of the rumours to rest at the Facebook Small Business Bootcamp. Basically Facebook was built for people and not for businesses. The fact the businesses can use it is a bonus but at the end of the day statistics show that businesses on Facebook will never spend a red cent with Facebook or any of its products and when you have 4,000 employees in the company… well you do the math. Facebook is about People; and those people sharing content and information about their lives not about companies marketing their latest product specials.
So why the drop in engagement and reach? Well the truth is you never really post something and have 100% if your fans see it. Your fans have to be online to see your posts, and you may have 10,000 fans but there is a great possibility some may have hidden your posts, so your post will never be seen by them. Nick says “ if your page has gone down this means you have been less engaging.”
It also turns out that companies aren’t using Facebook correctly. Nick Bowditch spoke of a trip to Marrakech where he watched a local story teller tell stories in his native tongue and the crowds that gathered to hear his tales. This is what companies aren’t doing well, they aren’t telling stories! One Facebook page that tells stories well from a single photo is Humans of New York who have over 433,000 Fans. These are user submitted images taken from an iPhone of people in New York city which are simply captivating and thoughtful. It is true that a pictures speaks a thousand words.
It also seems that business are also measuring their success on the wrong thing it is not your “LIKES” at all. There 1 billion people on Facebook and each of those people have on average 140 friend connections; that is 140 billion friend connections in total. Business have been so concerned about getting people to Like them on Facebook or to comment on a status update but we should be targeting our followers friend connections by asking our followers to “click Share”! The rule says that 14% of people trust ads but 80% of people trust a friends recommendation so why not capitalize on this and ask the two words that we simply haven’t been asking “click share”!
Ever heard of Edge Rank the supposed Facebook Algorithm? Well forget what you’ve heard. The truth is there are several algorithms and they are changing everyday and not even Mark Zuckerberg knows it. There are only 4 people in the world who know the algorithm and one of them has 2 PHD’s and has deemed it impossible to work out. However Nick did give some great insights as to how updates are seen on user Facebook Newsfeeds.
How the news feed works:
1. If you like every post by a page that shows up, it will show you more posts from that page.
2. If every one on Facebook is shown a post ignores it or complains, its less likely to show you that post.
3. If you like photos it is likely you will see more photos
4. If the page receives a lot of complaints then it is likely to be seen.
Nick also covered in his keynote some great tips for people who are just starting to use Facebook.
Tips if you are just starting out:
1. Build your Facebook Page.
2. Set your cover photo and your profile picture
3. Get existing customers to like your page
4. Engage with your fans with quality content.
5. Influence the friends of your fans.
There were so many more insights that came out of the Facebook Small Business Bootcamp. For the next edition of “What I learnt Facebook Small Business Bootcamp” tune in next week for tips from the top 5 Facebook pages in Australia.
