This has already been a busy year and Facebook major changes have already been implemented.

With all the controversy regarding content not showing up in the newsfeed, Facebook recently explained “How Newsfeed Works”.  Their  goal is show you the content that matters to you and you demonstrate what matters by everything you do on Facebook.

Which people do you decided to friend,  which publishers and pages you decided to follow how you interact with both personal profiles and pages.  This means that everyone’s newsfeed it unique only to them.

Here are 3 activities Facebook mentioned that impact what shows up in your newsfeed.

• the relationship you have with author of the post, remember you can identify family
• type of content (eg: photos, videos, links) you demonstrate this by how you interact with each type of post.  If you don’t watch any videos then Facebook will take that to mean you’re not interested and slowly stop showing you video
• post activity (how many likes, comments, shares)  If you’ve noticed you are no longer seeing the posts of a friend, partner or family member this simply means you haven’t liked, commented or shared anything they have posted recently.  To ensure you keep seeing their content you will need to either like, comment or share their posts on a regular basis.

Each time you log into Facebook they look at what’s available and comes up with a relevant score based on all of the above. Posts then display in your newsfeed.  These are locked into place once seen so when come back you don’t see them again.  This is good because we don’t want to see the same posts over and over again!

Recent updates, what Facebook has been working on in the background.
1) addressing like baiting, align better with things people actually want to see
2) Showing fewer hoaxes, they have now built in the ability to have people identify it’s a trick
3) reducing overly promotional content

As a business owner the question is how to align your content production to achieve business objectives?
1) use page insights
2) have a voice, connect with the people connected to your page
3) provide context, give insight into what the link is all about
4) people want to see what’s happening “Right Now”

Facebook tells us the over arching theme is to build for the long term.  Test, test and test again in order to discover what keeps people coming back over and over again.  Be sure to let them know what they’re getting into, what they are going to find when they click on links on your page or personal profile.  Be informative, engaging and entertaining.

Big question “How often should I post?”
There is no magic number, some publishers post dozens of times per day, other post once a week and everything in between.
You will need to experiment to uncover what works best with your audience, see how they respond.  Again Facebook Insights will be very helpful here.

There has been a lot of controversy over Facebook Messenger, here’s what Facebook has to say:

“Why we’re asking people to install Messenger—We’re committed to providing a fast, reliable and fun messaging app that anyone in the world can use to reach the people who matter to them. That’s why we’re focusing just on Messenger and moving messages out of the Facebook app. People usually respond about 20% faster when they have Messenger, and we think they’ll find both apps useful in different ways. We hope you’ll try out Messenger and enjoy everything else you can do with the app, like chatting with groups and sending stickers.”

The new messenger app is just for your phone and iPad, regular messenger still works on your computer.

All the contraveresy appears to have simmered down since this was first introduced in 2014. Many people believe they are giving up even more of their privacy than ever! However I believe you will receive much more in return.
The permissions you need to agree to are no different from other messaging app like TextPlus, Line or Viber.

Here are 7 benefits I have discovered from using the new Messenger app!

1) Free Phone Calls

2) Faster

3) More Contacts

4) Find Friends More Easily

5) More Privacy

6) Fun Stickers AND Lots of Them

7) More Robust Group Chat

As always your questions and comments are welcome here on the blog!  Stay in touch we’ve got lots of great content and opportunities coming up soon.