It changed again....

If you've ever researched social media marketing strategies and are running your company's social media based off of what you learned prior to the last few months, then you're probably not doing it correctly.  And guess what, we will most likely be saying the same thing in another 3-6 months.  In the immortal words of Heraclitus- "The only constant in life is change".  This should be the mantra for every social media marketer whether you're running just your company's pages, or if you are an agency overseeing multiple companies.  If you're still doing what you were 6-12 months ago, odds are many of those techniques have expired.

So what exactly has changed?  

First and foremost,  the priority levels for organic content from a business page has been substantially reduced in the social media algorithms.  What this means is that in the past you could generate a fair amount of reach and generate views by people who weren't your followers simply by creating great posts on a consistent basis.  While this is still possible, the amount of reach is lower because the posts are being shown to less people unless there are lot of data points connecting a post to a specific individual.  Does this mean that you should stop creating posts on a regular basis? NO!!!!  People still see the posts, just not as many.  Also, when new people discover the page they are likely to scroll back through previous posts to get an idea who you are and what you're about, the average being around 11 posts that people will look at when they go to your page.  In other words, keep posting consistently.

So what should we do, then? Are we supposed to just accept the fact that we won't be able to reach as many people by creating amazing posts, and sharing about who we are and what we've got going on as a company?  Absolutely not!  If the only constant is change, then you better believe we are going to change right along with it and find ways to have even better results than previously.  This is where the next part of what has changed comes into play.

Ad spend...simply put, you've got to spend more money on ads now to achieve the same level of results that you did in the past, and if done properly you will actually get even better results than you have before.  The goal here, at least for some companies, is to do small micro ads or boosts to get your organic posts out to new people that otherwise wouldn't see them.  Once new people have engaged with the posts, you then have the opportunity to invite them to like the page and see the posts on a more consistent basis.  As soon as someone likes a new page the algorithms will give higher priority to the posts from that page for a period of time to see if the end user interacts with the posts or not.  The more the new follower interacts, the higher the priority level for them so they will see the posts on a regular basis.  If they don't interact with the posts then your posts get dropped in the priority to this individual.  This is why having a steady stream of new followers is so important since some people will only see your content for a few days and others will all of the time, depending on if they respond or not.

It's important to remember what the algorithm is trying to do.  The end-user experience is what matters most to it, so it is trying to show that individual content that they actually like so they spend more time on social media.  The more time people spend on social media the more they will see the paid ads, which makes the ads even more valuable to businesses and in turn makes the social media platforms even more money.  Welcome to supply and demand at its finest.  

So what exactly should you be doing now?  There is no one right answer to this question.  Every business is different and everyone should have a custom strategy based on their product, service, target demographics, sales cycle, and many more factors.  That said, what we have set as a baseline for most of our clients, is doing 3 posts per week with at least one boosted post per month.  The boosted post should be taking something that is relevant to a broad amount of people that may introduce them to your company in a way that's approachable and interesting.  It should be targeted to people who are not currently following your page and meet all of the specifics of your ideal customer (which on a side note, if you haven't ever really pinpointed, then do so).  The amount you spend on this boost is up to you and how effective you want it to be.  There is no magic number, as every industry and company is different.  One thing you can reference though, is that for every $25 you spend on a boost, you should reach in the ballpark of 1k+ people.  From there it's all a math game of click-through rates, conversion ratios and proper targeting.  

While we haven't gone in depth into every change that has recently taken place, hopefully this gives those in need a starting point to evaluate their strategies and make the proper adjustments as needed.  If you're still confused or not sure what you should be doing, it may be time to reach out to us here at Manski Media and together we can work on the best game plan for your company.