Facebook is once again making life that little bit more challenging for social media marketers all over the world with its recent algorithm update which favours content from friends and family over businesses’.


On June 29th Facebook announced that it was reinforcing the friends and family first algorithm amid concerns that too little of this makes it to the top of people’s feeds.

In the blog post published on Facebook’s Newsroom blog, Lars Backstrom, engineering director, said:

“We’ve heard from our community that people are still worried about missing important updates from the friends they care about. For people with many connections this is particularly important, as there are a lot of stories for them to see each day. So we are updating News Feed over the coming weeks so that the things posted by the friends you care about are higher up in your News Feed.”

As a marketer you can look at this in two different ways: either it’s a reason to put less focus on Facebook, or it’s a reason to put even more effort into your Facebook strategy.

There’s no doubt that Facebook is a very powerful platform for brands, and the recent changes do not necessarily mean that you’ll see less success from your campaigns - you just have to be a little smarter and consider your content carefully.

Engagement rates are of huge importance to Facebook’s algorithm. In today’s blog I’m going to help you make the most of your Facebook content and improve your engagement rate.

Firstly - let’s look at what a ‘good’ engagement rate on Facebook looks like. These days anything above 3% can be considered ‘good’, but we believe that at least 5% is attainable for all pages. Of course, we encourage you to reach for the stars, and if your page gets anywhere around 10-15% you’re running a very successful page!

Now for how it’s done….

Play by the rules

Always, always play by the rules. You may think you’re clever, but Facebook’s algorithm is clever-er. Don’t throw the Facebook rule book out of the window and try a few sly tactics, even if they’ve worked in the past. Facebook is getting better every day at picking these up - just like Google - and if you don’t follow the rules you’ll soon see negative results.

Don't just talk about yourself

Avoid only promoting your business, what you do or the products you sell.

Engage with your Facebook audience on topics that you know they’re interested in and are loosely related to what you do. For example, if you’re a watch retailer, talk about wider fashion and style trends.

Create visiual content

Jump on the meme / carousel / GIF/ gallery / video bandwagon. Posts with links are so 2015, so mix it up with some extra visual content to ensure your audience lingers a while when they come across your post.

Avoid overly salesy messaging

Create shareable content, but don’t use a sales message or competition. Produce an on-brand message that people will want to share. After all, they’re seeing more posts from their friends and it’s likely that some of your target market’s friends are your targets too.

Anaylse the data

Find your winning formula. True Facebook marketing geeks love digging deep into their data and finding crucial nuggets of actionable information, so go to your Page Insights and take a look at your post’s engagement rates. Pick out the ones that do well and figure out what they have in common.

Repost, but never repeat

This sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s not. As with the tip above, sometimes you’ll find that your crowd-pleasing content just can’t be beat. You should feel free to replicate that content, but don’t just repeat your posts word for word, rewrite them.

'Twitter' is a four-letter word

Never, ever mention Twitter! Posts that mention Twitter typically, from our experience, reach less than 5% of your average reach, and a lower reach definitely means lower engagement. Facebook is not in the business of sending its users to social networks they don’t own, so be careful what you write.

Get interactive

Facebook recently launched their Live and 360 functionality for posts, and these shiny new features are always fun for your audience. If you’re going to broadcast live, make sure you’ve thought it through and have a plan of what you want to show or talk to your audience about. New product releases lend themselves perfectly to Live, and if you have the equipment to publish 360, make sure your subject is exciting!

Utilise Facebook Power Editor

Advert engagement and boosted post engagement can be improved with well planned targeting. If you’re just boosting or publishing ads directly from your Facebook profile, you’re doing it wrong. There’s a wealth of options at your disposal, you just need a little know-how to ensure you get your post/advert in front of the right person at the right time.

Don't post too often

 The solution to poor engagement is definitely not to begin posting 20 times per day. With Facebook, less is more. Read all about it here.

Ditch the clickbait

What was once a pretty clever way to improve your post engagement has quickly become overdone and is out of favour with Facebook. Plus audiences all over Facebook are getting increasingly irritated that the ‘...results you won’t even believe could be true!!’ really aren’t exciting in any way. Read all about the latest Facebook algorithm update that is punishing clickbait publishers here.

If you’re having engagement rate troubles, pick out a few of these tips and put them into action. If you see positive results, try implementing a few more.

At SpotDev we understand that social is not as simple as it seems, so if you think your business needs the help of our expert social media marketing team, get in touch with us today!