Is Facebook Still Beneficial for Small Businesses?

 

Facebook continues to play around with the news feed, leaving businesses confused as to whether they will be able to continue to use the platform. If the new changes come into play, users’ news feed will only include the posts from their friends and any paid advertising from pages. That means users, even the biggest fans, will no longer see organic posts from the pages that they follow and love, even if they interact with all the posts from the said business page.

All the organic posts from small to medium-sized businesses will move over to a new feed called the Explore Feed. The only way to appear on the main feed is to pay, there’s no getting around it. The changes are being tested in a few countries including Bolivia, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, and so far the results are proving to be rather depressing for small business owners. They are experiencing a large drop in engagement and reach, both factors that are beneficial for those marketing on social media.

It’s Not All Over for Small Businesses on Facebook

A simple way of remaining in front of your audience is by paying to promote your content. That doesn’t mean you need to pay for each post you publish, just the very best content. However, it is worth remembering that having a presence on Facebook is worthwhile, even if you can’t pay to advertise on the platform. Consumers often use Facebook as a way of establishing the sincerity of an organisation. They use it to check that the company is still active, if there are any visible complaints and how the organisation responds to complaints, reviews, promotions and to get a feel for the company. With so many businesses it’s important for consumers to do their research to protect themselves from potential risk.

Loyal fans will still want to remain updated and will often take a moment to check in with their favourite pages. You can also encourage activity using in-house advertising, email marketing, on product pages and so on. This is why it’s vital that you include easy to follow links on all of your online channels.

It is worrying time for small businesses, but all is not lost and it’s definitely not wise to leave the platform entirely. Let us help you create a digital marketing strategy that suits your budget and aspirations. Call us or send us an email to discuss the various options available.