The Ever Changing Content Carousel

It’s no question that content is important on social media, and has been a large driver of social media’s meteoric rise as a preferred choice for marketers. Companies such as Upworthy ($8 million dollar Series A in August) have led the content revolution – not creating anything new, but merely giving already existing content the boost it deserves.

Facebook has also been another leader in the content revolution, creating algorithms that boost engagement within the news feed that users have come to know and love. For a long time the type of content that boosted engagement were photos, and the solution was simple: post more pictures and there will be more likes, shares, and comments.

Not anymore.

As of this month, Facebook will now be changing up the algorithm in the news feed to focus more on smarter content posts that users are likely to click on, at the expense of meme photos and links that it doesn’t deem appropriate. These changes will be appearing on both mobile and desktop feeds.

So if you’re a content marketer, what does this mean for your social media efforts? Here are some quick hits:

• Your writing skills now matter more: If you can write a title that catches the eye, you’re now only doing half of the job as you’ll have to be able to write the actual article now too. Too long have we seen social media users write in poor grammatical form. With new algorithms in place it’s going to change the way content shows up.
• This social media thing is still an experiment: Facebook has tried photos for awhile, and now they want to try articles. What really works we’ll never really know, but it’s important to note that your social marketing efforts will once again start at point one. See what titles work, A/B test your content, and measure engagement, and start all over again as needed. Mix it up.
• Engagement still matters too: The most important part of social media lies in the relationship. It doesn’t matter how much content you post but rather it’s all about the audience you impact. Make sure you continue to engage with your audience, get to know the people whom share and read your content, and discover the raving fans that will help you take your brand up a notch.
• Keep agnostic with your social networks: This move most importantly comes in mind with Twitter’s continued battle with Twitter to become a leader in news as it goes viral. At the end of the day for the user, it’s important to stay agnostic to social networks. Tools like Hubspot, HootSuite, and others exist for the reason that marketers know that while its important to be in a focused audience, it’s also important to post across to differing social networks to take advantage of SEO and overall awareness.

 

How will you be utilizing the new changes to the news feed? Leave your comment below and let’s hear them!

Image credit Flickr user birgerking