Six weeks after the change, the figures on most of the business pages we monitor are declining.
On January 11, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was changing the News Feed: more posts from friends and family, fewer from businesses, brands and media. The stated goal is "meaningful social interactions." Facebook's own announcement was explicit: pages should expect their reach, video watch time and referral traffic to decrease.
Our experience managing social media for businesses goes back about a decade, to the Raincity years in Vancouver. Organic reach has been declining for years. However, we have not previously seen a platform state so directly that it was reducing the visibility of businesses. A gradual decline has become a sharp drop.
What does the "meaningful interactions" update change?
Facebook's January newsroom post on bringing people closer together makes the intent clear: the feed will favour posts that get people talking to each other. Long comments, replies to comments and shares followed by a discussion carry more weight. A like is worth less, and so is a passive video view.
In December, Facebook had already begun demoting "engagement bait," meaning posts such as "comment YES if you love dogs." The two measures work together: Facebook wants genuine conversation and will penalize the artificial version.
Further changes followed in recent weeks. News sources rated as trusted by users receive a boost, as does local news. All of these measures point in the same direction: friends, community, and topics people genuinely discuss.
For a business page that mainly publishes announcements, specials and attractive photos, this is unfavourable. Those posts rarely start a conversation. People scroll past or perhaps tap like, and under the new rules that interaction carries very little weight.
How are business pages responding?
Some pages are reacting by posting more often. This approach does not work: additional posts that generate no conversation simply add noise that the feed will ignore.
Others are shifting heavily to paid advertising. This is technically effective, and it is the outcome some observers believe the change was designed to produce. Both explanations can hold at once: Facebook has a genuine problem with people feeling worse after scrolling, and it also has a very strong advertising business that benefits when free reach decreases.
The most effective pages are changing what they publish. Consider a dive shop. It can post "new schedule for March" and receive no response, or it can post a photo of a nudibranch that nobody on the boat could identify and ask the guests who were on that dive. The effort is the same. The first is a notice; the second is a conversation.
What kind of posts start conversations?
This is the approach we recommend. Ask genuine questions you want answered. Reply to every comment, because your replies also count as part of the conversation. Tag the people in a photo when they are happy to be tagged. Publish the kind of content a regular customer would want to show a friend.
It does not need to be clever. A bakery asking which bread should return on Saturdays receives comments. A bakery posting its opening hours does not.
The most common mistake we observe is treating comments as a chore: publishing, leaving, and checking back two days later. By then, the post has run its course. The period right after publication is when your replies keep a discussion active, so we recommend publishing at a time when you can remain available to respond. This single habit will do more for a small page than any posting calendar.
Why are Facebook groups becoming more important?
Facebook has been promoting groups since last June, when it rewrote its mission around community. Based on what we observe, posts from groups people have joined appear in the feed more often than page posts.
This matters a great deal for local businesses. In small towns, in expatriate communities, and wherever people live close together, local Facebook groups are where people ask who can repair a water pump or where to find a reliable mechanic. Being a helpful and honest member of those groups is more effective than a page that publishes without an audience. The approach is not to promote yourself in those groups, but to answer, in your own name, when you genuinely know the answer.
Will organic reach on Facebook recover?
We do not expect page reach to recover, and we recommend planning as if it will continue to decline.
This reflects a consistent trend. Every year in our experience, organic reach has decreased somewhat, and periodically it drops sharply. This is one of those drops. The rules will also change again, and Facebook does not consult small businesses beforehand.
We still recommend that every local business maintain a Facebook presence, since many of your customers are there every day. We recommend treating it as a place to hold conversations and to be found, rather than as the foundation of the business.
What do we recommend for a small business on Facebook now?
- Post less often, and make each post something a person could respond to.
- Reply to comments quickly. It helps a post reach more people.
- Find the local groups your customers use and contribute useful answers there.
- Put a small, steady advertising budget behind your best posts instead of posting three times a day for free.
- Always give people a reason to leave Facebook for a channel you own: your website or your email list.
The last point is where most small businesses fall short. A page with 2,000 followers you cannot reach is not an audience. A list of 300 people who asked for your email newsletter is.
If you prefer to delegate the day-to-day posting and replies, our social media management service covers that work. Most of the list above, however, you can apply yourself; it mainly requires consistent attention to the comments.
This change reduces the reach of business pages, but it will also lead many businesses to adopt better habits.