Back in April, when Facebook updated its algorithm back in April (2015), rather than simply post what changed, I decided to break down what each change in the latest Facebook algorithm meant for brand pages. I stated at the time that "(f)or some brands, this latest Facebook algorithm change will be a major benefit" that (b)rand pages who post good content, drive interaction and engagement with their fan base and are truly social will see big gains."
My question two months later? Did your brand actually benefit? There is more than enough anecdotal evidence in my personal feed alone (backed up by page insights) to make some general conclusions regarding the impact of the latest change. Brand pages who posted good content, drove interaction and engagement with their fan base and were truly social saw big gains from April's Facebook algorithm change.
I spent a good deal of time recently scrolling through my personal feed tallying posts and looking at the content and 'publisher'. Combined with the activity I've noticed on close to two dozen pages I manage/admin over the past couple of months, what I am seeing is a clear win for brand pages. (Of course ANY improvement would be a win at this point.)
I broke down the 3 significant changes and documented what I have seen as well as few insights in my blog post (I'll leave you to read those if you so choose) but I want to highlight what Facebook's own analytics revealed.
I pulled insights for posts on the Tactical Social Media brand page activity for January through April and then again for May through mid July.
There is a very noticeable spike in activity at the end of April, and while that level wasn't sustained in later months, there was a noticeable increase in post engagement after the latest algorithm update.
To be fair, there are still plenty of low points (I do experiment with my own posting tactics) but there was clearly an increase in overall post engagement since algorithm update. What stood out was the jump in posts seeing more than 10 points of engagement.
With only 149 fans on the page at this point and only a few increases per week, page likes didn't contribute to the numbers and as I have generally only posted once daily over the past 6 months, the increases aren't attributable to frequency.
My end thought - this was not a real study by any means, but having seen similar results for the pages I admin or manage, the latest Facebook algorithm DID help.
If you were:
- Posting timely, relevant and shareable content (#BeTactical!)
- Driving interaction and engagement, and being engaged (#BeSocial!)
- Posting timely
- Posting consistently
It should have. So, did YOUR page benefit?