At the start of next year, Facebook will phase out any ‘linkbait’ style status updates from brand pages- essentially cutting out free advertising on the social network. Steve Rivers, CEO of Intelligent Reach discusses the Facebook’s algorithm change, and what it means for retailers.
Marketing a product on Facebook gives retailers an opportunity to share their goods with a vast audience – but is it appropriate? The short answer is: it depends. Today’s retailers obviously need to be everywhere that their customers are looking for their products – and that includes social media. However, this activity should never be intrusive and must be appropriate for the target audience.
The recent change to Facebook’s algorithm to remove promotional posts no doubt stems from consumers’ dislike of advertising on their favourite social networks. The nature of Facebook means that users don’t want to be sold to blindly; they are much more likely to give consideration to products that actually mean something to them – either because their peers have ‘liked’ or shared this type of content, or as the result of sophisticated behaviour analysis and profiling on the part of the marketer.
Regardless of whatever changes Facebook decides to make, there is no sense in bombarding consumers with product marketing if they are not receptive to the message; consumers are sophisticated and retailers would achieve greater consideration by sharing their content in a way that users actually find appropriate and engaging.
By Steve Rivers
CEO
www.IntelligentReach.com