In the early hours of Friday 12th January, Mark Zuckerberg announced changes to Facebook’s news feed algorithm that will have huge ramifications for every single company that uses the platform.
“Recently we've gotten feedback from our community that public content -- posts from businesses, brands and media -- is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other,” Facebook’s co-founder wrote.
To combat this, Facebook will be showing less content from businesses, brands and media whilst prioritising ‘meaningful interactions between people’ – in essence returning the platform to its original goal. So, what do these changes mean for marketers at recruitment firms?
What we know about the news feed changes so far:
- Facebook will be showing less content from publishers and businesses in its news feed, including videos, photos and posts
- Referral traffic and video watch time will decrease because of this decline in post reach
- The algorithm’s ranking factors are changing – with content that generates long comments carrying more weight than those with short comments or likes and reactions
- These changes will be rolled out globally over the coming weeks and months
What can recruitment agencies do to ensure that their content is still visible?
Conduct a content audit
With 2018 in full swing, recruitment marketers should already be using this time of the year to evaluate their Facebook posts from the last 6-12 months and the latest news feed changes make this even more important. You should look at what content, themes and topics resonate most with your audience and plan how you can utilise the most successful ones as part of your plans going forward.
Focus on quality over quantity
Use the insights gained from your audit to spend more time crafting content that your audience wants rather than just posting for the sake of it. Focus on content that reinforces key brand messages and addresses the pain points of candidates, for example, instead of simply posting a job advert to satisfy the short-term needs of recruitment consultants.
Go Live
Whilst standard videos will be shown less due to the ‘passive’ interactions that they generate, Facebook Live will continue to be a form of content that ranks highly on the news feed. According to Facebook, live videos on average get six times as many interactions as regular videos. So think about how you can use them as part of your content mix to add value to your followers and generate engagement. For example, do you have any recruitment expos coming up? If you do, why not set up a live stream tour of the venue and explain why followers should come along?
Don’t ask for comments
Whilst comments, especially lengthy ones, will now carry much more weight as a ranking factor than likes and reactions you should refrain from asking users to comment on your posts. Known as ‘engagement baiting’, this tactic of urging users to like, comment or share a post in the hope of bumping it to the top of people’s news feeds, was the focus of a recent algorithm update and as a result any posts doing this will be demoted.
Invest in Facebook advertising
With the decline of organic Facebook reach over the last few years, Facebook ads have fast become a ‘must have’ rather than a ‘nice to have’ for the majority of businesses. If your recruitment firm is yet to incorporate advertising into its social media strategy then now is the time. The last quarter saw a 35% rise in Facebook ad rates and the latest news feed change is expected to increase these further, so recruitment agencies should experiment with advertising before any inevitable mistakes that are made prove to be too costly.
Is your recruitment firm looking for help with its social media? Get in touch today to find out about our range of social media management and consultancy services.
Author: Dan Stobbs
