As the head of marketing and social at CMI, I was able to speak with Facebook über strategist Jon Loomer about how to improve social reach and why Facebook gets a bad rap for making your feed work better.
CM: Many are reporting their Facebook reach plummeted in 2014 because of filtered feed. Can you explain why?
JL: It’s pretty simple, actually. Facebook has always had an algorithm that serves up what’s most important to the user (or what it thinks is most important based on that user’s past interactions). The thing is, there are well over a billion people on Facebook now and so competition for visibility in the feed is way up.
A lot of people blame Facebook, saying it’s trying to squeeze marketers. Yes, Facebook needs to make money, but ultimately it can only make money if users stay engaged. Facebook’s main priority is users – specifically, giving those users a good experience. If users spend more time on Facebook, the platform is more valuable for advertisers. And not everyone has been pinched by filtered feed, by the way. I would estimate 20 to 30 percent of brands have not been affected…
