Facebook engagement declining. Can this really be a surprise to anyone or does it just serve to confirm what we already know?
Here on Infobunny we have been saying for years that there is no real value in creating brand pages and this has been confirmed by a recent study by Buzzsumo – Facebook Engagement for Brands and Publishers Falls 20% In 2017
Buzzsumo analyzed over 880 million Facebook posts published by big brands and influencers over the last year. They found the average number of engagements with Facebook posts were on the decline having fallen by over 20% since January 2017. In this sample, the average number of engagements fell from 340 to 264 over the first six months of the year, as shown in the chart below.
Content Type
Facebook engagement with video seems to have had the smallest fall in engagement. But that is because video content has twice the level of engagement on Facebook to that of other post formats.
The surprising part of these findings is that survey data includes engagements for all posts, including those supported by paid promotion. So this tells us that brands and influencers who pay to play are now getting less bang for their advertising buck. The decline in engagement for paid promotion could be down to brands and influencers just paying less for their Facebook engagement. But then this is refuted by AdWeek who reported that Facebook’s ad revenues in the second quarter to 2017 increased 47% over the same quarter in 2016. This growth in Facebook paid ads will invariably reduce the space for other posts in the news feed. Hence the decline. The more money Facebook makes the less real content we see.
Facebook themselves acknowledge that organic reach is in decline.
Brian Boland Vice President of Advertising Technology at Facebook states there are 2 reasons why organic reach is in decline
- There is simply more content. There is now on average 1,500 stories that could appear in a person’s feed. Not everything can be shown
- There have been some changes in the algorithm which decides what content to show users. Facebook has also made a number of changes to the feed algorithm, to demote lower quality content and click bait headlines
[tweetthis display_mode=”button_link”]Thinking of BOOSTING a Facebook Page or Post? You may want to read this first rt@dexterroona #facebook #socialmedia[/tweetthis]
THINKING OF BOOSTING A FACEBOOK PAGE OR POST?
YOU MAY WANT TO READ THIS FIRST!
So what is the answer to beat the decline?
Well, I am sorry to say it is to pay for your engagement. And big brands and influencers will do just that. Facebook has 2 billion active users and rising despite Facebook losing members to Snapchat in the 13-17 year age range. Facebook remains where everyone is.
Whether you can reach them or not depends on how deep your pockets are.
If after everything you have read above you still love your Facebook Brand Page then here are 7 tips to boost your Facebook engagement organically
UPDATE 24/10/2017
Referral traffic to news outlets in six countries have seen a fall of between 60 to 80 percent drop due to a test that removed Brand Page posts from the News Feed and relocated them to a separate, hard-to-find Explore Feed. Facebook’s VP of News Feed Adam Mosseri writes that “We currently have no plans to roll this test out further.” But that doesn’t mean Facebook won’t move forward with implementing a similar change more widely if users prefer their News Feed just be posts from friends.
Do you have any clever tricks that help you boost your engagement to you Brand Page or your Posts? Let me know in the comments below!
Regards
Dexter Roona
Uwe
Interesting article, decline in engagement is nature as you outline, paying for content creation would be maybe a solution. We did some Facebook brand campaigns for clients and they were pleased still with the result. However that depends on market, niche etc probably. Curious if in 10 years Facebook still exists, who knows.
Dexter Roona
Good points. Brands now paying more for effectively less. Hmmm
Marquita Herald
Nope, can’t say this comes as any surprise whatsoever. I’ve experimented with advertising and boosted a few posts with mixed results. I’ll be launching a new course later this month and plan to give advertising another try and play with segmenting the audience to see if I get any better results. Thanks for the interesting read!
Dexter Roona
Let me know how you get on, I would be interested in hearing your results.
Amber Harrop
Reach has definitely plummeted recently, I think the only way to be seen on Facebook is to pay for it unfortunately.
Dexter Roona
yes we use our brand page just for shares from Infobunny now and as far as boosting the engagement I would rather spend 8 hours creating new content than spending it hunting down a handful or time expiring likes