Remember, just a year ago, when you were supposed to post photos to get the best organic reach on Facebook? Well, surprise, those days are gone.
According to Socialbakers (courtesy of Marketing Land), photo posts now drive the LOWEST organic reach, below text-only and link posts, and well below Facebook’s new darling — videos.
Generally, we are seeing this trend being reflected on the accounts of our clients. Videos are getting crazy views, whereas photos have to be pretty darn impressive to gain some traction.
And, of course, Facebook weighs the video heavily now because they are trying to get into the video game. And they pulled back on photos because word got out that photos were the best way to reach people, so page admins started using photos as link bait, thus ruining the fun for the rest of us.
[symple_box color=”green” fade_in=”true” float=”center” text_align=”center” width=””]Want to know more about Facebook Video? Check out our Webinar here:
Lunabean Wine Webinar: Facebook 2015 – 2 Changes You Need to Know[/symple_box]
So, what’s a legitimate page admin to do? More videos? Sure. Facebook doesn’t care if your video was produced for thousands of dollars, or by your smartyphone, so throw Facebook a bone and post an occasional video. But don’t get worked up over it — because, soon, the link baiters of the world will ruin videos, too. Which is why you go with the Lunabean Media solution for all things interwebs.
The Lunabean Media solution for all things interwebs
Are you ready for it? It’s not much of a secret. In fact, Matthew Broderick figured it out back in 1983: “The only winning move is not to play”.
We learned this one in the early 00s, when everyone was trying to get higher Google rankings with the latest SEO tips and tricks. Invisible text, keyword overload, link naming, inbound linking, etc. Some tricks legitimately helped. Some would get you punished by Google. So, we just stopped playing, and we simply made sure that our website did what we said it did. We offered video game strategy guides.
Suddenly, our Google rankings jumped. Our guides were above those of IGN and Gamespot (huge corporate sites for those who aren’t familiar with the gaming world).
We found great success with this method, and it continues to be our strategy for all things social media.
Stop sweating it, and post what is easy and makes you happy. If you like taking photos, then take photos. Don’t let some silly stat about organic reach, something that didn’t even exist three years ago, tell you how to communicate with your customers. Don’t get worked up over your ratio of promotional posts to non-promotional posts. Be smart, but don’t get caught up in the game of getting more views, because you will, ultimately, lose.
Go about your businesses sharing what you love about your winery. Then, when you want to post something you REALLY want your fans to see – a promotion, an event, a sale, an announcement – spend $20 bucks and advertise (not boost) the post.
Have a problem with Facebook ads? Get over it. They work. They are effective. They save you time and energy of trying to game the system. And, think about it, if you could spend just $20 to advertise your promotion in print, you’d do it. Facebook is arguably more effective.
So, there you have it. Know the trends, but don’t obsess over them. Use Facebook’s affordable and effective advertising to get the word out about your promotions, and you’ll be happier and more successful than anyone who is trying to game this ever changing system that is Facebook.
Now, how about a nice game of chess?
