Following the official global rollout of Facebook’s new dedicated Pages Feed on 14th November, it is important that brands understand the potential opportunities and challenges for their own social media strategies says integrated PR, search and social media agency Punch Communications.
The new Pages Feed, occupying the left-hand side of the Facebook profile, collates all Pages a user follows into one simple feed. Subsequently, this represents a very real opportunity for brands to increase their own stand-out and visibility, away from the more densely populated sections containing personal profile data in the main news feed. In turn, they are able to take steps towards increasing the opportunity for user engagement or re-engagement.
The new Pages Feed will be welcome news to many brands, particularly following the recent tightening of the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm which in effect will have reduced the reach of brand content to users who do not regularly interact with them. Equally, from a user perspective, the increased control offered by Pages Feed will better allow users to tailor their own experience, simple viewing of all pages followed and the ability to increase or decrease the supply thereof within their own news feed.
Pete Goold, Managing Director at Punch Communications said: “It’s easy to overlook the impact of seemingly aesthetic changes within Facebook. On paper, the introduction of Pages Feed is positioned as a user-aid, to help manage the feed from an increasing number of pages that users follow, and to that end, it does what it says on the tin. However, it remains imperative for brands using social media and their agencies to think more deeply about the possible opportunities and implications of such a feature.
“As an increasing number of brands learn the impact of EdgeRank, particularly as its recent tightening has seen a further decrease in reach, it’s important to consider the opportunities to get ahead of the game with Pages Feed. Whilst brands should always be thinking about how they engage and inspire their audience, the roll out of Pages Feed and subsequent interest this will hold for users offers a novel and overt opportunity to remind users why they “Liked” the brand page in the first place and drive engagement or re-engagement. So, if a company is concerned about the impact of the new EdgeRank algorithm, Pages Feed actually offers to mitigate the loss of reach and re-engage potential lost fans and followers.”
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