From a company’s perspective, we know that staying relevant is important – you don’t want to be posting articles about eating healthy and staying fit when your company is selling donuts, or other high-calorie food. Moreover, when it is a sensitive day or topic, such as 9/11, the best strategy may be to remain silent – learn from this AT&T example from 2013 for what not to do.

Now, Facebook has been making progressive updates to its algorithm that aims to make sure the News Feed is as customized as can be to each individual’s interests, a “how relevant is your post within a certain time-frame” metric is taken into account. In other words, if you are planning to post something about the latest NHL games or the hottest headlines, make sure it is done in a timely manner, or risk Facebook bumping you down if it considers that post to be time-sensitive. Just as how Facebook is making it easier for people to make purchases online with the “Buy” button, they have also made it much easier for users to “Unfollow” your company if they don’t want to see your posts at all. It is becoming more and more important for companies to keep their customers happy and engaged rather than just treating their Facebook posts as another avenue for sales. A social media manager of a large Canadian fast-food chain gave a useful tip during his presentation to our class. He said a good ratio is 9:1 – for every promotional sales post, companies should ensure to have 9 non-promotional sales posts.

I personally don’t mind seeing promotional posts on my News Feed, because I am able to ignore it and continue on with my entertainment without being frustrated, and I believe many other Facebook users are similar to me. This is extremely detrimental to companies because for users like me, after falling into the habit of just ignoring a particular company’s posts, I will not even stop and consume posts, even if they are not promotion related. Unconsciously they are already on the “black-list”. Facebook will also be able to tell with its algorithm that I do not engage with promotional posts, therefore, that company’s posts will probably cease to exist on my News Feed.

Before I end off, here is a little peak at how you could be more successful with your posting strategies – put together very simply and clearly in this presentation called “Right Conversation, Right Time“. Stay tuned to my last post in this series about how to combat the Facebook algorithm!