On January 11, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social media site’s main goal will shift from finding relevant content for users to helping users have more meaningful social connections and interactions.
The change reflects an effort to improve the value of time spent on Facebook and the well-being of its users, according to Zuckerberg, who explained in a post that News Feed has shifted over the years from mainly personal content to mainly public content. “At its best, Facebook has always been about personal connections,” he wrote.
Zuckerberg’s recent News Feed plan may make it more difficult for lawyers and law firms to gain feed time on the social site. To stand out, firms will need to create engaging and interesting content that a reader will click on and share. Firms should also be aware that consumers may encounter content and advertisements less frequently, but it is also anticipated that users may spend less time on the site in general, and this may not be an effective marketing platform.
Paid content will likely still see a larger reach and higher success than organic content, but Facebook’s prioritization and the subsequent success of those ads will be dependent upon the ad’s overall objective. Firms with marketing plans that are heavily reliant on Facebook must reconsider their ad goals, prioritizing those that aim for higher post or page engagement, including Likes and Video Views, over ads aiming solely to send viewers to the firm website for more information.
Ads that aim to foster page engagement and website clicks may be the most successful. For instance, an ad which samples a law firm’s blog might entice someone to continue reading the article on the firm’s site. Sharing organic, original content on the social site may be the best strategy for success. The Facebook post itself might see a high engagement rate via Reactions, Comments, or Shares, which based on the new algorithm (in theory) should result in better performance.
Though digital “billboard” advertising may have had its day, paid Facebook content isn’t going away any time soon. Additionally, there are many digital marketing opportunities on other social media, such as Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn, and on search engines like Bing, Yahoo!, Google and their networks.
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