Pesky Facebook developers are at it again. They’re always making changes, but as one of the biggest tech companies in the world, you’d expect that. By 2020, more people will have internet than not, and more people will have mobile phones than running water or electricity. I even read a statistic that there are more mobile phones in the world than tooth brushes!

Facebook rolls out new tech almost constantly, but here are the most important changes that may affect your business in 2020.

Reach Calculations

Have you noticed that your reach and impression numbers have gone down? Don’t worry. Facebook just redid how it calculates these numbers by changing the amount of time that lapses before someone counts as a “unique impression” again. Maybe it’s a ploy to get you to buy advertising. If Facebook is working for you, stay on to see how your numbers trend with this new algorithm.

About Section

Facebook removed the mission, company overview, affiliation and personal interest fields on your Facebook business page. Why? Well, it’s a little redundant, and no one really reads it all. Move this information to under the “About” heading and add it to your company story in a few sentences.

Advertising

Facebook is giving you even more targeting options for ads, like interests and behaviors, which means your ad dollars can be used to reach people who are even more likely to buy your product. This is definitely good news if you’re using Facebook ads.

Messenger

Facebook is positioning Messenger to become a more effective way for people to connect with businesses, especially through advertising. Now, you can create ads that click through to Messenger with preloaded text that you can “send” to your audience.

What’s more, is that within 24 hours of this initial content, you can send promotional information to try to move your prospect down the funnel. After that, it’s human-only interaction (not AI) unless you’re sending event reminders, account updates or post-purchase updates.

But hey, a lead is a lead, and with targeting, these are more qualified leads. Best part? You can integrate messenger with your CRM (HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive, etc). You may not always check your page messages, but you probably do get an alert when a new lead pops in.

Groups

Facebook groups give people a sense of a more authentic community and connection, which results, of course, in higher engagement rates. While groups don’t make sense for all businesses, if you have a niche market, it could work for you. And, you could have a big return. Here are some stats.

Post Scheduling

You aren’t able to schedule posts directly from your Facebook page, any more. You can only do it through Business Manager or Creator Studio, a tool on Facebook that allows you to compose posts and view insights for your page. Free (and paid) versions of Hootsuite and Buffer are available as well, and user-friendly for creating social media calendars.

Stories

Facebook made huge changes to its stories, making it easier to create different types of posts. This includes polls, which could give your interactions the oomph they need. I’m still not convinced that stories will catch on with Facebook the way they have on SnapChat and Instagram, but it never hurts to test it out to see how your audience reacts.

Instagram is also revamping stories with a feature called “create mode.” I’m excited to see a change here because there’s room for improvement. Hopefully it will be similar to the changes on Facebook.

Another note on Instagram

Instagram is looking to up its e-commerce game. The goal is to get people to buy right from the app. This shift seems natural, even if you don’t sell a product. You can still offer gift certificates to increase revenue. And that’s good for everybody!

Is your social media strategy in place for next year? If not, I can help you focus on what’s going to get you the best results. Drop me a note with a time that works for you.