There have been some big changes to Facebook of late prompting many to ask why and if it is worth bothering with unless you have a budget to support it. Here is one take.
by Jon King
Having stepped away from local government comms for a year, I’m back in the saddle again at another authority.
Knowing a little about social media helped. And just as I was extolling the virtues of Facebook as a means of connecting with residents I had to remind myself that the game has changed a little in my absence.
The dreaded new algorithm has appeared like a malign force across the land, cutting a swathe through once promising levels of reach and leaving social media managers dazed and confused in its wake. Kevan Lee from Buffer outlined the issue in a recent blog.
Kevan reminds us that good social media is not rocket science or alchemy; it’s social marketing - effecting behavioural change. It took me back to a time when I was working in internal Business Development for another local authority. Back then, a service would happily boast about the 40,000 leaflets they produced in the last financial year as if it were a positive outcome. Apart from my concerns about the hectares of rainforest felled to produce the paper, my first question was “what happened as a result?” In other words, if you can’t track the customer journey and demonstrate a practical outcome, you’re wasting time and effort.
I would also ask them how many leaflets were left under their desk, in their original box, gathering dust. We’ve all been there.
Kevan argues that lower Facebook reach but measurable outcomes are preferable to higher reach alone and I reckon he’s on to something.
Here are a few of my own observations for what they are worth:
So, I’ve got over my initial disappointment at the commercialisation of Facebook even though they may have sold out to The Man, to use a sixties analogy. It’s simply another example of the slow realisation that social media are not another country. They don’t replace common sense and they don’t remove the need to effect behavioural change. Keep that in mind and don’t sweat the reach stats.
Jon King is a Communications & Marketing Officer at Telford & Wrekin Council in the West Midlands. He blogs at www.charlemont.wordpress.com.
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