Here we go again, Facebook algorithms have changed! Since 2004 Facebook has routinely been updating and modifying the platform to better suit its users – but this means marketers are relying on more complex tactics in order to stay afloat in their strategies. Interestingly enough, 2016 marks the year of hypertargeting awareness – organic audience optimization and engagement methods must now change as the new algorithms pick up family and friend feeds over other organic business posts.

Here’s a great article from Forbes that explains a little more in-depth the realities of the change:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2016/07/06/has-facebooks-latest-algorithm-change-finally-doomed-publishers-and-marketers-for-good/#135842fe5a11

This is pretty big – as the platform moves to pay to play, pharma (you guys) are navigating shit creek for reaching your online audiences. Moving forward, roughly 2-3% of your content will ever be viewed organically. Think about that for a second. For those of you who even HAVE a digital marketing strategy in play, your bottom line just moved/shit creek just got wider.

Imagine for a moment: say an organic post you published in April of this year reached a total of 4,000 people organically (oh yay!).  Now fast forward to June – the exact same post, under the new algorithm, might only reach 300 – 400  people (oh crap). This is the power of prioritization among feeds – the status quo is the status cling: if your audience can’t stop thinking about it (and clicking on it) their feeds will cling to it…blocking out the vast majority of external influence.

So the game has changed: while organic opportunity decreases, now the focus is leveraging paid efforts (paid posts and ads). And you can’t just boost whatever – it has to have quality in it’s message and appearance in order to garner real influence. Your audience isn’t daft; they know what they like. They don’t like random, poorly executed transparent posts looking for followers. (The irony here being no one has ever built massive audiences from paying Facebook to replace a social media marketing expert without completely breaking the bank).

This algorithm change also includes cutting down on ClickBaiters – ads or posts that prompt you to click or like their content. Or as I like to call it: social spam. And for those of you brands nonsensically boosting your facebook ads, you’re not only part of this annoyance, you’re getting an even smaller return on your money because you’re paying the highest premium for ad spend to begin with! Haha (seriously though)

Ultimately the way we’ve leveraged Facebook in the past as related to this change is now over. It’s time to pivot. Again. And realistically, we’ll be pivoting in the future too. But if there’s one thing you can always rely on, its execution of the fundamentals of paid advertising: ad creation, campaign infrastructure, and campaign management. Social media experts can help position pharma to compete competitively in this arena, and provide the greatest foundation from which to pivot when there are industry wide changes that scare everyone out of the boat.

So if you have an online presence (or need one), get yourself acquainted with the experts.

They’re not as expensive as Facebook.

I promise.

Your Certified Shit Creek Navigating Specialist,

Christopher Warden

P.S. Check out this excellent historical timeline visual of Facebook algorithm changes and their impact by Wallaroo Media!  http://wallaroomedia.com/facebook-newsfeed-algorithm-change-history/