Hands up if you’ve found it harder to get value out of your Facebook page unless you get your corporate credit card out to boost a post.
Got your hand up? Congratulations, you’re in exactly the same boat as everyone who has a Facebook page.
It’s been a long time since posting to a Facebook page alone has meant you reach a decent sized audience. Facebook has made it harder for you from penalising posts from a page with links to limiting the amount of timeline made up of Facebook page content.
Meta have said this throttling of Facebook pages is them listening to users who are more keen on content from friends and family. They have a point. But being a cynic, I’d say this is made deliberately harder to persuade you to crack open that corporate credit card to boost a post.
However, there’s still ways you can get the most out of Facebook and they’ve just announced some key changes that if used wisely can be very much to your advantage.
These measures have been freshly announced by Meta are being tested in the US and will be expanded to the UK in the coming months. Some of the coverage has been around how this is being made to make it more appealing to younger people. I think there’s plenty there to reach over 30s who are a rich audience for public sector people.
Key change: The launch of the Facebook local tab
This, Facebook says, will gather together local information in one place by bringing together Reels, marketplace, groups and events.
So, the theory is that this will pull together a summary of things for your area. Quite how big the area in question will be hasn’t been clarified but the selection will be through the algorithm.
This is what it will look like…
The local element of this can play strongly to a public sector page but you’ll have to be clever. This won’t pull content directly from your page’s posts.But it will pull things from your events.
The events button is often overlooked by page admin. I can see why. You’re time poor and just asked to chuck stuff out but then clever admin can create an event on the Facebook page. This will be a particular advantage to say, museums, town centre events, open days, fire station car washes or live streams for things like Q&As or how to guides.
Events are now a secret weapon for you.
Facebook group content is also pulled into the local tab. So, your Facebook group strategy is further rewarded. Yes, I know that there are a lot of Facebook groups and no, you don’t have to connect with all of them but this is where people are and this may be a way that your content can be surfaced on the local tab.
Key changes to events
So, we’ve already seen that events have become quite powerful tools as they can be picked up by the Facebook events tab. On top of that, Facebook announced even more reasons to put more of your time into them.
You’ll now be able to send event invites via text message and to your Instagram followers. The logistics of this haven’t been made clear but this new step looks like a useful one to explore.
This is on top of the existing ability of users to add Facebook events to their day-to-day calendars be that Outlook, Google or wherever.
Key changes to video
The new video tab will pull together Reels and oyster video in one place on Facebook.
Again, this is a further reason to take your video content more seriously. This should be mainstream rather than an occasional nice to have.
This is how that will look…
Key change to Facebook groups
Facebook groups get a further tweak. The platform will introduce AI tools to help users look for answers to regular questions.
There’s nothing there directly for public sector people but it does underline that taking part in discussions and answering questions can be useful.
Key change: launch of Messenger communities
It looks like Meta are looking to repeat the trick that they’ve already done with WhatsApp.
Basically, WhatsApp communities has allowed people to create a space where people in an organisation or campaign can come together for announcements as well as smaller sub-groups under the same umbrella. This is probably more for the American market which is a lot more fonder of Messenger than they are WhatsApp.
I hope this list helps you think of what your comms needs to look like in 2025.
Training I deliver:
ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS REBOOTED