Social media marketers dedicate lots of time on social media and content strategies just to find themselves at the mercy of social networks’ algorithm changes. It, therefore, raises the question of whether it is still reasonable to invest in relevant and creative content rather than to focus on technical elements and paid social budgets.
The digital world has been recently struck with the news of big companies quitting social media. The perfect example is the well-known cosmetics brand “Lush”, which recently declared the closing of all social media accounts related to its brand.
"We are tired of fighting with algorithms, and we do not want to pay to appear in your newsfeed,” -was the statement to the brand's followers.
It did not take long for Instagram to review the “like”-approach. The Facebook-owned social media platform might soon remove the feature of seeing the number of likes under each post
"We want your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes your posts get. During this test, only the person who shared a post will see the total number of likes it gets." states the app.
The social media platforms admit to implementing unique sets of technical elements, intricate logic, and usage analytics that make up algorithms which therefore control the content delivery to the users. No wonder that even the best thought-out and creative posts don’t bring the expected engagement unless promoted by advertisement or going viral.
- Social media marketers are tempted by the number of likes, shares, and views of their content failing to realize these are not the most important aspects of building a meaningful relationship with their customers.
- By the time customers engage with the next thing in their social feed, they’ve likely already forgotten the message of your content.
- So what is the solution? The focus should not only be on the content strategy which gets engagement across search and social platforms but on building meaningful relationships with customers using unique data strategies. Otherwise, the customers might be wiped out during the next algorithm change.
So are YOU ready to take on the new algorithm changes? We would love to hear from you on this matter! Have you already noticed the decline in your customer engagement?
How do you plan to face this challenge? Let us know in the comments below.
