6 Effective Ways to Outsmart the Facebook Algorithm in 2018

by ​Junaid Ali Qureshi, Guest Contributor

Facebook's algorithm can be confusing at its best and completely mysterious at its worst. The recent statement by the company about its plan to focus less on branded content this year has added to the confusion and fear that companies feel about the reach of their content.

All of this hardly means you should quit advertising on Facebook. With a large amount of users making use of its services, there is every reason for you to be online too. However, your strategy must be modified a bit, which is what we'll hell you do.

Your strategy must be modified a bit for the 2018 Facebook Algorithm.

Get into video content
If you have been in social media marketing and SEO services, chances are you have heard this quite often. If you need any more motivation, the social media giant has itself admitted the same by noting videos get more of an interaction from users. The videos you post need not be high budget mini movies; well thought and simple videos can still get the interaction you need.

Start discussions
One of the changes in the algorithm now is that Facebook will crack down on those who put up posts that come off as engagement bait. These are posts that directly ask users for likes and comments. But Facebook wants content that drives meaningful discussions so that is what you should work on. Poll your users with fun choices or stir up a good debate, but make sure not to get too controversial as you don't want to alienate certain groups of your customer base.

Get your employees to share your posts
This is a key area that is often forgotten by businesses, but with the recent changes to the algorithm, it has never been more important. The algorithm focuses more on posts from friends and family and getting your employees to share your posts with the people they have added puts it in that category. In stats, your post is 16 times more likely to be read by someone.

Reduce the links you post
It is a well known fact that Facebook likes keeping content on the social network rather than linking it elsewhere. This means you need to stop posting external links one after the other. It is much better for you to post a variety of content to keep your page fresh. Increase your reach by adding a few related hashtags or giving a shout-out to another page.

Ensure all your content is original
A rule every digital marketing agency lives with! When you have to post content every day, at one point it's going to start getting difficult to post new content all the time, causing many companies to post the same or similar content repeatedly. To combat this, come up with a couple of unique descriptions for the content you are posting so you can reuse the content with no fear of being monotonous. You can also repurpose your article with the help of many tools. Tools like Adobe Spark and Lumen5 are all worth trying out to spice up the content you post.
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Author bio:

Junaid Ali Qureshi is a digital marketing specialist who has helped several businesses gain traffic, outperform competition and generate profitable leads. His current ventures include Progostech, Magentodevelopers.online.eLabelz, Smart Leads.ae, Progos Tech and eCig.