This is 2019 and even now social media marketers are still busy reminiscing about 2008 which was supposedly the best year in their domain. Back then Facebook had not attained its present popularity or influence. The content was not being governed by any significant algorithm as such. Brands enjoyed the freedom to spread their message to the biggest possible audience that they could reach. Social media marketing was like a breeze. It was that easy! It was in 2009 that the first death blow was dealt with it. That was at least the case on Facebook. This was the first time that what later became known as the algorithm was introduced.
This meant that organic reach was reduced, and drastically so! Ever since pages such as the business pages have seen an unabated decrease in their organic reach over the years. This is a fact that cannot be denied at all. However, there are some experts out there who do not see any issue with this. They are very clear about the fact that only the best marketing messages should reach the people out there. Back in the later part of 2017 Facebook had been testing the Split News Feed system. At that time, it was expected that this would eliminate page posts from the primary feeds of the users.
Instagram has also made some changes in this regard by shifting around its engagement rate and changing its algorithm as well. Twitter too has its algorithm in place in this context. The network has no option but to fight so that it can survive. The biggest challenge it is facing right now is in terms of getting advertisers and users who are active. The question that needs to be asked in this context is what the social media marketers should be making of such a situation.
Is there a danger that they would lose their jobs? Is organic search on social media already a thing from the past? If not so, would it be so in the foreseeable future? In the case of some networks, only time would answer these questions. Just as has happened in the case of Facebook, the algorithms on Twitter and Instagram would be changing as well with increasing maturity. It is highly likely that in time they would shift towards satisfying the demands of their consumers. People these days want content that has less marketing and provides them more entertainment, inspiration, and information.
Now it is the job of social media marketers to save this very phenomenon.
What the customers want would have greater staying power
It is expected that from now on only those posts would stay that the people want. Experts advise to businesses who are looking to get into a line of work that has a lot of uncertainty that the first thing that they should do is start a social media network that belongs exclusively to them. In this particular industry, people are well aware that user bases are not fixed. They are unpredictable. There is always a chance that you rule for a couple of years and one fine day you get squashed by your competition.
In this context, you can think of the way platforms such as Vine and MySpace withered away. These two case studies are rather famous, albeit for the wrong reasons. If you do not want to be like them a few years down the line the only option that you have would be to keep adapting yourself continuously. You have to give the users what they are looking for. You need to understand the simple thing that if you do not do so someone else would. This also means that the users would move on to them.
As of now, there is a rather strong common sentiment that can be seen on all the social media networks out there. People simply hate posts from the brands. This also means that the networks have to change their algorithms to please users who have such opinions. The worst part of this is perhaps the fact that they have to do so at the rate of knots. This has also made it highly difficult for brands to get into the timeline of the users. This is because of the simple fact that in most cases brands are simply not bothered with what the users want.
The only ambition they have is to fulfill their sales goals. This is where marketers have to work to use a methodology of inbound marketing in the truest sense of the term. In that case, there is a good chance that users would not be so disapproving of the brands being seen on their timeline. The question that needs to be asked here is why users hate seeing brand posts on their social media feed. The onus, in this case, is on the brands.
They are falling short. They are failing to provide value to their users. Users can see through their feeble attempts and understand what the true intentions behind them.
How can true inbound marketing help?
As far as Facebook is concerned, it is so late that things cannot change much over there. If a user shows that she or he prefers content from her or his near and dear ones it can be expected that Facebook would act in such a way that posts from business accounts appear less on those feeds. However, this slide can still be stopped.
you need here is effective content that is driven by value. It can lead to the users wanting to see more posts from these brands on their social media feeds. Marketers need to have a genuine understanding of all the networks they are getting into and provide real value each time.