Facebook favors local news and will help your nonprofit

This year he hasn’t been too kind to Facebook, with the news that Cambridge Analytica and Mark Zuckerberg were asked to testify in front of Congress. Zuckerberg and his team used it as an opportunity to change Facebook’s algorithms, again, and this may still bode well for your nonprofit if you’re smart about it.

The big news was that Facebook decided to focus on local news and events. Alex Hardiman and Campbell Brown of Facebook announced: “Now, people around the world will see more news on Facebook from local sources covering their current city and other cities that may interest them.”

The reason this was done was that after the disastrous press and scrutiny they received on user data and privacy, the focus on more local news content for their users was seen as a smarter approach to ensure that their AI could better remove low quality and news content. “Whether this actually occurs remains to be seen. However, it is a change that can benefit nonprofits if they are smart enough to make news in your local areas.

Additionally, there was also a change to Facebook’s algorithms that Zuckerberg announced in the first month of 2018 stating that the social media giant would go back to basics. I was going to prioritize posts from friends and family over brands. Initially, this announcement sent a shudder through to brands, until they figured out how to capitalize on the changes. You can also do the same for your nonprofit organization.

How to make Facebook work for you

We know that over the years, Facebook has been tweaking its algorithms to make organic reach harder for brands to come by. In good times, your brand could have a high level of organic reach about your nonprofit work. Today organic reach is in the low single percentile digit and declining, with some experts arguing that Facebook and other platforms will continue to have their AI throttle any organic reach to zero, forcing all brands to “pay. to play”.

• 85 percent of videos on Facebook are viewed with the sound turned off. When you’re creating video content, keep it in mind. How can you make a visual impression?

• Create content that is specific to Facebook using best practices to drive engagement. For Facebook, it means keeping your text short and engaging, using videos or great photographic images, and if you’re using a hashtag, using no more than one. This is not Instagram!

• Be smart when receiving news from people. If you have essential value-added information that people might want to see, it’s probably worth paying for it to get to people’s newsfeeds. You have the opportunity to sponsor posts and place ads, so be prepared to spend money, but do it wisely and plan as much as possible, so that you get the most bang for your buck.

• If you have more news about your organization, including new staff, location changes, successful completion of fundraisers, create a press release and present the news to local media. Remember, Facebook is prioritizing local news and if you have a chance to be featured in a media story, that’s a great way to get people to know your news!

• When you’re creating video content, discover ways to tell a story. When you convey a story or narrative about your organization, you increase the opportunities for people to want to see it. 80 percent of decision making begins with emotion followed by rationalization.

• Most nonprofits have a great story and if they can translate it into a live video that’s even better. Mark Zuckerberg clearly stated that brands “should foster meaningful interactions between people … We have seen people interact much more around live video than normal.”

• Take advantage of Facebook with other platforms. For example, if you’ve seen in your Facebook analytics that your videos and live streams have a high level of engagement, don’t just stay on Facebook. Consider sharing that type of content on Instagram as well.

For nonprofits, most of which have limited resources, it is important to always be on top of the news about social media and digital marketing. It’s also essential to find creative ways to promote your organizations without always having to rely more and more on spending money on marketing to keep an eye on the content of your group or organization.