Brands on Facebook don’t have a coverage problem, they have a relevance problem

The coverage of business pages on Facebook has been perceptibly sinking for some time. Why this is the case should be discussed elsewhere. What is more interesting is what businesses can do to become more relevant.

(Enterprises lose reach on Facebook: The organic reach of contents of Facebook business sites (in % of fans)

Paid Coverage: Normal with Google, Unacceptable with Facebook

Criticism that Facebook has changed from earned-media to paid-media is not entirely justified. It is becoming increasingly difficult to arrive against increasing number of pages and friends. Only the absolute favourite brands on a timeline make it to “earned.” The others have to pay.

Media relevant contents trumps

May companies still haven’t realised that more professional, platform tailored content is necessary for success on Facebook. The times when regular, but listless, updates would still lead to traffic on an offer are gone.

Invest in the quality of the updates

It is generally important to remember that no one expected brand content on Facebook, with the exception of hard core fans. Because this is where friends, relatives and acquaintances exchange, you have to play according to the rules of the platform and not annoy people with trite brand messages in order to be ‘shared.’

Fewer updates with soul are more use than a flood of irrelevancies or announcements in press release style. Those who can solve the relevance problem will no longer have a reach problem.