Beth Becker’s latest “Political Social Grab Bag” e-newsletter came out a few days ago and we have it here for your enjoyment. An Epolitics.com online exclusive! Sign up now to get the next Political Social Grab Bag delivered straight to your inbox. And, follow Beth on Twitter — it’s worth it.
Political Social Grab Bag: February, 2018
What’s New to Think About?
You likely didn’t miss the big news last month that Facebook announced a seemingly earth-shattering newfeed algorithm change: the deprioritization of content from pages and reprioritization of content from friends/family. You couldn’t open the internet without seeing various takes on what it all means, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t share what I wrote with you here. I’ll save you some time and worry: Yes, a decrease in organic reach is happening.
However, it’s not the end of the world as we know it. As I often write about here and talk about in trainings, if you are building a community instead of just a following, are genuinely engaging with that community and creating content that is community centric that then encourages your community to share it with their own communities, you likely won’t see the huge drop in reach.
I realize that feels overly simplistic, but I have data to back that up. The other day I did a quick data analysis on pages I have insights access to in two categories: those that do the things I mentioned above and those that don’t. The pages that don’t are on average seeing a drop in organic reach between 5-10% per week, while pages that do those things are only seeing drops between 3-5%. You may be saying a drop is a drop, and you’re not wrong, but that doesn’t have to be the end of the world, nor is it the end of success on Facebook. (As many often point out, you shouldn’t be putting all of your organizing eggs in one basket – email, offline, SMS, various social platforms – all are tools we can use but none is the only tool).
If engagement in general has been the overall key to success on Facebook in the past, now the real key lies in two metrics: Shares and Comments. (But remember, engagement-baiting — that is, asking for shares and comments — is still going to hurt you).
'If engagement in general has been the overall key to success on Facebook in the past, now the real key lies in two metrics: Shares and Comments.' Click To TweetWant to know more about how to mitigate these changes? Come to one of the two advanced social media trainings listed in the alerts below, where we will discuss Facebook strategy in depth along with other topics key to social media success.
Training Alerts
Applications are now open for 2018 Digital Organizing Bootcamps. This year’s trainings will take place in Denver, Co June 10-16 and in Nashville, TN August 12-18. Deadline to apply is March 31, so don’t wait, apply now!
We are doing two sessions of our newest training, Social Media Deep Dive . This is an advanced training meant for people who have experience running social media for organizing and electoral campaigns and who want to take it to the next level. These trainings will take place in Oakland, CA (March 26-29) and in Washington, DC (May 14-17). Seats are limited, so register today.
What I’m Reading
- The Follower Factory– If you haven’t already read this one, please do so then repeat after me: Likes/Followers are meaningless metrics.
- ‘We’re marching in the same direction’: Facebook is emphasizing Groups, and publishers are following suit
- Some good thoughts on how we can use Groups to help mitigate the Newfeed Algorithm changes- and here’s another good read about the use of groups.
- Social media companies should ditch clickbait, and compete over trustworthiness – Interesting thought about one potential way to help fight fake news.
- Hard Questions: Social Media and Democracy – Facebook is, as one would expect and hope, doing some deep thinking about its role in our modern world…this is the first in a series of essays from people who work at Facebook and people on the outside looking in.
Platform Updates
- Facebook is testing a communal video option (imagine social media-based houseparties!).
- Twitter is now using AI to figure out the best part of an image to feature in the timeline.
- New ad unit: sponsored moments.
- Not actually Twitter but… here comes the next iteration of Vine from one of the original Vine co-founders.
Don’t Try This at Home
Winning the Internet
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