Why Your Facebook Page Isn’t Working

For several years now it has seemed like every piece of marketing advice you can find insists that every business has a Facebook page and a Twitter account, for the purposes of that dark art known as ‘social media marketing’. On the face of it, this makes a lot of sense – after all having a Facebook page is free, and just about everyone you want to market to as a recruiter is on Facebook – likewise Twitter. However, if you have been using these social networks as part of your marketing strategy for some time now as a free tool by posting content to your Facebook page and racking up likes wherever you can, then unfortunately you are probably not getting very good results from your efforts.

This is because while marketing to your Facebook fans for free using your page was a great way to get your content and messages seen a few years back, it no longer is – and the reasons for this may not be what you would expect.

Facebook News Feed Filtering
The reason why Facebook pages have become far less effective for getting engagement from Facebook users is that users no longer see everything the businesses they follow are posting. In fact, they don’t even see everything their favourite friends are posting anymore. This is because a few years ago Facebook began automatically filtering the news feeds of all users using an algorithm that isn’t public. Facebook claimed that they had to start doing this because people’s networks of friends and liked brands were becoming so big that nobody would realistically have time to look at everything that was being posted.

What is seen seems to be chosen based on a number of factors, including how many likes, comments and shares a post has, and the behaviour of the user in question (for instance if they seem to like seeing videos, seeing things from a certain source, or things that mention keywords). The bottom line, however, is that even if you manage to get a lot of people liking your Facebook page, you can assume only a percentage of them will see only a percentage of the things you post there.

Does This Mean Facebook Is No Longer a Good Marketing Tool for Recruitment Agencies?
While this situation is not likely to change, it doesn’t mean you should abandon your Facebook page – just that you need to fit better strategies around it. In recruitment, it can often be useful to link one to one with candidates and other useful connections you make if you have a good rapport. They are more likely to see things you post on your personal page than the business one, and you can of course re-share things from the business page with them. This isn’t for everyone – some agents don’t like adding ‘work people’ to their personal Facebook page’s friends lists – but it is worth considering. The other thing you may want to consider is using Facebook advertising to ensure your content gets seen. It isn’t free, but it can be inexpensive and cost effective.

Social media marketing is always evolving, and so it pays to understand when changes have occurred that can make older strategies stop making marketing gains.