Almost since its inception, Facebook has been a magnet for businesses. They all try to capitalize on the overwhelming popularity of the platform, and for good reason. With more than 2.7 billion monthly active users, it’s by far the largest social network in the world. And at least a billion of them log on every day, up to eight times daily.

No wonder it’s been a marketer’s dream. Until lately, that is.

Changing algorithm

The Facebook algorithm is designed to prioritize which posts people see first. Facebook wants to engage people when they check their Facebook feed in order to keep them on the platform. It employs thousands of factors to establish these rankings.

Some of these include a user’s past behavior to predict which posts they will be most interested in. It displays posts in order of recency, type of post, past behavior (which posts a user was most likely to engage with, like and so on), and a host of other ranking factors.

In addition to allowing users to indicate which posts most interested them (the “see first” feature), Facebook tweaked its algorithm. In 2018, it gave priority to posts from family, friends and Facebook groups over those from businesses and organizations.

The focus on this type of “organic” content has helped to erode marketers’ influence on the platform. As a result, businesses have to work harder to increase the quality of their organic content and rank higher in the feed.

Bad news, good news

The bad news is Facebook’s organic reach has been declining for years. It wouldn’t be true to say that today it’s non-existent. But because of how Facebook reorganized its algorithm over the past two to three years, it’s become frustrating and time consuming for marketers to gain attention on the platform.

But, there’s good news if you’re a savvy marketer. There’s one type of post that can bypass all that bother: branded Facebook Stories.

That’s because Facebook’s Stories feature is not part of the newsfeed! Instead, Stories are displayed at the top right-hand sidebar on a desktop, or at the very top of the Facebook app or Messenger app. They’re the first thing people see when they go on Facebook.

This means you can use Stories to bypass ranking in the algorithm and grab users’ attention. Not only that, but studies have found Stories perform much better than a post buried in someone’s feed. According to one study by Facebook, for example, 58 percent of users say they’ve visited a brand’s website after watching a Story.

That’s because the whole trend of social media over the last few years has shifted to the visual. Whether for organic reach or for marketing purposes, short-form video is king. And the bottom line that marketers need to know: There are more than 500 million daily users of Facebook Stories.

Taking advantage of the feature

There are other compelling reasons to include Facebook Stories in your marketing efforts.

  • The biggest, of course, is the fact that they disappear in 24 hours. This creates a sense of urgency on the part of users. They know they have to view them immediately or risk missing out on their content. So the fleeting nature of Stories therefore naturally boosts engagement.
  • In addition, if you’re already creating Instagram Stories, you don’t have to create new ones for Facebook. You can simply link them automatically to your Facebook page.
  • To simplify your marketing, Facebook Stories also allow you create buttons that link directly from a Story to your website, provided you posting from your Facebook business page.
  • Finally, story ads are much cheaper than feed ads… for now anyway. And Facebook encourages advertisers to concentrate their ad buys on Stories.

So if you’re ready to add this powerful tool to your marketing arsenal, contact our social media management experts today! 

We can help you craft and post engaging Stories, take advantage of the Stories Insights feature to learn how your Stories are performing, and capitalize on all the ways Facebook Stories can help boost audience engagement and increase sales.