Facebook algorithm woes
I saw a stunning drop in numbers on my Russell Thomas Art Facebook page in the last 24 hours. I can't decide if it is the algorithm change that everyone is talking about or the face that it was the Friday before a long weekend at the start of winterPLAY and the Alberta Winter Games. Maybe it is a combination of both.
I posted the latest update of my rhino painting and Facebook tells me it is "performing better than 90% of other posts on my page, yet it had only been seen by 196 people. That doesn't add up. I'm trying a little experiment to see what boosting it by $20 will do over the next week. It jumped by 40 views in less than 5 minutes.
If you don't have a Facebook business or organization page, you probably have never seen the numbers of which I speak. With every post, we can see how it is performing in real time. That helps us learn what is good content and what is not.
By way of example, a photo of a painting on the easel in the studio will always perform better than the photo of the same painting cropped with no background. People love context.
A post with a good story will always perform better than one without one.
People love people. I have a tradition at Birdsong Studio of asking most people (sometimes I forget) who pick up art work to pose with their piece in front of the feature wall. These posts always do very well.
Numbers have helped me be a better communicator. If the numbers I'm seeing now are strictly related to a new algorithm, then all the things I've learned are going to be powerless.
That said, I'm not sure that I trust the numbers. The true test for me will be if I start hearing from the followers of my page that they are not seeing my stuff anymore. Then I will know that something substantial has happened that will affect my ability to reach the people who have expressed an interest in following what I am doing. Please let me know if you notice a difference on your end. I'd really appreciate it.
I posted the latest update of my rhino painting and Facebook tells me it is "performing better than 90% of other posts on my page, yet it had only been seen by 196 people. That doesn't add up. I'm trying a little experiment to see what boosting it by $20 will do over the next week. It jumped by 40 views in less than 5 minutes.
If you don't have a Facebook business or organization page, you probably have never seen the numbers of which I speak. With every post, we can see how it is performing in real time. That helps us learn what is good content and what is not.
By way of example, a photo of a painting on the easel in the studio will always perform better than the photo of the same painting cropped with no background. People love context.
A post with a good story will always perform better than one without one.
People love people. I have a tradition at Birdsong Studio of asking most people (sometimes I forget) who pick up art work to pose with their piece in front of the feature wall. These posts always do very well.
Numbers have helped me be a better communicator. If the numbers I'm seeing now are strictly related to a new algorithm, then all the things I've learned are going to be powerless.
That said, I'm not sure that I trust the numbers. The true test for me will be if I start hearing from the followers of my page that they are not seeing my stuff anymore. Then I will know that something substantial has happened that will affect my ability to reach the people who have expressed an interest in following what I am doing. Please let me know if you notice a difference on your end. I'd really appreciate it.
Comments
Post a Comment