Brands are starting to see fewer impressions and less fan interaction on their Facebook pages, and the issue is now getting negative attention online. NST first shared this problem in a previous blog post that discussed how Facebook’s algorithm was preventing fans from seeing all of a brand’s posts. As Facebook expands its advertising products, brands that aren’t using Promoted Posts or other advertisements may see less interaction and fewer organic impressions.

Some of Facebook’s popular users are speaking out in frustration as they watch their impressions diminish due to Facebook’s algorithm. Per an All Facebook article, actor George Takei and basketball team owner Mark Cuban “… posted in anguish over their fans not being able to see all of what they post.” Takei asked his fans to add him to their Facebook “Interests” and Cuban vented on Twitter after a recent post was only seen by 27,000 of his 2.3 million fans.

Can Interest Lists help? Interest Lists, which allow users to group updates around similar topics, haven’t helped because they appear to the left of the New Feed, far down the page. It’s important to note “…you can’t replace your News Feed with an Interest List, and adding a brand’s page to an Interest List still doesn’t guarantee you’ll see all their posts.”

Is there hope for brands? Facebook recently announced the addition of Page Notifications. Users will soon be able to be pinged about Page updates and then users will not miss updates from a specific brand.

Facebook is also testing a separate “Pages Feed” where users can view all the updates from the pages they like in a single stream. Per Adweek, a Facebook spokesperson said

“…the Pages Only feed won’t affect how posts get surfaced in the regular News Feed but is instead designed to surface posts that brands’ fans may not see in that feed. That doesn’t mean that every page post will be seen by every user checking their Pages Only feed. While brands should expect their fans who are fans of only a few other brands to see every post in the Pages Only feed, that won’t necessarily be the case for users who are fans of many brands. In those cases Facebook essentially weighs the page posts as they do any content to the regular News Feed, taking into account engagement signals to make sure the stream isn’t lame.”

The question is, will people want to be notified every time a brand page sends out an update? Will people switch between their regular News Feed and a Page Only News Feed to see what brands are posting? Do they really ant to see that information? Time will tell.

What can brands and Facebook page administrators do in the meantime? Create engaging posts by including an image and a link, use action words (watch, like, etc.), and write short attention-grabbing copy. Pay attention to the types of posts getting the most engagement. Some research says text-only posts,others say posts with images, which is why you need to pay close attention to your brand Page’s Facebook Insights. Also, pay attention to which days and times are best to post and keep up to date on the latest information about Facebook’s News Feed algorithm and EdgeRank. If you have questions, NST’s team is well versed in social media marketing and can provide thoughtful, researched guidance.