When it comes to social media, none can compare to Facebook. Since it launched, Facebook has grown to become the most widely used social media network in the world, with 2 billion active users each month.

Source: Techcrunch

The immense population in Facebook has made this a crucial platform for publishers and digital media professionals. About 147,000 photos and 54,000 links are uploaded and shared on Facebook every minute. 45% of US adults use Facebook to learn the latest news and current events.

Source: Pew Research

On top of that, over 100 million hours worth of video is viewed on Facebook every day.

However, that’s all about to change.

On January 11, 2018, Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced that changes will be made to its news feed algorithm. The update was designed to “prioritize posts from friends and family over public content.” That includes posts from businesses, brands, and media.

While it’s still unclear as how much publishers and digital media firms will be affected by the latest update, one thing’s for sure: publishers and digital media will be among the biggest casualties. It’s estimated that their Facebook posts will be 5x suppressed compared to posts published by brands from other industries.

Facebook Groups: building meaningful interactions

This is not the first time that publishers and digital media firms have been the main target of Facebook’s news feed algorithm updates. In fact, they’ve been experiencing a steep decline in their organic reach for more than a year.

Part of this can be attributed to Facebook’s attempt to assert that it’s not a media company. This has been the cry of the social media network after the scrutiny it received following allegations of influencing the outcome of the 2016 presidential elections in the US and the rise of fake news.

Zuckerberg also explained that the news feed algorithm update is a result of the feedback they’ve received from their users. In his post, he explained that users are complaining that “posts from businesses, brands, and media [are] crowding out” the posts and updates coming shared with their family and friends.

While Facebook’s latest update may put digital media professionals and publishers at a disadvantage, all is not lost.

Facebook pages are only one of the many tools that you can use to reach your readers on Facebook. Another way you can reach your readers without increasing your advertising budget is through Facebook groups.

Now here’s how to effectively build your community and audience using Facebook Groups.

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