Help! I am feeling socially disadvantaged

Dear Aunty B,

I’m a small business owner in my mid 50s trying to navigate my way through social media, I know it’s really important but there are just so many different things to keep up with.

For example, people tell me Facebook has changed recently with its “organic reach” function no longer what it was. Now I don’t know when or what to post, please help!

Kind regards,

Struggling with Social

Dear Struggling,

You’re spot on, social media is terribly important for SMEs nowadays and as a small business owner you need to try and keep on top of it to make the most of your business.

But you wouldn’t be the first to consider some of the recent changes to Facebook a minefield, just ask Shaya Borkar, an award-winning Australian blogger who runs a business called the Art and Craft Gallery.

In one of her recent posts, Borkar reveals how she decided to test the theory that Facebook’s organic reach function was “dead” by running a series of experiments on her own Facebook page.

She conducted a six-week experiment in January and February this year which included checking how Facebook gets affected with changes to ‘new likes’, ‘comments’, ‘shares’, ‘post likes’, ‘post clicks’ or combination of these elements.

Borkar posts some helpful learning outcomes for each stage of the experiment, so the blog is well worth checking out.

She also concludes that despite recent changes in the Facebook landscape its organic reach function “is not dead”.

It’s worth noting that Borkar also mentions the small business owners she follows as seemingly being off put by the recent changes as well, explaining some of the “silent business pages” hadn’t posted content since December and were not posting regularly enough.

Food for thought I’m sure, Struggling, and while it shows you are not alone, it’s good advice for you to keep posting!

Be Smart,

Aunty B