Mark Zuckerberg used a key word in his recent announcement about Facebook’s upcoming changes to its news feed algorithms. He explained that, by shifting news feed priorities from business and media posts back to friends and family posts, “the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down, but… the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable.”
Valuable. To people. To you.
This is a change to create more value for people. Even at the expense of the company’s stock price and presumably, future revenue, at least in the short-term. Halle-freaking-lujah.
This change certainly doesn’t address all of the social media company’s damage to people’s lives, but it’s a course-correction in the right direction. We’ll take it.
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Now, for the downside (or is it?):
What about all of those businesses and media outlets that are now going to have less exposure on Facebook?
There’s no doubt that this shift in your place in the news feed might hurt a little (or a lot) if you’re a small business, a cash-strapped start-up, or a real-news crusader, and that’s unfortunate. But hey, life is unfortunate, and you’re still rolling with it, aren’t you? Facebook should have never been the end-all be-all of your promotional strategy anyway; now what you already knew has just become a forced reality. And that’s ok. Because these aren’t the interactions with your customers that matter anyway. These aren’t the interactions that deepen understanding, affection, and loyalty. Those are still out there for you to capitalize on.
So, first, don’t fight it.
Don’t deny that the positives that this shift brings for society far outweigh the negatives it might bring for your company. Your need to promote is really not a good argument against people’s need to engage with friends and family.
Then, innovate.
Make this your time to do your own part in bringing more value to people’s lives. Whether it’s what you’re actually offering or just how you communicate about it, make it better. Be better than the mindless scroll, the thirst for ‘likes,’ the war in the attention economy. Because you are better than that, aren’t you?
And because that word—valuable—isn’t just a call for rejoicing when it comes to companies whose path to profit needed to be corrected. It’s a reason to believe in companies who chose the right path from the beginning—and continue to choose it over and over again.