The recent changes to Facebook & Instagram that agents need to know about

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has implemented a string of algorithmic changes that will impact the way content is viewed on the platforms.

In an attempt to attract a younger audience that is drawn more towards short-video platform TikTok, the social media outlet has pushed to replicate its rival’s “for you” page. This will see the app implement a new “discovery engine” feed that will prioritise recommended posts, rather than content from accounts users follow.

Bespoke Media Group chief executive Nic Fren said that although he believes agents should already be building content and an audience on TikTok, it is absolutely paramount they remain up to speed with the latest Meta updates “or risk spending time and money pushing content that’s never going to see engagement”.

Facebook, in particular, will shift to a video-focused experience to match that of TikTok, which will see the top of users’ main feeds populated by stories and reels, followed by recommended posts.

Additionally, the shift will see content on Instagram ranked differently, with a greater emphasis placed on original content, with Instagram announcing it will no longer show your reels to new people if it is clearly recycled from other apps with watermarks or logos.

This, Mr Fren warns, will present social media managers and content creators with some challenges, requiring them to step up their game when it comes to content.

Changes to the platform will see that “original content edited outside of Instagram and uploaded won’t face penalties”. While the update will result in content aggregators being the focus, meaning shared content will rank lower than original content.

For agents, this could mean that rather than sharing “a link to your website about your latest listing, you are much better off posting a raw video with the entire caption in the text with no backlinks”, according to Mr Fren.

In order to mitigate these changes and ensure a return on social media content spending is returned, the marketing expert has outlined four ways that agents can maximise the number of viewers on their content, which are:

1. Get to the point. There’s no need to introduce yourself. People know who you are, and they are on your page. Agents run the risk of waiting that precious three seconds introducing themselves and the property address, something that can be addressed in your caption.

2. Ask a question to get people to stay on the video. Replace the “hi, I’m agent X, and today I’m standing out the front of X street” with “do the kids need more space?” or “how does 136 steps to the local coffee shop sound?” Find the hook with the property and lead from there.

3. Make it short. Just because you have 60 minutes to put a video on Instagram, doesn’t mean you need to fill the time frame. Focus on the quality, not the length. The most trending videos on TikTok or reels on Instagram are usually less than nine seconds.

4. Loop it. Views are great, and the trick to getting more views and triggering the algorithms are short videos with the views to have the video automatically replay while still piquing the viewer’s interest. Give a brief description of the property, which takes around 10 seconds to read and put it over a five-second trending sound for this loop around. This will see an increase in views and be picked up.

This article first appeared in REB