After Facebook’s latest algorithm change gave preference to personal status updates over brand status updates, the social network is throwing brands a bone: more reach for their most relevant posts. Starting this week, brand posts that tag other brands may be shown to followers of both brand pages. Much like a user’s friends will see that they’ve been tagged in posts by other (non-mutual) friends, Facebook followers of brand pages may see posts that the brand has been tagged in by other brands, including press outlets, sponsors, strategic partners, competitors, and more. For example, Facebook followers of Advertising Week will naturally see the Page’s posts, plus posts from other brands that tag Advertising Week – even if they do not follow the other brand on the platform.

As Facebook Product Manager Andrew Song explained in a Facebook Newsroom post,

“We look at many factors to make sure the most relevant stories appear in News Feed, including which posts are getting the most engagement (such as likes, comments, shares and clicks) across all of Facebook. We also consider which posts are getting the most engagement from people who like both the Page that posted and the Page that was tagged.”

This new algorithmic update comes after users expressed that they liked seeing this kind of relevant content in their News Feeds when Facebook tested the feature for Pages, Song said. It’s an interesting move for Facebook, given that this feature could easily be abused by brands that want a little extra reach by leveraging a big, but irrelevant name. But more than that, it’s a great opportunity for brands to make their posts more relevant to their current and future audiences. Here’s how:

1. Brands that leverage existing partnerships on local, national, and global levels can connect with the audiences that they most want to reach. This means that brands small and large will more clearly benefit from sponsorship, partnership, and overall collaboration in the social media world.
2. Brands can create better brand associations based on the relevant interests of their audience. For example, if a brand like Stonyfield Farms posts about its corporate stance on GMO labeling, tagging the Environmental Working Group that created a guide to help shoppers avoid genetically engineered foods will help to create a stronger connection between the two brands and their values.
3. Brands can demonstrate differences between themselves and their competition by tagging their competitors in posts that compare them. Prego’s latest campaign to differentiate themselves from Ragu through taste testing could easily extend to social channels. By leveraging Facebook tagging to show the results of their taste test to the followers of both brands, they could more clearly show that one brand is superior to the other and even drive conversions of sales.

It will be interesting to see the creative ways that brand strategists and community managers leverage this newest algorithm change to benefit their brands.

Originally posted on the Advertising Week Social Club here.