21 Feb Clickbait : Harming your company’s conversation rate
As the world’s favorite social media platform, Facebook has waged a war on ‘Clickbait’ in an attempt to improve user experience. Ultimately, the well-reputed social media site aims to wipe out annoying, irrelevant posts out of millions of users newsfeeds. Unfamiliar with the concept? Let us paint a clear picture for you and pinpoint the negative effects it can have on your website.
What is Clickbait?
Clickbait is published content that’s shared on social media platforms which uses exaggerated language, ideas and story lines to get you clicking. Often this type of content will fail to meet your expectations and you’ll either click away or navigating back to Facebook.
Here are a few posts which meet Clickbait criteria:
‘This photo was banned from on the Internet, here’s why’
‘9 People you won’t believe actually exist’
‘Man tries to hug a lion, you won’t believe what happens next’
‘Kendall Jenner Talks Selfies: You won’t believe what she said!’
‘Taylor Swift and Kanye fight: Here’s what happened next’
Cleaning up your News Feed from Facebook Clickbait
Since it was released, Facebook’s change in algorithm has de-prioritized posts which it deems as flamboyant and non-reflective of the content users expect to see. The ones above are perfect examples of captions you should avoid in order to make sure that your posts are more relevant to their users.
Why should you stop using Clickbait if it generates traffic?
Sure, Clickbait is effective in generating traffic to your website. After all users love content which is emotive and brings out joy, shock or awe. But even if you do manage to generate clicks through minimal effort, is that click really proving to be worth it? Simply put, in the vast majority of cases the answer is a hard ‘No’.
Determining if You Need to Improve Your Content Strategy
Let us shed some light on this topic for you and help you determine if Clickbait is actually worth your efforts. Try and answer the questions below by checking your Google Analytics account to see whether or not your end goal is being reached. We recommend taking a look at your entry pages, exit rate and bounce rate to come to a solid conclusion.
- How much time do people actually spend on your website after clicking on a Clickbait post?
- Are your users clicking on adverts on your site? Or converting?
- Are they simply spending a few seconds on your website and navigating back to Facebook?
If you’ve gone through these questions and come to the conclusion, that your KPIs are not being met, you should definitely work on your content strategy.
Start driving conversions through the right content
At We are What We share, we believe that quality content is king and can help you drive conversions. If you need help with your content strategy, we specialize in creating content which is tailored to your company’s needs. Contact us today!
