With all the garbage polluting the Internet and social space, I feel like I’m on some scavenger hunt looking for a treasure when I need to find something important. I certainly find lots of stuff but not what I’m looking for and rarely anything of real value. 
Case in point: Memes. I see a gazillion a day. If I’ve seen one Willy Wonka or Angry Cat meme, I’ve seen them all. And, have you seen the memes with typos in them? Goodness…do the sharers of this content realize how silly they look? I kind of miss the days when you could actually type in search words and the right stuff would pop up. Not anymore—well at least not consistently. The sad part is we don’t know what we don’t know. What looks like it might be awesome content often times is really just something stolen from somewhere else or has been created to grab your attention and once it does, you find it’s…junk. Sort of a bait and switch.
And, that is why Google has cracked down on sites blatantly trying to game the system with meaningless backlinks and keyword stuffing. Facebook recently jumped on the bandwagon—changing its algorithm in December to weed out content they consider to be “junk.” Memes certainly fall in that category. Just because they “go viral” doesn’t make them good. How about the posts that try to bait you into liking or sharing?
Like this one:
Classic like-baiting going on right here. (Subliminal message: you are a terrible person who dislikes your children if you don’t share this with everyone.) Oh—and notice the typo? Yikes.
Over the past year, there has been a huge surge in this sort of content. Ever notice the articles with very compelling (or sometimes mockable) headlines from places like ViralNova, Upworthy and Elite Daily? These “viral publishers” cover topics ranging from politics and health to cute animals and ‘80s fads. You might even see some of the major TV networks using their videos or sharing their stories. On the one hand, some of it is legit because they do have actual writers putting the stories together. On the other hand, their main focus is to get you to share their stuff so it increases traffic to their site. The content quality can certainly be called into question because misleading headlines that link to a tiny “story” on a site full of ads is not appealing. At all. And don’t even get me started on the quizzes. BuzzFeed’s newest one? “What planet are you?” I can’t even…
Facebook’s algorithm change is already negatively impacting such sites with traffic dropping as much as 50 percent for some. As a strategic communications agency with expertise in digital and inbound marketing, we see the value in driving traffic to a website. But, as you may have heard us say before, it’s about quality over quantity every time. Junk quality is not only going to be ignored by sites like Facebook, it could affect your reputation. Invest in someone to create content for you—whether in-house or contracted out. Chances are, you have a whole treasure chest full of content just waiting to be written/designed and shared. A professional communicator can help you make sense of it and repackage it in a way that will drive traffic to your site and result in more business.
In summary, despite all of the articles about Facebook deciding what you see, everything I’ve read indicates that Facebook won’t penalize pages/brands legitimately engaging with fans and followers. The key is to have high-quality original content, which includes videos and photos. Don’t ask people to “like and share” your stuff. If it’s good, they will do it anyway.
What do you think? Does it bother you that Facebook is deciding what you’ll see or are you relieved that the junk (memes) should be significantly reduced? What is your content strategy? Share in the comments below.
Not sure how to navigate this change for your integrated marketing strategy? Check out this free Ebook, “Crash Course on the Facebook News Feed.”
_______
Hollie Geitner is vice president, client services for WordWrite Communications.You can find her on Twitter @JustHollieG. 
