We all know the story. Mark Zuckerburg, a Harvard dorm room, and some new website concept called “TheFacebook” designed to bring his classmates together.

And the story doesn’t stop there. Facebook spread to other Ivy League schools, then to anyone with a college email address, and not long after, to the entire world. Celebrities have caught on. Your grandma probably has a profile. And if your company ever had ambitions of reaching more customers, odds are it’s got a profile and has even spent ad money on it in the past.

But the time has come for a major change in the globally popular platform—and it’s not going to be good news for every business in the world. Especially for middle-market companies that rely on Facebook to build awareness and sales.

And yes, even your favorite news sources, v-loggers, and websites that post those mouthwatering food recipes and other “wow-factor” handwork will have to re-evaluate how they promote their contents more strategically.

So what exactly are these new Facebook changes?

Over the next few months, Facebook will gradually go back to its roots. Content like photos and videos posted by friends and family members will now take priority over newsfeed posts from brands, the media and, more than likely, your business included.  The platform says it’s making these changes to boost the well being of its users.

What this means in the long run is still unclear, and we still don’t know what the fallout will be until we actually see what happens. The message, however, is clear—Facebook wants to regain its undisputed position as the leading social media, rather than business-building—platform.

But there are a few things businesses can do to make sure their efforts don’t come to a screeching halt.

Content is still king

One detail Facebook has released about its future platform is that people will have the option to go to their newsfeed and choose who they want to fill it with. Needless to say, if your brand is producing lame content, chances are you won’t make the cut.

But if your content includes things your followers will actually want to interact with—like clicking a photo, voting in a poll, an opportunity to share an opinion, or a link where more information can be found—Facebook can still be a valuable business resource.

As a social media tool, video is more important than ever.

Let’s take the idea of producing excellent content a step further. Here are some stats I snagged from an article posted to Inc.com.

• A study by Cisco says that by 2019, video will represent 80% of all Internet traffic.
• YouTube says 90% of its visitors report that video is helpful in the decision-making process.
• According to Forbes, 59% of executives would rather watch a video than read even a brief text, and 50% say they look for more information after learning about a product or service from a video.

If you aren’t producing video content by now, you’re already behind the curve. Video is engaging. It’s easy to digest. And if you want to stay relevant once these new changes go into effect, you can’t afford to keep video out of your digital marketing strategy.

If you’re a B2B company, maybe it’s time to spend your money elsewhere.

If Facebook is looking to make life more difficult for businesses, maybe you should take the hint and spend your social media advertising dollars elsewhere—particularly if you’re a B2B company.

As primarily a B2B agency, we’ve actually had more success promoting content both for our clients (and ourselves) on LinkedIn and Twitter. On LinkedIn, the content that’s performed best for us has been things like industry-related blogs, white papers and e-books that show real thought leadership with viable solutions for current and potential clients.

When it comes to Twitter, we’ve also had success with campaigns designed to build a targeted follower base for our clients (and yes, for us too). But like all social media content strategies, every tweet must have a legitimate reason for your targets to read it, to respond and, most importantly, to build your follower base.

At the end of the day, no legitimate business leaders really care what movie you went to see last weekend; they want to find new ways to do their job better. Send them great content via Twitter, and you’ll build your credibility. Send them posts with no real business value, and the very opposite is more likely to happen.

Keep a close eye on other social media platforms as well.

One of the things that excites me the most about Facebook’s bold move is how other social media platforms will adjust to the shift. Will platforms, like Instagram and Pinterest, make their own changes to attract earn the advertising dollars Facebook is likely to lose? How about YouTube? And how about new social media platforms that don’t even exist yet but seem to keep popping up every day.

How do you feel about the challenges brought on by the changes in Facebook? Are you and your business preparing to stay in the forefront of ongoing change? Let us know!