Why Brands Win on Facebook with a Community-First Strategy
Updateed: Janaury 2026
In 2025, Facebook remains one of the most powerful platforms for brands to connect with audiences, despite ongoing competition from the likes of TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. With over 3 billion monthly active users worldwide (Backlinko, 2025), and an algorithm increasingly designed to surface engaging content from accounts users may not even follow (Stelzner, 2025), Facebook still offers significant potential for reach and connection. However, as we move into 2026, Facebook’s strength lies less in first-touch discovery and more in what happens next: depth, trust, and community building.
The brands that thrive here are not the ones blasting out generic posts or relying heavily on ad spend. Instead, they are those adopting a community-first mindset, building trust, sparking conversation, and offering value that extends beyond the product itself. Facebook has become a platform where relationships are nurtured, service is delivered, and loyalty is reinforced over time.
This article explores how brands can approach Facebook with a modern lens, why a community-driven strategy remains the real differentiator, and what can be learned from companies excelling on the platform.
Facebook in 2025: The Numbers That Matter
Love it or loathe it, Facebook in 2025 is still impossible to ignore. With more than 3 billion people logging in every month and over 2 billion returning daily (Backlinko, 2025), the platform remains the closest thing the digital world has to a global town square. For brands, that is not just reach, it is relevance, particularly when it comes to maintaining ongoing relationships with established audiences.
The demographics tell their own story. According to Jo Dixon (2025), the user base skews male, with 56.8% men compared to 43.2% women. Age-wise, it is a broad community. Gen X remains Facebook’s most loyal audience, while Baby Boomers and Millennials continue to use it heavily (Beveridge, 2024). Younger audiences, particularly Gen Z, are more likely to be found on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube (Barnhart, 2020). This makes Facebook especially valuable for brands targeting decision-makers, parents, professionals, and higher-spending audiences.
Content habits are also evolving. Facebook Stories attract over 500 million daily users, with more than 1 billion Stories shared across Meta’s apps every day. On the brand side, more than 4 million advertisers are using this short-form, immersive format every month (Facebook for Business, 2025). Visual, native content continues to dominate attention.
Social commerce remains part of the picture. According to Enberg from eMarketer (2024), US adults in 2025 are more likely to make purchases directly on Facebook than on Instagram, though TikTok Shop now leads at 45.5%. This places Facebook in a competitive middle ground. The implication for brands is clear: Facebook remains commercially viable, but success requires stronger differentiation and trust.
Where Facebook truly sets itself apart is in service and community. Tools such as Messenger, Groups, and Events position the platform as a relationship and support hub, not just a content feed. In fact, 73% of social users say they would buy from a competitor if a brand fails to respond on social media (Kenan, 2025). In 2026, Facebook’s value is increasingly tied to responsiveness, reliability, and community presence.
Engagement data reinforces this. Album posts generate the strongest average engagement at 0.15%, followed by video posts at 0.12% and status updates at 0.11%. Link posts underperform significantly, averaging just 0.04% engagement (Socialinsider, 2025). The takeaway remains consistent: Facebook rewards storytelling, conversation, and content that keeps users on the platform.
The Power of Paid Advertisement
Paid ads on Facebook continue to be one of the strongest levers for brands. Benchmarks show an average click-through rate of 2.53%, with traffic campaigns closer to 1.57% (Marino, 2023). Conversion rates remain high at 8.78% across industries (McNamee, 2025), reinforcing Facebook’s role beyond awareness alone. With a global average cost per click just over US$1 (Enberg, 2024; Varos, 2025), it is no surprise that 40% of marketers cite Facebook as a top ROI driver (Iskiev, 2025).
However, how ads perform has evolved. Meta now relies heavily on AI-driven optimisation, meaning brands have less manual control over targeting and placement. As a result, creative quality, relevance, and refresh cycles matter more than ever. Ads that feel native, personality-led, and aligned with community content consistently outperform overly polished, sales-first creative.
The most effective brands use paid ads to amplify what is already working organically. This includes boosting high-performing posts, retargeting warm audiences, and supporting initiatives such as Groups, Events, or community discussions. Rising competition has increased impression costs, and ad fatigue remains a challenge if creative is not refreshed regularly (Mamta, 2025). Privacy changes also make attribution more complex, pushing brands towards first-party data and consistent testing.
The real power of paid advertising emerges when it supports a community-first strategy. Ads can introduce new people, but community builds trust, repeat engagement, and advocacy. Reach brings people in. Community keeps them.
Why Brands Are Falling Short
Despite Facebook’s potential, many brands struggle to create meaningful impact. Often, this comes down to outdated assumptions about how the platform works today.
1. Content Quality and Relevance
Facebook has shifted from a friend-based to an interest-based algorithm, with up to 50% of content shown coming from accounts users do not follow (Stelzner, 2025). This makes relevance essential. Brands that continue to push generic, promotional posts without encouraging conversation see declining reach.
In 2026, brands must also recognise the influence of creator culture. Facebook increasingly surfaces content that feels human, opinionated, and personality-led. Pages that behave like creators, using identifiable voices and real people, consistently outperform those that feel corporate or anonymous.
2. Absence of a Defined Strategy
Without a clear strategy, content lacks direction. A defined approach ensures posts align with objectives, resonate with audiences, and build momentum over time. Brands without this clarity struggle to convert attention into loyalty (Landicho, 2025).
3. Over-reliance on Paid Advertising
Paid advertising should complement organic content, not replace it. Brands that lean too heavily on ads without building trust organically often see short-term spikes but weak long-term engagement. Sustainable success comes from integration.
4. Navigating the Pay-to-Play Model
Organic reach has declined, making it harder to be seen without investment (Turner, 2025). However, this does not render organic strategy obsolete. Value-driven content, timely engagement, and community interaction still generate meaningful visibility, particularly when content is designed to be shared and discussed.
Brands Building Winning Communities
If the last decade taught brands anything, it’s that Facebook isn’t just another noticeboard for product pushes; it’s a space where communities form, conversations thrive, and loyalty is built. The brands that truly succeed on the platform understand this, leaning into personality, shared passions, and dialogue rather than broadcasting sales messages.
Take Netflix, for example. With over 111 million followers, they have mastered the art of turning a Facebook page into an extension of the brand's entertainment experience. Rather than sticking to trailers and promotional posters, Netflix shares behind-the-scenes clips, teases upcoming episodes, and interacts with fans in a witty, playful voice. Its content feels like it comes from the same universe as its shows - quirky, humorous, and in-the-moment. More importantly, the brand is highly reactive, jumping into comment threads and engaging with other accounts. That responsiveness makes fans feel heard, and it turns casual followers into loyal advocates. Then there’s Red Bull, a brand that has been community-first long before it became a marketing buzzword. On Facebook, Red Bull doesn’t centre the product; it centres the lifestyle. By showcasing extreme sports, athletes, and high-energy adventures, the brand has built a world that its followers aspire to be part of. What’s clever here is how Red Bull layers its approach: its music label, Red Bull Records, allows it to post music-driven content without Meta licensing headaches, engaging fans not just visually but also sonically. This multidimensional strategy keeps the community engaged on several fronts, while subtly linking all that passion back to the brand.
Closer to home, smaller brands are proving that community-building doesn’t need blockbuster budgets. Henry James Saddlery is a standout example in the equestrian world, and its approach couldn’t be further from polished perfection. Instead, it leans into personality, posting off-the-cuff text updates, sparking raw conversations, and even sharing hand-drawn sketches from staff as product previews. This style, which might seem “messy” for some, has struck a chord with their audience: the brand averages around 28K likes and over 200 comments per post, a stark difference from a typical equestrian brand page. By leaning into authenticity and creating a dedicated Facebook group for storytelling and connection, Henry James Saddlery has built not just followers, but a genuine community that feels part of the brand’s journey.
What unites Netflix, Red Bull, and Henry James Saddlery is that they don’t treat Facebook as a billboard. Instead, they build spaces where people gather, talk, and connect over shared passions. That’s what transforms audiences into communities, and communities into long-term brand advocates.
Adopting A New Approach
If brands want to win on Facebook in 2026, the old playbook needs rethinking. It’s no longer enough to churn out posts; what works now is creating human-centred content that builds real relationships. That means being authentic and present.
First off, brands should lean hard into Facebook’s varied content formats. Reels are now automatically classifying many types of video uploads, and Facebook is pushing more short-form video content, live streams, stories, and interactive formats (Reuters, 2025; Stelzner, 2025). These formats are rewarded by the algorithm, especially when they are original, relatable, and encourage users to engage. Using only static posts or links kills potential reach since the algorithm now favours content that keeps people inside Facebook’s ecosystem (Garratt, 2025).
Second, timeliness and responsiveness are essential. It’s not enough to post; brands need to engage in conversation. Replying to comments, acknowledging feedback, showing the people behind the brand - these small touches build trust. Also, when audiences see that engagement is timely and authentic, it encourages more interaction, which helps boost content visibility (Eman, 2025). Another part of adopting this new approach is to ensure content aligns with what your audience cares about. Build out personas; test different formats (reels vs lives vs stories); see what sparks conversation, not just eyeballs. Content that tells stories, evokes emotion, or shares something behind the scenes tends to win over time.
Finally, when you pair this genuine, human content with the “discovery engine” side of Facebook (content being shown to users who don’t follow you), you unlock potential for virality and growth. The algorithm increasingly surfaces content to non-followers based on relevance, format, and engagement signals rather than only the size of your following. This means every piece of content has an opportunity to reach new eyes, but only if it’s built to attract attention, evoke emotion, or prompt a reaction (Stelzner, 2025).
Final Thoughts
Facebook in 2026 is far from a relic; it’s a dynamic platform where billions of users log in daily, where stories draw half a billion daily users, and where ads deliver conversion rates as high as 8.78% (Sprout Social, 2025). But statistics alone don’t tell the full story. Success on Facebook today hinges less on the size of a following and more on the ability to create authentic, engaging content that resonates across Facebook’s discovery-driven feed.
As we’ve seen, brands often fall short when they rely too heavily on paid ads, fail to produce content that sparks conversation, or neglect to adapt to Facebook’s shifting algorithm. By contrast, brands like Netflix and Red Bull show the value of blending personality, humour, and lifestyle storytelling to draw people in. The approach moving forward is clear. Brands must create human-centred, story-driven content, make smart use of formats like reels, stories and lives, and treat paid advertising not as a shortcut but as an amplifier for what already works. More importantly, they must use Facebook as a space for genuine interaction, timely customer care, and community building. Because in the end, the brands that win on Facebook are not just those that get seen, they’re the ones that make people feel seen.
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