DIGITAL GROWTH
Facebook newsfeeds are changing – how will it affect your digital engagement strategy?
Ann Stanley (pictured), is founder and MD of Anicca Digital and a consultant with the Digital Growth Programme. She looks at how Facebook is striving to de-clutter news feeds and promote more conversation by removing organic posts from commercial organisations.
WHAT IS CHANGING? To date, Facebook has been vague about what sort of content the site’s new algorithms will prioritise. But we do know that if
Facebook is changing the way it does business, which means if you want to stay fresh in people’s minds, you may need to change too. The company’s aim is to de-
clutter people’s new feeds and prioritise posts from their friends and family, while removing posts from commercial organisations. While it will help put more of the
‘social’ back in social media, Facebook’s big announcement has inevitably caused controversy within the world of digital marketing.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR BUSINESSES? Essentially it means you will have to pay to be seen unless you work harder with creative video content or create highly engaged content that attracts lots of comments and engagement. If your business currently relies
on promoting your brand for free on Facebook, this shift will lead to a dramatic decline in the visibility of your posts, and therefore your products. Your brand awareness will take a hit, traffic to your website will drop, and leads and conversions will reduce as a result. So it is important to understand the changes and what action you need to take to shift your digital engagement and advertising strategies so they remain effective.
58 business network April 2018
commercial content is to be promoted, it needs to encourage community engagement. Facebook has also strongly hinted that it wants businesses to add video content, particularly live video. So get those cameras rolling. In the words of Adam Mosseri,
Head of News Feed for Facebook: “Page posts that generate conversation between people will show higher in news feeds. For example, live videos often lead to discussion among viewers on Facebook – in fact, live videos on average get six times as many interactions as regular videos.”
TIME TO GET CREATIVE WITH PROMOTED POSTS Over the next few weeks, changes to the algorithm that operates the news feed will take effect. So, what
BOOK YOUR FREE PLACE:
Understanding paid search and display advertising workshops
D2N2 (DERBY, DERBYSHIRE, NOTTINGHAM AND NOTTINGHAMSHIRE) 17 and 24 April: Integrating Social Media into Your Business – High Peak 19 and 26 June: Integrating Social Media into Your Business – Derby 24 and 31 July: Integrating Social Media into Your Business – Burton-on-Trent
LLEP (LEICESTER AND LEICESTERSHIRE) 9 May: Understanding Paid Search and Display Advertising – Melton Mowbray 15 May: An Introduction to Paid Social Advertising – Leicester
should you do? As well as considering your use
of video content, it’s also time to get creative on promoted posts, by understanding the platform’s 11 different advertising options. Although Facebook plans to
remove organic (free) commercial posts, its is unlikely to reduce the amount of sponsored or promoted posts – i.e. there will still be the same number of ads. So, businesses will need to review their approach and consider Facebook advertising if this is something you are not already doing.
FACEBOOK ADVERTISING – HOW DOES IT WORK? Facebook currently offers 11 different advertising options (or ‘objectives’ as they are known) that can be used by both B2C and B2B businesses. Your advertising objective is
what you want people to do when they see your ads. For example, if you want to show your website to
people interested in your business, you can create ads that encourage people to visit your website. You can find more detail about these at
www.facebook.com/business. Once you have chosen your campaign objective, you then create an ‘Ad Set’ to select your target audience, placements, budget etc. For your ads to be displayed to
your potential customers, you will need to select your target audience:
• Select a new target audience using location, demographic and interest options (including job title and other options suitable for targeting B2B audiences)
• Create your own ‘custom audience’ for example by uploading your list of customers, or tagging your site with a Facebook pixel to create a retargeting audience
• You can even create a ‘lookalike audience’ to find similar users to your top converters
Your ads can then be displayed on Facebook or Instagram (with some placement options available on Messenger).
FIND OUT MORE ON ONE OF OUR COURSES If you think you need to make some changes to ensure your Facebook presence remains effective, one of our free social media and advertising courses is for you.
To book your free place on one of the available courses visit www.ebusinessclub/biz
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
