Like most things that seem, at first, a bit peculiar, or perhaps even slightly challenging, historical context usually helps to lend some calm to the situation. When it comes to the recent changes Facebook has made to its fan page edgerank algorithms, this holds true.
In recent weeks, brands have noticed that their fan page reach has dropped precipitously due to the recent changes Facebook has made to its edgerank algorithms. While this may be initially concerning for brands, when you frame it in context of Facebook's product team history, working diligently to improve user experience, it all makes more sense.
Facebook has always developed product to a core principal: no spam. Consider the first roll out of apps within Facebook way back in the day. These were the most viral prolific little buggers in the system: everyone was poking, werewolfing and vampiring ad naseum. The Facebook experience was getting spammy. So what did they do? They dialed it all back and everyone panicked. Lo and behold, it left us with a much stronger and more thoughtful ecosystem of applications, becoming such a rich landscape that entirely new businesses have grown from it (i.e., social gaming).
More recently, we saw the emergence of social readers via the open graph. Everyone was suddenly seeing every song you listened to and every article you read! The experience was spammy. What if I didn't want to share what I was reading 24/7? So what did Facebook do? Again, they dialed it back and everyone predicted the demise of social readers. Fast forward to today: social readers are a popular high use destination within Facebook's larger ecosystem.
So how does this relate to brands and fan pages?
Facebook sees that the future of brands within Facebook is not one of amassing fans and simply publishing to them repeatedly. That is not a high value engagement. It is fundamentally spammy. So, Facebook is dialing that back too. Consider an analogy: If Facebook were a big 1 billion attendee theme park where people grouped up around the rides they liked, rode the rides, shared stories about their experiences, met their friends from times past and rekindled memories, would you want the world’s brands standing in the middle of that, vying for attention with an ever larger and louder megaphone? In that scenario, the brands would eventually drown out the intended social experience and people would simply leave. Similarly, Facebook wants its users to have a positive experience, to be able to socialize and without feeling bombarded or jockeyed between brands.
But why is this good for brands?
Returning to the theme of this post: framing things in history, remember that other big online animal that has algorithms? Google. For years they have been tweaking their algorithms to impact the SEO machine and deliver ever more accurate and relevant search results. Why would Google do this? The same reason Facebook is changing their algorithms. Google wants its users to come back. If the search results can be gamed and the same brands can dominate search results over and over again, that’s a terrible experience for an end user, and they’ll go somewhere else. When I search for ‘green laundry service, Brooklyn’, I don’t want to end up seeing the first page reading Walmart results for ‘eco laundry detergent’. But what has happened as a result of Google’s algorithm changes? Brands have had to create well-structured, high value and relevant destination sites, with good information and positive user experiences. In the end, it has proven to be a very positive experience for brands and consumers because the overall quality of the online experience has improved dramatically. Secondly, as a result of reducing spammy search engine results, Google has been able to serve up ever more relevant and therefore clicked on ads. This has been the single greatest boon for brands on the web to date.
Similarly, the changes we are seeing on Facebook are extremely positive for brands. The new Facebook for brands is a world where brands can build highly engaged, rich, thoughtful and above all else high quality connections to their fans. As I hear brands bemoan the changes, I also hear a quiet stirring of relief from the many CMOs and the like who are faced with the empty challenge of buying a million fifty cent fans and delivering a multi-day publishing strategy that amounts to nothing more than an outpouring of junk.
Brands should understand this: Social media is its own unique medium. It’s not like TV where people passively watch a show. It’s not like reading a magazine or driving in your car and seeing billboards fly by. Facebook, in particular, is a place where people share intimate stories, where revolutions are sparked, where breaking news really breaks. In this context, the challenge for brands is to thoughtfully understand your fans on a very deep level. Speak to them in ways that are relevant to the space and understand how they want to identify with your brand.
Facebook understands that the future of brands succeeding in social is predicated on the end user having a positive experience. Facebook also understands that their financial future depends on brands succeeding in social. So cheer up brands! These changes are good thing. No, they are a great thing! Connect with your fans. Know them intimately. Publish thoughtfully. Build great custom application experiences. You’ll reach your base better and the response and ROI will be more than you’d hoped for. Facebook knows this, the end user knows this and so should you.
Media planning is like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle: each piece is crucial for success. However, media planning also requires both a strong strategy and a smart, savvy individual to piece it all together!
Here are four tips to help you through the process of planning a successful campaign:
Clients come equipped with their objectives in hand, and it is the media planner’s job to find the best media mix to meet the client’s KPIs. It’s key to understand the client’s vision, their special considerations (i.e., is the client restricted from having social context in their advertising?), as well as key messaging they want incorporated into the campaign.
Tip: Ask questions that help ensure you and the client are on the same page, and be sure to manage expectations throughout the process.
Data is a media planner’s best friend. Knowing how to tell a story with numbers is a significant part of our jobs—we take CTRs, viral reach, daily like statistics and weave them into a holistic media plan.
Tip: Look over stats from previous campaigns, compare optimization strategies and measure engagement to help you create thoughtful and strategic campaigns.
Media planners work closely with budgets and data analysis on a daily basis; however, engaging campaigns require a significant amount of creativity. When developing a campaign, it is important to keep a fresh perspective on each project and remember that there is no “one size fits all” solution for media.
Tip: Think outside the box when suggesting plans; make sure you’ve considered all the options and have chosen the ad units that will best reach the client’s objectives.
The social media and digital marketplace is constantly evolving. New advertising methods are released while features that have been around for years are suddenly obsolete. Knowledge is power, so you always need to be ahead of the game and well- informed.
Tip: Educating your clients on all available opportunities allows them to make better- informed decisions. Whether it is a new targeting type or ad unit, keep up with Facebook marketing capabilities so you offer clients accurate information.
There you have it—a few quick tips to make sure the media puzzle piece you are looking for isn’t hiding on the floor.
Quick on their feet and multi-tasking all day long, great community managers are always connected to your brand’s audience. They have become one of the most important resources a brand can use to market on social media, so we sat down with Socialtyze Community Manager extraordinaire, Krista Kopina, to learn how to successfully manage online communities.
I’ve always enjoyed connecting with the community- connecting in a deeper sense than just a few hellos or thank yous. The appeal is about really getting involved and genuinely being interested in what people are talking about. I love daily chats and checking in with the “regulars," but the best part is even if I can’t help or provide users with what they need, I can reach out to the community and find someone who can.
Beyond talking to the client and hearing out their thoughts and vision, I read anything and everything about the brand: the company website, brand messaging, blogs, Twitter chatter, Google alerts and more. This also means knowing the competitive landscape. What does the brand stand for? Why are they different? What’s their value proposition? Then I build my posting strategy to represent the brand’s messaging and core company values.
Be Human: Humanize the brand. Post with a personality, feature photos and videos of staff members and share content that elicits emotion. Be authentic and honest. And ALWAYS apologize if mistakes are made.
Include a Call to Action: Ask for fan feedback. Get their opinions. Ask them to share your content. Ask them to recommend your page to their friends. These are your brand’s most loyal customers. Get them involved!
Be Brief: Short posts are much more likely to receive a response.
Share a Variety of Content: Keep everything fresh! Share links, videos and photos. Hold contests and sweepstakes to help build buzz and add value to liking your page.
Share Exclusive Content: Provide content that your fans can’t get anywhere else.
Be Consistent: If you post 5 times per week, don’t suddenly stop or drastically decrease your posting frequency. Being consistent with post timing is important, as fans will return to the page with expectations. You always want to give them a reason to come back!
Recognize Your Fans: Encourage user- generated content and always make your fans feel important! Thank your most loyal fans for their involvement and helping you meet new milestones.
Trying to control EVERYTHING! The Community Manager’s job is to make the user experience as frictionless as possible by providing content that’s easily accessible and hassle-free to keep fans coming back. However, fans will always have both positive and negative feedback, so just be ready to smooth out the bumps when they happen.
Definitely balancing the needs/wants of the community with the interest of the business/organization. It can be tricky when there is a desire to give the community what they want and knowing, of course, you may not be able to. Also, not allowing negative sentiment in the community to bring down the positive energy of the brand!
Embrace transparency. Learn to balance the positive and negative by giving rational “haters” a sounding board that allows them to have their say, while encouraging the “lovers” to engage in as much conversation as possible. And of course, always admit your mistakes.
Reach your goals the right way. See why you should venture into Facebook’s newly released ad units and targeting types. Don’t let other social media companies give you the merry-go-round. Let us show you how to swing into gear.
First there are some rules you need to know:
Make sure your ads live in the best neighborhood with Premium.
Run your media on the most prime locations. Premium ads can be displayed on the News Feed and Profile Pages, boosting engagement among users.
Bigger is better. The six Premium ad types can have images up to 20% larger than Marketplace ads, ensuring more users interact with your ad.**
Going Retroviral: Once a user interacts with your Premium ad, whether it be RSVPing to an event or responding to a poll, the unit expands encouraging even more user engagement. These ad units can self-replicate, creating the potential for stories to be run in friends’ newsfeeds.
If you want top performance no matter the cost, Premium ads are the way to go. These ad units are expensive but worth the cost if your brand is already well known in the social space or if you are offering something big.
No need to solicit strangers, you can now target only the specific users you want with Custom Audiences. Using your client email and phone number database, we can target only the consumers relevant to a specific promotion or offer.
Your client can be identified through their known email or phone number upon signing on to Facebook. From there we can decide what ad type or copy to direct at them.
Custom Audiences should be used for campaigns that focus on rewarding your current customers and is not the right choice for acquiring new fans. These can be special offers, such as discounts or sales that you know your current customers may have an interest in.
Be exactly where and what people are looking for. With the launch of Facebook’s Sponsored Results, Socialtyze is now offering our own custom approach to targeting your potential consumers based on similar Apps, Pages, and Places they are searching for.
You can be the first one in line by targeting an App or Page related to your brand and you can show up as the top sponsored result.
Sponsored results can benefit brands with a high concentration of competitors in social media. Target users who are searching for your competitors and use them to build your brand.
Campaigns with specific promotions or trending topics also have the potential to perform well with sponsored results.
Not all three services are well- suited for every campaign. These new services can benefit your brand as long as you keep in mind the core goals and purpose of your campaign.
Now that you know all the rules, it’s time to play.
Tag, you’re it!
Last month, a panelist at MediaPost’s Social Media Insider Summit demonstrated the brilliance of Instagram and other social niche-works with a single keen observation. As the panel bandied about the topic of who uses Twitter and why, a young man piped in with this articulation:“I mean, like, really, who cares? Like, I mean, like seriously, like who cares what I’m doing right now? And I certainly, don’t care what you’re doing (pointing to another panelist) right now.”
Precisely. In what was surely a gift from the irony gods, four minutes later the same fellow claimed his favorite social platform was Foursquare – the granddaddy of “this is what I’m doing right now” apps. Amen.
The danger with Twitter is that users have no control of the content coming in. You absolutely can choose whom to follow (and unfollow), but the reality is Twitter feeds have become a free-for-all of brands hyping products, blogs linking to articles, retweets and replies, that one friend who is positive his 140 character observations are comedy gold and on down the line. The inmates run the asylum and for at least one of the folks on this panel, that meant a steady diet of “At the gym. #GTL baby.”
Luckily there is a solution and it comes from observing the Oracle of Restraint himself, Mr. Jobs. Apple has built the realm on its warlock ability to know just how much control users should have (and not have). Applications – yes. Base operating system – no.
For the best example of an application that forces users down a single path to the land of joy and happiness, look no further than Instagram. Just shy of its second birthday, the newly minted jewel in the Facebook portfolio reached its 100,000,000th active user. Keep in mind, for most it’s life Instagram only lived on a single mobile operating system and still doesn’t support web based photo uploads. So that’s 100M mobile only users. Users who have grown to love the mind-numbingly simple app that boils the experience down to a very simple act: upload a photo. Instagram users know precisely what they’re in for when they open the app and they only have two ways to get in on the action: upload or engage. You can like or comment, or you can upload. It’s that simple.
This same linear experience is driving other networks to success as well. Pinterest, like Instagram, is built on users’ insatiable appetite for images. The experience is more complex with the ability to curate and add others’ content to your collection, but the content itself is always the same. Certainly there is a danger that eventually all to see will have been seen, but that is where brands must realize a tremendous opportunity as content creators and conversation shapers.
The users have spoken and the path has been laid. App builders – build it simple, build it linear. Content creators – adapt to the tools that give users the power to create simply and publish quickly, and people will care what you’re doing.
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