Keeping Up With the Facebook
Date: November 5, 2015Category: Author: Heather
My intention for this post was to touch on changes recently implemented on several social media platforms. And then I started writing. When the Facebook section got to four pages, I decided to just focus on the Book.
As Tiffany, Devo, or the Baha Men can tell you, getting to the top is easy, staying at the top takes planning. Which explains Mark Zuckerberg’s obsession with innovation, and his propensity to develop new product offerings—whether you ask for them or not.
Changes to Facebook are harder to keep up with than Blake Shelton’s love life. Facebook announced several updates as recently as yesterday. And, some changes announced as far back as September, are really only now coming to fruition. Grab some popcorn this is going to get interesting.
So…what’s Facebook up to?
First and foremost, if you haven’t heard—don’t forget to give me the address of the rock you’re residing under so I know where to send a Christmas card—Zucks and Cilla are having a baby. So cute!
Facebook is all about that video
Whatever Facebook wants, Facebook gets. Just ask WhatsApp. And, Lightbox. And, Oculus. And, Pebbles.
Years ago Facebook realized the power of image hosting services like Photobucket, and set out to become your favorite place to host photos. How? They deprioritized your text updates in the Newsfeed and prioritized your photo shares. So what did we do? We started uploading more and more, and more, photos. And, when we grew weary of just uploading and began looking for a platform on which to edit and share our photos, Facebook bought that one—yeah, we’re talking about you Instagram.
Facebook continues its quest for world video domination. Streaming platforms like Meerkat, Periscope, and Blab have demonstrated success, so Facebook joined the party—why, hello Mentions with live streams for verified profiles. And, in true Facebook style, they’re taking the medium to the next level with 360 Video.
Let’s say you’re not The Rock and don’t own tens of thousands of dollars in video equipment. Facebook’s making several changes applicable at the end user—and most importantly marketer—levels starting with a new Video Newsfeed experience, and multitasking and video saving features. In a move designed to directly contend with YouTube, Facebook’s offering a 55 percent revenue share for content curation. One of my favorite social media thought leaders, and Facebook marketing expert, Mari Smith, recently shared this video highlighting these features.
What would Don Draper do?
Facebook has embraced its pay-to-play mantra. If you’re not already advertising on Facebook, you’re missing out. One of our clients recently advertised their Halloween candy buyback program solely on Facebook. Every single one of their fourteen participants learned of the program through the boosted Facebook event. That’s fourteen potential patients who visited their office, and who were exposed to their brand. With an ad spend of $28.14, that’s a cost of $2.01 per lead. When was the last time you attracted a new patient for $2?
While you’re already in Power Editor, take a look at the new SlideShow option. Create video ads from still pictures using images you already have, or the Facebook stock photo library. This is a great option for a practice without raw video footage, but wanting to take advantage of the power of video.
The Notifications tab gets a makeover
Similar in concept—and name—to Google Now’s Cards, on Monday Facebook rolled out an updated Notification tab featuring Cards for its mobile app.
In addition to traditional updates, the tab now includes information on trending topics, birthday reminders (because really, how else would I remember that kid who ate paste in the fifth grade is turning 29), local events, and newly released movies.
And, because the Internet tends to be a little stalker-ish, Facebook now suggests nearby businesses you probably didn’t know you needed to go, but now that it’s been suggested you really want to visit.
My Grandma…what an intriguing bio you have
Have you viewed your personal profile recently? Facebook added a revised introduction area featuring a short bio and profile tags, a la LinkedIn, as well as featured photos (beware these are publicly available) and a pronunciation button—clearly not necessary for Heather King, but if your name is Siobhan pronounced shi-VAWN you may find this useful.
Profile tags—self-selected labels informing others of your likes, interests, hobbies, and skills—are one of the aforementioned offerings for which most users weren’t clamoring. From a marketing prospective, my educated guess is that Facebook’s planning to incorporate into the options available for hyper-targeting ads. Stay-tuned, it’ll be interesting to see how users respond to the LinkedIn-ification of Facebook.
On a side note, is “taking naps like a boss” a skill or hobby?
Go ahead, I like to watch
It seems your Facebook friends and the creepy dude in apartment 14C have something in common. According to a recent survey by Global Web Index, Facebook users are visiting the platform more than ever, but only 34 percent of them are updating their status. For a medium that relies on content, this could prove problematic, and clearly, Facebook saw this coming and had a plan.
Last year Facebook introduced prompts that appear at the beginning of your timeline. They say things like “The Country Music Awards are on, who’s going home the big winner?” Listen Facebook, ask me to write a status update on why nachos should be breakfast food, and you’ve got yourself a deal.
Facebook recently launched Search FYI, an enhanced search server that not only yields news and the latest trends, but publicly available posts on your search subject. Fresh and engaging content is key to the success of this search engine that could, hence Facebook’s push for your content, photos, and status updates.
Using Facebook to search for information on your favorite political candidate? Expect to see search results with opinions from friends and strangers alike. Cue the drama.
That’s got to be it, right?
Yeppers.
Students in New Deli learned this week that Zucks endeavors to be the creator of an artificial intelligence system that can identify what’s in a video or image–not even The Google can do this yet. This has practical applications for the visually impaired, and technology like this has the potential to change the future of search.
We’re finally seeing previously announced features like Happy Birthday Videos and profile pics that can be temporary or a seven-second looping video pop up on user profiles. And animated GIFs are now supported on pages in addition to personal profiles.
Page administrators got a treat as well. Until recently Page admins could only chat directly with users if the user direct messaged them first. Last month Facebook added the “Message” option in the comments section for faster, private communication. Great for reputation management, this addition allows customer service representatives to take a conversation private quickly, allowing them to better mitigate a dispute.
Finally, as for Reactions, no news seems to be good news. We haven’t heard much from the social giant about those cute little emojis. I assume this means Reactions is getting a thumbs up from users in Ireland and Spain.
What are your favorite–and least favorite–new Facebook offerings? Let us know in the comments.
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