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Facebook - From Hero to Zero?

Facebook - From Hero to Zero?

November 6, 2019 / Sydney Design Social  >

2019 has been a massive year for social media as platforms use smarter algorithms to create better user experience, special events like the FIFA World Cup see developers push the boundaries of social innovation and messaging apps see a take up of 200% in two quarters, creating smarter ways to advertise to potential customers.

Nobody has experienced quite as much change, however, as Zuckerberg and his Facebook empire.

 

A Facebook For the People

In an aim to improve user experience as trust in Facebook and take up diminishes, the social media giant has put Publishers and Advertisers on trial with new algorithms. The first lot of changes rolled out in 2018 and aimed at showing users more content from their friends, family and groups, were part of an effort to create more trust in Facebook as figures from 2017 showed people are spending less time on the platform and two key demographics (13-18 and 18-24) were investing time elsewhere or leaving the platform altogether. Keep up to date with the changes here.

 

USA vs Mark

Mark Zuckerberg faced the US Senate in April 2018 amidst allegations that user data had been improperly shared by Cambridge Analytica with Russia and agencies that swayed the 2016 US Election towards a Trump win. The trial saw a domino effect as Facebook upped their privacy policies, making data collected while users were on the platform more transparent. They also introduced two agencies to fact check news and according to the New York Times, “censor” political articles. Many large publishing houses have come to head with Facebook over these changes in the past two months with most recent statistics showing that more people are now getting their news elsewhere, via apps such as WhatsApp and Snapchat. Not much came out of this senate hearing (Zuckerberg alien memes aside) but find out five takeaways here.

 

Data, Data, Data

On the back of the Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2017, on May 25 2018, the EU introduced a 28 country wide data protection policy – the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). It specifies that companies must be clear and concise about their collection and use of personal data like full name, home address, location data, IP address and tracking. Companies must be transparent about why the data is being collected and whether it will be used to create profiles of people’s actions and habits. Moreover, consumers will gain the right to access the data companies store about them, the right to correct inaccurate information, and the right to limit the use of decisions made by algorithms, among others. Find out exactly who this affects and how, here.

 

So… what does this mean for businesses advertising on Facebook in 2020? Here are our takeaways.

Pay to Play

No money, no chance. Gone are the days where you could rely on simply posting to reach your audience. With organic reach as low as 1% for the Facebook pages of some businesses, more than ever does your marketing and advertising strategy need to allocate budget towards social media to relay their messages.

 

Content is King

Quality content that is on-brand and relevant to the end user is vital to a good social media strategy. Do you have a cohesive look and feel across platforms? Is your content shareable? Does your business have cut-through on social? These are the questions you should be asking when developing any social content and style guide.

 

Hyper-targeting is the Future

Gone are the days where marketers could throw money at a campaign, blasting it to everyone and everyone, and hope for the best. The more people you reach without engagement, the more you will be penalised, meaning reaching the right people is key. A solid social media strategy should be broken down into hyper-targeted custom, saved and lookalike audiences that are relevant to the messages you are pushing out for maximum effectiveness.

 

Still at a loss on how you should be utilising your social media channels? We’re here to help (insert fanfare). Send an email to hello@sydneydesignsocial.com for a chat with one of our social media gurus today.  

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