Over the years, many brands have relied on Facebook as one of their primary marketing strategies. After all, it has been considered one of the most dominant social media sites and has increased its number of users every year since its creation back in 2004. But nearly 14 years have passed since then, so here are more details on the Facebook feed update and how to work your way around it.
Back in January, Mark Zuckerberg stated in his Facebook post,
“Video and other public content have exploded on Facebook in the past couple of years. Since there's more public content than posts from your friends and family, the balance of what's in News Feed has shifted away from the most important thing Facebook can do -- help us connect with each other.”
Zuckerberg revamping the news feed option should come with little to no surprise, especially given the criticism Facebook dealt with in 2017. That being said, one can still publish articles and links to exhibit business advertisements, but it just won’t appear in user’s news feed as much as before. Instead, unless the social media users adjust their settings, the news feed will now be primarily centered around statuses, pictures, and videos.
Yet advertising revenue still plays a significant part in Facebook’s wealth and growth. In 2017, Forbes reported that Facebook made over $10.3 billion in revenue. It wouldn’t make much sense for the company to eliminate one of the primary sources responsible for their enormous wealth. Thus there’s no reason to believe that the social media platform will one day remove ads entirely. But, it does mean that marketers will need to become more creative in their ad activity and approach if they want to continue successfully promoting their brands.
Ideas To Consider When Adjusting To The Facebook Feed Update
1. Video marketing: Video content in general seems to fit this generation’s interest. Hence the reason why Youtube has become so popular. As a marketer, it’s your job to use this to your advantage. A video that lasts about 2 minutes might attract more viewers, of all age groups, as opposed to a 3 page article that will require much more of the user’s time. While citing a Livestream survey, Insivia reports that “80% of Livestream’s survey respondents would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog.”
2. Rely on your Facebook friends: On LinkedIn, you choose to connect with someone if they are your former/current coworker, but many also do so to get their foot in the door of a company that they’re interested in. In Facebook’s particular case, since the news feed changes will still show status updates and photos, you can ask a friend to help out by posting company content (e.g. announcements, photos/videos about the company’s services, tagging the company’s name in their statuses) on their page and sharing it with others every now and then.
3. Use humor in your ads to attract more viewers: Tubular Insights reports that “comedy is the most popular form of online video content among all viewers at 39% followed by news (33%) and music (31%).” There is an old saying that comedy brings people together; truths, hypocrisies, life experiences, and satire have been used by comedians for years since it’s something everyone can relate to. If you’re successfully able to incorporate these comedic tools onto your company ads, then depending on the topic, you will be able to reach users of all age groups.
Facebook Stats To Be Aware Of
Although the common perception is that social media is tailored towards the youth since they represent the highest usage rates, when it comes to Facebook, according to a Pew Research survey on Americans, “around two-thirds of U.S. adults (68%)” use the social media site. Despite new social media competitors emerging in recent years, especially for marketing purposes such as, Microsoft’s LinkedIn, Facebook still remains immensely popular among adults and very useful for business.
The Pew Research Center also reports that around three-quarters of the platform’s U.S. users (74%) say they visit the site on a daily basis. With millions of users visiting Facebook multiple times, even if the news feed is straying away from ad display, there is still a high chance a good portion of users will view some of your company’s ads throughout the week.
Furthermore, despite many Americans getting their news from social media sites, a Pew Research march survey reported that “only 5% of online Americans say they have a lot of trust in the information they get from social media sites, while another 33% say they have some trust in it.” In other words, regardless of the content one publishes, American users are going to be skeptical about it. However, one thing to keep in mind is that the news feed doesn’t just include business ads, it also consists of politics, crimes, environmental issues, events occurring around the world, etc.
