Facebook for Business in 2019

Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have millions of users in our country and more around the globe.  It is easy to see why businesses big and small look to social media platforms to help them grow their audiences and use them to try and sell products and services.  The problem, all of these platforms are there to make money.  No one is giving away anything to anyone.  The common misconception is that because the platform itself is free, it often makes people think that they can use it and grow their business.  It is so common practice that it is surprising when a local business does NOT have a social media presence.

Facebook in 2019 works differently than it did in 2018.  

There are several changes the the Facebook algorithms that have changed the way the platforms work for business.  Here are some of the highlights from our friends at Social Media Today. If you didn’t already know, Facebook owns Instagram.  In 2019 they are now offering shopping features to the Instagram feed.  That is a great feature for online retailers who get more interaction on Instagram than they do on Facebook organically.  

In 2019 you can no longer “review” a business on Facebook, but you can still give “recommendations.” Why have they switched the lingo?  The update’s goal is to provide Page visitors with  what they can expect from a business.  The focus is based on customers’ experiences.  It will not stop the bad comments from not so happy customers, but they are hoping that this will give more transparency with the process of offering suggestions to businesses.

Those pesky ads in the middle of your video content are not going away any time soon.

We all know that people like to watch videos.  Facebook has long encouraged users and businesses to natively upload video content to your page.  They stopped allowing previews of YouTube videos when you post them to Facebook too.  In a very annoying way they have also killed video for many of the users by adding video advertisements in the middle of our video content.  Not only do people NOT like the ads, I would bet that many of the viewers click out of the video as soon as the ads start.  Killing your messaging before you make your punchline.  The moral of the story?  Create short videos, and make sure you say the call to action in the beginning.

How has Advertising for Business Changed in 2019 for Facebook?

Businesses are depending on advertising to reach new customers and with the changes to privacy, the accuracy of targeted marketing could take a hit.  Marketers depend on the accuracy of the information they are using to target their ads.  Everyone knows, the more you know your customers, the easier it is to find them.  At the end of the day, if they don’t want to be found on social media, and they change their settings to avoid your ability to target them, they probably weren’t going to buy from you on Facebook anyway.

So many users are not yet aware of their privacy options when it comes to being targeted for Facebook Ads that we are still seeing great results for targeted ad campaigns.  Will that change as more people become aware of the options?  We shall see.

What do all these Data breaches mean for users of Social Media?

TRUE OR FALSE:  Facebook sold the personal information of their users in order to help companies with ad-targeting.  That is 100% accurate.  Why would any business pay to advertise to an audience that was not vetted?  The entire reason for profiling users is to target the ones you want.  For instance, if you change your status from “in a relationship” to single, you are very likely going to get ads for dating sites.  Maybe too soon? Advertisers don’t care.  They simply are not going to logically advertise to people already in a relationship.  That is why businesses are willing to PAY for ads.  They want that niche.

TRUE OR FALSE:

Social media active users are decreasing with each data breach.  True according to multiples sources, many people are deleting platforms like Facebook because they have lost confidence in platform. There is a great article that was published in INC Magazine about the you can read it here.

“Well, according to a study conducted by Pew Research Center, it’s time to reconsider the toll these events have taken. Many Facebook users have begun to rethink their relationship with the app. In fact, the report shows as many as 40-percent of U.S. users have taken a break from checking the app for several weeks on end. Additionally, 44-percent of younger users in the United States have deleted the app off of their phone entirely, a software company’s worst nightmare in the mobile-friendly world we live in.”