When Facebook announced a change (or revert) in direction this year after the whole Cambridge Analytica fiasco, it signaled a change in their algorithms. They wanted to refocus on user engagement away from fake news, advertising and politics. So what does that mean for digital marketing?
Nothing we didn’t already know. For years, Facebook has always favoured content that prioritised engagement of users, but it did provide insights on how to tweak your content against the algorithm. With that in mind, we offer some simple ways you can make Facebook’s algorithm work in your favour:
Research Your Audience
Researching is a chore but it is a necessary one. Merely assuming who your audiences are is not going to cut it – you have to understand your brand/page. You can start with the Insights section, understand your followers – their gender, age and relevant demographic information.
With this information, you can create the ideal customer persona, tailor your content towards him/her and look to engage your audiences with it.
Aim for Shares, Tags & Comments
Most people scroll through News Feed aimlessly, so you have to pique their interest beyond scrolling past or liking, which means it needs to be creative and create meaningful interactions. You can also suggest sharing, tagging or commenting on your content itself. Something simple like, “Let us know what you think in the comments!” (Of course, please do more), could go a long way because reacts and likes are going to de-prioritised.
(Avoid baiting statements like “Comment below if you like____”, it will land you on the other end of the algorithm.)
Provoke statement reactions and you will see your engagement go way up. Get them to interact with their friends with shares and/or tags. This will engage a conversation between friends, and isn’t that what Facebook is all about? If you are facing a mental block on content, you can always seek help from creative agencies (like us (;)
Have A Conversation With Them
Merely asking your audience to talk isn’t enough. You have to respond. People go to Facebook for interactions with people, not a bot. It’s a two-way street. By responding to your audience in the comments with genuine replies (not standard PR ones), it boosts your reach and makes your audience feel good as well. A humorous response (like Skyscanner here) could go a long way for your brand and help turn a negative situation into a positive one. As long as you refrain from mistakes like these and you will have an engaged audience that will boost your page.
Supplement with Paid Targeted Boosting
Organic exposure is on the decline, reaching a new low of 2% in June 2016. So you can’t always rely on your page getting organic views, which means you have to bring out the big guns. Sometimes, you have to spend a little to get the ball rolling. By boosting your posts with the right audience set, it allows your content to be seen by the right people and furthers your reach. If you are facing issues with managing ads, you can always consult a professional to help you.
Write About Current Events
You can’t always rely on your own content to engage your audience, sooner or later you will either run out of content or bore your audience. The alternative is to scour the news for hot related topics and discuss them with your followers. With that, you can ride the wave of current trends and engage your audience at the same time. To achieve that, you have to follow news content pages and read the trending/related ones. At the end of the day, you will get current affairs knowledge and an engaged audience. (two birds, one stone)
As one of the top digital agency in Singapore and Malaysia, we are ready to help! Keep in touch with us today!
Table of Contents
Research Your Audience
Aim for Shares, Tags & Comments
Have A Conversation With Them
Supplement with Paid Targeted Boosting
Write About Current Events
Share this article
When we talk about talking selfies and stories on our socials, which side are you on? Instagram, Facebook or… Snapchat? When Facebook attempted to buy Snapchat recently, they were rejected despite a whopping bid of $3 billion. In response, Facebook leveraged on their acquisition of Instagram to compete against Snapchat, by launching Instagram stories or what’s widely known at Instastories.
Talk about life’s regrets.
With the purchase, Instagram’s platform soared in terms of the number of users and ads, while Snapchat struggled to keep up. Facebook also launched Facebook Stories to add options for the avid social media users. From there, Snapchat started to look more and more like an Instagram copy instead of the other way around, as they struggled to innovate to pull ahead of its ‘successor’.
Until now.
Snapchat recently launched a gaming platform, similar to WeChat, in an attempt to improve user engagement and move ahead of their rival. They released a series of Snapchat filter games and Augmented Reality (AR) games that users can play on the platform.
Most notably, the AR Tennis game against Serena Williams is a clear sign that Snapchat’s advanced AR technology is going to become their selling point.
Y’all seeing this? Get your chance to battle @serenawilliams – you wont win 😂 but try your best and share your high score. pic.twitter.com/sXuxtImgJI
— Alexis Ohanian 🧠 (@alexisohanian) July 2, 2018
Credit: Alexis Ohanian Sr.
Snapchat games provide an additional tool for businesses to adapt. (YAY!) That is always welcomed for creative people (*wink wink*) to adapt for marketing.
Does Snapchat still matter?
Well, it really depends.
Snapchat numbers have risen steadily over the past year, with more and more youths adopting the platform. We’ve to admit, they’ve got really nice filters. Heh. This means any strategy or business targeting youths have to take Snapchat into serious consideration.
Incorporating gaming has given other platforms (aka Facebook) a boost before and it should do the same for Snapchat.
What can businesses do with this information?
Consider playing around with Snapchat’s functions and ads viewing if you are unfamiliar with the platform. Businesses can also start looking into adapting filters and AR games to help their own cause.
Do keep the demographics of Snapchat in mind while developing and utilising them and tie in to your branding. It will be a waste of marketing dollars otherwise.
If you want to utilise them, and you are having trouble with incorporating into your brand, consult an agency to help you.
After Facebook’s recent scandal with leaked user information and the US Election fiasco, the social media giants have decided to become more transparent with their platform. In early April, Facebook announced they were making ads transparent and marking political ads as special cases.
This has been a long time coming, given the chatter on Russian meddling since the US Elections fiasco ended 2 years ago.
How does this affect your business?
Ad transparency means anyone and everyone can now view all the ads you are running. This includes your target audience and unfortunately, your competition. The good news is that they can only see the content and the type of ad but nothing on the data and statistics that come with it.
So what should you do?