Recently, Facebook announced significant changes to News Feed; arguably the largest reinvention in its seven year history. The catalyst for the big move was specified by Zuckerberg during the opening of his announcement. He stated that almost 50% of News Feed content is photos and visual content. Facebook took this statistic and transformed the design of News Feed to a be more visually-focused. While Facebook users may enjoy the new look and feel of News Feed, these changes have serious implications on businesses. Brands now have to shift the way they engage with fans and what content they should be posting for marketing success.
Below you will find eight marketing takeaways which were clear directly after the announcement. Use them to strategize what content you will be posting once the new News Feed is implemented.
1.) Publish more visual content
The new look Facebook is going for is inundated with enhanced images of different forms. So much so, an entire News Feed can be composed of these vivid images. When Facebook introduced the timeline, it only took one month for engagement with visual content to increase by 65%. With a new emphasis on Rich Photos, this statistic is bound to be higher.
When composing your strategy, focus more on creating visually compelling content. For those that post text-based statuses, think of ways to incorporate those ideas into visuals.
2.) Create image-focused ads
During the announcement, Facebook did not implicitly speak about how the new News Feed will impact ads. However, an interview by a Facebook representative, published by the MIT Technology Review, stated that “ the idea of making things richer, more immersive, includes ads.”
Furthermore, the article states, “Speculation about the changes include the possibility that Facebook will add additional mini-feeds segmented by content (such as one just for photos), as well as bigger, more targeted ads.” Only time will tell, but it’s important to start thinking about your ads from a visual perspective.
Previously, posts with links showed meta titles and descriptions, the new News Feed magnifies images, makes the title more legible, and gives a better summary of the content. Facebook’s response to ads leads us to believe that they will appear in a similar fashion.
Bottom line, start planning the visuals that will be with your ads.
3.) Keep your copy short
To accommodate for the spotlight on photos, Facebook has changed the way captions will appear. Captions will now be overlaid on images. This means that photos will be the primary way people engage with your visuals. Keep all captions short and concise. Keep it to one or two short sentences that provide all the key information, help the reader understand its value and take action.
4.) Focus more on your evangelists
The biggest hurdle for advertisers is the fact that your followers can now choose to only see posts from their friends. So even though someone has liked your page, they may never see any of your posts. That means you know have to switch focus to the people who love your brand. Find people who share your updates with their Facebook friends. That action of sharing will put the content in the friends-only feed, increasing the reach of your content.
To get the best results, find out what your evangelists are most passionate about and share content that directly targets them. Keep in mind, the more shares you get the better.
5.) Create more compelling content
The way Facebook is now surfacing top-shared articles is reminiscent of LinkedIn’s method for featuring top content. This means it’s in your best interest to use Facebook to promote your more public-facing content.
The secret however, is sharing compelling content. Keep in mind, Facebook is exploding with content daily and unless your content stands out it will not gain the visibility you desire. As shown below, Facebook will aggregate the most frequently shared content from a publisher and set the compony logo alongside. So as a content creator you want to create phenomenal content that is widely shared.
6.) Integrate your Facebook and Pinterest strategies
Content that is shared through 3rd party apps will now receive wider visibility. Statistics show that 98% of people who have a Pinterest account also have a Facebook account. This change also makes sense financially since 21% of people with Pinterest account have purchased an item after seeing it on Pinterest.
By using Facebook and Pinterest in tandem, you can use the enhanced image view to drive more people to your Pinterest page.
7.) Influence user to check-in
Location-based activity has gained tremendous importance on social media. When Facebook launched Graph Search, it allowed users to search for content based location. The new News Feed makes check-ins more visible and visually appealing. By finding ways to influence people to check-in to your business, you are creating more ways for people to see your business in the friends-only feeds. One way to accomplish this is by taking the Foursquare approach and offering deals to the most frequent visitors.
8.) Continue increasing likes of your page
The new News Feed makes accumulating likes even more important. When someone Likes your page, a new story is created in News Feed that shows the page’s default and cover photo. This also happens to increase the importance of your cover photo. Unlike before, this new feature creates immediate benefits for your business when someone likes your page.
How to Measure Your Facebook Strategy Success
Once all these new features are rolled out, it is important to gather information on how well your posts are doing. That way you can figure out what you need to change to adapt to these new features. Here are two valuable ways to look at this to measure the impact of your content strategy adjustments.
1.) Post Clickthrough Rates
To better understand how your content is performing on Facebook, you need to analyze the clickthrough rate. The best way is to compare the clickthrough rate among different posts. Depending on your business, the average number of clicks tour posts receive will vary. However, by comparing the clicks of each post to one another, you can see if there’s a major outlier in the bunch — a particular post that generated 50% more clicks, for example, than any other post. That can provide clearer insight into the kind of content that works best for you on Facebook.
2.) Reach Growth
The ultimate goal for using Facebook is to increase the reach of your business. To track how the content you are posting is increasing your Likes and the overall reach of your Facebook presence, use Facebook Insights. Facebook Insights shares information on both your total page Likes and the total friends of your fans — and by taking the sum of these two metrics, you get the total number of people your Facebook page is reaching. You can monitor how this number increases based off specific posts, which can bring to light which content posts are benefiting your Facebook strategy most.
Contact us, and let’s begin a journey of strategic growth and operational excellence.
