Over the past couple of weeks my attention’s been grabbed by two Facebook marketing virals - Bodyform and Thomas Cook. What’s specifically got my attention is the similarity/timing and technique involved. This lead me to send a Tweet last week labelled ‘social media bandwagoning’ - a Tweet that gained some positive comments and support.
Both campaigns stem from a ‘normal’ Facebook user posting something amusing and provoking directly on the brands wall, in the case of Bodyform about their TV advertising and for Thomas Cook a man who has the same name. I use inverted commas when referring to a ’normal’ Facebook user as the jury it still out as to whether these were set up by agencies who then pushed as a PR piece - the Bodyform video response was made by agency Rubber Republic.
Both virals came out within a short space of time and hinge on the idea of a public post and a brands response (call and response). Both have also proved their ROI by creating great PR and viral buzz.
However, does this also spotlight a lack of creative for Facebook marketing? And this brings me back to my opening point that both are similar and having happened within a short time frame come across as ‘social media bandwagoning’ - jumping on a good, effective and proven piece of marketing.
I am all for great PR/social media innovativeness and thought the Bodyform viral to be one of the best to date. But, has this now opened the gates for Joe Public to post on brands walls in the hope they can get something for nothing (e.g. Thomas Cook/Low Cost Holidays)? And has Bodyform created the viral response to end them all?
In my position I’m lucky enough to meet a good number of business owners and industry people who have varying and insightful views on social media for business. Through informal conversations we get to talking about views on social media, how it’s working or not-working for them, and some great lessons learned.
I thought these conversations offered some good insight and learnings that could also benefit other business owners and social media users. So I decided to create the ‘Honey Digital Social Media Hangout’ - a series of informal interviews that capture these opinions, insights and thoughts about social media for business from those using it and advising on it.
So without further ado, welcome to our maiden voyage - Episode One in the ’Honey Digital Social Media Hangout’ series.
In this episode I talk to William Straker about his new business W Straker Office Solutions and how he both uses and engages on social media.
Last week Facebook altered the algorithm that decides what a user sees on their newsfeed. Nothing major you may think, but the main change of this algorithm affects organic brand page posts. Facebooks aim is to de-clutter the amount of posts served up to mobile and tablet users by brands.
Algorithm changes are nothing new and Facebook tends to change these on a weekly basis. However this new change is a real game changer for brands as it minimizes brand page posts being seen by those who’ve ‘Liked’ that page. Facebook defends this move by stating the change isn’t to penalise brand pages and engagement levels shouldn’t be affected.
Many brands are used to rolling with Google’s search algorithm changes and Facebook’s should be treated with similar respect. Brands will need to change the way they post and apply new rules of best practice.
Advertising agency Ogilvy sets out the following guidelines which we agree brands should follow in order to maximise their posting strategy (Source: social.ogilvy.co.uk):
The reach for many organic page posts will decrease. The number in this decrease will be anywhere between 5% on the low side to 40% on the high side. Some pages may remain unaffected which are following best practices for page publishing.
The change may allow Facebook room to grow its organic/paid offering ratio, in which 80% of content in the newsfeed is organic and 20% is paid in the form of sponsored stories, a form of premium advertising within Facebook.
Additional strategy and cadence to page publishing will be required. Brands should develop content with newsfeed interaction in mind.
Post at the optimal time. Only you know what’s right for your business, and you can use your Page Insights to figure out what’s working. User engagement with Facebook Pages is highest from 9:00-10:00 pm, and the 18-24 demographic is the most engaged during this time.
We recommend two posts per day of sound, sight or motion (audio, photo, video). Brands doing a text-only post at 10:00 am, and then another text-only post at 1:00 pm are not using the new algorithm to their advantage. Posts in this timeframe and delivery method cannibalize one another by overlapping, and having no visual element to maximize reach.
To break beyond the new reach limitations on organic posts, certain content should use the sponsored story functionality to highlight the content to a wider audience.
“This morning, there are more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month.” - Mark Zuckerberg
And so it has come to pass. Facebook has hit the big one - 1 billion active users. Quite and achievement for a website that started life as a way for university students to rate whether other students were hot-or-not.
The hope for Zuckerberg and Co would be that this news placates the naysayers and plants the seeds of recovery for it’s devalued stock.
However, there have also been some interesting moves made by Facebook recently that reinforce its position of making money. One such move is the expansion of its controversial ‘Promoted Posts’ feature that lets users pay to get their posts more visibility in the news feed. It costs the user $7 per post with the hope it’ll be used for garage sales, parties, wedding photos and other important announcements.
It’s suggested that this fee is pure profit for Facebook which could see them double their advertising revenue.
But what about the user experience? Many, including myself, have found Facebook to be overwhelming with its advertising. So why would we want to be subjected to more ‘advertising’ from our friends?
And what about traditional, brand advertisers? With low fee’s such as $7, brands may start to question the worth of their advertising on Facebook and ask for new, reduced rate card prices.
Facebook’s danger is of becoming so swamped by advertising that it eventually puts off both users and advertisers. The internet doesn’t need another MySpace.
What do you think? Is Facebook in danger of becoming an advertising only platform? Would you use ‘Promoted Tweets’ and if so what for? Tweet us your thoughts: @Honey_Digital
