They used to say that the two constants in life that were guaranteed were taxes and death.
Now you can add "Facebook making changes" to that list!
My goal is to keep you up-to-date on key items, so I want to outline four changes that have occurred over the past few months that every Page Manager needs to be aware of.
These changes offer opportunities, so here's your one-stop spot to review them and consider how you can add them to your marketing mix.
NOTE: This is a longer post than usual! Each update is large and in Purple so if you need to scan to each point, feel free to do so!
The New Version of Page Insights for Facebook Page Admins is [finally] here!
Earlier this year Facebook had invited Page owners to try a new version of Page Insights designed to help create better content and provide Page admins with more information about the people that were visiting their pages.
They have now announced the roll-out of the updated Page Insights to all Page owners worldwide!
View their full release and video on the new Insights here: Facebook for Business
Here’s a quick synopsis I put together:
Simpler metrics:
Facebook split the People Talking About This (PTAT) metric into separate elements: Page Likes, People Engaged (the # of unique people who have clicked on, liked, commented on, or shared your posts), Page tags and mentions, Page check-ins and other interactions on a Page.
The Virality metric was also renamed Engagement Rate and, in order to help admins better gauge overall post quality, now includes clicks as part of its measurements. (HELPFUL)
Score Card
Facebook aggregated all the metrics for positive interactions (likes, comments, shares and clicks) and negative interactions (hide post, hide all posts, report as spam, unlike page) into a post-specific score card, so marketers can evaluate positive and negative metrics side-by-side for each post. (NICE!)
People interacting with your page Insights
Page Insights allows you to see not only who you’ve reached – but also who you’ve engaged. NOTE: This can help Page admins identify how content resonates with different audiences and make more informed decisions about their Page content and strategy. (AGAIN, A WIN!)
One Feature I really Like:
Benchmark option. Opportunity to get benchmark data such as Organic Page Reach (always an issue!) and Organic Page Likes over time compared to another prior time period. This is some easy to access granular detail that is very useful for determining value!
One metric you must check: When your fans are online!
You want to post at the optimum times when your fans are on Facebook so they have the best chance of seeing and interacting with your posts! Now, there’s no excuse not to. Facebook Insights gives you details on when your fans are online.
Go to your Page Admin area, click on “View Insights”, then go to “Posts”
Facebook Page Insights reveals when fans are online! This is critical to posting at the best times when the most fans have opportunity to see and engage with your posts.
Here’s the key update from Facebook:
We've updated our Pages Terms in order to make it easier
for businesses of all sizes to create and administer promotions on Facebook.
Here’s what Page administrators need to know:
We've removed the requirement that promotions on Facebook
only be administered through apps…
Now, promotions may be administered
on Page Timelines and in apps on Facebook.
So now you can run contests on tabs and also in the News Feed. It's your choice. Both offer distinct opportunities.
Tabs continue to offer the best lead capture opportunity. Timeline Contests in the News Feed offer ability to increase engagement and reach, important for top-of-the-funnel Facebook marketing.
Here's more on the actual announcement where Facebook loosened up the promotion policy regarding promotions in the News Feed that be run by asking fans to "Like" or "Comment" on a post as a means to enter.
Here’s a guide to deciding between using a Timeline Contest, a App Contest on a tab, or both!
Here’s the quick overview:
A Facebook timeline contest will give you fast engagement and can be deployed quickly.
A Facebook contest on a tab will give you greater control and better lead capture.
That’s the quick overview. Yes, TabSite offers both types;
- TabSite’s Timeline Contest app
- TabSite’s Tab app Contest tools
Your posts (stories) can now be "bumped" back into the News Feed for fans/friends to see if Facebook thinks the post would be of value to them based on their past interaction with your posts!
Prior to this, Facebook's News Feed was always organized based on newness. The newest posts would be visible to a user first and would be prioritized over older stories. What this meant practically was that older stories would likely get buried towards the bottom of a user’s news feed, so if you didn't post when a active fan might see, then that post was likely just lost to them. But not anymore!
Story Bumping helps change this, and takes into account all posts a user has seen
and pushes unread stories that may be of interest back to the top.
This means that when a Facebook user loads their news feeds, it will populate stories that are new to each user, somewhat based on time it was posted but not adding in older posts that may be of value.
Facebook stated that in testing, story bumping has already resulted in an increase in interactions (likes, comments and shares) with different stories.
Another change Facebook rolled out is related to the way Facebook organizes the News Feed.
This change is based on your last 50 interactions with the site. This new feature is called Last Actor and is another signal to Facebook and how they will prioritize posts to users in the News Feed.
Last Actor will review an individual’s most recent Facebook activity, which means that the social network is adding more real-time signaling to help decide what should show each person!
The ultimate goal of all these changes is to encourage brands to create relevant content that produces interactions from users in the form of likes, comments or shares. Story bumping has the potential to help brands and marketers, as it will allow extended visibility for content, even for users who might have missed it when it was originally posted. This means fans have a "second chance" of seeing your post if they missed it the first time with the "bump" in effect by Facebook. There is no user or page control over the "bump", other than how they have interacted with your content in the past helps determine if that story gets "bumped" in their feed.
Along with this, Last Actor provides added visibility over shorter time periods – taking into account most recent real-time interactions.
Both of these items ultimately point to what companies on Facebook should already know, it's all about the quality of your content. This again should force Pages back to regularly evaluating the engagement on their content using the Page Insights (see my earlier point above!) to see what was engaging to fans in order to help educate them on future posts.
It should be noted that the Facebook ad system uses different algorithms to promote posts and so this does not impact visibility of ads.
My take is that both of these updates to the News Feed algorithm of what a Facebook users sees are helpful, both for the user and for the Page sharing content. It means timing of a post is not the end-all and that engagement by a user rewards the Page with potential that their content will be shown via either a "story bump" or a "last actor" connection.
A few months ago, Facebook started testing a cool feature called Facebook embedded posts. Like lots of you, we were pumped about it, but also a little bummed — because it wasn't available to the masses yet! We wanted to try it and use it!
NOW it’s available!
First, find the post you want to embed. Here’s a nice post leading to a new infographic I have on my site…
For instance, I want to embed a post on this blog, so here’s our blog’s source code….
Shazaam! Here’s the Facebook post
Visitors can share right from the post, and if you click into it to engage more, it’ll lead you to Facebook. NICE!
In checking out Facebook’s post about embedded posts, they say, “Currently, you cannot customize how Embedded Posts are displayed on your page. The size of the post is fixed to the same dimensions as it’s shown on Facebook.”
So go ahead, give it a try!
So there you have four key updates Facebook has made since late summer 2013. Hopefully this helps you keep current and gives you some new ideas for marketing use!
Helpful? I'd love to hear from you!
Want to stay in the know? Join my Facebook updates list to get emailed when I have a new post on Facebook updates!
Ability to Edit a Page Post (not just a photo)
Facebook has now rolled out the ability to edit posts on profiles and Pages. Before you could only edit descriptions on photos.
However.....It was out and I had access but I now am putting a asterisks by this because it has disappeared from my options on my Pages I manage! Some users seem to have it and some do not!
As you can see in the image above, there is a typo in our Facebook page post! It’s in the first line, the third word overall, and it stands out! It was supposed to say “Have a listen” and says “lsten” instead of “listen!”
This was previously only available on post comments and on Photo descriptions, so I would have had to delete the entire post to get rid of the typo. Recently, however, this new “Edit” feature was announced by Facebook. I immediately went to the TabSite Page and was thrilled to see I had the new “Edit” option!
For a full breakdown on how it works (when you have it), visit my Edit a Post on Facebook blog post on TabSite.
This feature is currently being rolled out for web version users of Facebook and their Android app. Facebook has stated that the same feature will be coming to the iOS (iPhone, iPad, etc.) version of their app in the near future.
Do you have it?
Podcast Episode #6 2013
[powerpress] This Halftime Mike Podcast episode with special guest Andrea Vahl dives into the Facebook promotion policy change opening up contest promos to be run in the news feed. As a author on Facebook Marketing, international speaker, and blogger, Andrea knows Facebook and joins Mike to talk about the recent changes.
Andrea Vahl is co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies. She regularly writes about Facebook for Social Media Examiner and has an alter-ego known online as Grandma Mary. Small and medium sized businesses can benefit from this discussion on what the changes mean and what is recommended to help businesses maximize their Facebook Marketing. Andrea discusses both the new Timeline Contest options as well as contests being run via apps on Facebook page tabs.
Subscribe: Halftime Mike on iTunes | Subscribe via RSS | Listen on Stitcher. For more Halftime Mike podcast episodes, click here:
Halftime Mike podcasts are packed with no nonsense, practical tips for small and medium sized businesses. Success today demands making adjustments fast and fluidly. Just like a basketball team using halftime to evaluate the first half and set a game plan for the second half, business leaders can use this podcast to stop, reflect, and then take learning’s to adjust and implement within their business!
It's a change for sure. It's an opportunity as well.
Does it end the need for contest tools to be run on tabs? No.
It's simply another tool in the marketing toolbox that savvy marketers can use!
The new Timeline Contests opportunity, based on Facebook Promotion Policy Change, (read more on TabSite blog ) loosens the rules and provides new possibilities. As well, it has limitations and some question marks. Let's dive in a bit deeper...
Facebook Pages can now:
The Limitations:
The Opportunities:
A specific idea example of a Timeline news feed contest:
A small business with a few thousand fans is nearly ready to launch a new product, so to generate buzz and awareness the company can:
No, I don't see it. Tab Contests continue to offer a more complete range of tools for businesses to brand contests and capture leads such as email addresses on tabs. As well, tab contests offer more advanced tools including:
Each contest type can have its place, it all depends on needs, goals, and overall marketing strategy objectives.
There is a place for this new, Timeline Contest option. It makes it easier to run basic promotions and increase some buzz. It does not replace the value of tab contests which offer more features as noted. It's all about the overall marketing strategy and what tool can help the business meet their objectives. It's not a replacement, it's another tool in the toolbox to consider for use.
What remains to be seen?
Facebook made some announcements recently about wanting to show users "high quality content". If this is the case and companies can try to "game" engagement by having fans comment to potentially win a prize, is that authentic quality? Since commenting is part of the algorithm that impacts how much of future content a user see's, brands that successfully get fans to comment often to potentially win a prize are potentially going to use Timeline Contests to increase reach whether it is truly a "quality" post or not. There's some gray area here. I think time will tell what happens with this.
