Brian Meert's Blog, page 129
February 6, 2018
Facebook Distributes Two-Question Survey to Combat Fake News
February 6, 2018Anna Hubbel
In the aftermath of the network’s recent announcement about reducing news sources in News Feed, Facebook is distributing a two-question survey about publishers’ trustworthiness to a new set of users every day.
The survey, according to The Washington Post, will be used by the network to determine whether publishers using Facebook are trustworthy. However, it appears that the survey is perceived skeptically by some critics who believe it can be easily manipulated or it can produce inaccurate results.
@Facebook is distributing a 2-question survey to combat #FakeNews. #newspublishers #facebooknews
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Facebook’s Adam Mosseri has been addressing concerns in exchanges on Twitter. To one concerned user, Mosseri tweeted, “It’s worth noting this isn’t a rating system, nobody can opt into rating a publisher as trustworthy. We randomly sample new people each day, and only their responses are used. I’m sure some bad actors will try and game the system, but it’s not as easy as you suggest.”
To another user, Mosseri tweeted, “There is always the risk that people will try and game any system. In this case we (1) randomly sample people, (2) actively work to de-bias the data so it’s representative of the population and (3) re-run the surveys every day.”
The survey presents two questions with responses to choose from, according to BuzzFeed News:
Do you recognize the following websites?
Yes
No
How much do you trust each of these domains?
Entirely
A lot
Somewhat
Barely
Not at all
And that’s all there is to it. At this point, it’s unclear how Facebook will present the survey to users.
Facebook’s Pursuit of Trust
Other criticisms of the survey include comments that it’s too simple. Mosseri addresses this concern in another tweet.
“I understand that some people may balk at how simple a survey is, but complicated surveys can be confusing and bias signal [sic], and meaningful patterns can emerge from broad surveys.”
In addition, there is concern that survey responses will undermine well-renowned and highly-trusted news sources. Also, there is skepticism about the reasoning for the first survey question, which simply asks if the user recognizes the website.
Mosseri explains in a tweet, “It’s actually not a simple ratio of trust to familiarity. We ask people if they’re familiar with a publisher because, if they’re not, it’s not even worth asking if they trust the publisher. What we look at, and value, is how broadly trusted a publisher is.”
With over two-thirds of the US users turning to social media for at least some of their daily news, it has become overwhelming for outlets like Google or Facebook to manage the distribution of true versus false news.
In a The Washington Post article, Dean Eckles, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and former data scientist at Facebook, believes limiting the survey to only select groups of users is a safer bet for generating authentic responses.
“Survey samples are hard to game in a lot of ways because you’d need a lot of dedicated people in order to game a survey,” Eckles said in the article.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explains how the survey works in a Facebook post:
“Here’s how this will work. As part of our ongoing quality surveys, we will now ask people whether they’re familiar with a news source and, if so, whether they trust that source. The idea is that some news organizations are only trusted by their readers or watchers, and others are broadly trusted across society even by those who don’t follow them directly. (We eliminate from the sample those who aren’t familiar with a source, so the output is a ratio of those who trust the source to those who are familiar with it.)
This update will not change the amount of news you see on Facebook. It will only shift the balance of news you see towards sources that are determined to be trusted by the community.”
Although criticisms of the survey aren’t likely to go away, Facebook is determined to pursue its goal of becoming a trustworthy platform. The network has been the focus of negativity as of late when it was discovered last year that Russian “troll farms” manipulated the platform before, during, and after the 2016 US presidential election.
Publishers may have a bumpy road ahead of them, but one thing is certain: putting out engaging news that is also truthful and accurate is more important now than ever.
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February 4, 2018
New Google Feature Allows Users to Mute Ads for 90 Days
January 4, 2018Anna Hubbel
Photo Courtesy of QuartzGood news for Internet users, not so much for advertisers: Google launches a new feature that mutes reminder ads. On January 25, Quartz reported the new feature, which works anywhere online where Google ad services are used.
@Google announces a new feature that allows users to mute #reminderads for 90 days. #onlineads #digitaladvertising
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As frequent Internet users are aware, advertised products or services appear online multiple times. Reminder ads pop up here and there, regardless of users’ web activity at any given moment because Google’s algorithm processes their initial view of the item. As a result, like a shadow, these reminder ads follow users wherever they go for a certain amount of time. However, with this latest feature, Google is giving users a temporary break from these shadow ads. Specifically, a full 90 days, after which point reminder ads typically complete their run.
Quartz reports that the mute syncs across all devices as long as users are logged in to their Google accounts on each device. The mute feature is somewhat of a branch off of Google’s ad-muting feature originally introduced in 2012. This first feature banished ads if they were considered inappropriate or irrelevant by the user. In addition to the new mute feature, Google is also expanding the original ad-muting feature to all devices and overall making it more accessible to users.
What This Means for Advertisers
Advertisers who fear getting muted will need to make their ads attractive and relevant to users. Additionally, in cases when users do follow through with an online purchase, businesses should provide exceptional service so that users will be excited when they see reminder ads as a result of their positive experience with the business. Advertisers can also make their ads stand out by writing excellent ad copy and creating trustworthy ads.
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February 3, 2018
Facebook Gives Users More Control over Their Privacy
February 3, 2018Anna Hubbel
Facebook recently introduced a new education campaign for users to help them better understand the network’s privacy policies and have more control over their privacy on Facebook. In addition, the network shared its guiding Privacy Principles, as well as announced its plans to make privacy settings easier for users to find.
@Facebook recently introduced a new education campaign for users to help them better understand the network's #PrivacyPrinciples and have more control over their privacy. #onlinesecurity
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Educating Users
Facebook is now sharing videos in News Feed that educate users on privacy practices. For example, how to control information the network uses to show ads to the user or how to delete old posts or even an entire Facebook account. Additionally, users can take Facebook’s Privacy Checkup.
Facebook says it will refresh its privacy education campaign throughout the year, as well as make privacy tips available in ads on websites outside of the Facebook platform.
Finding Privacy Settings
Later this year, Facebook will roll out a new privacy center where users can easily view core privacy settings in one place. The network wants to provide easy accessibility for users to have a safer online experience.
Facebook’s Privacy Principles
In addition to putting together resources to help other businesses and organizations integrate their own privacy standards, such as in workshops, Facebook shared its Privacy Principles for users to have a full understanding of the network’s driving force.
User control—Facebook strives to put privacy in user control with convenient tools to make it possible.
Understanding how data is used—Making information, tools, and educational resources available to users is a top priority.
Privacy design—Facebook products are designed with privacy integrated with help from security, engineering, and design experts.
Secure information—Facebook says it works around the clock to keep user accounts safe and secure. Security is a number one priority.
Full ownership—This means Facebook makes it so users can delete their posts or even their account if they so choose. Users are in control of their own content.
Ongoing improvement—To continue improving its platform as a safe and enjoyable online experience, Facebook is always conducting research and working with experts.
Accountability—Facebook is accountable for all of its products, and therefore conducts rigorous data security testing and seeks expert feedback worldwide on all of its policies and practices.
Facebook also has principles in place to guide its advertising decisions.
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Survey Finds the Top Effective Video Marketing Platforms
February 3, 2018Jesica Schmidt
Survey finds the top effective video #marketing platforms. #videomarketing #digitalmarketing #socialmediamarketing #contentmarketing
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For video marketing, it’s important to know which platform is the most effective and reliable. Wyzowl, a company that creates explainer videos, surveyed 459 marketers worldwide, finding the most effective social media for video marketing. Not surprisingly, YouTube and Facebook topped the charts as the most effective video platforms. Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Snapchat follow behind.
YouTube is the best video marketing platform. Targeting users aged 18 to 49, YouTube explainer videos were found to be 78.8 percent effective. Only 12.6 percent of the surveyed marketers don’t use the platform. Because YouTube is entirely free, offering a wide variety of videos for every user, it’s no surprise YouTube is number one on the charts.
The results of the Wyzowl survey measuring the effectiveness of each video marketing platform.Also, not surprising, Facebook ranked second for video marketing. Although Facebook explainer videos were found to be 58.5 percent effective, 32.5 percent of the respondents surveyed don’t use the video platform. Facebook’s targeted age range is users between 18 to 49 years old. Facebook, a free website and app that quickly reaches many users, was found to be a reliable marketing platform.
Other websites on the chart are Webinar, found to be 37.9 percent effective, Instagram, 32.3 percent, LinkedIn, 28.1 percent, and Twitter, 27.6 percent. The numbers continue to drop with Facebook Live, interactive video, 360-degree video, and virtual reality.
The most surprising of these statistics is Snapchat. Snapchat, at the bottom of the list, is only 3.1 percent effective in video marketing. Admittedly, 88.6 percent of the respondents in the survey do not use this platform, but that only plays a small part in the falling statistic. One reason for the high amount of respondents who don’t use Snapchat is Snapchat’s marketers, who only target smartphone users between 18 to 24 years old, are mostly in North America and Europe. On the worldwide scale, this makes up less than 36 percent of the market. Despite the small number of Snapchat marketers, Snapchat’s ad revenue is expected to increase between 2018 and 2019.
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February 2, 2018
Instagram Influencer Posts Doubled to 1.5 Million Worldwide in 2017
February 3, 2018Anna Hubbel
Number of @Instagram #influencer posts doubled to 1.5 million worldwide in 2017, new data shows. #sponsoredposts #postengagement
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Influencer marketing success lies in Instagram, new data suggests. According to recent findings gathered by Klear, an analytics and social media marketing platform, influencer posts doubled to more than 1.5 million worldwide in 2017. For the purpose of Klear’s study, influencer posts included the #ad or #sponsored hashtags to determine promotional or endorsement intent.
To better recognize the significance of this increase in influencer posts on Instagram, Klear also discovered that these posts generated approximately one billion “likes” globally in 2017 (about 682 per post). That means influencers are both reaching a relevant audience (developed through their following) and reaching these audiences in mass numbers. This data supports previous findings that Instagram influencers bring in the highest post engagement.
Photo Courtesy of eMarketerAge and Gender of Influencers
In addition to its findings regarding the number of influencer posts on Instagram, Klear discovered that the majority of influencers fall between the ages of 18 and 34. Further, 42 percent of this majority fell within the 18 and 24 age range.
In regards to gender, women were found to make up 84 percent of Instagram influencers. With this high percentage, it comes as no surprise that fashion and beauty brands partnered with influencers the most, making up one quarter of all sponsored posts.
Instagram’s Booming Userbase
According to Emarketer’s estimates, there will be 96.3 million US Instagram users this year. Looking forward to 2021, Emarketer expects that number to reach 118.1 million.
Putting two and two together, marketers should consider the potential reach and growth to be gained by partnering with an Instagram influencer. In addition to the networking opportunities, it’s a great tool for engaging with users who are most likely to buy a business’s products or services.
For individuals looking to generate revenue through Instagram, the opportunities as influencers are significant and promising. Individuals can learn from these 21 successful Instagram influencers for inspiration.
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February 1, 2018
Amazon Advertising Is More Popular Than Snapchat and Twitter
February 2, 2018Anne Felicitas
@amazon 's ad revenue is better than @snapchat & @twitter 's. #business #digitalmarketing #ecommerce
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Photo courtesy of Stores.org
Amazon generated $2.8 billion in ad revenue, besting that of Snapchat and Twitter, the former generating $2 billion and the latter generating $800 million. Doug Anmuth, an analyst for J.P. Morgan, expects Amazon’s revenue to double to $6.6 billion.
Most of Amazon’s ad revenue is generated by ad placements within its website Amazon.com. Retailers can purchase banner ads displayed above search results, ads displayed in the search results, ads displayed as suggestions to complement a purchase, and ads displayed in third-party websites. Allegedly, Amazon is considering placing ads in Alexa and Prime Video.
Amazon’s advertising platform may be more attractive to retailers because of its users’ high purchase intent. Unlike the users visiting the platforms of Snapchat and Twitter to interact with friends and family, users visit Amazon intending to buy.
“Similar to the candy and magazine racks, which are the most valuable space in the store, Amazon is the most valuable space on the web because you are at the very bottom of the funnel,” said Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, about Amazon advertising in an interview with Ad Age.
And, according to a survey by Bloom Reach, 55 percent of online searches for products begin and end on Amazon. That figure has grown every year and will likely continue to grow.
It seems Amazon advertising is only going to get bigger. As Amazon focuses on generating more revenue, big grocery brands and packaged-goods companies invest more money on Amazon advertising. If Amazon continues to improve year after year, it may become a threat to Google and Facebook.
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4 Facebook Tips for Getting Creative with Vertical Video
February 2, 2018Anna Hubbel
Gone are the days of creative limitation, when creators felt restricted by landscape or television formats for video. Now, you or your creative team can play within a vertical space, coming up with new, innovative ways to engage with consumers.
Play within a #vertical space by coming up with new, innovative ways to engage with consumers in #mobile video. #verticalvideo #facebooktips
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The vertical video format is the most conducive to mobile experiences, as most consumers will be viewing your brand’s video on their smartphone devices. Additionally, according to Facebook Business, 65 percent of consumers consider brands that advertise with vertical video more innovative. Moreover, 79 percent of novice vertical video consumers prefer the vertical format and consider it more engaging.
Here are four tips Facebook Business offers for creating vertical video ads.
1. Use Height to Direct the Eye
Since your audience won’t be viewing your video from left to right, as with landscape videos, you can play around with different ways to direct their eyes. Whether it’s zooming in and out on different elements within your video, placing prominent elements center screen, or using contrasting colors to make those elements pop, there are countless creative ways to make a roadmap for your viewers.
https://www.advertisemint.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/vertical-video-ad-example-1.mp4
2. Try a Split Screen
Use a split screen to showcase your product in two different ways at the same time. Or use a split screen to tell a story in a unique and creative way. Making one portion of the screen larger than the other can also convey where you want your viewers to place the most attention in your message. There are various benefits of dividing up the vertical space of your video.
https://www.advertisemint.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/vertical-video-example-2.mp4
3. Have Fun with Animation
Bring your ideas to life through 2D, 3D, stop-motion, or motion graphics animations. Make the video watching experience fun for your viewers with action that flows top to bottom, bottom left to top right, or even bottom to top, whatever tells your story best. Animations can give life to the vertical space.
https://www.advertisemint.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/vertical-video-example-3.mp4
4. Try Type Overlays for Texture and Dimension
Type or text overlays can add texture and dimension to your vertical video. Adding this extra layer as a creative placement or element in your video helps make the content pop and introduces sophistication to your message.
https://www.advertisemint.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/vertical-video-example-4.mp4
In addition to catering your video creative to vertical formats, consider the findings that a recent Facebook study discovered regarding effective mobile video techniques.
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Facebook Releases Fourth Quarter Earnings Report
February 1, 2018Anne Felicitas
Photo courtesy of Entrepreneur.comFacebook releases its earnings report for the fourth quarter, revealing a drop in user time spent.
According to the report, time spent on Facebook dropped roughly 50 million hours every day, a figure which Tech Crunch estimates to be 2.1 minutes per user per day. The reason for the drop, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is the reduction of viral videos in its platform.
“Already, last quarter, we made changes to show fewer viral videos to make sure people’s time well spent is well spent,” explained Zuckerberg during the earnings call. “In total, we made changes that reduced time spent on Facebook by roughly 50 million hours every day.”
Earlier this month, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook’s new News Feed algorithm will reduce organic reach from public entities such as businesses, organizations, and the media. Last year’s Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election and the proliferation of fake news on its platform precipitated this change.
Despite the drop in time spent, Facebook’s active users and ad revenue increased. Facebook’s daily active users are now at 1.40 billion, an increase of 14 percent year over year. It’s monthly active users also increased to 2.13 billion, another 14 percent year-over-year increase. By the end of December 31, 2017, Facebook’s ad revenue increased to $12.97 billion.
With the changes to News Feed, Zuckerberg hopes to make Facebook good for people’s well being and for society. In the next earnings report, investors will see whether this effort will reduce time spent, active users, and ad revenue.
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January 31, 2018
How to Repurpose Your Blogs on Facebook
February 1, 2018Danielle Kunkle, co-founder at Boomer Benefits
How to make the most of your blog posts. #bloggers #writers #blogging
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Perhaps you’ve heard of the 80/20 rule when it comes to your content. You should spend about 20 percent of your time creating content and 80 percent of your time promoting it. But how many of us do it? It’s a shame if you don’t. Think of all those hours of hard work you put in researching, writing, and editing that epic blog post. It’s important that you share your genius with the world. Here are a few easy repurposing ideas to get the most mileage that you can out of every post you write.
First, Write Valuable (and Evergreen) Posts
Hopefully you are writing regularly for your blog because Google pays attention to how often you publish new content. The more often you post, the higher you rank on Google’s search results. However, you never sacrifice quality for quantity. You should put a lot of time and thought into making insanely useful posts that will bring incredible value to your readers. Bonus points for choosing evergreen topics, which are always relevant to readers, because that makes it easier to promote your posts all year round.
Here’s an example of a Medicare 101 post that I wrote for my own website. Notice the length, structure, and topic. Because it’s evergreen, I can republish it in the future.
If you can’t write posts with considerable depth and quality because of time constraints, then aim to write better posts less often. Consistency is better than frequency.
Schedule 12 Months of Visibility for Your Post
Whether you use your own content promotion calendar or a scheduling tool like Missinglettr, you need to post that stellar article multiple times over the next year. Organic reach of your posts on Facebook has been falling for some time, and Mark Zuckerberg’s recent comments promise more of the same. Since only a small percentage of your fans ever even see your post, it’s okay to republish that post several times over the next year.
Go Live
Although many people will read your article over the next year, not everyone who uses Facebook is a reader. That’s why, of course, video posts on Facebook have surged to all-time highs. Take the content from your blog post and go live on Facebook to talk about it. Some people will write a script for this, but I prefer to wing it because the nature of live video is that it’s okay to be unpolished. Talking about the topic on live video demonstrates to my viewers that I’m an expert on the subject. Going live will build your online authority as a thought leader in your niche or space.
Turn Posts into Images
Another great tactic is to pull several of the tips or quotes from your post and turn them into image posts. Let’s say your post involves 10 tips on writing a killer resume. Choose two or three of those tips and then use Canva or your favorite graphics software to make Facebook image posts (800 x 800 pixels) for each one. Be sure to include a small copy of your logo or your website URL for brand awareness. When you post the image on Facebook, be sure to include a link in your ad copy back to your original post. Images tend to generate lots of shares so get creative with them or use bold colors to make them stand out. Here’s an example of one we use frequently:
You can also do something similar with trivia or a poll around the blog content’s topic. Anything that generates engagement (likes, comments, shares) from your readers will keep it appearing in the News Feed more often.
Give these tactics a try and set your content up to be in front of readers time and time again. Soon you’ll experience the traffic benefits that Facebook can bring to your site.
Danielle Kunkle Roberts is the co-founder of Boomer Benefits, a licensed insurance agency that helps Baby Boomers navigate their entry into Medicare.
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How to Push Customers through the Sales Funnel on Facebook
January 31, 2018Marijana Kay
With Facebook now having more than two billion users, there are many opportunities for businesses to grow on the platform. Although your first thought might be the drop in organic reach for brands and publishers on News Feed, don’t forget the power of advertising on Facebook. Because of its advertising features and options including objectives, targeting, and segmenting, you can reach your ideal audience right where they are and right where they expect to see you.
To turn users into loyal customers, push them through the three stages of the sales funnel:
Top of the funnel: the awareness stage where customers are looking for answers, resources, and education.
Middle of the funnel: the consideration or evaluation stage where customers heavily research whether or not your product or service is a good fit for them.
Bottom of the funnel: the purchase or conversion stage where customers look for final validation to make their purchase.
By guiding your audience through the funnel, you can ensure the highest return on investment no matter where they are right now. Let’s break each of these stages down.
Top of the Funnel: Social Discovery
In case you’re inclined to garner more purchases, the one and only focus of your ads, think about this: Facebook users don’t log in to the platform to be sold. Instead, they come so they can socialize. This includes liking other people’s updates, commenting, and messaging.
Photo courtesy of Aaron ZakowskiFor you, this means you need to provide them with content they will want to like, comment, or share, so instead of selling, you will see the highest engagement if you educate, engage, and entertain. The ideal way to do this is with video.
Because video is changing the way consumers shop, think about what they would enjoy seeing from you and what they could engage with. There are two main ways you can work with video at this stage of the funnel: you can post it organically or you can increase its reach by either boosting a Facebook post or creating a video ad. As customers watch your video, Facebook gathers data about those customers who you can take into the next stage of the funnel.
Middle of the Funnel: Consideration and Segmentation
Once your video has been published for some time, you’re ready to build your segmented audiences. The best thing about using video on Facebook is not only can you create specific groups (called Custom Audiences) you can advertise to, but you can also use the Lookalike Audiences to build groups that are likely to be interested in you because they’re similar to that first group that’s already engaging with you.
To get started on your segmented audiences, go to your Audiences tab in Business Manager and select Custom Audience from the Create Audience dropdown menu. Then choose Engagement, choose Video, and select the video you used as the top of the funnel content. The best part here is you can create multiple audiences based on how much of the video your customers watched.
Segment an audience based on view duration.Once you create your audience, you can go ahead and select Lookalike Audience from that same dropdown menu mentioned earlier. After you’ve selected the audience you want to replicate, you can add countries and the audience size for your Lookalike Audience.
Now that you’ve defined your audiences for the middle of the funnel stage, your next step is to make them your target audience for content that fits this consideration stage (also called evaluation stage). Remember, you’re now advertising to audiences already familiar with you, so you want to use this opportunity to serve them in-depth content that proves you’re the expert in your industry. Content like long-form blog posts, webinars, free trials and live demos can produce brilliant results because they further build up your audience’s awareness of you and increase trust in your authority.
Bottom of the Funnel: Nudge toward Conversion
At the final stage of the funnel, the Facebook Pixel is your strongest asset. With it, you can track and analyze the audience that engaged with your middle-of-the-funnel content and retarget them with even more relevant Facebook ads.
The audience that has come this far through your sales funnel now knows what you can do for them. They watched your video, landed on your website, consumed the content you served them there, and signed up for additional free value you offered—they now need a final nudge from you.
Because of the Facebook Pixel, you can target your audiences with Dynamic Product ads and Multi-Product ads, showing them products based on their browsing history on your website or the products they’ve added to their shopping cart.
An example of a Dynamic Product AdOther options include retargeting these engaged audiences with offers like discounts, vouchers, or free shipping. This works because they’ve shown interest in your products or services, and this is a gentle way to incentivize them to take that final step and complete the purchase.
The three stages of the sales funnel are the steps you need to take to turn your ideal audience from stranger to paying customer.
Marijana Kay is a freelance writer and content strategist working with SaaS and marketing brands on their content marketing strategy. She creates long-form, actionable content that grows her clients’ visibility, authority, and revenue. Marijana is also a judge for marketing industry awards, and she hosts a content marketing podcast called Content Love.
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