The New Facebook Basics
Welcome to another edition of our series, this one focused on the new Facebook basics. Basics will continue to change as social media evolves, so it’s best to keep a steady eye on it. The first two things to grasp when using Facebook for business in 2018 are:
- Facebook is massive and that’s an understatement. There are 2 billion active monthly users as of September this year—that’s more than a quarter of the world’s population.
- Facebook is a technology company, not a media company, as Mark Zuckerberg recently reminded some event attendees. It’s easy to forget that because of the mammoth volume of published content shared via Facebook profiles and Facebook pages.
Facebook is Literally Everywhere
Another thing to remember is Facebook is 11 years old, not counting the years when only high school and college students used it. The ubiquitous nature of the social network means its uses are endless. For example, the Safety Check function enables users to notify loved ones they’re okay after disasters or attacks.
With all the above, no organization can afford to be uninformed about the company’s updates or trending topics. Below are our top three pointers to make you an effective Facebook marketer in 2018.
Get your info straight from the horse’s mouth.
The inbound marketing revolution produced umpteen blogs, freebie downloads, infographics, videos, and more about social media marketing. Instead of attempting to swim through that ocean in search of Facebook insights, keep an eye on Facebook’s newsroom website. When you see an update or new feature that could really affect your marketing strategy, go to experts you trust to help you make sense of the news and plan next steps.
Put subtitles on your videos.
By now you’re probably hip to the fact that live video gains more views during/after streaming than static video that is staged, designed, produced and uploaded. You may also already know square videos are all the rage in news feeds right now thanks to the popularity of Instagram and digital media companies like BuzzFeed.
But did you know people watch 85% of video viewed through Facebook with the sound off? Long story short: if your videos contain dialogue or a voiceover, make sure they have subtitles.
Set aside budget for advertising.
It’s time to face the music: you can’t avoid paid social advertising forever. But you don’t need to spend your entire budget on it, either. The average cost per click on Facebook ads is $1.72 across industries. The average click through rate is .09%. That may sound minuscule… until you scale it by the millions of users you can target.
Organic search optimization for your content should always be a priority. However, paid ads and boosted Facebook posts complement those efforts. You’ll have more success in rising to the top of the content ocean, where you’ll find the right people you want to sell bathing suits to. (Like what we did there?)
Contact us if you want some help.
Although these high-level basics are just the tip of the Facebook iceberg, don’t get overwhelmed. It’s not impossible to keep up with social and find the right strategy for your organization. The best way to stay up to snuff is to ask someone who knows. Click here to get in touch with us about marketing on Facebook.