‘It’s All Social’ — Updates from Q1 2018
From Facebook changing its algorithm to Snapchat changing the entire layout of its app, Q1 kept our social team busy. So now that it’s over, we took a look at some of the highlights, some of which had us scrambling and others had us excited.
Facebook’s Algorithm Change
Probably the biggest change since the platform was created, Facebook announced that they would be prioritizing content from friends and family over brands and publishers. So posts that inspire conversations and engagement now have a much better chance of being seen… Or you can start paying to have your posts seen via Facebook ads. Either way, there’s been a lot of questions raised:
- Should you start paying to promote content? Or focus more on improving the quality of organic? Two months in, there isn’t any one answer. It really depends on the brand and their focus — test them both out and see what works, the actual answer is likely going to be a mix of the two.
- If you are considering paying more for impressions, the flipside is that other brands are too. Increased demand for attention with no change in supply means that CPMs have been higher since this change was announced.
- The space that brands had organically in news feeds just dropped significantly. So, in order to get reach, the quality of content needs to be high. Long term, this translates into users expecting a higher quality of advertisements, so if you’re not the best at creating content — there’s no time like the present to start improving.
- As always, we recommend not using ‘like-bait’.
From my personal experience, I don’t think I’ve ever liked a page just because the creator said: “like this for a chance to…” Because Facebook now flags those posts to reduce their organic reach, it’s unlikely that those types of posts will gain the same reach as they did before.
Snapchat Platform Update
In November, Snapchat announced that they would be separating social from media. Everything from your friends including stories and chats is now on the left side of the app while content from publishers, creators and the community is on the right side. The update rolled out in February and personally, I haven’t been to the right side of the app since. Looks like I’m not the only one.
Historically, drastic changes haven’t been received well by social media users (remember the Facebook redesign of ‘08?) but the move is central to Snapchat’s mission of putting people first. As a Snapchat spokesperson said: “Updates as big as this one can take a little getting used to, but we hope the community will enjoy it once they settle in.”
Later in the quarter, Snapchat rolled out a few different targeting options for advertisers based on location and context. Radius targeting allows advertisers to target users within a certain radius of a specified location while location targeting will let you reach users close to a certain type of location such as a university.
LinkedIn Platform Updates
Right about now you’re probably thinking: “Did this guy just say LinkedIn?”
Yes, that’s exactly what I said — bear with me.
While it may not be the first platform you think of, it’s actually a useful tool for advertisers, particularly in the B2B space and we’re pretty excited about the recent updates they’ve made.
For starters, LinkedIn just rolled out native video advertisements. Although it seems like an entirely different professional world, with the success of video on other social platforms, it was only a matter of time before LinkedIn followed suit. With video being an effective tool for capturing attention, it opens up a world of opportunity for advertisers to get creative with B2B messaging which, let’s face it, can get pretty dull if you’re not careful.
LinkedIn already has lead gen forms which make it super easy for users to submit their information. Combine that with increased CTR’s from new ad formats and your return on investment is suddenly a lot higher. If you aren’t using LinkedIn to collect leads then it’s definitely time to look into it.
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So whether you’re a small-scale advertiser focusing on organic & boosted content, a big brand with evergreen strategies or even a B2B advertiser, Q1 put down a lot to think about.
Why are you still reading? Start planning!
Originally published at www.pmg.com on April 13, 2018.
