My “Hate & Love” relationship with Facebook.

How it all begins? “thefacebook”

I remember my first interaction with “thefacebook”, as it was called back then. A friend of mine was inviting me to see his pictures on it, which incidentally was prompting me to create a profile… asking for my personal details, my name, my age and so on…I highly valued my privacy — at the time — and chose to use a nickname.

As I started discovering what “thefacebook” was all about, I recall I was somehow shocked…To me, it was something along “voyeurism” and “exhibitionism”. I shut down the account for a couple of weeks.

When I reopened my facebook account later on, I was hooked up for the same reasons I was shocked in the first place: voyeurism and exhibitionism.

What I did not know back then is that my fate with Facebook was going to be sealed the day I chose to become a marketer.

An empirical approach:

Working with Facebook as a brand manager, and then as an advertiser has taught me that this “tool” is more empiric than scientific.

It all boils down to the famous Facebook algorithm. Like the Wizard of Oz it is very much hidden from the general public and it decides about your “fate” not in the land of Oz, but online. The algorithm “ranks” what post will be most likely to matter to you. Which friends’ news will appear on your wall? Which ad will appear before your eyes? Facebook claims that it takes into account how old a post is, how often you have interacted with this particular friend or page, and many other factors…However this remains vague. Indeed, nobody accurately knows about the Facebook algorithm, yet, we, marketers, have to deal with it. How? We need to continuously keep following the latest updates released by Facebook but most of all we need to experiment with it.

A paid media tool:

Back in the early days of Facebook, companies, marketers and advertisers were all thrilled, a tool that was costing virtually nothing but your time and your creativity, where a brand could directly engage with clients, prospects and other stakeholders. The recipe was somehow easy: be engaging, be entertaining. Something that should be the rule for any piece of advertising created on the planet, I believe, but that’s for another discussion.

What about today? Well, “organic reach” is low — organic reach is the number of people who see your content on Facebook without paid distribution. This means that “cool” or not, your post might not be seen. To put things into perspective, today people who “like” your page but do not “follow” it, do not see your organic posts. People who like your page, and are following it with the “by default” status on, might see your post organically if Facebook algorithm judge it matters to them. Now if they like and follow your page with the “see first” status, then the algorithm is been bypassed, and your posts will appear in the newsfeed of your fans.

Bottom line, most people like and follow a page by default, that’s why you will need to sponsor your posts in order to make sure it will reach your targeted audience. In other words, you need to treat Facebook like any other media channel. Invest, track results, analyze them and re calibrate your strategy accordingly.

The value of a Facebook “like”

Few years back, the number of likes was the barometer for brands to see how “well” their page was doing. As illustrated earlier, this is not the case anymore. Back then, there was no sophisticated algorithm and a “like” was the cornerstone of consumer behavior metric for Facebook. With the complexity of the Facebook universe today, with so many friends, so many brands being “liked”, and so many pieces of news uploaded and shared today, this is no longer the rule.The value of a like today is more a feel-good metric, than anything else.

How to work with Facebook in a nutshell?

- Stop looking at Facebook as it used to be. What was valid last month, might not be valid anymore. Do not let your past knowledge be a hinder in the way you approach Facebook. Keep a fresh mind.

- Read about Facebook and its updates from Facebook itself.

- Treat Facebook as a media channel.

- Use the Facebook support, you will learn a lot by speaking to them and challenging them.

- Keep track on how people and more importantly how your targeted audience use Facebook and other social media currently. Did you know for example that today, users 65 years and older are the fastest-growing group on Facebook?

- Experiment. Sponsor your page, your post, “boost” it, change the objectives. Is it brand awareness you want? Traffic to your website? Leads generation? More messages on Facebook messenger about your products? Play. Facebook ads manager might be intimidating for the novices, but dive in and you will be able to see the results for yourself and draw the conclusions.

- Analyse. I am lucky to work with small companies, where a single post can translate in incremental sales. Of course, this is the exception, however tracking and questioning the efficiency of your strategy is key.

Any question, feel free to ask me.

**You can reach out to Celine here.