Should You Break Up With Facebook?
We knew this was coming the minute the word “IPO” was on Zuckerberg’s lips. Facebook (now FB to NASDAQ), is all grown up and looking for shareholder value. Which means the giant free ride is over for brands. No more multiplier effect. No more quick posts or easy attention with sweepstakes. The new corporate motto is:
‘If you want ads, pay us’: Facebook cuts ‘overly promotional’ posts in news feed
If you’ve been under a rock, what’s happened is that FB wants you to pay for ads and promoted posts. Their goal is to reduce the reach of any given promotional post to 2% of your brands audience. That’s right. That wonderful audience of fans you spent a fortune building up with quality content? Pretty soon you’re only going to reach 2% of them if Facebook determines your post is promotional or sales oriented. So if you're a brand with fewer than 100,000 fans, the ROI has completely shifted.
So What’s a Brand to do now?
Forrester’s latest in Fast Company has a nifty thought for those who still believe community building brings sales: email. Engagement with your own email audience is still high, and open rates beat CTRs on most digital platforms. So for those of you who have quietly, properly built your email lists over the last few years, congratulations. This is what vindication feels like.
If you’ve ignored email and now want to catch up by buying someone else’s list, proceed with caution and please read this first: Why Purchasing Email Lists is Always a Bad Idea.
No Shortcuts to Loyalty
What’s the bottom line? Building a real, responsive consumer relationship takes time and for many brands, it would just be easier and cheaper to advertise. Yes. Advertise.
You know why? Because that twenty something who friended you was never really your friend. She wanted a prize, a deal, a coupon. She got very well trained in the art of the bargain and she trained brands to respond. So now that we can incorporate behavioral data into your ad buy to send her the right coupon at the right time, chances are she might actually buy your product.
And, hey, wasn’t selling things the point of marketing in the first place?
Wendy, what we've seen in the verboten list mentions sweeps and giveaways, product focused messages, anything that's a veiled ad message. We've all seen way too many package shots and product shots masquerading as conversations. That's what they want to put the kibosh on. Although we've built and managed fb communities for clients, We've advised against it for over a year now, since we never saw hard evidence that Facebook drove sales, unlike powerhouse Pinterest. Fb was useful in persona development and insights, and good for building your email list with a sweep, but no ROI.
Real Estate Broker - Entrepreneur - Investor
9yWhat are the qualifiers for "too promotional"? Great suggestion on lists. Just me or does this feel like a swing back to more traditional advertising?
Attorney | Author - FinTech Law | Speaker | Helping Technology Companies Grow
9yI've done this and it has made my life so much better.