Keeping Up With Facebook's Changes

by Mark Cooper, Aug 30, 2012, 8:00 AM

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Facebook is constantly evolving its offerings for brand pages. As it continues to transform the way companies interact with consumers, keeping pace with the environment can be a challenge. But it’s critical to stay on track if you’re serious about building real connections with your fans, and driving ROI from your Facebook campaigns.

Here are some tips that should help you keep pace:

Keep up with Facebook news.

Stay current by reading the Facebook Developer blog and sites like All Facebook to ensure that you are aware of what’s going on in the Facebook universe, and to stay up to date with new developments. 

Take advantage of the newest features that make sense for your brand.

Don’t adopt a new Facebook feature unless it will significantly improve campaign performance. Otherwise, you’ll end up spending more time on program set up than planning and creative. And when you do adopt new features, be sure to test them first. Here are a few that I definitely recommend:  Facebook is rolling out Page Post Targeting Enhanced in the coming weeks. This new feature will allow you to target your page posts to particular segments of your fan base. In addition, Scheduled Page Posts and Unpublished Page Posts are great if you’re targeting different regions, interests or demographics.

Keep an eye on changes to Insights. 

As an example, Facebook recently rolled out mobile reach data, which shows a breakout of how many people are viewing your content from a mobile device. Since 54% of Facebook traffic now comes from mobile, this is a key stat to track. The more you optimize your campaigns for mobile, the better your overall performance will be.

View major changes as opportunities. 

Over time, Facebook has unveiled -- and will continue to unveil -- fundamental updates that impact brand pages and shift the way marketing objectives are achieved as a result. Be sure to build in ample time to adjust and experiment -- optimizing layouts, testing new strategies and tactics, and evaluating the results. Once you feel comfortable with the new tools available, implement the practices that perform best for you.

Don’t follow the herd. 

Don’t rely on industry news to tell you what’s working on Facebook. Only you know what’s working for your business. Recent news stories are practically declaring the death of Facebook ads, and yet thousands of marketers get value from them every day -- particularly the new Sponsored Stories ad types. Other stories are saying page tabs are not getting any traffic because of the recent shift to Timeline. Our platform data tells a different story: since Timeline was introduced at the end of March across all brand pages, total traffic across our customers’ campaigns actually increased by 20 percent from March to April, and 33 percent from April to May. And we continue to see this trend. So take industry findings with a few grains of salt, and see if your own data is telling the same story. If it’s not, keep doing what you’re doing.

Facebook will continue to make changes that help brands create engaging, meaningful relationships with their fans -- their business depends on it. Don't let the short-term implications of these changes throw you off. Marketers who remain focused on strategies that deliver ROI will successfully navigate their way to social marketing success.

 

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