By Anne Roos
In light of recent data breaches with Equifax, the My Fitness Pal App, and most notably, Facebook, users are questioning their privacy and online security ever more closely. Are they choosing to accept the new terms of service or ditch social media? And are they electing to unsubscribe from websites and apps that collect their personal information?
The Internet forced consumers and advertisers, alike, into dependency on technology.
Your customer’s data exposure—their browsing history, preferences, likes, and actions—helps you to deliver information about products and services that they need and want. But how much data exposure is too much, in the eyes of your customers?
No one has the answers, as the hearings between the U.S. Senate and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg so painfully revealed. Every individual is left to determine whether to stay the course, unplug completely, or navigate a middle ground of selecting only those social media they trust.
How does this shifting social media landscape affect your ability to reach out to new customers and sustain online connections with loyal customers?
Facebook acknowledged in its most recent terms of service update that it shares user data with other platforms it owns, including Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Occulus. Facebook also describes what it does with people’s data, including information on features like Marketplace, 360 and Live video. They also explain which personal info they choose to retain and why. The newest incarnation of the Facebook user agreement states how they address harmful behavior, such as suspicious activity and harassment.
These Facebook updates reinforce their commitment to Friends and Family prioritizing News Feeds based on whether the content is shared on Messenger, whether the content is commented on or Liked, whether content receives more than one reply, and whether interactions are “active” and “meaningful”.
Simply put, your posts must now jump more hurdles to be seen in your customer’s News Feed. Facebook is moving away from allowing advertisers to succeed by using their platform as a free broadcast channel. Facebook is moving towards a model where advertisers must supplement their organic reach through paid advertising.
To keep your brand front-and-center with your clients:
- Put time and effort into focusing on digital assets that you own.No one knows the future of Facebook, or any social media platform, for that matter. Drive your social media fans to locations on the web where you control the message. Focus on updating your blog posts and website with meaningful content, including videos, e-books, case studies, and white papers. Sharing this information continues to be considered “meaningful” by social media, and regular updates to your blog and website increase your brand’s ranking in search engine results.
- Entice fans to visit your website and blog by sharing engaging videos, broadcasting on Facebook Live, and carefully curating your posts.Encourage fans to interact by asking them to “like and share” at the end of posts. Educate fans to update their notification settings on your business page so they will continue to see your posts in their pages feed.
- Consider paid advertising once you establish a tribe of loyal fans.By doing so, you can target specific posts to reach specific buyer personas. Facebook’s advertising tools and features—Conversion Tracking, Custom Audience, Lookalike Audiences, Audience Insights, and more—exist to increase your Facebook Page reach.
Facebook removed “Purchasing Behaviors” from advertising filter selections since the Senate hearing, and more changes abound. Their algorithm, along with the algorithm of all major social media platforms, is in constant flux. How can you keep up with these changes to enable your messages to continue to reach your target customers?
Here at Moore Than SEO, we recognize that you have better things to do than to wade through terms of service agreements to make sense of their latest nuances. Our team of social media management experts keeps abreast of the newest changes so that you don’t have to. We’ll custom-craft a strategy to connect with your customers where they hang out, curating content to encourage interactions and keep your brand alive in their news feeds.
In this changing landscape of privacy agreements, it’s time to hire an external marketing team to keep up with it all. Contact us at 559-978-4096 to continue your social media fan reach uninterrupted.