I recently attended the Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) Summit, and thought you'd be interested in the insight we gained into Facebook's latest direction as it relates to advertising. Of all the Facebook conferences I’ve been to, this one was by far the most enlightening. Without releasing any confidential information, here’s my list of the 9 core "take aways" for brands and agencies on how to think about Facebook in a different light that drives your businesses forward.
Facebook is moving away from focusing on social KPI's (Likes, PTAT, etc…) and has started to move toward measuring success based on KPI's that businesses care about, such as CPA, Video Views, Online Sales and Offline Sales. Socialtyze feels that the two can be worked together with a singular goal of stimulating long-term customer relationships and sales.
Currently, you can retarget your customers via "Custom Audiences" (i.e., website visitors, e-mail addresses and Facebook ID's). Without question, "Custom Audiences" has been the most effective marketing method in driving sales.So, what are the next steps?Our next step is to build powerful customer databases that are tied to Facebook. This can be done through apps; with authentication and the right privacy policy, you can build a powerful connection to millions of customers who you can reach out to with relevant messages, whenever you want, based upon engagement and purchase behavior.
By knowing and tracking your customers, you can close the loop between advertising, engagement and purchasing. You can then optimize, retarget, build loyalty and increase ROI.
With Facebook, you can target people, rather than cookies. Cookie blockers, multiple devices, and users turning off cookies make cookie targeting much less reliable.By targeting people, you can connect and track the same person across desktop, phone and tablet. 66% of digital users access the web through multiple devices and 30% delete cookies every month.What’s the difference in reach of a narrowly targeted audience? 38% online (cookies) and 98% Facebook (Nielsen, Aug 2013).
It’s worth working with a Facebook PMD, to align with third party data companies that will allow you to make the connection between your advertising and offline purchasing. In addition, we can create A / B testing to measure the effectiveness of your ad dollars.
Once you gather in-depth data on your best customers, work with a PMD to build new ones via look-alike targeting.
There is no question that Mobile is on fire. It now accounts for 49% of all Facebook revenue. FB's Mobile users were also up 40% to 874 MM in 3Q13 from a year prior.So what can you do as a brand?Shape your ad strategy with mobile in mind. Focus on building and/or upgrading your mobile apps to build your databases, engage/convert customers, then measure and optimize.
Advertising can be more about ADDING to life, rather than ADVERTING customers away from what they really want to do.Brands can, and should, be much more relevant in their messaging. Ads need to inform, entertain and engage users. Make an effort to truly connect with customers. Use smart data tools to help you understand what your customers care about most.Use copywriters and designers that know social and rely on advice from your data partners to create the right message and optimize to constantly improve.
Socialtyze believes in the power of social media, and we are particularly confident in the power of Facebook.Why? For all the above reasons I’ve listed, but also because:
"It is where you can find all the people that matter to you, where they find what matters to them."
In short, most of your customers and potential customers are on Facebook, and they are using it as a stream of information to gather updates on things happening in and around their lives. It shapes their opinions on what to do, who to see and what to buy. We want our clients to be an integral part of those updates, particularly for their best and most influential customers.In addition, by the numbers:
If you’re curious what our 10th take away is, reach out to us! John@Socialtyze.com.
If you’re a brand, and you’re thinking of dipping your toe into Facebook advertising - don’t do it. I’m not saying don’t use Facebook advertising - it works and it works really well. I’m saying don’t just dip your toe in. Social is not a place for the timid, and the earned media returns on ad spends give one reason to believe that Facebook’s algorithm agrees. Like any good Bouncer, if Facebook thinks your brand will spend a lot of money, it will reward you.Socialtyze looked at our internal database of communities that spanned across all verticals, sizes, and ad spend levels, and found that spending some money (ads reaching less than 100K people per day) provided a negligible impact on your ability to reach people in your posts (-5%). This finding was supported by Wise Metrics in their recent post on the subject. The communities in our sample spent roughly 80% of their time either not spending or spending lightly, so we don’t disagree with their results. What we’re more interested in are the outliers. Essentially, what we want to see is if Facebook can be bought - and it seems that it can be.
If you reached over 100K people in a day with your ads, or even better over a million people per day Facebook rewards you. Mid-level spends saw a 62% improvement over the baseline (which we normalized by both size and average performance for that size) and heavy spends saw a shocking 200%. But, there are a hundred ways to dice up those findings, so we’ll start with looking at them by vertical. When you look at just CPG’s organic reach, it actually dropped during periods of light spend, and then corrected at medium and heavy levels.
Entertainment was the most drastic example of this rule; although, it should be noted that there is a significant skew at work here. Studios are only going to spend heavy dollars right before a movie opens - when the Facebook page would be most active anyway. But, the improvement is shocking - +309% compared to baseline for heavy spend. It essentially justifies very heavy spending on opening weekend.
Segmenting our data by audience is where it got interesting. The graph below demonstrates how it makes more sense to spend heavily on pages that are male centric than female focused. The delta between female pages at medium and heavy spends was right around 20%. That same number for men was an aggressive 173%. Based on this data, it makes more sense to spend at the medium level, than the very high if the page targets women.
Finally, where the ad lives matters; the difference between ads on the right hand side of Facebook and in the Newsfeed is drastic. If you spend money promoting your post, Facebook offers organic incentives to continue spending. This is especially true at the medium level where native advertising far outstrips the right hand rail (the area to the right of your newsfeed)(+57%). The differences are less pronounced at the very heavy level, but that is rarified spending air. Basically, in terms of a creating earned media, the best ad units focus on the newsfeed.Want to learn more about our data research team? Email us! Jake@Socialtyze.com
The point of a Community Manager’s job is not about blasting marketing material left and right. Their role should focus more on helping the communities thrive, stay activated, and to continue their growth. Gaining a community’s trust isn’t easy; but unsurprisingly, great customer service is a sure fire way to build that relationship. We’ve got 9 tested and approved tactics for a Community Manager to best approach their customer service strategy:
Be prepared to respond in a timely fashion, but ready to take the actual discussion elsewhere. Take the conversation to a private message or email, that way you can provide personal attention to your fans, and not have to air all of your laundry out in public.
Responding and acknowledging an issue is all you can do without a solution. Your fans will appreciate being heard, and will know at least someone is looking into it. Being honest and sincere can actually pay off.
It’s easier for your fan to contact you on Facebook than to call your customer service team up; they’re looking for a convenient solution. If it’s easy for them to contact you and get a response, then the rest of the process should also be relatively easy. Don’t send them through 20 loops to receive a refund; strive to make their experience just as easy as it was to tweet you.
According to Ambassador, over half of all social users will engage with brands several times a month. That means they’ll notice your presence and witness your customer service in action. Expect repeat visibility next time you’re deciding whether or not to follow up with a customer; chances are it will pay off.
The middle of a crisis is no time to be deciding what needs to be done and who's going to do it and how. Have a step-by-step guide in place. Establish what is deemed a crisis, have an escalation process in place (a clear chain of command). When a crisis happens - monitor first, listen, locate the source and deal with them as calmly and positively as possible.
Get to know your fans - the ones that advocate for the brand (reward them), the ones that complain occasionally (help resolve the issue) and the trolls (keep a close eye on this bunch). Watch for seemingly harmless comments or posts by trolls that could spin out of control if left unattended. Learn to get a feel for when things need to be escalated and when they can be left alone. If in doubt, always escalate.
Even though you delete a negative comment, it is still online and could get re- posted elsewhere, further escalating the situation. So be prepared and have a strategy in place to deal with negative feedback. Be as quick as possible - unattended negative comments have a tendency to grow quickly and possibly turn into a crisis.
Show empathy, humor, stay positive and always be kinder than necessary. Even if your follower is rude or negative, resist the urge to fight back. You'll look like a bad guy every time.
Create a fluid “Customer Service / Best Practices” document for the brand you're working with. Capture all the practices and internal customer service procedures that work best for the social team and the brand.
What you like on Facebook says a lot about you - it outlines the movies you watch, the books you read, and your favorite activities. This psychographic profile that every Facebook user creates for him/herself provides a data rich opportunity for marketers. Socialtyze went through our database and pulled a representative sample on what the elusive Millennial (defined here as 25-34 year olds) group has listed as an “Interest” on Facebook.“What really matters is what you like, not what you are like... Books, records, films - these things matter. Call me shallow but it's the truth.” - John Cusack in "High Fidelity"
More than any other category, Millennials self-identify through music. Nearly a quarter of their interests are singers, bands, or instruments. This is in direct contrast to sports, which occupies only 4.1% of the interests listed (probably explained by the fact that people only have one sports team they really identify with, while music is a much longer list). Activities like “Hanging with friends” were a close second place at 23%.As if we needed any more confirmation that the written word was dead, reading was ranked 6th out of 9 categories, and was roughly 1% away from being last. TV and TV shows are 4X more popular.What this means for advertisers is that the best way to reach your fan base is to know what kind of music they listen to - Millennials are quick to build their image based on their playlist. Here's a list of their top music, TV, and movie choices.
Millennials love their rap. Their favorite artist is Lil Wayne, with his other rap colleagues comprising three of the top six artists. Rihanna follows them as the fourth on the list. With a 26.6% share of the music community they’re 6% ahead of the next strongest category (Pop).Justin Bieber, who is ranked number one by Klout, vastly underperforms among Millennials at number 5 and is beat by his former girlfriend Selena Gomez. Millennials just don’t seem to be Beliebers.Rock acts like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dave Matthews Band boosted rock to an impressive 18.5%, beating out Country by roughly 3%.The big takeaway is that if you are a brand targeting 25-34 year olds do not be afraid to tie hip hop into your strategy - especially if your target is male.
The top ten shows on their DVR were littered with the expected Jersey Shore and The Office, comedies like Sex and the City, Weeds, and How I Met Your Mother, and the completely unexpected Family Feud.Overall, Dramas dominated the field, fueled by the CBS lineup of CSI shows and a considerable long tail that included premium cable shows like Dexter and the Sopranos.One surprise from the data was the real affection that Millennials had for the cartoons of their youth (13.8% share). Shows like “Doug” and “Rugrats” performed surprisingly well for shows that have been off the air for more than 15 years.Leverage their nostalgia in your ads and content to engage Millennials on your page.
At 64MM and 41MM likes on Facebook, it is no surprise that Harry Potter and Twilight occupied the top spots in our rankings. They also inflated the results of the “Fantasy” category to 24%, which still ranked second after “Comedies” overall.Dirty Dancing was the only movie made before the year 2000 to crack the top ten rankings, while the rest of the movies were made with in the last 10 years. While you can’t put baby in the corner, it seems that the rest of the movies of her generation are underrepresented.In sum, every marketer needs to know their audience. Millennials are tough to reach, and the more information you have about them the better.Want to know more about our robust data abilities? Contact us! Jake@Socialtyze.com
Ever wonder how many times you have to hear “We want our content to be viral” before you get to see it happen? A brand’s biggest obstacle in the social space is to not only to create enticing content, but to somehow get people interested. It’s easier said then done. As of late, it’s been an exciting time here at Socialtyze, because we’ve been fortunate to work with two top brands to make this magic happen.Introducing “Trick or Trivia” presented by the Cheesecake Factory, brought to you by Warner Bros.
Fans are brought into the halloween themed experience and presented with a challenge: answer the halloween movie and pumpkin trivia to earn entries. 3 lucky first round winners will receive 16 WB Ultra movie Downloads and a $50 Gift Card from The Cheesecake Factory. The grand prize winner will receive a Best of Warner Bros. 50 Film Collection and a $500 Gift Card from The Cheesecake Factory.
The app is being promoted through out The Cheesecake Factory’s social presence and on over 17 different Warner Bros Facebook movie pages in celebration of the October festivities. This widespread promotion gives the potential audience size a huge boost, promoting viral buzz.Interested to see how Socialtyze can help you create viral content? Contact us: John@Socialtyze.comWant more tips and tricks for how to dominate social this year with Data, Creative and Amplification? Download our 2016 Social Media Survival Guide.
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