7 new Facebook features you probably don't know about yet...

And we’re off…..

In true Facebook form, they have come out firing in the first weeks of 2016 and are keeping us on our toes here at The Classroom.

Here’s a round up of just some of the products they have updated or launched so far and how they might affect you.

1. Slideshows – don’t have the budget to create a video? Now you don’t have to. You can create a video-like experience from up to 5 stills from within the ads manager and soon to be straight from the page as well. IT's an easy, cheap, lightweight way to take advantage of the power of sight and motion.

Check out these examples. https://www.facebook.com/slideshowads/?fref=ts

2. Canvas – Rolling out as we speak is the ability for all brands and advertisers to create rich, fast loading, multimedia experiences and stories without having the expense of adapting your site.

Businesses can easily build their stories using a combination of videos, still images, text and call-to-action buttons. In Canvas, people can swipe through a carousel of images, tilt to view panoramic images and zoom in to view images and videos in detail.

Showcase new collections, menus, stories, recipes, destinations. You name it. Canvas will make it richer.

via GIPHY

Check out some examples here. https://canvas.facebook.com/

3. Audience Optimisation – In an effort to make sure your posts are hitting the most relevant followers (cue: increased engagement which will hopefully help with your organic reach) Facebook has improved its targeting capabilities for page posts.

You can now select interests when you post and Facebook will try and show your posts to followers who match those interests where possible.  The more relevant your posts are, the better the experience for your followers and the better your free reach is.

4.Local Insights – Are you a local business with locations? Do you want to find out about foot traffic in your area? Well, if you have an address on your page you should now have access to the Local tab in insights which will tell you:

·      What are the peak days and times for foot traffic

·      What demographics are walking past and when

·      How many of them are seeing your ads

This is extremely helpful data for shops and restaurants making sure they’re opening at the right times and advertising to the right bunch.

5. Reactions – Move over like, there are some new reactions in town.

Love, Wow, Haha, Angry, Sad

Reactions can be applied not just to people posts, but also brand posts.  In the most part it should be a good thing - you'll get a richer, more nuanced set of data by which to judge the success of your content and the emotions it's creating. On the other hand, when you do something wrong you're now going to have Mr Angry to deal with...

6. Lead Generation Ads  -  want to grow your database? Struggling to grow your database on mobile? That's because it takes a user nearly 40% longer to fill out a form on mobile than it does on desktop, resulting in big drop offs.  I have good news for you - Facebook's new lead generation objective is coming soon to an ads manager near you. This allows advertisers to seamlessly collect personal data with pre-filled forms and also collect other info such as preferences with up to 3 customised questions.

Lead ads are not just to grow your newsletter subscription - you can offer coupons, sampling, register interest for info such as courses, professional services etc or request a brochure/test drive/ call-back.

All from right within Facebook's newsfeed. Early results are very promising.

7. Live Video - Live video was launched to verified public figures last year and is mooted to be the next big thing on how we interact with our favourite celebs. This is now rolling out to all people and pages.

Now live video isn't right for every brand, but I can see some great use cases for for live Q&A's, for interviews, to showcase live events and product reveals, for bloggers,  etc.

And that's a wrap! For now anyway......

Want to learn more about how to apply these new features to your business? Attend our course or request a tailored session for your business.

21 predictions for social media in 2016

In 2015, the world of social media continued it’s rapid evolution, keeping us all on our toes.  It bought us Snapchat lenses, Instagram ads, Facebook 360 video and much much more.

Looking ahead to 2016 it seems the pace will not be slowing down a bit. Here are some of our predictions to look out for.

Facebook:

As always, Facebook will lead the pack with changes (unfortunately, an increase in your organic reach is not one of them….) a tactic that has seen them stay ahead of the social media pack for both people and businesses over the years, despite the fact it can be hard for businesses to keep up...

In 2016 we expect to see:

1) Increased focus on messaging – Global use of messaging apps grew over 30% in 2015, and Facebook owns the two global powerhouses Messenger and Whatsapp. In 2016 they’ll explore how messaging can connect customers and businesses even further –e.g./we might see automated messages for tracking deliveries, purchase and pay over messenger, and customer history stored within messenger.

Expect to see ads launch in both messaging apps in 2016 also.

2) Improved pages on mobile – Expect to see a pages redesign to make them much easier to find and navigate on mobile.

 As the world moves to mobile first, businesses are finding it harder to convert customers as searching and typing in your credit card on mobile feels clunky and hard. Facebook wants to help solve this by evolving pages into mobile stores that are easy to navigate and include catalogues and one-click purchasing.

3) Video – the war on YouTube will continue with new ways to watch and discover videos, improvements to pages video libraries and video continuing to be given more reach in the algorithm.

4) Live Streaming: In 2015 FB launched it’s live streaming product for celebrities – Mentions.  2015 should see this open up to businesses and people in a move that would compete with Meerkat and Twitter-owned Periscope. Given FB's user base it should easily surpass it's competitors and become a really useful tool for businesses to engage their customers.

Instagram:

5) All about advertising – Instagram will continue to merge with the Facebook advertising platform and more formats will become available along with enhanced measurement.

6) Insights: Instagram has an insight product which is currently only available to it’s largest advertisers – 2016 should see this rolled out to all business large and small. About time, we say.

7) Account switching – yay, yay and thank the gods! For anyone who currently uses Instagram for personal and businesses, this will Change. Your. Life.

8) A share button? Currently re-posting or direct messaging is the only way to share posts and we really hate the text overlay that is associated with 3rd party re-gramming apps so this is less of a prediction and more of a wish.

9) Apps: Instagram will continue to roll out and test content creation apps such as its 2015 efforts boomerang, layout and Hyperlapse.

Snapchat:

10) Growth: Snapchat will potentially eclipse Twitter in monthly user numbers this year as Twitters growth stalls and Snapchat continues it’s explosive trajectory.

11) Advertising: A rumoured IPO in the middle of the year will see Snapchat expand its advertising options considerably. While it has had several video ad options available in the US since 2014, we expect these to roll out internationally although there is no telling when little old NZ will be able to partake. Snapchats ads are currently sold through a sales team rather than the preferred self-service option of the other social networks, and if this continues it seems NZ will have to wait some time before all business can access this young audience.

12) Content: It will also beef up its original content section in Discover section, giving it more options to sell sponsorship. Over New Year it launched a music channel sponsored by Spotify, and it’s only a matter of time before sports and more entertainment follow. 

Twitter – turns 10! It’s founder, Jack Dorsey, is back at the helm and he has a big job to do in trying to turn around Twitters stalling user numbers. While still huge at 300Million active users – growth has slowed right down so this year we’ll see a focus on:

13) Visuals: Photos + Videos – the social world has become more visual (in alignment with our reduced attention spans?) and twitter still relies on text. We expect to see video and photo bought more to the fore in 2016.

14) Curated content: Following Snapchats lead, Twitter launched Moments in the US in 2015, a curated storyboard of what’s happening right now of interest in the world. This will roll out globally and more curated content it bound to follow.

15) Ads to logged out users: One of Twitters issues is that it has 500Million people monthly viewing it’s content but only 300M of them ever log in meaning 200M people who it cannot monetize. In 2016 Twitter will start to serve ads to logged-out users to increase reach of your campaigns, and of course Twitters revenue. This is made even more interesting by the increasing number of Twitter results we see in Google searches after their 2015 partnership, which should mean even more logged out eyeballs.

16) Reach: Hopefully they will fix my pet peeve with Twitter ads reporting – the lack of a reach number. Twitter tells you how many times your ad was served but not to how many people – technically then, an ad with 50,000 impressions could only reach 5,000 people 10 times. They have the technology to provide reach numbers and I suspect the reason they don’t is that they have something to hide.

Pinterest:  

17) Men: Will continue to have strong growth in 2016 and the % of male users will grow.

18) Promoted Pins: its another social network which will beef up it’s advertising in 2016 as the days of a free social media lunch are heading into the past.  The US already has access to buyable pins, and sponsored posts and we’re hoping (really hoping) these become available to NZ advertisers this year as they would be an absolute boon for retail and lifestyle advertisers and even tradies.

LinkedIn:

19) Content: Will continue its evolution into a leading business content hub with user experience developments in its recent acquisitions Lynda.com, Slideshare & Pulse.

20) Advertising: We really hope it’s ad offering evolves, which is currently expensive, limited and hard to measure although still useful for B2B marketing so we haven't completely written it off. Stay tuned for the results of our upcoming test.

Google Plus:

21) RIP

Instagram introduces all new Search and Explore

Instagram recently actioned two major updates: the all-new Explore page, with trending Tags and Places, and more powerful search that makes it easier to find the people, places, and tags you’re looking for.

With more than 70 million photos and videos posted to Instagram every day, wherever something is happening, chances are you can see it on Instagram. Whether it’s behind the scenes at New Zealand Fashion Week, on the runway with the latest fashion trend, or at a favourite club with a local band, people are capturing moments large and small on Instagram. But, until now, there’s never been an easy way to find these moments.

Reimagined Explore

The new Explore page makes discovery on Instagram immediate and effortless. It now surfaces trends as they emerge in real-time, connecting you to events and conversations both near you and around the globe.

Through trending Tags and trending Places, you can experience moments like #NZFW or #fathersday from every perspective. Rich visual content captures everyone’s unique take — not just what the community is talking about, but also what they’re doing and seeing.

In addition, at the top of the Explore page you will find new curated collections that will be updated regularly, featuring interesting accounts and places, from musicians and extreme athletes to stunning architecture and gorgeous beaches.

To start, these updates to Explore will only be available in the United States, but expect to see this rolled out to New Zealand users soon, once they have fine tuned the experience.

Improved Search

Instagram has dramatically improved the ability to find what you’re looking for. With the new Places Search, you can now peer in at just about any location on earth, allowing you to scout out your next vacation spot in the South Pacific, get a look inside that hot new restaurant or experience your favourite music festival — even if you couldn’t make it this year. The new Top Search also lets you search across people, places and tags all at once.

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Location, Location, Location.

Getting up close with Facebook's new location features.

Facebook has long allowed businesses limited geo-targeting functionality for their ads and posts but they have recently announced a slew of new and exciting features which are currently rolling out around the globe.  In New Zealand, a nation made up of small local businesses, these improvements are welcome news.

LOCATION TARGETING TODAY

Facebook currently allows you to choose a city or town and those people in a radius of 10, 25 or 50km.

That’s perfectly fine if you live in a small town such as Oamaru, or have multiple locations in a city like Auckland, but a standalone burger joint in Mt Albert may not reap a great return by having to target all of Auckland.

Facebook technically doesn’t allow targeting of suburbs although some seem to have snuck in  – you can find the odd suburb in the city targeting tool but I’m not yet convinced of the accuracy of the numbers. For example, Pt Chevalier has 3,400 and nearby Avondale has 42,000! But alas, if you’re trying to target nearby suburbs such as Mount Albert, Mount Eden, Newmarket etc you’re completely out of luck.

 A work-around for this is to bypass the location targeting section (leave it at city level, i.e. Auckland) and head to the interests section to try your luck. I can find an audience of 53,000 interested in Grey Lynn. This doesn’t necessarily mean that these people live in or are currently in Grey Lynn, but they’ve expressed an interested in Grey Lynn before by liking related pages and events etc. So while it’s not a bullseye target, it’s better than broad targeting Auckland alone.

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 LIVES IN, RECENTLY IN, TRAVELLING IN.

You may have already noticed that under Locations you now have a dropown which allows you to filter by people who live in, are travelling in, or were recently in your chosen location.

Facebook uses stated location, mobile device data and location tagged posts to categorise these people. For example,  'travelling in' are people whose most recent location is the selected area, as determined by information from their mobile device, and are greater than 100 miles from their stated current city from their Facebook profiles.

The ‘travelling in’ filter has obvious use cases for tourism and hospitality businesses eg. a pub promoting a backpacker meal deal to 18-25 years olds currently travelling in the area or an Auckland tour operator who wants to sell extra seats with a last minute discount offer.

The 'living in' filter cuts out wastage for services and retailers who need to target locals, for instance childcare centres or furniture stores.

'Recently in' targets anyone whose last mobile log-in was in the selected area whether they are a tourist or a resident so it's good for any current events, specials or deals which could be advertised to visitors and locals alike.

REACH PEOPLE NEAR YOUR BUSINESS

Coming soon! This feature has already rolled out in the US and other markets and is expected to start rolling out in New Zealand very soon.

 You’ll soon be able to populate the address of your business, choose a radius (down to 1km)  and reach people who are currently in the area.  Additional targeting is limited to just age and gender (no interests), and the calls to action are limited to Get Directions or Like Page so you can't drive traffic to a website or use a video.

But this will be a valuable tool for businesses to let people know they're there and drive them in-store.

ADDRESS TARGETING

Another international roll out which is currently happening is the ability to target by addresses and postcodes although no news yet on when this will hit our shores.

Address targeting goes a few steps better than than the Local Awareness ads above by allowing multiple locations, any type of ad format and any type of demographic and interest targeting layered on top.  So a restaurant could advertise within their local delivery zone with a link to their order form on the website.  Or a pilates studio can advertise to health conscious women within 3km of their business.  High end online stores can advertise to wealthier suburbs, and event promoters can pinpoint those who are closest and most likely to attend their event. The opportunities are endless.

This feature will be the most effective for small businesses in New Zealand and we can't wait for it to launch! 

Let me hear you say ROI!

Not a week goes by where I don’t hear someone say they're not sure whether social media returns any bang for their buck, and it’s hard, if not impossible, to measure.  Luckily for you they’re a wrong. How very wrong they are. And just as social media has evolved from a niche media to a mass media, so have the tools and techniques available to measure it.

I actually had so much to say about that I’ve split it into two blog posts! So here is Part 1.

 Measuring your ROI will depend on what your ultimate goal is.

1. Online sales and leads from ad campaigns – Drop the Facebook conversion pixel on the sales confirmation page of your website. It’s as simple as copying and pasting a line of code. Facebook will record when anyone either see’s or clicks on your ads and then goes on to convert.  They’ll also be able to tell you what ad they saw, where, and what the broad age and gender of those who converted were, so you can not only measure your cost per conversion but also gain valuable insights about your customers.
2.  Use Google analytics to measure sales from posts – if you’re not advertising, the Facebook conversion pixel won’t pick up sales from posts on your page but google analytics can.  When you’re posting a link (and let’s face it, if you have a transactional site then driving traffic from your page should be high on the priority list) add a UTM tag to the link. Without one, Google will classify all traffic from Facebook just as referral traffic, but with a UTM tag you can add up to details such as campaign, product & creative to help you identify what posts are working. Use UTM tags to test different creative types (price point, brands, B&W vs Colour imagery etc) and use the findings to create content which drives ROI.
3. In store: Facebook offers: Facebook has a built in offer post designed to drive people in-store. The offer allows you to set a limit, a time limit, upload a barcode to track sales and set a reminder for your customer to claim the deal. Target the right offer to the right consumer and measure the footfall through redemptions.
4.   Facebook only promotion or deal – this works for both in-store and online sales. Launch a new product on Facebook only or run a sale on Facebook.  Sam's Chowder House, for example, ran a status update on its Facebook Page about a special and doubled their business that day compared to the same day the previous year.
5.  Geo: A/B test. Sport Chek in Canada tested the efficacy of Facebook during a national campaign by running Facebook advertising in one province only, while all other variables were kept the same. Over a series of tests they found they could boost sales by an incredible 17% by including Facebook in the media mix.

So there're 5 simple strategies. Stay tuned for part 2 where I'll talk more about upper funnel metrics such as awareness and consideration.