March 28, 2024

Blogger insights this week: Surviving the Facebook marketing apocalypse

JGO Digital Marketing Highlights

Mom used to say “Life’s not fair, and the sooner you get that through your head, the better off you’ll be.” I’m sure that’s what she’d tell Facebook marketers today.

Since Facebook announced algorithm changes to its News Feed earlier this year there has been weeping and gnashing of teeth by social media marketers.

Cries of “foul” over plummeting organic reach and referral traffic won’t change the fact that Facebook marketing is a whole new game. The sooner you get that through your head, the better off you’ll be.

What should you do with Facebook now? That is the spotlight topic this week.

Spotlight: How to win the new Facebook engagement game

The great Facebook swindle and what to do about it via Social Media Explorer

Jason Falls does a great job of laying out the current situation with Facebook marketing and the implications of its algorithm changes on organic reach. Marketers have been operating under the assumption that if someone “raised their virtual hand” to get a brand’s content on Facebook, they will get it. Those days are gone.

“Now Facebook sees it can not only control how many of your fans see your content, but also how many of them don’t. Unless you pay.”

The algo change, driven by Facebook’s need to satisfy its investors, is bad for social media in the long run, Jason writes. By its admission that it is now a media outlet that delivers its audience to brands via advertising, Facebook has given up the notion that social media changes how brands engage with their audience.

On the plus side, he concludes content marketers will need to get much better in order to succeed on Facebook: “Content marketing is no longer amateur hour.”

Go here to see his prescription for how brands can still win with organic Facebook content.

Why brands should thank Facebook for charging them via Digiday

Facebook will now have greater value for fans and brands, writes Bryan Maleszyk for Digiday. The new rules for reach will shift the focus of brand content from quantity to quality, from volume to value. The result will be to build a fan base that has real value to your brand instead of lightweight engagement from the inflated economy of likes.

The value of paid advertising will go up in proportion to the increased social context of the News Feed, he argues:

“The value of Facebook is not the connection between a brand and its fans, but the connection between small groups of individuals who know each other well.”

To remain vital to brands and users, Facebook must strike a balance between what’s useful to people and what’s valuable for brands. That, according to Bryan, is what Facebook is doing.

Read more here.

Best of the Web: Blogger highlights

Social Media Marketing

The social media automation strategy every marketer needs via Buffer

How social media can ruin your brand: 5 ways to keep it safe via Constant Contact

8 social media marketing tools to rapidly accelerate your growth online via Razor Social

How to grab attention with your social media updates via Maximize Social Business

How to target your email subscribers with Facebook ads via Social Mouths

Content Marketing

The top 10 reasons marketers should forsake top-10 lists via Ad Age

Why content marketing doesn’t need to tell a story via iMEDIA Connection

A content marketing strategy that suggests you write less? via ExactTarget

The case for content automation via Marketing Land

Why you suck at guest blogging (and what the pros do differently) via Boost Traffic

Response Marketing

Most people won’t read your landing page (how to get your message across anyway) via KISSmetrics

Turning the page on “textbook” emails via DM News

Success with subject line symbols via ExactTarget

Branding

What do we get out of brands interacting with each other on Twitter? via Econsultancy

For true brand loyalty, build contextual marketing strategy into your brand via Marketing Profs

11 values that create an effective tone of voice, plus six to avoid via Econsultancy

Visual Marketing

This is a generic brand video by Dissolve Footage

Newswire

Digital Marketing Weekly via JGO Digital

Top digital marketing news stories of the week: Look out Twitter, Tumblr has inked a massive TV ad deal; Ouch, Google levels first penalty against guest blogger; Facebook is testing a new dashboard tool that lets administrators control pages from one place; Yahoo debuts motion ads; Plus a whole lot more!

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About Oliver D. Webb

Oliver D. Webb is a beat reporter for GO Digital. A connoisseur of fine content, he surfs the interwebz for the best of marketing analysis, commentary and practice tips. Webb Sightings is his collection of content marketing, social media, branding, direct response and integrated marketing content for the discerning digital marketer. Read it here every week. Have a submission worthy of Oliver’s scrutiny? Send him a note on the contact page.

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