What’s been happening on social media lately and what’s to come in 2020. Let's talk about it!
We have written up lots of these roundups before, and now it’s time for another one! There have been several announcements from some of the top social media platforms. We’re going to break them down for you so you get the news you need to know. Plus, keep reading to hear some of our thoughts and predictions for 2020. First up, let’s talk top dog—Facebook.
New branding and logo for Facebook
The big news over at Facebook is the branding and logo changes. They're aiming for just a little more transparency, and the new Facebook logo will help differentiate the parent company from its subsidiaries.
"People should know which companies make the products they use,” Facebook said in the announcement. “Today, we’re updating our company branding to be clearer that these products come from Facebook.”
The new logo will be present on all the apps that Facebook owns: the Facebook app, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, Workplace, Portal, and Calibra. This is big news considering a recent study conducted by Pew Research found that 71 percent of people are not aware that Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp.
Page advertisement limits on Facebook in 2020
In 2020, brands are going to be limited in how many advertisements they run at the same time. Wait; what? That’s right, Facebook wants to throttle how many ads you’re running at once. Why?
Facebook said:
"We’re implementing ad limits because very high ad volume can hinder an advertiser’s performance. With too many ads running at the same time, fewer ads exit the learning phase. More budget is spent before the delivery system can optimize an ad’s performance."
In simpler terms, too many ads at once mean lousy performance. Bad ad performance means people don’t think the ads are working, which leads to complaints, which leads to other businesses not spending money on Facebook ads. You can see how this is a cycle Facebook doesn’t want.
There is no word on what that cap is going to be yet. Read more on Social Media Examiner here.
Facebook messenger for business updates lots of things
If you haven’t been in the messenger settings for your business page in a minute, you should check it out. There have been many, many changes. Here are the highlights.
- Broadcast for Pages: You can do two broadcasts a month for up to two types of labeled messages (e.g., someone messaging your page about a job could be marked as an applicant). This lets you send out a broadcasted message to all users who are labeled the same. Use it wisely, but we’re excited because this means you can engage with people in a new way without spending any ad money.
- Icebreakers: You can set up questions and prompts for Messenger to auto-generate when a person visits your page. That means you can start the conversation and gather info from people before you respond to them.
- Reactions: Messenger now shows you which specific message each user is responding to above each reply within the stream. No longer do you have to scroll and figure it out yourself.
Read more here. We highly recommend you customize these for your brand!
Video reporting on Facebook updates to remove 10-second view metric
Facebook has made some updates to video reporting and metrics, including the removal of the 10-second video view metric. Instead, they’re looking at ThruPlay for 15-second video plays. They are also switching up some language to better represent what the metrics mean and moving to the word “plays.” By using plays versus views, it gives brands better clarity and transparency.
Facebook introduces Work Groups for coworkers
You know the drill. You get a new job, make the rounds through the office, and then connect with the new team on Facebook and other social media. Facebook is trying to facilitate this connection by adding a new Group feature called Work Groups. This way, you don’t have to connect with everyone, and you can share only work-related things instead of your whole life. Phew! We like the sound of that.
Twitter bans political advertisements
As we gear up for the election cycle in 2020, political ads on social media have been in the news. In all the hullabaloo, Twitter was firm.
No. More. Political. Ads.
Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive officer, said political ads, including manipulated videos and the viral spread of misleading information, presented challenges to civic discourse.
A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money.
— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) October 30, 2019
This is big news after Mark Zuckerburg recently said Facebook would run any political ads—even if the information were false. The reasoning is free expression and newsworthiness.
Dorsey criticized Zuckerberg's stance, saying that Zuckerberg had a “major gap and flaw” in his argument.
For instance, it‘s not credible for us to say: “We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well...they can say whatever they want! 😉”
— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) October 30, 2019
Shots fired. 👏👏
We see this both ways. Yes, people should earn their political clout. But where is the line drawn? Politicians spend lots of money on television commercials and other kinds of advertisements. What makes social different, and how will Twitter decided what is or is not political? These questions remain to be answered.
New data for the impact of ROI and reporting
LinkedIn has put together a true ROI report on the value of social media for businesses. They conducted research and surveyed more than 4,000 digital marketers across the globe. They found that digital marketers are struggling to calculate their impact, share that impact with key stakeholders, and market impact across their organizations.
One of the reasons is that digital marketers are under a lot of pressure from many people to deliver results quickly. LinkedIn said 70 percent of global digital marketers claim to be measuring digital ROI. Unfortunately, what happens is they measure impact long before any type of sales cycle has concluded. That means many marketers aren’t truly measuring ROI.
TikTok
TikTok now allows third-party tools
Yay, a new app to talk about! TikTok is super popular with the younger generation, and now, more and more, we are seeing older users adopting the platform. This social app is all about having fun and showing off creativity. Since this is probably the new hit app, the developers are adding in the ability for third-party tools. This means video editing apps like Adobe Premiere Rush will be able to upload videos direct to TikTok from the app's editing platform. Great news for people who are using the app to be creative because now they have even more options for their content.
2020 is coming—here are some of our predictions
Technology is creating a major shift in how we interact with our audiences in this new digital age.
People are connecting online and finding groups of like-minded individuals who unite around a common interest. Subreddits, Facebook Groups, WhatsApp, Messenger … we could go on. These apps all give users the ability to find friends and allies. Within them are people who share experiences, products, and businesses who have either helped them or harmed them. Word-of-mouth referral is critical in these spaces.
These private channels and messages are growing exponentially. It’s going to be the preferred method of contact very soon. If you haven’t been focusing on building relationships and gaining trust, you need to. If you don’t, you’re going to have to spend tons of money on ads to try to reach people.
And, while ads may work, they won’t ever replace the value of a one-to-one connection. Being able to talk to your audience where they are at is what is going to work in 2020. Repeat and referral business is the only way towards sustainable growth.
As always, our goal is to help you stay in the “know” and ahead of the curve to make sure you can maximize your brand potential reach. We’d love for you to continue to explore this topic, so we’ve created a guide on 20 ways you can get your business ready for 2020.
Visit www.GetAhead2020.com to find out more and prosper in 2020.
Comments