Social Media | Scyterra https://www.scyterra.com Marketing Is A Science Sat, 07 Jul 2018 18:23:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.scyterra.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/cropped-scyterra-No3D-BW-32x32.pngSocial Media | Scyterrahttps://www.scyterra.com 32 32 Facebook Shuts Down Third Party Data (Partner Categories) And What You Should Dohttps://www.scyterra.com/facebook-stops-using-third-party-data-what-you-should-do/ https://www.scyterra.com/facebook-stops-using-third-party-data-what-you-should-do/#respond Wed, 20 Jun 2018 21:14:40 +0000 https://www.scyterra.com/?p=614

Facebook Shuts Down Third Party Data (Partner Categories) And What You Should Do

Social Media

With Facebook getting rid of third party data a new era in ads is on the rise

Well it’s a little bit of an understatement to say “It’s time to stop relying on third party data” as that is an inevitable truth.
Come Oct 1st Facebook will discontinue all use of third party data, otherwise known as partner categories.

Here’s an official statement from facebook in the ads manager

click to open in Lightbox

You know, the detailed targeting you’re all too familiar with like income level, home owners vs non home owners, etc.
All of these and more will be no more come oct 1, 2018.

So What Can You Do Now That Third Party Data Is Discontinued? 

Rely on first party data,
Your data.
We know that’s a little easier said then done so let us explain.

How To Still Market With The Discontinuation Of Partner Categories (Third Party Data)

Collect first party data
First party data is data that only you have. It’s your audience; your customers, your fans.

This is what makes it more reliable than any other data set out there. Yes you can still go to the data companies that facebook has previously partnered with yourself (Oracle Data Cloud, Experian, Epsilon, Acxiom, and BlueKai) and buy data from them to be used your ads….. But before you go down that route, or IF you go down that route – you should understand who is already buying from you. Who is your consumer?

This is where Buyer Personas come into play. We can hypothesize all day about what our target audience is, but that doesn’t necessarily fall in line with who our consumers are. Two totally different things in some instances.

You need to collect and analyze data sets about who already shows an interest in your brand / company, and why. Then use this data to revamp your pre-compiled buyer personas. Or else you’ll just be wasting marketing dollars on a group that will show little to no interest in your company. We’re not saying you have to totally throw out your original buyer personas / target audience, but what we are saying is to fully dive into the audience that already shows an interest in you.

Then, once you’ve fully established yourself there, you can go on to tackling the harder task of your wanted target audience; or you can even use your first party data to rework and add to your wanted target audience.

Third Party data is non-exclusive, it’s not data about who is already your consumer, but instead its generalized data.
More over, it’s anonymous profile data that anyone can use as it’s collected and sold by government entities, large data mining corporations, and the like.

We’re not saying not to use it if you choose to – as many businesses use it. We are however saying you shouldn’t rely on it. You should understand your consumers to the point where you know the exact outside data you need to aid in targeting those who will be most receptive to your brand – that aren’t already your consumers.

The Days Of Third-Party Data On Facebook Are Coming To An End

How To Work Around Facebook Shutting Down Third Party Data (Partner Categories)
How To Collect First Party Data

 

To collect first party data and truly understand your audience and their buying intent you need to have a solid web infrastructure in place. It can either be self developed by your team or an outside IT team, or you can easily implement Facebook Pixel, and Google Analytics with the extra additives and configurations needed to fully understanding your web traffic. Taking another step further, you can run a simple survey-esque post across social media – having your audience chime-in and giving you better insights into who they are. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a survey in the traditional sense, but can be an engaging post that gets your audience talking about themselves, what your brand means to them, and why they purchase from you.

Taking this to online advertising now, you can simply upload the data from your Facebook Tracking Pixel to facebook (since we’re talking about how to effectively run ads on facebook now that facebook is canceling third party data) and target ads towards people who visited your website. Then, overlap it with the data you acquired from your audience itself to hone in on exactly who you should be targeting with the ads. From there you can make a look-alike audience from your consumer list / web traffic and target people who fall in line with those who already frequent your website / purchase your products – depending on the aim of the campaign you are running (awareness & traffic VS sale conversions, etc.)

How To Reach Your Consumers Now

What consumers want from brands is a personalized experience, one that mirrors the way they interact with peers, family and friends. But one after another, brands fail to deliver.

Although, it’s good to be focused on individualized metrics, data analysis, and the like. We can’t forget that at the heart of it, marketing is about CONNECTING with your desired consumers and the public. We need to create experiences and connect on deeper level, than just number crunching and “buy now” ads, with our audiences.

It’s the brands that are able to connect who have steadily seen growth, have stayed relevant, have risen to the top of their industries, and can adapt to any market change as they know their consumers on a personal level and listen to their needs, wants, and problems; then develop methods to answer these needs.

The New Era Of Digital Marketing

With the days of easy use third party data in facebook targeting being dead, a new era in digital marketing is to take reign. One that we’ve steadily talked about on this site.

The world as a whole is having a market shift with a heavy focus on Content-based Marketing.
Where first-party data and content is king.

Use this post to show you how to reach your target audience and grow sales.
Use that post to learn how to create a bigger fb pixel / custom audience. Which coincides with this post on:

How to effectively target ads on facebook now that third party data is discontinued 

Ending Note
It’s time to focus on user experience and your own data sets. Look at who is already buying from you then use that to expand your marketing reach and tell you how to target. Draw in your old and newly desired consumers with content. Build trust then go for a sale.

Discussion

Social Media

]]> Understanding The Facebook Algorithm Change Of 2017 / 2018: Complete Guidehttps://www.scyterra.com/understanding-the-facebook-algorithm-change-of-2017-2018-complete-guide/ Thu, 19 Apr 2018 07:17:40 +0000 https://scyterra.com/?p=129

Facebook Algorithm Change Of 2017 / 2018

The Complete Guide To Understanding The Facebook Algorithm Change Of 2017 / 2018

Like Robin Hood: Taking From The Rich & Giving To The Poor

For branded pages: you might see a drop in reach for one significant reason… Facebook is making the playing field more even – “taking from the rich & giving to the poor”. Now, instead of only a few brands having active business pages, in order to stand out everyone must play by a definite set of rules.
Why?
For one reason.
Facebook is drastically overcrowded. Every minute 300 new accounts are created, 293k posts are published, 136k photos are uploaded, & 510k comments are left. In layman’s terms… We’re creating more content than people can consume. Making it harder for businesses to gain organic exposure.

The Drop Of Organic Reach

In a study from Edgerank Checker (now acquired by Socialbaker) it was found that the organic reach for the average Facebook page has dropped from 16% to 6.5% dating back from February 2012 to March 2014. Meanwhile, for pages holding over 500,000 likes, the chances of posts appearing in the news feed could be as low as 2%.

The New Facebook News feed Algorithm of 2017

If you aren’t considered a friend or family member by facebook’s standards then expect a decline in your organic reach. Facebook prioritizes relevant content & designs its news feed algorithms based on individual user experience in accordance with this set of News Feed core values, as stated by the social media platform.

“Our success is built on getting people the stories that matter to them most. If you could look through thousands of stories every day and choose the 10 that were most important to you, which would they be? The answer should be your News Feed. It is subjective, personal, and unique — and defines the spirit of what we hope to achieve”.

 For regular users of the social platform, this means that they will continue to see content posted by those listed as family members on their profile, and users they regularly interact with. Pushing a decline on content posted by users they rarely interact with. Allowing for posts from relevant users that matter the most to be seen.

What Does The News Feed Algorithm Mean For Your Business page?

On the business side of things this just means you have to work for what you want. As stated, facebook is showing relevant content to each user as defined by their actions. Those who show an interest in your page after the algorithm push will continue to see the content you put out. Simply put: through varying levels of interaction facebook will deem your business page as relevant to the user that interacts with it – retaining your presence in their news feed.

Below are the governing rules of the new facebook algorithm change.

To Hold Your Ground You Must Know The Rules.

The Basics

 As Stated 

  • Friends and family come first:Posts from users’ friends and family appear higher in your feed.
  • Your news feed should inform:Content that is interesting, timely relevant, and informative to users appear higher in their feed.
  • Your news feed should entertain:Content that Facebook finds entertaining to users appear higher in their feed.
  • Facebook is a platform for all ideas:Facebook doesn’t favor any one source or idea. instead, it delivers content that is meaningful.
  • Authentic communication:Facebook will only show content that is genuine, not “misleading, sensational and spammy.”
  • You control your experience:Post features such as “see first,” “unfollow” and “hide” let users choose what they want to see.
  • Constant iteration:Facebook is dedicated to continued improvement.
  • Links in posts:Facebook prioritizes content that holds a link, deeming it as more informative
  • Native video content reigns:Compared to both text & image content combined facebook video content acquires 1,200% more shares. In terms of uploading, instead of sharing videos from other platforms (such as youtube) upload them to both. Native videos hold 10x more reach than videos shared from YouTube.

Diving Deeper: How Interaction Is Ranked

 

  • Video Content: longer videos with higher completion rates will be ranked higher on the news feed algorithm.
    Facebook evaluates varying factors to determine a videos ranking such as, live video status, engagement vs. length of time spent watching, and avg. percentage of video watched. A video that is watched halfway through on avg. will be considered as a “compelling” piece of content. Facebook’s comments on the topic.
  • Authenticity: authentic posts rank higher on the news feed.
    Authenticity is based on user behavior. Negative feedback such as, dislikes, unsubscribes, hiding your posts, etc., show that your page is less authentic.
  • Stop Asking For Engagement: encourage engagement in unique ways.
    You can’t ask your followers to like, share, or comment on your posts. Facebook identifies these phrases as spam and will likely penalize you based on whether or not your content is authentic.
    Try new methods for engagement. For example, a hotel could post a video or image of a gorgeous beach front with a caption that reads, “Who would you want to enjoy this view with?”. Initiating an ongoing flow of comments and increasing overall reach. Similarly, you could say ”What are your top travel destinations for this year?” – boosting engagement and giving you the chance to connect directly with consumers and inform them of your locations in their desired destinations.
  • Timing: Facebook Prioritizes Time Relevant Posts.
    Putting a higher rank on posts that hold immediate interest at a given moment – Facebook will temporarily upgrade content relating to trending topics, content receiving an influx of likes & comments over posts that received high engagement a couple hours ago. People expect to see posts reflecting what’s going on that very moment. Know Your Audience – stay up to date on the trending stories, events and holidays your audience is most interested in and create content on those topics. Here are the new signals to identify time relevant content as stated by Facebook.
  • Make Them Stop: grab their attention.
    Therefore, Share content your audience cares about — content that makes them stop scrolling and delivers on the catch in its headline. One highly relevant, shareable and visually appealing piece of content is worth more than a couple of ordinary posts. Don’t just post more, post smart.

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