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Facebook logo - latest updates to Facebook

Facebook has been under a lot of scrutiny lately. While most of their time has been dedicated to dealing with issues in regards to privacy, transparency and security, its developers have managed to put out a few new updates.

Although the platform is constantly changing and adapting, we highlight a few of the latest updates to Facebook that we think are the most important for Facebook advertisers.

Facebook Considering Hiding Like Count

You may have noticed a change to your Instagram feed a few months ago — In an effort to improve user well-being, Instagram removed the like count in 7 countries across the world. The thought process behind this was to bring the platform back to its early days of being more about the content and less about popularity. Now it seems that the developers are achieving the results they hoped for and are looking to expand this change to Facebook as well.

This change poses an interesting question for social media advertisers on whether the amount of likes on a post influences users’ decisions and buying habits. Facebook has confirmed they are considering this change, however, no official trial start date has been determined.

Highlighting Stories From Pages

Although the Stories feature on Facebook hasn’t taken off as developers had originally hoped, it is starting to pick up in popularity and is now at 500 million users daily.

Recently, developers began testing a feature that places stories from pages, including business pages, in a new in-feed panel. The Stories panel is already located at the top of a user’s feed, and this added Page Stories panel will highlight branded stories even more, offering a great opportunity for promotion.

New Business Tools for Messenger

Messenger interactions have become increasingly more important for brands as people take their queries and comments from phone calls and in-person to messaging platforms. Messaging platforms offer ease of use and even sometimes, instantaneous answers with the use of bots. Bot technology has improved exponentially over the last few years and will only continue to grow.

Facebook has announced the following updates to its business tools for messenger:

Lead Generation Flows

As explained by Facebook,
“This new template within Facebook Ads Manager enables businesses to create automated experiences to help qualify leads within Messenger. Businesses can continue the conversation with prospects directly in Messenger and integrate with existing CRM tools to seamlessly track leads.”

Appointment Booking

This update will allow businesses to integrate calendar booking software directly into their messenger bot response flow.

“With this feature, businesses can convert Messenger conversations into in-store traffic, online and phone appointments, and more.”

 

As mentioned earlier, the platform is constantly changing and these are just a few of the latest updates to Facebook.

Are you having a hard time keeping up with changes to Facebook? Or not even sure where to start when it comes to social media marketing? Cloud9 Marketing can create and manage your social media campaigns with effective strategies that drive quality engagement. Learn more about our Social Media Marketing services here.

iphone showing social media

Struggling to find the time to manage your social media platforms on top of your business demands? We have the perfect solution with our Whistler Curated Social Media Content Package!

Did you know that poorly managed social media can actually be more damaging to your brand then having no social media presence at all? Social networks are one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. With a projected 25% annual growth in the next 5 years, proper management of your social media channels is essential.

Stimulating Content

Social media algorithms mirror that of Google. This means that content that is stimulating and gets lots of engagement will show up higher on a News Feed. We want to help you to reach your customers by producing high quality, Whistler relevant content that stands out and looks professional.

Timing is everything

Social Media gives you the opportunity to engage with customers on a new level. We understand that you may not have the time to post regular updates to reach customers at the right moments.

Here at Cloud9, we not only produce high-quality content but also feature events, and weather updates, engaging with a community who ‘wants to know.’ We post as things are happening- keeping your feed relevant so you don’t have to!

Your Competition Is Already Doing It

Today’s generation expects companies to be involved in social media. From ‘Checking In’ on Facebook to Geo Tags on Instagram, you need to show your customers that you are on top of your social media game. If your brand is not appearing in the feed of your customers on a regular basis you’re really missing a massive branding opportunity.

Posting sporadically or seemingly random content can disengage users and even cause them to believe your business has been shut down!

Don’t Have The Time To Manage This Yourself?

We know that devising an effective social media strategy may not be at the forefront of your mind. That’s why our Whistler Curated Social Media package offers you an affordable solution, ensuring your channels appear well managed, professional and timely. Curating content is the process of sharing interesting and relevant content, created by other people. It is a great time saver and really helps to diversify your content.

What It Involves:

We share Whistler photography, engaging videos, professionally designed graphics, event coverage, real time weather updates and more. This allows you to continue to post to your channel brand specific content occasionally without having to worry about it being inconsistent or irregular.

All our content is Whistler focused, sharing a joint goal of promoting all that Whistler has to offer. It is not brand specific, enabling development costs to be split between clients. You will receive the same high quality, professional content as a client who was paying several times this – but for a fraction of the cost!

Anything Else?

But that’s not all.. you also receive a monthly newsletter with photos and blogs that you can post to your website!

What’s Included:

-Regular High-Quality Whistler Content

-Facebook, Twitter & Instagram

-Blog Content & Photos

-Automated Monthly Report

What’s Not Included:

-Brand Specific Content

-Social Media Advertising

-Message or Comment Monitoring

-Strategy or Results Meetings

*Additional Services are always available for a fee.

$250 p/m + GST

Contact us today at: clientcare@cloud9marketing.ca or call: 604-398-4016

facebook-algorithm

As a marketer, the importance of Facebook is undeniable; however, the application of it can be hair-pulling at best and down-right tantrum producing at worst. What makes one post the talk of the town, and the next one an utter flop perplexes even the most skilled marketers at times. The magic behind the Russian roulette of Facebook posts is the almighty powerful Facebook algorithm. An algorithm is a formula or set of steps used for solving a particular problem. Facebook uses its algorithm to sort, sift and make sense of the huge number of posts that are created each day to ensure the user experience is one that is useful and enjoyable.

Facebook’s algorithm ranks posts using the following four steps:

Inventory- What posts are available at the current time to show

Signals- Looking at available data called signals, Facebook ranks the content. Data is pulled from who posted the story, the current time, what device it was posted with and how much time is spent reading a particular post.

Predictions- Using these signals, Facebook makes predictions based on what you will do with the post (how likely you are to comment, like or share).

Score- Facebook assigns each post a score based on all of these things, this score dictates the posts that are displayed in a newsfeed.

As a marketer managing client’s Facebook accounts, yielding top results for clients is a priority. Maximizing Facebook reach and enhancing engagement are important metrics that clients expect in the age of social media. Facebook will look for the following characteristics when assigning a relevance score to a post:

  • Who posted the story, how often they post and is there any negative feedback on the page or author?
  • How engaging the post is, how much time is spent on the content, and how many tags, comments and shares does it have?
  • The completeness of the page profile
  • Who generated the post, a friend or a business page?
  • How informative is the post?

All of these things impact the probability of a post being seen; the more engagement, the quality of the user, how useful and informative the post is, and how close the post creator is to the user will dictate relevance score and likeness to be seen by a given Facebook user. Friends and family posts are favoured over business page posts.

What Facebook likes

Creating content that is relevant, valuable and interesting is key to appearing organically in news feeds. Ensuring posts are informative, promote engagement, are positive in nature and are free of errors is important. It is proven that pages with a consistent posting schedule outperform ones that post randomly and sporadically.

Here are some things that the Facebook algorithm favours:

  • Posts with lots of likes, comments and shares (even better if it’s in a short period of time)
  • Posts with engagement from close friends
  • Posts that have other pages tagged
  • Posts with an active and engaged audience, creating a brand ambassador program or influencer marketing program is ideal for this
  • Links in posts
  • Users tend to prefer status updates, photos and videos the most
  • Videos uploaded to Facebook that get a large number of views or longer viewing session rank well (according to a 2016 Quintly study videos received a 109.67 percent higher interaction rate and 477.76 percent higher share rate).
  • Posts mentioning a trending topic
  • Posts from pages with complete profile information

What Facebook doesn’t like

Just as the Facebook algorithm favours certain types of posts, it also penalizes posts that don’t conform with its overarching values and mission. The following posts types and actions will negatively effect relevancy score and ensure your posts are at the end of the browsing queue.

  • Posts that are clickbait (click a link to take to another website)
  • Like-baiting, trying to get likes without providing useful content
  • Posts with spammy links
  • Repeated posts
  • Text-only posts or status updates
  • Posts that are hidden by users or are reported
  • Posts that ask for engagement (likes, shares, comments)
  • Over promotional posts

Recent Algorithm changes

Facebook is consistently updating its algorithms to ensure the user experience is high and to evolve with the changing landscape of social media. Here are some recent changes in 2017 that affect what people see and how they engage with Facebook content:

August 2017

  • Pages sharing false news can no longer run Facebook ads
  • Posts that pretend to be videos will be demoted
  • Posts with slow loading links will be shown less

May 2017

  • Posts with click-bate headlines will rank lower
  • Posts that link to low- quality websites will rank lower

January 2017

  • Authentic and timely posts will receive a better
  • Long engaging videos will rank better than short engaging videos

Staying up to date with Facebook’s ever-changing algorithm is imperative to ensuring you are delivering the best results to your clients. By ensuring content is relevant, timely, informative and engaging, utilizing videos and having a solid page presence and well functioning website are all fundamentals to hitting home runs on Facebook. Cloud9 Marketing are experts in Whistler BC on everything social media, any questions about Facebook algorithms or to see our social media management packages, make sure to contact us.

facebook-business-page

Do you have a Facebook Page for your business? If so, are you optimizing it for success, or simply having it there because someone told you that you should? It doesn’t matter the type of business, every business should have a Facebook presence and a Facebook Business Page is the place to start. Here we will cover 7 ways to optimize your Facebook Business Page for success. With these 7 things in place, you will be properly established and ready to reap the benefits of a rock-solid online presence.

1. Use a Business Page, not a Personal Page

 

We often get asked if a personal page will do the trick, instead of a Facebook Business Page. In short, no. Although you may have a heap of followers on your personal page, a personal page simply doesn’t have the same functionalities and capabilities of a business page. The advertising, re-targeting and insight functions of a business page are instrumental in getting the most out of Facebook for your business. Invite your friends over to your business page, and begin building a following from there.

2. Make sure all of your information is complete

 

Your business page profile allows plenty of space to provide information about your business to fans and potential clients. Make sure to complete all relevant information such as general business info, contact info, your business story and hours of operation. Encourage clients and customers to leave reviews and create specific events and offers related to your business.

3. Have on-brand graphics

 

A Facebook Business Page is a great place to establish brand awareness and credibility. Use the space Facebook gives in the header and profile area to showcase elements of your brand and logo, and promote any events or offers. Often we see businesses using the prime header real estate with a photo, although this is visually appealing and better than nothing, use this space to draw people in, and promote what’s happening in your business right now.

4. Leverage Facebook ads

 

Facebook ads are the number one tool in your Facebook Business Page to drive traffic to your website, generate leads and convert sales. The sophisticated and easy to use ads platform allows you to indicate your advertising objective and build an ad campaign around your goals. Targeting capability allows you to target ads to specific areas, demographics, interest groups and more. You can also create custom audiences based on followers of specific pages, previous website visitors of your site, and email lists.

5. Be proactive with comments and engagements on your page

 

A Facebook Business Page should never remain idle. Make sure to be proactive with page engagements. Not only will this help your reach (how many people see your posts), it also shows good customer service. You can set up notifications so every time someone sends a message, comments, likes or reacts to a post, you will be notified and can act promptly.

6. Monitor the success of your Facebook efforts

 

Facebook Business Page has some great insights allowing you to track the performance of each post. You will be able to see the reach, post clicks and engagement for each post as well as monitor the pages of your competition to see how they are comparing with your page in terms of key metrics.

7. Be consistent

 

The key to success with your Facebook Business Page is consistence. By creating a social media content schedule you can know what you will be posting and when, and can schedule the majority of your posts in advance so it doesn’t take too much time away from your core business activities.

Not interested in managing your own social media presence? That’s ok too. We help businesses small and large implement results-driven social media strategies across industries. Ask us about our social media packages and how we can help you with your online marketing efforts.

Facebook Advertising

Whether you are a new start up or a multi-national corporation, Facebook advertising is a tool that can’t be ignored. With 1.71 billion monthly active users and 1.13 billion daily active users in June 2016, Facebook is an undeniable force when it comes to connecting with your target market. With recent algorithm changes organic advertising (posts that aren’t paid for) are seeing a declining reach. Due to the large number of businesses using Facebook as a marketing tool, Facebook wants to ensure people’s timelines are not cluttered with spammy sales pitches therefor serious advertisers now need to pay to have their content seen. The upside to this is Facebook advertising is it’s affordable, laser focused and highly effective. Here we discuss more about what Facebook advertising is, and why you need to be using it.

What is Facebook Advertising?

Advertisements on Facebook are built in a business page, therefor in order to start advertising on Facebook a business and a personal page are needed. When creating a Facebook ad, you are essentially generating a Facebook post which will be displayed in the timelines or the right sidebar of your desired target audience. A new integration also allows you to have your ads displayed on Instagram. Facebook advertising is completely customizable and affordable. You can create an ad on Facebook for as little as $1 a day.

How Does It Work?

Facebook ads can be built via the Publishing Tools tab on a Facebook page, by boosting a post or with a Business Manager Facebook Account. A Business Manager Account that features an Ads Manager portal gives you the most control and insights when advertising with Facebook. When building a Facebook ad, you first select your advertising goal; examples of these include driving more traffic to your website, getting people to download an app, getting more page likes or generating phone calls to your business. Once your goal is defined you can select an audience. Audiences can be selected using location and demographic information, by remarketing to website visitors, targeting those who have submitted lead forms plus many other methods. After defining an audience, the budget and duration of your ad can be selected.  Finally, media (photo or video), and text can be added to create the perfect ad to reach your desired customers or clientele.

Why You Need to Be Doing It?

Simple put, people spend a ridiculous amount of time on social media. In the US, people spend nearly two hours a day on social networks. Organic reach on Facebook is a thing of the past and recent data shows less than .5 percent of Facebook fans will actually see your posts and updates. Facebook offers laser targeting allowing you to reach motivated customers when they’re online. Businesses can target location, demographics, age, gender, interest behaviour and connections. To get even more granular recent purchasing behaviour, life event targeting, look-a-like audiences and remarketing ads can also be used. Never has advertising been so cost effective and precise as what we are seeing with Facebook advertising.

Businesses around the world are seeing enormous results with Facebook advertising. If you haven’t started yet what are you waiting for? Let us help you achieving your online goals and reach your target market through Facebook ads. Contact Cloud9 Marketing today to learn about our affordable and effective social media packages for companies big and small.

facebook-engagement

If you haven’t noticed yet, Facebook’s organic reach has drastically declined. A post that may have reached a quarter of your fans years ago now luckily gets exposed to a small handful (if any). That’s right, the free ride is over and in order for you to be seen or heard on Facebook you will have to work really hard (or pay) for it. Besides investing in Facebook Advertising, engagement is key to your ongoing success. You can’t just slap up a few half-hearted posts and expect grand results. Like most things in life what you put in is what you get out; persistence, routine and a bit of money will be the success of your Facebook Page.

Create meaningful content

In the real world, no one wants to hear about what you had for breakfast, how you’re feeling moment to moment or your opinions and attitudes about the meaning of life. The digital world is the same. If you are constantly posting about ‘me-me-me’ people are going to simply tune out. In order to keep your fans happy and engaged create meaningful content that will benefit them! Do you offer some great products or services? Fantastic! How will it benefit your target market? How can you make it personal to each and every one of your fans? When creating meaningful content ensure you are using a beautiful or catchy image with a powerful status update or headline.

Have a call to action

What do you want people to do with your post? Do you want them to like it? Make a comment? Share it? Visit your website? Having a clear call to action is essential for making any type of progress on Facebook. When formulating a post ask yourself, “what do I want my fans to do with this information?” Perhaps you would like some basic engagement in the way of likes to increase post reach. Perhaps you want to create a conversation by asking for comments. Alternatively maybe you would like to direct your fans to your website and take advantage of an amazing deal or offer. Make this crystal clear. Not only will creating a solid call to action help you achieve your business goals but it will increase engagement and reach on your Facebook Page.

Engage with your Fans

It’s great to be in Facebook-land posting and talking away but it is all absolutely pointless unless you are listening too. When Fans engage with you, make sure the communication is a two way street! It is selfish and useless to create an amazing post with a great call to action and then abandon it like yesterday’s news. Keep the conversation going like your life depends on it! The more engagement you can get with your fans, the more meaningful your post will be and the more reach your page will get.

Stick to a schedule

Frequency and consistency are key to creating a base of loyal fans. To compete with every other business in the world on Facebook you need to stay recent and relevant in the minds of your Facebook Community. Creating a posting schedule using platforms like Hootsuite or Sprout Social can help you organize your posts in advance so you’re not wasting countless hours dreaming up posts while you could be using those valuable brain cells on much more important contributions. When scheduling your posts, ensure to switch up the content. No one wants to hear about your products and special offers day in and day out. What is appealing to your target market? Give them information that will satisfy their needs (and then slip in some information about your promotions or products too). Remember to research what is the best time of day to post for your industry. Knowing when your target market is online can make a huge impact on what type of engagement your posts get.

Pay for ads

If you spend money on Facebook advertising you shall be rewarded, and come on, compared to conventional advertising it’s pretty cheap! It can’t hurt to boost your page for a few days every month to generate new fans. One of the best features of Facebook advertising is how targeted you can be. By narrowing down your target market using geographic, demographic and behavioural characteristics you can essentially hand-pick who you want to broadcast to. Don’t forget to boost the odd post here and there too. If you have something you want heard far and wide- spend a few bucks and get that post seen!

It takes a lot of time, effort and persistence to create a successful Facebook Page with a loyal fan base. Not only is it a lot of work, but Facebook is constantly changing its algorithms to dictate how the platform operates. When operating a business, most business owners and Managers simply don’t have the time to effectively focus on their social media presence. At Cloud9 Marketing we help businesses small and large manage their online image. We understand algorithms, impressions and hashtags but most of all we understand how to get results online through social media, branding, content development, search engine optimization and more. Contact us today!

social media for branding

As the year starts to wind down, it’s easy to become a little bit nostalgic. A lot has changed in the past few years – surely in your personal life, but in your business, too.

For instance, just think of all of the brand development opportunities that have arisen over the past decade with the advent of social media. Branding for today’s businesses is radically different than it was even just a few years ago.

Taking advantage of these opportunities is a given for today’s leading brands – and for a good reason. Here are just a few ways that social media can help take your branding to the next level.

Become Recognizable

Building a brand is about creating something that your customers and clients can identify easily. Social media can you help you expand your brand’s presence. You can be in front of your customers whenever they’re scrolling through their Twitter feed or checking out Facebook updates (which is virtually all the time) – now that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

Create a Consistent Voice

Your brand should be consistent throughout all channels, including social media. As potential and existing clients and customers become accustomed to your social media presence, they’ll come to recognize your voice, building familiarity with your brand.

Connect with Influencers

Use social media to embrace your brand’s biggest fans. Loyal customers are worth their weight in gold: not only can you count on their continued business, you can also expect them to introduce your brand to their own personal networks. With social media, you can build a direct relationship with those influencers, like offering your cheerleaders early access to a sale, a bonus perk with their order or booking, or sneak peeks into upcoming events and releases.

Establish Trust

Social media isn’t just for connecting with your biggest cheerleaders: it’s also for connecting with your future cheerleaders. Through social media, you can really let your brand’s personality shine, building relationships with new fans and earning that coveted brand loyalty.

Be More Than a Brand

Your brand is more than just a name and a logo and social media allows you to showcase that. Through social media, you can build a community that shows what your company is really all about. Customers and clients will gain a better understanding of who you are and what you do.

Share the Brand Love

Customers and clients are engaging brands like never before through social media channels. They’ll post a picture on Instagram showcasing a recent purchase, or will Tweet their praises after a positive customer service experience. Social media – both your own use and your customers’ use – can help others share a brand experience.

On the flipside, customers will take to social media to announce when they’re dissatisfied. Savvy companies will take this opportunity to fix the problem directly with the unsatisfied customer, turning a negative experience into a positive opportunity. People are going to complain whether the company in question is on social media or not – wouldn’t you like to have the chance to hear about the problem so that you can fix it?

Listen, then Strategize

Social media is a two way street – don’t forget to listen! Your customers and clients are constantly providing feedback on your brand through social media. Scan your Facebook page, see what blog posts are getting the most hits, and scour relevant hashtags – and learn something from them. Use your findings to update your brand strategy and to stay connected to your target market.

If you’re thinking about building your brand through social media (or improving your existing social media presence), don’t hesitate to get in touch with Cloud9 Marketing. We’re here to help – this is what we do!