As with most aspects of the digital age, sites such as Facebook and search engines like Google are constantly updating and changing the way they do things to satisfy their user experience.
You might know the importance of incorporating digital marketing into business strategy, however, keeping up to date on the changes which regularly take place is just as important.
Facebook is openly advertising its attempts to make the app more user friendly and improve the type of content that appears on a Newsfeed, as well as emphasizing its core values, which are essentially to connect friends and family. This is why, more of a newsfeed is now increasingly filled with posts from people you are closest to, followed by ones which “inform and entertain”.
The site will play closer attention to, not only the kind of posts that a user is liking, but also how much time is spent on a link, the user’s interest in the creator of the post, how the post has performed with other users and how recent it is.
In a previous blog post, we talked about the changes afoot with Google in trying to improve a user’s experience by lowering the ranking of sites which use unhelpful pop ups. Now, a new update which is coming to Facebook aims to penalize pages which post too often and filter out clickbait (content of a sensational or provocative nature, designed to draw visitors to a particular web page which may not be of any use at all).
So, much like a spam filter, now, more than ever, marketers must work harder to provide information which is interesting and useful to their target audience in order to stand any chance of their message being seen at all. Any pages which regularly use clickbait will now receive a much lower ranking (in the same way as Google’s treatment of pop up users).
In the last couple of weeks you may also have noticed that Facebook has been asking where you are and helping you to find nearby wireless hotspots.
The move seems to be more in line with their aim to get another billion users onboard and improve the experience of people using it in areas where there might be poor reception. With the recent success of live video (which Facebook studies show are viewed three times longer than previously recorded ones) knowing where a nearby Wi-Fi hotspot is can help improve the quality of the real-time content produced.
A new layout for Facebook also features customizable sections in the middle column, new templates for different business types and an easier way to see and share the unique URL for each tab, although some of the changes are not currently available across the board.
All of these updates, which have only taken place recently, again illustrate the need for any company wishing to make the most of social media marketing, to constantly review and update their strategy accordingly.
If you need any help with any aspects of your business’ digital marketing, get in touch with us today.
