Facebook Marketing In 2016 [Infographic]

Zachary Jarvis http://speechlessdigital.co.uk 4m 988 #facebook

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

How Marketing on Facebook is Changing in 2016

Facebook is constantly growing with over 1.44 billion monthly active users, 1.25 billion of these are on mobile alone. This is equivalent to 20,000 users on Facebook every second. These statistics make Facebook the biggest social network operating today and a valuable website for marketers, whether they are promoting a product or service or conducting market research.

In recent years, Facebook has been improving the experience it provides to its users so they can access a wide variety of content without leaving the site. For instance, Facebook has input a significant amount of time and resource into developing its cross platform mobile app to benefit 581 million Facebook members who access the network through smartphones and tablets. Video content is being accessed on the go as a constant source of entertainment with 75% of Facebook videos occurring on mobile devices with this percentage to increase following the introduction of live video streaming to rival Twitter’s Periscope.

Facebook recently integrated similar algorithm technology used by Google into its platform which helps personalise results by adding current news stories and popular posts to search results and users timelines.

Businesses are now able to communicate directly with its customers privately through Facebook messenger, allowing them to have personal, real time conversations. This shows that Facebook is trying to combat businesses using Twitter direct messages with its customers. Further advancements to the messaging facility include M, a virtual assistant through users can book tickets, buy products and get recommendations without ever leaving the service.

One useful tool Facebook has which is valuable to marketers is user data. The majority of data collected by Facebook has been inaccessible to marketers. Beyond business Facebook pages, brands have little idea of the conversations going on directly related to their brand or product offering. Making this data anonymised will allow Facebook to provide insights to advertisers which will make life easier to marketers.

In the coming years, Facebook will increase the amount of content stored on the platform through services such as Instant Articles and Canvas. Instant articles is Facebook’s attempt of keeping users on the site whilst accessing content such as news stories or blog posts. However, publishers will need to carefully consider the value of publishing their content externally to their website and whether this outweighs the loss of direct and advertising revenue.

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FACEBOOK MARKETING IN 2016

Every second there are 20,000 users on Facebook. That number alone makes it a valuable website for marketers, whether they are promoting a service, releasing a product, or conducting market research.

Facebook has been building out the user experience so that consumers can access a wide variety of content without having to leave the site.

SOME STATISTICS OF FACEBOOK FOR MARKETERS TO CONSIDER

• 1.44 BILLION monthly active users
• 1.25 BILLION mobile user
• 936 MILLION daily active users
• 798 MILLION mobile daily active users
• 75% of Facebook Video Views Occurs on Mobile Devices
• 581 MILLION Facebook Members Are ‘Mobile Only’

HOW FACEBOOK MARKETING WILL FARE IN 2016

Looking at recent changes gives us clues as to what 2016 will hold for both for both consumers and businesses. Let us see how Facebook Marketing will change in the next year:

The rise of Facebook search marketing

Facebook recently introduced Search FYI, an updated search tool that personalises results by adding current news stories and popular posts to the results.

This leads us to believe that social media SEO best practice will become a concern for marketers in 2016. Finding the right balance between SEO and social may lead to a new dawn of SEO on socail media.

Facebook’s ‘Business on Messenger’ allows brands to improve their customer service offering by having personal, real time conversations.

2016 should see this feature roll out to other markets, and for elements to be updated.

Virtual Assistance

Facebook recently introduced M, a virtual assistance through which users can book tickets, buy products, and get recommendations without having to leave Messenger.

In the future we could see Facebook relying on its own data to ascertain whether a brand is trustworthy or not.

Content publishing on Facebook

Instant Articles is Facebook’s attempt to keep people on site when accessing content.

Brands will need to consider whether the value of publishing directly to Facebook outweighs the loss of direct traffic and advertising revenue.

Facebook Canvas

Facebook Canvas full-screen, video mobile format is intended to encourage people more than a regular video ad. And, similar to Instant Article, Canvas ads load 10 times faster than a standard mobile ad.

Canvas is rolling out globally to any advertisers using Facebook’s Power Editing Tool; interested marketers can try it out at canvas.facebook.com for free.

Live video streaming

August saw the introduction of Facebook Live, allowing public figures to broadcast live video to watching fans.

Marketers know that people on Android love interacting with live videos – more than 50% of people watching live video are using Android devices. Facebook Live will surely create more opportunities for marketers to convey their messages effectively.

Facebook ad data provider

The majority of Facebook data has long been inaccessible to marketers.

Beyond their own page, brands have little idea of the conversation about them. Anonymised data will provide insights to advertisers making life easier for marketers.

Facebook’s ‘Reaction’ Buttons

Facebook announced that it was beginning to test ‘Reactions’ – an extension of the Like button that gives peopel more ways to share their reaction to a post in a quick and easy way.

These emojis wills it alongside the traditional thumbs-up and represent love, haha, yay, wow, sad, and angry.

This new feature will be an opportunity for businesses and publishers to better understand how people are responding to their content on Facebook.

About the Author

About Zachary and Speechless Digital

Zachary Jarvis is the Founder and Managing Director of Speechless Digital, a Digital & Content Marketing Agency based in Essex, UK.

Speechless Digital | The Gateway Building, 10 Elmer Approach, Southend on Sea, SS1 1LW | +44 (0)1702 668180

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