Since then, Meta’s shares have dropped by 20%, which in any other company would be a big problem, but since it’s Meta – actually, it’s a big problem for Meta too. 

20% doesn’t seem like a lot. 

For Meta, it’s $240BN. Overnight. As investors realised – and saw – what the Metaverse really looked like. 

Here’s why. 

What’s the metaverse?

Zuckerberg says the metaverse is the future. In his own words: “the metaverse is the next evolution of social connection.” It’s concerts you can attend anywhere in a virtual space. It’s avatars you can customise to look just like you. It’s a world that builds itself around giving you better experiences. 

It’s a massive multiplayer online roleplaying game, and we’ve had the technology to make those since 1991, but Zuckerberg wants to go a step further. 

Zuckerberg wants it to be hyperrealistic. 

But isn’t the metaverse supposed to be really high-tech?

Meta wants to push for virtual reality. 

There’s currently a couple of problems with delivering that promise: 

1. Virtual reality tech is expensive. The cheapest one, the Oculus Go, was $249 dollars in 2019; the prices have gone up since then due to a number of factors such as the global chip shortage and manufacturing issues.  
2. Virtual reality tech is not viable for everyone. Think of the people who are going to be the primary audience for this. Now think of where they live. How many 16 – 40 years olds do you know with both the money and the space to drop on virtual reality technology that takes up half a room?
3. Virtual reality tech has to be immersive to deliver the promises. Facebook’s latest Superbowl advert showed that the avatars they could map with today’s technology are basically just floating torsos. The reason for this is that the technology hasn’t come far enough, and been made affordable enough, to map full-body movements – which kind of sets Meta’s ‘be yourself, but virtually’ goals back a few notches in immersion. 

The metaverse is high-tech. 

But it’s high-tech in ways that needs hardware the average person won’t have access to yet. 

A full-scale immersive environment that tracks your full body – similar to the way they track movements in multi-million dollar triple A games – is expensive. It’s not tech that can just become widely available overnight. 

What about their users?

Facebook’s user-base is aging, and they’re finding it hard to appeal to younger users. Tiktok has taken a chunk out of their primary users, and as Facebook continues to get a reputation for being the social media riddled with anti-vaxxers and propaganda, it’s struggling to maintain the higher numbers it used to have. 

Even if the metaverse brings in a younger audience, what Facebook offers is limited: playing games, watching VR videos, attending meetings, none of which have the refinement that you can get from companies that specialise in VR. 

So, Facebook’s metaverse is a failure?

Meta’s take on the metaverse is an idea that has yet to reach its full potential. 

But this version of the metaverse will likely not be the one that endures. 

And much of it is down to the grip that Mark Zuckerberg has on Meta. 

Zuckerberg is a visionary. The original Meta, pre-rebrand, created the term unicorn company, and drove it to higher, better heights. His idea for a social network changed the very basis of the internet into something so completely different that it defined Web 2.0. Good or bad, it wouldn’t have happened without Mark Zuckerberg. 

However, Mark Zuckerberg is banking a lot that the metaverse is something Meta’s primary audience – most of which are the older generation and the very, very young – wants. And whatever Zuckerberg identifies as his vision, Zuckerberg pushes Meta to do – whether or not it’s in line with the userbase.

This isn’t a bad thing. Part of being a visionary is learning what rules to break. 

But Meta-under-Zuckerberg is breaking those rules in a way that makes it difficult for the company to generate any goodwill. Meta’s past data scandals and reputation have earmarked it as the social media you shouldn’t trust, and its present is riddled with problems with its algorithm and the slow recognition by the world at large that it has bought most of its major competitors.

Just based on technology, the metaverse isn’t quite ready for Facebook’s vision. 

And from a business perspective, Facebook isn’t ready for the metaverse. 

But it is ready for growth. 

However, that growth could come at the cost of Mark Zuckerberg. 

As we’ve seen from Dorsey and Twitter, that’s not always the end of an era. 

Can Facebook create a successful metaverse?

Meta has the money, and the people, to create a better attempt at the metaverse than some of its other competitors, and it can still create a successful metaverse – but for it to reach, and be relatable, to a much wider group of people, it has to really think about what its metaverse needs to be. 

And it has to see how it can keep the people who are on-board for the metaverse interested as they figure out how to actually make the metaverse viable and true to its vision. 

What’s the lesson to take away from this?

If you’re creating a product that your audience isn’t going to use, you need to make sure that someone will. 

Meta is banking that there are people who are so invested in VR social media that they will shell out upwards of $250 to chat to avatars of their friends, attend concerts, play basic games, and see art shows in virtual reality, rather than doing the same thing in real life. 

As a theory, it has merit. But Meta also needs to keep in mind that the tech to make this happen is yet years away, and to keep pushing and building their primary product and addressing the concerns that its main user base has: the allegations of abuse, the problematic algorithm, and the idea that Meta is selling your data to the highest bidder. 

However: The Case for Metaverse

There’s a bright side. 

Metaverse is still very, very new, and so is the technology to make it. Hyperrealistic 3D virtual worlds might not be on the cards for next year, but it doesn’t mean they never will be – and as happens with most big corporations, Meta’s R&D investment is going to pay out. Whether it’s in the way that will benefit the metaverse or not, it’s too early to tell. 

But the metaverse is happening, and eventually, it might even be something good: a place where you experience anything. 

Its merit, and whether or not that’s enough to tide over the share dip, is still undetermined. 

It’s going to be fun watching it develop.

The post The Dystopian Metaverse appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

Facebook is rolling out new metrics and removing a litany of redundant and useless metrics from the Ads Manager.
The Facebook Ads Manager is messy. 
Too many metrics makes reading ad data a pain.
Thankfully, Facebook’s been listening. Facebook is removing redundant metrics, and adding metrics to help businesses and brands succeed.
You will notice that some of these metrics are labeled as “estimated’ or in “development” in the ads manager.
Facebook is adding the label “estimated” to be more transparent about their reporting methodology. Facebook measures ad performance by scaling samples in order to provide real-time results. When this method is used, Facebook will label the metric as estimated. Labels that are still in BETA will be labeled very obviously as “development,” indicating that they may change throughout this
A great example is the new “Ad Recall Lift” metric Facebook is rolling out. Since this metric works by polling a sample of the advertising audience, it is labeled as estimated. Given that it’s a new metric in BETA, it will also be labeled  development.

Over 20 Ad Metrics on the Chopping Block!
Bam, big changes are coming. 

The Redundant and Repetitive Ad Metrics 

Actions
Actions, people taking actions, cost per action. Actions as a metric is a sum of various actions users have taken on your ad. Since there are many different possible actions a user can take, this metric is not granular enough to derive business results.
Amount Spent Today
This is a redundant metric. If you want to see the amount your ads spent today, simply adjust the date range to today and use the Amount Spent metric.
Button Clicks
This is another redundant metric. Link Clicks, Event responses, and saved for later are all metrics tracked for your ads.
Carousel Card
This metric provided clicks and conversions for Carousel ads. Its redundant – you can already get clicks and conversions data from the ads manager.
Mobile App Actions Conversion Value
This is another redundant metric. You can use Mobile App Purchases Conversion Value instead.
Positive & Negative Feedback
Positive and Negative feedback as metric outputs are not insightful on their own. These signals are used as inputs for the Relevance Score metric which paints a clearer picture for understanding how well an audience is responding to ads.

The Useless Ad Metrics

Canvas Component Time Percentage
Who even uses this? …Exactly why this metric is a goner. Use the other Canvas metrics for view times.
Page Mentions, Cost per Page Mention
This is an outdated metric for your brand. Page mentions can’t tell if you’re receiving positive or negative feedback. If you care about following, use the page likes or page engagement metrics instead.
Social Reach, Impressions, Clicks, Unique Clicks
A social ad is supplemented with copy that’s familiar to all of us “3 friends liked this page.” However, advertisers don’t have control over when this sort of social ad is delivered. Since these metrics are not actionable for advertisers, Facebook is doing away with them. Instead, leverage traditional reach, impressions, and clicks for ad performance.
Page Tab Views, Cost per Page Tab View
This metric tells you how many views your Facebook page tabs received as a result of an ad. This metric is relatively useless. Page likes and page engagement are better indicators for Facebook page success.
Link Click Destination
This metric was built to help advertisers understand which clicks lead people off Facebook through an app’s deep link or to an app store or other backup link destinations. Due to new mobile operating system updates, this metric is being revisited. In the meantime, advertisers can use outbound links as a metric.

The New Kids

There’s probably many more new metrics that are in development and on their way to our ad manager accounts. Two metrics that already existed on the Ads Manager but are still in development are:
Store Visits
This is an interesting metric for physical retail and office locations. You can run Facebook ads that are built to drive store visits using a store locator.
Ad Recall Lift
This will be one of Facebook’s most powerful metrics if its rolled out right. This gives brands the ability to measure the recall-performance of their ads.
We’ll keep you posted as more metrics come out.
Get the rest of your marketing friends up to speed by sharing this article with them  
 

The post Facebook Ad Metrics are Changing appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

What is it?

Facebook now provides the option to save replies – these are replies you frequently use which you may keep close at hand.
This way, if you get many messages asking you what’s found in the “Surprise chicken casserole” you can quickly hit the saved reply instead of typing it out each time!


 

Why do we love it?

You can create saved replies and insert automatic fields which will include information lifted from the page such as the person’s name, the admin’s name, and even your URL and address.
It makes life easier, and for those who receive many messages during the day, this will definitely be a mini life saver as it can really help boost productivity.
The second change is still related to Facebook messages but in a different aspect.
Welcome, to the new green icon.

Okay, so you might not have seen this anywhere yet because from what we’ve gathered, it’s still being rolled out.
However we did notice that one of the pages we manage had this:

What’s this?

Basically it looks as though Facebook will be adding the little green icon to pages that have high response rates to the messages they receive. And by high we mean high! To get the icon you’ve got to respond to 90% of all your messages and have a median response time of 5 minutes.

Why do we love it?

This means that brands who care about their customers will be rewarded by having the icon showing that they’re quick. This in turn will improve their customer/brand relationship and also improve customer loyalty.
So keep your eyes peeled and get ready to start answering those messages ASAP.

The post Facebook for business update. Have you spotted it? appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

About the Author

This post was contributed by Maya Muscat Azzopardi, a summer intern at Switch. Maya blogs regularly at bluejeansandredlipstick.com.

The post Facebook is NOT dead. The numbers show it. appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

10. Pepsi

Why hello, hashtag. Pepsi use their signature funky, urban designs to direct all attention to their star hashtag of the World Cup season. With Pepsi-sponsored football players using the tag all over the internet, it was important for Pepsi to advertise the hashtag and encourage people to look it up. Plus, they integrated the profile picture into the overall design, which always looks clever.
Why is this at the bottom of our list? Well, they didn’t include the clickable hashtag in their description (or any description at all, for that matter), meaning that they’ve lost a golden opportunity for driving traffic.

9. The New York Times

Sure, you would expect a leading newspaper to have striking footage and photography to use on social media. But the New York Times takes it a step further. Here they’ve given visitors a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on during an average day of work, instantly boosting credibility and interest. And all of this without using a single word of text.

8. GoPro

A simple sales message, delivered powerfully. It’s understood instantly: If you buy a GoPro, you can capture this sort of image.

7. Porsche

It’s similar in concept to what GoPro did with their cover photo, but Porsche went a step further. Rather than posting a random pretty picture of a car, they showcased their latest advancement in the field without using a single word: Electric motor engines.
(and yes, they did provide a link in the description.)

6. UrbanDaddy

If you’re a fan of superb copy skills, you would want to look into UrbanDaddy. Their cover photo is exceptional at reinforcing their brand, but with subtlety. The image doesn’t loudly promote their product (which is content and offers on their online magazine). Rather, it’s all about the person who reads UrbanDaddy and the lifestyle they represent.

5. Fiverr

If you stick to the guidelines and keep things simple and looking great, you can use your cover photo to promote anything. Just like Fiverr did. They’re promoting their current competition and getting the entire message across without using too many words in the design. The competition looks simple and entices you to find out more – and they haven’t even told you what the prize is yet.

4. LinkedIn

You hear ‘LinkedIn’ and you think business professionals and overall seriousness. The last thing you’d expect to see on their cover photo is a toddler playing with a toy laptop – but that’s exactly why it’s brilliant. They’re showing us that they appreciate the users behind the millions of business profiles, the users that go home to their kids after a day at the office. They’re giving a stuffy network a human face, all with just one image.

3. Amazon

Simple and direct – Amazon are showcasing their latest product. No need for pricing or product details, that will follow. All they’re doing is building awareness and fostering curiosity without having to pay for advertising.
Plus – spot the hashtag.

2. Sony

It’s current, it’s evocative and it’s visually striking. All Sony have done is show how their product is relevant right now. They posted this one during the World Cup, so football was the first thing on everyone’s mind. By (literally) placing their product in that scenario, it leads people to think that the next logical step would be to upgrade their current TV to the one in the picture. Or at least, that’s what I thought.

1. Facebook

At our number 1 spot – who else?
There’s nothing obvious about the message behind the photo. That’s for you to interpret. But the chances are that, with an image like that behind the blue Facebook logo, you’re thinking that Facebook had something to do with bringing all those happy people together, regardless of age or ethnicity.
Bingo.

Now over to you – how do you make Cover Photos work for your marketing?

The post 10 Brands that have mastered the art of the Cover Photo appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

1. Check the Facebook Guidelines

Let the eye-rolling commence. Yes, this is absolutely the first thing you need to check about when creating not just your cover photo, but every item of content on your page. Before you ask – no, Facebook doesn’t actually say what will happen if you violate the Facebook guidelines, but it’s probably not a good idea to risk having your page taken down over your cover photo, right?

2. Make sure it’s the right size

851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall. You’ll want to get that right from the start when designing a photo, because why would you want to spend time getting a new image designed only to have it look funny once you upload it? You can view our full template for Facebook image sizes right here. (We’ve included a full image size guide in this post – scroll down to see it now.)

3. Keep mobile in mind

The Facebook mobile app doesn’t re-size your cover photo to fit everything in. Rather, it only displays the middle-to-right portion of your cover photo. If you’re targeting mobile users on Facebook, you might want to keep this in mind when including text or certain images in your desktop cover photo.
Keep the important information center- or right-aligned, or you could have large parts of it cut out to look something like this:

4. Lay out your content carefully

Be aware that your profile picture covers a section of your cover photo in the bottom left corner when the user lands on your page.
The part of the cover image that lies behind the profile picture won’t be visible until the user clicks on it, so be sure to keep that area clear of any text or information.

5. Keep it visual

This time last year, Facebook had finally done away with the 20% rule on text in cover photos.  This means that you have more freedom when designing the layout for your cover photo, but you should still be careful when including text in your designs.
Keep your copy concise and focus on the visual element of the design. That’s what the cover photo was designed for and will make your page much more engaging, even at first glance.

6. If you’re using text, make it count

When Facebook revoked the 20% text rule, they also allowed people to use calls-to-action in their cover photos. CTAs, key text and striking visuals – if you want your cover photo to help you convert, that’s all you need.

7. Speaking of text… got a hashtag?

If you’re promoting an event or product through your cover photo, be sure to include the relevant hashtag, where applicable. You can include it in the design of the actual image for recall purposes, but more importantly, remember to include it in the description to make your photo more discoverable.

8. Don’t forget the description

The calls to action on your cover photo won’t be clickable buttons, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t still direct people to your landing page. Be sure to include clickable links in your cover photo description so that anyone clicking on your cover photo will be able to take the next natural step to wherever it is you want to take them!

9. Change your cover photo regularly

Make your cover photo work for you by changing it whenever you have something new to talk about. Highlight current campaigns, seasonal trends or special events by creating cover photos about them to build awareness or drive more traffic via the link in the description.

10. Own your content

You know by now that Facebook have removed most of the restrictions for page cover photos. In fact, they’ve dropped them all, except for one:

All cover photos are public, which means anyone visiting your Page will be able to see it. Cover photos must follow the Pages Terms and can’t be deceptive, misleading or infringe on anyone else’s copyright.

Simply put: be truthful, own your content and don’t make people change their cover photos to match yours.  Fair enough, right?
One last thing – keep other, non-Facebook regulations in mind when promoting something on your cover photo, especially if gifts and prizes are involved. The Maltese Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LGA) has specific regulations for any form of lottery or luck-of-the-draw competitions – even those held on Facebook or other networks – so keep that in mind before you start pumping your precious marketing budget into your next competition.
As promised earlier, here’s a handy guide to all image sizes you’ll need to consider when running a Facebook page. We’ll be sharing one of these for all the major social networks over the coming weeks, so keep an eye out!

The post 10 Tips for creating Cover Photos that work appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

Why is Facebook organic reach declining?

The first reason for this is pretty obvious – as more people and brands join Facebook and start posting regularly, the items that compete for our attention (and news feed) have increased drastically.
The second is that our News Feed needs to be manageable for us to enjoy our time on Facebook, and therefore the site uses complex algorithms to try and make each user’s individual experience better.
In Brian’s words:

Over the past year, we’ve made some key changes to improve how News Feed chooses content:

– We’ve got better at showing high-quality content
– And we’ve cleaned up News Feed spam

As a result of these changes, News Feed is becoming more engaging, even as the amount of content being shared on Facebook continues to grow.

Why not be like other platforms?

Here Facebook took a dig at platforms like Twitter and Tumblr, which show you all your content in chronological order – he said that people often end up missing the content they would have enjoyed most. I personally tend to agree with him here.
He also inferred that Facebook got the most stick for this just because it actually makes the effort to show you the stats.
Facebook has always valued clear, detailed, actionable reports that help businesses see what’s happening with their content.

So why bother with fans?

Well, as we always tell our clients – fans are a very valuable asset to have even if you’re not reaching them organically:
Brian’s reasons:
– They allow you to have social ads, which have a much higher impact than regular advertising
– Fans make you more competitive in ad auctions (so you spend less)
– You can use insight about your fans (demographics) to target your content better
– The number of fans gives you more credibility
Our final reason:
– Advertising to your page’s fans and their friends is some of the most cost-effective advertising we’ve ever run online.

So is the free lunch over?

Well, to a certain extent Facebook admitted as much. By comparing themselves to traditional media, Brian effectively said that you always had to pay to play – Facebook won’t be any different. There are advantages though, with a solid campaign strategy and great content which can go viral you can get much more bang for your buck on Facebook.
Facebook will keep changing. They will work at weeding out spammers and making it harder for people who are trying to use Facebook to advertise their business below the radar and in irritating manners.
As long as you plan your campaigns well and try to always stay a step ahead of the competition you can see incredible return on investment from your Facebook campaigns.
If you’re not really sure where to start just drop us a line and we’ll help you kickstart your online campaigns.

The post Why are people not seeing my posts any more? Facebook answers. appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

For the record, this is what it looks like today:

This is where Facebook stands today. Infographics are provided by dpfoc.com.

And just in case you were wondering, this is how Facebook compares to Twitter in numbers:

And what better way to map out the past decade than to spread it out over a Facebook Timeline?

Happy Birthday, Facebook. Thanks for keeping us connected.

The post Facebook is 10! Here's a look at the past decade in numbers. appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.