In their latest released quarterly report, Meta has highlighted that there’s been a drop of one million in global daily users, taking their figures down from 1.93 to 1.929. Added to the flat net growth of new users for Instagram and WhatsApp, the figures do not paint a pretty future for Meta. 

Websites lose people all the time. Why is this such a big deal?

Facebook isn’t a website. It’s the reason social media is the way it is, and for 18 years, it’s grown continuously, with a bulletproof stock and a formidable portfolio that just subsumes all other competing websites. At the height of its power and popularity, Facebook bought Instagram; it bought WhatsApp. It could do that, unchecked, because it had market lead and power behind it, and other start-ups couldn’t compete. 

Mark Zuckerberg said it himself: “we can likely always just buy any competitive startup.”

Now, Facebook is struggling. The drop in daily users also wiped out 26% in stock value, triggered Wall Street’s worst one-day stock decline in history, and just erased $232 billion of Facebook’s worth. 

And it pulled other tech stocks with it. 

Think of it like an ecosystem. Every ecosystem, no matter how small, relies on balance. 

For the first time in 18 years, Facebook has stumbled, and the balance of the entire social media ecosystem is in flux. 

Okay, so how did this happen?

This has been four years in the making, and it happened because Facebook ignored the signs over those four years.

When Cambridge Analytica’s Christopher Wylie came out and said that Facebook had been mining personal data from a just-for-academic-use app called This Is Your Digital Life, it hit Facebook right where it mattered most: in its unchecked, overwhelming obsession over growth. In 2018, the year of Ted Cruz and Trump and Brexit, the last thing any Facebook user wanted to add to their plate was realising their personal information had been stolen to support these causes. 

What are you talking about?

This Is Your Digital Life actually paid people to complete a Facebook survey. This was only supposed to be for academic research, but Facebook allowed it to keep mining data – and that data was later used in Ted Cruz’s campaign in the United States, Donald Trump’s campaign, and the push for Brexit. 

Collected data was used to create individual profiles that would sway people into voting for these events. The full investigation concluded that Cambridge Analytica’s influence was likely negligible (except for the Ted Cruz campaign) but that didn’t really matter: Facebook had placed itself on a side of history nobody wanted to be on – as the catalyst for some of the most chaotic political events in history, pulling the strings to influence the outcome. 

But if Facebook wasn’t found guilty—

Facebook was found guilty. 

But nothing really happened except for a handful of fines. 

At its core, Cambridge Analytica is a research firm. It’s a conservative research firm, dealing with private intelligence and the military, but it’s still just a research firm. 

Facebook is a social media company with a reach of billions, the kind of reach that a research firm can’t even dream of possessing. 

And Cambridge Analytica – with Facebook – reached it. 

Without Facebook’s consent, and without Facebook’s reach, Cambridge Analytica wouldn’t have managed to farm so much data from so many people to use for their tampering.

How does something that happened in 2018 lead to Facebook losing users four years later?

Facebook didn’t do anything with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. There’s been no reform – except for stringent ad measures that make it impossible to use Facebook for advertising – and there’s been no transparency about whether or not they’re still collecting that data or using the data. Mark Zuckerberg is a closed box on everything to do with 2018. 

However, people don’t forget. 

And when you have one big violation of privacy and trust, it’s never just one. 

In 2021, Sophie Zhang, another whistleblower, put another nail in the ‘Facebook is negligent at best and actively harmful at worst’ coffin. As part of the Facebook Site Integrity fake engagement team – yes, that’s a real thing – her task was to investigate the use of likes, comments, shares, and reactions, and see if they were made by real people. 

What she found went much deeper than that. 

Authoritarian regimes, such as in Honduras and Azerbaijan, could artificially inflate their popularity using bots and other fake entities. 

Facebook knew about it. 

Facebook did nothing because the bottom line would suffer otherwise, and Facebook’s first priority has always been Facebook. 

Wait, but Mark Zuckerberg said Tiktok was the reason that Facebook was losing users!

He’s right. 

Partially. 

The problem with Facebook is that it spent so much time at the top of its market that other competitors it didn’t consider as competitors have started to climb in popularity. TikTok boomed in the pandemic because its format – short form, bite size videos – and relatively scandal-free background made it appealing. There’s no agenda to TikTok except giving creators the room to share their creativity, a thing that Facebook has long since dropped in the reach for greater profits. 

Tiktok is definitely a reason for Facebook’s decline in popularity, but it’s about 1% of that reason. The rest is just pure Facebook shenanigans. 

Facebook’s rebranded though! And it’s doing so well! 

It’s not. 

The rebrand to Meta came on the heels of – you guessed it, another information scandal! Gold star for you. 

This time, the whistleblower was Frances Haugen, who joined Facebook in 2019 after someone she was close to was radicalised through Facebook. 

By 2021, Frances Haugen leaked ‘The Facebook Files’ to the Wall Street Journal, a collection of internal Facebook documents, online employee discussions and research reports that showed Facebook consistently, continuously ignoring the damaging effects that Facebook and Instagram had on the world. 

From influencing teenagers through Instagram to Facebook activity propping up violent insurrections like the January 6th Capitol riots, the Facebook Files didn’t just highlight that Facebook knew about its effects on people, but also that it did nothing to control it – and what it did do, such as implement an AI to detect and remove violent content, had an algorithm so poor that it only managed to act correctly less than 0.6% of the time. 

A few weeks later, Zuckerberg said that Facebook was rebranding itself as Meta, and focusing its next phase of growth on the metaverse. 

Oh, yeah! How’s that going?

The problem with putting all your eggs into the metaverse basket is that the technology that you’re working with has to be better than the technology people are used to. 

And it has to be cost effective. 

Virtual worlds where people could connect with others aren’t new: they’ve been around since the days of Runescape, World of Warcraft, and Playstation Home, and while you can make the argument that the metaverse is different from a virtual world lobby, the early analysis of Facebook’s launched virtual world are not great, considering that it’s not new tech, only tech that should be – realistically – better than a free-to-play MMO. 

So, poorly. Facebook’s metaverse push is going poorly. 

Its entire VR/AR/XR reality wing is losing money. Last year, it was $10.2 billion. Facebook’s VR headset, the Quest, has only sold around 10 million units – barely a fraction of what early VR headsets sold with less-capable tech. Zuckerberg isn’t shy about letting people know that the company is going towards more investment for VR and AR, but there’s the issue: who’s going to pay for it?

Facebook, the social media which has paid for it so far, is struggling. 

If it breaks, so does Meta. 

So… will it?

This is hard to answer, but the likelihood – given the way Facebook operates, its stringent focus on protecting itself – the chances are that things will have to change in order for Facebook to maintain itself. 

Turning a profit is another story. 

People have long memories. And Facebook hasn’t had one scandal, or two, or three: it’s had three scandals focused on how badly it mistreats and how little it cares about anything besides itself. It’s pushing for a technology that will be – at its core – out of the price range of a wide number of its users. It’s not innovating anything that users want. 

It still hasn’t addressed its algorithm problems, the AI failure, or where the data from Cambridge Analytica went. 

We talk a lot about how brands have to change to survive; how they have to adapt to consumers, not the other way around. How there’s likely, in your field and in ours, at least ten other companies offering the same product with better benefits or a cheaper price. 

This goes for big corporations as well as smaller ones. 

But in Facebook’s case, it’s had four years to address these reports. It’s had longer than that to adapt itself to a world that was always going to be this way: transparent, bare to criticism, and very competitive. 

Facebook is no longer unique. Facebook refuses to innovate. Facebook doesn’t want to put its consumers first. 

And if it doesn’t start to make changes, Facebook will struggle more. 

What do you think can save Facebook?

A time machine. 

But failing that, there’s not going to be a Facebook that thrives with Mark Zuckerberg still on its board. 

As we’ve seen with Twitter, companies have a tendency to outgrow their founders. To succeed, those founders have to step back. 

We don’t think Zuckerberg will resign – not on paper. As a PR stunt, or the result of forced governmental intervention, maybe, but not out of his own volition. 

And that’s the reality Facebook has to grapple with. 

But what does this mean for businesses?

Facebook seceding its market share means everything for businesses, especially if you advertise on Facebook or Instagram – which, if you advertise online, you kind of have to. 

To clarify: neither Facebook nor Instagram is on the brink of complete catastrophic failure. They’re still powerful, profitable businesses. And you can still use them to drive great ROI if you know what you’re doing. 

But the ground they’re standing on is getting thinner, and if it ruptures, the problems for businesses will all boil down to communications. 

How can you talk to a global audience without a platform to talk to them on?

And how can you make a profit from that?

Facebook’s business struggles impact every enterprise that uses Facebook to advertise, that puts pictures on Instagram, that sends out targeted messages with Whatsapp. This has been the status quo for 18 years. Advertising standards have been built on this pattern. 

If it falls, businesses will have to find a different way of communicating. 

The good thing is that there’s no end of ways to talk online – but you need to start figuring that out from now. Don’t wait until Facebook and Instagram become more obtuse to use, become saddled with even more add-ons, with even greater problems. 

Twitter, Tiktok, Snapchat, Youtube: there’s different social medias out there that can be just as effective. 

You just need to pick a platform and start talking.

Or, if you really want to do the right thing, be on trend and focus on first-party data. Free yourself from the shackles of other platforms and build your own audience.

So – I’m okay for now?

For now. 

But all businesses have to start looking forward ten years into the future. This doesn’t even have anything to do with Facebook: it has to do with the way the world works now. 

As we’ve seen, things can change so rapidly, so blink-of-an-eye fast, that you can spend a year grappling to hold on. 

Start thinking about the worst case scenario now. Find your different social media of choice. Expand outwards. 

It makes for better storytelling, and it makes for a future-proof communication strategy. 

Facebook won’t fail this year or the next. 

But do you really want to take that risk?

The post What Facebook Losing Users Means for You 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.

Here’s the how and why:

Whenever a Page will make use of such spammy content, systematically and repeatedly, Facebook will start decreasing the reach of such posts. This will result in lower engagement and reach of the Page. Ultimately, using engagement bait content will be counterproductive. The reason for this fight against engagement bait is that Facebook wants to encourage authenticity and promote meaningful conversations on the platform through the use of relevant content.
We’ve all been guilty of using this ‘cheat’ at some point or another, but Facebook is finally drawing a line and no longer allowing over-use of this sort of content to increase engagement and reach.
We need to keep in mind that Facebook’s ultimate goal is for the consumer to remain on the platform, and unfortunately, due to the continuous spam content, people had begun to lose interest in Facebook’s newsfeed.
This isn’t the first time that Facebook has waged war on bait. Remember when all the articles shared on Facebook would have these kinds of titles “You won’t believe what happens next”? We do too. Well, Facebook has managed to find a way to reduce that sort of content, and they will be doing the same with spammy posts.
One month into 2018, we’ve already seen a difference in the content displayed on our newsfeed, and this is just the beginning.
So what does that mean for businesses on Facebook? It’s a great opportunity to start producing good quality content which is both interesting and engaging.
Remember to please tag your grandparents in the comments and share this article with your pet. Thanks. ????

The post Fighting engagement bait appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

No amount of paid media is going to turn bad creative into good content. – Gary Vaynerchuk

For my first Switchversary last year, I blogged about what Switch is, this year I want to write about the importance of producing good content.

In the past two years at Switch, I have had the opportunity to understand the difference between boosting a post and creating good, quality content. See, most people believe that allocating a boosting budget to a post is enough to reach the desired target audience and get them to engage. Excuse my French, but that is bullshit – you will reach your audience and force them to consume something that they might not be interested in seeing, but you can’t be certain that they will engage with your post.

Nowadays there are still so many people who would rather post a floating image of their product on Facebook and spend money boosting it than investing their money in good, relevant, content.

 Here’s why you need to start investing in quality content rather than boosted curated or low quality posts.

Good Content: Paid VS Organic Reach

If it were up to me, I would never boost any sort of content (sorry, Mark Zuckerberg) – this is because I truly believe in organic reach and engagement. The difference between Paid reach and Organic reach is in the word itself: with paid you are spending money in order to reach your audience, whereas with organic it’s the audience finding you thanks to Facebook’s algorithms and the engagement of their friends with the post.  

It’s quite simple when you think about it – if you create good content, your audience will want to engage with it and share it with friends. In this way, your post will grow in reach automatically. When you share a post just for the sake of putting content on your page and then boosting it, you are basically throwing your money away,

Why would you want to reach your audience but NOT get them to engage with your brand?

This is exactly what we did with Kinnie: we’ve worked on a strategy to produce content that was more relevant to a local audience and to the brand itself. We’ve identified different content streams, all of which had different objectives and target audiences. Some of the content streams were more relevant for an older audience, whereas others directly targeted people in their twenties. Some pieces of content were more informative, and others were simply used to reinforce the message that Kinnie is a great local drink.

Exhibit A: We produced a series of recipe videos to show creative ways through which people can consume Kinnie – this is because we like to think outside the box and believe that Kinnie could be showcased as more than just a drink, but as a delicious ingredient too.

Exhibit B: To reinforce the culture and origins of Kinnie, we’ve launched a series of streams that solely aimed at showcasing the beautiful islands. We did this by snapping images of Kinnie around popular locations, but also by producing short videos that showed in deeper details beautiful locations around Malta, Gozo and Comino. It’s a combination of consumables and wanderlust – and what could be more engaging than that?

Instead of using high budgets to boost posts, we invested the money into creating quality content. The result?  With more than half the number of posts and less  boosting budget than the previous year, we’ve increased the Page’s total reach by 80%, the average organic reach per post by 370% and the Page’s total engagement by 47% in just under a year.

Want to find out more about how we achieved these numbers? You can contact us here – the coffee’s on us.

Good Content: Aspirational VS Irrelevant

Let me use Max Factor Malta as an example. We’ve been working with this cosmetic brand since 2014, but we’ve always had one main problem: we wouldn’t have relevant content to work with. We’ve had to use the content produced by Max Factor International to promote products/events/promotions on the page, and although it is aesthetically beautiful, the content just did not make sense for the Maltese market.

Most of the visuals involve Victoria’s Secret models using the products – and it’s no news that using overly-photoshopped models to promote cosmetics doesn’t quite work anymore. This is why we have launched the Max Factor Squad – a six month campaign which features six Maltese influencers who promote the brand locally. This was one done by producing high-quality visuals in our studio – a variety of videos and images that are being shared on social media and used to reinforce the message at point of sale in stores.

https://www.facebook.com/406671259436256/photos/a.461503730619675.1073741828.406671259436256/1055886301181412/?type=3&theater

When comparing the figures from June to August 2016 (period without local campaign) to the June to August 2017 figures  (period with local campaign), we have noticed that the Max Factor Malta Facebook’s Page’s total reach increased by 226%, of which 285% was the organic reach increase, along as a 350% increase in Engagement.

Good Content: Virality VS Dormant

I think that every agency, marketing executive and freelancer has heard the sentence ‘I want this to go viral’ at least once in their career (I’ve heard it approximately 47 times in the past three years). If creating content that goes viral was so easy, we’d all have over 500K likes on our images/videos, but it’s not. Virality just happens, and most of the time it hits when you least expect it. One thing that we can certainly do is increase the chances of a post performing well – and how do we do that? That’s right, by creating good content.

Start by defining your story (be it emotional, funny, serious, interesting etc), see how you want to say that story, and then produce it. Always keep in mind your audience – who are they? What do they like to see? Will they understand the message behind your story? You should always make sure that:

1. Your story makes sense to your viewer
2. It triggers a feeling – this is how you’ll get your audience to engage with it

This always makes me think about this one great advert, from Christmas 2015 – and if you’ve already seen it, it’s worth watching it again:

Good Content: the key to success

I can’t emphasize this enough to our clients: create good content and you will see results.

It’s very difficult for us marketers to work with brands that resort to stock photography and images of floating products in order to communicate a message. We no longer live in the era where we need to fight over a magazine spot – the challenge now is to produce content that is better than what others are creating, and I am not only referring to your competitors. As consumers, we are constantly thrown some sort of advertisement our way (boosted posts, sponsored posts, Google ads, banner ads etc etc), that we now manage to filter it all and carefully choose the ones we want to look at.

So: do you want to stand out from the crowd with good content, or are you okay with being filtered out with your boosted post? It’s all about making the transition from simply having an online presence to leaving an impact on your audience. If you don’t know where to start, we can help. Get in touch today.

The post The power of good content appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

Someone who is tracking a particular person, group, organisation, etc. on a social media website or application: she remains an immensely divisive figure, but she has a million followers on Facebook – The Oxford Dictionaries

Followers – they can make or break your brand.
How do you get them? What do you do with them? Are they really  that important?
These are all questions which will flit through any social media savvy person’s mind, but in truth these questions have been around for ages – even before social media.
Brands have always worked diligently at increasing their fan base – why? Because more people means more customers and that means more money.
There are many aspects to followers and there’s a lot that can be said about them, so here’s a breakdown.

What followers can do for you

Followers can do a variety of things. They can actually become paying customers, they can be ambassadors for your brand – preaching their love for it with everyone they meet, they can create engagement, and they can also generate content. If you show them love – they’ll show you double the amount.
Followers are like a group of hard working ants, they’ll work together to help build your brand and their loyalty will reap great rewards.

What you can do for your followers

It’s simple – show them you care. You’ve got to build a relationship with your followers – neglect them and they’ll give up on you. But if you treat them with respect and interact with them on a human level you’ll be showing that they’re important – which they are, because these days your brand is nothing if it doesn’t have followers.
Simply organising giveaways, sharing their content, or even sending out a thank you note every once in a while will make sure you’ve got a permanent place in their heart. At the end of the day we all want to be appreciated, these people are human beings and your brand should be human.

So how do you get them?

This is probably the million dollar question everyone keeps asking. Marketers work their fingers to the bones trying to come up with creative ways of attracting more followers, some going to crazy lengths and spending far too much money on this. The reality is that it’s not that hard – you just need to have a good head on your shoulders and the will to work.
There is off course the easy way out, and this is to go down the desperate route and simply follow hundreds of people in the hopes that they’ll follow you back. This might work on a short term scale – but in the long run you’ll end up with a skewed follow to follower ratio and probably won’t have valuable followers who genuinely care.
If you put a little bit of effort into it though you could end up with a healthy list of followers. Just follow these tips:

• Social media flirting – Spend some time each day going through the particular social media platform. Look for people with similar interests and like their posts. Comment on things you find very interesting, and where possible interact with people who don’t have a huge following. Going for the smaller users first will help you – they love receiving attention from brands as this makes them feel important, so go ahead and see what they’re up to. They might just provide you with inspiration!
• Create valuable content – If you want people to share your content then you’ve got to make sure it’s interesting. Get creative, share motivational or useful tips, and invest in high quality copy and visuals. With a bit of effort you’ll quickly get people sharing your content – increasing your brand’s visibility.
• Remain relevant – Get with the times, involve yourself in current trends, just make sure that the trend is in some way applicable to your brand.
• Cater for your audience – Don’t share the exact same content on all your social media platforms. Write specific copy for specific platforms so that you appeal to your readers. An instagram style post wouldn’t be effective on LinkedIn and vice versa.
• Be consistent – You’ve got to have a plan. Posting sporadically will mean that you’re not constantly at the top of your followers’ minds. So keep things regular in order to see great improvements.
• Analyse – this is perhaps one of the most important things in digital marketing. Crunch the numbers and see which posts do really well and why. Look into your audience’s demographics and learn from your mistakes.

The above are actually pretty simple – they just require dedication, but with a minimum of an hour a day you could boost your brand’s presence on social media and acquire loyal, loving followers who will be more than happy to shout our about how amazing you are.
Remember, it’s quality over quantity – you’re better off having 90 followers who really love your brand than 900 who never engage with you! If you’re stuck in a rut we’re happy to help, why not drop us a line?

The post F is for Followers 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.

1. Your page lacks information

If you want to be of service then you’ve got to provide as much information as possible. Some pages don’t even give their opening hours so be sure to fill out all the necessary details.

2. Your branding is all over the place

Your profile image is a sleek version of your logo, but your cover photo looks like it came out of the 1980s. You’ve got a kaleidoscope of colours and your page screams chaos. Restore some harmony to your page and apply brand guidelines that will show unity across everything you do.

3. You’ve abandoned your page

This is probably one of the worst things you can do. Don’t start a page only to neglect it after a while. Posts shouldn’t be sporadic, and should follow some sort of regular structure. If people visit your page and see your last post was 3 weeks ago they won’t be very impressed.

4. You use Facebook like a billboard

Okay, so we know we told you not to neglect your page, but that doesn’t mean you should use it as a billboard. Don’t blast your followers with “SPECIAL OFFER ONE TIME ONLY”- this isn’t a market stall. Keep it savvy and engaging, entice your audience and interact with them instead of trying to force sales onto them.

5. Your images are never the right dimensions

Dimensions exist for a reason. A simple Google search will show you that there are dimensions for a profile picture, a cover photo, a Facebook post, a Facebook advert, and an event cover. Stick to the dimensions when creating media to be shared on your page so that everything has a professional look. Don’t use images with low quality and be creative!

(Image source: makeawebsitehub)

6. You’re not communicating

People post to your page but you don’t even acknowledge them, they might as well be talking to a wall (no pun intended!). Interact with your followers and show them you value their input and feedback.

7. You forget you’re a business

We love pages that interact with their customers and followers, but always keep in mind that at the end of the day you’re a business and a certain sense of decorum is required, especially since you represent a brand.

8. You’ve automated too many things

Automation can be handy – especially when you link different social media platforms. But more often than not it can cause some problems. If all of your posts are automated then you risk sounding like a robot. Different social media platforms have different audiences, so automating your Facebook posts to post to Twitter might be a good temporary fix to a neglected Twitter account, but isn’t a long term solution.

9. You’re not paying attention to your insights

Facebook insights provide a great deal of information for your business. If you haven’t checked them out yet then it’s high time you do. You’ll learn about your audience, which posts are the most successful, and can analyse any spikes in page likes in order to link these with any particular efforts you carried out.

10. You think Facebook advertising is as simple as pressing “boost”

We recently published the first in a series of blog posts which will provide valuable information on online advertising. There’s more to marketing than just pressing boost. Familiarise yourself with the different ways you can use Facebook, would it be better to pay for impressions or for clicks? What’s the reason behind boosting your post, and what’s your ROI?

The post Are you making these 10 Facebook marketing mistakes? appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

1. Don’t focus on sales

First things first, you can’t simply join a group and blast everyone with your products and sales offers. You’ll probably end up being deleted. Neither can you create a group and use it as a billboard to post all of your products and services – people won’t pay much attention to you if you do.

2. Be helpful

Perhaps the easiest way to get people to like you is by being helpful. Share useful links and tidbits of information, answer people’s questions (if you know the answer) and provide insider information. This will allow people to feel that they can depend on you, it will also show you’re a nice person who genuinely cares.

3. Be engaging

Similar to the above point you’ve got to be engaging in order for people to like you. Interact with others, be a valuable member in the group. Be the person who gets things going, even if it’s simply by asking an interesting question.

4. Stop, collaborate, and listen

More than just a Vanilla Ice lyric, this is actually a great piece of wisdom! Facebook groups can present great opportunities to network and form connections. You can learn from other people’s experiences, plan things together, and even simply observe what people like and dislike.

5. Share things from your page

If you’re involved in a Facebook group you can easily share posts from your page with the people in the group. Of course make sure what you’re sharing is relevant and don’t force anything onto anyone! Keep it casual and play it cool.

6. Share things from other pages

If you want to show you’re a team player then share things from other people’s pages. Combining this with the above point shows that you think about more than yourself and you’re willing to acknowledge other people’s efforts!

7. Allow customers to communicate

If you’ve got a group for your business’ page then this is the perfect space to allow your customers to communicate between themselves. Never doubt the power of word of mouth! So while it’s important to always offer proper customer service, it’s also great to have loyal customers helping out other loyal customers.

8. Build a sense of community

Based on the above point, Facebook groups are perfect for building a sense of community. So if you sell hiking shoes a Facebook group dedicated to the joys (and pains) of hiking could be the perfect way to interact with your audience whilst subtly marketing your product.

9. Branding

If you’re creating a Facebook group be sure to incorporate a level of branding – you can do this through the cover photo and the occasional posts linked to your product.

10. Get feedback

Facebook groups break down boundaries and become more personal. Don’t be afraid to ask people for feedback, make them feel exclusive by sharing some upcoming ideas (without giving it all away) and asking what they think. Who knows, you might get the best piece of advice you’ve ever hear

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Everyone wants to “do social”, when in reality, the secret is to be social

Let’s backtrack a bit and think about this for a second. Social media is called social for a reason. Nowadays, everyone is always online, always accessible and always sharing things that strike them as valuable – including their favourite brands. Now, more than ever, people turn to social media as a way to stay connected and up-to-date with the brands they love. This makes authenticity, transparency and real-time engagement for brands a must.

Think about the time you spend on networks: you scroll through posts from friends and colleagues telling you about their last meal, trip or shopping spree. Chances are, you click through to the people or organisations tagged in the post to find out more. Within seconds of landing on that page, you make a decision to stay and engage with the page or to jump ship altogether. That split-second decision is based on your immediate perception of the page. Does that sound about right to you?
First impressions are everything. Being open, genuine and authentic on the digital landscape means a great deal to the audience that wants to genuinely engage with your brand on social. Many brands struggle with this, probably because they find words like ‘genuine’ and ‘authentic’ rather… vague. But it’s important to find your own, personal voice to have an even bigger impact on the social sphere. This is not a new concept: Forbes mentioned in 2011 that the battle for social media authenticity is about showcasing the human side of your business to make your audience truly feel a part of your brand. Authenticity builds credibility – be real, be genuine and above all, make sure that your motivations aren’t manipulative (fans will sniff that out in a second).
It’s not that alien a concept, if you think about it. Just look at your personal relationships: they’re built on trust and communication, and it’s safe to say that transparency and engagement are two key priorities. The question is, how do you make it work with your brand?

That’s easy – start with the humans

It really is that simple. People like people, and the easiest way to connect with an audience is to show that your brand is made up of people just like them. After all, if it wasn’t for the people on your team, there wouldn’t be much of a brand, would there? Embrace their individual values and leverage them – everyone, from the top of the ladder all the way to the bottom rung. Write about them, give your audience a peek at the behind-the-scenes and be the leader of the conversations taking place about you and your brand by giving your audience something to talk about!
Now, before you roll your eyes, let’s quickly bring this back to you: the business owner. That’s right, there is business-sense in all of this. We are living in the age of the consumer: the key driver of your product or service and the person behind the all-important purchase decisions you’re looking to influence. Those consumers are the reason behind being social.
In short, treat your customers like insiders. Remember that sharing is caring and give your brand advocates something positive to share with the world. Talk with them, not at them, and build a dialogue that encourages your customers to interact and support your brand. We’re positive that with enough effort, this will lead to social media success.
Want to know more about improving your social media marketing strategy? This might be what you’re looking for. 

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1. The planning stage

The first and most important thing is to carefully plan your Facebook page. Don’t create a page during a whirlwind of inspiration only to abandon it after a while because you’re not sure of what to do with it.
Before you get started you’ll need the following :

– A well-designed eye catching logo and cover photo which are the right dimensions.

– Brand guidelines with a clear outline of what will be posted, the tone used, and even the type of colours or images to include.

– Knowledge of your audience – what kind of posts would interest them? Work around your audience’s needs.

– A clear ‘about’ section and contact details

2. Own It.

Someone needs to be responsible for the page, this person will be accountable for what goes on and will be the go to person should anything happen. Having one person dedicated to the page means there will be less confusion and more consistency.

3. Build your following

You can now start building your following. Of course the first people to go to would be friends and family, encourage them to like the page as a show of support. You could consider an official launch in order to spread the word. Encourage colleagues to share the page, and also list it as their place of employment – bringing them in on the process will boost company morale!

4. Create Connections

Use your page to like other companies with similar aims. Just make sure you’re liking from your page and not from your personal profile.
To do this go to your newsfeed and click on the tiny arrow near the security options and select your page.
Liking other businesses through your post will improve your connections (as they might like you back) and will also keep your newsfeed up to date with what other businesses are up to.

 5. Boost your page

You might consider investing some money into your Facebook page by boosting it. Facebook allows you to promote your page, targeting specific audiences and allowing the ad to run for a specific period of time.
However if you’re going to spend money, do it wisely. It’s best to consult someone who knows the ins and outs of Facebook and can direct you to the best kind of advertising strategy so that your investment will reap tangible rewards.

6. Quality over quantity

It’s useless having 10,000 likes on Facebook if your post engagement is low. Work towards having high engagement on posts since this builds your brand and builds your relationship with followers. It’s far better to communicate with a few who care, than to shout out to thousands and get hardly any response!

7. Humour is your best weapon!

People generally react more to things which make them laugh and put a smile on their face. Use witty and cheeky humour in your posts to give your content life and show your fun side! Just because it’s business it doesn’t mean it has to be boring.

8. Facebook is not a catalogue

We keep saying it but yet it still happens. Facebook shouldn’t be used to advertise products the way you’d advertise in a magazine. Be creative with posts about products or services and market yourself in a way that makes people warm to your brand.

9. No one likes a Drama Queen

Handle complaints properly. Remember to always be polite and courteous. Offer to call the person up to resolve the issue over the phone, and never delete someone’s comment!
Don’t forget about the Big Brother nature of Social Media. When commenting online there could be a hundred people following the thread, reading everyone’s replies, you wouldn’t want to make any negative impressions!

10. Post sensibly

Once you’ve figured out what kind of posts to put up, you can move on to planning out a schedule. Be consistent with your work, but be willing to learn from your audience and adapt to what they like. It’s great to have a brand identity, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t grow!

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