Ben Davis says, “For years, brands and publishers in particular have been warned of the dangers of wallowing too far into Facebook. The rationale was that if brands didn’t prioritise their own publishing platforms (apps and websites), they would be vulnerable if Facebook decided to shake things up. 2016, to my mind, has seen the old argument finally put to bed, as Facebook steams into new features and publishers realise the art is in hedging bets and learning as they go. Facebook forges ahead in 2016 There are several features that Facebook is currently prioritising that promise value... [...]

Shirley Pattison says, “Video is a remarkably engaging medium. It enables you to share your stories visually and dynamically, and when you couple such a creative outlet with social platforms, you create opportunities to reach dramatically more potential customers than when using other media. Why Video Advertising on Facebook? It isn’t difficult to understand why Facebook has been placing so much emphasis on video as a preferred medium. Considering its 1.04 billion daily active users logging into Facebook and over 76% of those users discovering video content through their News Feeds,... [...]

Tamar Weinberg says, “Facebook is improving upon the video metrics feature it rolled out last month. In February, Facebook enhanced its video metric view with information on minutes viewed, 10-second views, whether videos were watched with sound on (or off), unique viewers, views, average percent completion, audience retention, average view duration and organic vs. paid views. Today, even more detail is being added to video metrics, including day-by-day performance. Minutes viewed Facebook will now provide data that empowers publishers to learn the number of time spent on a video on a particular... [...]

Tamar Weinberg says, “A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the test is live, stating “People have told us they’d like more options on Facebook to see and have conversations about specific topics they’re interested in. So we’re testing giving people the option to choose a topic tag for the type of post you’re sharing.” With topics, post privacy settings will be maintained; topics will be restricted to the audience the poster has limited the post to. Topics appear to be similar to hashtags, giving users the ability to post to the news feed but will not affect prioritization of any... [...]

Mari Smith says, “Facebook ads are the most targeted traffic your money can buy. Period. There is no other platform out there with 1.6 billion active users that offers the depth of granular targeting than Facebook. And now Instagram, too. However, every day, I hear of marketers who end up frustrated and confused when it comes to actually generating positive, measurable results from their Facebook advertising efforts. In this post, I’ll demystify why exactly there is so much frustration and confusion out there, and help you understand what even a few critical tweaks will make to your results. 1.... [...]

Tim Peterson says, “Media companies have had Facebook’s Instant Articles all to themselves since the social network introduced the fast-loading mobile content format last May. But now, brands are finally able to get their hands on one of digital publishing’s shiniest new objects without piggybacking a publisher’s access. Facebook has opened up Instant Articles to mobile publishing platform Steller so that people, including brands, using Steller’s app to create visual-heavy stories can now distribute that content on Facebook through Instant Articles, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed. The... [...]

Eric Siu says, “Running a successful Facebook campaign requires targeting your ads to the right customer base. And because it’s not always easy knowing which demographic is most likely to convert, it’s important to collect data from your campaigns. That’s why Facebook Audience Insights is a great tool for understanding your target audience. Facebook has always been committed to working closely with its advertising partners. The company recently rolled out a number of changes to help its advertisers make their campaigns more successful. One of the biggest changes was Facebook... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “With Facebook Live, the world’s largest social network has entered the live-streaming space in a big way. As with most new Facebook product launches, there are many considerations for brands and marketers. Here’s what they should know about Live. Mark Zuckerberg is “obsessed” about it Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly made Live a priority for the company’s video-focused product and engineering teams. Zuckerberg is Facebook’s de facto product chief, and while his blessing doesn’t guarantee success,... [...]

Tamar Weinberg says, “With Facebook’s eventual launch for Instant Articles to all publishers on April 12, WordPress has prepared for the deluge of interest in this new publishing platform by launching its own plugin to transform WordPress content into Instant Articles. The plugin launch was announced by the WordPress VIP team as well as Facebook’s media relations team, but don’t let the “WordPress VIP” phrase scare you: the tool is supported on all instances of self-hosted WordPress platforms as well as the VIP product. Currently, as seen in the link above, the plugin is available... [...]

Karissa Bell says, “Facebook’s big plans for Messenger may also include publishers. The company plans to open up its messaging platform to developers later this year during its F8 developer conference, according to a new report in Marketing Land. The feature will allow publishers to share content through Messenger via chat bots, with short descriptions linking back to articles on their website, the report says. Facebook is already rumored to be working on a software development kit that would allow developers to build chatbots that run inside of Messenger. Among the developers testing... [...]