The debate about Facebook’s organic reach drop is still in full swing. Many still believe that there is hope for some free marketing on Facebook, and continue to pump time and effort into creating effective content for their pages. A lot of marketers have either given up, or simply accepted that Facebook is pay to play – and have started allocating a larger budget for Facebook advertising.
In my quest to find reason in this world of an ever changing social media landscape (yes, I’m dramatic) – I stumbled upon the door of EdgeRank Checker’s Chad Wittman, someone who’s been tracking page engagement metrics on Facebook before Mark Zuckerberg himself understood what it was. Chad is quite obviously, on our expert panel in the Social Marketer’s Quiz.
The Engagement round is the very first one in the quiz, which of course, stresses on the importance of social marketers having the right skills to engage with their audience. I chased Chad around and got him to share some insights on social media engagement with us!
Let’s tackle the major question that’s on everyone’s minds, after the fall in organic reach and everyone crying foul, should brands continue to use Facebook as their primary marketing platform?
A brand’s primary marketing platform should be the platform that is most in line with their goals. For a majority of brands, it is still Facebook. Every brand should be asking this question for every campaign they are doing. This should be a question that is always asked, and should continue to be asked.
The quality bar on Facebook continues to rise. The reality is that it will continue to rise. The space in the news feed is limited, the brands and the content they produce is constantly growing. Ultimately, this “problem” will never be solved. Humans have 24 hours in a day, I promise you that brands will produce content that far exceed anything anyone could ever consumer. This creates an ever raising bar.
With the recent Facebook newsfeed changes, how does EdgeRankChecker make everyone\’s lives easier?
We try to make things easy and fast to get the insights you need to improve your strategy. It’s one thing to tell you how you’re doing in general, it’s another to try to improve that. We keep tabs on as much data as possible to keep you informed and on the right track.
It’s about constantly trying to improve, while avoiding things that Facebook dislikes. We keep our customers constantly informed so they can focus on doing what they do best, instead of trying to moonlight as a data scientist.
Based on the amazing analysis you\’ve continuously done with EdgeRank Checker, what would you call the four pillars of a marketing strategy on Facebook?
News feed, ads, customer service, intel. The news feed is the battleground that you want to win. It’s constantly changing and is an obvious challenge. The brands that dominate this space have huge leverage with the rest of their strategy.
Ads can really amplify small wins and turn them into big wins. Ads can get you started from Step 0 to Step 100 a lot faster than the news feed. The key here is balance and being effective with your budget.
Customer Service is an underlooked value-add on Facebook. People will go to their platform of choice (not yours!) to talk about your brand. Giving people a space they can bring up issues and a space that you can actually help them is undervalued in our industry.
Intelligence, specifically competitive intelligence, is a great asset on Facebook. There is a plethora of data on Facebook publically available, it just needs to be accessed and analyzed. This data can be used to learn from the mistakes of your rivals or tap into new opportunities in the future.
From all the questions in the quiz in the Facebook round, which one stood out for you as the most interesting and why?
I think the questions stood out, as a whole. The preparedness that goes into being a social media manager is often overlooked. There is a lot to know and be prepared to react to quickly. There is also the reality that each brand is different and deals with these issues/challenges differently. Again, the key is tie this back to the business’ overarching goals as much as possible.
It’s clear that brands should stop obsessing over likes on Facebook, what metric on Facebook should they truly obsess over?
None. Obsessing over any particular metric leads people and brands astray. Human’s minds are fascinating as they tend to want a single variable to better understand the world around them. We see this in sports constantly, is a player “good” or “bad”? The answer is that it always depends, it always changes, and it is always subjective. I feel the same about Facebook marketing.
The key is to not get tied up in the novelty of another metric. Focus in on what helps your business the best, and figure out how to maximize the metrics that improve that goal. It’s most likely a blend of Reach, Engagement, Clicks, tied back to goal conversions in your site.
Not entirely sure about you guys – but this was one of the most crisp and useful interviews I\’ve conducted. You should print out this interview and paste it on a wall, or perhaps utilize the quote images and splatter them all over your desk. Some incredibly valuable insights from Chad on what we should keep in mind going forward in our social media efforts.
For those of you who haven’t taken the quiz yet, you’re missing out! Click here to take the quiz!
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