Last week, Likeable Nick and I were invited to the Facebook Pro Partner Expo in Sydney to meet real Facebook people. You know the ones. They have the Facebook t-shirt, hipster beards and rolled up jeans. They’re usually impossible to get hold of, to the extent that you sometimes wonder whether they really exist. But it turns out they do exist and they are regular people just like us. Phew!
The event was held to enable agencies to connect with Facebook and discuss how things work from our perspective. Facebook is always looking to improve. Almost weekly it seems there is a release of a new feature or tool and the platform is constantly evolving which keeps us on our toes. This event introduced us to some of the newest features that Facebook have released, and focussed on finding ways for Facebook to better support agencies like ours.
We were introduced Facebook’s new Attribution Tool. In a nutshell, it allows customers to attribute conversions from sources other than Facebook. To measure the impact of your content across different channels and even different devices. Interesting times ahead with this sort of functionality.
There were also interesting discussions about data-based decision making. Data-based decision making is what separates the wheat from the chaff in optimising Facebook advertising. It is an incredibly complex area. The Facebook folk stressed the need to constantly test and experiment in order to improve results and provide real benefits to customers.
They also underlined the fact that businesses must be goal oriented when creating advertising campaigns. More importantly, have a clear plan to measure success. All too often we see businesses with no tangible way of measuring the success of their Facebook activity. If it can’t be measured how can it be improved?
Facebook maintains that 78% of mobile data will be video content by 2020. One presenter reminded us that good creative should make you Feel/Act/Think. Nothing startlingly new about this, but still a good yardstick to compare all of our content against.
We were also shown some simple third-party apps that integrate easily with Facebook to create basic animated videos from static images. It’s going to be all about grabbing attention instantly and getting messages across quickly. Most of these animations are done and dusted within 6 seconds.
The event was a great chance for me to take some time out of the office and reflect on what is working for us and where we have the opportunity to improve things. It also pressed upon me the importance of when to ask for help. Social Media and especially Facebook is a complex beast and what works today needs constant attention to ensure it continues to work tomorrow and beyond. I was fortunate to steal some one-on-one time with three real Facebook people and all of them reiterated the same message. Be prepared to test things and be prepared to ask for help.
If Facebook is an area that you value for your business, but you aren’t getting the results you think you should, don’t be scared to ask for help too. And if you want to hear more about any of the tidbits I’ve mentioned get in touch.
PS: One last thing, due to a late night (far beyond my control) I wasn’t operating at the top of my game when it came time to fly home. Thanks, Uber, the Tank Stream Hotel and Likeable Nick for coming to the rescue of my passport otherwise I would have missed my flight!
~Likeable Phil
