Cut Out the Middle to Focus Social Efforts on Big and Small Bets
Facebook rocked a lot of worlds a few weeks ago when it announced its latest News Feed algorithm update. The update focused the News Feed on delivering its users content from friends and family at the expense of content from publishers and brands. Facebook says it aims to nurture personal connections. Essentially, Facebook is going back to the roots.
For brands, little has changed. Facebook and social as a whole for the most part is a pay-to-play effort. The social side of social media is for friends and family. That’s what Facebook is giving back to users with this latest algorithm update. The media side is where brands a publishers come in. We have to treat these channels as media platforms we approach with compelling, creative assets that are deployed through a strategic media investment.
Big Bets and Small Bets
A more nuanced look at Facebook’s changes reveal Facebook has taken the “middle” bets out of social media marketing. Now, success resides in “big” bets that include holistic social activations as well as assets created with craft and supported by media dollars.
Success is also found in “small” bets that involve interacting with customers on a one-to-one level in the day-in-day-out grind of community management. Brands like Wendy’s have capitalized on winning big by making small bets in its interactions with consumers.
The Middle is Dead
So what about that middle area? What about organic or even “boosted” organic posts that get distributed to fans and followers?
Simply put, those don’t matter. Organic posts with no dollars are all but completely removed from user feeds, so any efforts to create organic content are a misallocation of resources. Organic posts that are boosted to fans and followers also have nominal value. That’s content restricted to people who already love your brand. After all, they went out of the way to seek you out and click ‘Like’ or ‘Follow.’ They were loyal customers before they chose to follow your brand. They didn’t become loyal after the fact.
Brands grow when they reach outside of their existing base of customers and bring more people into the fold. That is where brands should focus their “big” bet social efforts. Target the customers you’d like to have, while simultaneously reminding your existing customers why they love you so much. Those efforts don’t have to be mutually exclusive. The same assets designed to grab user attention will bring new people in and remind existing customers why they love you. From there, you can interact with those existing customers by placing “small” bets in interactions with them.
Simplification Brings Focus
From a brand perspective, Facebook’s changes are a good thing. They focus brands on the efforts that matter most to driving a business forward. Social media’s gotten bogged down over the years with a lot of distractions that don’t deliver results. Those distractions are dying off as their lack of value becomes clearer.
Focus your social on placing big bets that achieve reach and bring new customers in and small bets that reinforce relationships with existing customers by responding to and interacting with them.