Here is my synopsis of Michael Stelzner’s interview with Mari Smith.
Michael is owner/editor of Social Media Examiner, my favorite social media newsletter.
Mari is a long-time expert on Facebook marketing. She does great training sessions and provides excellent content on her Facebook page.
- Intriguing change to Facebook’s mission: Used to be “to connect the world.” Now it is “giving people the power to build community and bringing the world closer together.”
- Facebook is putting more emphasis on groups including making them more business-friendly and allowing ways to monetize the groups.
- The ability to boost a group post and other features for groups are in the pipeline.
- Facebook is working on end-to-end encryption and short-life content.
- Don’t link to your YouTube videos from Facebook. Since YouTube is a major competitor, Facebook isn’t giving the videos reach.
- Instead upload your videos directly to Facebook.
- Link posts which link to outside content get the lowest reach and lowest engagement per BuzzSumo’s analysis of 777 million posts.
- Average reach of a post is now 1 – 6%. It used to be 5-10%.
- Video posts outperform photo and still image posts by 73%.
- Question posts are popular with Facebook. They take up less space in the newsfeed and generate “community” conversation.
- Video is extremely popular with Facebook because they are trying to become a major player in the digital streaming arena.
- Advertising in video is growing and will be economically feasible for small businesses in a short time.
- BuzzSumo’s study revealed that the optimal length for a Facebook Live video is 3-4 minutes. Facebook will let you go longer if you have engagement from the audience.
My Conclusions:
- Successful organic marketing on Facebook is much harder, more expensive and more risky than previously.
- Paid advertising is required in combination with organic.
- You can’t ignore Facebook but you can limit the effort.
- Be clear about your goals for Facebook marketing.
- Increase your Facebook budget if you want Facebook results. This means more dollars for organic posts and more dollars for paid advertising.
- Consider other social media platforms that are used by your audience and expand those efforts.