From time to time, social media giants like Facebook and Instagram roll out updates that modify features with the aim of improving user experience. This can
be daunting.
Your goal of enhancing visibility, social presence, and audience engagement should be kept at the top of your list of priorities. Here are the recent changes made to Facebook and Instagram that you need to know.
Updated Terms of Service
The platform has made changes to its terms of service whilst taking transparency into consideration. Its goal is to provide a clearer explanation of how the services work and how Facebook makes use of personal information.
Topics such as intellectual property rights, how Facebook makes revenue, information about why certain content is removed, and a timeline for deleted content to be removed from the top of the system were added or altered.
Custom audience reach estimates is back
A unique bug that caused a potential problem with custom audience reach estimates was discovered last year.
This would tell advertisers the number of users who fell under their targeted parameters as well as the gender and country they belong in, which is considered a violation of privacy.
Reinstatement will be made soon since the bug has been fixed. This will make it easy for advertisers to decrease costs whilst reaching a wider audience.
Stricter rules for health claim posts
Advertisers: try to avoid exaggerated health claims. Facebook will be reducing posts containing sensational content on health in the algorithm resulting in reduced reach, engagement, and acquisition. Keep it ‘light and right’.
Top fan badge
Are you nearing the much-awaited “10,000 page followers” milestone? Now there's another reason to get excited. Facebook have announced that your business page will get a special badge allowing you to share exclusive content with the people who are the most excited about your brand – your community of loyal customers.
Mobile content made shorter
Beginning on August 19, mobile content will be compressed to make it easier for
users to quickly scroll through their feed.
This is bad news for advertisers and marketers since only the first three lines of the post (both organic and paid) will be shown. However, this is an opportunity for marketers to demonstrate their creativity by getting straight to the point.
No ‘likes’ on posts?
Time to say goodbye to social proof? Currently running in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and other regions soon, only owners of the posts can see how many double taps and views each post gets.
Likes and video views will still be major factors when assessing a post’s quality and relevance. However, what is clear right now is that comments will be more important than ever before.
Account disable policies and pre-ban warnings
Designed to warn individual accounts from getting in trouble, account ban policies have been changed.
The regulation includes disabling accounts that breach the community guidelines. A pre-ban warning was then introduced to send notifications to determine if an account is at risk of being taken down. This aims to build a safer space for all users.
Ad placement in the explore section
Ads will be rolled out in the 'Explore' section – the same section as the Instagram news feed.
It will be interesting to see how this new placement will play a role in reaching more fans and audiences. On another note, it remains to be seen if people will engage with ads in their feed in the same way that they explore original content.
These changes should not be ignored no matter how small you think they may be as they clearly have implications for businesses. Win fans and customers from your competitors by keeping an eye on algorithm changes and feature updates. Make sure you hash out a plan and be ready to execute!
