News Feed – SpinGo

Earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that big changes are coming to your Facebook News Feed in early 2018. To kickoff his announcement Zuckerberg stated, “I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.” He continued, “recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other.”

Wondering where that leaves you and how these changes will impact your event marketing?

To create more meaningful social interactions, Facebook is going to adjust it’s News Feed algorithm to limit posts from businesses, brands and media, and prioritize posts that promote discussions, conversations, and human interaction. As a side effect, your event may have a harder time breaking onto the News Feed if you don’t adapt to the changing scene.

So, how do you stay relevant in the new Facebook world? Here are 3 ways to make sure your event gets noticed on the giant social media platform.

Create Facebook Event Pages. Over the past year, Facebook has made tweaks to it’s algorithm to feature Facebook Event listings. If you have an event, but aren’t taking advantage of this free tool, there has never been a better time to start using it. Events promote real life socializing, and I assume Facebook will take that into account as it adjusts it’s News Feed algorithm.

Pro tip 1: Invite your Facebook friends to attend your event. The more people that are interested in attending an event, the more it will show up on News Feeds.

Pro tip 2: Post frequently on your Facebook event page. This won’t directly impact how often you show up on the News Feed, but it does have an indirect impact. When you leave a post on your Facebook event page, all the people who have shown interest in your event will get a notification on their account. This can remind them that your event is coming up soon, and they can invite their friends to attend.

Create organic posts that spur conversation. Instead of using clickbait tactics to try and make your posts go viral, focus on writing posts that will get your followers to comment. Ask intriguing questions. Some people might try to find a loophole by asking attendees to “Tag a friend you want to take to the event with you.” But be warned! These are the type of posts that Facebook is looking to demote. If you follow this strategy, you may find yourself getting dinged repeatedly by Facebook and falling into social media oblivion.

Pro tip: Share memories or ask for recommendations in your organic posts. Facebook finds that both memories and recommendations spark more conversations and contribute to Facebook’s new goal.

Use paid Facebook advertising to ensure your event gets noticed. If your organic efforts aren’t getting you the results you are looking for, paid advertising will ensure your event gets seen on Facebook. While Facebook is demoting organic posts from businesses, don’t expect them to limit how many ads you see on your News Feed.

Pro tip 1: Boosting your event posts is great, but it isn’t enough. Boosting your posts usually limits your ads to be seen by people who follow your Facebook page. Use Facebook Ads Manager to reach people outside of your current network.

Pro tip 2: If you don’t know how to do Facebook advertising effectively, SpinGo can promote your event for you.

The Facebook News Feed is a double-edged sword. It provides users a constant stream of engaging content, but marketers looking to advertise on the platform need to find ways to break through the noise.

Last month, Facebook released some updates to its Slideshow ads tool, which helps marketers quickly stitch existing photos together into an advertising video. Launched in October 2015, Slideshow ads previously did not support sound. With the new update, you can add music, but you are limited to Facebook’s library. Other new highlights include text, templates, and colors to provide a richer viewing experience.

The new features give event makers another weapon to stand out in the News Feed and get the word out.

In a company post, Facebook explained how Stance, a sock company, effectively used Slideshow ads to increase brand engagement. In just six weeks, their slideshow campaign achieved:

2.4X lift in click-through rate
48% lower cost per action
1.4X lift in return on ad spend

If you’d like to give Slideshow ads a try, here’s a quick guide to help get you started:

1. Create a Facebook Event

It’s important to post your event to Facebook, especially if you don’t have an event website because it’s an easy way to get details, info, and messaging onto the platform. Plus, you can reference the event in ad campaigns and posts. Users can “like”, say they’re interested, and share the event with their friends.

2. Create a New Ad Campaign and Ad Set

To create an ad campaign in Facebook’s ad creation tool, go to www.facebook.com/ads/create or click Create Ad in the top right of Ads Manager. The ad creation process includes:

Creating your campaign – Choose from a variety of objectives like “Promote your Page” or “Raise attendance at your event”
Creating your ad sets – Define your target audience, budget, and schedule.

3. Create Your Slideshow

Images
After your campaign and ad sets are defined, you can jump into the actual ad creative.
Click on Create Slideshow and choose 3–7 images to add to your ad. You can upload your images or use free stock images provided by Facebook.

Text and Audio
You may choose to use a free audio track to play during the slideshow, and if you want to add text, there are options for selecting the font, color, background, and position.

Duration
You can set the length of your ad up to 35 seconds.

Thumbnail
Choose which image you want users to see when the video isn’t playing.

Call to Action
Enter text that highlights your event and select the call to action button you want to use.

4. Other Recommendations

For best results, Facebook recommends the following:

Use high-quality images and avoid grainy images
Use images that are all the same dimensions, ideally 1280 x 720 pixels, or an image ratio of 16:9 or 4:3. If you use pictures of different sizes, your slideshow will be cropped to be square.
For video uploads, choose .MOV or .MP4 file types.

Facebook makes the process very easy, so you can get your slideshow up and running in just a few minutes. If you’d like some additional help, SpinGo specializes in marketing events and can help you set up and manage your Facebook campaigns. For a free consultation on your event, click here.