Category: Facebook

The Kongalytics Team: Our Week in Tech News

July 28, 2017 Comments Off on The Kongalytics Team: Our Week in Tech News Facebook, Online Advertising, Search Engine Optimisation

It’s been a big week for the Kong team – we’ve been over in New York AND featured in the Huffington Post. Aside from that, we’ve also had our eyes diverted to some really interesting news stories this week. Here’s what we’ve noticed…

Justine

This infographic from Data Never Sleeps – showing just how much data is generated every minute – caught my eye this week. With every online action logged, the sheer quantity of information available can seem overwhelming. As someone fairly new to the industry, it really underscores to me the importance of having the right tools at your disposal to distill all that data into usable information.

Article via We Are Social Media: Ever Wondered How Much Data Is Generated Every Minute?

Rocy

According to research of how people use Facebook by AaronZakowski.com, Facebook is more about socializing than buying. This raises the issue of translating the numbers to be solid conversions.

Considering that most social platform users are not in the “buy now” mindset, it’s a good strategy to set up a sales funnel. Fortunately, Facebook has a function to allow us to develop our own sales funnels.

A Facebook sales funnel is designed to capture users’ interest and nurture them until they’re ready to purchase. The idea is to use relevant messages that appeal to users at different stages in consideration for purchasing, moving them closer to conversion. You can do this with organic posts, but it’s more effective with reinforced and highly targeted Facebook ads, designed to appeal to users in particular stages of your funnel.

Article via Neil Patel Blog: The Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Facebook Sales Funnel

Iva

We’ve been waiting for this feature to be live. We’ve tried it this week and I have to say it looks great. It makes such a visual impact to a basic Google search that implicates your business.

Article via Search Engine Land: Google Posts now live for all Google My Business users

Instagram Advertising – It’s Nearly Here

September 24, 2015 Comments Off on Instagram Advertising – It’s Nearly Here Blog, Facebook, Instagram, Online Advertising, Online Advertising, Social Media

Facebook owned company Instagram has recently launched a new advertising service for marketers to enjoy.

The photo sharing social media site, which has recently hit over 400 million users, has grown at a rapid pace since its launch in 2010.

Just over a year ago Instagram began testing how their advertising would work by allowing trusted marketing partners to avail of the service, however, over the past few months Instagram has allowed for other companies to test their new service.

As of September 2015, Instagram has announced the following additional features.

“Landscape photo and video to unlock new creative opportunities and give ads a more cinematic feel

Video ads of up to 30 seconds in length, so brands can engage in richer storytelling

Marquee, a new premium product that helps drive mass awareness and expanded reach in a short time-frame—perfect for events like movie premieres and new product launches

Delivery and optimization tools to manage and drive the best performance of campaigns across Facebook and Instagram”

 

In comparison to other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, people tend to focus more on content they see on Instagram. This means that the opportunity to post ads on Instagram will provide marketers with the chance to reach a whole new audience.

The focus now is on how to utilize this service in order to effectively reach your company’s target audience.

As Instagram is based purely on visually appealing information, it is important to deliver relevant, high quality content which is targeted to the right people.

It is also important to frequently post content and at the right times to reach your audience and maintain their interest. This can be achieved by regularly placing engaging and targeted ads and by being consistent.

A final tip is to ensure to take advantage of how Facebook and Instagram are integrated.

The opportunity to use the same tools across both social media platforms offers multiple benefits for companies, including, the best targeting possibilities in the world. The option to use these two platforms allows for marketers to target specifically down to geography, interests, education and more. This, as a result, allows for companies to reach the widest audience possible.

We’ll be bringing you more blogs soon on Instagram advertising development, and step-by-step guides to help you understand how and why to target your audiences.

sandra-stamp

‘Drive’ Online Sales – Hit Customers That Are “In Market”

August 19, 2015 Comments Off on ‘Drive’ Online Sales – Hit Customers That Are “In Market” Blog, Facebook, Online Advertising, Online Advertising, Social Media

Last year, I bought my first car. It was an

exciting time, but as someone who likes to partake in a lot of research before making a purchase, it was also a little bit stressful.

I was looking for resources to make it as easy for me as possible and I naturally turned to online sources to assist my decisions.

After looking at various car sales websites, review sites and forums, I can honestly say that my head was fried.

I’m also a bit of a Facebook addict (maybe that goes with the job territory!) so as I was regularly flicking through my timeline, I noticed a gradual increase in targeted ads.

The one that struck me the most and sticks in my mind to this day was a Facebook ad to highlight the introduction of the new Ford EcoSport to the market.

Although we all like to think of ourselves as people who aren’t easily swayed by advertising, I have to say I was really taken with this

particular one. My thought process was something along the lines of –drive-online-sales-hit-customers-that-are-in-market

  • Yes, it looks nice and shiny
  • Ooh look, I could get credit and pay it off monthly
  • I’d be the first to have a new product – cool!
  • It would solve my undeniable problem of having no transport

Although I didn’t end up buying one, at the time the ads addressed all of my problems. Isn’t that what a targeted ad should do? It was near on perfect.

Having since done a bit of research into the Ford EcoSport advertising strategy, it turns out they did intentionally make big waves in social advertising that year. They focused solely on social ads to get the word out about their brand new product.

It worked a treat, as Ford sold all 500 limited edition cars before the campaign was due to come to and end. Check out more details on the Ford strategy here.

Facebook tends to agree that it is the ideal platform for sales leads in the automotive market. It reveals these stats as having a role in its influence to purchase vehicles:

  • 60% of people are “in market” for a car for at least 6 months
  • 27% of people report doing most of their vehicle research on a mobile device
  • More than 7 in 10 mobile-first consumers report feeling overwhelmed by all the information that is available
  • 65% of these mobile-first consumers worry that they’re going to make the wrong decision

It also highlights the potential problems that current advertisers face and how they can further capitalize on their advertising spend:

“By the last month before purchase, most people have narrowed down the type, size, fuel source, brand and other vehicle features for their car-purchasing decision. In fact, 59% of average car buyers have narrowed down their choice of vehicle to 1–2 cars by the last month before purchase. But this last month is when people say they are exposed to the most car ads on digital. This signals an opportunity for marketers to reach and influence car buyers on digital earlier in the purchase cycle, when they are still trying to decide on their choice of vehicle and features.”

Let these be small lessons towards understanding the needs of a potential customer. Go the distance to identify the problems that your products and services offer and be sure to address them in ads using imagery and clever wording.

While we agree that to only use one medium to advertise is a risky strategy, this success story proves that if done right, social streams are powerful selling tools.

 

 

Seasons Change and So Do Your Audiences

August 18, 2015 Comments Off on Seasons Change and So Do Your Audiences Blog, Facebook, Hints and Tips, Online Advertising, Social Media

Seasonal marketing – are you going to have to work harder when the sun comes out?

Sunny days get us all smiling and feeling refreshed about life. The birds are tweeting (in a literal sense!), the sky is blue and your office has an all-round good buzz.

But hold on a second – if everyone is out enjoying the good weather, who is spending time browsing your website or buying your products?

That’s where clever, seasonal online marketing comes in to play. We all see shop windows changing when the sun makes an appearance – they
go from autumnal and cosy to fresh and bright – and why should you online presence be any different?seasons

The truth is, research does show that you have to work a little bit harder in sunny weather to attract attention. Until everyone has access to a mobile phone screen that is non-reflective, browsing hours whilst sunbathing will be decreased.

Studies on markets in France have shown that rainfall has a significant, positive effect on online sales, with some areas seeing a 15% increase in online sales compared to dry days.

Similarly, a decrease in air temperature saw an increase in online purchases and when the highest temperatures were recorded, e-commerce slowed down on average.

So, what can you do about it? Here’s a few ideas:

  • Use social media to get in on the weather conversation. It might be small talk, but people will be willing to engage with a real-time post.
  • Use your location to snap pictures. Show everyone how lovely your shop/office/study looks in the glorious rays of the sun!
  • If you can relate weather to your products or services, go for it.
  • Consider changing your Facebook/Twitter/Google+ cover image to something bright and cheerful to match people’s moods. Try and keep it in line with your company branding though.
  • Capitalise on rainy days. Missed out on sales and visitors during sunny periods? When it’s gloomy, go get ‘em!
  • Plan your social posts around evening times when, even on a good day, people may be settling down for the evening indoors.
  • On a rainy day, give people something to do – hit them with a message that makes them want to take action immediately.

That’s just a few hints for you, so remember to reflect the seasons within your online campaigns.

To hide, or not to hide?

August 12, 2015 Comments Off on To hide, or not to hide? Blog, Facebook, Social Media

That is the question.

When you’re scrolling through your Facebook News Feed, the chances are you come across content from brands that you’re not all that interested in, so you might hide it from your News Feed.

But Facebook has noticed that a growing number of people are using the ‘Hide’ function to almost tick off things that they have seen and maybe even interacted with. This has prompted action from Facebook given the amount of negative page activity that was occurring.

It has to be said that Kongalytics has noted a growth in negative feedback indicating that there was a growing trend in hiding stories. Marketers can now breath a sigh of relief at the latest news, and take comfort in the fact that many brands are facing the same negativity on their hard thought-out content.facebook-friends

 

 

To reflect these changes in consumer behaviour, Facebook released the following statement:

"Hiding something is usually a strong indication that someone didn’t want to see a particular post. There is also a small group of people on Facebook who hide a very high number of stories in their News Feed. In fact, some people hide almost every post in their News Feed, even after they’ve liked or commented on posts. For this group of people, “hide” isn’t as strong a negative signal, and in fact they may still want to see similar stories to the ones they’ve hidden in the future.
To do a better job of serving this small group, we made a small update to News Feed so that, for these people only, we don’t take “hide” into account as strongly as before. As a result, this group of people has started seeing more stories from the Pages and friends they are connected to than in the past. Overall, this tweak helps this group see more of the stuff they are interested in."

Do be cautious though, this isn’t an end to Facebook algorithms making a negative dent on your reach – that will still occur although at least it may be for genuine reasons, which might give you a headache, but at least you can begin to take positive action.

You can read Facebook’s full announcement here.

lucy-stamp

 

Top 5 Facebook Updates

July 22, 2015 Comments Off on Top 5 Facebook Updates Blog, Facebook, Social Media, Updates

As Facebook are constantly announcing new updates, Kong Digital have put together a list of the top five most recent updates to help you understand what these changes mean.

1. Facebook adds Snapchat-style stickers and sliding filters to app

Facebook has begun allowing users to add filters and stickers to their pictures which are very similar to the features which Snapchat offer.

The update which is being rolled out gradually to users of Facebook’s iOS app will allow user to add text to a picture, change its colour and position on that picture, see how filters looked before and after using sliders, and also add stickers, all of which are popular features on Snapchat.

The update is being rolled out gradually to users of Facebook's iOS app and the edit menu appears in the left-hand corner when a user uploads a photo                        Users can now add text, changes its colour and position on the photo, see how filters looked before and after using sliders and add stickers

2. Sign Up for Messenger, Without a Facebook Account

This update allows users to avail of all the features Facebook Messenger offers without creating a Facebook account.

To access this, users most click on the “Not on Facebook” option provided and sign up using their name, phone number and a photo.

3. Instagram search and explore page

Instagram’s new Explore page will allow users to discover trending Tags and Places as they occur.
The improved search feature makes it easier to find the people, places, and tags you’re looking for by providing sections including; Explore posts, Discover People Curated Collections and Trending Tags.

 

 4. Facebook Pages Can Now Show How Quickly They Respond To Customers’ Messages

Following Facebook’s introduction of “Saved Replies,” which allows Page admins to compose, save and reuse message responses to quickly respond to incoming inquirespublicisecan now publicize how fast they respond to these inquiries.
The new “Response Rate” feature will show a Page’s responsiveness information to Page admins and if the response rate is high, it will also be displayed to Page visitors through an icon below the cover photo.

Following Facebook’s update of taking into account who has watched a video and how long for, the focus is now on taking into account the users interactions with these videos.

This includes determining whether someone found a particular video interesting or not based on their actions, such as choosing to turn on sound, making the video full screen, and enabling high definition.
These actions allow Facebook to determine what videos users like to see, enabling them to show similar videos and also placing these videos higher up in the user’s news feed.

5. Taking into Account More Actions on Videos

Following Facebooks update of taking into account who has watched a video and how long for, the focus is now on taking into account the users interactions with these videos.

This includes determining whether someone found a particular video interesting or not based on their actions, such as choosing to turn on sound, making the video full screen, and enabling high definition.

These actions allow Facebook to determine what videos users like to see, enabling them to show similar  videos and also placing these videos higher up in the user’s newsfeed.

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