No one spends more time studying the social space than Lori Lewis. Of late, she’s been fixated on what may be happening on the most popular social platform of them all – Facebook. While we know that “secondary” social platforms can be valuable depending on your target audience, Facebook is always at the center of the conversation. Today, Lori takes off on a topic that is near and dear to all of us in radio. – FJ
Lately, there has been a lot of speculation about Facebook ending its “free lunch” for brands. Some observers strongly believe the “organic (free) reach” for companies (like radio stations) will decrease to less than 1% (or to no free reach at all).
And while Facebook hasn’t directly addressed these rumors (at the time this memo was written), there is a piece they published last year that speaks volumes about where they may be headed. It’s called “Generating Business Results On Facebook.”
After paying a fee (not even their sales “brochures” are free) of $8 to download and read it, the feelings that I often share with clients was confirmed:
Facebook is a business, not a playground.
In this guide, they talk about how content is increasing at a faster rate than people’s ability to consume it. Therefore, Facebook expects organic (free) distribution of status updates to gradually decline. And in a not so subtle way, they suggest that brands would be wise to start thinking about what a social strategy would look like in an environment with no organic/free reach.
That is, all paid.
Facebook clearly wants you to start looking at their platform as a way to make paid advertising more effective. More and more, it is moving away from being the free distribution channel that first attracted radio to it in the first place.
And maybe this is a good thing. I’ve said for years that Facebook is not a mass advertising platform where you can spam your fans and not pay a dime for the privilege. Instead, it’s an opportunity to showcase your brand’s values, prove its importance in your fans’ “social lives,” and serve your audience, one person at a time.
Facebook is a public company – they have investors to answer to. It shouldn’t shock us if the free pass on Facebook inevitably runs dry at some point down the road.
The other lesson from this is something we have talked about since the beginning – we don’t own Facebook – we rent it. Mark Zuckerberg is the “landlord” and he can change the rules anytime he likes. And maybe he just has.
So, right now for radio station and personality brands, we would be wise to pay more attention to how our social communications “feel” through the eyes of fans. What are we doing to stand out?
The good news for all of us is that our new Techsurvey10 provides deep information about Facebook, what consumers value, along with other secondary social networks that matter – by format and specific brand. In order to more effectively use social, we need to understand how it is perceived by the people who spend the most amount of time there.
It starts with going beyond applying what works on our air in a space where the human element is the driver. Social is not about gaming people. It’s about giving them a voice, making them feel like they matter and then in return – reaping their loyalty because you make them feel seen.
It also has a lot to do with simply acknowledging others there – making it a point to take the time to let fans know that every person counts. It is fundamental, and it is the part of Facebook that emotionally connects us to others.
The space we have socially is limited.
How can we make the best of it? Or as Facebook puts it, how do we “publish ‘thumb-worthy’ content in the News Feed?” I have offered our clients many ways to do this and we work together as a team to hack our way through this.
And while many suggestions sound easy, it couldn’t be more challenging.
Facebook is forcing brands to up their game on the platform. There’s a skill set required in order to be effective on Facebook and it has nothing to do with finding the funniest memes. The idea of handing off posting and comments to interns or people who spend a lot of time on Facebook has run its course.
Given the waning value of “organic/free reach,” getting help and assistance from a pro has never been more important.
That’s because it’s not about what we want to say socially, but about delivering what fans want to hear, coming at content from their point of view, and personalizing acknowledgement.
Hacking is a word Mark Zuckerberg uses often but his reference is positive. It’s about fighting for your product and doing what needs to be done in the face of today’s disruption and modernization, a never-ending quest to keep brands in the hands of consumers.
And if you’re serious about being a social brand, you should also be hacking your way along, on behalf of your station every day – developing fundamentals that make you unforgettable.
If we’re going to be truly effective with Facebook moving forward, we’re going to have to stop treating it like a hobby or an afterthought – and bring our A games.
It had to happen eventually. When Facebook went public and now answers to stock holders, it was only a matter of time before they implemented a no one rides for free policy. It doesn’t matter that radio was instrumental in helping them grow their business model for free which seemed like the perfect trade off. What will radio do now that it’s invested so much time using social media platforms who will all eventually want to get paid? Let the debate begin…
As Lori would say, great engagement still resonates on Facebook. To us, this is a clarion call that radio has to up its game. Thanks for the comment, Mark.
One underlying issue I always had with facebook was that essentially we were handing over our brand to theirs. During consolidation one of the things that always drove me nuts, was promoting one station on the other within the same cluster. We would hear things like, “want classic rock music, change the channel to (call letters).” IMO just bad branding, but it was the consequence of turning programming over to overly sales driven management. Radio used to fight to protect their brand, with consolidation the fight and brand became more diluted. It’s one of those things that got us used to diluting our brand to help build someone else’s brand (facebook). Instead of the early days of the wild wild web (where every web page was somewhat unique), where things didn’t always have the “flash and pop” of todays multimedia web environment, we now have a web world where pages are based around the latest durpal or wordpress theme trend. Worse, our brands are diluted within a blue and white world of facebook. Where every brand is diluted within the blue and white brand of facebook. It’s part of the current “lock-in” that has always been the plan of Zuckerburg. Now we are worried about having to pay for it? I think we are already paying for it. With the dilution of individual and hard fought for brands in the homogeneous blue and white facebook world-wide hegemony. Probably not the direction you want this post to go, but thanks for letting me sound off.
John, you’ve nailed some of the downsides of the Facebook relationship. Like so many other industries, radio followed the crowd. And as Lori consistently points out, because it’s been “free,” many feel that it’s easy. It is increasingly harder to stand out in this digital ecosystem, and now Facebook is making it even tougher. Thanks for contributing to the conversation.
This may actually work out for almost everyone. The businesses that use Facebook well (Instagram is surely close behind with Twitter watching in the wings) will probably decide to stick with it and pay – and most likely receive some valuable features they didn’t get when it was free. Those that use it badly and see no return will probably drop out when the pay wall goes up.
And for all of the consumers who still use Facebook regularly, they’ll be spammed less by businesses that don’t know how or what to communicate there. My wife will be thrilled!
It’s interesting the way things work – stations will be forced to up their games if they want to succeed moving forward on this platform. Thanks, Bob.