The Facebook algorithm is changing again. This update is actually very interesting, and EXCELLENT news for businesses.

Facebook will begin scoring posts that you spend more time looking at higher. This means, when your scrolling slows because you’re watching a video, checking out a picture or simply reading a post, the new Facebook algorithm will know. On top of that, it will actually be able to ensure that the content you spend time viewing is more prevalent in your news feed moving forward.

According to newsroom.fb.com, “The goal of News Feed is to show you the content that matters to you. The actions people take on Facebook-liking, commenting or sharing a post-are historically some of the main factors we’ve considered to determine what to show at the top of your News Feed. But these factors don’t always tell us the whole story of what is most meaningful to you. Recently, as part of our ongoing effort to improve News Feed, we asked people to rate their experience and tell us how we can improve the content they see when they check Facebook. From this research, we learned that in many cases, just because someone didn’t like, comment or share a story in their News Feed doesn’t mean it wasn’t meaningful to them. There are times when, for example, people want to see information about a serious current event, but don’t necessarily want to like or comment on it. Based on this finding, we are updating News Feed’s ranking to factor in a new signal-how much time you spend viewing a story in your News Feed.“

So what does this mean for your brand? Companies on Facebook have been feeling the pain since January when the Facebook algorithm put user experience in front of brand engagement. This shift in the algorithm means Facebook won’t be ranking your page based on WHAT you are, but only on how interesting you are to your followers.

With strategic content development, a closely-managed advertising plan, and the new Facebook algorithm…we should see reach for brands slowly creeping back up. Of course, it will always come down to how engaged your followers are, so keep it interesting!

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!

It’s becoming harder and harder for businesses to get noticed on Facebook organically. Mark Zuckerberg and his team have been hinting that they’d be putting the squeeze on business pages for quite awhile; and in the past two months we have seen a significant decline in organic reach for the clients we manage.

Long story short, Facebook execs want to ensure your user experience is top notch, so they don’t want you bombarded with too many company posts.

Even though you and many others have liked a page, Facebook is only showing content to about 1% of that pages’ fans.

Crazy right?! Not really – and here’s why:

Over the past few years Facebook has successfully monetized their platform while keeping it fun and engaging for the users. With the immeasurable amounts of data their users provide, they made the News Feed a place filled with people and pages you truly want to see. They did this in part by no longer allowing companies to blatantly advertise to their fans however and whenever they wanted. This is great for you! And it’s even better for Facebook – because they’re a business!

If a company wants their fans to see what they’re doing, they have to pay for it…just like they would in print, or on TV.

Now let’s not forget that Facebook makes all their money from the businesses who advertise, so they don’t want to alienate them either. Even though they are taking away organic reach slowly but surely, they are making it up to businesses by consistently enhancing their advertising platform.

Facebook’s new ads can be so deeply targeted that a business knows when they advertise there, they are getting a much better return than they would on any other medium.

Facebook recently came out with a new style of “Website Clicks” ads that allow a business to feature multiple products/services within one ad. It looks like this:

If you aren’t familiar with these kinds of ads, here is what they used to look like:

It’s not hard to see how much more appealing the new carousel-style ads are for users. This update has significantly impacted how far advertisers’ dollars can go. Specifically, our clients have seen their CPC rates drop by up to 50%. We’re sending practically twice as many potential buyers to their websites, and it’s fair to say these new click-throughs are more likely to convert because they know specifically what they’re going to see when they get to the website.

So if you’re a company with an active following who never had to advertise before…and you’re getting frustrated with your lowww organic reach numbers…I’m here to help you see the bright side. Think of all the advertising and branding opportunities you got in exchange for the time it took you to create and publish those posts!

Think of how great it will be to use Facebook ads that are tailor-made to help you succeed far beyond what you could previously do organically.

Just so we’re all aware – we are not on Facebook’s payroll – but we make it our job to know exactly how to make that platform (and others) work for your business. If you need help with social media marketing, let us know!

Instagram has officially rolled out their sponsored ads. Here are four things to know about this new development in the platform’s shift towards monetizing their 300M+ users:

1) Instagram ads use information from your activity to best determine what ads you will like most. It might seem weird but don’t forget, Facebook owns Instagram!

2) You can hide ads you don’t like and even tell Instagram why you don’t like them. Just click the “…” button underneath.

3) The first Instagram ads you’ll see will be from: adidas, Ben & Jerry’s, Burberry, General Electric, Lexus, Levi’s®, Macy’s, Michael Kors, PayPal and Starwood. They are introducing new brands daily.

4) Instagram ads will never be able to use your photos. If you’re on Instagram you probably don’t care toooooo much about privacy BUT the platform ensures that they’ll never use your private images in ads.

Do you think the influx of ads on Instagram will deter users? We don’t!

If you manage a Facebook Business Page, take note:

According to a statement released by Facebook, “A lot of the content people see as too promotional is posts from Pages they like, rather than ads.”

This means that Facebook is getting feedback from users saying they find Business Page posts more distracting than Facebook ads in the News Feed.

Facebook explained that their goal is to make the user experience inviting, and stated, “Now we’re bringing new volume and content controls for promotional posts, so people see more of what they want from (Business) Pages.”

Here’s what Facebook said they consider “too promotional” (meaning they will limit News Feed visibility of these post types):

1. Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app

2. Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context

3. Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads

If you’ve already put a holiday sales strategy in place that includes a lot of these posts, don’t worry. Facebook says these changes will not affect the News Feed until January 2015.

You want to make sure you use these kinds of posts sparingly anyway – remember social media is about connecting, not hard sales!

If you’re running a business, you’re probably getting a bit fed up with Facebook. How come you have 1000 fans, but barely 100 people see your posts? We get this question a LOT – so let’s get to the bottom of it.

Just a few days ago, THE Mark Zuckerberg released a statement saying:

“There’s this inherent conflict … Are we trying to optimize news feed to give each person, all of you guys, the best experience when you’re reading? Or are we trying to help businesses just reach as many people as possible? And in every decision that we make, we optimize for the first.”

In a nutshell, the Zuck doesn’t want Facebook to get bogged down with companies pushing their agendas. Behind the scenes, they’re making sure only the fans who truly care about you see your posts. “Well, how do they know which ones care and which ones don’t?” you ask. It’s simple! If a fan engages with your post, Facebook shows them more. If they scroll right by, Facebook cuts you from the line up. Ouch. Cold right!

Zuckerberg also revealed: the average Facebook user is eligible to see ~1,500 news feed updates per day, but only ends up seeing ~100. That INCLUDES all of your friends’ pictures and Buzzfeed quiz results. Facebook is constantly redesigning the algorithm that determines what your fans see, making it more and more tailored to what your fans “tell them” they want through engagement.

So now you know the secret behind why your posts aren’t being seen. Wondering how to get more engagement on Facebook? Check out this blog for that! Or this one!

Great news for those using Instagram as a marketing tool: Captions will now be embedded!

This means your copy will automatically appear below your photo or video. Prior to this change, embedded photos (in blogs or articles) did not make the original caption visible. I’m sure you can imagine how this update will positively effect your marketing efforts!

Here’s what you’ll see next time you get the embed code for an Instagram image:

Instagram, which turned four the day before this news broke, also announced it’s new embed code includes javascript that resizes the embed to fit the site your image is on, depending on what device a viewer is using.

Along with the caption changes, Instagram also made tweaks to the design making images bigger, cleaner, and more defined.

We saved the best for last: It’s easier than ever for readers to follow your instagram account directly from that embedded image! The new design includes a follow button.

Awesome right!

It’s officially Fall now – and as we welcome in my personal favorite time of year, we also usher in a month that highlights many worthy causes. As social media continues to be the best way to spread a grassroots message, I see some very inspiring and unique ways different organizations are kicking off their “MONTH” of awareness. Throughout the month I will be featuring different causes and what they are doing to raise awareness and funds for their causes.

Breast Cancer Awareness and the Susan G. Komen Foundation:
The foundation set this image as their Cover Photo on Facebook and introduced the month long hashtag: #WhatGivesMeStrength and asked people to post using it. Here are just a few of the most touching posts:

Sadly the odds tell us that Breast Cancer has touched you personally in your life. Consider donating to the Susan G. Komen Foundation (or others – there are many wonderful organizations supporting this cause).

Time for another Secret Series installment!

Using Pinterest is often times a big part of a social media marketing strategy (and it is a HUGE part if your client is an online retailer). There are a few insider Pinterest tips and tricks to making your time there useful; let’s get started!

1) ALWAYS make sure your pins have the source section filled out.

Without this, people clicking on the pin will not end up at your/your client’s website. You can fill it out by selecting your pin and clicking edit.

2) Brand your pins!

Add the web address (and logo if it fits!) to extend your reach and continue branding. Use tools like photoshop, picmonkey, and others to add your personal touch.

3) Use keywords in your descriptions.

If your pin is about a bridal veils, you better say bridal veil somewhere in the description. It sure grinds our gears when we see veil retailers just saying “so cute!” – that isn’t going to show up in search results. Here’s a great example of the right way to do it.

These are some of our favorite pinterest tips, stay tuned for more in our Secret Series! Check this one out for some of our best Twitter tips! You better know those.

Twitter confirms today they are beginning testing on their newest advancement: the Twitter BUY button.

Businesses can embed the Twitter buy button into a tweet, which will allow followers to purchase an item instantly through the service. According to Twitter, a “small percentage” of users in the US will start seeing the Twitter buy button today! “This is an early step,” Twitter said in a blog post, “in our building functionality into Twitter to make shopping from mobile devices convenient and easy, hopefully even fun.”

The best part about this advancement into e-commerce is that companies do not have to advertise these tweets in order to use the Twitter buy button. Promoting the tweet is certainly a good move, but not required.

Stay tuned for more information about this new feature as it comes out.

Thank you to WIRED for this photo:

If you’re a social media marketing professional, this is especially great news. Twitter just became a much more effective tool for online sales which makes it easier for us to explain the value of consistent, strategy-based management. We recommend reaching out to your clients with online stores immediately and integrating a plan for utilizing the Twitter buy button as soon as possible. This plan should include determining their most popular product (start with that), possibly a first-time buyer discount, and of course…high-res images to attract the buyers.

We can’t wait to see how this affects our world!

I recently got turned onto a new FREE Twitter service called Tweepi. Tweepi helps you clean up your Twitter account and figure out all sorts of great things. Let’s talk about it!

Tweepi Flush

This feature shows you who you follow that is NOT following you back. You can aggregate the info alphabetically, based on location, number of followers, or the last time they tweeted. I recommend listing them by the last time they tweeted (ascending). You will be amazed how many people you follow who haven’t tweeted in YEARS! My rule of thumb: If they haven’t tweeted in 15+ days, flush ’em.

If you are actively following people hoping for follow backs, you may reach a follow limit. Tweepi flush is great for helping you figure out who to stop following…so you can find better people to follow who will reciprocate!

My favorite part of the flush section is seeing who is not following my clients and making a wish list. My wishlist includes people my client has either directly asked me to interact with, or fits within their target demographics. Users with large followings who don’t yet follow back might just need a personal tweet or two before the follow back comes. Create relationships with these people and watch your retweet and mention numbers soar!

Tweepi Reciprocate

It doesn’t make sense to follow back everyone who follows you – your feed would be such a random mess! But every so often you might miss following back someone in your industry and that’s where this section becomes relevant! Tweepi Reciprocate shows you everyone who follows you that you don’t follow back, and makes it easy for you to follow them right there in the dashboard. Simple!

Tweepi Cleanup People I’m Following

This section is very similar to Tweepi Flush and honestly I never use it. The only difference is that it shows people who follow you and those who don’t (vs. flush which only shows people who don’t follow you). You can skip it.

Tweepi Cleanup People Following Me

This section is interesting because — who wants less followers? Believe it or not some clients really only want VALUABLE FOLLOWERS. 100s and 100s of followers from Russia who don’t even use English characters aren’t going to be retweeting you, and they definitely won’t be referring you business. I love this section because it helps you get rid of the random followers who aren’t doing anything for you. **This section is only available with a paid membership.

So obviously we love Twitter – hope to see you there! @BelleStrategies

Facebook Audio Recognition is here!

• Facebook’s new update for its Android and iOS app has Shazam-like audio recognition. It can listen and identify the background music/TV show playing when users update status.

• It’s great for Facebook’s data mining purposes because it can further improve its targeted ads campaign.

• The more specific Facebook’s advertising platform is the more effective your ad dollars are.

Adding audio recognition to identify background media when users update their status using their phones or tablets, help Facebook’s data mining operations. Advertisers demand increasingly personalized data for their target demographics. Hollywood and music bigwigs want the Facebook Shazam-like feature to gain real-time or always-updated feedback on what TV shows, music, pop stars, and genres are hot.

Read the full post originally published HERE