What The Facebook Happened To Facebook?

What the Facebook happened? You’ve heard by now. Facebook was caught off guard recently. It quickly became a trust, share holder value, and PR-scrambling nightmare for Mark Zukerberg. Big data became scary data. This will have ripple effects with all social media advertising platforms.

The data breech was significant. Facebook is changing how it does data. In fact, this event could actually push social media back up the marketing funnel.

So what might this mean for your business?

• Facebook is phasing out the customer profile data they source from outside 3rd party vendors such as Acxiom and Epsilon. Less outside data means less risk.
• Limiting data means limiting how specific you can target audiences with Facebook advertising. Digital ad relevancy and targeting on social media could be more of a challenge moving forward. Facebook is still a powerful advertising platform, but its targeting capability may be more limited.
• As a result, your internal customer data is even more important. You control your customer data, not social media. Facebook and other social media advertising platforms will depend more on your internal data rather than third party sources. Facebook Lookalike email targeting is one example.
• You control your data destiny. Capture your customer data with permission, care, and sensitivity. Guard it with your business reputation and life. Instill trust. Add value not interruptions to potential and existing customers.
• Customer and follower/fan/tribe emails are one of your most important data points. Treat them with permission-based respect. Don’t spam. Engage. Never buy email addresses. Earn your email addresses.
• Know your customer. Understand not just who they are but why they buy from you.
• Target potential new customers based on what you know about your existing customers.
• Pay Per Click Advertising with Google AdWords and Bing Ads will be even more relevant now. PPC captures intent from the very moment of a blinking cursor search. The data source is immediate and captures the conversation going on inside the head of a customer. Capturing real-time intent reduces the need for a 3rd party data source. The search is the source: safe, specific, and relevant.
• Great search advertising brings your business the relevant, warm lead. Never forget it’s your job to turn that lead into a sale.

By Stuart Atkins