Category: Social Media Optimisation

7 Ways to Build A Bigger Social Media Audience

Be it a mainstream product or a niche category, every seller has a potential customer base waiting online to know more and engage with the company and their offerings. As a seller, you can hook influencers, the casual online window shopper, the serial online shopper, the user who waits for online reviews before committing, and many other types of social media audiences and build them into your loyal customers. A bigger audience means a bigger reach.

As a brand custodian, you can leverage the vastness of social media to reach existing and potential customers, build brand awareness, and generate business. Here are 7 effective ways in which you can significantly increase your social media audience and build your business:

1. More visual posts

‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ is no longer a vague adage in the times of social media marketing. Stunning visuals captivate the user and compel them to know more about you compared to a dry post with only text. Include more visuals with human faces in it to increase the likelihood of that post being reshared by the audience. You can use free online graphic design websites to create high-resolution creatives for free to go with your post.

2. Include more videos

If a picture speaks a thousand words, then a video…certainly narrates an epic. Video content garners the most audience engagement on all social media platforms. Be sure to directly embed the video onto your post instead of simply sharing a link to the video that could direct the user to another website. This ensures that the video will automatically play when the user reaches your post on their news feed, and instantly grabs attention. Make sure the videos are of a good quality, appropriate in length, and do not infringe on any copyrights to get the best possible engagement.

3. Be responsive to user comments

Be it a query on your Facebook post or a comment on your YouTube video, it is important to reply to your users, and preferably within the day! Acknowledging and appreciating your followers can make them feel heard and even special. They are more likely to champion your brand and encourage their social group to follow you. You can even make an ask- request your followers to tag their friends who may like your brand.

4. Update your profile pictures

Use meaningful, high-resolution images as your profile picture, cover photo, or banner, depending on what social media platform you are using. Pictures of an individual using your product is more likely to engage your audience and encourage them to see themselves as users of your products. Make the accompanying caption witty, sharp, and as close to your brand’s messaging as possible.

5. Run contests

Who doesn’t like freebies or even being competitive? Holding ‘Best Photo’, ‘Best Hashtag’, ‘Best Caption’ contests will not only keep your current followers engaged but also get you new ones. Encourage your social media community to tag as many friends as possible on the contest to get more people to participate as well as raise your audience numbers.

6. Customise your content

Instagram is best for visual content, while Facebook is most-suited to share testimonial stories or longer posts. Put in the effort to customise your content for each social media platform, and play to its strengths. Tweet a witty opinion on the latest news which relates to your field, or post a detailed video on the features of your new product on YouTube.

7. Use hashtags and latest news

Someone searching for posts with a specific hashtag such as ‘#FashionTrends’ or ‘#SaveMoney’ is more likely to land on your social media page. Find the most popular hashtags for the day and figure out a way to post something on your page with that hashtag. Similarly, if there is a news headline that is relevant to your work, then link that news to your post with your take on it along with trending hashtags. Word of advice: don’t force that hashtag into your post as that may confuse your audience as to what your page and brand is about.

Engage in some research on the strengths and limitations of each social media platform before you start your campaign, and be open to experimenting, few trials and errors before you find your rhythm and the right way to maximise your social media audience.

January 29, 2020
Should my Business Worry about Libra, the new cryptocurrency from Facebook?

After months of speculations, last week, Facebook announced that the social media giant would lift the curtains on “Libra,” a brand-new cryptocurrency, sometime in 2020. Facebook announced that Calibra is a newly formed subsidiary to the parent company and aims to provide seamless and secure financial services by using the Libra network.

Calibra and Libra: A Quick Explanation

While Libra is a digital currency, it doesn’t have much in common with Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency. The value of Bitcoin is basically because of its scarcity, and though it has been around for nearly a decade, it’s still considered a niche currency, not used for daily, everyday payments.

Libra, is like Bitcoin, in that it will be tied into a blockchain (this blockchain is currently under development by Facebook). The similarities end there. Unlike Bitcoin, you cannot mine Libra. Instead, you must pay for it and purchase it.

Facebook believes that Libra will become the global currency standard, like the popular currencies USD, GBP, and EUR.

Coming to the all-important question: how will the value of Libra be determined, since it doesn’t have real-world assets like a country backing it?

This is where things turn interesting. The value of Libra will be guaranteed by real assets provided by the partners that buy into Facebook-cofounded Libra association. Facebook has managed to rope in industry biggies, including venture capitalists, tech companies, and non-profit associations.

eBay, Lyft, Spotify, Uber, Union Square Ventures, PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard are some of the top names in the association. You can find more about the founding members of the Libra Association in the whitepaper published by Libra. The company will have its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

What does this mean for Regular Users?

Will it bite the dust like that time when Facebook was trying developing nations to use its platform for all their internet access by offering them free internet? Or will Libra become the first-ever digital currency to go mainstream?

While that needs to be seen, Facebook’s goal here is to make Libra the go-to currency for transferring funds to friends and family in other countries and to make it the number one payment option for both online and offline purchases.

Initially, Facebook will offer Libra as part of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, with plans to move it into a stand-alone app, later.

This is where Calibra comes into the picture. Calibra is a digital wallet that will help users to save, spend, and send Libra. Initially, you can use the Calibra wallet to send and receive money instantly to anyone with a smartphone. Later Facebook plans to extend the functionality of Calibra to provide financial services for small businesses like paying bills, etc.

sneak peek into Calibra’s interface, courtesy of Facebook.

Calibra will use anti-fraud, and verification processes used by all leading credit cards, and provide live support to people who misplace their smartphone. Calibra even promises refunds if you lose your Libra because of fraudulent activities. Calibra will also value user privacy and will not share financial data with Facebook or other third-parties.

Facebook claims that they are still a long way from launching Calibra. Interested users can sign up here to join the newsletter to be the first to receive information about the progress of Calibra and Libra.

How will Libra and Calibra impact Businesses that sell via/on Facebook?

Industry experts believe that entrepreneurs using Facebook pages for information about their products will not be impacted much. However, if you sell goods via Facebook, then you would have to make changes to include Libra as one of the payment currencies.

However, since Facebook has an enormous reach, at least a few of your customers will be using the new crypto coin. Hence, it makes sense to include it in your payments page.

When should you start making changes to include Libra?

No hurries. Facebook is still in the process of development, and nothing has been confirmed yet. So, businesses need not panic and spend the interim time reading up on the merits and drawbacks of this brand-new venture from Facebook.

June 27, 2019
YouTube Introduces Fact-Check Information Panels to Combat Fake Information and Hoaxes

YouTube has recently made changes to the user interface to include “information panels,” that will help users’ fact check their queries.

In the purview of recent changes introduced by YouTube, the platform is testing ‘information panels’ feature for a limited number of users in India. When users search for sensitive information, the app displays a “fact check” alert that will provide additional information on the search query, from the authentic fact-checking partners of YouTube.

With over 250 million internet users and some of the cheapest data plans in the world, India is a massive market for YouTube. India, in recent years, has witnessed several horrifying crimes like lynching due to the spread of fake news. This new feature will deal another blow to disinformation peddlers on the popular video-sharing site and is aimed to reduce the spread of fake news. This new feature, apart from being available for English search queries is also available for Hindi language queries.

How does this Feature Work?

Image via Buzzfeed News

YouTube explained how this feature works using the above image. For example, if the user searches on YouTube with the query, ‘virus in paracetamol,’ you can see the information panel at the top of the search results.

Machupo virus in pain-killers is a widespread internet hoax that sent thousands of people into a panic. At the top of the search results, users who search using this query will get a prompt from YouTube verified fact-checkers. This alerts users to the hoax.

Does YouTube block videos that contain wrong information or fake News?

Right now, Google doesn’t block videos that contain wrong information or information about hoaxes. But, it provides users with additional fact-checked information at the top of the search page results, so users can avoid clicking on hoaxes and other videos containing fake news. The information panels pop-up based on the queries users use to search. It’s not based on the information contained in videos that appear on search page results.

YouTube on the path to fight fake news

In recent years, YouTube has introduced several new changes to prevent the spreading of videos that contain false information. The company recently came under public fire because it enabled the growth of conspiracy theorists and other fake news peddlers.

As a result, YouTube introduced NewsWire, a dedicated video feed exclusively reserved for verified news organizations. The company also included informational cues from Wikipedia under controversial videos. Recently, YouTube has prevented advertisements from appearing on videos that are anti-vaccine, to prevent these channels from making money off misinformation.

Will this feature prevent users from believing wrong information?

YouTube believes that by promptly displaying the disclaimer above the results page, it will prevent users from getting swayed by the wrong information in videos.

When will this feature be available worldwide?

YouTube reported that the company is working on making “information panels” available to worldwide users, though it hasn’t given a timeline until now.

March 14, 2019
Instagram Denies Rumors Claiming That Posts Reach Only 7% Of Followers

If you are an avid user of Instagram, then you would have come across posts and memes stating that the popular photo-sharing social network is restricting the visibility of posts.

Image via Instagram

A large number of Instagram users, especially business account holders, have been complaining of late that Instagram has made some tweaks to its algorithm, that limit post visibility. While some users like the above say that their posts reach only 7% of their followers, others say posts are shown only to 15% of their followers.

To counteract this change, Insta users have been posting images with the words above and asking their followers to like or comment on this post, which they believe will increase future post visibility.

Instagram has been quick to point out that it hasn’t specifically made any changes to its algorithm that limits post visibility. Instagram in a series of tweets from its official Twitter handle clarified the issue.

Image via Twitter

The official statement from Instagram clarifies that there have been no changes to the algorithm powering the Insta feed recently. Instagram acknowledges that what shows up in a user’s feed is personalised. This means, posts don’t appear chronologically but are based on how a particular user engages with his/her feed.

Posts from accounts that you interact – like or comment – regularly appear at the top. Additionally, post order also depends on other factors like how frequently you use Instagram, the timeliness of posts, the number of people you follow and so on.

Instagram states that if you keep scrolling, you can see posts from all user accounts that you are following.

Even after Instagram released this statement, sceptics have been pointing out that the social media network doesn’t deny the “7% view limit” rumour outrightly.

As Instagram clarifies in this thread – what a user sees in his/her feed is highly personalised and depends on several factors.

For instance, let’s assume that you follow 200 user and business accounts on Insta. You regularly comment and like posts from only 20 of these user accounts. Then, every time you log into the Instagram app, you are likely to see posts from these 20 user accounts at the top of your Insta feed.

Let’s assume, that each of these 20 accounts post multiple times a day and average around 2-3 posts per day. And, if you scroll through your feed only for a couple of minutes each time you check the app, then you are likely to see only the posts from your favourite accounts.

That doesn’t mean, the other posts are hidden from you. You can continue scrolling below, to find posts from other accounts that you follow.

As you can see, Instagram doesn’t limit content. Instead, the algorithm works in such a way to show you your preferred posts first so that you keep coming back to the app often.

Social media experts claim that the rumour is not unbiased. However, the fault doesn’t lie with Instagram. For instance, if you have a business profile on Instagram with 100 followers, then only a handful of them are likely to be active followers. Your posts are expected to show up in the feeds of these active followers at the top. Whereas for the rest of your followers, your posts are likely to be buried in the feed deep down.

This is the reason for this rumour asking users to like and comment on the post. Now, with Instagram clarifying that there are no changes to feed ranking recently, users need not worry that the popular photo-sharing site is creating a conspiracy to limit your post views.

February 1, 2019
Schedule Videos to Your Business Profiles with this New Feature from Instagram
Are you a social media manager or an influencer? Now, you can add video scheduling to your social media management apps, thanks to this latest tweak to Instagram’s API.

Instagram finally launches one of the most anticipated features by business Instagram account managers and social media influencers. The popular photo-sharing social media network updated the Instagram Graph API to facilitate video posts scheduling.

Earlier the Instagram API allowed scheduling of only single-image posts and even third-party tools couldn’t schedule multi-image posts and videos. With the introduction of this feature, you can now use social media management apps to schedule your video posts, eliminating the need to log into the app frequently.

Avoid the “Manual” Smartphone Workaround

Before the availability of this feature, it was common for social media managers and influencers to set a mobile alert to remind them, it’s time to post on Instagram. As social media managers and business Instagram account owners, you would know that videos and images have to be posted at specific times to increase engagement rates.

With the scheduling feature, now you can use third-party content publishing tools to schedule your videos, just like your single-image posts. Most of the popular scheduling tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, Social Report, and others are part of this video scheduling API.

Video Scheduling Limited Only to Business Instagram Accounts

Just like photo scheduling, video scheduling is available only to business Instagram accounts.If you are an influencer, you can easily migrate from a personal Instagram account to a business account. All you need is a corresponding Facebook page to link your business account.

Video Guidelines for Instagram:

Instagram is pretty strict with the specifications for videos that you can post on the platform, using this scheduling feature. Here’s what Instagram lists regarding specifications for the videos to be scheduled:
- Format – MP4 or MOV
- Audio Codec – AAC, mono or stereo, 48Khz sample rate maximum
- Video Codec – H264 or HEVC, closed GOP, progressive scan, 4:2:0 subsampling
- Frame Rates – 23 to 60 frames per second
- Picture Size – 1920 (maximum horizontal pixels), maximum aspect ratio –16/9, minimum aspect ratio – 4/5
- Duration – minimum: 3 seconds, maximum: 60 seconds
- File Size – Maximum: 100 MB
Your third-party scheduling tool will ensure that these limitations are implemented.

Which Social Media Management Tools support Video Scheduling?

While video scheduling has been one of the most requested updates from Instagram, it’s a surprise that Instagram made no formal announcements regarding this change to its API. Generally, Instagram announces new features and updates via its business blog. However, this API tweak was simply added to the features page during the end of December last year, without any formal announcements.

Currently, Social Report, one of the popular social media management tools has implemented this feature. With that said, one can expect popular social media management tools like Buffer, Hootsuite and others to adapt to this change quickly.

How will the New Feature Impact Users?

Video scheduling was one of the most anticipated updates. This has the potential to change the social media game for business users and social media marketing houses. Instead of having to manually log into the app to post videos at odd hours or over the weekends, automatic scheduling takes care of it all.

With video scheduling available, social media managers expect multi-image scheduling to follow suit.
January 17, 2019
How to Make Your Social Media Strategy Stronger For the Coming Year
With the end of 2018 approaching, it is that time of the year when you look back at all you have done throughout the year and improve for the year that awaits you. Social media strategies are far too dynamic, and can be hard to decipher.

Here are some useful tips that help you improve your social media strategy for 2019.
1. Review Your Current Social Media Performance
  The oldest trick in the book, you cannot know what your ails your social media output unless you review it thoroughly. You really need to take a step back and ask yourself which social media networks are you on, whether they are relevant to your brand’s goals, and most importantly, which of them are evidently sucking in time and yielding the least possible results.
2. Optimise Your Social Media Networks
  Once you determine what is harming your social media strategy, the natural course of action would be to clean them off. You would need a cleaner and better social media bio entering into 2019.
  Ensure that your profile and header images are clear and that they include keywords in your “About us” section. Though all this is basic, it is more likely to be overlooked, and hence needs special attention.
3. Know What You Are Aiming For
  By now you have a clearer understanding of what your social media plan lacks, and hence you fix those loose ends. But that cannot happen in the absence of goals you have in mind.
  Your social media goals do not have to be complicated. You need to set practical and achievable goals for yourself and push to achieve all that you set out to achieve.
4. Create A Content Schedule
  Consistency is a major part of creating an online strategy that wins in the long run. When you have a content schedule, you will be able to notice the gaps in your earlier plans and target to close them off with better and more consistent content.
5. Video Content Will Help
  Though a lot may have changed from last year to this, one thing remains – the hit ratio of video content. In the year ahead, there will be more reliance on online content, especially with the rise of Instagram stories and IGTV. Content is getting more and more visual, and you would have to ensure that you are ahead of the curve that matters.
6. Repeat The Process
  Nothing can ever be achieved in the first go. But if you keep trying hard enough, you would eventually. You have to review the execution of your process, and keep going at it harder than before, filling more gaps than you did earlier.
  This way, you would soon have an effective fail-proof plan which will bring you better returns.
In a dynamic industry like social media marketing, determining the elements in SMM that work for you is hard. These trends will be able to provide some guidance to marketers on how to best utilise the social media marketing campaign budget to generate maximum ROI in 2019.
December 20, 2018
Snapchat ups the ante by launching a new program that pairs brands with platform influencers

Being one of the major social media platforms in the game, Snapchat aims to leave no stone unturned. In an attempt to generate more revenue than it already is, Snapchat turns its focus towards platform influencers. The image-oriented app is now working to bridge the gap between them and the influencers after a brief period of ignoring the platform’s most prominent content creators.

In order to make this bridge happen, Snap inc. has launched a new program. This program is called Snapchat Storytellers and comes across as sweet music to influencers’ ears. This is an attempt to connect brands to Snapchat influencers, which leads to productive and brand-oriented content creation.

This pilot attempt will introduce brands to a select list of Snapchat’s most known content makers. This includes personalities like Mplatco, Shonduras and even Cyrene Q.

Snapchat gets a competitive edge

This definitely is a brilliant move played by Snapchat. Brands are increasingly turning to social media platforms, knowing that this is where a majority of their target audience resides. The easiest way to connect with your audiences is to reach out to them via social media connections. And while making a name for your brand on social media would require a whole different set of people and a lot of resources, merging up with pre-existing social media personalities and making collaborative content is a win-win for everyone – that is the content creator, the brand, and of course, Snapchat.

Influencer marketing, as it is called, is a trending marketing strategy used by brands these days. And when you weigh the pros it gets to your brand; it clearly seems to be a viable and feasible option.

Why influencer marketing matters?

Companies are opting for influencer marketing and reaping benefits like never before. Quite efficiently so, they get to use the expertise of creators who already know the platform in and out. Moreover, they also know how to build an audience and how to garner their attention. They are experts when it comes to using tools efficiently. They are also well versed with the possible outcomes of posts that go out. One could go as far as to call these social media influencers as contractual social media consultants a company reaches out to, only for a brief period of time, to perhaps push content across effectively.

How can Snapchat add value?

Snapchat being a relatively tricky, but immensely popular platform, companies rather not waste time figuring out moving about or navigating through the app to find ways to push content out. The onus of finding ways to present fresh content to audiences through influencers seems like a sure-fire method to ensure your content performs well, which is essentially all that a marketing team would desire.

Snapchat has been on the trail for brand-creator collaboration for quite a while now. Snap inc, in February, gave access to famous content creators on its app to get an analytical and in-depth summary of their posts. They also held the company’s first ever “Creator’s summit” back in May this year.

While the program is still taking baby steps, the expansion of it is small. However, the potential it holds is immense. Businesses now have a chance to reach out to newer audiences effectively, by tapping onto prolific content creators who make engaging content consistently.

August 3, 2018
Why are Marketers Enthusiastic about Facebook’s New Ad Tools?
Finding itself in the eye of controversy all so often, Facebook recently launched a new tool. This tool allows anyone to view the ads being run by any Facebook Page at any given time. The motive behind this new tool is to establish transparency. This is a consequence of the storm Facebook found itself facing a couple of years back. The social media platform was accused of being tampered by foreign operatives. This lead to the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential Election being influenced, is what the authorities had to say.

Marketers’ perspectives are now considered

Facebook, in an attempt to shed light onto a crevice which was rather left in the dark, has brought about a tool that gives access to watching ad spaces better. This is the first time ever where users and marketers have complete access to the full insight of a Page and what they are promoting across their channels. This is revolutionary stuff, especially when it comes from a platform where ads are in surplus.

So, how can one access these “dark posts” across Facebook?

Owing to these new ad tools, accessing ad listing is now simple.

In order to view a page’s active ads, you would have to click on the menu option in the left-hand function bar titled “info and ads.”

You would thereon be taken to browse through all the ads the page is running at the given time. This does not end just here. In case you need to get more specific data out of it, you can filter it as per region. This would tell you which ads are running in each of the regions.

But how is all this a good thing to marketers?

Here’s how.
1. You get insights into your competitor’s Facebook ad strategy
One way to excel in today’s world is to know what path your competition is on. And Facebook just handed you the key to open your competitor’s money-making formula. So far, it was just a game of predicting what is it that your competitor is doing and formulating your strategy based on that. Now, you get to have concrete backing and your strategies are no more a guessing game.
1. It allows you to be inspired with sheer brilliance
Creativity relies on inspiration. Ads get pretty monochrome if made from uninspired ideas. However, this does not entitle you to plagiarise ideas. It just means that you now have the ability to get a shift in perspective. This helps you think out of the box, which is how you get to mindblowing ideas, sooner or later.
1. Helps in building your audiences’ trust
In a competitive era, knowing what your competition is doing right helps. But knowing what they are not doing all that right is gold. This is when you can drop by and show your commonly targeted audiences about the ways how you are better. However, you need to be careful with this as even your competition can view your strategy. Not just that, even your audiences can peek into your ad strategy. So you need to be playing by the rules.
1. Your metrics will remain untouched
This is a concern a lot of companies had that if your competitor can so easily view your strategy, can they tamper with it? The answer is no. They will not be able to make any changes or interact, in any way, with your advertisement.

Factoring in the endless insights it provides, marketers look forward to a whole different ball game in the years to come, in terms of digital and social media marketing.
July 27, 2018
Plan Events and Projects Better with New Collaboration Tools on Pinterest

Pinterest, the visual discovery social media platform, has been rolling out a slew of changes to its user interface for quite some time now. Some instances include the facility to save pins quickly with the help of the long press, and the feature to categorise pins into meaningful sections. In the face of stiff competition, these moves are stamping its growing authority on the social media landscape.

One more exciting addition is the new collaboration tools introduced by Pinterest. As per a recently released news item, the company has expanded the functionality and efficacy of its group-based activity feature through these collaboration tools. The tools are launched on the platform’s group boards; the facility allows users to have conversations with other members of the board with the help of the new group activity feed.

What are the new changes?

With the new group collaboration tools, users are now able to keep better track of new Pins added to the group. They can also be updated about new member activity. You can bring in other Pins into the group by sharing conversations about these specific pins which will be in turn, shared with all group members. Users can initiate discussion threads and conversations with the help of the Likes and @mentions. Since this action is happening within the group the conversation around it will be restricted to just the group and non-group members will not have access to the same on their feeds.

The working is similar to Facebook’s group facility. Just like that feature, Pinterest group boards now allows members to add posts, comment, and like on the posts.

Why the need for these changes?

Pinterest felt that there are a lot of users who may want to use group boards to plan parties, events, or collaborate on projects. In response to the requests from such users, Pinterest has made these additions. With these updates, it aims to enhance the quality of interactions that happen on the site. There are many conversations that pinners don’t want their full network to have access to. They would require just a select group of members (family, chosen friends, or office colleagues) for the same.

From a business perspective, there might be not much in terms of value that emanates from these new collaboration tools. However staunch supporters of well-known brands may go ahead and create their own closed group to share stories and happenings around the brand. If your brand is pre-dominantly on Pinterest then it would make perfect sense to invest the time and efforts to set up the group and manage conversations happening within it.

The effect of the changes brought about by Pinterest is starting to bear dividends. As per recent market research reports, Pinterest’s following is growing at a better rate than competitor platforms like Snapchat and Twitter. This shows that from a user acceptance point of view these changes are adopted very well by the users, which in turn, explains the better engagement levels enjoyed by the platform.

July 20, 2018
Facebook Makes it Possible to Tag Paid Partnerships on Posts

Facebook has been rolling out a lot of measures recently to tidy up its tarnished image over data breach and privacy concerns. After launching an info label to tag political posts, it has now expanded the scope of this facility beyond politics. It now does the same for promotional content that appears on pages of well-known agencies and firms or influencer pages.

What is the new update?

Branded content always has much higher credibility than regular unverified content. This is why channels like Wired are now being paid by brands to promote posts on their pages. Users will now be able to identify such promotional branded content with this info label. This, in turn, will elevate the level of trust they have on such posts and will lead to better volumes of sharing and interaction around it.

While there is no official confirmation yet from the social media giant, this change was spotted by a Facebook user and shared on his Twitter handle. As per his smartphone screen view, we see a post from Capital One (the Virginia, US-based bank holding company specializing in credit cards, auto loans, banking and savings products) that has a post about the impact of Social Security numbers published on WIRED – the digital magazine focusing on technology in the society. The post heading reads as ‘WIRED with Capital One’ and has an info label ‘About the partnership’. When we click on the ‘i’ label for more information, we see another message drop down. This message says that Capital One has compensated WIRED to share this post. It further states that branded content lets creators partner with brands in order to promote their products or services.

An expansion of the political ad labeling initiative?

Users would remember that Facebook had earlier rolled out similar info labels in October 2017 for political ads. This helps users to identify which posts are promoted by politically affiliated entities or by the parties themselves. This also meant that only authorised advertisers will be able to run political ads and that too after appropriately labelling them as a ‘Political Ad’. The move is aimed to eliminate any chances of abuse of political issues and topics by non-political affiliated groups. As per Facebook, this stipulation is applicable to anyone that wants to show “issue ads”.

Does it help?

The move to let users identify a branded partnership goes a long way in removing the fear of mistrust and privacy concerns. The move also aligns on-going improvements in the branded content tags introduced back in 2016. As more and more brands and influencers look to collaborate with one another, the onus is on Facebook to let users know about such branded (paid) partnerships. The addition of the ‘about the partnership’ label is a move in this direction, as users can now easily identify such arrangements and prevent mistrust or confusion from seeping in.

What is your take on this new info label? Do you think it will impact brand fortunes in any way? Do write to us and let us know your comments in the box below.

July 19, 2018

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