Social media is a new world that we’re still trying to figure out how to navigate. In the old days of not all that long ago, we would log onto Facebook or Instagram (or Myspace or Friendster for those who remember) and we’d check on old friends from high school and share our trips to our favorite restaurants. While the social media landscape still functions largely the same way, there are some new functions as well. If you have a business or a website, it’s almost mandatory at this point to set up either a Facebook account or an Instagram account. Or, even a Twitter or Linkedin account. Sometimes you’ll even need a Snapchat account!
Thanks to the incredible ability to directly reach your customers via social media, you can grow your business in ways that simply weren’t possible ten or fifteen years ago. You can even include ads on Facebook so that you can reach beyond your customer base. However, times are changing and ads must change with it. Facebook is changing its ad restrictions. It’s important you stay on top of these changes. Read on to see how these updates affect your social media management.
How Did This Happen?
Simply put, politics. The election of 2016 was a divisive one. Without getting too far into the nitty-gritty, companies were able to purchase and collect information submitted to Facebook. They were able to tailor their ads to specific people. This included politics and news sites. Anyone could post anything saying they were whatever they believed a specific consumer would want to click. You no longer had to find the right content for you.
Content was being created for you telling you exactly what you wanted to hear in order to get your clicks. This was so that companies could receive ad revenue based on, again, your clicks. This can be harmful for a number of reasons. For reasons related to this article, this type of content hurt the Facebook brand. Facebook users could no longer rely on the company to present them with content that was reliable.
Even more important was that your information was being collected without your express permission. Philosophically, you may be fine with the social media platform selling your information to companies. But, that’s not the case for everyone. So not only could you no longer rely on Facebook to provide you with reliable content, your information was being sold without your express permission. Meaning the whole landscape that caused you to hire a social media management consultant was in turmoil.
Brave New World
If you’re looking to upgrade your social media presence with a social media manager, look no further than the Web Content Development team. We’re here to help you raise your social media presence to the next level!
