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‘Advertisers are starting to lose trust’: Why media buyers say Facebook is losing its grip on social ad spend

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By Kimeko McCoy

For the last few years, Facebook and Instagram have dominated advertisers’ media mix. But recently, media buyers say ad spend on social media’s biggest platforms has started to deteriorate.

It’s more of a slow leak than a mass exodus, with client ad spend dedicated to Facebook and Instagram recently declining by 5-10% over the last year, according to Hallie Wyckoff, group director of social media at Wunderman Thompson Commerce.

“It’s happening now because of the pandemic, in all honesty,” Wyckoff said. “There were so many changes in marketing budgets last year where a lot of brands pulled back for a bit or had to be more lean with what they were willing to spend.”

For Wunderman Thompson, with clients including major marketers like Unilever and Coca-Cola, ad dollars that may have gone to Facebook and Instagram have recently shifted to alternative platforms like TikTok — or to efforts to improve or build out social commerce opportunities, as well as working with influencers, Wyckoff said.

Given Facebook and Instagram’s scale, targeting capabilities and range in ad unit offerings, advertisers and media buyers predict it won’t lose its crown any time soon. In fact, the platform’s ad business is holding up for now, per previous Digiday reporting. However, the platform’s flaws like waning interest from younger audiences, rising cost per impression and mounting data privacy issues are giving way to challengers like TikTok, Snap and even Pinterest. The flaws have gotten worse because the pandemic has made for an uncertain future and constant shifts in people’s shopping habits, which has advertisers looking for alternatives.

When asked for comment, a Facebook spokesperson pointed to the platform’s Q2 2021 earnings call, in which Facebook reported strong business growth and noting that total revenue for Q2 was $29.1 billion, which is a 56% year-over-year increase. According to chief financial officer David Wehner, speaking during Facebook’s most recent earnings call on July 28, the growth was predominately driven by verticals that performed well over the course of the pandemic, like online commerce and consumer packaged goods.

At least one marketing agency, Tinuiti, which Facebook pointed to as an example of increasing investment on its platforms, hiked it’s year-over-year spending on Facebook and Instagram alongside increased ad spend for platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and Pinterest.

“We’ve seen this increase 37% YoY on Facebook and 75% YoY on IG (24% growth in Q1 and 53% growth in Q1, respectively). And we’re on pace to spend 61% more on Facebook and Instagram than we did in all of 2019,” said Avi Ben-Zvi, vp of paid social at Tinuiti.

But according to Pew Research, Facebook and other major social media platforms’ growth stalled over the past five years. Facebook’s brand reputation suffered last year after advertisers boycotted the platform with the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign. And new research from analytics and insight company Skai, shows that social media CPMs have been steadily increasing, up about 12% from 2019. According to Skai, CPMs hovered around $5.71 this time in 2019 and are now at $6.37.

Also buffeting the social giant is the fact that it is facing a serious challenge in Apple’s data privacy changes, noted Katya Constantine, CEO of performance marketing shop DigiShop Media via email.

“The biggest cause has certainly been because iOS14 removed some of the most powerful targeting options,” she said. “Also, I imagine that some of the usage has also slipped as the world came out of the pandemic and that removed some inventory and drove up CPMs.”

Elijah Schneider, CEO of social marketing agency Modifly, backs up Constantine’s claims.

“Advertisers are starting to lose trust that consumers lost a long time ago,” Schneider said.

And challenger brands have seen the writing on the wall. Modifly, with a client list that includes startups and direct to consumer brands like Super Coffee drink brand and Beam wellness brand, has seen clients press for serious ad dollar diversification since late last year, said Schneider who added that in 2019 and 2020 at least 80% of Modifly client spend was in Facebook products. At present, that ad spend now sits at 55% on Facebook and 45% on alternative social platforms, like TikTok and Snapchat. (Schneider didn’t share what these breakdowns looked like in actual dollar figures.)

“For brands that are really focused on Gen Z, Facebook is part of the mix. But they’re not necessarily the dominant part of the mix,” said Noah Mallin, chief strategy officer at IMGN Media, where client ad spend on Facebook and Instagram has decreased from 95% of budget in prior years to 75% at present. “They’re much more evenly matched for established big brands where Gen Z is a segment among many,” he added.

In a rush to diversify ad spend, advertisers have divided their digital dollars up amongst everything from alternative social media platforms to digital tools to support a brick-and-mortar presence. There’s no clear kingpin coming to dethrone Facebook and Instagram, although many marketers see promise in TikTok given the platform’s scale and massive audience.

If nothing else, the decline continues to push along the industry-wide conversation around the need to diversify media spend, making for healthy competition among the platforms and more viable options for media buyers, Mallin said.

“I don’t necessarily see [Facebook and Instagram] diminishing to nothing,” Mallin said. “But if you want to have a smart mix and you’ve got the budget for it, you’d want to have Twitch in there and you want to have TikTok in there too.”

That’s not to say Facebook couldn’t make a few changes to delay its decline — and this could just be the latest interaction of changes in the social media landscape, marketers say. When it comes to digital and social media, that landscape is always changing, meaning advertisers will always need to adapt. This pandemic made flexibility a priority, said Wunderman Thompson’s Wyckoff.

“If we start to see CPMs or CPCs go down, you might see an influx back to Facebook and Instagram,” she said. “It’s an ever-evolving world and marketers are going to continue to pay attention and see what’s best.”

Feature Image Credit: Ivy Liu 

By Kimeko McCoy

Sourced from DIGIDAY

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Study Indicates Ads Placed In News Media – Especially Print – Outperform Social

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Ads placed in news media consistently outperform ads on Facebook and YouTube, according to a study conducted by Australia’s ThinkNewsBrands.

The cross-platform analysis found that while ads in both print and digital news publications perform better than ads in the social media channels, print ads specifically had a much greater memory impact on readers.

The study included more than 5,350 participants who experienced ads from seven Australian brands in 11 forms of media.

For six days, 42 custom print runs were sent each morning across Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.

To cut down on bias dependent on ad-placement, seven versions of each newspaper were also distributed each morning. Two hundred and fifty-two websites were also created, with more than 6,000 unique brand exposures.

To maintain the same creative assets for all platforms, the study provided three different print sizes — full-page, half-page, and quarter-page ads — and 6-second, 15-second and 30-second ads for digital display and video.

Duane Varan, CEO of MediaScience, who oversaw the study, describes it as “a monumental effort” that is intended to assure advertisers that it was a true “apples to apples comparison.”

Results show that newspaper ads, regardless of ad type, outperformed Facebook up to four times.

On mobile and desktop, ads in news outlets delivered 1.7 times the unprompted recall of 6-second YouTube ads and were equal to 15-second YouTube ads.

News outlets also proved most effective for short-term ROI, with 10% stronger sales growth than social media.

“The thing about news is that it’s cognitively engaging,” Varan explains, adding: “When you watch the news, you’re thinking about what’s going on. You go into the ad break with your brain wired and fired up, and so you have better access to your memory pathways as a consequence.”

According to Varan, ad recall in news outlets was consistent across three stages of memory:

1. Attention (seeing and absorbing content) was measured by brand recognition.

2. Message-processing was measured by queue recall.

3. Memory retrieval was measured by unaided/free recall.

“It’s telling the story, again, around this clear superior memory effect for news,” Varan says. “It’s consistent with what we’ve seen across many other studies that we’ve done for news clients.”

Varan believes there is too much “assumption” in the market and that various media ad-effectiveness propositions “need to be weighed.”

“We can’t just make assumptions about what effects we think things deliver. We have to have some data that informs it.”

Out of all the study’s findings, Varan says he was most surprised by the comparison of print ads to Facebook ads.

“Just to see how much stronger newsprint was vis-a-vis a Facebook ad, you’re getting a much greater impact,” he says. “A print ad is even outperforming a video ad. That’s pretty telling.”

Varan thinks advertisers have forgotten how good print ads look.

“We just have not been around the medium enough to remember,” he said. “A print ad is very rich. Compare that to the fleeting experience of seeing an ad and scrolling through it.”

Overall, the study suggests how powerful context actually is.

The success of an ad may depend heavily simply on where an ad is placed, Varan says, noting: “Think about how hard it would be to get a 10% lift. Here we’re talking about much more dramatic effects.”

While the study is based on Australian consumers and media outlets, Varan believes that if the study was replicated overseas it would show similar results.

“The numbers might not be exactly the same, but the trend would be,” he says.

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Sourced from MediaPost

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Facebook Paying Influencers $1B to Use the Platform

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These days, Facebook is known as the social network for the generations of people that may not really understand how the computer works. Parents, grandparents and, somehow, all of your older co-workers have made the platform home, driving the younger demographic, and subsequently its influencers, to newer social media sites like TikTok where they’ve built their own followings. But Facebook has revealed that it has plans to bring influencers to its platform so who knows how the social landscape will change in the near future.

Facebook recently unveiled its plans to pay influencers $1 billion to utilize its products, in a program that’s set to run until the end of 2022. Its mission? To revive the platform and stop it from being the place to go to see what your old teachers are up to nowadays. This also goes for Instagram which has quickly become second fiddle to TikTok.

Deadline reports that Facebook will reward creators, especially those just starting, and will include a new bonus program that compensates eligible creators for hitting milestones using Facebook tools. The company will provide seed funding for creators to make their own content.

“We want to build the best platforms for millions of creators to make a living,” CEO Mark Zuckergberg said in a Facebook post. “Investing in creators isn’t new for us, but I’m excited to expand this work over time.”

Some of these new programs are reportedly already available via invitation for select creators. Some of these are IGTV ads bonuses which enable creators to earn a one-time bonus for signing up, Reels Summer bonuses, which pays Instagram creators for creating Reel content on the platform, badges in Live bonuses, which rewards creators that reach certain milestones, and the Stars Challenges Bonuses, which involves gaming creators hitting certain monthly Stars milestones over the next three months.

More change is set to come soon because a dedicated place for bonuses will arrive in Instagram this summer and Facebook this fall.

Feature Image Credit: Getty/ Alex Wong

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Sourced from PAPER

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Facebook Global Pages and Market Pages: How to Localize Your Marketing

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Does your business market in multiple cities or countries? Wish there was a simple way to localize your marketing based on location or language?

In this article, you’ll discover how to set up a Facebook global pages structure with Facebook market pages to streamline your Facebook marketing.

Why Use a Facebook Global Pages Structure?

Facebook location pages, which have been available for a number of years, are particularly helpful when consumers are searching for directions to one of your brick-and-mortar stores or you’re offering discounts or special offers at certain locations.

Location pages show up in Facebook search individually, making it easier for people to find stores and offices that are near them.

Facebook global pages, which are slowly being rolled out, are for businesses with multiple global audiences that wish to leverage localization in a particular market or for a particular language, but want to retain a single Facebook page URL.

Global page structures contain market pages, which are simply different versions of the same brand page made visible to users based on their geographic location. In Facebook search, users see only the market page that relates to their region (although they may switch the region if they want).

As an example, Nokia Mobile utilizes global pages. When you click the three-dot button on their page, you’ll see the option to Switch Region. If you change the region, the content on the page changes too.

Click HERE to read the remainder of the article.

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Sourced from Social Media Examiner

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10 Innovative Ways Brands Can Leverage Facebook And Instagram Stories

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Sourced from Forbes,

Facebook and Instagram have been incredibly effective marketing channels for quite some time. Now, brands can also leverage the Stories feature on both platforms to create deeper connections with users. Stories often offer more interactive options than regular social posts, and companies can use this to their advantage by creating unique content that captures the attention of consumers as they scroll through their feed.

As with any social media marketing, coming up with a solid strategy is the key to seeing the strongest returns on investments in this particular area. When it comes to utilizing the Stories feature on either platform, brands have a wide spectrum of effective approaches to choose from. Here, 10 members of Forbes Agency Council explore some of the most innovative ways companies can leverage the content they share via Stories to better connect with consumers.

1. Maintain The ‘Human Touch’ To Make Stories More Approachable

The key to making the most of Stories is maintaining the “human touch.” With so many interactive features, such as polls, questions, custom stickers, etc., Stories can be more approachable and fun than an average post. You can also get away with toning down your brand voice and introducing a more laid-back vibe, while still delivering eye-catching and informational content. – Russ Williams, Archer Malmo

2. Use The Shopping Feature And Post Time-Sensitive Promotions

Instagram now allows brands to use a shopping feature on their Stories. It will let the audience see the product details and price, and if they press it, it will take them to the page on the website where they can purchase the product. Stories disappear after 24 hours, so brands can post time-sensitive content, such as promotions that their audience can’t miss. – Jonas Muthoni, Deviate Agency

3. Create Stories That Enhance Your Online Customer Relationships

If you think of Stories as an extension of the relationship you have with your customers on Facebook and Instagram, note the things that attract the most engagement on your pages. Use this information to create Stories that serve as “teaser” content to increase the fun factor or to show one aspect of your brand in a playful way. Or, cross-pollinate Clubhouse activity with your Instagram stories. Authenticity is key. – Megan Devine, d.trio marketing group

4. Use Paid Advertising To Extend The Reach Of Your Stories

One great way for a brand to leverage Facebook and Instagram Stories is to create and post vertical-friendly content as their Stories, then promote those Stories to larger audiences using paid advertising. In doing so, the brand’s Stories are not only available for longer than 24 hours, but can also then be shown to new, relevant demographics. – Jonathan Durante, Expandify Marketing Inc

5. Use Interactive Features To Gain Audience Insights

Stories are an effective way for brands to connect with their audiences in real time. Instagram and Facebook Stories have features that allow brands to gain insights directly from their followers. Try using tools such as polls, question stickers and quizzes to gain an understanding of your audience and immediate feedback on their preferences and insights. – Jason Wulfsohn, AUDIENCEX

6. Expand On Other Social Posts To Extend The Life Of Creatives

A Facebook or Instagram story can be used to expand on other social posts from the brand to extend the life of a single creative. If the original post is about an article, a story can highlight multiple text excerpts from the article with imagery to add more description. A story can also show a sequence that led up to the final image of the highlighted post and provide context and background. – Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne LLC

7. Let Influencers Collaborate On Or Take Over Your Stories

Stories are like a conveyor belt of content. What starts out as innocent scrolling through a friend’s content quickly turns into a steady flow of Instagram Stories and advertisements that can be viewed with just a swipe up. Influencer collaboration and takeovers are a great way to use Stories, along with polls and questions that encourage interaction. – Joe Gagliese, VIRAL NATION

8. Tell Unique Stories Through Carousel Ads

Using carousel ads in the Stories format on Facebook or Instagram is a great way to tell a unique story through three back-to-back images or videos. Businesses can use these to share three parts of a story or follow an “attention, benefit, action” format to increase performance. Story ads work amazingly because they appear in vertical format and take up the entire mobile phone screen, ensuring that the ad is seen. – Brian Meert, AdvertiseMint

9. Chop A Larger Piece Of Content Into Smaller Pieces

Take a larger piece of content and chop it into smaller pieces. For example, a recorded Facebook or Instagram Live stream could be chopped down into a Reel on Instagram, Stories on both platforms and even a regular News Feed post. As far as specific content for Stories, posting inspirational quotes, customer testimonials, quizzes, polls and other peoples’ relevant content can all work to create a solid narrative. – Christopher Tompkins, The Go! Agency

10. Give Viewers A Behind-The-Scenes Look At Your Culture

Facebook and Instagram Stories offer a great way to show a behind-the-scenes look into what’s happening at the company. This will give viewers a look into your company culture and give them a sense of belonging and transparency. You can take it one step further and start your own company show on Stories with live streams. – Stefan Katanic, Veza Digital

 

 

Sourced from Forbes

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Facebook Launches Substack Rival Bulletin

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The social media giant is creating its own newsletter, taking aim at Substack and Twitter’s Revue

Facebook launched its independent newsletter Bulletin on Tuesday, as competition heats up against rivals Substack and Twitter-backed Revue. Writers and creators including Malcolm Gladwell, Tan France and Erin Andrews are among its initial recruits.

In an audio livestream, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Bulletin as a platform “focused on empowering independent writers, helping them reach new audiences and power their businesses.”

“The goal here across the company is to support eventually millions of people making a living doing creative work,” Zuckerberg said.

Facebook presented Bulletin as a way for writers to monetize their following, and Zuckerberg said they will not take a cut “at launch.” Writers will have full ownership of their work and subscribers and be able to publish free and paid newsletters that can be distributed across inboxes and the Facebook platform.

Facebook said it will continue to recruit other writers to cover topics from sports to medicine. With the debut it also adds high-profile recruits including writer Mitch Albom and journalists Jane Wells and Jessica Yellin.

The initiative is part of the company’s ongoing Facebook Journalism Project, and Facebook has said it will allocate at least $5 million to “support local journalists” that apply and get accepted for its newsletter product. The newsletter lives outside of the Facebook platform.

This isn’t Facebook’s first foray into cloning successful products on the market by putting its reach and money behind new projects. In January, the tech giant introduced podcasts and live audio streams in the U.S., its answer to Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces. Spotify also has its own service called Greenroom.

For writers and journalists seeking a newsletter home, it may come down to the size and scale of the social network. They may find an advantage to Facebook and Twitter’s reach, while Substack offers a fresh take with convincing growth.

Substack had 12 million readers a month and 500,000 paying subscribers as of April, according to Politico. Twitter reported 199 million daily active users, while Facebook had nearly 1.9 billion daily users. Twitter, which acquired Revue earlier this year, takes a 5% cut in subscription fees, but writers can control whether their work is free or paid. Substack reportedly offers six-figure advances to recruit high-profile writers.

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Sourced from THE WRAP

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Facebook tests ads in virtual reality headsets

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Sourced from BBC

Facebook has begun displaying ads in its Oculus virtual reality headsets, despite the founder of the platform saying it would never do so.

In what the social network described as an experiment, ads will begin to appear in a game called Balston with other developers rolling out similar ads.

It said it would listen to feedback before launching virtual reality ads more widely.

It also revealed it is testing new ad formats “that are unique to VR”.

In 2017, shortly after Facebook bought Oculus, creator Palmer Luckey told the Next Web: “We are not going to track you, flash ads at you, or do anything invasive.”

But in a blog on Oculus’s website, the firm said: “We’re exploring new ways for developers to generate revenue – this is a key part of ensuring we’re creating a self-sustaining platform that can support a variety of business models that unlock new types of content and audiences.”

Users will be able to hide specific ads or those from a certain advertiser and Facebook promised that its privacy policy would remain the same.

“Facebook will get new information, like whether you interacted with an ad, and if so, how… for example, if you clicked on the ad for more information or if you hid the ad.”

It encourages customers to share their feedback via the Oculus support page.

Barrier to adoption?

Last month the firm began testing ads in the Oculus mobile app.

Leo Gebbie, an analyst with CCS Insight, said the move was unsurprising.

“Ultimately Facebook is built on advertising revenue and if there was any expectation that it wouldn’t build it out into virtual reality, then that is a little naive.”

Oculus Quest 2 headsets start at £299, and in the US are also offered for $299, and that price means it is being sold at “incredibly low or even loss-leading margins,” said Mr Gebbie.

This could mean Facebook becomes the dominant player, as others are unable to compete.

“The long-term goal is for Oculus to be a platform for virtual reality and augmented reality, with Facebook keen to get as many people as possible using it,” he said.

But, he noted, there would probably be a backlash against ads on the headset.

“Facebook doesn’t have the best track record on privacy and there is a concern that it will continue to push the boundaries and creep towards something that is invasive.”

Piers Harding-Rolls, research director of games at Ampere Analysis, said VR offered big opportunities for the tech firms.

“If people are spending more time using this technology, those that dominate the online advertising opportunity – including Facebook and Google – want to be well-placed to take advantage of any shift in consumer habits, so that they can follow the audience with their advertising networks.”

But they needed to be careful about balancing advertising with a good user experience, he warned.

“While there is nothing exceptional about having advertising in games, the intimate and immersive nature of VR means that the consumer experience is likely to feel a lot different and that might represent a barrier to adoption.”

Sourced from BBC

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VR needs a better business model, but advertising isn’t it

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By Nick Statt

It’s too early for VR ads. Facebook found out the hard way.

Facebook’s quest to experiment with advertising in virtual reality took on the familiar three-act structure of tech backlash.

The test was announced on June 16 and caused reasonable concern among critics and players over the ensuing three days. By Monday of last week, the only game developer signed up to test ads — Blaston maker Resolution Games — pulled out. It leads us all to wonder why none of the smart people in charge at Oculus didn’t see this coming.

The test crashed before it even started. It’s now unclear how Facebook intends to proceed, but players have made their voices heard loud and clear.

  • Resolution was the first to break the silence. “After listening to player feedback, we realize that Blaston isn’t the best fit for this type of advertising test,” the developer wrote on Twitter. “Therefore, we no longer plan to implement the test.”
  • The developer was fast becoming a focal point of the criticism, suffering a barrage of one-star reviews for Blaston (a $9.99 game) on the Oculus Store. “Blaston is getting uninstalled forever and I’m not gonna buy a single game from this company from now on,” wrote one enraged fan.
  • Facebook gave a feeble defence of the test, saying in a statement, “Ultimately, opening up new revenue streams for devs will help us to unlock new types of content on the Oculus platform and offer products at consumer-friendly prices.” Resolution may now shift the ads to its free-to-play game, Bait!

VR and advertising have had a rocky relationship. This was Facebook’s most high-profile attempt to test the advertising waters with its VR platform, and it’s been a resounding failure. A cursory look at the history of Oculus should have told Facebook executives this was bound to happen.

  • Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey said in 2014, following the Facebook acquisition announcement, “We are not going to track you, flash ads at you, or do anything invasive.” Luckey is no longer at the company, and Facebook is now controversially forcing users to link a Facebook account with their Oculus profile by 2023.
  • While video games have included more and more in-game ads over the years, players associate those ads with free-to-play mobile games more than any other category. Premium, non-VR games have instead resorted to brand tie-ins and other forms of more subtle marketing. Ads in VR, however, have long carried a dystopian flavor.
  • It seems inevitable that the coveted combination of VR and the metaverse will contain ads, yet Facebook’s reputation makes the format extremely unpalatable, especially on a pricey headset and within paid games.

VR’s business model is an open question right now. That’s increasingly true as Facebook, an advertising company, is becoming the biggest force in the fledgling market, scooping up the most popular developers for its Oculus platform in a way that resembles its push to control digital communications technologies a decade ago.

  • Earlier this month, Facebook bought its fifth major Oculus developer, Population: One studio BigBox VR. Facebook now owns the makers of many of the most popular games on its platform, raising concerns it’s establishing close to a monopoly on the software side of VR long before it goes mainstream.
  • Facebook could, if it chooses, begin experimenting with business models on its first-party VR titles, making some free to play and filling them with ads. There are plenty of other options, too, from subscriptions to more bite-sized indie experiences priced like paid mobile apps.
  • But without the financial safety net of Facebook or Sony, few VR developers can find success right now due to how nascent the market is. That gives Oculus more control to set the terms for how VR software monetizes going forward.

Facebook’s primary issue is presiding over a dominant VR ecosystem that costs a lot to operate, doesn’t make a lot of money and is mostly made up of enthusiasts who aren’t sympathetic to pragmatic arguments about how to grow and fund the market. This audience right now is mostly distrustful PC gamers for whom getting in bed with Facebook is akin to a deal with the devil.

All of this is in conflict with Facebook’s strategy of giving away stuff for free and funding it with targeted ads while hoping users respond to its business model with apathy. It’s not clear how the Oculus platform evolves from here if Facebook isn’t willing to continue floating it for years or doesn’t find a more consumer-friendly mechanism for extracting money. It is still early days for VR, but perhaps a bit too early to rely on advertising to pay the bills. Let’s hope there’s a better way.

Overheard

  • “In this light, the solution seems simple: Organize the video games industry. If there were a video game developer’s union as powerful as the Writers Guild, with agreements with all the major publishers, game development would be a vastly different career, and many of those problems seemingly endemic to game production might suddenly seem less intractable.” —The New Republic’s Alex Pareene laid out a smart, impassioned defense for unionizing the dysfunctional game industry in his review of Jason Schreier’s new book, “Press Reset.”
  • “Respect and tolerance are keystones of our company’s culture and we were distressed to discover that an event meant to be fun and engaging for participants had instead caused offense for some attendees.” —Sniper: Ghost Warrior developer CI Games apologized for a San Diego press event in which journalists were invited to participate in mock firefights again enemies based largely on Arab and Muslim stereotypes. The company, based in Poland, said it was unable to oversee the event directly due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

 

Feature Image Credit: Resolution Games 

By Nick Statt

Sourced from Protocol Gaming

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How to Hide Like Counts on Facebook and Instagram

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By Conor Cawley,

Facebook and Instagram have announced that “likes” will now be an opt-in feature, and we’re here for it.

Facebook and Instagram have announced an opt-in feature that would allow users to do away with the like counts on posts. And, for the sake of everyone’s mental health, we think it’s a good idea.

Since its inception more than a decade ago, social media has had a significant impact on the way we live our lives, and “likes” have been a big part of that transformation. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok all subscribe to this means of displaying support for posts, and to many “likes” feel like the entire point of social media in the first place.

Now though, with Facebook and Instagram giving users the option to do away with “likes” in their entirety, it might be time to consider the mental health ramifications of quantifying our every interaction online.

Facebook and Instagram Allow Users to Hide Likes

In a Facebook blog post, the company announced that they would be “giving people more control on Instagram and Facebook” by allowing users to hide the like counts on all posts within their feed, including their own.

To be fair, this news isn’t entirely surprising. Facebook and Instagram have been testing out this feature since early 2019, with plenty of users getting a taste of the like-less social media experience. Still, it was unclear how the social media giant would roll out its plan for its two platforms, and now we know: They aren’t forcing it on anyone.

“People want more flexibility, so we thought it would be important to give people the option.”

Even with years of testing and public attention, this movie is a significant departure from the social media we all grew up with that will likely see some serious backlash if it ever becomes mandatory. So are like counts really that bad?

Likes and Mental Health

Likes may feel like they are integral to the social media experience, because they’ve been around since the beginning. Still, the reality is that likes allow users and followers alike to quantify the perceived value of their everyday life in a way that simply does not promote mental health.

From deleting posts that don’t get enough attention for fear of humiliation to outright like-chasing, studies have shown that people — particularly younger generations that are on these apps for hours a day — are experiencing negative mental health effects that are rooted in social media’s toxic ecosystem.

Heck, a 28-year-old Florida woman was just arrested for passing out flyers with her Instagram information on it while posing as a teenager at a local high school, so it’s safe to say we’ve reached an unhealthy level of obsession. In fact, many believe — even former Facebook employees — social media is as addictive as an actual drug.

“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, former Vice President of User Growth at Facebook, during a talk at Standford University.

Mandatorily removing like counts would, admittedly, cause significant uproar. But social media companies, especially Facebook, need to start taking their role in the mental health crisis seriously, and a big move might just be the way to go.

But until then, at least let us help you get rid of like counts on your own account.

How to Hide Like Counts

If you want to rid yourself of the shackles that are social media likes, you’re in luck! The feature should be available for everyone now, and we can walk you through it. First, if you want to hide like counts on other users’ posts on Instagram, follow these instructions:

  • Settings –> Posts –> Hide Like Counts
Instagram Hide Like Counts

Now, if you want to get rid of like counts on your own posts as well, we can help you with that too. Just follow the instructions below and you’ll be on your way to a healthier social media experience. Before posting something, here’s what to do:

New Post –> Advanced settings –> Hide Like and View Counts on This Post

Instagram Like Counts

Facebook is also giving users control over like counts, and if you want to make sure you don’t see them on the world’s most popular social media app, just follow these instructions:

Settings & Privacy –> Settings –> Reaction Counts

Facebook Hiding Likes

How will this affect business?

It’s no secret that social media is no longer just for personal use. For years, platforms like Facebook and Instagram have been used to supercharge the business world, providing free marketing tools and affordable advertising features that can seriously have an impact on your bottom line.

So how exactly will this news impact your business’ social media presence? For now, it shouldn’t have a big impact at all. Advertising is barely affected by whether or not you get likes as far as we know, and the fact that it’s an opt-in feature means that you can still keep like counts out there if you want to boast about your high numbers. Conversely, it could actually improve your businesses approach, as users won’t be hung up on whether or not you have “enough” likes to warrant their attention.

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If it does become mandatory though, influencers and other advertisers that are paid “by the like” could face a significant problem, an industry that accounted for 3.7 billion posts on Instagram in 2018 alone.

Overall though, while it may seem controversial, removing like counts would likely serve as a pleasant departure from one of the more toxic aspects of social media, and as they say, a mentally healthy tide raises all ships.

By Conor Cawley

Conor is the Senior Writer for Tech.co. For the last five years, he’s written about everything from Kickstarter campaigns and budding startups to tech titans and innovative technologies. His extensive background in stand-up comedy made him the perfect person to host tech-centric events like Startup Night at SXSW and the Timmy Awards for Tech in Motion. You can email Conor at [email protected].

Sourced from tech.co

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Facebook Expands Its Solutions for Small Businesses to Help Them Compete Better With Big Players

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By Joan Verdon,

The latest tools unveiled by the social media network focus on connection, communication and converting potential leads into customers.

Why it matters:

  • Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says the site aims to give entrepreneurs and small businesses the same tools that historically only the big companies can access.
  • The social network is helping businesses turn leads into sales by identifying shoppers poised to spend via analytics.
  • Facebook is also testing a new feature in its News Feed that will allow users to tap on topics such as beauty, fitness or restaurants, and view content from businesses in those categories.

Facebook has added new tools to make it easier for small businesses to get more attention online, schedule and edit their posts across all Facebook platforms and connect with more customers.

The new features are part of Facebook’s ongoing campaign to become small businesses’ best friend on social media.

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Facebook has a strong incentive to keep small businesses happy. Small businesses generate a significant, and growing, portion of its advertising revenue.

Time saved on posting content has given me so much more time to focus on other projects. I estimate saving about 10 hours a week after switching to Facebook Business Suite.

Nita Cooper, owner and founder, Star N Skyes Travel

Wooing the loyalty of small businesses

Facebook has benefited during the pandemic as consumers began spending more time online and on social media, and as advertisers shifted their spending to catch their attention. That trend has continued into 2021, with Facebook reporting that ad revenue rose 46% during the first quarter of this year to $25.4 billion, with the average price per ad and the number of ads increasing.

It also needs to keep small businesses loyal to its platforms at a time when Apple is preparing new privacy features to make it more difficult for apps like Facebook and Instagram (owned by Facebook) to track what its iPhone users are viewing, and thus harder to target ads to those users.

“Our goal here is to give every individual entrepreneur and small business access to the same kinds of tools that historically only the big companies have had access to,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said during earnings call in January. “We’ve always cared about this, but the pandemic has made it more urgent,” Zuckerberg said.

More than 200 million businesses use the company’s Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp platforms each month.

The new tools build on a series of initiatives begun a year ago. In May 2020, Facebook launched Facebook Shops, which allows businesses to sell directly from their Facebook and Instagram pages. In September, it released Facebook Business Suite, which helps businesses coordinate their sales and customer interactions simultaneously across Facebook, Instagram and its WhatsApp messaging platform. In November, it purchased customer service platform Kustomer to bolster its plans to enable businesses to sell via message on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

The latest tools Facebook is adding focus on three functions: discovery, convenience and conversion.

Discovery: New feature helps consumers find businesses they might like

Facebook is testing a new experience in its News Feed that will allow users, while viewing posts or ads, to tap on topics such as beauty, fitness or restaurants and view content from other businesses in those categories.

The feature, which is being tested with a small number of U.S. businesses currently, is intended to help users discover businesses they are interested in, while giving the businesses a new way to catch the attention of potential customers.

Convenience: A single dashboard of professional business tools

Facebook has made it easier for business owners to comment, post and engage with users, including a dedicated news feed for businesses, and a professional dashboard that aggregates all of the tools in one place.

Businesses also will be able to schedule posts and Facebook stories in advance, save posts as drafts and edit schedule posts, making it easier to prepare a steady flow of content.

Conversion: Turning leads into sales by identifying shoppers poised to spend

Facebook is giving businesses new ways to identify and connect with the most interested potential customers through features like the conversion leads optimization program, which identifies the leads, or potential customers, most likely to become spending customers.

Businesses can also add a “Call Now” button to their ads to connect with customers in real time, or contact them through Facebook Messenger.

Facebook shared comments from two small business owners who said they’ve benefited from the enhanced features.

“Time saved on posting content has given me so much more time to focus on other projects,” said Nita Cooper, owner and founder of Star N Skyes Travel in Fayetteville, Georgia. “I estimate saving about 10 hours a week after switching to Facebook Business Suite.”

Niki Libarios, co-owner of Hawaiian Doggie Bakery in Honolulu, Hawaii, said “we’re able to do everything in one place, which saves us so much time.”

“We love being able to see analytics for both platforms [Facebook and Instagram] in one place, and the comments as well. I’m more confident that we’re not missing any interactions or chances to connect with our customers,” Libarios said.

CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images/svetikd 

By Joan Verdon,

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