Ever since Facebook has been charging companies who have fan pages with over 400 likes, many companies are beginning to shift their marketing strategies away from Facebook and towards other social media websites such as Twitter. Facebook’s recent “Pay for reach” strategy basically encompasses a new feature called ‘promoted posts’ where companies with over 400 likes pay for their posts to appear on user’s news feeds. Unfortunately, for the businesses who refuse to pay for the extra reach are now experiencing a drop in their fan engagement. However, there is a solution to the sudden drop in “fan” interest and activity: a new facebook feature that allows users to choose to receive constant notification on fan pages updates: “fans can click on the “Get Notifications” option under the “Liked” button on a brand’s Page he or she is following. Brands can encourage their fans to enable this feature. The more fans that activate it, presumably the greater reach brands will have.” Another option that allows ample company exposure is something called the “interest list” where users can subscribe to topics they care about and see updates on their news feeds.
It’s interesting to see how much of a difference Facebook now makes towards the success of a company. While I think that constant updates from companies are rather annoying, I would much rather see it on a facebook news feed than receive multiple promotional emails on my phone. It’s also true that if we are not updated on companies we have interest in, we will not willingly check it out ourselves. While a part of me finds it ridiculous how reliant we are on Facebook now a days, I can’t disagree that Facebook plays a vital role. Technology is now more important than ever. It is not until enrolling in business school where I finally appreciate the power of information technology. It is also fascinating how much of everything is tailored to the consumers liking.
For example, a website I recently stumbled on, called pulse.me, is a place where I can customize what kind of news I want to read, and what topics I want to see.
(Pulse takes your favorite websites and transforms them into a colorful and interactive mosaic)
I encourage all my fellow colleagues, TA’s and Professors to check out www.pulse.me
Before this website, I was never interested in reading the news, or watching it on TV. This resulted in difficulty of not only completing my Comm 101 blogs, but also keeping up to date with my surroundings in general. But now, while I am exposed to things I am actually interested in, writing these blogs have become an effortless experience, and I find myself actually engaged and passionate about my posts.
The reason why I mention pulse.me in this post is because the idea of Facebook completely allowing users to control what they see on their feed. The trend of customization has become a definite asset to any company looking for more exposure and consumer activity.
Other apps and websites that come to mind: Instagram and Songza.
References:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/224957?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews
http://www.mindjumpers.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/facebookforbusiness.png