There may well be over a billion active monthly users on Facebook¹, but the social networking giant is going through a phase of change that’ll affect how businesses conduct their social media marketing efforts on the platform in the future.

What’s Changed?

No longer is Facebook a parent-free haven for raving teens and 20-somethings. It’s no longer a place where the young go to hang out, have fun, get drunk and share embarrassing photos. Nope, Facebook has matured and is now brimming with these teen’s, moms and dads, and even grandparents.

We all know that kids enjoy hanging around with their parents as much as an insomniac enjoys the sight of the clock striking 3 a.m., and having your outraged mother commenting on your picture of a phallus-shaped turnip with a “stop being so rude and take this off!”, doesn’t do much for your street cred. So the teens and 20-somethings are heading to cooler, trendier, parent-free places2  like like Instagram (hence why Facebook bought Instagram), Snapchat, Tumblr and Twitter³, leaving Facebook to mature. So what does that mean for the future of marketing on the network?

The Facebook Marketing Future

Well, this will depend on your business, your products, services and your target market. Those looking to sell cool, innovative and fashionable novelties to the younger generation will see their Facebook efforts begin to falter, especially if Facebook keep shoehorning those brands into paying for ads, which those of the younger generation that are left on Facebook, are hard-wired to ignore.

However, those that market products and services to a more mature clientele could see Facebook marketing pay-off for them today and more so in the future. The older generation of baby boomers and the fleeing teen’s parents that are beginning to find their mortgage-free homes empty of once-needy children, have plenty of spare cash floating around the bank and plenty of free time to spend on the network. All that time, attention and money may well be up for grabs for the right business. 

Back to Basics

The Facebook marketing game is certainly changing and, as the network begins to reach maturity, it’ll be less about being cool, ‘going viral’ and being innovative and more about keeping it simple, doing the basics well and reaching the right people with the right product at the right time. Isn’t that what marketing has always been about?

Some things never change.

References

^{1 http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/01/29/facebook-passes-1-23-billion-monthly-active-users-945-million-mobile-users-757-million-daily-users/}

^{2 http://business.time.com/2014/01/15/more-than-11-million-young-people-have-fled-facebook-since-2011/}

^{3 http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-where-the-fleeing-facebook-teens-are-going-2014-1}

Google Instant, the feature that pre-empts your search terms and shows the results of your predicted search as you type¹, has started including branded business suggestions in the Autocomplete drop down menu. These stand out above all of the other suggested search terms and could be a huge pull for traffic to your website if you’re lucky enough to make it onto that fabled drop down.

What Is Google Instant?

You’ll have seen it before; when you search for something on the Google website and, when you start searching, it predicts what you’re searching for by using Autocomplete² and shows you the results as you type, like this:

Google claims that by showing you search results as you type, you’ll wind up making better searches because you can adjust your terms accordingly during your search³. How many people actually do this is debatable and there are retorts of this actually slowing searchers down⁴. The Autocomplete feature that it uses to predict your search also has a built in spell checker so sloppy or quick searches aren’t penalized. 

Google says that it doesn’t necessarily prioritize the most popular searches with Google Instant⁵, as it tries to keep things personalized. A personalized search is more valuable than a popular one, according to Google⁵. So depending on what country, state or town you live in¹; whether you’re logged into a Google account or if your previous searches are stored in a cookie⁶, you’ll be seeing personalized searches unique to your location and browsing history. This means that what I see when I search won’t be the same as what you see when you do.

Google Instant’s Relevance for Businesses

Google Instant and Autocomplete work hand in hand and are valuable for businesses on a national and local level. If you’re included in the suggested searches, users can find you quicker. Plus, if you’re SEO strategy is strong, then you’re targeted keywords may feature in there, too. This all helps tempt traffic and potential customers to your website.

However, typically, Google won’t do you any favors and include your business in Google Instant unless it’s sure that you’re the best match for the user’s search. And, even then, you’ll be one of four other suggestions in Autocomplete and many more on the search engine results page. Each one looking identical in terms of the way they're presented with only the physical hierarchy of the list to infer priority or relevance. However, things might be about to change.

New Google Instant for Business

Imagine my surprise to find that, when I searched “Fast Track” this morning, I noticed that Google have done us a bit of a favor. Our logo, address and Google Plus URL are featured in the drop down suggested search terms in Autocomplete. It’s in the style of a mini search result and looks more attractive than a 6 foot cupcake:

Is Google now prioritizing relevant businesses who are registered with My Business⁷ or Google Plus in favor of those that aren’t?

There’s no question that our suggested search term certainly looks more attractive and tempting than the others on the list. It makes us stand out. It looks clean and professional and almost like a Google endorsement, as opposed to a simple suggested term. Although the other results aren’t related or our direct competition, will this feature stay when those suggested terms are filled with our competition?

Where Will They Go With This?

The potential for business growth as a result of this is huge. What if, instead of our address and zip code, Autocomplete showed quick synopsis of what we do and a phone number? Or a link to a contact form or our Twitter handle or even our most popular services or customer ratings and testimonials? What if the white space beside our address had a banner, a gif or even a video of a product tutorial? What if these enhanced branded suggestions were presented in a similar fashion to search results pages, so that when users search for “web design Seattle”, the Autocomplete and Google Instant suggest Fast Track in this fashion? 

The possibilities and opportunities that Google could unfurl here are endless. They could even replace the entire search engine results page with an even smarter Autocomplete and Instant fusion where all search results are shown in this fashion in the drop down. And, they could charge businesses for more interactive features, too. 

Whether all that is planned or not, I’m sure we’ll eventually find out. But, if you’re not currently registered to Google My Business⁷, you should do it now, get in early.

References

^{1 http://searchengineland.com/google-instant-complete-users-guide-50136}

^{2 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/106230?hl=en}

^{3 http://www.google.co.uk/instant/}

^{4 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/106230}

^{5 http://searchengineland.com/how-google-instant-autocomplete-suggestions-work-62592}

^{6 http://boingboing.net/2010/09/09/the-google-instant-a.html}

^{7 http://www.google.com/business/}

What's the ideal social media strategy?

The ideal social media strategy isn’t one where you are active on every network and hope for results. A carpet bombing approach doesn’t work on social media. It is absolutely critical to find out where your customers are most active on, and reach out to them on that network. You may find that they are very active on multiple networks, in which case you should make sure to share content on all those channels. Otherwise all your efforts will fall upon deaf ears. So how do you go about finding out which channels to be active on?

Define what your target segment is

The first step is to establish what your target segment is. Create a customer profile, and write it down. Are they other businesses or consumers? Are they young, or older? What are their wants and needs? All of these impact where they will be most active.

Establish how customers have connected with you in the past

How have your customers connected with you before? This can be a great indicator as to where they are most active. History tends to repeat itself. If you have noticed that you receive a lot more engagement on Facebook than Twitter or LinkedIn, you need to focus your efforts on that channel! Concentrate on maximizing your strengths, and not trying too hard to shore up your shortcomings on other networks. That is the best way to get more ROI on your social media marketing.

Use tracking and analytics tools to evaluate each network.

Social media marketing is constantly evolving. Networks come and go. Currently, the mainstays for B2B and B2C are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. However, who knows where these networks will be in a few years, or how effective they will remain for your marketing efforts. That’s why you need to use tracking tools to consistently monitor how much engagement you are receiving online. Free tools like bit.ly work great. Facebook and LinkedIn also provide free analytics dashboards which can provide valuable insights. Keep track of your progress over time, and make a note of any changing trends. If you begin to see that you are getting more traction on another network, then put some more time and effort into that channel. You need to stay ahead of the curve!

Social media optimization (SMO) is a fast growing trend online.  More and more of inbound traffic to websites is coming from social media channels. This marketing tool is steadily becoming one of the most important assets traffic-wise. All of this means that your content needs to be socially optimized so that your website doesn’t miss out on potential traffic. That being said, much like SEO, there are some common mistakes you need to avoid to maximize your success.

Forgetting to include social sharing buttons/badges on your website

This one seems like a no brainer, but you would be surprised by how many websites don’t have social share buttons and badges on their websites. This is one of the easiest ways of driving traffic to your website, assuming your content is interesting. Make life easy for your users and they will repay the favor!

Not sharing other people’s content

Another mistake that some people make is refusing to share content other than their own. The whole point of social media is the sharing of ideas between different users. No one likes that one person who only talks about themselves all the time. One of the easiest ways to build engagement with other users is by sharing their content. They’ll inevitably look at who retweeted their post, and check out your profile, and then hopefully your website. Not only that, but sharing other people’s content will also make them more inclined to share yours. SMO is about driving engagement, and actively sharing interesting content is one of the best ways to accomplish that.

Not being active on SEO/SMO friendly platforms like G+

Ignore G+ at your own peril. It may not be the most powerful social media network on the planet, but it offers some great SEO/SMO benefits that other social media networks don’t. Make sure to post your content to G+ and stay ahead of the curve! Your SEO and SMO will take a noticeable jump over time.

Social media optimization (SMO) is a fast growing trend online.  More and more of inbound traffic to websites is coming from social media channels. This marketing tool is steadily becoming one of the most important assets traffic-wise. All of this means that your content needs to be socially optimized so that your website doesn’t miss out on potential traffic. That being said, much like SEO, there are some common mistakes you need to avoid to maximize your success.

Forgetting to include social sharing buttons/badges on your website

This one seems like a no brainer, but you would be surprised by how many websites don’t have social share buttons and badges on their websites. This is one of the easiest ways of driving traffic to your website, assuming your content is interesting. Make life easy for your users and they will repay the favor!

Not sharing other people’s content

Another mistake that some people make is refusing to share content other than their own. The whole point of social media is the sharing of ideas between different users. No one likes that one person who only talks about themselves all the time. One of the easiest ways to build engagement with other users is by sharing their content. They’ll inevitably look at who retweeted their post, and check out your profile, and then hopefully your website. Not only that, but sharing other people’s content will also make them more inclined to share yours. SMO is about driving engagement, and actively sharing interesting content is one of the best ways to accomplish that.

Not being active on SEO/SMO friendly platforms like G+

Ignore G+ at your own peril. It may not be the most powerful social media network on the planet, but it offers some great SEO/SMO benefits that other social media networks don’t. Make sure to post your content to G+ and stay ahead of the curve! Your SEO and SMO will take a noticeable jump over time.