Marketing- FB Marketing & What are FB Stories?
FB Marketing & What are Facebook Stories?
Introduction:
With Facebook, like Google, constantly changing their algorithms, you may want to consider changing your marketing approach to match these new algorithms. Stories are a different way of communicating with your Facebook Audience and are ideal for business. We have compiled these articles to help in explaining the difference needed in approaching Facebook marketing.
Facebook Marketing:
[1]From a simple social networking website utilized by college students to one of the biggest platforms for marketing, media, and technology, Facebook has evolved tremendously over the years.
Although recently Facebook got involved in several scandals, it doesn’t seem to affect its users. Even with rumors on security concerns, Facebook users remained active for the same amount of time as they were before. In fact, the total number of active users on Facebook seems to be increasing more than ever.
Hence, it is safe to say that marketing on Facebook is equivalent to marketing on the world’s biggest online channel. You instantly have access to a huge audience base at cost-effective pricing.
This guide will discuss how you can utilize Facebook marketing to promote your product, improve your audience base, and increase brand awareness. Dive in and explore how marketing on Facebook can be your perfect marketing strategy.
Audience on Facebook
While we will be discussing Facebook’s marketing strategy throughout this post, it is necessary first to analyze your audience. If your audience is not on Facebook, it is hard to acquire any benefit from this marketing type.
With that being said, it is also necessary to note that most businesses find a relevant audience on Facebook. And most of us already know that. This is why many don’t bother, even checking if Facebook marketing is relevant for their business.
But, you still need to know the consistency and ease of finding this audience on Facebook, for which you need to know your audience.
Recent data released by Pew Research Center reveals that people of all age groups utilize at least one online networking website. Of course, young adults are more active on several social networks. But, other people are also not far behind.
What are Facebook Stories
[2]Facebook Stories are short user-generated photo and video collections that can be viewed up to two times and disappear 24 hours.
The story format, originated and made famous by Snapchat, has been on Facebook’s radar for some time. The Menlo Park-based company first tested a Snapchat Stories clone within Messenger in September 2016.
Now, Facebook users can share stories within the main Facebook app.
The feature is focused around Facebook’s in-app camera, which allows users to overlay fun filters and Snapchat-like lenses to their content and add visual geolocation tags to their photos and videos. To access the camera, swipe right on Facebook’s mobile app.
A couple more new features accompany the Facebook Stories update. Facebook’s camera is now upgraded with dozens of Snapchat-like filters and effects, including six “masks” sponsored by Hollywood studios to promote upcoming film releases.
The third update, Direct, is a combination of Messenger and Snapchat, which enables users to send short videos and images to friends that will disappear after a short time.
How Facebook Stories work
Like Instagram Stories, content shared to stories will appear at the top of the Facebook News Feed. To view a story, users tap a friends’ circle at the top of the app.
While viewing a story, users can also reply with a direct message.
[3]What are Facebook Stories and Why Does it Matter to My Business
Facebook Stories are a visual way to share content, and it is a feature that adds filters and effects to images, photographs, or videos on your phone. Rather than just posting these images to Facebook, they are posted to the Stories section of the Facebook App and are only available on mobile devices.
The Stories are shared only to specific people the user chooses through direct sharing. Friends receiving Stories are only able to view them once. Once the story ends, the image or video will no longer be visible.
Stories Benefit Business Pages
Businesses can post Stories to their News Feeds and send them to their audience. While similar to just posting an update, there are a few benefits to posting Stories.
Reach Who You Want – Stories allow businesses to directly share specific content with the Business Page’s specific followers. Additionally, as Stories are visible once and disappear after 24 hours, posting a story about a limited-time offer or sale makes Stories very appealing. Once the story expires, the offer is no longer visible.
Reach Audience Consistently – Updates have a shelf life in the News Feed, depending upon how many people and businesses your audience follows, your updates may never be seen if they are posted when users aren’t on Facebook. With Stories, your audience will never miss an update, and the story will be visible to them at the top of their News Feed once they log on, regardless of when you post it.
Humanize Your Business – Stories allow your business to be more personable and accessible. Stories help people get to know your business a bit better. This allows your business to post more relatable content.
Additionally, you can see the number of people watching your stories at any time while it’s live.
[4]How to Use Facebook Stories for Business
If you’ve ever shared a story on Instagram, the process is almost the same for Facebook Stories — except for the first step.
Whereas anyone can create a story on Instagram, you need to create a Facebook Page before you can start sharing stories with your audience if you’re a business.
There are a few other differences between Instagram and Facebook Stories — we’ll discuss these a little later on. But for now, let’s jump into a step-by-step guide to setting up for Facebook Stories for business:
Step #1: Create a Facebook Page
To share Facebook Stories as a business, you must be the admin or editor of a Facebook Page. (If you already have an active Facebook Page for your business, feel free to skip to step 2).
Start by clicking here to create a Facebook Page and select a category for your business.
Next, you’ll be prompted to give your page a name (if you’re a business, it’s best to use your business’s actual name) and provide more details, like your address, phone number, and more.
Once you’ve submitted the required information, you can pick a profile picture and cover photo for your page.
Step #2: Getting Started with Facebook Stories
With your Facebook Page live, you can immediately get started with stories!
Unlike Instagram Stories, which can only be shared from the mobile Instagram app, you can create and share Facebook Stories from your computer, the Facebook app, Facebook Lite, and even the Facebook Messenger app!
We recommend using the Facebook app to create and share your stories — it offers more options and tools than Facebook’s desktop version.
When you share a photo or video to your Facebook story, it can be viewed in the stories section at the top of your friends’ or followers’ News Feed on Facebook and a row at the top of your Messenger inbox.
And like Instagram, your Facebook Stories will be visible to your selected audience for 24 hours.
Once you’ve downloaded the Facebook app and signed into your account, tap the hamburger button (three horizontal lines) in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
Step #3: Creating Content for Facebook Stories
Let’s start by reviewing the Facebook Stories camera and the creative features you get access to.
The great thing is that, save a few differences, Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories have a very similar user interface. So if you’ve ever created and shared a story on Instagram before, you shouldn’t have much trouble adapting to Facebook Stories.
Conclusion:
If you need assistance in creating a new Facebook Marketing approach, please give hughesagency.ca a call today.
hughesagency.ca has compiled these articles, and all reference links are listed below.
