Making Sense of Facebook’s Changes
If there’s one constant in life, it’s change. Social media is no exception; the most popular platforms are forever tweaking their formulas and adding, enhancing, or removing features. As annoying as this can be – learning how to use a platform may take time, after all – there is no use in fighting change, so you might as well embrace it! Keeping up with the latest updates to your favorite platforms is important in ensuring you remain easily accessible to your patients.
Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform and provides the farthest reach. Its users range in age from young to old, and its importance as a place to turn to for reviews has increased dramatically in recent years. Maximizing your Facebook presence pays dividends in the long run.
Facebook’s Evolving Landscape
From eliminating its controversial newsfeed to introducing stories, Facebook is constantly evolving. In the past month alone, there have been several important updates you should be aware of. We’re going to help you navigate through those updates most likely to affect your medical practice.
- New custom audience targeting requirements. When targeting custom audiences from customer files, you will need to specify where you obtained the customer information from every time you upload a new file. This helps ensure the user maintains control over who is allowed to utilize their information. Options include directly from the customer, directly from a partner, or a combination of both. If you are going to be sharing customer information with partners, you must first establish an audience sharing relationship through use of the Business Manager and agree to Facebook’s terms. If you are already doing this – as you should be – nothing will change for you. But keep in mind that Facebook will now be enforcing this.
- Facebook reviews adopting a 1-10 scale. Facebook reviews have become a powerful tool for consumers looking for information on local businesses. Currently, the process enables users to rate a business from one to five stars. Unfortunately, a few negative reviews in the beginning can quickly impact a business, making it difficult to obtain a higher overall rating even with positive reviews offsetting those. Facebook is testing a new system that will allow businesses to turn on “review scores” instead; these will be based on a 1-10 rating system and will weigh a combination of ratings, reviews, and recommendations. This algorithm will take into account more information from newer recommendations, allowing a business to more easily overcome one or two negative ratings. It’s in the testing stages, but likely to go live soon.
- Consistently bad user experiences can lead to ad cancellation. On the other end of the spectrum, Facebook is giving more power to users who have had bad experiences with an advertiser’s quality of goods or services. Consistently poor reviews may lead to the shutdown of specific ads or even a ban on the account. A new eCommerce review tool allows users to give feedback on their experience and filling out a brief questionnaire sends information directly to Facebook. Negative responses are shared directly with the advertiser, giving them an opportunity to respond or make changes. Too many negative reviews put the advertiser at risk. Facebook understands that no business is immune to an occasional bad review, so don’t worry – you won’t be penalized for every bad review. Instead, Facebook is looking at overall patterns and will only take action when those occur.