Marketers and publishers worldwide have several new reasons to prefer Facebook™ over other social media platforms. Apart from the rich Ads Manager platform and in-depth analytics provided by this social media channel, they can now target, share and monitor the analytics of their organic content in a simpler, time-saving manner. The new Publishing Tools launched by Facebook™ is a suite of useful options which marketers who have tested already love.
Despite the fact that not all of these features are currently available to all Facebook™ pages, it is always a good idea to know how to use a new marketing tool and be prepared for the moment when it becomes generally available to everyone. Therefore, today’s topic for all our blog readers is an in-depth presentation of the brand new Facebook™ Publishing Tools.
1. Canvas
The tech team working behind the screens at Facebook™ headquarters have paid attention to the way marketers are creating their ads and have decided to give them an extra reason to spend more time on the social media platform: now they have a powerful and flexible tool to create interactive ads featuring text, video, photos, graphics, animations and a CTA button.
Facebook™ Canvas has one specific limitation: the ads you create can be viewed only on mobile phones. But that is a good thing, actually. As you may have noticed by studying your own analytics page for ad campaigns, mobile ads have a higher viewing and conversion rate than desktop ads. Right now, you need to fill in a special form and ask Facebook™ to grant you access to Canvas. Once you get it, you will discover lots of templates, and a great freedom in adding videos, graphics, photos, compiling your ad and making it as exciting for your followers as possible.
The interface is extremely user friendly and once you have finished putting on the finishing touches, you can take any mobile device and look at the preview before you hit the Publish button.
2. Interest Targeting for Shared Content
You are already familiar with targeting ads to a specific audience based on various interests making those people most likely to become your customers. Now you can do the same thing with Facebook™ posts. “Why would I target my post and limit my potential organic reach?” For the simple reason that organic reach is rarely achieved, and the most effective posts are boosted ones. So why should you pay more when you can set a specific list of criteria for the audience who will see your post and be added up to the final price you will be charged?
That is one consideration. Another is that maybe you want to develop and share different stories and share it for different groups of people and it would be absolutely pointless for the wrong group to see the respective piece of content.
3. Post End Date
Isn’t it frustrating to have to reply to your followers that the registration period for a contest or a special discount has expired? This happens because the post continues to be displayed on your Facebook™ Page. This is no longer an issue since the Post End Date option was added to the drop down menu you get when you hover over the Select Targeting link.
With Post End Date you can specify the exact date and hour when your post will expire and will be deleted from your newsfeed. If you have already worked with scheduled posts and ads, you will understand the value of this brand new option which saves you from the unpleasant task of disappointing your followers by telling them that it is too late to benefit from your special offer.
4. Smart Sharing
This is a special feature, currently available to a few select publishers (major newspapers, media channels). It may be some time until it is available for all marketers and publishers, but here is the gist of how it works: when a large number of people (determined by the internal algorithms of Facebook™) share a link to your company page, that story will be considered of interest for your followers and will appear on their newsfeed.
The story will not be published on the publisher’s Facebook™ page, but the page administrator will have access to an analytics panel for all stories posted through Smart Sharing.
Until all these features become available, enjoy the ones you already have at your disposal and start creating and sharing content in a simpler, more effective and less time consuming manner.