What’s New on Facebook?
Like Google, Facebook has had its share of August updates that you don’t want to miss out on knowing!
Fast Loading Links are First
Facebook announced that they will prioritise links to articles and other webpages that load quickly. These will appear at the top of mobile news feeds more frequently and slower web pages won’t appear as often. The user’s WiFi capabilities, network connection and device usage will be taken into consideration when estimating the loading times for links.
Called It Quits on Lifestage and Groups
All attention will be going on the main Facebook app as Lifestage (designed for teenagers to connect with others from their school via personalised video profiles. They could also view other people’s videos from their school). Groups served as a space for users to access all their Facebook groups in one place and will be integrated into the main Facebook app and plan to take the positive aspects of Lifestage and incorporate them into the main app also.
Updated Ad Reports
To give businesses more understanding on the success (or not) of their adverts, they have added two new metrics;
- Gross impressions: this metric now measures both billable and non-billable ad impressions. Non-billable impressions include ads delivered after a company’s budget was spent, ads served to the same user in a short time, and ad delivery due to detectable fraud.
- Auto-refresh impressions: this metric indicates the number of ad impressions due to a browser refresh. Ads that are placed on the right-hand side of a user’s desktop News Feed automatically refresh with new ads after a set period of time.
They will also no longer be counting unintentional clicks in their campaign reports and won’t charge businesses for unintentional clicks in Audience Network. The unintentional click counts if a user spends less than 2 seconds on the advert’s landing page.
Product Marketing Manager Brett Vogel said “unintentional clicks end up delivering really poor experiences for people and advertisers,” so this update should help to improve the future adverts that users will see and help businesses refine their target audience.
More Video Metrics
After receiving user comments, Facebook learned that video creators and video re-sharers want more data on the performance of their video content.
“To make sure we’re meeting the needs of both creators and those who re-share content, we’re redesigning insights for re-shares.”
So, what has changed for re-sharers?
- Removal of the retention graph, average watch time, 30 Seconds Views and detailed breakdown of views (autoplay/click to play, unique/repeat) – so only creators can see this information. They also tested offering minutes viewed, 10 Seconds Views and sound metrics with some Pages but will be removing them as well.
- Page owners who re-share videos will be able to see aggregated information about the demographics and general location of the people who are viewing that video. They’ll also see a graph of daily views of the re-shared video, and additional breakdowns on the re-shared video related to paid versus organic activity.
For the creators, Facebook has added metrics on the pages that are re-sharing their videos as well as identifying and correcting bugs relating to insights and metrics from re-sharers.
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Live Video Features
Facebook has released test versions of Facebook live that allow you to create live videos as well as audio. The feature also allows you to create GIFs and these option tabs will be available at the top of Facebook camera section.
You will be able to choose whether you want your live content to be posted in stories, as a regular uploaded post or both. These are still in the test stage and aren’t available to users as of yet.
You Might See Stories on the Desktop Site
Similar to Snapchat, Facebook released stories that’s a feed of photos and videos of friends and only last 24 hours. These stories will appear on the right hand side of the main news feed, underneath the friend requests, messages and notifications icons.
Messenger Ads
Globally, adverts in messenger inbox will be appearing over the next few weeks as part of a continuing trial, which originally started in Australia and Thailand. The ads will appear in the home section of the inbox and not in actual conversations. Some users had concerns that the adverts would take away the user friendly nature of the app by taking up a lot of space but a company spokesperson said the new expansion follows “promising tests” from the smaller trial earlier this year.
New Video Watching Stuff
Video has blown up over the last few years and Facebook is replacing its old video tab with a new platform called Watch, a place where users can watch shows. These shows are published video series, live or recorded.
There will be a ‘Watchlist’ feature which allows you to keep track of web-series’ that you are currently watching as well as more personalised features, like ‘What Friends are Watching’. To work in conjunction with Watch, Facebook are also releasing Show Pages. These pages will work as a place for users to publish new episodes, information about the show and post other content.
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Most of these new features are trials and only available in the USA, but hopefully they will be rolled out to us soon!
To recap:
- Fast loading links will have priority
- Facebook apps, Lifestage and Groups have been shut down
- Updated advert reports
- More video metrics
- New features in live video
- Stories in the desktop site
- Adverts in messenger inbox
- New video watching platforms
What are you most excited for?
-UK Business Buddy 🙂