Facebook has recently made lots of changes and pushed some new updates. These changes affect both users and businesses on Facebook, but guess what? It’s a good thing! Trust us, it’s worth your time to adjust to and familiarize yourself with these changes, in order to help your business’ success on Facebook.
What are these updates and what do you need to know?
Updated Privacy Protection
Facebook now allows all users, no matter where you live, to opt out of certain targeting and to choose which pieces of information can be used for ad targeting. Facebook is making efforts to ensure that users’ privacy is protected. This helps businesses because you get to rest-assured that your ads are being targeted toward people who actually want to see them. You have a better chance at gaining followers and conversions with this stricter ad-targeting, because Facebook is helping you weed through the viewers. Paul Fairbrother, of Facebook, assures us that, “Most users will accept the current settings so it should be business as usual for advertisers.”
Restriction on Data Access for Apps
Data access for third party apps has been a long time issue that Facebook users have with the social media platform. The good news is, Facebook heard us and they have made changes to restrict our data getting out to apps. From now on, third party applications can’t automatically gain users’ information, and people can no longer be searched for by phone number or email address. All of these are steps toward protecting privacy and ensuring safety while using Facebook. This helps businesses because it gives people more peace of mind while using Facebook. Not only will they be better able to trust you and what you’re posting there, but also people who aren’t currently on Facebook because of these concerns might make the change, and join!
More Transparency in Pages
Rob Goldman and Alex Himel of Facebook write, “People who manage Pages with large numbers of followers will need to be verified. Those who manage large Pages that do not clear the process will no longer be able to post. This will make it much harder for people to administer a Page using a fake account. We will also show you additional context about Pages to effectively assess their content. For example, you can see whether a Page has changed its name.”
Why is that beneficial to you? Again, it helps users feel more comfortable using Facebook and they can have more trust in the platform. It will be much harder for people to steal identities and information of individuals and business pages on Facebook, moving forward. Even though your business page isn’t one that likely needs to be verified, you will still be able to benefit from these changes. This means Facebook will be keeping a closer eye on this across the board, and quicker to respond, should you have any issues.
Removal of Partner Categories
In the past, advertisers have been able to target users in their ads, based on information obtained through third party partners. Facebook has shut down this feature, and no longer will people be able to be targeted through partner categories. Instead, you will be able to target your ads to a specific group using their interests, or other custom audience traits that you input into your ad setup. It’s a good thing, really, because you can be assured that the information is accurate and your targeting will be working.
Facebook is out to help the users and business owners alike, and we’re on board with these positive updates and changes! If you want to learn a bit more about what is going on as far as advertising on Facebook, here you go.
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