It’s officially autumn! Make way for #PumpkinSpiceLattes and Halloween social media campaigns galore. In social media news this September, Facebook guides you through yet another iOS update, LinkedIn releases their 2021 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study, and the Instagram Creators community releases somewhat controversial hashtag advice.
1. Facebook helps you to navigate further Apple privacy updates
Earlier this year, the iOS 14 release enforced rules requiring app developers and businesses to obtain explicit permission to track users across apps and devices. The default option is set to opt-out, with many users not opting back in. Now that Apple has rolled out iOS 15, Facebook advertising is getting even more complicated as iPhone users continue to opt out of tracking. This can cause audience targeting limitations, delayed data for reporting, and the inability to accurately track conversions and traffic.
Graham Mudd, VP of Product Marketing at Facebook, recommends the following actions to help you adapt to the challenges brought on by the iOS updates and improve your Facebook advertising:
- Allow at least 72 hours before evaluating the performance of a conversion-optimised campaign.
- Analyse at the campaign level, not ad set or ad level.
- Set up the Conversions API to create reliable and privacy-safe connections between your marketing data.
- Configure web events using Aggregated Event Measurement. Running ads optimised against events that have not been prioritised in Events Manager may not produce effective results.
- Follow the best practices for the learning phase to help Facebook deliver your ads in the best, most efficient way.
- Consider all tools available, on Facebook and off; review all measurement solutions to identify potential underreporting.
- Continue testing and learning through new bidding, format, and audience strategies. Testing new creative and marketing strategies is essential for improving your performance over time.
These are not ‘quick fixes’ – the aim is to provide value over time and ensure your campaigns run as optimised as possible. Facebook claims their top priority is “making sure that you’re able to reach current and new customers, drive your marketing objectives and measure the performance of your advertising campaigns while helping you honour customers’ choices around privacy.”
Read Facebook’s full article all about ‘navigating the change and improving performance and measurement’ here. And stay tuned, as Facebook are bound to release further advice going forward as they learn even more about Apple’s privacy policies.
2. LinkedIn publishes new 2021 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study
In September, LinkedIn published the 2021 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study, focusing on purchase decision-makers and Thought Leadership content producers on LinkedIn. Overall, the study “confirms that B2B Decision-Makers are spending meaningful time-consuming Thought Leadership content that, when done well, can significantly influence brand perception and buying behaviours.” Key findings from the study include:
- 48% of decision-makers “spend an hour or more per week engaged,”
- 15% of decision-makers “rate the quality of the Thought Leadership as excellent,”
- 29% of decision-makers “say they gain valuable insights more than half the time,”
- 89% of decision-makers “say Thought Leadership has enhanced their perceptions of an organisation,”
- 49% of decision-makers’ purchase decisions are influenced by Thought Leadership,
- 26% of “producers tie their Thought Leadership efforts to sales and business wins.”
This study highlights the importance of producing high-quality Thought Leadership content on LinkedIn in B2B marketing, helping you connect with and influence purchase decision-makers. Only 15% of decision-makers currently rate the quality of Thought Leadership content as excellent, meaning there is a gap to fill in terms of high-quality content.
Another key takeaway from the study was that “marketers are unable to measure impact on business opportunities.” It is common in B2B marketing to have trouble attributing marketing credit to particular channels, given the difference in tracking customer journeys compared to B2C marketing.
3. Instagram Creators shares tips for using hashtags in Instagram posts
The Instagram official @Creators community released advice on how to use hashtags as a creator on Instagram. The post gave advice such as “use hashtags that are relevant to the theme of your content,” “mix well-known and niche hashtags to broaden your discoverability,” and – perhaps most controversially – “keep the number of hashtags [per post] between 3-5.” Ending with the advice to “think of a hashtag as a tool that provides context about your post and supports delivering content to people who are interested in a particular topic,” the carousel post was received with mixed feelings by smaller businesses on the platform.
Many social media marketers have been using between 15-30 hashtags per post for years, especially for smaller accounts looking to reach as many users as possible. Some suggest that the ‘3-5 hashtag’ rule is only suitable for already-large content creators and businesses who receive a lot of reach regardless, and that they will continue to use 15+ hashtags for smaller accounts. Others believe that times are changing and we should adapt to this new advice.
It is important to note that this hashtag advice came from the Instagram Creators community, rather than Instagram itself. Ultimately, keep tabs on your Instagram Insights and test out what works for your particular account; guidelines are generic and do not fit every account.
That’s all for social media news this September! Stay tuned to the Giraffe blog to discover the latest social media news every month, along with helpful tips and guides for social media and digital marketing.
