Tag: Facebook Marketing

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Facebook Tests Cross-Posting To Multiple Groups

The world’s most popular social media platform, Facebook, is testing a new update that will simplify the content promotion process.

Facebook is at a crucial point in its evolution. While critics are crying foul over the platform’s lack of content oversight, others are upset that content shared on the world’s most popular social media platform doesn’t reach enough eyes. Figuring out how to make everyone happy is a job we’re so glad not to have, but someone has to do it.

Recently, one Facebook user noticed a new sharing feature. It appears that Facebook is currently testing a new tool that would allow users to share content to multiple groups at once. That is a major change from the current UI, which requires users to create unique posts for each group where they wish to share their content. You can view a screenshot of the new feature below:

Simplifying sharing is typically a welcomed change, but is that true in light of Facebook’s trouble with misinformation?

On the one hand, Facebook’s latest development will allow musicians to quickly share their latest content with many different groups at one time, thus shortening the time required for marketing on the platform.

However, nothing is stopping someone from promoting a fake story about zombies from outer space living in the basements of public schools using the same tool.

Many online have pointed out that Facebook-owned WhatsApp launched a similar feature in 2019. After many complaints, however, the company changed course. In January 2020, WhatsApp limited forwarded posts to 5 times per message, and the results showed that the idea was very effective. According to WhatsApp:

“Since putting into place the new limit, globally, there has been a 70% reduction in the number of highly forwarded messages sent on WhatsApp. This change is helping keep WhatsApp a place for personal and private conversations.”  

How Facebook attempts to prevent the spread of misinformation while simplifying sharing remains to be seen. Since the cross-posting feature in this story is still in testing, the company may implement new review efforts before launching the update. Stay tuned.

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Did Facebook and Instagram Ban Music Livestreams? [Video]

After sending shockwaves through the music industry last week, Facebook has clarified its statements regarding “music listening experiences.”

It’s not hard to send the music business into a panic these days. The novel coronavirus has shuttered live music for the foreseeable future, physical media sales are dropping like an anchor, and nobody seems to know when some semblance of “normalcy” will be possible. To make matters worse, everything is online, and each day brings new rules and regulations that dictate how artists can (or cannot) use existing platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to further their careers.

Facebook scared music executives worldwide when it announced plans to crack down on what it labels “music listening experiences.” The new rules, as explained in Facebook’s Music Guidelines, stated: “You may not use videos on our Products to create a music listening experience. The rules go into effect on October 1.

The social media giant made a significant mistake in its announcement. The phrase “music listening experiences” is too vague. The news made many in entertainment worry that the world’s largest online platform would no longer allow live stream concerts and listening events, two promotional tactics that are seen as vital to music marketing success in the COVID age.

After days of outcry and concern, Facebook clarified its statements on Monday, September. The company wrote in its blog:

“We want to encourage musical expression on our platforms while also ensuring that we uphold our agreements with rights holders. These agreements help protect the artists, songwriters, and partners who are the cornerstone of the music community — and we’re grateful for how they’ve enabled the amazing creativity we’ve seen in this time.

“Our partnerships with rights holders have brought people together around music on our platforms. As part of our licensing agreements, there are limitations around the amount of recorded music that can be included in Live broadcasts or videos.

“While the specifics of our licensing agreements are confidential, today we’re sharing some general guidelines to help you plan your videos better: Music in stories and traditional live music performances (e.g., filming an artist or band performing live) are permitted.

“The greater the number of full-length recorded tracks in a video, the more likely it may be limited (more below on what we mean by “limited”).”

They added: “Shorter clips of music are recommended. There should always be a visual component to your video; recorded audio should not be the primary purpose of the video.”

“These guidelines are consistent across live and recorded video on both Facebook and Instagram, and for all types of accounts — i.e. pages, profiles, verified and unverified accounts.

“And although music is launched on our platforms in more than 90 countries, there are places where it is not yet available. So if your video includes recorded music, it may not be available for use in those locations.”

Last weekend, a spokesperson for Facebook also confirmed to NME that although new guidelines will come into effect across the site in October, the music guidelines have been in place for some time and will not affect artists using the site to livestream gigs or share their music.

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The best (and worst) times to post on Facebook in 2019

Though its popularity among young consumers has waned in recent years, Facebook welcomes more than 2 billion monthly users.

The music industry loves to complain about Facebook. The social media juggernaut boasts more monthly users than any other service, but algorithmic changes made in recent years have severely limited organic post reach. So much so in fact that many believe the only way to ensure fans see their content is to pay for increased exposure (to people who already asked to see your content).

There may be some truth to that. Organic reach is undoubtedly down, but there are still tricks users can implement to help posts get in front of their fans without spending any money. It’s all a matter of timing, and thanks to the team at ShareLov we now know the best times to post text and video content to Facebook in 2019. Check it out:


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5 Tips For Making The Most Of Facebook Live

Move over, Periscope. Facebook has its eyes on being the leader of live video broadcasting online and they are some would argue they’ve made it there already with Facebook Live. Made available to the public in early 2016, Facebook Live brings all the immediacy of Periscope and similar live broadcast applications to one social media site even your grandma knows by name, thus further eliminating the need for anyone to ever go anywhere or use anything else. 

We’re not saying Facebook Live is better than Periscope (though we’ll probably compare them at some point in the near future), but it would be foolish to ignore the simplicity of attracting more people to your live broadcasts that Facebook Live promises. Even people who claim they don’t use Facebook likely have had or currently do have an account and know their way around the site. All the barriers that would typically come between your fans and live broadcast platforms up to this point (people need to know the app exists, have the app, and have an account on the app) do not exist with Facebook Live. 

Getting started on Facebook Live is easy, but making the most of your time spent broadcasting is another task altogether. These tips will help:

Understand the requirements that need to be met in order to use Facebook Live

Facebook Live is available to anyone with an account and a decent internet connection. Before going live, make you that you have a fast enough connection to broadcast high quality live video, which generally means using WiFi or 4G. If these needs are not met the ‘Go Live’ button will not activate and you will be unable to broadcast.

Good promotion is key

Until you become Beyonce-level famous you are going to need a good plan for promoting every step of your career, including live broadcasts. Lucky for you, fans want more interaction with you, so promotion for these shows should be fairly straightforward: Set a date and time for your show, tell people when it’s happening, and remind them regularly until (and while) you’re live. 

Building a crowd may take time, so don’t be afraid to broadcast for a long time.

Since anyone can use Facebook Live, many people do use Facebook Live, so the competition for attention can be fierce. Facebook recommends broadcasting for a minimum of ten minutes before you decide whether or not to remain online. Promotion will help get some people to your show on time, but others will arrive once your broadcast has already begun. See how things develop before you decide whether or not to continue using Facebook Live for your outreach.

Respond to comments, and remember to use the name of the commenter whenever possible

People like to be recognized. Let your fans know they are more than just another supporter to you by using their names whenever responding to comments during your show.

Be clear about what you’re going to broadcast

The biggest mistake you can make as an artist or brand when using live broadcast apps like Facebook Live is to go in without some form of a plan. Fans want to know what they’re going to see, and you should know what you’re going to share. You should also leave room for the unexpected, as you never know what may happen in the moment, but you need to start somewhere that is going to hook people before your broadcast even begins. Maybe you promote a Q&A with your bandmates, or maybe you share an acoustic performance from your practice space. Figure out what your fans want to see and promote their opportunity to see or experience that thing through Facebook Live.

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Two New(ish) Facebook Tricks To Help Bands Reach Their Fans

What would we do without Andrew Jones? The mastermind behind Checkered Owl, Andrew has been contributing to our blog for well over a year at this point. His day job involves being hands-on with promising new talent, and through his posts on this site he hopes to extend his reach to artists big and small around the globe. Enjoy.

Facebook is ever changing, and that means your strategies on Facebook need to be ever changing. In fact a blog I wrote only a few months ago encouraged using graph search heavily when inviting your fans & friends to events, but graph search seems to have been dropped by Facebook since then. Luckily this first tip fixes that issue, but it does require a slightly new approach.

TIP #1: Inviting Targeting Fans

First, I have to give credit where created is due, this tip was passed on to me by the very excellent Alberta band Boreal Sons (www.borealsons.com), so try it out and then with the time you save go check out one of their excellent music videos.

As I pointed out in the aforementioned article (One Great Way Artists Can (Not) Annoy Friends And Facebook Followers!), there are few things more annoying on Facebook than constantly getting invited to shows all over the world that I’m clearly not going to unless the artist is also buying flights. I’m sure the problem is more rampant among people who are friends with lots of artists, but either way you don’t want to clog up your friends notifications with shows in Amarillo when they live in Kelowna. However if you have 1400 friends it can be a pain to go through the list and try to remember where all of those people live; here is a sneaky way around that.

Step 1: Make “where you live” private
Step 2: Change what city Facebook thinks you live in to wherever your big event is.
Step 3:  Now, when you go to “invite friends” one of the auto-select options will be the city Facebook thinks you live in. Select them all and you will be good to go!

TIP #2: Inviting More Likes

This one is less of a “hack” and more of a WAY under-used feature that can make a BIG difference to your stats, and it’s super simple! Facebook allows you to invite anyone who “likes” one of your posts to come “like” your page! This is great for converting people who are interacting with your content but haven’t yet “liked” your page; it also can make posts that you have payed to promote noticeably more effective!

Step 1: Find a post that enough people have “liked” that Facebook says “_________, ___________, and ___ others like this”
Step 2: Click on that message
Step 3: You will get a pop-up with all the profiles that have “liked” your post. Click invite on any of the names that have a clickable button

Thats it! Let me know what are some of your new favourite tips in the comments

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