Oh No! Yet another Facebook trends presentation

1. Oh no! YET Another Facebook trends PRESENTATION

2. I wish I was here as a social media ninja…

3. Or as a digital media evangelist

4. But I’m here only as a curious strategist trying to make sense of Facebook that is constantly changing just like you Who aM i? Michael Paredrakos @mpared Managing Director

5. The most popular topic every new year about social media is Facebook and how big it is going to be. some of the trends that you are going to hear are common sense for someone working daily with this platform but let’s put them down for everybody

6. Carousel-ads   or multi-product ads are on the rise According to Facebook “carousel ads” have grown +55% from quarter to quarter during 2015 and this is expected to continue during 2016 This is because carousel-ads tend to perform better You can promote 5 products instead of one static banner They are more interactive because of the layout You can get more clicks from one single ad. The costs of promoting carousel ads are lower than classic ads.

7. Dynamic Product Ads will also get substantial support from Facebook in 2016 Facebook dynamic product adverts help you promote relevant products  to shoppers browsing your product catalogue on your website or mobile app. Dynamic ads unlike static ads provide you with increased relevance. Since they show only the products that your potential customers were already looking

8. Until recently, content, app, and web development strategy has focused primarily on the needs of the desktop user with mobile being an afterthought. In 2015, we saw noticeable shift in this line of thinking This shift was largely due in part to the sharp increase in the number of mobile users and this will only increase in 2016 making it a near impossibility for marketing strategists to avoid focusing on mobile , especially touchscreen. Expect more and more brands designing specific tailor-made branded experiences natively within the app Facebook Will Become Nearly Entirely Mobile Mobile traffic vs. desktop traffic coming from Facebook is increasing and 2016 might be the year that Facebook Will Become Nearly Entirely Mobile Mobile Ads Generated 80% of Company's $5.6 Billion Ad Revenue in Q4 2015

9. Buy buttons will take over It’s been over a year since Facebook started testing its buy button in ads on the newsfeed, and it appears that the company is now ready to to take the service to its next logical progression with dedicated shops on Pages where users can browse for and purchase items, without ever leaving the app.

10. The rest of the world might finally see Facebook’s new   virtual assistant for Messenger M! Unlike Apple’s Siri or Google Now, you’ll primarily interact with M through text (although you can send M a voice recording). The assistant is powered by artiﬁcial intelligence. M is currently only rolling out to a small group of users but, in theory, you may soon be able to use Messenger to do things like book a restaurant reservation or arrange travel. Perhaps the most immediately relevant feature is shopping, which M will enable.

11. Some experts say that advertising through Messenger will finally take off Currently only available in the US. Businesses on Messenger allows brands to improve their customer service offering by having personal, real time conversations. Shipping status, order conﬁrmations, reply to questions can be delivered to the consumer easily. Expect this slowly to roll to the rest of the wold with companies investing in dedicated Facebook customer services in house

12. Facebook will finally move beyond the like button Brands are still counting on how many likes their posts have. But users will now be able to use a variety of engagement responses /reactions for posts These include a range of emotional responses from angry to love. How this impacts your brand? You audience will tell you exactly how your content makes them feel. You will be able see what works and what doesn’t a bit faster.

13. Users can follow the action as it takes place, and interact with it through likes, comments, and sharing plays. Facebook is providing a true second-screen experience for sports fans. Expect brands especially those that are sport sponsor related to dominate the conversations here. At the moment, it is only available on iOS and in US but soon expect this to roll into the rest of the world Sports and social media mix perfectly. Since Facebook sees itself as the “world’s largest stadium”, it is doing its best to encourage the conversation among its 650 million sports fans in its platform. Say hello to Facebook Sports Stadium.

14. Facebook has already submitted a patent which reveals that it has plans to integrate ride-sharing features on the platform More speciﬁcally, it is planning on embedding an “Uber-like option” on every Event Page. The aim of this move, is to facilitate transportations to and from events and to allow users to share the commuting costs between each other. But this also means that brands potentially will be able to host their own branded transport for their events, Making it even easier for consumer to join their events We might also see Facebook launching its Own ‘Uber’ Service

15. Video will be even more huge As Mark Zuckerberg said: Over the next few years video is going to   be the most engaging content online, and by continuing to innovate here we have a chance to build the best place to watch and share video

16. According to Facebook, by the end of 2015 there were eight billion average daily video views or 100% growth in a seven-month time period Some Facebook video trends include the following:

17. More Educational/Informational Shorts These fast-paced, short-form instructional videos have been made popular by media giants BuzzFeed ,Tastemade, and Food Network. Even smaller creators have jumped in on the game with exercise videos, crafts, makeup tutorials etc Known for audience retention, these videos are fun and highly shareable because viewers can watch the entire video quickly, exactly what the Facebook audience wants! Expect more and more branded instructional videos to appear in your feeds in 2016

18. Even more branded Gifs As you already know they generate a ton of views. Gifs are easy to share, not so expensive and easy to produce, Expect that brands will utilise them even more in 2016.

19. Work safe videos will explode Worksafe videos use text to tell the story without having to turn the volume on. These are not captions. Captions show us what the speakers are saying. Worksafe videos use titles to help tell the general story.

20. Facebook wants advertisers to rethink their ad strategy: It’s not TV ads . It’s TV ads with the sound turned off. Facebook has recently announced a series of product updates and research with the aim of getting advertisers to think differently about how they create mobile video ads. That includes a new caption tool. According to Facebook research as many as 40% of video ads don't communicate   their message effectively unless they have the sound on. Facebook is advising brands to focus in creating ad videos that are designed for being played silently and encourage users to watch beyond the ﬁrst three seconds. We will also see the rise of ads with the sound turned off

21. Facebook last August began letting a small percentage of people in the U.S. stream live video from their iPhones. Later that month, they expanded this to all veriﬁed pages. Jimmy Fallon and other inﬂuencers are already using it A couple weeks ago, Facebook announced that the feature was rolling out to all U.S. iPhone users and the rest of the wold will follow soon There's no limit to how long you can stream, though a good network connection is a must. Expect more and more brands to take advantage of this especially with their sponsoring events ( sports, concerts etc) Expect Facebook live to go mainstream

22. Branded 360 videos will shape your reality To inspire more 360 video content creation, Facebook launched a microsite https://360video.fb.com/ dedicated to providing ﬁlmmakers best practices. We all saw that amazing Star Wars video , NASA already used it, now even Deadpool is using it to promote his ﬁlm. Expect more brands soon to follow this in order to provide immersive virtual experiences to their fans as the technology gets cheaper

23. Facebook Profile videos will finally take off everywhere They are rolling out almost everywhere showing off the ability to play a moving picture and all of this is viewable across Facebook. It’s only edit-able via the mobile app. Expect brands to fully exploit this feature in 2016 You can create a video filter or template for individuals to use on their own profiles. Or, make it easy for people to use a custom, branded profile picture that they can set for a certain amount of time.

24. We will also see The explosion of Cinemagraphs We all have seen them online. These are a still image (shot as a short video clip using a tripod), with only partial movement. They look stunning, they are very sharable and expect that brands will fully exploit them this year

25. Some Extra things to take notice This year

26. Brands will follow the lead of publishers like The New York Times and BuzzFeed in using Facebook as the most cost-effective content distribution channel. They’ll spend less money on getting their content seen on Twitter and LinkedIn, and more on reaching a percentage of Facebook’s 1.55 billion users. Also expect that the Facebook ads will cost you more this year Kieran Dahl, Social Media Editor

27. User attention span will continue to fall Human attention span is at the all time lowest of 8 seconds. FYI Gold ﬁsh is 9 seconds. Create content which gets to the point quickly and engages. If it is videos: engage in the ﬁrst few seconds, If it’s images: drop the collages make them crisp and clean, If it is text make it easy to consume..

28. Quality   will eventually beat Quantity User Expectations for Content Quality Will Soar News-feeds are already chaotic. Organic reach on Facebook is non-existent Competition is growing with low barriers to entry. So every serious brand focus must be on share-worthy content Instead of creating a lot of content, focus on the kick-ass ones, which engage and deliver value to your users. Usually they cost more but deliver better on organic results.

29. This year focus more on true branded content, not on ads masquerading   as content but   genuine content which is useful, relevant and adds value to users’ lives

30. Try crazy experiments As brand you should always try Facebook’s new formats, new features, tools etc etc Innovate innovate innovate as much as your budget allows it in terms of your content Be more like OK GO . Push and even brake your visual content boundaries

31. despite these Facebook trends as brands you should always, always,always focus on: How can you inform, educate, and entertain your fans How can you be more useful and add more value How can you make their lives easier by producing epic, innovative content and ideas How can you give, give, give and reward them first before asking anything

32. If you are still awake Thank you for your time http://www.avakon.com/http://thecuriousbrain.com/