Tag: Facebook

United States – Facebook has revealed Wednesday that its Pages will no longer don the ‘Like’ button at the top of it, and will instead focus on and retain the ‘Follow’ button, in an aim to make the Pages experience more simplified and sensible. 

Since Facebook started, Pages are mainly ‘liked’ where the Page is automatically followed, with only a post-option of unfollowing it. 

In a press release by the social media network, Facebook said “We are removing Likes and focusing on Followers to simplify the way people connect with their favorite Pages.” 

It added, “Unlike Likes, Followers of a Page represent the people who can receive updates from Pages, which helps give public figures a stronger indication of their fan base.” 

For its wholly redesigned Pages experience, Facebook will also be making the Page design more simple and intuitive. The new design, the social media network said, will be much cleaner and more streamlined than before, making it simple for people to see bios, posts, and other important information.  

To also improve engagement and make Followers and public figures more closely connected, comments from public figures will be bumped to the top of the comments section seen in Followers’ News Feeds. Furthermore, people will now be able to follow Pages directly from comments and recommendations posts.

Along with its suite of new features is also a new text-based Q&A format, and improved Page management tools. Page owners will now have the ability to more clearly assign and manage admin access permissions based on specific tasks. For example, Page managers will now be able to grant varying levels of access to manage specific tasks including Insights, Ads, Content, and Community Activity & Messages. 

In line with making Facebook a safer platform, it has also improved its ability to detect forbidden activity including hate speech, violent, and sexual, or spammy content and impersonation. 

“We are continuing to expand the visibility of a verified badge to make it easier to identify posts and comments from authentic Pages and profiles. A verified Page’s comment on another Page’s public post, may appear higher in the comments section and be visible in News Feed,” said Asad Awan, head of Public Connections and Monetization at Facebook.

Prior to the platform’s official announcement, Facebook has already applied a new feature – a separate News Feed – for Pages, where Pages can now similarly navigate as a personal Facebook profile, following trends, interacting with peers, and engaging with fans. The dedicated News Feed will also suggest new connections, such as other public figures, Pages, Groups, and trending content that a Page or public figure cares about.

“We’re rolling out the redesigned Facebook Pages experience that makes it simpler for public figures and creators to build community and achieve their business objectives,” said Awan.

Facebook said the announced new features will progressively be rolled out to all Pages.

Singapore – Local commerce platform SHOPLINE is now enabling its online merchants to use Facebook’s Business Extension that allows them to sell on Facebook Shops and Instagram Shopping.

The recent announcement comes during the course of the global pandemic, where small-medium enterprises (SMEs) are pushing their businesses online, and in line with Facebook’s launch of Facebook Shops last May this year, which allows brands to showcase their products on their Facebook page and Instagram profile in a way that feels native and tailored to the brand image.

“We are excited to work with Facebook to offer direct access to Facebook Shops. We are committed to helping our merchants grow and leverage omnichannel means to spur their own growth amidst these challenging times. We firmly believe that this partnership will help our merchants to be better attuned to their customers’ needs and ultimately, empower them to grow and scale their businesses,” said Jeff Lim, general manager for SHOPLINE Singapore.

As SHOPLINE is one of the few Facebook partners in APAC that integrate the business extension, SHOPLINE merchants are also enabled connect to customers via Messenger and WhatsApp, increase business’s product visibility, and sync more data fields, such as age group, material, brand, gender, Google and Facebook product category.

Canberra, Australia – The Australian government has now announced that legislation is ongoing that mandates tech giants Facebook and Google to compensate local media companies for the content they produce online.

In a report by the Associated Press, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg stated that the so-called News Media Bargaining Code will pass through a parliamentary hearing before official voting by next year.

“This is a huge reform. This is a world first. And the world is watching what happens here in Australia. This is comprehensive legislation that has gone further than any comparable jurisdiction in the world,” Frydenberg stated.

The News Media Bargaining Code, according to an official press release by the Office of the Treasurer, aims to support and sustain public interest journalism in the country, with strategies including “enabling digital platforms to publish standard offers, which provides smaller news media businesses with an efficient pathway to finalizing agreements with digital platform.”

Under the new reform, Facebook and Google will need to compensate local media companies, including state-owned media groups Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS)-which were originally excluded from the initial law proposal.

Both Facebook and Google have released their statements in the past, opposing the new referendum. Facebook had stated that they will start blocking Australian users and publishers in publishing local and international news on their platform and on Instagram, while Google had clarified that they are not ‘stealing’ content from other people, but rather redirecting users to what they searched.

Malaysia– With many people shifting their marketing behaviors online, notable statistics have shown a significant increase in the number of digital consumers in the Southeast Asia region, particularly in Malaysia, a report from consulting firm Bain & Company shows.

Conducted in collaboration with social media giant Facebook, statistics noted that Malaysia clocked a total of 83% of digital consumer growth, making it the country in Southeast Asia with the highest concentration of online consumers, which are then followed suit by Singapore with a 79% growth and the Philippines with 74%.

Moreover, the report showed that the Malaysian demographic, those that are 15 years old and above have an average of 51% on their willingness to switch consumer brands from time to time.

In regards to trying out new and unheard-of brands, statistics for Malaysian consumer behavior stooped, from 43% in 2019 to 40% in 2020, showing reluctance to try out unique and new brands.

With COVID-19 restricting movement including physical shopping, statistics for purchasing demand across online channels for Malaysians doubled to 40% this year.

“Brands need to enhance their value proposition both online and offline, and be flexible and adaptable to change, now more than ever. Within the eCommerce space, we aim to ensure strong digital content, product availability online and a robust supply chain,” commented Phee Chat Chow, executive director for marketing, communications and innovation at Nestle Malaysia and Singapore. 

Malaysia – To set up a digital footprint is easy for brands, but to build and keep a high social media engagement – that is another story. Nowadays, almost any business is only knowable through the lens of social media – from retail to food and customer service, and players in the cinema industry aren’t an exception.

In Malaysia, local cinema brand Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC) is getting ahead of the engagement race on Facebook, according to data by Facebook Analytics, extracted by digital marketing agency Webqlo.

Among the three largest cinema brands in the country, GSC has the highest number of page likes with 1.8 million, followed by TGV cinemas at 760K, with MBO cinemas garnering the least number at 580K. 

In terms of the overall number of reactions to posts, GSC still retained the top spot with 2.3 million reactions, with TGV’s and MBO’s count lagging with only 320K, and 150K respectively.

Similarly, the findings showed that when each of the brand’s highest engagement posts between the period of January to September 2020 is put side by side in terms of shares, GSC still demonstrated the most promising count. 

The cinemas’ posts are often movie trailers, and GSC garnered 50,856 shares when it posted the Birds of Prey trailer. Meanwhile, TGV landed on the second spot with 13,177 shares for posting the Greenland trailer. On the other hand, MBO’s highest engagement post was that of the opening of its Tropicana Gardens location, which when compared to the two, still had the least shares with 2,093.

The highest number of comments to posts was also looked into. Quite different from the previous findings, TGV is now moved to the last spot, gaining only 1,639 comments for its giveaway post in July for the premiere of the film Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula. Meanwhile, GSC still led with 53,847 comments for its welcome back giveaway post that was published in the same month, followed by MBO for its January post on its Cuckoo water purifier giveaway, which gained only 2,059 comments.

Ultimately, findings showed which of the brands’ social media teams is the hardest at work, and although GSC rose to top with a total of 1,299 posts within the period of the findings, it was a close count with MBO which published 1,279 posts, while TGV showed with the least sum at 1,047.

According to Webqlo, compared to the two brands, GSC was the most proactive in boosting its posts, applying it for 32% of its posts which could explain the brand’s higher amount of followers and reach.

All of the Facebook pages of the three cinema brands were opened about the same time 10 years ago.

United States – The social media giant will now be enforcing a global policy prohibiting ads that discourage people from getting vaccinated, it said Wednesday on a blog post.

On the post, Head of Health Kang-Xing Jin and Director of Product Rob Leathern straightforwardly said, “We don’t want these ads on our platform.”

The new policy is another step forward to Facebook’s goal to fight misinformation amid the pandemic, having previously put restrictions on vaccine hoaxes identified by World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  

“Now, if an ad explicitly discourages someone from getting a vaccine, we’ll reject it,” it said.

Facebook will, however, still allow ads that advocate for or against legislation or government policies around vaccines, but will be requiring them to get authorized and have the ‘Paid for by’ label included in order for people to see the brand or company behind them. 

“We regularly refine our approach around ads that are about social issues to capture debates and discussions around sensitive topics happening on Facebook. Vaccines are no different,” said Facebook.

Aside from the policy, Facebook announced that it will be launching a new information campaign to encourage people to get their flu shot. It will be initially launched in the US in the current week and will be gradually rolled out in other countries.

USA – Social media giant Facebook has named a new chief marketing officer, its vice president for analytics Alex Schultz.

Last August, the news on the resignation of then CMO Antonio Lucio made headlines with Lucio making the announcement on a Facebook post, revealing his desire to focus on advocating for diversity and inclusion.

Just like his predecessor, Schultz took to the platform the official announcement. He said that Lucio left a great team behind as well as some huge shoes for him to fill.

“Gracias, Antonio for being a great friend, colleague, creative leader and voice of experience and wisdom for this company. I am sorry to see you go and grateful for your support through this process,” wrote Schultz.

“You have strengthened our ability to tell meaningful, culturally relevant stories with our family of brands. I hope to build on this and bring my experience in segmentation, targeting, and measurement to bear as we work to reach people more meaningfully through our product,” added Schultz.

https://www.facebook.com/alexschultz/posts/10103824175653500

Schultz has been with Facebook’s analytics team since 2007, where he started as an analyst before eventually rising the ladder to become vice president. Prior to Facebook, he was marketing manager for eCommerce platform eBay.

In the post, Schultz took the liberty to make a deep backtrack of his background. He shared that his expertise has been specially built around direct response online marketing and analytics.

“My background is direct response online marketing and analytics. I did that as a hobby at high school, helped pay for college with it,” shared Schultz.

“I have grown up in online marketing and believe deeply in the economic empowerment it can bring, its ability to show people more tailored, relevant, less annoying ads, and the fact it allows us to serve everyone by offering our products for free,” he added.

Schultz also touched on the growing criticism towards technology and stands firm on Facebook’s positive mission.

“I believe deeply in the good Facebook’s products do. We have all seen it through this pandemic as billions of people have connected with family and friends socially online while staying physically apart and slowing the spread of the virus. At the same time, I think scrutiny of any new technology is appropriate and there are ways we can, and should, improve without losing all the good.

In the concluding statement of his post, the new CMO took the opportunity to reveal that he is “openly gay,” to which he said is something that he “couldn’t say” when he moved to America and joined the industry.

“Facebook is the first place I have felt truly safe to be gay and be open about it. I’m really grateful for that and the fact Mark [Zuckerberg] built a company where that was possible. The bar, of course, keeps raising on this but the difference from [15years ago] when I started out to today, is truly remarkable.”

Singapore – Insurance company AIA Singapore has announced that it will be offering a complimentary insurance plan called AIA #ShareTheLove, specifically dedicated to essential workers, where beneficiaries will be nominated through Facebook or Instagram.

The company said that the new insurance plan is part of its efforts to pay tribute to essential workers. The plan will cover COVID-19 and 21 infectious diseases including dengue fever.

The nomination started yesterday, September 9, where members of the public may nominate a family member or a friend provided that the individual is an essential worker and a Singapore resident.

Those who wish to nominate will be asked to post a photo or video of the essential worker on their Facebook or Instagram page and include a message of appreciation with at least 100 words with a focus on the person’s story of resilience and why the insurance is the best gift for him or her. According to the mechanics, the post, in order to qualify must be set to public, must tag AIA Singapore’s social media accounts, and should include the hashtags #ShareTheLove and #AIASG.

Once a story is selected, AIA will be giving the free insurance to both the person who submitted the story and the nominee.

The initiative is part of a regional AIA #ShareTheLove movement taking place across Asia. The movement also saw the implementation of other assistance programs such as AIA representatives’ pledge to donate a portion of their policy sales towards the company’s adopted charities.

AIA Singapore Chief Customer and Digital Officer Melita Teo said, “These workers have put the communities’ needs above their own health and wellbeing. Aside from COVID-19, the exposure to infectious diseases is not over even after ending their work, as dengue cases continue to plague homes. By engaging the help of the community at large, we hope to play a part in bringing more of these amazing stories of resilience to light and paying tribute to our essential workforce. This is a little gesture of appreciation for the sacrifices that they have and continue to make as we deal with this crisis.”

India – Facebook has announced Tuesday that it will now be bringing its news service, Facebook News to India alongside countries UK, Germany, France, and Brazil.

The expansion of the platform’s presence was based on an insight extracted by Facebook, which shows that 95% of the traffic news publishers get from Facebook News is incremental to the traffic they garner from news feed alone.

Facebook News was first launched in October 2019 to a subset of people in the US, offering a personalized feed of news stories.

As the company accelerates its plans overseas, it aims to launch the Facebook section to multiple countries within the next six months to a year.

Facebook said that since consumer habits and news inventory vary by country, it will be working closely with news partners in each country, to tailor the experience and test ways to deliver a valuable experience for people.

United States – The incumbent chief marketing officer of Facebook, Antonio Lucio took to their own social media platform the announcement of his resignation, which will be effective Sept. 18. 

Lucio said that his decision to step down was due to his desire to refocus his time on advocating for causes of diversity and inclusion, issues which have demanded greater attention in the past few months in the United States. 

“Given the historical inflection point we are in as a country regarding racial justice, I have decided to dedicate 100% of my time to diversity, inclusion, and equity,” wrote Lucio.

In May, a series of protests for racial justice began in the US when African-American George Floyd was killed by a white police officer during an arrest in Minneapolis city. 

Lucio said, “‘Although these issues have been core to my personal purpose for many years, and they were an important element of my work, I want to make them my sole focus.” 

Come September, Lucio will have served a total of two years on Facebook. In his post, he recounted the projects that the company has launched under his leadership and said that although there is “still a lot of work to be done, [there] is a strong foundation from which to build.”

“The work and progress made over the last two years [are] all due and thanks to [the team]: “More Together” for Facebook app, “It’s Between You” for WhatsApp, the Instagram anti-bullying platform, the launch of Messenger Rooms, “Never Alone,” “Born in Quarantine” and the launch of a new identity system for the corporate brand.”

Expressing his confidence to the team ahead, he wrote, “This team is ready to deliver its best work yet.”

Meanwhile, Facebook said that they support Lucio’s decision. 

“Antonio did incredible work telling our story during a transformative period for the company, “ a spokesperson said.

“[Facebook is] grateful for his enormous contributions and wish him well in his next chapter.”