Blog - The Social Media Professor

Facebook Marketing in 2018

March 1, 2018 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Michael Stelzner, CEO and Founder of Social Media Examiner, kicked off Social Media Marketing World 2018 with a bang in the form of a keynote in which he began by instilling fear amongst the thousands of marketers in attendance. Simply put, marketers cannot go on as usual expecting to have meaningful reach and engagement unless they adapt to a new way of marketing, especially on Facebook. The good news was that Mike also offered hope by offering some strategies for marketers going forward.

Facebook Prioritizing Meaningful Interactions

On January 11, 2018, Digiday published an article on Facebook using a graphic showing Mark Zuckerberg in a nuclear cloud indicating that something major was about to happen. Also, Michael Stelzner highlighted many of the recent announcements by Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives in which they are very clearly stating that they are indeed very serious about making some major changes to the algorithm which is determining what posts show up in people's newsfeeds.

One way in which Facebook is planning to change is that they plan to prioritize what they refer to as “meaningful interactions.” This could include things such as commenting on or liking another person’s photo or status update, a person reacting to a post from a publisher that a friend has shared, multiple people replying to each others' comments on a video that they watched or an article that they read in the newsfeed, or a person sharing a link over Facebook Messenger.

Furthermore, Michael Stelzner brought up a recent interview with Facebook's head of the newsfeed Adam Mosseri who states that we can expect to see more posts that generate longer comments and since they would like to generate meaningful interactions, they will show less video in the newsfeed since that often becomes a one-way interaction unless it is live when people can comment and discuss with the person broadcasting. March Zuckerberg added in a January 31, 2018 update on Facebook that they are going to show fewer viral videos to make sure people's time is well spent and that this means that they will reduced videos shared by a full 50 million hours!

Also, you can expect less traffic to brands' Facebook Pages and the links you post to external pages will get even less visibility than they already get. Your organic posts on your Facebook Pages are already at a very low level but this can also be expected to go down further so it becomes almost pointless for a brand to post updates on their Facebook Pages unless they boost their posts with advertising dollars.

Supposedly, the updates of the algorithm will apply to all post types, from both Facebook Pages and the Facebook profiles of individuals. That is, the algorithm doesn’t care if you are a page or a profile.

Social Media Marketers Need to Focus on Smaller Audiences

A full 67% of the social media marketers that they recently surveyed stated that Facebook was their most important social network following by LinkedIn at 12%, Instagram at 10%, Twitter with 5%, and YouTube at 4%. This didn't concern Mike nearly as much as the fact that a full 63% of marketers indicated that they plan on increasing organic posts on Facebook. He bluntly stated that something has got to change for marketers as well given all the clearly stated announcements by Facebook mentioned above.

So, what are marketers to do? Is this really the end of the organic road and do we all have to pay for every engagement going forward? Clearly, Michael Stelzner brought up, the demand for Facebook ads WILL increase and moreover, the more relevant ads will get preferential treatment in terms of visibility.

One path forward that he emphasized was that even without paying for boosting posts, etc, marketers can still achieve success by focusing on smaller, but more relevant and engaged audiences and that these can be more valuable than a larger, yet less engaged one.

Episodic Storytelling

If storytelling was a big theme at last year's Social Media Marketing World, Michael Stelzner this year pointed out the potential for what he referred to as “episodic storytelling.” While you may not get a huge audience that wants to follow you over a series of updates, Michael shared that his own experience with sharing updates with his live video series The Journey has generated extremely positive feedback from a very excited tribe of followers.

Regardless, the advantage of episodic storytelling is that you can establish the know, like, and trust that marketers always have strived for. Also, if you do choose to advertise, Facebook enables more and more powerful ways to engage with your tribe of followers such as by being able to advertise just to those who already watched your videos to increase repeat viewership and that repeat viewership is a factor that Facebook has stated that they keep track of.

Facebook Watch to the Rescue

If a big opportunity for marketers still focusing on Facebook is to work with episodic storytelling, then they should look into the new platform for shows called Facebook Watch. Mark Zuckerberg wrote on January 31, 2018 that:

“Over the next three years, we know video will continue to grow, so our job is to build video experiences that help people connect with friends, family , and groups”

Facebook Watch is a platform for shows and where you can start building your community of passionate fans and be rewarded for the work you do. This might be complicated and take a lot of work to produce a series of videos, Michael Stelzner stated, but that is exactly why this may represent a great opportunity for you, since most of your competitors are likely not going to do anything about it!

Live Video

Also, video on the go in the live format often lead to discussions amongst viewers, in fact, live videos on average get six time more interaction and given what Facebook says about rewarding interaction, this could not be a bad thing.

Go live during killer events such as Social Media Marketing World, Michael Stelzner hinted or create a weekly show in which you share tips and tricks, talk strategy, or provide a news show in your field of interest. He himself is offering a weekly live news show every Friday morning.

Go Beyond Facebook

As marketers start creating more and longer videos (or video series), a full 77% of their survey respondents indicated that they plan on increasing their use of video in the next 12 months, Michael Stelzner also suggested that they think more beyond Facebook as well. Marketers should leverage other platforms such as YouTube, etc, for further reach and engagement with their video work so it doesn't go to waste. On the same theme, but not just related to video marketing, Michael Stelzner said more should go back and revisit LinkedIn that he thinks is doing a lot of cool things now and that it is especially relevant for those with a business audience. Plus, don’t write off Twitter just yet!

Facebook Stories

He also brought up the potential for Facebook Stories as an alternative to creating content for the Facebook newsfeed. Mark Zuckerberg also stated that “we expect Stories are on track to overtake posts in feeds as the most common way people share across all social apps.” Zuckerberg also bragged about Facebook owning the two biggest platforms for the sharing of Stories, Facebook and Instagram not even mentioning that it was Snapchat that invented the format.

Facebook Messenger

Another opportunity would be to create more meaningful interactions using Facebook Messenger. There are 1.3 billion people on Messenger and some of them are not even using Facebook. Some brands are developing their Messenger Bots that will interact in increasingly personalized and human ways with your audience and this is still at the early stages as only 15% of marketers report that they are currently using Messenger bots.

Chatbots basically is software that has conversations with people. Ideally, it should allow for and be able to respond to natural language queries but sometimes it can be simplified with a multiple choice type of interface. Still, the Chatbot advantage is that it can quickly answer questions right at the point-of-sale and speed support response times.

Video by Influencers

If you don't find the motivation or resources to develop your own video series, Michael Stelzner suggests that you consider hiring a social influencer that can do so on your behalf. In return, you can accelerate the growth of an engaged audience and gain access to a professional who can generate meaningful interaction in the form of dialogues.

Be Human

One common theme across Michael Stelzner's excellent keynote was that we should go back to the basics of being more human and develop long-term relationships in an authentic manner. Perhaps that sounds cliché to many but those things likely never will go out of fashion and by implementing some of the tips Michael shared, I think marketers will be more successful building their communities of passionate followers and hopefully customers.

Featured on CBS LA TV

February 6, 2018 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

The story by Stacey Butler of CBS LA was about a statement that PepsiCo's CEO Indra Nooyi made on a podcast. During this interview, she speculated about targeting women with a special kind of Doritos. She suggested that women don't like the crunchy noise you make while eating traditional chips and also that they also are less likely than men to lick the resulting mess off their fingers when the bag of chips is consumed.

The Statement on Doritos for Women by PepsiCo CEO

Here is a direct quote by PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi on the Freakonomics podcast with Stephen Dubner:

“When you eat out of a flex bag — one of our single-serve bags — especially as you watch a lot of the young guys eat the chips, they love their Doritos, and they lick their fingers with great glee, and when they reach the bottom of the bag they pour the little broken pieces into their mouth, because they don’t want to lose that taste of the flavor, and the broken chips in the bottom. Women would love to do the same, but they don’t. They don’t like to crunch too loudly in public. And they don’t lick their fingers generously and they don’t like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth.”

Social Media Rejects Lady-Friendly Doritos

The idea of Doritos offering a special “Lady Doritos” version did not go over very well on social media. At all. Perhaps the social media backlash can be explained with the timing of this statement as it came out in the midst of all the focus on the #metoo movement. Even the slightest hint that you are not respecting women could be upsetting enough for reactions to occur even if they had not even advertised a new product in the making. Here are some sample tweets reacting to the news:

Yes, because all of my personal development work has been around being quieter and less messy. Ugh. (Dear #Doritos …possible fail…) All I can say is, they better package them in a smaller pink bag, and charge at least 15% more.#LadyChips ???https://t.co/Sd1m1m4EIN

— Deanna Burgart (@DeannaBurgart) February 5, 2018

Doritos Bites Back

After the social media backlash, PepsiCo issued a statement that the reports of a “Lady Burrito” was inaccurate and dismissed the whole incident with a marketing pitch :

“We already have Doritos for women–they're called Doritos, and they're enjoyed by millions of people every day. At the same time, we know needs and preferences continue to evolve and we're always looking for new ways to engage and delight our consumers.”

While it is true that reactions on social media often are based on unfounded rumors, in this case, it is worth to point out that the “rumors” stemmed from a direct quote by their CEO. Therefore, I think it is too easy to simply dismiss all the reactions on social media as misdirected or unwarranted.

Podcasting and the Lady Doritos Story

One thing that strikes me with this story is that perhaps this is another coming-of-age moment for the podcast medium. While more and more people listen to podcasts, it is possible that celebrities and executives being interviewed on a podcast are not yet fully recognizing that everything they say on this medium can be used against them and sometimes quoted out of context. At the same time, I am hoping that a greater awareness of the power of podcasting will not mean that the great conversations that I personally enjoy listening to on various podcasts will not become overly formal and cautious. Podcasting as a medium allows for longer and more nuanced discussions than short sound bites in other places and that in fact is why I am working on the launch of my own podcast, will you listen in?

The Fire Funnel Process by John Lee Dumas at Youpreneur Summit

November 11, 2017 by Niklas Myhr 8 Comments

The opening keynote speaker at the inaugural Youpreneur Summit John Lee Dumas, founder of the popular Entrepreneur on Fire Podcast, shared his Fire Funnel process for digital entrepreneurs. John started out by suggesting that you start with a “Funnel Up Process” to understand who you are going to serve before you design your sales of your “Funnel Down Funnel”.

The Funnel Up process

The Idea. What is your big idea that you want to build upon.
The Niche. Get that initial momentum is key, not easy, but once you get it, you can get things going. Then you can expand your scope. Rather than being Mr or Mrs Social Media of London, you'd be better off helping female dentists in Soho get one new client via Facebook Ads.
The Avatar. Who is that perfect customer, the listener to your podcast, the reader of your blog. Get to know that person in and out and try to identify their struggles.
The Medium of Choice. Blogging, podcasting, video, etc. Which one should you focus on?
The Content Creation. You need a system to setup to make sure you have a process to create great content on a regular basis.
The Repurpose. Once you have a good platform you can find content that can be used on other platforms as well. John uses Repurpose.io to get his podcast episodes elsewhere.
The Growth. How can you help others discover you.
The Audience Engagement. He gets millions of listens of his podcast each month which is absolutely absurd to him but he doesn't want to forget about doing things that don't scale. Don't be scared of having a one-on-one conversation. Yes, they can be time-consuming but that is where the gold is. You can learn about what works and doesn't and develop relationships.
The Solution. How can you help solve their problem and serve them. If you keep this in mind from the start, you will focus on generating the right leads and nurture them from the start.

The Funnel Down Process

Once you have gone through the Funnel Up process, you better know how you can help your audience and then you can design your Funnel Down Process to serve them.

Your lead generation. Now you know who to target.
Your Call to Action. Have a specific thing you want them to do.
Your Audience's Email Exchange.
Your Solution Delivery.
Your Audience Consumes.
Your Next CTA.
Live Training. Here John Lee Dumas emphasized the power of live webinars which is where he has made millions.
Live Q&A. Perhaps there is just one remaining obstacle remaining for someone to buy and if you make yourself available live, you can have it resolved right then and there.
Offer. Provide an offer that is supremely valuable for your audience.
Monetize.

The Fire Funnel by EO Fire

Finally, John Lee Dumas shared how he built an empire around daily podcasts with interviews of entrepreneurs. Check out Entrepreneurs on Fire or EO Fire and enjoy the show! John's final perspective he shared that sums up much of his perspective was a quote by Albert Einstein: “Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.”

Keynote Speaker at Public Sector Digital Transformation Conference

October 13, 2017 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Anna Bellman Niklas Myhr — Stage Selfie with Anna Bellman, Master of Ceremony

Got the opportunity to serve as a keynote speaker in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 700 public sector executives at a major digital transformation conference (eFörvaltningsdagarna & Publikom) at Stockholm International Fairs (Stockholmsmässan) in Sweden. I shared my perspectives on digital transformation with a specific focus on social media and digital communication strategies.

While I respect that many public sector executives are unlikely to jump all over the latest social media platforms and tactics, I was impressed by the curiosity shown both during my talk and in many subsequent discussions with attendees. Many of them also agreed with me that many of the same principles that apply to businesses also are relevant in the public sector such as the value of being faster than ever before with your communications such as in the following situations.

Social Media for Crisis Management

Niklas Myhr, #EFDagarna, #Publikom, Keynote speaker, digital transformation — Photo by Rikard Hällberg, Företags TV

A few years back, I worked with Orange County Government and their social media activities. One thing I remember one of their executives mention is that they strived to build a following on social media so that they would have established alternative modes of communications with the public before the big earthquake hits. That is, if you wait until a crisis situation to occur before you engage on social media, you may not have anyone finding your messages.

I also showcased the impressive efforts by various fire departments and other first responders in Orange County during the Canyon Fire 2 brushfire. Anaheim Fire & Rescue, for example, demonstrated their ability to use Twitter for continuous sharing of real-time updates with the latest news on mandatory evacuations, emergency shelters, where to bring your horses and other animals, as well as the status of their efforts to contain the fire itself.

Newsjacking and Fake News

Another reason why public sector executives may benefit from getting their updates out on various social networks in an expedient manner is that if they are not doing that, they will be more exposed to the threat by various fake news campaigns. For example, during the Las Vegas massacre, it didn't take long before fake news began appearing claiming that the event never actually occurred but was merely a conspiracy to force tougher laws on gun control. Therefore, it could be more important than before for public sector officials to get quickly get an official version of an emerging story out there to at least provide some counterbalance to various sources of fake news.

Focus on Customer Experience

Niklas Myhr, the social media professor, #efdagarna, #publikom — Photo by Patrik Koc Strömberg

Outside of crisis situations, more and more public sector executives are beginning to consider their citizenship as customers and are following the lead of the business world in trying to provide as much of a seamless customer experience as possible in dealing with various government institutions. I shared how I expect that my upcoming book The Social Customer Journey would be important in this regard. For example, the public sector would serve their citizens better by providing more options than before in terms of how you communicate with a government office. Also, that the institution is able to better serve what is needed, when it is needed, and not too much redundant information that isn't needed for the transaction in question.

Audience Interaction

One of the best parts of speaking at events is chatting with people afterwards to learn about their challenges and this conference was no exception. Se below for some people I met even including a nice testimonial by a happy attendee Lars-Erik Andersson, IT Director of Knivsta & Heby Municipalities:

Photo credits: Thanks for some of the pics by Patrik Koc Strömberg, Christina Nordström, and by Rikard Hällberg (Företags TV).

Isabella Ljungdahl och Niklas Myhr — With Isabella Ljungdahl of Hexanova Events

Niklas Myhr Helena Renström — Helena Renström from the City of Skellefteå

With Sune Lindström and Ola Lidström from City of Piteå

Niklas Myhr Anna Kelly Eva Sartorius — With Anna Kelly & Eva Sartorius

Swedish Tech Musketeer to Build Mega Battery Factory

May 17, 2017 by Niklas Myhr 1 Comment

Peter Carlsson, Helena Kristersson, Ingela Carlsson & Niklas Myhr

[Update: On June 12, 2019, Northvolt announced that they have raised the capital required to build “Europe's first homegrown gigafactories for lithium-ion batteries”!]

In the midst of final exam week, I enjoyed a brief visit to Silicon Valley to learn more about the exciting tech startup Northvolt from its CEO, Peter Carlsson, the proud dad of Chapman University student Amanda. The event was hosted by the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce Silicon Valley/San Francisco and by Silicon Vikings in a beautiful office space generously shared by global supply chain specialists Elementum.

Peter Carlsson, with a past as the Chief Purchasing Officer at Tesla where he spent four years reporting directly to Elon Musk, shared the plans of Northvolt to build a mega-sized, lithium-ion battery factory to be located either in Sweden or Finland. He explained how such a factory would play an important role in our world's much-needed transformation from a reliance on fossil fuels to one in which we can live on and efficiently preserve green and renewable energy.

Electrification of society

Peter admitted that it may still be a couple of decades before we regularly commute 500 km via an electrically-powered, self-flying aircraft ordered via an Uber-like interface but technically, that would be quite doable already today, he argued! Complying with regulations, however, would be another matter that could take a long time to resolve.

One bright spot in the transformation to green energy sources is the mining industry in which companies are willing to pay two or three times the regular price to buy an electric excavator. What many people don't realize is that mining companies actually spend enormous amounts of resources transporting exhaust fumes out of the mines in order to create a safe working environment. By using electric excavators instead, they could simply focus on transporting whatever treasures that they are digging for instead.

A Vertically Integrated Supply Chain for Battery Production

Whereas many companies are outsourcing many of the things that they previously used to do themselves in order to focus on their core competencies, Northvolt is choosing a different direction. In their aim to build the largest European mega battery factory, they also want to secure the access to as many of the necessary raw materials as possible either with direct ownership or at least via strong European supplier partnerships. Peter Carlsson emphasized the benefits of operating in Europe and in Scandinavia in particular thanks to its relative political stability compared to many other places where mining is done.

The Location of the Battery Plant

In collaboration with Business Sweden, Northvolt is currently undergoing an extensive screening process in order to identify where the best location of its factory should be. They had hoped to have a list of twenty cities to consider. They got forty! Even now, Peter shared, new cities and even new countries are approaching him to try to be added to their consideration set. However, Northvolt recently declared that they had narrowed the number of possible locations to a short list of eight Swedish cities and two Finnish ones, all of which fulfilled a number of criteria.

In selecting the winner, factors they weigh include the access to reliable energy supply, industrial-zoned land availability, logistical concerns, access to a skilled workforce, university collaboration opportunities, and the degree to which the city could attract foreign expert engineers to move to and live in the area long-term with their families. The plan is to move quickly to get down to only two final candidates.

Why build only one mega factory?

Given that my hometown of Piteå is not on the shortlist, my unsolicited vote that I shared with Peter went to Luleå even if Skellefteå would be a close second. I am confident that either of these two great cities would deliver if they were to be selected and I even proposed to Peter to build two, not “just” one mega factory given that they predict that Europe's demand will be calling for seven such mega factories around year 2025. His response was that he didn't want to risk being accused of suffering from hubris given that the magnitude of this project is large enough as it is proposing the development of one mega factory which will require about 4 billion Euro in investment.

I wish Peter and Northvolt the best of luck and his family a nice transition in their move from Palo Alto to Stockholm. I am also very much looking forward to visiting their Stockholm headquarters this summer with my Chapman University MBA travel course Business in Scandinavia!