Facebook is gunning for social media mobsters.

Their fraud squad are sizing up concrete boots for firms using dodgy clickbait and shady content – and no one’s untouchable.

So whether you focus on paid ads or free posts, read on for content tips on how to avoid sleeping with the FB fishes.

The engagement bait change was introduced in late 2017 — penalising spammy posts (and potentially, entire business pages) that shortcut engagement by tricking people to like, vote, share or comment on content.

And another limited experiment, which created separate newsfeeds for business and media posts and those for friends and family, has just been abandoned because it was unpopular with users.

These changes were driven by customer complaints that commercial posts were diluting the platform’s original social purpose and the alleged influence of Russian-backed fake news posts on the 2016 US election.

Add the $16.4 billion cost of ad fraud in 2017 to this messy mix, and Facebook was forced to make serious attempts to enforce change.

Navigating Facebook’s algorithms to ensure your posts are effective can feel trickier than solving a Rubik’s Cube one-handed.

But there are solutions that protect the digital reach of your business on social and beyond.

If you create content organically, it’s more likely to align with Facebook’s news feed publisher principles — and less likely to leave you languishing in their digital dungeon.

Crucially, authentic content makes FB happy. So here’s some useful advice.

Substantive posts are engaging and interesting as well as commercially-focused. Aim to make content informative, too, considering whether it’ll be useful to your defined audience.

This approach makes content sharable and compliant — a digital double-whammy.

Ensure it’s authentic and accurate

Your headline should be relevant to the post’s content and not look like bait.

So avoid using ‘share’, ‘win’ and ‘like’ and avoid hyperbole — a well-crafted headline can capture a click without promising it’ll change customers’ lives or make them instant millionaires.

You should be able to back up facts if challenged.

Responsible brands create accurate and authentic content that still projects personality — creativity and social responsibility can co-habit online.

Don’t create content that’s unsafe or disrespectful

This is a no-brainer — whether you’re an emerging or established brand, insulting your audience is reputational poison.

Real businesses capitalise on the opportunities to interact directly with customers, cowboy companies don’t. Ignoring comments makes you appear rude and fake — not a good combo for Facebook.

About a billion people use these niche communities every month, providing the perfect environment to showcase your unique products and services and allow you to interact with fans in a friendly manner.

But they also feed into the community values Facebook will reward you for — authority and authenticity align awesomely with its algorithms.

Facebook’s news feed algorithm hierarchy prioritises video over images and images over external links. So investing in your own webinars, explainer videos and high-quality graphic images extends your reach and keeps you safe from the FB police.

Steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie advised entrepreneurs looking to maximise profits to ‘put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket’.

But don’t take that approach to digital — social media should only be one strand of your strategy.

Search beat social for referral traffic in 2017, so ignore the value of SEO and paid search at your peril — especially with social media becoming a bit of a minefield.

There’s no need to abandon Facebook completely though — the tips above will make you too legit to quit.

If you want to chat about a results-driven digital strategy for your business, contact us soon.

And dip into the rest of our blog for useful advice and insights from the world of digital and beyond.

Let’s have another gander at the Attercopia Headlines – our regular round-up of the best stories in digital media.

Take a look at our highlights for 07/03/18…

(Via Ad Week)

‘Ad fraud is often described as a cat-and-mouse game, with networks’ best efforts at detection a few short steps behind bad actors’ best efforts at defrauding customers and advertisers without getting caught. (And those mice are eating a lot of cheese. Last year, the ad verification company Adloox predicted ad fraud could cost advertisers $16.4 billion in 2017—or about 20.5 percent of total global digital ad spend.)…’

Read more here

(Via Search Engine Land)

‘There is an old saying: the only constant in life is change! Word on the street and from Google is they’ll stop supporting last click attribution sometime this year. This means advertisers will have to opt into one of several other attribution models available in Google. In this article, I’ll provide some general commentary on attribution as well as an overview of the different models available in Google AdWords…’

Read more here

(Via Marketing Week)

‘With 51% of its sales now coming through a mobile device and an ecommerce platform built around the likes of Instagram, Asos knows a thing or two about being a digital first brand. And according to Celina Burnett, head of marketing analytics, the key to success in social and digital channels is about achieving a balance between mass reach and targeting. In an interview with Marketing Week, Burnett claimed marketers often fail as they get too preoccupied choosing one over the other…’

Read more here

(Via Gotch SEO)

‘This guide will show you how to use anchor text so that you can maximize your SEO results…’

Read more here

The Attercopia Headlines – 1st March 2018

While you’re snowed in, catch up with another batch of the Attercopia Headlines – our weekly round-up of the best stories in digital media.

Take a look at our highlights for 01/03/18…

Colonel Ritson: KFC’s marketers turned a chicken crisis into a brand triumph

(Via Marketing Week)

‘The KFC chicken crisis caused by DHL’s delivery failures could have been disastrous, but a rapid strategic response has ensured the brand will benefit long-term from increased awareness and a boost in consumer demand…’

Read more here

AdWords Keyword Planner update appears to be rolling out in the new interface

(Via Search Engine Land)

‘The workflows in the new Keywords Planner are much more streamlined than the current/old version, and it uses Google’s Material Design, matching the new AdWords interface. The best indication of this new approach is immediately apparent from the start screen. Whereas the old version had multiple options and links, the new start screen condenses things down to just two options: Find New Keywords and Get Metrics and forecasts for your keywords…’

Read more here

The best digital marketing stats we’ve seen this week

(Via Econsultancy)

‘Ahead of GDPR regulations coming into force on May 25th, the7stars has revealed that 34% of Brits plan to exercise their right to be forgotten. This news comes from a survey of 1,000 Brits undertaken earlier this month…’

Read more here

Facebook is removing 20 outdated, redundant ad metrics; adding methodology labels

(Via Marketing Land)

‘Facebook has made several changes to how and what advertising metrics it reports in an effort to improve transparency and clear up advertiser confusion. The changes come after the company admitted a series of measurement problems in a span of nearly two years and has heard from advertisers that they want more clarity around how its metrics are calculated.…’
Read more here

It’s time for another batch of the Attercopia Headlines – our weekly round-up of the hottest stories in digital media served directly to your eyeballs.

Take a look at our highlights for 21/02/18…

(Via Ad Age)

‘Red Stripe has stepped into to save the Jamaican bobsled team at the Olympics. The beer, which is brewed in the nation’s capital of Kingston, covered the cost of the women’s team’s sled at the last minute after its coach quit and apparently threatened to take the sled with her, the brand says…’

Read more here

(Via Search Engine Land)

‘Today we’re launching some changes on Google Images to help connect users and useful websites. This will include removing the View Image button. The Visit button remains, so users can see images in the context of the webpages they’re on. The Search by Image button is also being removed. Reverse image search *still works* through the way most people use it, from the search bar of Google Images…’

Read more here

(Via The Drum)

‘The Brussels Court of First Instance, which has jurisdiction in all disputes that are not assigned by law to other courts, has warned Facebook to quit tracking Belgian citizens’ online habits, and to delete all the data it holds on them, or else it will have to pay a €100m fine…’

Read more here

(Via SEMRush)

‘Over the past few weeks, Google prepared a little something for each and every one of us. For those who are early HTTPS adopters, we heard the news about some big changes awaiting everyone in July 2018. For those who like to keep up with everyone else’s budget – Alphabet released their annual fiscal year results report. And for those who are still speculating on the future of AdWords and are anticipating some possible negative impacts from machine learning, Google opposed with a new feature within its advertising service…’

Read more here

There’s no greater Valentine than the Attercopia Headlines – our weekly round-up of the hottest stories in digital media.

Take a look at our highlights for 14/02/18…

 (Via Search Metrics)

‘SEO is an exciting marketing field because it is the point where you can engage with your customers based on their needs through search engines like Google and Bing. SEO is the art of understanding how to interpret data, the science of optimizing content based on that data, and the skill of empathy to understand the human-element of online searches…’

Read more here

(Via the Guardian)

‘It’s official: Facebook is for old(er) people. Teens and young adults are ditching Mark Zuckerberg’s social network as popularity among the over-55s surges, according to a report.

‘In 2018, 2.2 million 12- to 17-year-olds and 4.5 million 18- to 24-year-olds will regularly use Facebook in the UK, 700,000 fewer than in 2017, as younger users defect to services such as Snapchat, according to eMarketer…’

Read more here

 (Via Search Engine Land)

‘July is shaping up to be a big month for Google. Earlier this month, the company announced its Speed Update set to roll out in July, and today announced it will then also mark all sites that have not migrated to HTTPS as “not secure…”’

Read more here

 (Via Marketing Week)

‘Conversations around the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) often focus on consumer concerns and expectations but the challenges for B2B brands are equally if not more complex.

‘Encouragingly, most B2B marketers (72%) do have a good awareness of GDPR, and the majority (64%) believe their organisations are somewhat or extremely prepared for the new data laws, 6% higher than the average, according to the DMA’s latest research…’

Read more here

Let’s dive headfirst into the Attercopia Headlines – our weekly round-up of the most scintillating stories in digital media.

Take a look at our highlights for 08/02/18…

(Via SquareDot)

“The new EU Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has created a number of challenges and concerns for businesses across the world. With GDPR fines reaching €20m or 4% of global turnover, those concerns are well founded. Every item of personal data is covered by GDPR – including your B2B marketing data…”

Read more here

(Via Search Engine Land)

“Google has invested heavily in shaping the architecture of the web, working with developers, the open-source community and the SEO community to ensure adoption of technologies and practices as part of its mission “to contribute to the prevalence of a healthy, flourishing, and vibrant web. Most recently, Google has partnered with open-source content management system (CMS) WordPress, arguably the largest, with market share nearing 59 percent and an estimated 1/3 of all web content published through the platform — including our three publications…”

Read more here

(Via Search Engine Watch)

“Google strives to provide the answer to any question a user may be searching for and we’ve seen this evolve through recent years – from improved local search results to the expansion of the knowledge graph into Answer Boxes. Google have exploited this at times and this has most notably seen in the Car Insurance market where they have introduced their own price comparison service above others…”

Read more here

(Via The Drum)

“Google has run a test, alongside Boston Consulting Group and Nielsen, to try to ascertain how much more efficient it is to run campaigns through a consolidated Programmatic Guarantee system, versus a siloed open market and direct route. According to the research, the campaigns drove 11% more in reach efficiency, meaning the campaigns reached 11% more unique customers by using Programmatic Guaranteed…”

Read more here

It’s time for some more Attercopia Headlines – our weekly round-up of the most exciting and engaging news in digital media.

Take a look at our highlights for 30/01/18…

(Via The Drum)

“The enigmatic messaging service will now let users share certain Snapchat content on third-party sites and blogs. This can be done via a link which allows individuals who don’t have the app to view the video or photo.

For now the announcement doesn’t relate to sponsored or branded videos or imagery, however given that all of Snap’s advertiser products have evolved from consumer products it doesn’t seem unlikely that in time the feature could evolve…”

Read more here

(Via Search Engine Land)

“Chris Tolles should be freaking out right now. As CEO of news aggregation site Topix, his is one of the media companies that would seemingly be most affected by Facebook’s recent News Feed algorithm change, which is expected to throttle the traffic the social network sends to publishers’ sites. According to SimilarWeb, in December 2016, Topix received 37 percent of its US desktop visitors from Facebook. Yet Tolles isn’t too troubled…”

Read more here

(Via Google)

“Building the tools that provide transparency and control over your data has always been a top priority for us. On the ads front, we’ve evolved our tools over the years to help you shape your ads experience. We launched a single dashboard for ads controls—originally named the Ads Preferences Manager, now Ads Settings—in 2009, Why This Ad in 2011, Mute This Ad in 2012, and then folded these into your central data controls hub: My Account…”

Read more here

(Via Local SEO Checklist)

“The best part of the end of every year is how you get to start over, and the trends that have shaped local SEO in 2018 for small businesses has “new beginnings” all over it. In this day and age, consumers have several resources at their disposal to find business information and make an informed purchase decision. In light of such developments, search is aimed to become hyper-focused and hyper-relevant. Reworking your local SEO strategies for the next year is imperative to stay ahead of the game…”

Read more here

It’s time for another dose of The Attercopia Headlines – our weekly round-up of the most exciting and engaging news in digital media.

Check out our highlights for 23/01/18…

(Via Search Engine Land)

“Google today announced a new ranking algorithm designed for mobile search. The company is calling it the “Speed Update,” and it will only impact a small percentage of queries, Google reiterated to us. Only pages that “deliver the slowest experience to users” will be impacted by this update, the company says…”

Read more here

(Via Marketing Week)

“The project came about because Lush wanted more control over its technology – both in terms of what it offered and how it could cater to its needs. For example, Lush found that with the major till providers it was paying for services such as marketing tools that would implement discount rates, but this isn’t something the brand needs as it doesn’t discount outside one short sales period…”

Read more here

(Via SEMrush)

“Search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion rate optimization (CRO) each focus on two very different aspects of marketing. SEO focuses on driving traffic to your site, while CRO focuses on increasing conversions like lead generation, event registration, and sales. The two are very different focuses, but they are most effective when their efforts are combined…”

Read more here

(Via the Independent)

“It’s the second major tweak to Facebook’s algorithm announced this month. The social media giant, a major source of news for users, has struggled to deal with an uproar over fake news and Russian-linked posts, meant to influence the 2016 US elections, on its platform…”

Read more here

Welcome to the Attercopia Headlines – our weekly round-up of the most exciting and engaging news in digital media.

Check out our highlights for 17/01/18…

(Via Contently)

“Whenever Facebook tweaks its algorithm and decreases the reach of news stories, publishers usually treat it like a lover’s quarrel. But according to a Digiday report, Facebook has been sending each publisher the “We need to talk” text, warning them of the most apocalyptic algorithm change yet…”

Read more here

(Via Marketing Land)

“This is the essence of the challenge: how to navigate an increasingly tribal environment and appeal to the broadest possible audience. All of that is made more complicated by the finding, in a new report from Sprout Social, that 66 percent of consumers “want brands to take public stands on social and political issues…”

Read more here

(Via The Drum)

“According to research by blog discovery website Bloglovin’ 32% of marketers saw influencer campaigns as being essential to their strategies, with 41% admitting to seeing more success from their influencer campaigns over their traditional advertising…”

Read more here

(Via Search Engine Land)

“It’s not all that surprising to see third-party Review extensions go by the wayside. They launched in 2013, but were never easy to get approved and as such, not widely implemented. The idea had been for businesses to be able to feature editorial quotes about their services in their ads, but that never really panned out. Even using the Better Business Bureau as a source became less of a guarantee of approval lately…”

Read more here

If you’d like to see more news from the world of digital media, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

I’m sure by now you’re acutely aware that GDPR’s on its way — but how well developed is your plan for ensuring your business is compliant?

If you don’t have a plan yet don’t panic — you’re certainly not alone. But dedicate the next few minutes of your life to this article and you’ll feel much more prepared!

If you still need more information on GDPR basics, read our introductory blog here and if you’ve got a few days spare you can tackle the full, 99 page regulation document here.

Otherwise, let’s get cracking.

Under GDPR some attributes are classed as “personal data” and others as “sensitive personal data”. Here’s the difference:

Personal Data: Name / Address / Email Address / Social Security Number / Location Data / IP Address

Sensitive Personal Data: Race / Health Status / Sexual Orientation / Religious Beliefs / Political Beliefs

The latter set should be handled even more carefully and securely than the former.

If any of the above data is collected by your website and/or your wider company, here are the personal data rights you need to provide to individuals:

• Right to be informed
• Right of access
• Right to rectification
• Right to erasure
• Right to restrict processing
• Right to data portability
• Right to object
• Rights related to automated decision making including profiling

Further information is available here via the ICO.

It’s best to create a spreadsheet that covers every system, application or program used to capture and store personal data — i.e. Web Forms, CRMs, Email Clients, Analytics Platforms, Social Pixels, CMS plug-ins etc.

You then need to work out:

• Is it 1^st or 3^rd party data?
• How long is it stored?
• How do you use it?
• Do you share it with any additional parties?
• What’s the legal basis for processing this data?

Once you’ve sifted and separated using the criteria above, you should consider:

• Removing any redundant data that is no longer in use – storing data is getting riskier so mitigate wherever possible!
• Are you using any of this data incorrectly? i.e. are you automatically adding people who’ve completed your website contact form in to your mailing list? If so, that needs to stop or have a consensual opt-in added.
• Should you be sharing data with third parties and if so, are they handling it correctly?
• If there is no legal basis, are you seeking the appropriate level of consent to gather and process data?

We then advise completing this stage of your preparation by fully documenting all processes —this makes them easy to evidence if they’re ever requested by an individual or organisation.

As briefly touched on above with the Web Form, it’s essential to confirm that all personal data, however captured, is done so consensually — and that in turn, the data is only used as intended by the users giving of consent.

So there are a few things you may need to change:

• Adding Newsletter opt-in boxes to all Contact Forms
• Verbally recording opt-in to mailers if out networking

A crucial rule here is that the Opt-In box should NEVER be pre-ticked.

Your site probably already has a Privacy Policy, including sections on Cookies and how data is managed — but GDPR means it’ll soon be obsolete.

So your existing policy should be reviewed to ensure that it accurately details:

• How collect data
• Why you collect it
• How you use it

It should be written clearly and accessibly so that it’s easy to digest.

Consent – Opt-in & Opt-out

Consent is all-important — all first party data gathered by you should be given willingly and only used in the manner intended by said consent (so again, no more dropping people who’ve filled out a contact form into your mailing list).

A clear “Opt-out” process should also be provided for people who wish to have their data removed from your records.

Analytics Tools

An obvious question that arises will be: “but how do I remove someone’s data from my Analytics platform” (Google, Adobe etc).

No process currently exists for Webmasters to action such a request. However, all popular Web Browsers have long offered the ability to “opt-out” of having your behaviour tracked by website analytics systems.

This process is currently believed to be the best way of managing data tracking via Analytics platforms in a post-GDPR world.

After completing the steps above you’ll feel much more informed about managing GDPR in relation to your website.

While there are a few months to go until the regulation hits the books on the 25^th of May 2018, the time will pass quickly. So if you’ve not started doing anything remotely similar to what we’ve advised, now’s the time to start!

If you have any further questions relating to how your business needs to adapt for GDPR, feel free to contact our DPO (Data Protection Officer) John-Paul Drake on jp@attercopia.co.uk.