An open letter to Facebook from a Page Admin

Posted on by Marie Page

Open letter to Facebook Hello Facebook

You know, it’s OK. I get the thing about reduced organic reach. We’ve all had a free ride for far too long and far too many brands have pumped out turgid content that no one, not even their fans, is interested in. So I’m not even going to mention that.

And thanks for all the recent improvements – calls to action all over the place, carousel ads, that great search function within Publishing Tools, targeting by interest on Posts, clamping down on clickbait.

But there are a few things I’d  like to ask that you’d consider in further development of Facebook as a brand communication platform:

  1. I’d like to be able to target ads within Interests using the Boolean logic of “and” rather than “or”
    This has been on my Facebook wishlist since about the beginning of time. If I could get that Venn Diagram overlap within Interests (rather than just between Behaviours, Demographics, Interests etc) I reckon I’d quadruple my ad budget (and it’s effectiveness) overnight. Just to spell it out, I’d like to search for people that like, for instance “U2” and “Guitars” and “Rolling Stone Magazine”. That’s what I call targeting!
  2. Can you please arrange it so that we can upload a different cover image for mobile as for desktop?
    Surely with different ad images allowed for different placements we could have the option to upload a different image for mobile as desktop. Apart from anything else it would instantly improve the look of 90% of brand Pages losing all that nasty text overlap that happens when you design for one device and  end up viewing it on another.
  3. Can we have Insights for Groups?
    Insights are fantastic but they only work for Pages. Lots of us are using Groups and loving them. Can we have Insights data for them? Please?
  4. Can you show organic and viral reach as separate metrics on the Insights dashboard again please?
    It’s a right pain having to dig through the exports data for this figure. I reckon it would also encourage a few more brands to pay for promotion to fans once they realise how low their organic reach to fans really is.
  5. How about incorporating UTM tracking on ads?
    Yes, Facebook has a great ads reporting platform now but a lot of us would also like to access more detailed reports via Google Analytics without the schlep of manually inserting utm codes.
  6. Hurry up with the search functionality
    Thanks for the new search function within Publishing Tools (that would have been on this list). Any chance of a similar roll out for users too so that they can search our Pages and even within Profiles?

My friends may have a few more ideas – I’ll leave them to add them to the comments here.

That’s all. I think it would improve the experience for brands no end And I’d be very grateful.

Thanks very much

 

Marie

Marie Page

About Marie Page

Marie Page is one of the UK’s leading Facebook marketing experts. She is a founding partner of digital marketing consultancy The Digiterati and the Digiterati Academy e-learning portal for marketers and entrepreneurs. Her award-winning Master's Dissertation was the culmination of three years' academic research into Facebook that resulted in a book (and companion online course) 'Winning at Facebook Marketing with Zero Budget' that became an Amazon bestseller. Marie's work on the Facebook News Feed algorithm was featured in The Huffington Post. A recognised thought leader on social media, Marie is often approached by journalists for comment in articles such as this Telegraph article. She was also interviewed for ITV's Tonight show on Facebook privacy issues in relation to advertising. Marie is a regular guest on digital marketing blogs and podcasts including Social Media Examiner and Smart Insights. In 2018 she is speaking at Brighton SEO, Europe's biggest search and marketing conference. Marie is also author of two Smart Insights books: 'Smarter Guide to Facebook Marketing', now in its fourth edition, and 'Facebook Ads Guide', both edited by Dr Dave Chaffey. Marie is also a part time yoga teacher.

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