Facebook Home offers hyper-targeted access to mobile channel

It seems that whenever a new social media tool comes out, brands and agencies look at ways they can use it to sell more of their wares. The same can be said when the incumbents improve or change their services. Recently, Facebook introduced us to their newest mobile play: Facebook Home.

Facebook Home (available on select Android devices) is the social media giant’s attempt to make our mobile experience a Facebook-centric one. Founder Mark Zuckerburg said as much when he stated at the Facebook Home launch event, “Why do we need to go into all the apps in the first place to see what is going on with the people we care about?”

Facebook is obviously focused on keeping people connected with each other within the Facebook environment. They also want people to have a Facebook experience rather than a full mobile experience (with other mobile apps such as Twitter, Evernote, and Angry Birds) What does this mean moving forward?

Let’s assume that this mobile strategy is something that Facebook will focus on rather than pivot or ditch in a few months.

First, brands that want users to engage with them will need to focus more on compelling and interesting content. There will be a flood of brands and agencies developing not only Facebook tactics, but specific Facebook Home strategies and tactics. As a result, things are going to become a lot busier on our news feeds.

Facebook’s news feed announcement from early March that emphasizes images also plays well with Facebook Home. I expect brands will be placing more importance on the relevance and engagement opportunities that these images will be developing for companies. As a result, now, more than ever, brands and their agencies will need to place a stronger emphasis on their Facebook insights and analytics.

Does Facebook Home represent a new opportunity for mobile marketing?

“What type of content on which day of the week at what time is engaging more of our audience?”, will be one multi-pronged question that brand managers will be asking their community managers. As a result, community managers and content creators will be under pressure to continuously create such compelling content.

More importantly to Facebook will be the advertising opportunities that brands will want to execute. With a user’s mobile experience all taking place within the Facebook environment, Facebook will be able to know virtually everything that a person communicates with on their phone: their location, the photos of places and people they take, the stores we shop, at and even the shows they watch on TV.

Expect Facebook to sell this aggregate information to brands through hyper-targeted ads.

Facebook has the two things that advertisers, brands and agencies care about: Reach (the number of users) and frequency (active users). With Facebook Home, the ubiquitous social media company will have more frequent users on their platform.

Have you been trying Facebook Home? Let us know how you like it and if you’ve seen any interesting brands using it.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Karim Kanji
Karim Kanjihttp://karimkanji.com
Karim Kanji is the Canadian Director of Social Media Strategy at iNvolved Media. iNvolved Media was purchased by Active International in 2015. Clients include popular food brands, technology brands and other CPG companies. Prior to joining iNvolved Media, Karim led the paid social media strategy for some of Canada's most popular CPG and confectionery brands for Catalyst/GroupM. Karim started in the social media space when he co-founded and was the President of THIRDOCEAN where he led the creation of digital content for companies including Scotiabank, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Microsoft, Wild Water Kingdom, Palomino Systems Inc. and Techvibes. Karim has also been recognized as a pioneer in podcasting having interviewed people such as such as federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, former MLSE boss Richard Peddie, TVO's Steve Paikin, Canadian serial angel investor Dr. Boris Wertz, HootSuite founder Ryan Holmes, Mathew Ingram, Mitch Joel from Mirium and many, many others. As a demonstration of thought leadership, Karim led the development and execution of reports discussing how technology and digital media have impacted industries such as retail, education, health, gaming, sports and banking.

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