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Guest User 8/14/20 Guest User 8/14/20

Facebook Shops for Retail Businesses: An Overview Guide

Following on the heels of the successful Marketplace, Facebook announced the release of Shops for retail businesses in May of this year. Unlike Marketplace that is an open community buying and selling platform, Shops caters specifically to retail businesses and allows them to create a virtual storefront on both their Facebook and Instagram pages.

The development of Shops was driven by a vision to both recreate the buying experience for the nearly 3 billion users active on Facebook and Instagram and to open a new retail channel for e-commerce businesses. According to a representative of Facebook, “[Facebook] wants to give people a place to experience the joy of shopping versus the chore of buying. And we want to help small businesses adapt and make it easier for people to discover and shop for things they love… Our goal is to make shopping seamless and empower anyone from a small business owner to a global brand to use our apps to connect with customers.”

How To Shop

Shopping your favorite retailers couldn’t be easier with Shops. Simply navigate to the brand that you want to browse and a View Shop button will be clearly displayed on their account page. Please note that brands must take the initiative to set up their Shop. So if your favorite store is missing the Shop feature on Facebook or Instagram, try sending them a DM to request that they make that feature available!

Below are some snapshots of Facebook Shops as seen on the desktop site (please note I used the New Facebook in Dark Mode as opposed to Classic Facebook).

As an example, I searched for Ink Meets Paper, a stationery store. A blue View Shop button is clearly seen directly below their cover image, on the right.

Screen Shot 2020-08-07 at 11.41.26 AM.png

After clicking on View Shop, I was taken to the Shop home page. As you can see, the store has created different featured collections. Below those are more individual items that can be scrolled through.

Screen Shot 2020-08-07 at 11.41.57 AM.png

When you click on a single item it brings up the product shop page. You can scroll through different images by clicking the arrows, and see all product details and customer reviews on the righthand menu. To buy the item, simply select the desired quantity and click “Checkout.”

Screen Shot 2020-08-07 at 11.42.15 AM.png

And shopping on Instagram is a nearly identical experience. You’ll head over to the brand that you want to shop. On their profile page, you’ll see a View Shop button above their regular feed. Click that and you’ll land on their Instagram Shop! See the images below for a visual guide.

Why You Should Sell On Shops

Setting up a Shop for your business should be a no brainer! There’s no better place to sell to your customer base than your social media profile, especially if your brand tends to cater to the Millennial generation. Users are already landing on your profile to view your products. Having a seamless e-commerce channel integrated with your account removes one more barrier to the point of transaction.

Additionally, they’ve done a great job in giving the buyer Visual Merchandising flexibility. As you can see from the above photos, Shops can be organized by categories and there’s plenty of freedom to incorporate striking visuals to enhance the consumer experience. The photos below also show the product information page. There is space for an adequate description as well as the ability to include need-to-know information such as Returns and Shipping Policies.

Planned Future Enhancements

We have to hand it to Facebook; they did a great job in creating a platform that empowers business owners to seamlessly integrate their social accounts into their overall e-commerce strategy. They’re currently undergoing testing and development to roll out even more useful features, like the ability to connect an existing loyalty program to the Facebook Shop.

As any typical consumer, I know this will be a very compelling feature for me when browsing my favorite shops. I am personally a member of multiple loyalty programs across a wide spectrum of brands and love it when my purchases bring back some kind of return.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Facebook and Instagram Shops integrate seamlessly into both the business’s commerce stack and the consumer’s user experience on social media. We honestly can’t believe it’s taken them this long to roll this feature out, given how popular social media is for the promotion of e-commerce brands. So whether you’re a business that’s looking for additional avenues to merchandise your product, or you’re a buyer who loves a convenient way to browse your favorite stores, Shops is a new feature that you should be taking advantage of!

Corbitt Chandler 4/14/20 Corbitt Chandler 4/14/20

The MASSIVE Changes Facebook’s Making To Their Platform Advertisers Need To Know To Win!

Recently, I was provided a summary of some major changes taking place on Facebook’s platform by someone I highly trust and respect. These changes were announced at F8, Facebook’s annual conference (anybody else bother to apply for F8, get accepted and pay for their credentials only to not attend like me?? smh), which takes place in June, so in the world of technology this news is relatively old.

What’s up, guys?!

Corbitt Chandler here… Founder and CEO of Apex Current.

I received the information a few weeks ago and after recently having one of my Business Manager accounts shutdown by Facebook (it’s okay, I have multiple), I wanted to share this info so other agencies, ad buyers, consultants, etc. out there could avoid being in the same type of situation.

With that in mind, I don’t have the original source for this info. If you happen to stumble across this post and know the F8 attendee who crafted this, please provide their name in the comments section so I can credit them in the post (also, if you know them personally, please tell them thank you).

Introduction - A few important housekeeping items of note:

Before diving in, I want to make clear that I have amended what was provided ever so slightly so that it speaks to paid advertisers on the platform. I’ve also reorganized the original info just a bit so that there’s a more of a natural flow, as what I was provided looked to be notes that were taken on the fly at the conference.

Last, but not least, I’ve siloed everything into two parts; the first section revolves around changes in regards to posts and/or ads and a second section that focuses on Facebook Groups, which is what they’ve noted “as the future” of the platform.

Alright, with all of that out of the way, let’s dive in! You’ll have to forgive any typos. My brain has a tendency to move well in advance of my fingers… Plus, the “E” key on my MacBook Pro is broken right now because if you ask my wife apparently I like to make the most obnoxiously loud noise as possible when I type on my keyboard! 💪

Part 1 - Changes to how the algorithm views & optimizes all content (posts, ads, etc.):

The content we post on Facebook is supposed to create meaningful interactions. If it doesn’t, your post is less likely to be seen and suppressed by the algorithm. This extends to ads and why Facebook has removed “Relevance Score” and added the 3 new metrics for advertisers to be able to gauge ad quality as it relates to their targeted audience.

Contests, giveaways, and any posts or ads with language around the word “free” is starting to be suppressed by Facebook. If you are saying “get this free” or “enter this giveaway,” those will be suppressed by the algorithm. This goes back to creating meaningful interactions.

Newsfeed is shrinking. Stories are merging with the newsfeed. Messenger is being favored. Take the time to look through all the available options in Messenger. Messenger is soon going to be separated from the desktop, meaning it will be its own entity. WhatsApp and Messenger will be contained and can be used for direct selling. As mentioned, Facebook is saying that what they’re focused on moving to and the future of the platform revolves around “privacy.”

You CANNOT tell users how to react. In other words, you can’t say things like “Love this post and...” or “Comment below and…” Those phrases will suppress your reach because they are considered engagement baiting. What you should say is something like, “Leave me a heart and…” Engagement baiting includes words like COMMENT, VOTE, REACT, SHARE, TAG.

Teach users (e.g. prospects / clients) to leave a reaction, not a LIKE. Liking a post means nothing to the Facebook algorithm. It does not qualify as an engagement. Users need to LOVE it, react with SHOCK, or use the LAUGHING reaction. This shows positive user experience and will help your organic reach. Comments also boost your reach and GIF’s give you the highest ranking in the algorithm.

Ads are targeting new avenues. You can no longer have a small budget for Facebook ads and expect it to be successful. You need to understand targeting or you’ll be wasting money. Start testing ads in other ways that are not on the newsfeed.

Going LIVE is no longer on Facebook’s radar as an ORGANIC algorithm piece. If you didn’t go live often before, this is good news for you. If you are one who utilized it a lot, you’ll need to find other ways to boost organic reach. However, if your live video creates meaningful engagement, it will boost in algorithm ranking (with the reduction of the algorithm’s organic favoring given to FB Live videos, you may have seen a user or brand - that was aware of this ‘preferential treatment’ - posting a high volume of FB Live videos & with these new changes, has reduced or completely abandoned those efforts entirely).

Links in posts or ads can be determined as click-bait, or something that flags what’s called the “Click Gap Signal.” The Click Gap Signal is a measuring of inbound and outbound link patterns of a site that is being linked out from Facebook. Facebook will reduce the reach if the number of clicks from Facebook is higher than it is in other areas of the internet. In other words, if more people are going to your website via Facebook versus an organic Google search, your post will be considered click-bait or spam. Facebook will suppress it and/or shut down your ad account. While that might not be true, that’s what the algorithm will see (true story - as I mentioned in the intro, recently I had an entire Business Manager account shutdown. Every asset within that account is gone, goodbye, thanks for playing…).

This isn’t necessarily news to any decent ad buyer, but Facebook is tracking the link clicked to the funnel. This means Facebook will follow where the link is going. This could also trigger the Click Gap Signal.

Don’t limit yourself to one platform. Stories, Groups, Messenger, etc. are where you need to be on Facebook, but you should also be on other platforms. Move users away from Facebook to other areas. Spread out your reach. You shouldn’t build your entire business on one platform that you have no control over.

Sharing is not caring. Sharing from your page to your timeline/newsfeed is against the Terms of Service. By dropping your page link in a Sharing is Caring post, you are putting yourself at risk to have your account shut down. Sharing sale posts made on a page you are the admin of is also a no-no. Facebook wants page content to stay on the page. Selling is not allowed on your personal timeline. However, if a user (a non-admin of your page) shares a post from your page, the complete opposite happens. This boosts your ranking in the algorithm. Facebook views this as positive content because a user cared enough about the post to share it. If someone comments on that users shared post, you get an even higher boost.

Understand Facebook’s Community Standards and know that it’s a bot screening your content. It’s important to work within those rules in order to be present on social media. Understanding and following these standards will help boost your ad in the algorithm and help with your ad approvals.

Part 2 - Facebook’s new focus on Groups as the future of the platform’s growth:PART 2 - FACEBOOK’S NEW FOCUS ON GROUPS AS THE FUTURE OF THE PLATFORM:

Facebook is focusing on privacy and making the user experience more intimate. That’s what the algorithms is going to start catering to. If you don’t have a group strategy, getting one going might be a good route. Here are some items to be aware of if you’re the Admin of a group or are implementing a Facebook Group strategy:

Group Admins are responsible for all group activities. If content is posted in a group that goes against Facebook’s Terms of Service (TOS) or Community Standards, admins are at risk to lose their personal profile, their business page, and their group. Admins can be shut down with no recourse.

Negative ratings reflect poorly on the admin team. Negative ratings are the angry face, the sad face, member reported content, and the number of people who block you. These things also reflect poor ratings on groups and suppress reach. Facebook wants the user experience to be positive. Sad or angry face reactions tells Facebook that the user is having a bad experience, therefore diminishing your organic reach.

Post approval process is a responsibility. Admins should have post approval turned on in groups to protect themselves from negative ratings. Questions should be asked for new joins. It’s the admins responsibility to monitor and know who they are allowing in their group.

When members leave the group, they have the choice to take all of their content with them. This applies to admins as well. So if you had an admin that posted great content and then they leave the group, they have the ability to take their posts out of the group.

Sales posts on your page and in your group should be less than 20%. Facebook doesn’t want an abundance of “buy my (insert product / service)” posts because they don’t create meaningful interactions.

Admins should reduce takeovers or change how they are phrased. The word TAKEOVER is being suppressed. Instead, have a PARTY, an AUTHOR GATHERING, or EVENING ENTERTAINMENT.

Reduce the number of admins in the group. Again, this goes back to admin responsibility. The group admins should be you and only one or two other trusted sources.

Create Group Rules within Facebook (not just pinned in the announcements or written in the ‘about’ section of the group). They set the tone for the group and gives you something to point to if someone is not following the rules. It is your responsibility to make sure everyone is on the same page, or you risk losing your account with no recourse.

Link your group to your page. Facebook is going to be coming out with features that are specific to business pages that have groups.

Be a conversation starter in groups. Earn the badge. It shows you are creating meaningful conversations. Users are like you. If you like to see something on Facebook, chances are that they will like it too.

Groups deemed harmful on Facebook will be shut down. As per the statement put out by Facebook “…we identify and remove harmful groups, whether they are public, closed or secret. We can now proactively detect many types of violating content posted in groups before anyone reports them and sometimes before few people, if any, even see them.”

Conclusion - Don’t stand still, we all have to continually evolve:

Take advantage of these updates and changes! If they scare you a little (or a lot), that’s okay! What’s not okay is to stand in the same place doing the same old thing until your ads don’t produce any notable results oor worse. Anything you may see listed above that conflicts with your current strategy is only an opportunity in disguise. Don’t miss the importance of focusing on your groups given that’s where Facebook has decided to move their focus.

Digital marketers and ad buyers evolve everyday. This is just another element we have to evolve with to continue staying on top of our game! It might not be easy because for some of us this might change a great deal of what we’re used to as an effective strategy. As it goes with anything worth doing, the cream will always rise to the top!

Remember, Facebook’s number one product is UX (user experience) and they’re attempting to improve it so that more users spend time on the platform and engaging. Facebook’s number one source of revenue (currently) comes from advertisers so I highly doubt they’re planning to throw the baby out with the bath water. Evolve your strategy and figure out what it takes to win given these new standards (whether that’s for your clients or your business) and you’ll be rewarded for those efforts.

Ultimately, when you do figure out the recipe for success for your business or clients I strongly believe this “meaningful interaction” element Facebook is focusing on will be a game changer in many ways! In the long haul, it will create an environment where prospects who interact with your ads will have higher intent and improve the overall performance of your paid advertising campaigns on Facebook.

Good luck and Godspeed!

Corbitt

Need Impactful Results From Your Digital Ads?

“What’s up?! I’m Corbitt Chandler. My passion is growing businesses through effective digital marketing strategies. We’d love to help you!”

Corbitt Chandler consults with LinkedIn’s Head of Product for Campaign Manager

Corbitt Chandler Interviewed the Wealth Without Wall Street Podcast

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A Little Bit About The Man Who Mentored Apex Current’s Founder & CEO, Corbitt Chandler

Our Founder & CEO, Corbitt Chandler, talks about the man who mentored him and inspired him to start, Apex Current.

What’s up everyone?!

Corbitt Chandler here, Founder & CEO of Apex Current. I wanted to jump in and write a little blog post - 1) because we’re so busy around the office, other than repurposing content, we’re not as active on our blog as I’d like to be and 2) and more importantly, I wanted to give an appropriate shoutout to someone very special to me, my brother, one of my good friends and mentors, Brad Bearden (check him out on Facebook - Facebook).

Now, real quick caveat, this started as a post on my personal Instagram which very quickly became too long so I decided to memorialize this shoutout appropriately by turning it into a post on our blog. With that out of the way, let’s dive in…

To write that Brad means a great deal to me, would be an understatement. I feel quite indebted to him and quite a few others for having the opportunity to start my company, if I’m honest. I feel like all of those individuals are standing behind me with every decision I make and this business iis an extension of them. But, if you picture a dark room with all of these individuals standing behind me, Brad would be right in the center with a spotlight beaming down on top of him because that’s how crucial he’s been to this endeavor.

Here he is in this picture of us side-by-side, he’s on the left and as his instagram post says (where I originally pulled this picture from), feeling cute making bread and me on the right feeling and doing the same.

Brad was brought on by the awesome company I used to work for as the Vice President of Marketing to help us completely reshape our paid advertising. Brad had developed a proven Facebook advertising system specific to our vertical that was second to none. To provide a little context to this point in time in my life, I was personally in a super weird place.

Only a few months into a new sober lifestyle, I felt like a young doe on shaky legs learning to walk along with re-learning how to do everything else in my life. I was pretty sad too - depressed. I guess I was mourning the loss of what I thought was my closest friend because me and booze did everything together. Obviously, I know now that this “friend” of mine was quite the opposite.

*This was pretty much me at the time… My quads were just bigger.*

He boomed with confidence and positive fearless energy. I was a little taken aback and as the VP of Marketing, felt a bit territorial over what I thought was my domain.

It didn’t take a significant amount of time for that to subside and I realized the opportunity as well as incredible challenge that stood before me. His marketing system relied heavily on a substantial volume of targeted media buying and placement through Facebook as well as someone with prowess to manage it all continually optimizing for the best results. He wasn’t hired to do, but to teach us his system so someone was going to have to step up to press the buttons.

For whatever reason; be it fate, obligation, drawing the short straw, my own personal desire; I became his protege. In my entire career up until this point, I had never bought a penny of digital media on any platform. I had managed plenty of agencies and partners, but pressing the buttons was completely foreign to me. Brad took me under his wing and not only did he mentor me through this insanely complex & granular process, he taught me how to be and think like a marketer (when it comes down to it, he taught me a great deal more than that helping to reshape my entire thought process about how I approached any situation in life).

*We used to put in these 10 plus hour days, laptops appropriately in our laps, him guiding me very patently all the way. He’s an excellent teacher and I was very fortunate to learn from him.*

Back to that whole teaching me how to be and think like “a marketer” thing. Hold up, wait... How does what I that even make any sense? I had a college degree in marketing from the University of Alabama, a successful career in marketing for well over a decade at that point in time for numerous big brands, , but I wasn’t a marketer? Yep! 💯... My formal education and all of my years working professionally combined couldn’t touch what I learned from this man. He schooled me in effective marketing.

There was, of course, buying and placing digital media and becoming comfortable with that process as well as how to identify and ptimie the best performers. There was building effective Sales Funnels in Clickfunnels… There was learning how to build email campaigns and logic in the CRM, Infusionsoft (aptly dubbed “Confusionsoft” by many and something that had alluded me for over 2 years as I fumbled though it). BUT, most of all, there was how to select the write type of creative and write effective ad copy.

I literally can’t put a value on the education I learned. I was very fortunate in that my company hired him and I was the direct recipient of this knowledge. In six months, my company had driven over $1 million in new customers with a solid 4:1 return from his program.

He also inspired me to become an entrepreneur more than anyone in my life, that’s for certain! I NEVER considered myself anything, but a “corporate man” before meeting him. He told me flat out that I was an entrepreneur and knew with what he had taught me, it was only a matter of time before I started to spread my wings and exit my company, that i so greatly appreciated for so much as well because without them, none of this would have been possible either.

Him along with my amazing wife, Michelle, who had always believed in me, taught me to believe in myself. He taught me to be fearless. He taught me to be confident in my abilities. He showed me how to go get what I’m worth and not be afraid to demand the respect I deserved. He taught me to be a better man for my family and friends.

I won’t go into too much detail on the rest of the story because I’ve shared that in separate posts multiple times, one of which you can read here if you’re interested. It wasn’t long that I started consulting with brands and even though Brad was being paid anymore to mentor me, he continued to do so and does to this day.

I began consulting in April of 2017, founded Apex Current in September of 2017 and since then this rocket ship has achieved so much and grown into something much bigger than me with so many valuable players involved that have made this all possible. Apex Current was a Finalist in 2018, for Small Business of the Year, I was honored as one of Birmingham’s Top CEO’s last year, this year Apex Current was recognized by DesignRush as one of 2019’s Best Ad Agencies in the World which was published in Business Insider. I’ve generated $1.5 million dollars in topline revenue in only 18 months, Apex Current having months where our revenue was more than I made in one year of my career before starting my company.

Apex Current DesignRush 2019 Top Worldwide Ad Agencies Highlight Reel (4:5) from Apex Current on Vimeo.

DesignRush 2019 Top Ad Agencies - Apex Current Highlight Reel

All of it is very humbling and would not have been possible without him. All the long nights and weekends working add up. It’s not always easy, but he taught me to persevere and win at all costs. As I sit on my laptop late at night or early in the morning, when I work when no one’s looking, in times when I feel so alone because I’m pursuing something that most can’t understand and even though he’s just a phone call away, I still have that picture in my head of him encouraging me just like he did in the beginning. It spurs me onward and motivates me to this day.

I’m so grateful for the brotherhood we share and that he’s become such a big part of my story. I can never thank him enough or show enough gratitude. It’s hard to even say, where i’d be if we hadn’t met, but thank God we did because it changed everything in my life. 🙏

Alright, thanks for checking this out! I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to comment if you liked it and if you have any questions, drop them below and I’ll do my best to respond. Check out some of our other posts as well.

Much love❤️,

Corbitt

*Attending the 2018 KultureBall with our wives (who we apparently asked to not be in the picture. lol).*

Corbitt Chandler 4/4/18 Corbitt Chandler 4/4/18

Trump’s Campaign Said It Was Better at Facebook. Facebook Agrees (via Bloomberg)

Fair warning... There's nothing intended to be political by this post. It's simply to convey the power of Facebook's marketing resources when used effectively.

Fair warning... There's nothing intended to be political by this post. It's simply to convey the power of Facebook's marketing resources when used effectively.

The link to the original article is sited at the bottom of this page.

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has boasted often that it made better use of Facebook Inc.’s advertising tools than Hillary Clinton’s campaign did. An internal Facebook white paper, published days after the election, shows the company’s data scientists agree.

“Both campaigns spent heavily on Facebook between June and November of 2016,” the author of the internal paper writes, citing revenue of $44 million for Trump and $28 million for Clinton in that period. “But Trump’s FB campaigns were more complex than Clinton’s and better leveraged Facebook’s ability to optimize for outcomes.”

The paper, obtained by Bloomberg and discussed here for the first time, describes in granular detail the difference between Trump’s campaign, which was focused on finding new donors, and Clinton’s campaign, which concentrated on ensuring Clinton had broad appeal. The data scientist says 84 percent of Trump’s budget asked people on Facebook to take an action, like donating, compared with 56 percent of Clinton’s.

Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump ran 5.9 million different versions of ads during the presidential campaign and rapidly tested them to spread those that generated the most Facebook engagement, according to the paper. Clinton ran 66,000 different kinds of ads in the same period.

As is typical at Facebook, employees had access to the white paper, according to a person familiar with the matter. Employees routinely publish papers so colleagues can dig into issues facing the company and learn how certain products work.

A former Facebook employee cited the information from the white paper in a memo to Representative Adam Schiff’s office in early March, saying it could help Congress ask the right questions about whether the campaign coordinated with Russia. For example, according to the paper, more than a quarter of Trump’s ad spending was tied to third-party data files on voters, and leveraged a Facebook tool that helped the campaign show ads to people who looked similar to the names on file. Clinton’s ads aimed for broader audiences, with only 4 percent of her Facebook spend on the lookalike tool.

“Did Russian operatives give the Trump campaign a list of names to include or exclude from advertising that was running on Facebook?” the former employee asked in the memo.

Republicans shut down the House of Representatives’ investigation into Russia and Trump days later, “leaving questions unanswered, leads unexplored, countless witnesses uncalled, subpoenas unissued,” Schiff, a California Democrat, wrote on Twitter. A Schiff spokesman declined to comment for this story.

But Congress is still focusing on the use of third-party information on Facebook for another reason: the company’s ensuing crisis over data on 50 million users obtained by Cambridge Analytica, a political advertising firm that helped Trump’s campaign. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is set to make his first congressional testimony on the issue in a matter of days.

One key question Zuckerberg is likely to face, raised in the former employee’s memo to Schiff: What lists of Facebook users did Trump’s campaign upload for advertising purposes?

Facebook is still working to unearth other information that congressional investigators have requested. The company is continuing to comb through its site to identify content posted by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian organization that used Facebook to manipulate public discourse in America ahead of the election. On Tuesday, the company took down more than 270 accounts and pages operated by the IRA that were used to spread messages to people in Russia and neighboring countries.

“This is the next step towards removing them from Facebook entirely,” Zuckerberg wrote Tuesday on his Facebook page. “Organizations like the IRA are sophisticated adversaries who are constantly evolving, but we’ll keep improving our techniques to stay ahead -- especially when it comes to protecting the integrity of elections.”

Click here for the original article.