Facebook Wasn’t Kidding With Where They’re Going With Apps

Check out this notification in my newsfeed.

It’s from a Facebook app, not a user or page.
It’s not a user status update nor a page post.
It’s not a Facebook ad, since it doesn’t say “sponsored”.

If you’re a user, don’t have friends, and don’t post, then your activity isn’t going to show up in the newsfeed.
And if you’re a page without legitimate fans who are actively engaging, the same is true.

Isn’t it neat to think that social networks have evolved from being an address book to being an activity planner?
I remember back in 2005 how Facebook was just a more convenient way to keep phone numbers.
85% of friends had their mobile numbers listed in their profiles, from a quick count I did on other people’s profiles.
It was such a pain to have to ask someone for their number and then enter it in.

Do you remember those days of clamshells when you had to do that awkward exchange?
Nowadays, you are already connected to them and can click on their name.

It’s so seamless that if you were to ask me if a friend’s number, I couldn’t even tell you.
Yesterday, I didn’t remember my own number.

Now that 60% of Facebook’s traffic is mobile– and about the same revenue split, too– you’ll see the same frictionless activity in apps.

You may have seen Facebook’s latest changes from F8 this year. Graph v2, anonymous login, and enhancements to mobile apps mean they’re serious about you having an app.
That link I provided is a technical one, but worth the investment to understand where things are going on Facebook.

You can think of your company page as a newspaper for publishing, tied to your content marketing system.
But if you want to make money in social, you’ll need an app to collect their information, serve up notifications, and allow continuous nurturing.

I’m not saying pages are dead, contrary to the newsfeed reach complaints. Google heard the same complaints when they first launched ads in October 2000.

I’m not saying that apps are dead, though most Facebook app companies are.
The page tabs are nearly dead, for lack of reach and because they don’t have sophisticated interaction paths.
Serious digital marketers know the difference between a page tab and a true canvas app.
Anyone can iframe a webpage inside a Facebook page and call it a tab/app.

Not endless streams of silly cat photos, but honest relationship development
Consider sequences of what you want users to do in your journey with them.
If you wouldn’t open your wallet in real life and show these pics to them in your office, don’t do it on Facebook.
And don’t be amazed if these people don’t buy from you. Don’t blame Facebook for it, either.

If you haven’t mapped out your customer journey– to figure out how to systematize your expertise into logic– you’re in trouble.
What I just said has nothing to do with social media marketing. This is mapping your business process.

If you’re a software company wanting to sell your tool, you’d want to tie your content marketing logic into social sequences.
If you have any type of logic in your marketing automation system, you’d want to embed the same logic in your app, which happens to allow notifications in Facebook.

If you’re not a pro in “if this, then that” logic, then you’re an inch deep in your marketing efforts.
No tool will solve this for you. And even small mom-and-pop marketers need to start thinking about how to segment customers into content delivery paths tied to actions that can be pumped back into an app to trigger event logic.

If this confuses or scares you, then you’re in the right place
It means you recognize that social marketing has evolved from a siloed, stand-alone, channel to broadcast silly things to another channel integrated with the rest of your content, CRM, and business processes.

Mike Gingerich of TabSite agrees, explaining the necessity of having a fully integrated strategy:

If you’re still thinking that “Like-Gating” is a great strategy, then think again! Alex is so right on that today’s digital marketer MUST be thinking in an integrated, non-silo way about their marketing.  Facebook continues to roll-out changes that fight gaming (just like Google does) and reward the authentic and innovative companies.

Like the App notifications, it’s about seeing the opportunities and then integrating ways to use them to collectively grow your audience and leads.  Facebook is a GREAT place to reach a specific, ideal audience.  The key is then a complete funnel that involves lead capture, a place where Apps still perform well but ONLY as part of a complete strategy and not as a isolated single activity.

It means that you are working on getting smarter email marketing, which is the current state of marketing automation.
When marketing automation evolves into omni-channel marketing, the system will decide whether the customer prefers to be notified via email, a paper bill, or via an app.
Check out stuff like this.

It’s time for us marketers to get smarter about making all our channels work together.