12 Facebook Marketing Predictions For 2014

Facebook has been continuously improving its mobile version for they know, like the worlds top software and hardware companies, that mobile computing is growing and upward is the way it'll go. So marketers started focusing on content that's great for mobiles and this trend will surely gain momentum next year.

Among other things, concise status updates and direct CTAs are two ways marketers are catering to mobile device users.

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Use Of Hashtags

Hashtags are scorching hot right now. Marketers this year have been using them in very many ways for they give greater visibility and depth and allow you to display brand consistency on Facebook. Use them with status updates and also attached to paid advertising which is a trending thing this year.

When using hashtags remember to be concise; limit its use and monitor your tags to make sure that they serve your purpose.

Hashtags help you get on to more channels so potential customers/fans can find you. It also makes your content more engaging. This has a good effect on EdgeRank which will result in your matter getting shown up in more News Feeds.

Sponsored Stories Social Context

[Ed.: January 8, 2014, Facebook officially announced it's ending "Sponsored Stories". But another version of this called "Social Context" will come back. Check out ReadWrite's Facebook Formally Kills 'Sponsored Stories,' But You're Still Fodder For Its Ads to learn more. We've left the below information in place to maintain the integrity of the post and possibly as use for Facebook's Social Context later on]

On mobile devices, Facebooks Sponsored Stories are the only ad plan you will get. Sponsored Stories show users interactions like Facebook likes to the users friends. A user will be more disposed to show interest in something when some of his friends like a particular page. The aim of Sponsored Stories is to induce the user to act as his friends do. Sponsored Stories are given favored positioning and can appear in news feeds and the right sidebar. According to Facebook, Sponsored Stories get 46% higher CTRs and 20% lesser CPCs in comparison to regular ads on Facebook ads. This has made them a great Facebook marketing strategy.

Promoted Posts

Use Facebook ads for overall promotion of your brand, to draw the appropriate customers and to build up your audience. Facebook has made changes in their Promoted Posts option which allows older posts to be used for a longer time and so these relatively cheaper ads can be made to reach out to a large audience. This post promotion will surely trend in 2014.

Interactive Promotions

Creating promos on Facebook using apps was a marketing technique that did very well in 2013 and will do again next year. As the mobile market expands and with a large number of apps available you can give your audience interactive promotions through contests, games and so on. Create a unique app and you'll make an impact. Promotions create a buzz, attract many people and boost the reputation of your brand.

More Visual Content

Dove's Facebook page. Posts with visual content highlighted by editor

Visual content is proving to be indispensable for all types of websites and its the same with Facebook which also saw the enhancement of visuals in 2013. Marketers are using visuals to connect with their targeted audience and, thanks to good screen resolutions and faster loading mobile devices, there has been a shift to appealing, visual content. Indeed, in 2014 visual content will only grow in importance and as screens on Smartphones are getting better, images on mobiles are becoming larger than life.

• Related editor pick: Why Use Images in Blog Posts and Where to Find Them

Open Graph

Businesses can tag a users action with their app using Facebook Open Graph, which is used for billions of communications on Facebook daily. Open Graph enables inventive options unlike the standard comment and like. Posts can propose that users taste, listen, read, and so on. Most times an app or site urges users to sign in to Facebook it has a bit to do with linking the user with Open Graph. Spotify is a terrific example of how Open Graph turns into a powerful marketing tool on Facebook.

Target Relevant Fans, E-mail List

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If your brand fails on Facebook, chances are you're not focusing on relevant fans. You are more concerned about likes than the persons who performed the action. You buy likes or run badly targeted ads which attract bots and persons who are not bothered about your brand. This is due to the fact that you are concerned more with the cost than with relevance. Therefore, your content must appeal to a focused audience. Your ads must aim at people who will matter most to you. Perish the thought about ads that produce likes @ 10 cents. If you focus on quality your effort will bear fruit. In the same way you can use the Custom Audiences to run an advertisement to focus on your email list of people who have bought before from you.

Power Editor

You can effectively promote a post using Power Editor. For instance you can focus only on your fans and get to them only in the News Feed. Power Editor will help you to manage your ads -- and get you total access to all Facebook advertising features and tools.

Conversion Tracking

You need to use Conversion Tracking each time you get some kind of conversion, like a lead, registration or purchase, after you run an advertisement. Conversion Tracking helps you to know if your marketing strategy succeeded or failed. If you don't use it, you'll just be guessing about how many conversions happened. Besides you'll be focusing on metrics that have nothing to do with conversions like the CTR, CPM, CPC and so on. When you get a conversion, you have to be aware of only Cost Per Conversion. Your aim will be to get the lowest CPC.

FBX -- Facebook Exchange

With Facebook Exchange advertisers can gain the benefit of Facebook ad retargeting via real time bidding. They can target audiences on the basis of web history information. When a visitor to a websites product page does not make a purchase, the seller can then display an ad for the same product on Facebook using FBX. Now these ads can appear in the News Feeds which is great news as response rates for these ads are 10-50 times higher than the ads placed on the right column.

Ad Variations

A single ad will not tell you clearly whether you have succeeded or failed. There are a lot of factors involved and all of them have to be taken into account before making a success/failure report. You have to test -- test varied ad types, page posts, test Sponsored Stories, test using photos, videos and link shares. Test different targeting and images and copy. In your tests, work with big sample sizes. Find out exactly what works and what doesn't and then climb up the ladder.

Summing Up

Get a head start over the rest of the field by practicing the best Facebook marketing methods for 2014 is going to be a great year for social media. Facebook will attract plenty of more people and millions will access the top social platform with their mobile devices. Since the economy is improving, marketing opportunities will grow exponentially and a Facebook page will become an even greater marketing tool. You can both grow your brand image and show your human face on a Facebook page; this is what makes it so attractive for marketers.

You can display your businesss character as well as personality here. On a Facebook page you should also show your humorous side; don't hesitate to display your companys funny side. Make your videos, images, links and everything else enjoyable and interesting. The ideal thing, in 2014, will be to have a nice mix of humor, education, information, knowledge sharing resources and posts about your business updates.