Facebook's new changes and what they mean for marketers

If you're familiar with the popular social media site Facebook, you've probably noticed a few changes over the past several weeks. Big changes. The site has completely revamped its layout, causing upset for many users - marketers and advertisers included.

The biggest change for companies is the "like" button, which will lose much of its functionality, according to Mashable. Facebook is becoming "smarter," which means that the news feeds will be taking their cues from user habits. Users now have the option to unmark the top stories circulated by the companies they "like." Over time, the things they unmark will lose visibility, to the point where most users won't even lay eyes on them. That means that boring ads are sure to be among the first items to get the boot.

This leaves marketers with a big decision to make. They can either alter their advertising strategies to target consumers using more sophisticated means than a simple "like," or they can struggle to produce engaging content that users will hesitate to block from their feeds. Both strategies would require more of an investment from the companies themselves.

"Every brand and marketer is going to have to be a content programmer," Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus, a digital marketing firm, told ClickZ. "They have to ask themselves if they are prepared for that. Are they prepared to create content, curate content, aggregate content? Can they give people the reason to engage with their brands outside the physical nature of their products [and find] the additional manifestation of their products that can exist between people?"

This would obviously be a labor-intensive approach that would call for significant increases in advertising expenses. A better approach may be to come up with a new way to target potential customers through the social media site.

Semcasting offers Facebook microTargeting, a service which can help your ads reach the right users without the added burden of having to pay for the constant creation of content in place of standard advertising. Facebook microTargeting uses more than 750 demographic variables that will help you paint a portrait of your current customers and find other prospects who look just like them. It will also help ensure that your ads are placed on the best possible dates and times for your targeted prospects. Using this approach, your company will be able to target leads in the right place and reach out to them at the right time, maximizing the effectiveness of your campaign.