Facebook has become one of the best places to market your business. It has a huge and diverse audience and often tops the charts when it comes to engagement. If you’re looking for a venue that has a lot to offer, Facebook is definitely the one you should choose. It was the first social media platform to provide marketing tools to brands and it is still one of the best, with new developments being rolled out all the time that make it easier to reach out to your audience. Here’s what the future of marketing on this social media looks like:

1. Changes to their algorithm

Right now, Facebook uses an algorithm to determine what shows up in the newsfeeds of their users. Why do you care? Because this algorithm dictates whether or not you show up in the feeds of your audience. While it is impossible to predict exactly what these changes are going to look like or how they are going to affect your marketing plan, you should know that changes are going to be made and to be ready to adjust your marketing strategy is necessary.

2. Better audience targeting

Facebook already has pretty good audience targeting, but their goal, in the future, is to make it even better. As more and more people are signing up, posting statuses, and using the apps and features provided to them by Facebook, the social media is collecting more and more information about them and what they like and want to do. The amount of data that Facebook has about its users, provided to the service by those users, is staggering. As they strive to make analysis of that data better, you’ll have access to better audience targeting tools.

3. Customer service capability

Interested in using your business’s Facebook page as a customer service hub? If you are, you are going to love one of the big developments coming down the pike, namely, a feature that allows brands to actually open up their private messaging capability to their followers. This means that your customers will be able to send you a private message about an issue they might be having with your product or service and you can deal with that issue right on your Facebook account. Questions and complaints that might have been posted on your wall will now be dealt with in the private messaging feature.

4. Organic reach is going to shrink

Facebook is taking active steps to declutter the newsfeeds of their users, which have become overpopulated with brand messages lately. If you have been using Facebook for several years, you have probably already started to see organic reach be scaled back. While this is designed to scale back on the clutter in newsfeeds, it’s also designed to encourage brands to use the advertising platform. While they may not yet be forcing you to use the advertising platform if you are a business, they are going to continue to pull back on organic reach, perhaps so much that it makes it impossible to find a footing unless you do use that platform.

5. More options for shoppers

One of the biggest shifts we’re going to see in Facebook marketing is the ability to sell services and products to your clients or customers from your Facebook page. This capability is already there, but they are going to continue to expand it, as they continue to pursue the goal of making Facebook a one-stop-shop for everything a user could need online. There are going to be in-app shopping carts and more shopping options that make Facebook look more like Amazon or eBay. It would seem that Facebook’s ultimate goal is to compete with brands like Amazon and eBay.

6. Integration of virtual reality

Little is known just yet about how Facebook is going to utilize the virtual reality technology like Oculus Rift, but we do know that there are plans to integrate virtual reality into the Facebook experience. What is this going to mean for your brand? It means that you are going to have to rely now, more than ever, on visual content, at the very least. If the integration goes smoothly, Facebook is going to put more of an emphasis on videos and images than it already does.

7. Increased cost of ads

As more and more brands flock to Facebook and try to make a name for themselves, the cost of ad space is only going to increase. And because Facebook is still going to be one of the best places to reach out to your audience, you are likely going to need to increase your ad budget when it comes to Facebook. Because there will be higher demand, there are going to be higher prices for those who want a shot at its advertising slots.

8. Introduction of a wallet

Along with expanded shopping features, Facebook is going to roll out a feature that allows users to input their card information and start using their Facebook account as a wallet. This means that you may no longer have to try to lure users away from Facebook in order to get them make a purchase, but, instead, that you can simply encourage them to buy on the platform, decreasing the number of potential sales you lose in between clicking on your link on the platform and actually making a purchase on your website.

Conclusion

What changes do you see coming to Facebook in the near (or not so near) future? Let us know in the comments, or tweet to us @AgintoSolutions!