So Good Conference in Youngstown and Recent Changes to Facebook!
In this episode of The DOYO Live Marketing Show, Dennis Schiraldi Founder of DOYO Live meets up with Gianni Centifonti, Founder of the So Good Conference taking place at YSU’s Williamson College of Business on October 12, 2017.
Plus a bonus guest, that’s right. DOYO Live veteran and founder of the Start Up Circle and owner of Sassy Girl Media, Deanna Fusillo stops by to discuss some of the recent changes to Facebook that you cannot afford to miss out on.
Tickets can be purchased here: So Good Conference Tickets – Reserve Your Spot Today!
In our discussion, Gianni Centifonti works out of the Youngstown Business Incubator and is in a role that helps entrepreneurs with marketing research. She provides some really great resources, such at The Youngstown Public Library, as a place that can provide free resources when it comes to database research and other items imperative to making sound marketing and business decisions.
Gianni takes the time to explain the nuts and bolts of a social enterprise and how it’s impactful to the businesses. These businesses can be both non-profit and for profit but the underlying theme is that they exist to serve a greater purpose.
Often times a portion of revenue, employees or all of the above go back into chartible organizations or give employment to those that typically wouldn’t be provided with a second chance.
We are proud to say at DOYO Live that over the past year, we managed to raise over $2,000 for The Rich Center For Autism through a guest bartending night at Birdfish Brewery and donated several booth sponsorships to The Ballet Western Reserve and The Northeastern Ohio Adoption Services. Both as a way of giving back, staying true to the mission of being purpose driven and helping to create awareness at DOYO Live in 2017.
Be sure to read more in-depth about a social enterprise below. And connect with Gianni, this event is going to be a lot of fun, super informative and a great place to network.
Don’t Miss These Recent Changes to Facebook
In the second part of The DOYO Live Marketing Show, which was live from Gordy’s in Boardman, Ohio. Deann Fussilo stops by to chat about the recent changes going on in Facebook.
These will be impacting all of you that manage Facebook Pages, either directly for your business and/or clients.
1st Change – Facebook Boosting – Targeting Options Go Bye-Bye!
It’s been to our own recent discovery that there are different elements from a boosting perspective that are going away. Mainly in the targeting options. Which is a bummer. You can no longer target on a Facebook Boost by:
- University or School
- By Position – Role within a company so no more VP of Marketing
- Company – Yup that’s gone, so when you wanted to serve Facebook content into a post to an account based strategy, that’s no longer a thing.
There are several bullet points on video, political, event and the list goes on. That Facebook is eliminating. Now the rationale or reasoning is still up in the air for debate. Typically they want to provide a better user experience. There’s also the “fake news” that’s helping to impact this…however from our perspective.
This is big and the reason is that we found out last week in running targeted ads based on profiles we’ve built out and were using just 3-months ago can no longer be ran in the same fashion. So interest and behavior doesn’t change, but we can no longer target VP’s of…Which could have a direct impact on DOYO Live. In 2017, our attendee breakdown showed that 35% of our audience was at the VP level. Our ad strategy tarted marketing executives.
Looks like we will need to re-visit the profiles that we’ve built.
In this episode Deanna and Dennis breakdown a lot of these changes beyond the targeting options. Be sure to take a look at the video. In this blog we provide you with the additional details from Ad Espresso by HootSuite.
What is Social Enterprise?
Social enterprise can be challenging to define, in large part because the concept has been evolving rapidly in recent years and increasingly blurs the lines of the traditional business, government and non-profit sectors.
Social Enterprise Alliance suggests the following basic working definition:
Organizations that address a basic unmet need or solve a social problem through a market-drive approach.
In recent years, traditional non-profits have become more entrepreneurial and interested in generating earned revenue to supplement charitable contributions, while traditional businesses have begun to integrate greater levels of social responsibility and sustainability into their operations. The growth of social enterprise is a reflection of this convergence and helps fill the void between traditional approaches that have focused singularly on creating either social impact or financial returns.
Is Social Enterprise New?
Yes and no. There are examples of social enterprise that are more than 100 years old, but social enterprise is relatively new as a growing sector of activity in the U.S. and beyond.
For example, Goodwill Industries pioneered the notion of “a hand up, not a handout” in 1902 when they began employing the poor to mend and repair used goods that could then be resold to the general public or provided for free back to the poor. Still today, Goodwill aims to provide economic self-sufficiency and in 2014 created employment and job training opportunities for more than 2 million people while generating more than $4.6 billion in revenue – 86% of its total budget – through retail sales and other earned income sources.
In recent years, social enterprise has become more prominent, with growing interest and attention from investors, consumers, universities, media and policymakers. The rise of “impact investing” and “conscious consumerism” are reflective of social enterprise’s development as a field, as are the growing number of university courses, the attention from Forbes and other mainstream media, and government support through the White House’s Office of Social Innovation and Social Innovation Fund.
What Is the Role of Social Enterprise in Addressing the World’s Problems?
Social enterprise is not a silver bullet, but it is a promising approach to fulfilling unmet needs and fostering genuinely “triple-bottom-line” organizations. It’s certainly not the only solution, but it is most definitely a solution.
- For traditional non-profits, social enterprise can be a powerful complement to other activities when it advances the social mission and the financial sustainability of the organization.
- For new start-ups – non-profits and for-profits – social enterprise gives entrepreneurs the ability to bake social impact and financial sustainability into the organization’s DNA from its outset.
- For traditional businesses, social enterprise initiatives enable a company to integrate social impact into business operations and prioritize social goals alongside financial returns. To learn more about for-profit social enterprise, check out our article on B corps and public benefit corporations.
What Are Some Examples of the Problems Social Enterprises Are Tackling?
One of the most interesting and exciting aspects of social enterprise’s evolution is the growing variety of issues being addressed by social enterprises. Today, social enterprises are disrupting markets across every industry and tackling social challenges throughout every corner of the world. A few representative examples include:
- Grameen Bank, which makes small loans to the poor for small business development and other uses. Since its inception in the 1970s, Grameen has provided $10 billion in loans to more than 10 million people, and has proven the need and viability for financial services to the poor. Grameen received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 as a reflection of its efforts and success.
- Greyston provides the homeless employment in a bakery that makes brownies for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. As Greyston says, “we don’t hire people to bake brownies, we bake brownies to hire people.”
- D.Light designs affordable solar-powered devices that provide an option to people that lack access to reliable energy sources. In its eight-year history, D.Light has sold more than 10 million solar lamps, improving the lives of 50 million people.
- Dispensary of Hope aggregates prescription medications that are nearing their expiration date and redistributes these drugs to free clinics in low-income communities. Clinics pay Dispensary of Hope a monthly subscription fee that covers basic expenses, and drug manufacturers save money by avoiding costs associated with destroying expired products.
- TerraCycle upcycles packaging and other non-recyclable consumer waste, keeping it out of landfills and turning it into new products. Today, Terracycle has established a recycling network of more than 31 million consumers and 100 major corporate brand partnerships, resulting in more than 3 billion units of garbage averted from landfills and transformed into new, 100% recycled products.
- Benetech develops and uses technology to create positive social change. One of Benetech’s signature programs is Bookshare, the largest literacy resource for people with disabilities. Before Bookshare, only 5% of printed materials were accessible to people with disabilities. Today, Bookshare’s more than 330,000 subscribers have access to more than 300,000 titles in a variety of accessible formats.
- Warby Parker sells fashionable eyewear to customers in developed markets, and makes a contribution toVisionSpring for each pair sold that enables access to affordable prescription glasses to people in developing countries who are otherwise functionally blind. So far, this partnership has distributed nearly 2.5 million pairs of glasses to those in need.
These are just a few of the tens of thousands of social enterprises that today are addressing important social needs with an approach that has the potential to be efficient, effective and financially sustainable.
What is a Social Entrepreneur?
Source Provided by Social Enterprise Alliance
Social entrepreneurs work to solve critical social problems and address basic unmet needs through innovation. Their entrepreneurial endeavors create system change, improving the lives of underserved or marginalized groups.
Despite the increased attention that social entrepreneurship has received in recent years, there is no precise definition. Various organizations describe social entrepreneurship differently:
- Ashoka defines social entrepreneurs as “individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems” who “find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to move in different directions.”
- The Skoll Foundation calls social entrepreneurs “society’s change agents, creators of innovations that disrupt the status quo and transform our world.”
- In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Roger L. Martin and Sally Osberg offer a more rigorous definition. A social entrepreneur is “someone who targets an unfortunate but stable equilibrium that causes the neglect, marginalization, or suffering of a segment of humanity; who brings to bear on this situation his or her inspiration, direct action, creativity, courage, and fortitude; and who aims for and ultimately affects the establishment of a new stable equilibrium that secures permanent benefit for the targeted group and society at large.”
What are Some Examples of Social Entrepreneurs?
There are social entrepreneurs all across the world, creating impact in areas as diverse as education, health, technology and more. Examples of social entrepreneurs include:
- Muhammad Yunus, who founded Grameen Bank in 1983 to provide micro-loans to the poor in his native Bangladesh and beyond.
- Becca Stevens, the founder of Thistle Farms, a social enterprise that treats, supports and employs women who have survived prostitution, trafficking and addiction.
- Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech, who uses technology to address unmet social needs frequently overlooked by Silicon Valley.
How Can I Learn More About Social Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurship?
Social Enterprise Alliance is the national membership organization for social enterprise in the U.S., serving as the voice and key catalyst for the social enterprise movement. To learn more about our organization, click here. Get involved in our efforts to support and advance social enterprise by accessing:
- Hundreds of articles and studies about social enterprise in our online knowledge center.
- Monthly updates on social enterprise sector news, stories, events and more by subscribing to our newsletter.
- Connections to hundreds of individuals and organizations involved in the social enterprise ecosystem in our online organization and member directory.
- A growing network of local, grassroots chapters.
- Local, regional and national social enterprise opportunities posted in our online events portal and job board.
- A national platform highlighting social enterprise products and services in our online marketplace.
To learn more about becoming part of our national social enterprise community, review our membership page. Social enterprise is an idea whose time has come. Are you interested in staying on the forefront of our growing field? Join the movement!
Facebook Changes That You Cannot Afford to Miss
Source Provided by: Ad Espresso by HootSuite
This time around, we’ve found fresh new features and a few that are still in the test phase.
They’re all super helpful and aim to make user experiences more engaging and rewarding.
We could say that this month we have all great examples of how Facebook is working to become the one-stop for users to open to get everything they need. Here’s September menu:
- Facebook is retiring rarely used boosted post types
- New controls and capabilities for branded content marketers
- Updates to in-stream video placements
- Facebook is rolling out rounded page profile pictures
- Facebook is testing putting Instagram stories on its platform
- Facebook is testing a new chat feature in WhatsApp
- Facebook has launched a new open ecosystem for AI Frameworks
- Facebook has updated Ads Manager
- Facebook is helping friends build stronger connections
- Facebook is compensating for the recent flood of misleading content
Without further ado, let’s examine one by one the 10 Facebook updates for September 2017.
1. Facebook is retiring rarely used boosted post types
Boosting Facebook posts is a quick and simple way for you to get lots of exposure for your content. When you post something on your Facebook page, you’ll see the blue button that appears at the bottom of the post. When you click it, you have the option to promote the post to specific users.
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To help you meet your advertising goals and get users engaged, Facebook has refined the type of posts you can boost. This means, boost types that are rarely used or don’t result in much response from users will be removed.
These are the types of boosts Facebook is removing:
- Shares of products from shops
- Page sharing a shop, then boosting the story
- Check-ins on a map, at a restaurant, or in a city
- Note sharing
- Poll sharing
- Place recommendations
- Cultural moment shares
- Comment shares
- Profile picture changes
- File uploads or shares
- Sports events
- Videos or images uploaded through the Facebook camera
- Posts related to attending an event
- Video playlist shares
- The status of watching a television show, movie, or other types of programming
- Sharing an already sponsored post that is an app posting to a Page’s timeline, then boosting that story
- Political endorsements
If you’re using any of these types right now, you have until September 29 to update to a different type.
2. New controls and capabilities for branded content marketers
By partnering with trusted influencers and content creators, you, as an advertiser or marketer have more options to get your product in front of your target audience. To enhance the current features that help you connect with influencers, Facebook has introduced two new features.
Boost posts by creators other than you
You don’t have to post content from other creators anymore, in order to boost and share it with your audience. Now you can do it directly. When creators you’ve partnered with create content and click on “Allow business partner to boost post,” they give you permission to boost the post directly. Your audience sees where it came from but also see that you boosted it.
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Control where you appear in branded content tags
As a marketer, now you can control where creators you partner with tag you. In the branded content view of your Page Insights, Facebook has added more information to make it easier to:
- Understand things like CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions), total spend and how effective reach and engagement are in places you’re tagged.
- See how much you and the creator have spent on each post. The view also gives you separate CPM summaries for you and creators.
Combined, these new updates give you more insights into how well promotion is going and what you can do to improve your outreach.
3. Updates to in-stream video placements
Video ads are a great way for you to grab the attention of people already watching videos on Facebook. These short clips are highly targeted so you can be sure that the right people see your ad at the right time.
In the past, these clips appeared in News Feed or in-stream during videos. Now, Facebook has given advertisers more control over where these ads appear. This means you can use in-stream placements in videos on Facebook, on Audience Network or in both.
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This lets you target ads on Facebook even more and get exposure since publishers creating video content already target their videos to specific groups. With in-stream video ads on Audience Network, your ads can be placed pre-roll and mid-roll on specific apps and websites.
When you’re clear on who your target audience is, in-stream video ads have the power boost engagement. Facebook points out that 70% of in-stream videos on Facebook and Audience Network are watched from start to finish. This added control means that more than ever before, you can manage how customers experience your ads.
4. Facebook is rolling out rounded page profile pictures
Facebook started rolling out rounded profile pics in August, but the update is now more widespread. The reason for the change? Facebook wants to make page profiles look more engaging.
You can see the new update in your News Feed and on page Timelines. User and page profile pictures — the thumbnails — there are now round instead of square. The large profile picture on the page cover will still be square.
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A comment from Facebook about the change reads, “We’re always working to make Facebook a more engaging place, and we hope this change leads to more conversations with the people you want to reach. We’ve been testing design updates in News Feed and have seen encouraging results and feedback from this design update.”
To make your brand stand out using this update, choose bright, lively colors like yellow or red. They catch customer attention and give your product an energetic and exciting feel. To highlight your loyalty to clients and the trust they can have in you, choose blue hues. If you’re using an image, crop it as closely as possible so that it’s clear and easy to recognize.
5. Facebook is testing putting Instagram stories on its platform
You might recall that not too long ago Facebook launched its version of Stories on its desktop platform. Users can make slideshows with pictures and video to share with friends before the Stories disappear a day later.
As users continue to try out that feature, Facebook is testing a new enhancement that incorporates Stories from Instagram. The latest version lets users post stories on Instagram and Facebook.
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Remember, Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, so that’s why this move makes sense. By letting Instagram’s 250 million daily active users post on both platforms, Facebook is ensuring maximum content exposure.
While they test this feature, only a small group of users have access to it for now.
6. Facebook is testing a new chat feature in WhatsApp
Facebook bought WhatsApp back in 2014 and just started testing a new feature that will let businesses talk directly with customers through the messaging app.
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Right now, businesses that have been reviewed and approved to use the service show a green check mark next to their name.
Even though the messaging service is free to use right now, Chief Operating Officer Matt Idema explains that “We do intend on charging businesses in the future.” Facebook is looking at its global competitors and using them as a starting point for how to deliver better-messaging features to users. Introducing ads is just one way they’re exploring to drive growth.
The goal is to make both of their messaging apps, WhatsApp and Messenger, avenues to grow sales. This means more opportunities for advertisers to show ads to a larger pool of customers. Ads are already visible on Messenger so adding them to WhatsApp means more opportunities for businesses to grow using Facebook’s suite of products.
7. Facebook has launched a new open ecosystem for AI Frameworks
Facebook has partnered with Microsoft to launch a new Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) format. With so many AI framework tools available, this initiative is meant to make it easier for developers to choose and combine tools that work best for their projects.
When developers, engineers, and researchers start a project, they have to choose a framework — or toolkit — to work with. It’s usually one that lets them build based on that phase of the project. However, there isn’t an easy way to transfer information from one framework to another as the project progresses and their needs change.
It’s kind of like building a house. Using a hammer and nails are helpful when you’re framing the house but not so great when you have to paint it. You need new tools for the next phase of the build. ONNX bridges that gap and makes working with different frameworks — at different points in a project — easier.
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A few frameworks, like Caffe2, PyTorch, and Cognitive Toolkit, already support and integrate with ONNX.
The idea is that going forward, innovation and deployment will happen faster without the headache of being stuck using one framework indefinitely.
8. Facebook has updated Ads Manager
Facebook has updated Ads Manager to help marketers create and manage ads better. To do that, they’ve combined Power Editor with Ads Manager.
There’s now a new workflow that lets you create a draft campaign of your ad before adding in ad sets and ads. It gives you more control over your creative process because now you don’t have to follow a particular workflow anymore.
Also added is the ability to review and confirm every change you make in your ads. This ensures that the final ad you post meets your expectations without anything extra added or removed.
Finally, you’ll notice that the charts and activity history from Power Editor have been integrated with Ads Manager. It’s now a one-stop shop for all of your ad needs; there isn’t any necessity to jump between multiple platforms to get the information and insights you want.
In addition to the updates in Ads Manager, Facebook has built a “pay to play” platform that encourages companies to promote their posts and pay for their ads in order to get exposure and get a return on the work they put in. This means that exposure isn’t based on how well you can use the platform but instead based on how much you pay.
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The ad algorithm has been updated to emphasize this. An example is using paid content to maximize reach through ranking. When Facebook ranks this content, it’s based on the bid and relevancy score. The higher the relevancy score, the better the ad exposure. It’s a combination of user engagement and feedback.
Since ranking isn’t based on a per post basis, the algorithm looks at all campaigns combined to come up with a rank. The better each campaign performs, the better your overall exposure when they’re combined.
9. Facebook is helping friends build stronger connections
Of course, Facebook isn’t all about ads and marketing; it’s a social network after all. Facebook is making a big push to get friends to connect and engage with each other more. They’ve launched a few new features to help users get started. Here’s a look at what’s new.
They help users make more friends
Right now, Facebook has a “People you may know” feature that lists people linked to your current friends. The idea is to offer up new friend suggestions based on people likely to be in the same social circle. However, the list only shows how many mutual friends you have between you.
The new feature goes further. When you click on a profile, you see a lot more information — like events that you’ve both attended, pages you both like and places you’ve both worked or lived. Instead of just telling you that you have friends in common, it highlights experiences you have in common. If users decide to add new friends based on this information, it gives them a place to start their conversation.
The point of the new feature is to help users get to know potential new friends better before sending a friend request.
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Here’s how to access and use the new feature:
- In the mobile app or online, click on “Discover People” in the explore section.
- Peruse a list of potential new connections based on the “Friends of Friends” filter.
- Send a friend request, a message or wave hello.
The Discover People feature launched earlier this year to help you find new connections. The difference with the newest enhancement is that it’s based on people who are already tied to your circle of friends. Before that, meeting new people was based on your mutual interest in the same events.
They’re testing a new meetup feature to connect friends
Facebook’s business is built on online social networking. But because there’s still a ton of real-life interactions happening, they’ve set out to help people make more of these kinds of connections.
They’re currently testing a new feature on the mobile app where they suggest friends for users to meetup with offline. Right now only a small group of users in Toronto and New Zealand have access to try it out.
Here’s how it works:
- A notification appears in the Facebook app with a list of friends users can choose from.
- Users can ignore or decline the invite or agree to meet up. Their response is private unless both people say yes.
- To help users who say yes make plans, a new conversation thread automatically starts in Messenger.
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When asked about the new feature, a spokesperson said, “People often use Facebook to make plans with their friends, so, we’re running a very small test in the Facebook app to make that easier. We look forward to hearing people’s feedback.”
It’s a proactive approach to getting people to connect with friends. Instead of waiting for friends to reach out, Facebook takes the first step and gets the conversation started. It seamlessly blends two apps while people who might not ordinarily meet up get a chance to strengthen their connections.
They’re testing color comments
It wasn’t that long ago that Facebook rolled out color status backgrounds. You’ve probably seen the brightly colored status updates set against bold white text. This was launched in an effort to make News Feeds look more engaging and attention-grabbing.
Well, now Facebook has taken that idea and started to test a new feature that incorporates color and comments.
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A spokesperson explained, “We’re always exploring new ways for people to connect and have conversations, so we are testing new features on comments.”
The new feature isn’t available to everyone just yet, and for those who have access, it’s only on mobile. Even though it isn’t widely available yet, it might be better suited for some demographics or regions that prefer vivid designs.
There’s a new dedicated section for Movies
This is another expanded feature that Facebook has started to slowly roll out to mobile users. There will be an updated ”Movie” section available in the main navigation. Based on user location, it shows information such as what movies are playing, where they’re playing and current showtimes. Instead of visiting multiple Facebook pages for movies, everything is available to see on one page.
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But it’s not about looking at what’s available; users can also buy tickets for more movies using this feature. Facebook partnered with ticket vendors Fandango and Atom Tickets to help with transactions. But back when this feature first launched, there were only a handful of movies available.
Fandango’s president, Paul Yanover, explains that this update is great for users because friends can now connect differently. If they see friends want to see the same movies they do, users can reach out and suggest seeing the movie together.
10. Facebook is compensating for the recent flood of misleading content
By now you’re probably aware of the recent news that Facebook has uncovered 3,000 ads that were created by roughly 470 fake accounts. It’s believed that a Russian company created the accounts and used them to buy ads in the neighborhood of $100,000 during last year’s US election. A few of them mentioned the candidates by name, while others covered more polarizing content.
Facebook has always been — and continues to be — diligent at weeding out fake accounts that distort user experience. One of their latest attempts is to fight against a tactic known as cloaking to reduce the amount of spam that shows up in News Feeds and links to low-quality pages. Cloaking is when spam sites show Facebook content moderators one thing — something that looks genuine and authentic — and users something else. The goal is to slip through the cracks and show users spam-filled content.
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Facebook has launched new efforts to clamp down on this type of behavior. Facebook ads product director Rob Leathern explains, “We’ll deactivate their ad counts, we’ll kick them off, we’ll get rid of their Pages.” Their fight against spam includes a combination of people power and machine learning.
While Facebook isn’t going to reveal the markers it uses to figure out what’s real and fake, you can rest assured that the vast majority of ads going forward are legit and authentic.
ABOUT DOYO Live
DOYO Live is a digital marketing and interactive design conference in Youngstown, Ohio that is dedicated to providing ongoing professional development throughout the year. Via our online assets, such as blog, Facebook Live, webinars, and podcast.
We also provide in-person workshops, speaking engagements and of course, our annual conference, in which over 500 people have attended in the past 2-years. If you have any interest in being a breakout session leader at DOYO Live, we highly encourage you to submit!