F8 Follow Up | Clicks & Clients Blog

It’s been a tough 18 months for Facebook. From fake news and election meddling to privacy concerns amid massive data breaches, it seems they are defending themselves constantly. At their annual conference, some announcements surprised attendees, while others seemed to confirm speculation about Facebook’s priorities and development direction. Here is some of what we learned at F8 2018.

1. Building Communities is Again a Priority

Facebook users have continued to grow. According to “The Street,” there were approximately 1.45 billion daily users as of Q1 2018, that’s, up from the estimated 1.2 billion regular users in Q1 2017. The platform is capitalizing on this by expanding the reach Facebook Groups, including a Tinder-like feature called FaceDate. This is one of the surprise announcements made by company executives. The goal of Groups is to make it easier for people to make new connections, drawn together by common interests.

2. Fostering Interaction Between Brands and Consumers

The Messenger platform is growing and evolving. By creating one-on-one experiences, the personal connections are also productive. Consumers enjoy interacting with the brands they love, and organizations are seeing tangible business results. By integrating AR, the lines between physical and virtual retail shopping environments are blurred.

3. Clearing History and Deleting Data

In the face of privacy issues, people love to hate Facebook. However, keeping in touch with friends and family requires minimal effort, so people stay. The Clear History feature addresses the concerns raised by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. It allows users to remove data collected from apps and sites that use its analytical tool and ads. It’s similar tolike deleting cookies from browser history. While the user experience will be less personalized, some measure of privacy can be restored.

4. Taking Content Sharing One Step Further

Instagram remained relatively untouched by the Facebook issues. As a result, its popularity with a younger demographic has increased. It’s the younger, friendlier, photo-centric sibling to Facebook. New features include group video chats, more accurate exploring, and a bullying filter. Instagram Stories are evolving, with the ability to add content from third-party apps.

Partnering with Clients to Help Them Grow

Finding and attracting qualified customers to your website or location through Facebook can be a challenge. At Clicks and Clients, we get to know you, your business and your goals. We work with you to develop the plan that can help you bring more traffic to your site, creating more leads and sales. Schedule a Discovery Call today and find out how we can help scale your business and increase the bottom line.