As someone who joined Facebook in 2006, when it was still exclusive to students, Facebook has, over time, evolved from mostly text-based updates and an easy way to share photos with friends, to an ever-updating feed of company posts, memes, and viral videos that don’t even inconvenience you to press a play button. Videos and photos amass a dizzying number of views, likes, and shares. And according to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and cofounder of Facebook, it’s all spiraled out of control.On January 11, Zuckerberg took to his personal account to announce Facebook’s re-alignment with its ostensible original goal of connecting people. Facebook will be utilizing a new learning algorithm that determines what content the user cares about and truly interacts with.And possibly as a knee jerk reaction to this announcement, the company’s stock dropped 4.5%. After all, how could a company showing less corporate content to users be good for business? Especially when the CEO admits he “expect[s] the time people spend on Facebook, and some measures of engagement, will go down.”Facebook use has become a passive activity for many users, and Zuckerberg realizes the danger of that for the long-term health of the platform. Facebook remains at the top of all social media platforms for usage, with a user base of more than two billion people, but that doesn’t draw the whole picture. For the millennial generation, Facebook has turned into something one simply has, just because everyone else does. When Facebook launched, it was cool. Now? Far from it (in our eyes). Many of my friends’ profiles do not have a post from 2018 yet; I’ve only posted once. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can say that my personal Facebook content production, especially status updates without any attached multimedia, have dropped as a direct result of increased competition with more viral material. I, and others I have talked to, rarely browse the newsfeed any longer, because it’s a bunch of posts that we have little connection with. Echoing Zuckerberg’s sentiments, we have essentially become numb to it all. Where’s the value in the platform, and the ads it hosts, when a sizeable portion of your userbase feels that way?Publishers and other businesses who depend on Facebook for traffic, are, generally speaking, platform agnostic; they simply want their content to be consumed. They don’t particularly care for Facebook in and of itself, and will use whatever platform gets their content in front of the largest number of eyes.In the wake of this, there’s a warning to casinos: your social marketing strategy will need to be reevaluated and revamped (although there’s a chance that was overdue anyway). For your content to continue to be seen by your customers’ and, ideally, attract new ones, it will have to be engaging and interactive. What does this mean from an operator perspective?It means it’s time to get a little more personal and a bit less corporate. It will pay to live in the moment, and, to facilitate this, at least some of your social media staff should be on-site. If you’re not using live video yet, the time to start was yesterday. As Facebook continues to promote this relatively new service, live videos will be prioritized on newsfeeds, and statistics have shown that live videos amass approximately six times the interactions of non-live videos. These sorts of engagements will help your content of all types show more commonly on your customer’s newsfeeds.Here’s a quick quiz: on MGM Grand Detroit’s Facebook page, which is the highest viewed video?
- An ad for Top Golf, launching the following day
- MGM’s epic, multi-million dollar ad spot, Welcome to the Show
- A 26 second selfie video of Brad Garrett talking about his upcoming stand-up show at the casino.
If you guessed #3, you’re right. Live and personal videos can be both low-budget and effective, often piquing customers’ curiosity and interest in a way that professionally produced videos can’t. Another great use of video, in a way that encourages user engagement, is El Cortez’s roulette contest. It’s very simple in concept and production, but its engagement numbers were off the charts. Casinos are a visual spectacle, and you can, through Facebook, bring the experience to your customer’s screen.Links to your website for content will be less effective than ever. Unless you are a publishing company or have some other reason for linking to your website, most of the content you post to Facebook should be designed to be consumed on Facebook. If you must post a link, include enough information in the post itself so that you are still reaching the users that do not click the link.Another change will be the effectiveness of Facebook Ads. Their cost will rise, but with the newsfeed becoming more focused, your ad will be likely displayed more prominently, rather than lost in a sea of commercial content.You should also double down on Facebook Messenger. Facebook now shows your average response time on your page, and most customers will consider this before messaging. Your customer service department should oversee Messenger, not your social media staff, and response time should be measured in minutes, not hours (or even days, as I saw on some casinos’ Facebook pages). It replaces a phone call for many, and should be treated with the same priority.Overall, casinos are well-positioned to make the most out of Facebook’s newsfeed changes. If you’re a Facebook user, you can look forward to smart brands producing more personal content, and also seeing a bit more of your friends – probably the reason you joined Facebook in the first place.
