OCTOBER 2020: NEW FACEBOOK CONTENT STANDARDS

What Kind of Impact Will the Recent Changes to Facebook’s Terms of Service Have on Your Company? It would be an understatement to say that the year 2020 has been full of transitions because there have been so many! One thing I can say with absolute certainty is that social media will continue to adapt and advance despite the fact that we can never know what the future holds in store for us. And it appears that not a single week passes by in which there is not a new upgrade for social media! It is enough to make even the most experienced marketer feel frustrated. In the year 2020, Facebook introduced a new set of policies known collectively as FB5, sometimes known as the New Facebook. It is likely that you have taken note of this update, which brought about modifications to the way the platform appears and functions on desktop computers as well as mobile devices. Facebook asserts that the new design will simplify and speed up the user experience, with an increased emphasis on the communities that users are a part of. According to what I’ve been reading on my feed, this has not been the case up to this point! However, similar to other types of shifts, we frequently require some time to become used to the new configuration of the land before we are able to fully appreciate the improvements brought about by the change. What have you found to be the most difficult aspects of the new layout thus far? Do you adore it or despise it? Leave your comments below! The new TOC will go into effect on October 1, 2020. And still another significant shift is on the horizon: Facebook has just stated that they will be updating its Terms of Service on October 1st, and the change will take effect immediately. This past week, a great number of users were confronted with the following pop-up message: The following sentence will be added to section 3.2 of our Terms of Service on October 1, 2020: “We also can remove or restrict access to your content, services, or information if we determine that doing so is reasonably necessary to avoid or mitigate adverse legal or regulatory impacts to Facebook.” This change will take effect when our Terms of Service have been revised. It’s possible that while reading this, you’re thinking, “So what?” They frequently revise the terms of service that they provide. But these new content guidelines on Facebook are garnering a lot of attention for a few different reasons. One of the reasons is that the social media giant doesn’t normally inform us about adjustments since there are simply way too many of them, and most of them are quite small. The following are some hypotheses that I’ve come across regarding the dissemination of this message: A content removal or censorship plan has been developed in preparation of the election in the United States. They have in the past been accused of stifling particular political views through censorship. – The social media platform recently threatened to prevent Australian publishers and individuals from sharing news items after lawmakers suggested a legislation that might compel the social media platform to reimburse media organizations for use of their stories. The proposal would require the social media platform to compensate media organizations for use of their stories. They anticipate that this will be very expensive for them, and as a result, they want to be well prepared. – This new regulation is an editorial guideline that reflects the company’s ambition to develop into a “real” media organization rather than simply operating as a social media platform. They are currently working on establishing editorial rules in preparation for when news will become the primary focus of the website. Regardless of the motivation for these modifications to the Terms of Service, users from all over the world are giving them a great deal of close attention. It will be very interesting to watch what the new content rules that Facebook has implemented entail for businesses of all sizes and in every region of the world. Will Facebook block anything linked to elections in this year’s election? What Does This New Information Mean for Owners of Small Businesses? Naturally, we won’t be able to know for certain what influence these new standards that Facebook will implement in 2020 will have until then. However, I do have a few tips that you can follow to guarantee that you are prepared for whatever the new content guidelines on Facebook may bring: 1.As owners of a small company, we rely heavily on social media for leads, whether we are selling in a social media marketplace or through a business page on our platform of choice. However, there is a risk involved in placing an excessive amount of focus on social media as a source of leads while ignoring other marketing strategies such as paid advertising and email newsletters. And of course, it is vital that you keep your website optimized, both for the consumer experience (for example, site speed, appealing images), as well as for the search engines (for example, targeting the appropriate keywords in your material, and making sure that all of your pages have title tags that are relevant). 2.While we’re on the subject of websites, I’ve noticed that a lot of business owners put all of their faith on Facebook to bring in customers. Managing a company in such a risky manner is not recommended! It doesn’t matter where the majority of your leads come from; it is absolutely necessary to have a website that can act as the primary point of contact for your company.You run an extremely high risk of having your entire company shut down if you rely only on social media for its operation because doing so exposes you to the possibility of unintentionally violating the terms and conditions of that platform.??If Facebook determined that you had broken their rules, bam! Your profile, page, and/or group might be deleted in an instant if they violate Facebook’s policies. 3. How will the modifications to the terms of service impact advertising? This is a really important question. However, if you decide to invest money and time into sponsored advertisements on social media platforms for your small business, you should ensure that you also have sufficient visibility on other platforms, such as Google Ads. In this way, you will be entirely prepared in the event that the bought traffic driven by social media suddenly decreases or stops completely. 4. Give careful consideration to the content that you are presenting. In any case, this is a solid rule of thumb to follow. Check and recheck anything you post on social media to be sure you aren’t putting anything out there that could be considered rude or inappropriate. I would advise staying away from posts that are political, as well as those on any other subject that you wouldn’t bring up at a dinner party. If you share something in this manner, you will never run the risk of having Facebook restrict it or punish you for doing so, even if the content you share has the potential to be deemed offensive by Facebook’s new content standards. The new terms of service—will they have an impact on advertising and promotional posts? The future will tell! It is not my intention to imply that this adjustment will have a significant and negative effect on your company. It’s possible that these modifications to their terms of service will merely result in a reduction of offensive and fake news content. But in order to stay ahead of the competition and maintain a steady flow of leads, we need to be proactive, well-prepared, and patient as we wait for this and the subsequent update. I wish you much luck in your business. The name Susan Friesen