With influencer marketing on the rise, Facebook's adding some new tools to make it easier for businesses to get the most out of their influencer collaboration efforts - while also providing transparency in the process.
Last year, Facebook added Branded Content tags, which enable selected Pages and profiles to tag third party sponsors in their posts, in order to ensure such connection is clear.
Facebook expanded that option to more users earlier this year (and added an application process for access), and now, Facebook's providing some new tools to boost Branded Content, better facilitating influencer partnerships.
The first new addition is the ability for Pages to amplify influencer posts.
As explained by Facebook:
"Previously, marketers could only boost a creator's post by sharing it first. Now we're adding the ability to directly boost the post as it appears on the creator's Page."
As you can see, the new system is enabled by the creator, with a check box added which allows the brand partner to boost the post, if they choose. The business can then use Facebook's targeting and custom audience tools to ensure their messaging is reaching the audience they want, in addition to the influencer's own unique audience.
"The target audience will see that the post originated from the creator, even though the marketer boosted it."
In addition to this, Facebook's also adding a new provision which will enable businesses to authorize which creators can tag them in branded content, helping to avoid potential negative or misleading associations by creators. The new option will included within your Page settings.
And the final new addition to the Branded Content process is a set of new insights relating to influencer content.
Marketers have been able to access post-level insights about Branded Content collaborations since they were introduced, but Facebook's now also adding:
- Detailed tool-tips and explanations to more easily view and understand results
- Total spend from both the creator and the marketer on each post
- Separate summaries of total spend and CPM - in multiple currencies, if needed
The new options will make it easier for brands to better track and maximize their influencer efforts on Facebook.
As noted, with influencer marketing on the rise, all the major platforms are looking to provide tools which offer more transparency and ease of collaboration, in order to better facilitate the influencer eco-system. Well, maybe not all - Snapchat has become notorious for not supporting their influencers (at this stage at least). But still, additions like this underline the legitimacy of influencer marketing, and its growth as a real driver of better results.
Expect to see more tools along this line as the practice continues to expand.