Facebook Business Page Likes Drop With New Update

Likes

Experienced a sudden drop in Facebook business page likes? The social network provider has recently updated the way in which it counts page likes. By removing deactivated and memorialised accounts, they aim to bring “even more value for businesses”.
Most of the impact of this update will have been observed around 12th/13th March. However, the new system of filtration has been in testing since late February, so earlier results may also be affected.

Who will be affected?

The update only affects the number of likes (not friends) for business pages on Facebook. Those who have bought fake likes could expect to see the most significant drop in their “lifetime likes” figure.

Although deactivated accounts will be withdrawn from the total, it is worth noting that if an individual decides to re-active an account, they will be added back in to the businesses number of likes.

Why have Facebook introduced the update?

Facebook’s latest move will provide page owners with real results and more accurate data. By removing these null accounts, a business is more easily able to reach their actual fans.

Facebook stated that “Everyone benefits from meaningful information on Facebook” – and their update certainly seems to emphasise this; awarding those businesses who have worked hard to build up a genuine fan base with more measurable and accurate insights.

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What are the repercussions for businesses?

Whilst a notable drop in likes can, at first, be disconcerting – it’s important to understand the spectrum of repercussions of the update before jumping to any conclusions.

A high number of page likes is not the best indicator of overall progress, so a dip in this figure need not cause too much concern.
One positive consequence is that removing these accounts will often result in a sudden uplift in engagement and reach rates. This is because all that carefully considered content will be more visible to active followers and genuine fans, who are more likely to engage with posts.

In order to deliver more consistent metrics, post likes, comments and shares from removed accounts have also been taken out of results data to give better insight and a true indication of percentage engagement performance.

Fusion Unlimited Shortlisted In The 2015 PROLIFIC NORTH AWARDS

Prolific North Awards 2015

We’re excited to announce that Fusion Unlimited have been shortlisted as best SEO & PPC Agency in the PROLIFIC NORTH AWARDS 2015.

This year, the third annual Prolific North Awards will celebrate industry excellence and highlight and reward outstanding campaigns and exceptional talent in the creative and media industries across the North of the UK.

The 2015 award ceremony has attracted over 700 of the north’s leading creative and media professionals.

Winners will be announced at the award ceremony on Thursday 30th April at The Point, Lancashire County Cricket Club.

We’re  delighted to have been nominated for best SEO and PPC agency category and look forward to another awards night!

How to Ace Visual Content on Social Media

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We know that when it comes to social media, organic reach is dropping. This effectively means that brands have to work harder at delivering quality content that genuinely interests and engages their fans.

Images are often what hook audiences, and so visual content is becoming increasingly important. You only have to look at the success of visual sharing platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram to know that images are in high demand. However, because of the current level of competition, this type of content now needs to be purposeful to be rewarded with likes and shares (if that’s what you’re after). Ultimately, it needs to resonate with your target audience.

The beauty of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter is that they allow users to make human connections; which for many brands is central to their social media strategy. Visual content can be utilised to show that there’s humanity and substance to a brand, a way to build lasting relationships and showcase personality – here are some brands that have done it successfully:

&OtherStories

The Swedish fashion brand has successfully hit the ‘deconstructed glamour’ nail on the head. Each upload is carefully curated and styled – but the ‘behind the scenes’ approach gives the impression that the brand is effortlessly cool.

Absolut

Absolut have long been recognised for innovative and creative marketing, so we’ve come to expect strong visuals from them. Their most recent mix includes some hand-drawn illustration, which shows their willingness to go the extra mile to produce truly original imagery.

Absolut

Cath Kidston

One of the key things I look for in successful visual content is brand consistency – and this feed sings along nicely to the Cath Kidston tune. By including flowers, babies and pets, the brand show a real understanding of their target audience, and provide imagery in accordance with their interests and lifestyle.

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ELLE UK

The true value of visual content can only be unlocked when it is shared across relevant platforms. ELLE magazine have taken this one step further by sharing across multiple profiles. Granted, it takes some real trust, but by using their staff as brand ambassadors – who post varied and creative visual content – the brand proves its understanding of the need for human connection within social media. In this Red Nose Day video, it’s also refreshing to see a playful side to these glamourous fashionistas.

ELLE

Butterkist

Visuals don’t necessarily have to be polished and retouched; sometimes a raw aesthetic is more relatable. That’s why, as part of our work with Butterkist, we post agile and informal content. We recently ran a successful campaign, #getpopcorny, and utilised imagery to show off the brand’s personality. By setting the images up in a home environment, the campaign immediately felt inviting and accessible to the Butterkist audience.

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Budweiser

Budweiser ran a ‘lost puppy’ campaign for their Super Bowl advert. This emotional hook encouraged user-generated visual content which no doubt helped further their campaign promotion.

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Tory Burch

American fashion designer Tory Burch’s social media channels are full of beautiful and engaging visual content. The content is extremely varied, encompassing lifestyle, products, behind the scenes, inspiration, videos and cute animals. The brand feed proves that variety is the spice of life.

ToryBurch

What does the future hold for visual content on social media?

In recent years, tools such as Wordswag, Abeautifulmess and Canva have allowed brands to create professional-looking graphics in just a few taps. These have led social media marketing into a new phase, by putting beautiful and engaging imagery within the grasp of a broader spectrum of businesses.

As an increasing number of brands improve their visual content, there will be more pressure on the most successful brands to be innovative and creative. The production of visual content will become even simpler, allowing marketers to share content in a more reactive, ad-hoc way.
With Facebook videos receiving 3 billion views a day, it seems video content will see continued growth as audiences seek even greater insight and connection to their favourite brands.

Fact Based Search Ranking: Is Google Smarter than You?

Blog - March 2015 - JC (resized)

The average person today will digest more information than at any other point in history. Through the internet, music, TV and plain old fashioned print media, they’ll encounter around 100,000 words. Or about 2.5 novels. In total, they’ll process the equivalent of 34 gigabytes of information every day; 5 times more than 30 years ago.

These figures could give the impression that society in 2015 is more educated. With Google, Siri, and blogs like this just a few clicks away, we can encounter a wealth of information, learning whatever we feel like, whenever we feel like. Want to know tomorrow’s weather? Who was King of France in 1390? How tall Noel Edmonds is? There’s nothing stopping you.

However, have you ever thought that a lot of the information you encounter, process and learn might be wrong? Google has, and they’re wanting to rectify this.

For just under a year, Google has been developing their Knowledge Vault, a huge store of information taken from all across human history. Knowledge Vault is an ever expanding database that autonomously collects data from around the internet. This information is then cross referenced with similar or corresponding information in order to sift facts from falsities.

Google’s existing Knowledge Graph works in a similar way, albeit on a smaller scale. However, rather than compiling information from the whole of the internet, the Knowledge Graph uses “trusted” sources like Wikipedia and Freebase to offer a collection of related and relevant information on a given search term. For example, if I search “Noel Edmonds”, Knowledge Graph provides a collection of useful and unimaginably interesting facts on the man himself, as visible below.

Noel Edmonds

Very recently, a Google research team published a research paper announcing aspirations to implement Knowledge Vault as a search ranking factor. This means that rather than a collection of information simply being shown to users alongside search results – as with Knowledge Graph – the Vault would control all the information on the search results page. Sites that contain information Google considers true would be ranked highly, and sites that contain dubious information would be penalised.

Whilst this is a suggestion still only in its formative period, it’s one that would entirely alter the way Google search works.

At the moment, sites are ranked according to a number of factors, one of these being links. The more links a site has from trustworthy sources, the more trustworthy that site is considered. This is a largely human process; when you link to a site, you’re showing a vote of confidence.

However, a ranking based on the Knowledge Vault would take away this human influence. As the Vault is an autonomous system, it and it alone decides what separates fact from truth, and what makes a site trustworthy.

Current ranking factors like links are far from perfect; something testified by algorithms like Penguin designed to halt manipulative link-building. However, possibilities for manipulating the Knowledge Vault in theory still exist. If the Vault is simply collecting together information it views as similar, and deciding truthfulness based on this, then what’s to stop webmasters from sprinkling their “facts” across the web in an attempt to manipulate higher rankings? Plus, what about dubious information that large numbers of people on the web consider to be true? Does this mean that moon landing conspiracy theories and folk health remedies should be considered facts, and afforded a high ranking? What about “facts” that are opinion based? Should the statement “Noel Edmond’s best days are behind him” be deemed any more truthful than “Noel Edmonds has a long and fruitful future ahead in show business”?

Perhaps more importantly, the implementation of a Knowledge Vault based ranking system is a step towards Google controlling a large flow of information. Whereas with the current ranking system, if a piece of dubious information is encountered, this can be argued against; a healthy discussion can be formed. However, with the implementation of this algorithm, there will be no need for discussion; just a nod of the head as Google pumps out a stream of complete, inarguable “facts ”. With this move, Google could be taking the power to invest confidence in information and sites away from users; something surely more important than encountering the odd “spider eats dog” article.

With this being said, and as Google haven’t imposed any real plans for implementation, at this point we can only speculate how a knowledge based search rankings system would work. It may be that Google could simply decide to implement a fact ranking alongside existing systems – perhaps displayed within a search snippet – something which at the time of writing seems a safer and more feasible option. In the unlikely eventuality that a full overhaul does take place, users may even become savvier, and more clued up to whether they’re being shown sketchy information. In any case, it’s not as if Google has never made big changes to the way search works before, and we’ll look forward to watching and adapting to whatever plays out.

Fusion SEO Market Updates: February 2015

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Google to start favouring mobile friendly sites in search
results page

Google has revealed a significant expansion of the effect “mobile-friendliness” gives sites within the search engine results page. Announced in a Webmaster Central blog, the changes are set to take place from April 21st. Sites that are deemed mobile-friendly will automatically be ranked higher in the device search results page than sites will low mobile usability. The algorithm changes are likely to significantly affect the mobile search results rankings, meaning that sites currently viewed as “unfriendly” should attempt to make changes before the algorithm comes into action in April. Read our in depth analysis of the changes here.

Google labels slow loading pages in SERPs

Users have recently reported spotting red “slow” labels in the mobile search results snippets of slow loading sites. These labels will warn users in advance before clicking on a site that the page may load slowly. Although Google has considered page loading speed when determining ranking factors since 2010, labelling pages for speed is something not previously noticed. However, based on the testing and introduction of the mobile friendly label last year, it’s possible this feature may turn out to be more than just an experiment.

Google tests new look mobile search results interface

Google may have just rolled out a new look mobile search results interface. Owners of iOS and Android devices have reported seeing a coloured line separator in the search results, rather than the typical grey line, as seen in the two examples below. The exact reason for the alternation is not yet known, and for some this might not seem like a huge change. However, it’s likely that this is a feature designed to increase mobile-usability, reflecting the increasing importance Google has placed on this area in the past few months.

Google test live chat functionality in knowledge graph results

Google have recently tested a “live chat” tool within the search results of local businesses. Displayed within the knowledge graph local box, the feature shows whether someone from the business is available to chat. When the feature is clicked a Google Chat/Google Hangouts page opens, allowing users and potential customers to chat with an employee. Some have expressed concern that the feature may have the capacity to affect CTR, and thus have a negative impact on SEO. For example, a potential customer may not need to click through onto the site of the business, as their query has been answered offsite through the live chat function. However, as this option is currently only in testing mode, these concerns are only speculative.