“I’m like a tree. My leaves might change color, but my roots are the same.” – Rose Namajunas

 

Forever changing, forever evolving, forever the same, social media titan Facebook is this week’s talk of the town with its two new updates. Facebook’s announced a couple of changes to business Pages, which will impact both presentation and data tracking. What are they and what do they mean, keep reading to find out!

 

Will the real “Brand’s Business Page” please stand up? (yea, no free endorsements here, sorry!)

 

First things first, as reported by Marketing Land, Facebook has announced that it will be removing the gray verification badges starting October 28th. 

 

Yes, you read it right, Gray verification badges, not the blue ones, don’t get confused. Well, we won’t blame you if you did, after all, that’s why it’s getting removed.

 

• “If you see a blue badge on a Page or profile, it means that Facebook confirmed that this is the authentic Page or profile for this public figure, media company or brand. Keep in mind that not all public figures, celebrities and brands on Facebook have blue badges.

 

• If you see a gray badge on a Page, it means that Facebook confirmed that this is an authentic Page for this business or organization.” – As explained by Facebook

For those who don’t know, Facebook’s gray verification badges are available to all Pages which have verified their official details with Facebook by going through an application process, and were mainly used by small and medium businesses to prove their Page’s legitimacy. As such, with Facebook having two different versions, it was confusing for a lot of people to differentiate between an official, blue tick verified Page, and a gray tick verified Page that’s gone through the more basic process.

 

Another reason for Facebook’s decision to remove the gray badges, was to eliminate the possibility for Pages to impersonate official company profiles, because the gray tick process isn’t as strict, a person could start a page, impersonating another business, apply for a tick, and present it as the official Pagel of that business. 

 

“Based on feedback, we’re removing the gray badge and focusing on other ways for businesses to show their authenticity on Facebook,” – Facebook spokesperson.

 

To prove your Page’s legitimacy moving forward, Facebook recommends Page Admins to update their Page profile’s information, put a profile picture and correct contact information, and keep posting regularly to show that the page is active. 

 

What’s best, comparing apples to apples or apples to oranges? 

 

According to a Facebook spokesperson, the social media giant is shortening the time frame for how it filters out repeat impressions to align with how it measures paid impressions.

 

“This is not a change in distribution, but a change in the way we filter out repeat organic impressions that occur within a short amount of time.” – Facebook

 

What does that mean for you though? Well, if you are a marketer using Facebook to deliver your message to your target audience, sadly, you are going to see a drop in impressions. However, that does not mean that it is a drop in performance! How? Simple. the updated metric may reflect improved engagement rates, as impression numbers may drop without impacting them. 

 

Let’s explain this further shall we, according to Facebook: “An impression is counted as the number of times an instance of an ad is on screen for the first time. (Example: If an ad is on screen and someone scrolls down, and then scrolls back up to the same ad, that counts as 1 impression. If an ad is on screen for someone 2 different times in a day, that counts as 2 impressions.)” 

 

This update is designed to make it easier for marketers and business to make better comparisons across paid and organic channels, comparing “apples to apples and not oranges”. 

 

What do you think of these new updates? Share your thoughts below and let us know.

Until next week’s edition of #SocialSpeak, we will leave you with one of our favourite quotes: 

“The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.” – Peter Drucker