Accurate Customer Data Leads to More Authentic Marketing

In today’s fast-paced marketing environment, social media marketing tools, and most particularly Facebook, have become nearly indispensable tools for reaching and interacting with customers on an immediate, almost personal level.  Earlier this month, Facebook initiated its plan to make that experience even more meaningful and authentic by removing two specific groups of inactive accounts from “Page Like” counts.  While many business’ social media pages most likely saw their number of page likes decline slightly, in the long run this move will most likely improve the level of web content while giving businesses a better understanding of their client base.

The reason behind this move was simple.  Businesses monitor page likes to determine exactly where and how they should target their marketing efforts.  However, the two forms of accounts that have been removed from consideration are those that specifically generate no appreciable traffic.  The first form, voluntarily deactivated accounts, are accounts where the user has chosen to turn the account off but not delete it.  Businesses liked by these accounts will lose the like to their business page while the account is deactivated, but the like will come back automatically once the account is reactivated.  The other form of account affected, the memorialized accounts, are specifically kept in order to “remember” an original creator who has passed away.  In either case, the numbers generated by these accounts do not reflect a real, engaged audience and so can skew demographic data away from accurate, useful information.

This move by Facebook is only the latest in a series of changes in the internet marketing landscape that seems to point towards an emerging trend towards useful, authentic, and creative campaigns.  Evolving search algorithms at Google, for example, have also come to increasingly select against overtly “sales-y,” SEO-loaded stock pieces in favor of fresh, original advertising copy that effectively educates and engages the customer.  As a result, there is an ever increasing demand for writers who are intelligent, tech-savvy, creative communicators of their products and services and an earnest movement to really interact with and understand target consumers.

So even though this momentary loss of “likes” might be seen by some as inconvenient, it is actually a positive first step towards marketing personalization.  Data fuels this personalization, and more accurate data can only serve to improve your customer’s overall web experience.  For more insights on social media or if you’re interested in learning how to effectively take hold of your marketing, contact McCauley Marketing Services today. Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.