Aitarget examines key announcements from Day 1 of F8 2019

Aitarget experts joined developers, creators, and entrepreneurs fr om around the world in San Jose on 30 April and 1 May for F8, Facebook’s annual two-day conference.

More than 5,000 people explored the future of technology via dozens of expert presentations, deep-dive sessions, and product demonstrations showcasing the latest tools for businesses in Facebook family.

Despite the large number of attendees, our experts found F8 2019 had a very welcoming and personal atmosphere. Many onstage speakers shared their own photos and stories about using technology with their loved ones, stressing the idea of intimate connection.

F8 2019 overflowed with innovations, emphasised by the interactive, high-tech conference space, wh ere attendees could grab and try Oculus headsets, Smart Cameras, and more.

In this article, our Aitarget team have handpicked some key highlights from the first day which was packed with announcements across the whole Facebook family.

A new era: the future is private

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg opened his F8 2019 keynote address by sharing “a fundamental shift”: the social network would be building a more privacy-focused platform.

“The basic idea here is that in all of our lives we have our public spaces, like our town squares, and we have our private spaces, like our living rooms,” said Zuckerberg. “In our digital lives we also need both public and private spaces.”

The last fifteen years has seen Facebook built as a digital town square, where users could connect widely across geographic boundaries and do things with a lot of people all at once. Now Facebook would also focus on giving people the freedom and space to be themselves.

“It’s easier to feel like you belong when you’re among smaller communities and your closest friends,” said Zuckerberg when talking about the new focus on the digital living room. “As the world gets bigger and more connected, we need that sense of intimacy more than ever.”

Zuckerberg acknowledged Facebook doesn’t have the best reputation regarding privacy, and declared he’s “committed to doing this well, and starting a new chapter for the products”.

During the keynote, Facebook outlined six key principles that it will apply to everything it is looking to do in the coming years.

• Private interactions: the right for everyone to be able to privately interact without anyone “watching”.
• Encryption: integrating end-to-end encryption throughout the Facebook experience.
• Reduced permanence: making sure what users post today will not come back and haunt them in the future (e.g. content and messages that disappear after time, like Stories).
• Safety: the right for everybody to feel safe when using any of the company’s apps.
• Interoperability: the ability to communicate and use any of the Facebook family of apps to reach their friends across Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
• Secure data storage: ensuring that data is secure and cannot be seized by anyone – including governments, and Facebook itself.

A new look for summer

For the first time in five years, Facebook is changing its attire. The new FB5 has a community-focused look some are calling an “aspirational redesign” moving towards what the social network wishes it could be.

FB5 sheds Facebook’s classic blue-and-white branding for a clean white design that’s “simpler, faster, more immersive, and puts your communities at the centre,” announced Fidji Simo, Head of product at Facebook. Updates began rolling out to US app users immediately from the announcement at F8 2019, with a fresh new desktop site for everyone coming later this year.

Source: Facebook press kit

The redesign increases the prominence of both Groups and Marketplace on the freshly tabbed interface. “Everywhere there are friends, there should be Groups,” said Simo. The fast-growing Marketplace will also be adding direct payments and shipping. Sellers can reach more buyers and get paid securely.

With FB5 users will be able to save where they left a News Feed, so they can easily return to what matters most. A dark mode for mobile and desktop will also be available.

Time for a Groups hug

“Groups are at the heart of Facebook’s redesign,” announced Simo. Facebook wants to make it easier for users with shared passions to both connect online and gather together offline.

Groups will become more prominent all across the Facebook experience, from News Feed to wherever users engage with friends, family, and businesses.

• Redesigned Groups tab for easier discoverability. This will allow users to see a personalised feed of activity across all their groups, front and centre; and improved recommendations will let people quickly find groups they may be interested in.
• Easy participation, easy sharing. Facebook is making it easier to get relevant group recommendations throughout its app in places like Marketplace, Today In, the Gaming tab, and Facebook Watch. Users may see more groups content in News Feed, and will be able to share content directly to their groups from News Feed.
• New community-specific features. Recognising that different communities can have different needs, Facebook is introducing new features for various types of groups. New Health Support groups will allow members to anonymously ask questions and share information. Employers have a new template to post vacancies in Job groups, while those looking for roles can message and apply directly through Facebook. Gamers have new chat features, shopping groups – new shipping options, and local communities – new features related to what’s on and local events.

WhatsApp-ening for better business

WhatsApp already led the way among Facebook apps when it comes to privacy, with its encrypted and restricted “share location” option, and its private and impermanent Status sharing experience (which has become even more popular than Instagram Stories).

“Now along with becoming even safer with further privacy upgrades, WhatsApp will be delivering more for business,” announced Ami Vora, VP Product Management at WhatsApp.

“What if we could make sending money as simple as sending a message?” asked Vora. WhatsApp Pay, being tested in India, could be rolled out to other countries in the next few months.

Also in the coming months, WhatsApp users will be able to view product catalogues right within the app when chatting with a business.

Brands will be able to showcase goods within their catalogue. Combined with better payment solutions, the WhatsApp upgrades will allow companies to conduct business online without a website.

Shopping and giving Insta-ly

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced that users will soon be able to shop from creators they love (from public figures and artists to entrepreneurs and publishers) without leaving Instagram. Anyone in the global Instagram community will be able to shop from creators by tapping to see what they’re wearing and buying it on the spot, rather than having to take a screenshot or ask for product details in comments. Testing has begun with a small group of creators, and access will be expanded over time.

Starting from F8 2019, Instagram users in the US can raise money directly on Instagram for nonprofits, using a donation sticker in Stories to mobilise their community. Other users can tap on the sticker to donate. All money raised goes to the nonprofit.

In addition to this, Instagram will improve the camera design and add new features for applying special effects to photos.

Other Day 1 announcements

Along with the points above, the various speakers on Day 1 of F8 2019 made plenty of other revelations. Here’s a brief rundown.

Messenger

• Faster, simpler, safer: rolling out this year, a completely rebuilt MB5 will be 2x faster and 7x smaller than competing apps. End-to-end encryption as default is the goal to ensure data privacy.
• Messenger Desktop: a desktop version for Windows and MacOS allowing group video calls, collaboration, and multi-tasking while chatting. A potential Skype killer?
• Business connections: lead generation templates for Ads Manager, and booking of appointments within Messenger conversations.
• Closer connections: introducing a dedicated space where users can discover Stories and messages with closest friends and family.
• Watch together (testing now for rolling out later this year): discover, seamlessly share, and watch videos together in real time while messaging or on video chat.

Facebook

• Facebook Dating: opt-in to discover potential matches within events, groups, friends of friends, etc. is now expanded from five countries to 19 countries.
• Secret Crush: a new Facebook Dating feature where users can list up to nine friends they’re interested in. Crushes remain secret unless both users list each other as a secret crush.

This announcement created plenty of buzz among F8 2019 attendees.

• Meet New Friends: opt-in to meet new people from shared communities and groups.

Instagram

• Anti-bullying: features are being tested to combat bullying, and users who take comments too far will receive a “nudge”.
• Self care: an “away” feature will give distance during stressful life events, and profiles will put less emphasis on follower numbers.

AR & VR

• Portal expands: coming to Canada and Europe this year, Portal will add WhatsApp, encrypted calls, and the ability to call any friend who uses WhatsApp or Messenger.
• Watch and play: multiplayer AR games, Instant Games, Storytime app, Amazon Prime and Facebook Live are all coming to Portal.
• Spark AR expands: over one billion people have used experiences powered by Spark AR in the past year. The new Spark AR Studio now supports Windows and Mac and includes new features and functionality – “immersive ways to feel connected.”
• Oculus for Business: a suite of tools to help companies reshape the way they do business through VR will be launched later this year. Also, the two newest virtual reality headsets, Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S, ship May 21 (you can preorder them now).

What to aim for when launching Facebook and Instagram ads in 2019

The world of social media is constantly changing and advertisers must adapt their strategies in order to keep up. At Aitarget we’ve compiled some trends for 2019 for marketers to consider in order to prepare more effective Facebook and Instagram advertising campaigns.

Social Stories-telling

There are a billion daily active users across Stories on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Facebook predicts that during 2019 Stories will overtake News Feeds as the primary way people share content. Across Facebook’s family of platforms, Stories are already growing (in users) 15 times faster than news feeds.

Instagram Stories. Source: Instagram Business

 

 

Stories require less production for videos: live, behind-the-scenes, raw, and unedited content suits them best. Use Instagram’s Highlight feature to extend exposure on high-production content longer than 24 hours and make navigating your services more convenient for users.

Brands should explore different Instagram Stories ad formats: single image or video, Instant Experience, Carousel Ads. With the recent launch of Prompted Carousel Ads for Stories, advertisers can now show not only three fullscreen cards, but up to 10 horizontal cards in one ad.Brands should consider incorporating AR experiences and GIF stickers into their Stories. Such content can grab attention and persuade users to be interact more with your brand.

Facebook promotes the idea of the future shown through Stories. Although growth of Facebook Stories is less intensive than prototypes on Instagram, brands shouldn’t neglect the opportunity to use both placements when setting up ad campaigns.

 

Micro-Influencers

Harnessing influencers to help promote your brand is a good option: McKinsey reports that 20–50% of all purchasing decisions are based on user-to-user recommendations.

But which influencers matter most? The audience want to see authentic and genuine content coming from opinion leaders whose views they share. This has caused a rise in the power of micro-influencers: bloggers with a quite narrow but highly loyal audience.

Research has shown that 82% of consumers are highly likely to follow recommendations from micro-influencers. Importantly, the engagement level for user interaction with micro-influencers is 6.7 times more efficient than with large influencers who have highly popular accounts (while the cost for brands is lower).

 

 

Business Influencers in Facebook and Instagram. Source: Facebook Blueprint

 

 

Ensure you include micro-influencers in your marketing strategy to improve the quality of reach into niche audiences.

Amplify your impact by using both micro-influencers and macro-influencers: for example, utilise macro-influencers to launch a simple brand awareness campaign, while affecting the purchase decision with the help of micro-influencers.

Find relevant influencers and discover high-quality posts by using hashtag search, mentions, and location tags on Instagram.

While ads are not yet available on IGTV, brands can partner up with influencers and creators to produce marketing videos for this platform.

 

Vertical Video

The rising importance and influence of video on social media has been a megatrend for a few years now, and looks set to continue for several years to come. It is now forecast that by 2022, 82% of global internet traffic will be video.

In December 2018, Facebook announced its Facebook Watch video platform had gained more than 400 million monthly users and 75 million daily users just three months after its global launch. In 2019, Facebook are bringing Ad Breaks to creators in more countries.

Video content is particularly popular with mobile users. From 2013 to 2018 the mobile share of global digital video plays rose from 14% to 62%. Videos influence and impact doesn’t show any signs of slowing down in 2019. In June 2018 IGTV was launched, a new platform allowing users to watch long-form, vertical videos from their favorite Instagram creators.

 

 

Introducing IGTV. Source: Instagram Business. Expanding Watch Party to Pages and People. Source: Facebook for Media

 

 

Move towards a mobile-first video strategy for your marketing, and incorporate varied formats into your campaigns, such as live-streaming, social TV, and video ads.

Take advantage of the 9:16 mobile screen space and create vertical or square videos to take up more space and receive higher engagement.

Use videos originally created for mobile. According to Facebook statistics, mobile-first video ads are 27% more efficient for brand promotion and 23% more effective for direct response from customers than videos optimised for mobile format.

If you don’t have enough resources for complicated video production, use some simpler tools that are available to increase engagements, such as creating videos from images using Video Creation Kit, a built-in Facebook tool.

Consider including Ad Breaks on Facebook Watch in the ad placement.

 

3, 2, 1, we’re live

Live-streaming videos on Facebook have become increasingly popular. Last year, Facebook announced that hundreds of millions of people had used is Facebook Live feature in its first two years, with 3.5 billion total Facebook Live broadcasts and more than 150 billion reactions to Live video. Broadcasts were doubling each year. More importantly for brands and marketers: Live broadcasts generate six times the interactions of regular videos.

 

 

Tips + Tricks. Source: Facebook Live

 

 

Share behind-the-scenes content from your brand and business via Facebook Live and Instagram Live. Post personal, genuine, and progress content that gives users a sense of authenticity and originality.

Combine Live video with influencer marketings – have influencers promote your videos through their live streams for a broader audience. This will expand your reach and allow you to interact with users who didn’t yet know you.

If you’re unsure what to include in a Live broadcast, a good option is to share some educational content related to your mission or the specialisation of your brand.

 

The continued rise in chatbots

With about 45% of end users preferring chatbots as a primary tool to communicate with brands if they need any support, and demand expected to increase, it is important for businesses to embrace AI technology with their customer service. With the help of AI, chatbots can improve the customer experience and answer questions within seconds.

Messaging traffic is expected to double in 2019, to over 100 trillion messages.

 

 

Build a smarter Messenger chatbot with machine learning tools that have natural language processing functionalities. Consider the variety of ways in which the client may formulate their approach.

Use emojis, images, and even augmented reality to allow your chatbot to better convey your brand personality.

Add personalisation to your bot for promoting features. As marketer polling shows, 91% of consumers are more likely to purchase something from a brand who provide relevant offers and recommendations.

Keep it simple, accessible, and don’t overload with information or complicated processes.

Utilise WhatsApp Business App and Instagram Direct to make your business available across multiple platforms where it is more convenient to interact with customers and meet their enquiries.

Bear in mind that Facebook plans to Integrate WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger. Brands should probably get ready to create a comprehensive and universal chatbot in the near future.

 

More realities

Facebook have made it clear that augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are the future. The social network has already released AR camera effects on Messenger and Instagram, 360-degree photos and videos, 3D posts and photos. Now they are working on bringing AR out of the News Feeds and creating augmented reality glasses.

 

 

Introducing New Ways to Inspire Holiday Shoppers with Video. Source: Facebook Business

 

 

If it is suitable for your overall marketing strategy, look to implement AR and VR into your ad campaigns to help you stand out from the crowd.

Explore creative formats like 360 Video and virtual reality for a more immersive, engaging, and realistic experience.

For the e-commerce family, use AR and VR to display your product range and allow consumers to interact, try on, and play around with your products to help close the gap in the final stage of the customer purchasing journey.

Experiment with interactive AR effects and filters on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.

 

Social e-commerce

Social e-commerce gives users the ability to purchase products through social media. It is maintained by a platform’s ad formats, for example shoppable Instagram and Checkout option and Snapchat ads.

 

 

Introducing Checkout on Instagram. Source: Instagram Press

 

 

Get your business profile approved and sell your products on Instagram with shoppable Instagram and Stories organic posts.

Take advantage of dynamic advertising for both retargeting interested users and for attracting those who are not yet familiar with your brand.

Tailor your ads towards your customers’ interests by using Collections, Instant Experience, and with single images and videos through automatic pricing and other parameters updates.

 

Changing consumption

We don’t live in a one-device digital world. Users live in a continuous digital space. On average, each user will have 2.4 devices with Internet access, all of which can be used to interact with your brand. A modern-day purchase could look something like this: a user sees a product in a mobile ad, begins an independent search for the product on their desktop, then goes to a physical store to try it on, and eventually orders it online via a tablet.

Marketers need to take a holistic view of customer interactions with their brand.

 

 

Make your creatives fast, clear, and memorable to help persuade users to continue their interaction with your ad and brand.

Collect analytical data on user behaviour both from your website and app by using Facebook Pixel and SDK.

Use dynamic advertising, which selects products from your catalogue to display in accordance with users’ actions. Do not forget about Deep Links, which will help to link the user to a specific product page and customise cross-platform retargeting.

 

Personalisation

Personalisation has been trending in recent years. More than 70% of people prefer ads that are tailored to their interests. Additionally, more than half of consumers are willing to share personal data for personalised offers or discounts, while 44% of consumers are more likely to become repeat buyers after a personalised shopping experience.

 

 

Personalised videos for La Roche-Posay. Source: Giving special care with La Roche-Posay

 

 

Use tools and strategies for personalisation to tailor your ads towards the individual needs of different audiences.

This year will be another exciting one in the digital marketing space. Overall it seems that 2019 will be about visualising your brand with mobile videos, AR and VR, shifting the focus towards micro-influencers, developing chatbot messaging, and ads personalisation.

Harness these trends to improve your results.