Marketers say they’ll adapt to a changing Facebook

Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared his vision for the company’s coming privacy-focused, unified messaging and social networking platform. The CEO said, in the coming years, Facebook plans to rebuild its services and platforms around the following six  principals: private interactions, encryption, reduced permanence, safety, interoperability and secure data storage.  “People increasingly also want to connect privately in the digital equivalent of the living room. As I think about the future of the internet, I believe a privacy-focused communications platform will become even more important than today’s open platforms,” wrote Zuckerberg. After a long history of user privacy and data security blunders, a more secure, privacy-focused platform may benefit users, but what does it mean for the advertisers that keep Facebook’s lights on? We asked industry professionals what they thought about Zuckerberg’s privacy manifesto. Most agreed transitioning to a more private platform is a good move for Facebook — even if it means advertisers will need to modify their strategies. Brands must adjust. When asked how Facebook’s new direction will impact brands, Brittany Fryman, social media manager for SCOUT ad agency in Atlanta, said the role of any advertiser, on any platform, is to adapt and change to fit the platform and intended target audience. “This announcement from Facebook is no different, we just need to pivot,” said Fryman, “If people will be spending their time in a ‘digital living room’ we need to do a better job of cultivating conversations there. From an ad standpoint, the lack of data permanence puts the onus on marketers and advertisers that use data in a timely manner and then store, manage and organize it for retargeting later.” Joshua March, CEO for the digital customer service platform Conversocial, agrees with Fryman. March notes how advertisers have benefited immensely from the personalization and targeting made possible by social media platforms like Facebook, but now, will need to alter their targeting strategies.