Facebook’s Instant Articles: Useful for Professional Services?

{3:12 minutes to read} Social media has revolutionized marketing in some ways by providing opportunities for free and fast marketing. The technology in this space changes quickly; the options that are available now will most likely be very different down the road.

As the social media landscape continues to evolve, we research and vet all potential promotional avenues. Our goal is to promote our clients in the most effective and efficient way possible. A critical component to doing so is utilizing marketing tools that steer people back to your website.

When we post your article on LinkedIn groups, Twitter, or Facebook, for example, it’s a teaser of your blog content. By clicking on the preview, readers are directed back to your website to read the entire blog article. This is important because it drives them back to you. This is the goal of your online marketing.

But all marketing is good marketing, right? Not necessarily. Not all marketing avenues are created equal.

Facebook has recently created Instant Articles, a new publishing feature. Like most things, there are pros and cons to using it. For our clients, there are two significant issues with this marketing forum:

Facebook does not permit linking back to the website of the person who is publishing; and
Facebook only allows one advertisement per 500 words (as opposed to 6 or 7 ads on other platforms).

Another major concern is the potential loss of control over the ads that are running in your article. Hypothetically, if you do not choose the ads, a competing professional’s advertisement could get placed in your article because your content is relevant to the competition. This scenario would clearly be contrary to your marketing goals.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook may be changing some of its Instant Articles advertising policies based on feedback from its partners. In the future, more advertising per 500 words and a hyperlink to the poster’s website may be allowed, but that’s not the case yet.

As of now, Instant Articles might be useful for larger companies as it is a free way to broaden their audience. By contrast, many of our clients have smaller, geographically relevant practices, and our goal is to narrow who you’re reaching out to, in order to form relationships. In these instances, it usually isn’t worthwhile if someone overseas or in another state accesses your content.

We will continue to monitor changes to Facebook’s Instant Article policies and whether it will become more “word-of-mouth” marketing friendly. Which social media advertising tool has been most successful for you?