The Indiana Publisher

Facebook remains a force to be reckoned with It was a startling headline: Facebook has lost $70 billion in 10 days — and now advertisers are pulling out. That was the knee-jerk reaction to the news in late March that user data from Facebook had been sold to Cambridge Analytica. In the time since, Facebook's stock price has rebounded, and the outrage by advertisers has waned as they continue to use the social media platform to market their products and services. All of the concerns that fi rst bubbled up about cyber-security, the practice of targeting marketing messages based on information some people thought was private continues. Little has changed with the Facebook platform and practices, but the atten- tion of consumers has shifted away. Facebook remains a force to be reckoned with for advertising dollars. What started off as a national marketing platform has become very, very local. Borrell and Associates came out with their 2018 ad spending forecast, and predicts a 5.3% growth in local spending. On the surface, that is good news for media companies, but as you dig deeper traditional media should be concerned. Non-digital media is predicted to drop 2.2%. The growth is driven by a predicted digital gain of 12.7%. A great deal of that gain is gobbled up by the two biggest digital players, Facebook and Google. Local digital spending has actually seen a steady decline the past three years, as more and more small local businesses use national brands Facebook and Google. Small businesses in your community fi rst started using Facebook by posting specials and communicating directly with their customers. Once Facebook changed the rules and stopped letting those posts appear without marketing dollars going to them, businesses have slowly stepped up and are spending. Borrell and Associates predict that 76% of small businesses will advertise with Facebook this year. I don't know about you ,but I'd be thrilled if three out of four busi- nesses in my market were doing business with me. The study asked advertisers about the effectiveness of Facebook advertising, and I think this is a big opportunity for traditional media. With all the praise you hear about Facebook, only 40% of advertisers consider it to be effective. Certainly some businesses are seeing success using the platform. My personal experience is the performance can be pretty lackluster, and some people agree with me. One quote from their survey stated, "We are still unsure that social media has any effect on our marketing. When we've done sales events exclusively on Facebook and Twitter, we've seen no noticeable increase in attendance or interest." I am not suggesting that the 76% of businesses using Facebook should abandon the strategy. As has always been the case, a well thought out media mix is the best approach that provides the best results. If the 76% that use Facebook also had a solid newspa- per campaign to compliment, the results would be appreciably better. A July 2016 study put out by Benchmarketing for Newsworks claimed that newspaper advertis- ing in conjunction with other media outlets increased overall revenue turn on investment by three times. That study can be found at http://www.thedrum.com/ news/2016/07/13/study-reveals- advertising-newspapers-triples- ad-campaign-effectiveness. The other important fact that newspapers and traditional media need to leverage in the fi ght against Facebook is our reputation. If you see an ad on Facebook, you might question if the Russians placed it or whether it is real or not! Seeing that ad in the newspaper, the trusted source in your market for genera- tions brings a calming effect on the consumer who knows that they can trust the content from their local newspaper more than from other sources. In our personal life, we look to people we know and trust to offer us counsel and advice. We might take advice from others, but often times it is the person with more experi- ence that we listen to more closely. Their experience and wisdom guide us to making the best decision. The same can be true with newspaper advertising, used in combination with social media and other Van Baalen June 2018 Marketing news & commentary INAEA Revenue Sharing Idea Exchange Call scheduled for Aug. 2 Join newspaper business managers from around the state on the quarterly Indiana Newspaper Advertising Execu- tives Association conference call. The 45-60 minute calls offer an opportunity to share innova- tive revenue generating ideas and experiences. 2018 call dates: Aug. 2, Oct. 3 All calls are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. EDT. Dial 857-232- 0158, enter code #599522. Page 3 www.newspaperconsultants.com | 910-323-0349 | info@newspaperconsultants.com "Your team did everything you said you'd do (and more) when you were pitching us. That's rare for a vendor - we felt more like partners, and that's much appreciated." Scott Rosenburgh, Observer-Dispatch Boost your annual advertising revenue with a new or existing TV magazine! If you see an ad on Facebook, you might question if the Russians placed it or whether it is real or not!

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