With the technological revolution, the metaverse concept has become more dominant. It is believed to be the future of the internet. We are seeing innovations that were previously hard to imagine and one of these is Facebook changing its name to Meta. This unique, immersive virtual environment is quickly taking over the internet. As the saying goes, change is the only constant, so digital marketing agencies need to focus on marketing trends to achieve their business goals. The most prominent social media platform has now officially announced rebranding Facebook to the new name “Meta”. On October 28, 2021, at the connect, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook metaverse. The new name of the parent company is now officially ‘Meta’.
Facebook has invested a massive amount in virtual reality, augmented reality and intends to connect its nearly 2.74 billion monthly active users through several devices and apps. It is not the first time that such a big social media brand is changing its name. In 2015, Google rolled out a new corporate structure of its own, creating a parent company known as Alphabet. Rebranding Facebook would position many products like Whatsapp, Instagram, and other subsidiaries under one name and increase the demand for social media marketing.
“To reflect who we are and what we hope to build, I am proud to announce that starting today, our company is now Meta. Our mission remains the same — it’s still about bringing people together. Our apps and our brands – they’re not changing either,” Zuckerberg said.
What is the Metaverse?
Metaverse is the place where the virtual and physical world combines, forming a different world that has a representation of people. The metaverse broadly refers to the idea of a shared virtual platform that users can access through various devices and is accessible 24/7 across the globe. A user gets to have their avatar in the metaverse and will be able to interact with people fully, play games, attend meetings, etc. In other words, a person can do real-life activities in the metaverse 24/7 from anywhere around the globe.
The Facebook metaverse involves a shared virtual space where virtual avatars represent users. This virtual world continues to evolve and grow based on user decisions and interactions within the space. It mirrors the natural world in it and it’s just a universe that continues to expand as more and more users start using it.
Meta (Facebook) already has a version of metaverse called Horizon Workrooms that lets its employees enter the virtual world to hold meetings through the Oculus headset. It is a virtual reality that you can access through Facebook’s Oculus VR headsets. At present, Facebook and Instagram seem to read your mind through persuasive surveillance, behavioral data collection, predictive machine learning, etc. These are the points to be focused on in the metaverse. It would add data and a much richer set of behavioral signals that guide the algorithm to show more relevant content.
Advertising opportunities in META
Facebook nearly has 3 million advertisers and SEO marketers need to work on SEO plans & strategies to make the most of the new Meta (Facebook) world. With rebranding Facebook already on the go, the future of SEO needs to be planned accordingly by digital marketers. Just as SEO marketers make efforts to rank top in the SERPs, they need to formulate SEO strategies to make the most of rebranding Facebook work for their business. Below are some points that need to be focused on by SEO marketers to increase sales and revenue for their business.
- User-generated content – As rebranding Facebook provides the company with a wide range of products or services to showcase to its relevant audience the prime focus here would be to have user-generated content. User-generated content (UGC)is content like text, videos, images, reviews, etc., created by users rather than brands. The brands often share UGC on their social media accounts, website and other marketing channels. It helps the brands to increase the trust of users, promotes authenticity, increases the urgency to view the content, etc.
To make the most of Meta (Facebook), you should keep an eye on the searches or discussions on products or services you are providing and tag the relevant user even if the user is not attached to your post. It would help in improving brand loyalty and more users would get to know about your business, thus increasing your brand awareness.
- Real time experience – With changing technology, Meta (Facebook) provides the opportunity to have a real-time experience. The company showed off its real-time environment, which it said would eventually be a place for users to interact with others. The system also lets users interact with real-life objects, reflecting the changes in the virtual world.
As a digital marketing company, you should also create content that resonates with real-time experience and the users are attracted towards your ads. The real-time experience provides a user-friendly environment. The target audience gets to have a 3D experience of what you are offering.
- Mix of different platforms – Facebook is the largest social media platform to date and has users visiting the platform from various corners of the world. The users that would visit Meta virtual world would leave traces of their interest when interacting with multiple users. As they would see from various other platforms, you can include these details in your marketing strategy to get in touch with the relevant audience.
In the virtual world, the interactions would be real-time. The chances of the user getting in touch with your business increases as they feel that the product or services being offered can be accessed at the ease of a fingertip. The future of SEO, social media, etc., is thus said to be the metaverse and you need to create urgency to increase conversions.
- Accurate analytics – Meta lets you interact with users and increase social connectivity. When you begin advertising on Meta (Facebook), the prime aspect to focus on would be how your marketing efforts are paying off. You need to have a clear idea of whether the advertising efforts yield the desired results and require proper analytics. The analytics help you analyze the performance of your ad campaignand then work on optimizing images, creating short engaging videos, optimizing the content on the landing page, etc.
The analytics help to work on a proper data-driven path and refrain from making random guesses. The metaverse provides accurate analytics data to be worked on so that you can work on SEO audit or PPC audit to analyze what changes need to be done.
- Increase target audience – The Facebook metaverse signals a move beyond traditional display advertising, which is more exciting and grabs the user’s attention. Ways of engaging the target audience are releasing a digital version of a new product or creating a 3D video to show your product or services to the target audience.
The digital experiences may be free or paid as decided by Meta (Facebook) but provide a great way to connect with the digital platform’s target audience. It will provide the opportunity to increase traffic on the website and increase sales and revenue in the real world.
How will the Meta (Facebook) work
It’s a concept that involves an online world where people can interact with others, collaborate and communicate virtually without needing to be in the same space. The potential of virtual reality is immense, especially from a business point of view. The metaverse also could be a game-changer in situations like the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of seeing co-workers on a video call grid, employees could join them in a virtual office.
As far as Meta (Facebook) is concerned, the device of choice at the outset for the metaverse appears to be the VR (virtual reality) headset. Facebook already has its in-house product — the Oculus VR headset- after acquiring the company for USD 2 billion in 2014. Facebook made its first forays into creating a VR world with the launch in 2019 of Facebook Horizon, an invitation-only immersive environment that users can enter by putting on an Oculus headset. Facebook has already rolled out Horizon Workrooms, a feature where co-workers wearing VR headsets can hold meetings in a virtual room where they all appear as cartoonish 3D versions of themselves.
However, as we advance, the outlook is for the metaverse to be a much more evolved space. The users will be able to hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create and more. It’s not necessarily about spending more time online. Instead, it’s about making the time you spend online more meaningful. It would be best to focus on SEO and social media advertising strategy to make these users reach your website and take the intended action. The navigation on the website should be easy to find the product or service they are looking for quickly.
Marketing in the Metaverse
Digital marketers need to keep themselves updated with the latest technological developments and include the latest marketing trends in the products or services they are providing. As of now, this includes understanding the Facebook metaverse and its full potential to unleash the best of SEO and social media. The SEO marketers need to realize that Facebook metaverse is not just a trendy new thing rather, it is here to stay and is the next big thing in the virtual world.
The SEO marketers need to work on SEO and social media plan to make the target audience experience the real world in the Facebook metaverse to keep the user’s interest engaged with the brand. To do this, SEO marketers can focus on some of the following points to achieve business goals in the virtual world – Meta (Facebook).
- Immersive experience – As Meta (Facebook) is the future of SEO, you need to focus on social media SEO to increase impressionsto your website. It would be best to provide engaging content in the Facebook metaverse to reach your website more relevant audiences. You should focus on providing a good experience in the virtual advertising world so that the target audience makes a click on your ad and takes the intended action on the website. Since Facebook metaverse is experiential and immersive in nature, it’s best to take advantage of this by offering the exact immersive experience with your post and tags in social media SEO, events you post in the virtual world, etc.
- Engage with others – When beginning to advertise in the virtual world of Meta (Facebook), you need to engage with other relevant users, focus on affiliate marketing, etc. To improve brand awareness, you need more people to know about your product and services, thus helping to improve brand awareness. You can’t enter a new social media platform without getting in touch with the existing community and when Meta (Facebook) is all about socializing. The ads should be relevantand should match the content on the landing page. With rebranding Facebook already announced, you need to focus on Omni-channel marketing, social media SEO, etc. More relevant users get to know about the product or services you are offering, thus increasing sales for your business.
- Experiment continuously – Since Meta (Facebook) is just at the starting point of the virtual world, it becomes an exciting and challenging point for SEO marketers. While there are guiding principles that could inform what kind of strategies and tactics marketers can make, the metaverse remains to be a generally new platform that offers plenty of room for experimentation. Best practices have yet to be adequately established, and paradigms have yet to be fully and comprehensively created. It gives you plenty of room to try unique content, perform a/b testing, etc., to figure out what Facebook marketing campaigns work out the best for your business.
Round off
During connect 2021, Facebook announced that the new name of the company would be “Meta”. However, it stated that the name Facebook and the services of this platform would continue to be the same. Meta is a broader aspect of digital products and services that the company would be offering in the virtual world that can not only be viewed but experienced by the user. The company announced other products or services like horizon home, messenger calls in VR, gaming, VR-based fitness accessories, etc., primarily based on machine learning and artificial intelligence.
As an advertising company, you should also focus on advertising in the metaverse to keep in touch with the ongoing marketing updates. If advertising in the virtual world is difficult, you can get in touch with a digital marketing agency with expertise in digital analytics, content marketing, link building, performing remarketing, etc. and turn your 3D advertising goals into reality.
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