How Meta's Changes Over the Last Few Months Affect You

Over the last few months, Meta has made many changes that could affect your advertising and viewing experience on Facebook and Instagram. Here are some you may have missed:

On January 19, 2022, Meta announced that they would be removing certain ad targeting. This is specific to subjects that Meta deemed as “sensitive”. For example, health conditions, religious beliefs, political opinions, and sexual orientation. These subjects fall under “detailed targeting” which is now removed from Meta’s ad targeting. How does this affect you? Meta says this means when you are browsing Facebook or Instagram, the potential of abuse is reduced. They said this was a difficult decision to make for them and that they understand this will negatively impact businesses and organizations, but they believe the pros outweigh the cons. 

In November of 2021, Meta introduced the “Topic Exclusion controls”. These controls are designed to give businesses and people the ability to customize their news feed ads. This allows the user to adjust their preferences and customize the content/ads they view on their newsfeed/timeline. Meta also decided to make it easier to access controls like favorites, snooze, unfollow, unfriend, and block. This means it is easier to personalize your Facebook/Instagram experience because removing/adding people and brands is much simpler. Meta also announced that they will expand control of ads to stories, reels, and Instagram explore. How does this affect you? This will impact the way you are shown content. You are able to customize what types of ads you would like to see and make your social media experience more influential.  

On February 22, 2022, Facebook announced that “Reels” would be launching in more than 150 countries for iOS and Android users. They also announced that creators will be able to monetize off of Reels content. What does this mean for you? This means there will be more sponsored  Reels just like how YouTube videos are sponsored. There are many regulations set about sponsorships and ads in video/audio content, but it is unclear whether these will be applied to Reels content. Users should be on the lookout for sponsored videos where the sponsorship is not explicitly stated. 

If you are ready to use social media safer, search local digital and online safety companies to get started today!