Facebook Changes: Political Candidates Take Notice

Facebook Changes: Political Candidates Take Notice

Facebook’s ongoing privacy issues and data breaches continue to dominate the headlines. What does this mean for political campaigns seeking to target voters through social media?

We believe that Facebook is and will continue to be a valuable tool for political campaigns looking to reach their target voters. Using Facebook is a fast and inexpensive way to find, reach and target voters.

But knowing how to properly use Facebook for voter targeting will become even more important in today’s current climate. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined in his recent Congressional testimony, Facebook ‘s platform is changing.  It is important that candidates understand how to properly leverage it.

Here are the changes that we think political campaigns need to be aware of:

  1. Authorization.  As a reaction to alleged Russian interferences in the 2016 election, Facebook is setting up a specific authorization and review process for all political ads.  Expect more scrutiny and more time before your ads go live.  Plan accordingly and expect delays.  The pendulum is swinging towards more oversight and scrutiny from humans, rather than algorithms, which means the increased vetting of ads and content.  Expect slowdowns ahead.
  2. Limiting data.  Reacting to the current outrage that too much private data was made public, Facebook is taking steps to pull back some of the ability of advertisers and candidates to target and reach people through their data.  Facebook is also limiting the integration of consumer data, which means the targeting will be somewhat less precise.  But, this will impact companies and brands more than it will impact candidates.  Facebook is still a very good, cost effective method for targeting and reaching voters, but expect some changes in the coming months.
  3. Anonymous Campaigns No More.  Facebook is explicitly ending anonymous campaigns – going forward you need to be 100% clear and upfront about which campaign is running the advertising and on whose behalf.  Some are speculating there may be fines of up to $40,000.00 if certain steps are not followed.  We don’t anticipate this will be a problem for any of the candidates or campaigns that we work with, but wanted to put the word out there.

Facebook is still a very valuable tool for political candidates – especially in small and local races.  We don’t expect that these changes will represent much, if any, change for our clients, but we would be happy to have one of our experts talk live with you, if you have any questions.

Please contact us at Info@PoliticalCampaignSuperstore.com with any questions that you have.

If you are interested in learning more about how we can help you with Facebook targeting for your campaign, please contact us.

 

 

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