Facebook’s recent addition of a “Save” button gives a limited measure of control to users. The algorithm changes that rendered organic Facebook marketing ineffective may be offset with the ability to archive posts, links, places, and media. In theory, it is a good first step to creating a more user friendly experience. In reality, issues keep it from being effective at this time.
Marketers have been challenged to create new ways to reach customers and prospects since the algorithm update that is designed to deliver “relevant information” as defined by Facebook’s engineers. Choosing to follow a company’s page doesn’t guarantee that you will ever see an update without scrolling through hundreds of posts. If you do see an update but don’t have time to interact with it, good luck finding it again!
The “Facebook Save” feature is supposed to make finding information you tag easy to review later. When the option was announced on Monday, I tested it for our clients. The first step was to test it on the desktop. The button works like this:
Click the down arrow on a post (it is hard to see):
The dropdown box has the “save” option:
A confirmation wasn’t received after clicking the save option. Clicking the down area shows that the option has changed:
To retrieve your saved posts, click on the “saved” link in the left sidebar:
It appears like this:
Saving an update for later review is easy once you know how. My initial thought was that testing a call to action requesting that people save the post would be a good idea. My mind changed after testing the feature on mobile devices.
The first test was on a smartphone. The down arrow was barely visible:
Clicking the arrow opened a blank box:
The second test was on a tablet. The down arrow wasn’t available.
Perhaps the issues were caused by outdated apps. A quick check found the latest version on both smartphone and tablet.
Adding a call to action for the save button would create confusion and add more work to the marketer’s day. Hopefully, the Facebook engineers will work out the kinks and the save button will become effective. Until then, it is a good idea with little reward for marketers.
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