This fall Apple will release an update of IOS 14, which really is the talk of town amongst especially marketeers, as every one expects to face a major drop in the ability to connect with customers, prospects, followers and even future colleagues through paid advertising.

What will we face ?

Firstly, the update will clearly have the largest impact amongst performance advertisers using the current IDFA (IDentifier For Advertising), and secondly it may not have a similar impact on brand advertisers, but in many companies  one relies on the other and vice versa, s0 the overall impact remains to be seen.

According to Apple’s iOS 14 Preview, multiple privacy updates will be made, including requiring user consent before having in-app data collected, and notifying users about data that apps may attempt to collect. The restriction in app trackers goes hand-in-hand with Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) initiative in the Safari Browser, and is in line with the industry shift towards protecting consumer analytics data.

When testing, Facebook reported a 50% drop in publishers revenue – which is a number that really should be taken seriously by anyone working with and/or relying on digital advertising, whether it`s B2C or B2B. 

While the effect and the challenges ahead obviously will be dominant amongst marketeers, companies as a whole, should/must really take steps to face this.

I for one would expect that Marketing/SoMe departments all ready started looking into the scenarios, and provide stakeholders from Management, HR, Communication, PR/Branding et al with the potential downfall in traffic, insights, SOV, conversions etc. – and the expected consequences.

What`s the impact for “non-marketeers” in your company ?

Besides the obvious fact that both your brand and performance advertising needs to be assessed and redefined, there are several things that various functions/entities needs to address;

HR

• How will you succeed with employer branding campaigns ?
• To what extent have you relied on talent attraction via paid advertising ?
• What`s the impact on your paid job posts ?

Communication

• How will you secure share-of-voice and reach ?
• Will your industry influence and thought leadership efforts continue to be effective ?
• Are your current content production sufficient to support an increase in organic reach ?

PR/Branding

• How will you secure that your branding efforts will have an uptake from target audiences ?
• Which efforts will be needed to increase your organic presences ?
• Will your current metrics be adequate ?

The Importance of Organic Content

Without the ability to target ads towards people based on their past behaviors, your organic content will be crucial to attracting users. Your brand’s everyday online presence is crucial to both introducing new prospects to your brand as well as speaking directly to people who have already seen an ad of your or bounced from your website.

Ensuring your site, social platforms, and blogs are strong enough to stand on their own without the aid of retargeting will be essential. In addition, engaging with your audience is even more highly encouraged than before. You want your viewers to feel invested in your brand and that your content adds value.

Sustaining and adding to your trust amongst your audiences

If not all ready a focus area, it should be! By being transparent in who you are, what you do and how you do it is imperative parameters for your customers, business relations, future colleagues – and existing ones as well. In addition a high level of trust will pave the way for more audiences wanting to connect with your brand presences – and sustain the ones all ready present.

Employee Advocacy will play a big role

Actively involving your employees in your brand presences will be mandatory going forward. According to the last 20 years of research from Edelmans, employees of a company is amongst the most trusted spokespersons;

• Each share of content by an employee gains 6.3 clicks from audiences
• CTR (Click Through Rate) is 4-5 times higher than paid advertising
• Each content post shared by employees gains in avg. € 414 in Earned Media Value

Adding to above employees are considered to have 10X the reach compared to a companys LinkedIn presence – which, when activated, will aid in the impact of reach potentially lost come september and onwards.

Getting started with Employee Advocacy

Adding employee advocacy to your engagement stack, can off course not stand alone, but it can contribute significantly in this highly called for change of strategy and execution. 

At Sociuu, we have for the past 6 years helped companies ranging from 50 to +20.000 employees implement and benefit from structured employee advocacy programs.

We offer a platform that seamlessly leverages you existing strategy, channels and content – and most important with a market leading approach to secure high employee engagement.

In addition, we will share all our experience and best practices, enabling you to focus on succeeding in keeping your employees engaged.

Next steps.

We host free webinars in all our European entities, so do feel free to join and meet like minded professionals;-)