Source: Social Ninety-three percent of marketers we surveyed are actively using Facebook for their business. And almost everything that Facebook doe
Ninety-three percent of marketers we surveyed are actively using Facebook for their business. And almost everything that Facebook does to its family of products can have a great impact on marketers.
From releasing stories across Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Messenger, to going all-in on live video, Facebook’s product decisions affect billions of people globally.
Imagine how it may feel like to know about Facebook’s upcoming developments and begin to plan how you can utilize them — perhaps even before many other marketers.
Your secret sauce is Facebook’s F8 conference!
Here’s everything you need to know about it, from key sessions to watch to predictions for F8 2017.
We’ll be sharing and chatting about the exciting news live on social media for both days of the conferences — Live tweeting, live video sessions, Instagram Stories, and more. We’d love for you to follow along and share your thoughts, ideas, and excitement with us!
What is F8?
While F8 is known as the “Facebook Developer Conference”, there are many insightful announcements and sessions for social media marketers. During F8, Facebook talks not only about Facebook itself, but also its family of applications and services — Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Oculus, Workplace, Audience Network, and Internet.org.
Here are some of the things you can look forward to:
- Announcements of major changes to Facebook and its family of products
- Launches and interactive demos of new features
- Sessions on best practices with Facebook experts
- Opportunities to meet one-on-one with Facebook team members
Venue: McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, CA
Dates: Tuesday and Wednesday, April 18 and 19, 2017
If you were unable to get a ticket to the conference, you can attend one of its international viewing events in your area or watch it live online.
Fun fact: The name “F8” came from an important part of Facebook culture — its eight-hour hackathons.
Notable updates from Facebook since the last F8
Each year, marketers and publishers look forward to F8 to hear about the announcements and launches that would help shape their social media marketing strategy for the following year.
Last year’s F8 conference signaled the beginning of a hugely exciting 12 months for the Menlo Park-based company. At the conference itself, Facebook announced the launch of Facebook Live API, Instant Articles, and Messenger Bots. There was also a live demonstration of Social Virtual Reality, Facebook’s VR technology to help people connect and share virtually — something possibly worth keeping an eye on for social media marketers.
Since the last F8, Facebook has continued to ship a series of amazing updates to Facebook and its family of products to help marketers reach their audience and consumers discover quality content.
Here’s a list of the most exciting updates that have caught many social media marketers’ (and our) attention:
Key sessions to keep an eye on
This year’s F8 will feature more than 50 sessions — keynotes, breakout sessions, and demos. To help you make the most of your time, we went through the schedule and picked the sessions that we think you might be interested in.
The 2 opening keynotes: 10 AM on both days
One of the sessions we’re most excited about — every year — is Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote, which will likely take place on April 18, 10 AM PST.
Mark Zuckerberg usually use this opening address to describe his vision for Facebook and briefly share upcoming developments. Last year, he went through Facebook’s 10-year roadmap and the ways Facebook’s technologies will connect people around the world and give everyone a voice.
There will be another opening keynote on the second day, probably by another executive on the Facebook team. Last year, it was by Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer who talked about their technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
Tuesday, April 18
- Growth Marketing: Best Practices for Getting and Keeping an Audience (12:30 PM PST)
- Boost Your Business With Messenger (12:30 PM PST)
- What’s New with News Feed (1 PM PST)
- The Future of Video on Facebook (2 PM PST)
- Creating Social Presence in VR (3 PM PST)
- Innovative Storytelling and Media Experiences (3 PM PST)
- Powering Mobile Commerce on Facebook (3:30 PM PST)
- Early Lessons in Social VR from Oculus Rooms (4 PM PST)
- Discover New Facebook Advertising Tools (4:30 PM PST)
- Mobile App Ads: Thinking Beyond the Install (5 PM PST)
Wednesday, April 19
- Crafting Compelling Narratives in VR (12:30 PM PST)
- Visually Connecting People and Businesses (through Instagram) (1 PM PST)
- Marketing APIs: Advertising Automation, for All (2 PM PST)
Quick-tip: Facebook has created an official F8 mobile app which you can use to create your personalized itinerary for the conference, get notifications of events you have saved, and watch the sessions on demand.
10 Predictions for F8 2017
We’re excited to make some predictions for this year’s F8. We thought Facebook’s 10-year roadmap might give us some hints as to what might be upcoming up this year.
Here’re some of our guesses (and we’d love to hear from you, too!):
1. More video features and tools
As seen in Facebook’s 10-year roadmap, video is a key area that Facebook wants to work on. Mark Zuckerberg firmly believes that video will become the main content format going forward. With its new video tab, live and 360 videos, Facebook is continuing to push video content on its platform. Just last month,…
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