Archive for the ‘Facebook’ Category

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FaceBook Releases Internal data About Brand Engagement

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

FaceBook conduced a month-long study of 23 brands, which measured more than 1200 posts. The study was looking to see what sorts of posts produced the most engagement, measured by likes, shares and comments.

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“By far, the biggest predictor of engagement was that the post was on a topic relevant to the brand,” is the ultimate conclusion of the study and a common-sense approach. The brand was, after all, liked for a reason and sticking to that message is already proven to be important to viewers. Other methods that have shown success, even thought the finding says they are not necessarily predictive of engagement, is to ask viewers to comment. The prompts for comments work best when it is posed as a question that begins with why, where, when or how. Without those words the prompts are seen to be less effective.

To propel a post into a user’s timeline, and hence seen by that user’s friends, is to post photos or videos. Those posts are more likely to garner likes or shares, which is a necessary step for the elusive ‘going viral.’

While this is not a conclusive list for the social media agency, it is helpful. The study is careful to elaborate that some brands have more success going into unusual areas, the Skittles campaign for example, than other brands. The social media agency will need to play with its clients to see which work for them.

FaceBook reveals data that offers insight on rules of engagement

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Posted in Facebook, advertising, social media | No Comments »

FaceBook Adds Functionality to Third Party Apps

Monday, May 7th, 2012

As the mobile revolution spreads to new people and becomes more normalized among those with smartphones, FaceBook has increasingly tried to capture them as part of the social network. Foursquare is a great example of this trend. Foursquare now allows its users to check in and then have that check in posted to FaceBook. Twitter is also functional with Foursquare, but FaceBook has just improved third party app interactions with it.

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Normally a third party app would appear in a user’s timeline and like a regular status update friends could comment or like that update. FaceBook is now allowing apps to have added functionality. A check-in on Foursquare will allow users to “save this place” instead of just like or comment. That place would then move onto the other user’s Foursquare app. And there will be other modes of interactions, which are not geography dependent.

This is a huge development for the social media agency. Foursquare, Yelp!, Urban Spoon and any other app that businesses use to attract people will now be able to use FaceBook for more than just information dissemination. By leveraging the world’s largest social network to also create actions on a person’s mobile apps the brands represented on those apps will have an increased ability to drive traffic to their stores.

FaceBook is letting developers add customizable action links to posts that come from apps.

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Posted in Facebook, Mobile applications, social media | No Comments »

Cross Channel Analytics Need To Be Implemented

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

While more difficult than the standard metrics for digital advertising ROI, Cross Channel Analytics are worth the added effort and cost. It is not uncommon for an ad on FaceBook to be clicked and then on the next few pages the customer is led astray while eventually making the sale. Few customers click on an ad and then make their way directly to the page where the sale is made but, traditional metrics measure that click and then measure a sale and draw a line directly between the two.

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Cross Channel Analytics measure the intervening steps between the sale and the initial click onto the site. The metric will measure research the customer doe, and the distractions that the customer has to fight through on the way to the sale. These metrics will also better allow the social media agency to know where a customer went astray and how to combat that distraction. This notion is Funnel Analysis and it is necessary to know how to refine early funnel and late funnel pages.

A more comprehensive analysis will also allow brands to identify unnecessary links within the funnel. The question is one of attribution, which links are doing the best work and which are the least responsible for getting the customer to a conversion. The social media agency needs to look into who can best provide these metrics. Until a more sophisticated set of metrics is employed the old metrics, clickthroughs and impressions, will still lead the agency astray.

Too Many Clicks Can’t be Tied to Revenue

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Posted in Facebook, Internet Advertising, advertising | No Comments »

Google Will Launch a Commenting System

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

The FaceBook commenting system is found on millions of websites. Google has decided that it does not want to miss out on the action and is launching its own service. It will be just like the FaceBook version, where third party sites host it and the comments then track back into Google’s network. It’s the deeper integration that makes it possibly better than FaceBook’s system.

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Google will be able to combine its already large data pool with what people are saying on third party sites. Once Google also finishes its semantic data engine, then measuring what people say will be immediately testable against what they also buy and where they go online. The commenting system will also have some serious implications on Google’s search business.

The social media agency will be able to have a much more comprehensive understanding of their potential customers once this system goes into place. It might also be helpful to begin testing products and brands on different platforms so the commenting system will immediately begin accessing that information.

Google Battles Facebook

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Facebook, google, social media | No Comments »

Swaylo Offers Normally Hidden FaceBook data

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Swaylo is a new third party app for FaceBook. Users sign in to it and if they earn high enough influence scores, then Swaylo offers them free gifts and reduced items. The catch is that the user must give Swaylo access to not only his data but also to friends’ data. Swaylo then offers users a range of data about their impact and their audience on FaceBook. It is a unique service Swaylo offers not only to individual users but also to brands and social media agencies.

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Swaylo sells the collected data. There is some disagreement about if this violates FaceBook’s terms of services, but Swaylo management has an argument that might protect them. Even if the argument does not stand up to eventual scrutiny that is possibly a reason why firms should consider contacting Swaylo while they can.  An executive from Horizon Media says Swaylo’s data is much better than what FaceBook’s Insights offers. Horizon Media has decided to pass on partnering with Swaylo until FaceBook reviews the app and potential blowback has been assessed. It’s a prudent course of action and one that social media agencies need to consider.

The payoff for a well-sorted data set is not a secret. There is room for blowback, although it might be directed at the user who allowed an app to access his friends’ data. Regardless of what does happen brands need to take a look at the service and evaluate if it is for them. Aside from purchasing the data, using it as a platform to offer discounts for a brand’s goods might also turn out to be lucrative once its user base widens.

Swaylo Reveals Facebook

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Facebook, social media | No Comments »

More FaceBook Changes Impacting Businesses

Monday, March 19th, 2012

Most already know about the coming March 30 deadline for FaceBook’s Timeline implementation. There are some other changes in the pipeline that will have some effects on how the social media agency runs business.

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This column has already discussed the new cover image. It’s large and also includes four buttons that are immediate calls to action. In a similar vein FaceBook is changing the formatting of photos and videos. They will now appear larger and more immediate to the viewer. FaceBook is concerned about the way businesses can tell stories, so this will help. It is also possible (click the star icon in the upper right corner) to have a post span both sides of the Timeline.

FaceBook is also now allowing brands to post milestones. These will appear as special moments on the Timeline and draw attention to the growth of the brand. This will also be helpful as a way to draw attention to certain events and thus possibly downplay the attention given to others.

FaceBook is expanding its FaceBook Offers. More brands than the current few will have access and it will help businesses offer deals to its fans. New offers will be sent through the newsfeed of fans. FaceBook will also be emailing the offers to subscribing viewers. The business will not be given access to the users email address, but the offer will at least be out there.

These are some exciting changes. Businesses will be able to have a much more dynamic and engaging presence on the social network after they roll out. There will be much for the social media agency to play with.

Facebook Expands and Changes

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Facebook, social media | No Comments »

Blogging Continues To Grow

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

By the end of 2011 there were over 181 million blogs of enough prominence to be tracked by NM Incite, which is a Nielsen/McKinsey Company. That number is a significant bump from the halcyon days immediately before FaceBook took over the internet. Blogging has shown a steady rise not only in publisher but also in the numbers of people that read them. Even with a FaceBook domination, blogging is still on the rise.

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NM Incite also has some data about who these bloggers are. Most of them are women and most of them have graduated from college. Mothers are one out of every three bloggers and over half of the bloggers have children younger than 18. They are also most likely to post and share on social media sites and to share content on those networks and not just on their blogs.

Blogger, owned by Google, is the second largest social networking site second only to FaceBook. This is important for the social media agency because it is easy to overlook or even forget about blogs in the craze of social network growth. FaceBook, Twitter and, now, Pinterest are fantastic outlets, but they still lack a comprehensive hold on how people share their preferences on the internet. This is especially important because Blogger is owned by Google and many Wordpress blogs offering advertising are partnered with Google’s Adwords. Reaching out to bloggers can still be a valuable marketing campaign, possibly even more so than the services measured by Klout and other metrics.

Blogging on the Rise

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Posted in Facebook, google, social media | No Comments »

Facebook Opens Up Sponsored Ads to Third Party Apps

Friday, February 10th, 2012

Brands that have a Facebook page have been able to turn a user’s actions on their content into a sponsored ad. The action, a comment or a ‘like’, would then appear on the sidebar of friends of that user.

Until this moment though the range of actions that qualified for this turn was limited to engagements on the advertiser’s Facebook page. Facebook has changed those restrictions and now allows sponsoring of engagement through third party apps using Facebook’s Open Graph. For example, The Rolling Stones are now able to sponsor when a user listens to them through Spotify and have that action show up as a sponsored ad.

Open Graph applications are seen as the future for Facebook’s efforts. The internet marketing agency can ride this wave. Anytime a brand’s content is read it can then be turned into a sponsored ad. Brands need not limit themselves to just their content though. Content that is similar or has some connection with the brand can also benefit from sponsored ads. There is ample room for creativity in this new allowance Facebook is providing.

Sponsored Stories

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Posted in Facebook, advertising, digital agency | No Comments »

Facebook Insights Pared Down

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

Amy Porterfield, a successful Facebook marketing coach, has an essay where she offers some advice for the digital agency overwhelmed with Facebook metrics. She argues that there only three of the available metrics that really need observance.

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The most important new metric is People Talking About This. Unlike the other metrics it is visible to the public. This metric is simple: it measures any engagement. If a person comments, shares, likes or links to a post then it is counted in the measure. The metric operates on a weekly basis and shows the percentage change from the previous change. This is easily the easiest way to measure engagement and it is easy to know when a post needs attending.

Another metric is Engaged Users. This measures every time in the past 28 days when a person has clicked anywhere in the post. The metric will also reveal where people clicked, so the digital agency can see what people are responding to.

The other invaluable metric is External Referrers. It measures every time a page is landed on from an external site. This is helpful to measure of the social media marketing agency is adequately performing outside of Facebook. It also helps reveal how to better reach people outside of Facebook.

Facebook Metrics

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Facebook, social media | No Comments »

New Data About Advertisement Clicks: Who Doesn’t and Why

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

CrowdScience has released new data about clicks: who does click on ads, who doesn’t and why. The big surprise is that there are a lot of people who have never clicked on a digital advertisement. Only 58% of users between 15 and 24 years old have clicked on ad. That is the lowest percentage for the age based demographics. While the lack of a steady income seems to be the easy explanation, the numbers steadily track upwards with the user’s age, which hints that there is something else besides income at work.

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The survey offered a host of reason for why ads were not clicked: virus fear; not wanting to navigate away from current page; lack of trust about truthfulness of the ad; irrelevancy; spam fear; failure to notice; or a lack of clickable options. Shockingly, the leading explanation across all the age groups and for women is fear of a computer virus. The main explanation offered by men was not wanting to navigate away from the page, although virus fear was the second most cited explanation. The other explanations that signal a lack of trust are also front running explanations. The Internet marketing firm needs to understand that the industry suffers from a crisis of trust and that ads need to be coupled with a campaign to establish trust. An easy way to do this is engagement in a conversation. Comments involving the brand’s engagement of those comments on Facebook or other social media sites are great ways to build trust. A brand’s penchant for quality customer service is also important.

The data also shows that the older the viewer of the ad, the more likely he is to click on it. Except for viewers in the 55+ age group, ads are more likely to sponsor some other action than a click. Except for the eldest, all groups have a higher rate of researching the ad than clicking through the ad. This should help remind the Internet marketing firm that clicks should not be the only metric of success. In fact, sometimes the lack of a click still produces the desired effect of shopping for the product. The method is just sometimes round about. Ads that are designed to encourage external research may be particularly effective at this method of conversion.

New Data On Clicks

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Posted in Facebook, Internet Advertising, advertising, digital agency | No Comments »

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