Tag Archives: Facebook Timeline

Feb 26 2013
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Ads, Facebook, Social Media

Facebook Varying Ad Image Sizes

123646856_89367fecabFacebook is testing a new feature of its ads where the image size will vary. The key is social context, where a user has liked a brand or a friend of the user has liked a brand. Ads that have social context will be unaffected by the new procedure. Ads that lack social context will now have images display smaller than the ads with social context.

For the digital pr firm this is good. Now ads that have a social connection will receive a benefit to those without it. There will now be more emphasis on collecting Facebook fans and the digital pr firm will be the key to those efforts. Paid advertising will remain key but now there will be added emphasis on social efforts and increasing the fan base for a brand.

Facebook Testing Scaled-Back News Ads

Photo by ~db~

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Jan 21 2013
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Digital Marketing, Facebook, Uncategorized

SEO for Facebook’s Graph Search

Even though it has only been a few days, Facebook is already releasing some tips for the brand that wants to be seen more often in Facebook’s Graph Search. One thing that is important to note is that having a Facebook page is not necessary to be in the results of this search. If a person has created a Page for a brand or location, then that data will be searchable. This means it is best for the brand to control its own information by maintaining a page. This can be a huge selling feature for the digital media agency as it tries to recruit new clients.

The easiest tactic to improve Graph Search results will be to make sure the About section of the brand’s Page is accurate and up to date. People will be using it as a local search option, so inputting an address will open up those searches. This is important even if the address is not important to the service rendered, such as a social media agency, because it will then come up in local searches. Interaction with content on the Facebook Page will increase the number of connections Graph Search has to draw from. More tips will come along in time, but for now the agency needs to lay down the ground work from which other SEO tips will be useful.

SEO for Facebook Graph Search? Facebook has Some Tips.

Photo Credit: JayCameron

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May 11 2012
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Digital Marketing, Facebook, Online Advertising

Many Missed Opportunities Marketing on Facebook

A new report by Buddy media finds that 55% of brands using paid marketing on Facebook are not using supported ads. Most of the money is spent on call to action ads, but those are the least effective option. The report finds that many brands spend most of their budgets on increasing the size of their fan base and not on creating engagement among those fans. While the ads that focus on building the size of the community can be powerful, it would be better to make fans brand advocates by having them engage in ways that enter their timelines and bring in their friends.

The failure for adequate Facebook ads lies in the failure of brands and their agencies to embrace social marketing tools. The social media agency can easily create a thousand different ad units, but the temptation is to think they are all manageable without sophisticated tracking mechanisms. This myopia is what also leads agencies to target audience building, but it all comes at the cost of the most effective Facebook strategies. Instead the social media agency needs to focus on Facebook’s new ad units, which are focused on building engagement. The new metrics will also help this strategy.

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Apr 13 2012
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Facebook, Google, Social Media

Google+ Redesigns Itself

While not a strict application of Facebook’s Timeline format, it is easy to see where Google+ took its cues in its newest redesign. On Wednesday Google+ changed its look to be sleeker and make navigation easier. The change is achieving some fanfare as both Wired and Forbes have endorsed the new look. The concern though is if the new design is too late to save the network. It started off with plenty of fanfare, but has failed to emerge as a serious Facebook competitor.

The social media agency would be wise to play with Google+ even if it is a futile network. There are still millions of people using it, and just in case the new design does make it more attractive then brands will wish they had been active on it all along. The other reason to invest time and effort tin Google+ is because duplicating a presence on both it and Facebook is fairly simple, although overlooking Google+ is also fairly simple to do.

Google+ is also actively reaching out to brands. To prevent failure and in an attempt to increase its user base Google+ can only do so much on the individual side, such as a site redesign. Brands, however, are easier to pick up as special partnerships can be announced. The social media agency that is looking to make a splash for new brands could try a special promotion, which an increasingly desperate Google+ might be willing to launch.

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Mar 28 2012
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Digital Marketing, Facebook, Social Media

FaceBook’s Timeline Boosts Engagement

Simply Measured, a digital marketing research firm, has released a report comparing engagement before and after implementation of FaceBook’s Timeline layout. The sample size is small. We do need more time to pass for a better statistical analysis, but for now the report offers some useful guidance for the social media agency.

The overall boost to engagement after migration to Timeline is 46%. Engagement is measured as a comment or a like. There is a drop off of engagement with status updates, but pictures and videos are showing a remarkable amount of increased activity. The boost is not too large for fans. Fans are only showing an aggregated 14% more engagement with brands, but the bump is significantly higher when measuring all (fans and non=fans) engagement, 46%.

One problem with the measure is isolating it to FaceBook. The increased video and picture engagement may be because of Timeline’s layout, but the increase is also being seen in other social networks as Pinterest continues to grow and shape the expectations and desires of social network users.

There are also some brands that have shown a decrease in engagement since moving to the Timeline format. The lack of helping everyone actually gives credence to the theory that Timeline favors engagement of visual content and disfavors text only content. The social agency should take a look at the brands showing a drop (AT&T, Target and Old Spice) and see what they are doing incorrectly.

March 30 is the deadline when all pages on FaceBook will be ported to the Timeline format. Few days remain to be prepared, but even after that moment the social media agency needs to stay on top of the studies about Timeline and how to best maximize it.

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Mar 14 2012
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Digital Marketing, Facebook, Social Media

FaceBook’s Timeline feature Is a Game Changing Feature

As FaceBook’s March 30 deadline for when all brand pages will be converted to Timeline looms, Christopher S. Penn has some suggestions for digital agencies. Besides appearance issues, Timeline introduces some changes. The immediate change is the breaking of like-gating. Like-gating is when a brand forces a user to like the brand’s page before it can see the brand’s content. Timeline makes a brand’s content immediately available. Content needs to be re-tooled to reflect this change.

Another change Timeline introduces is the immediate availability of a brand’s past. Brands that have some questionable past PR issues need to be ready to revisit those incidents. While those moments cannot be expunged completely, the digital agency can help mollify revisiting those events by careful work.

While those two changes represent more work for the digital agency there is a change that will make things easier. Not only does the top of Timeline offer a large graphic space for the brand, but there is also space for four buttons that are prominent calls to action. This is a great opportunity for the digital agency to better motivate specific actions.

When asked which social media channel is the new up and comer for digital marketing Penn has an interesting answer. Instead of committing he suggests that brands start over. Each brand should take the email addresses of its best customers and open a new gmail account. The brand should then open new accounts on social media channels and use the find friends function with that new gmail account’s address book. This sort of specialized attention can make the customers feel important to the brand and help reinvigorate the relationship.

Now that FaceBook is forcing the change on brands, the debate about how to implement the new format should end. Instead, social media agencies need to maximize the new format and some of the subtler changes forced along with it.

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Mar 05 2012
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Digital Marketing, Facebook, Social Media

FaceBook Announces Updates Aimed primarily at Marketers

Wednesday afternoon FaceBook announced a few changes to the social network. The changes were aimed at marketers to make their tasks easier and more engaging for users. Pages is now on the Timeline format for FaceBook pages. This is supposed to be a better presentation than the pre-Timeline formats. It is also supposed to be easier to navigate and help users see the brand as a living and breathing thing that has a life and rich history as well.

The second change is the Reach Generator. This is a packaged solution that is always on and comes with a guarantee to be seen by 75% of a brand’s fans. New content is automatically distributed to fans and displayed in high visibility areas, presumably in the right-hand panel. It’s the guarantee that is the most important aspect for a digital agency to evaluate.

The final announcement is about Premium Packages. The best part of the new packages is locations of content and advertising. Brands can now purchase space in the right-hand column and in the newsfeed and also on the logout screen. These packages also allow specific targeting although FaceBook has not yet announced which demographics are available for this targeting. The packages do however, earn placement not only with a brand’s fans but also with friends of those fans.

FaceBook did not announce price points for these packages. The social media marketing firm may find these helpful, if the prices measure out, because it is hard to generate content that can go viral. These packages will increase the visibility of the brand’s efforts and help spread them to others on the network.

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Jan 25 2012
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Digital Marketing, Facebook, Social Media

Facebook Timeline Is Now Mandatory

Facebook rolled out Timeline a few months ago, but many users have not yet opted in to the format. Facebook has decided enough time has passed and over the next few weeks everyone will be getting Timeline. Users will be notified and then given a 7-day period to review their history so posts or information can be removed if so desired. This move comes on the heels of Facebook adding many apps and formats to the Timeline feature.

The digital marketing agency does not need to like this, but it will probably make Facebook more valuable for marketing. Timeline exposes people’s preferences and offers up more opportunities for others to comment and use the like button. Timeline also opens up a person’s life so data can be better gathered about his preferences. The addition of Timeline apps also makes data collection from Facebook’s end better. All of this will help make advertising better targeted as well as uncover some connections among preferences that may have remained hidden.

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