Tag Archives: Facebook

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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Feb 07 2013
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Facebook, Online Advertising, Social Media

Facebook Announces Lookalike Audiences

3185202042_059b9623d9Advertisers will soon find a new way to target their ads on Facebook. Facebook has been using its Custom Audience Tool as a way to allow advertisers to upload certain data points to create certain audiences. The new service will have Facebook analyze audiences for other members that appear similarly responsive to certain types of ads. Brands will now be able to reach into new audiences or new geographies based on similar demographics even if those users are not already fans of the brand.

This is a boon for the internet marketing. Ads on Facebook are already some of the most effective in the industry and this will help increase their ability to penetrate into new areas. These ads are likely to be less effective than ads geared towards people who are already fans of a brand. However, the ads will be able to expand reach so even if there is loss of some effectiveness, it will still boost over all exposure and also increase the number of fans a Page does have.

Photo by: Max-B

Target An Audience That Matches A Specific Profile With Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences For Ads

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Jan 24 2013
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Facebook, Online Advertising, Social Network

Bing Ads Coming to Facebook

5182163418_da1d8a30b4Facebook’s announcement of Graph Search was a large move for the industry. As Zuckerberg was announcing the new feature, Bing’s VP of Search, was also crafting a statement. He disclosed that Graph Search was collaboration between Facebook and Bing. We do know there is a partnership between the two handling the searches. If Facebook is unable to handle the request or if the query is for a web page, then Bing is the one handling the search results.

An interesting screenshot of the testing process was presented and in the upper left corner of the search is a search ad. The ad is labeled sponsored. Some pundits have been examining this screenshot and the supposed sponsored result for Bing’s involvement. The speculation is that Bing ads may soon find their way onto Facebook searches and possibly even into Facebook itself. If this does happen, then it is good news for the digital marketing agency. Bing can offer a good alternative to Google’s AdWords except it does not have the needed distribution. Some space on Facebook web pages would help resolve that dilemma and offer more advertising solutions for the digital marketing agency.

Are Bing Ads Coming to Facebook?

Photo by IvanWalsh.com

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Dec 21 2012
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Facebook, Social Media, Technology

Facebook’s First Foray Into Local Search

images (1)Facebook is now a player in the local search market but only on mobile devices. The ‘nearby’ function is receiving an update, which is changing from a tool to see where a user’s friends have checked in to a tool that promotes discovery. Based upon criteria that Facebook is holding close to the vest it will now show nearby businesses and other places that have been entered into its database.

Users will be able to search and browse nearby locations. The criterion for ranking is a factor of star ratings, check-ins, Likes and recommendations. The rankings are allowed only by people who have checked-in to the location.

For the education marketing company this is good news. It offers a new channel for discovery and a valuable tool at that. One thing that must now be done, however, is that brands must have a Facebook Page. Only locations that have a Page will be shown in this new feature, because the discovery tool allows a link back into the location’s Page.

Facebook Gets Into Local Search With “Facebook Nearby” For IOS & Android

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Dec 18 2012
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Brands, Digital Marketing, Facebook

Facebook Offers Small Businesses New Advertising Venture

facebook-like-buttonMost brands on Facebook have less than 10,000 likes and that is the segment Facebook is targeting with its new service. The new service is designed to help small businesses create and easily put up an ad designed to gain more likes for the brand’s page.

The new ad will be featured in the right rail as well as on mobile newsfeeds. One of the newer features is a suggestion of the number of likes the ad will bring in. Facebook’s dataset is fairly large so it can suggest a success range with confidence and then alter that estimate based upon the budget suggested and the locations of users who will see the new ad. For now the new program is only available in certain cities, but the plan is to quickly make it available globally.

For the education marketing company this could be seen as a bad move. With now easy to create ads, the immediate need for the social media agency might be seem to go away from the small business’ perspective. However, as the brand sees the effectiveness of Facebook advertising it is more likely to turn to experts for refinement and continued advancement. In the long run this may be a shot in the arm for the agency.

Facebook Makes Getting More Page Likes Easier For SMBs

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Dec 12 2012
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Facebook, Online Advertising, Social Network

Facebook’s Sponsored Stories Has Suspicious Likes

New research about Facebook’s Sponsored Stories, the ads that say X likes Y, has found some disturbing news. The investigation began when deceased people were appearing in newsfeeds as endorsing certain Pages. That problem was the result of users not being memorialized on the social network. But further research has found that some people are being presented as endorsers of brands they have not endorsed. When asked for comment Facebook is able to identify the exact moment the like was made, which leads to a further issue: mistaken likes. The problem seems particularly acute on mobile devices with small screens and where accidental touches are more likely.

The problem for the digital marketing agency is about credibility. Fortunately, the brands with mistaken likes that are most likely to be covered are large and carry some polarizing image with them, for example Wal-Mart. A mistaken like for a smaller firm is less likely to be noticed and even then less likely to become an issue. However, it remains something important the digital marketing agency ought to remain aware of and try to keep from happening. An easy way to prevent it is to post often enough that someone who mistakenly liked a Page would receive status updates and could then take action to unlike the Page.

Facebook Sponsored Stories Can Harbor Suspicious Likes

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Dec 11 2012
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Facebook, Social Media, Technology

Facebook Voting Has Closed


Facebook allowed users to vote on the history of certain policies governing the social network. Over half a million
 people voted and 88% were opposed to the options. Because fewer than 30% of users voted Facebook will not be bound to results of the vote. On that note, Facebook has decided to eliminate voting and to use Facebook data to target Instagram advertising.

For the education marketing company this is good news. Instagram is already serving many users with many millions of views each month. It does not yet have advertising, but it will soon happen and now Facebook data will be used to make those ads more effective. The issue at hand was not just about Instagram, but rather about all Facebook affiliates. Future acquisitions will now be allowed to have Facebook data for advertisements. This is good news all around for brands because of the rising effectiveness of Facebook mobile ads. A tight integration of a campaign with Instagram will doubly benefit from this development.

Facebook Will Nix Voting, Integrate Instagram Data Despite Vote Ending With 88% of 668K Votes Opposed

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Dec 10 2012
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Brands, Facebook, Google

Google+ Growth Rivals Facebook Growth

On September 17 Google+ announced its user base at 100 million users. On Thursday it announced its user base at 135 million active members. Part of that growth is driven by the acquisition of Snapfeed. Regardless of the reason that is almost a growth rate of 14 million new users each month. The only other service that has had such expansion was Facebook back in 2008 to 2009.

This is important for the education marketing company because it means an alternative to Facebook might be developing. If it does rival Facebook, then it will not be for some time but it is moving along. Google+ does offer some features that Facebook does not, its circle programs being the most notable. Facebook did implement its clone of circles, but it was late to the game and few people use the feature of varying broadcast types.

As Google+ grows so too will the effectiveness of brand presences on the social network. There are also people who use it exclusively as a way to sidestep Facebook’s dominance. By using both social networks the education marketing company can more broadly reach the US public.

Google+ More Closely Mirroring Facebook

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Dec 04 2012
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Facebook, Messenger, Social Media

Facebook Messenger No Longer Requires Facebook Account

Facebook’s Messenger was launched as a way to revolutionize digital communications. It allows users to do instant messaging as well as email communication from one platform. The boon to the social media agency if it takes off will be to increase Facebook’s social graph. The database is now limited to what users publicly share, but two-way communications would help reveal so much more about users and their private lives. However, the service has not yet taken off.

In an effort to kick-start Messenger Facebook is releasing an app that is a stand alone Messenger service for both Android and iOS devices. The app will not provide Facebook access to the user, so it is a smaller and much more functional communication client. Not only is the new app becoming available but it will also not require a user to have a Facebook account. What that really means is that the user will not need to be logged into her Facebook account. If that does happen, then some of the potential data gathering ability will be lost, but not much. Facebook will still have data about what the anonymous user likes, which is still useful data. It is also not at all likely that both users are operating without linking to their Facebook accounts.

This move might be enough to help unseat the SMS protocol, which has been dominant for nearly 20 years. If the unseating does happen, then the digital marketing agency will benefit because of the data Facebook is able to compile about what it is people like and are motivated by.

No Facebook Account Required: Facebook Messenger For Android Lets You Sign Up With Just A Phone Number

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Nov 30 2012
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Digital Marketing, Facebook, Mobile

Facebook Tests new Mobile Sponsored Stories Layout

In their Facebook mobile news feeds some users will be seeing a new type of ad format. Actually, the ad format remains the same and instead the layout is different. Most mobile users see a box containing suggestions for three brands they might like because some of their friends like those brands. A small number of users will now see a very large photo for a single brand and then a statement that some of their friends like the brand. The new ad layout is much more visual and reduces the number of brands form three down to one.

While the testing is still out, this is probably a good development for the education marketing company. Discussing this new ad layout, Facebook has acknowledged that mobile news feeds are interacted with differently than the right sidebar on the desktop version. Users want a more visual layout. There might be some concern about the drop in the number of brands, which will minimize exposure but that drop is going to be outperformed by the visual nature of the new layout. The drop in the number of suggested brands also makes the ad seem less intrusive into the news feed, as though it were one ad instead of three.

Facebook Gives New Mobile Page Ads More Color And Context To Make Every Pixel Count 

 

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