2 ways companies are losing fans on Facebook [video]

 Internet News, Marketing  254 Responses »
Aug 212012
 

Facebook’s Open Graph is a powerful tool — when used correctly. Here are the most common mistakes companies are making.

Despite recent struggles, Facebook continues to dominate the social environment. And the platform’s Open Graph environment is a powerful tool that allows companies to “frictionlessly” and continuously share users’ actions, after the users have given permission.

But many companies are misusing the tool, alienating users, and losing fans instead of locking in important interactive relationships. We spoke with Roland Smart, VP of marketing at Involver, about critical do’s and don’ts.

MORE:  2 ways companies are losing fans on Facebook – iMediaConnection.com.

 

App stops creepy stalkers from stealing your Facebook pictures

 interface, Internet News  140 Responses »
Aug 132012
 

McAfee Social Protection doesn’t force you to make a blanket restriction the way Facebook’s privacy settings do, so you can block your office manager from seeing those pictures of you dancing drunk at a bar in Cabo, while letting them see all of the nice pictures of your family and pets. If they try to see a picture that’s blocked, all they’ll get is a blurry pixelated version that reveals nothing.

Even if you are one of the chosen few who gets to see a picture, McAfee claims that the app will make it impossible to download, even using print screen or other common workarounds. Still, if you’re really desperate, I guess they can’t stop you from taking a picture of the screen with a camera.

MORE:  App stops creepy stalkers from stealing your Facebook pictures | DVICE.

 

Don’t like Facebook ads? Facebook wants to know what you do like

 Internet News, Marketing  98 Responses »
Aug 132012
 

Facebook has recently begun asking users to “tell us what you like” after they hide an ad. The module then links to the page discovery browser, which presents a number of pages that users can Like and add to their interests.

When users see a Facebook ad they don’t care for, they can click the X that appears in the top right corner. The ad will be hidden and users can indicate why they didn’t like the ad. This week we noticed that after this step, Facebook now prompts users to visit the pages browser. The site, which Facebook introduced in 2010, shows icons of pages that are popular in a user’s country, but also factors in pages which are popular among their friends.

MORE:  Don’t like Facebook ads? Facebook wants to know what you do like.

 

85% Facebook Users Are Content Creators

 Internet News  386 Responses »
Jul 302012
 

In a recent interview, Facebook Head of Audience Insights “Robert DOnofrio” had explained  about 85% of those monthly active users are creating some form of content. It needs to be said that Facebook defines content creation broadly and includes everything from uploading a photo or video to writing a status update to less time-intensive actions such as becoming a fan of something or liking a friends post. Messaging and check-ins arent included.

 

MORE:  Online Marketing Trends: 85% Facebook Users Are Content Creators.

 

Facebook users are sharing 1B stories from Open Graph apps per day; Zuckerberg discusses options for future monetization

 Internet News  382 Responses »
Jul 272012
 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today that more than 1 billion stories are being shared from Open Graph apps per day.

Open Graph apps are those that share users’ actions, such as reading, watching, listening and other custom activities to Timeline, Ticker and News Feed. These were first introduced in September 2011, but only began to be widely developed and used as of January 2012, when the social network began approving third-party integrations.

Open Graph is an important aspect of Facebook’s growing platform, which Zuckerberg repeatedly referred to as being core to the social network’s strategy. The CEO also said that Facebook’s vision for the platform is “bigger than most people perceive.” He urged investors not to think about the platform as being solely about games on Facebook.com, even though that is the vast majority of the company’s $192-million payments business. Zuckerberg believes his platform will actually extend beyond the web itself. He talked about the future possibility of buying a new car, logging in with Facebook, and having the car populate with your favorite music, your friends’ addresses, restaurants you like and stores your friends have been to.

MORE:  Facebook users are sharing 1B stories from Open Graph apps per day; Zuckerberg discusses options for future monetization.

 

A few page tab apps begin to recover losses following removal of default landing tab: here’s why

 interface, Internet News, Your Brand  475 Responses »
Jul 242012
 

There are a few things going on here. Page owners who thought tab apps were eliminated completely with Timeline have realized this isn’t the case and begun adding apps to their pages again. Users are becoming accustomed to the new layout and learning where to find additional content through apps. Page owners are adapting and employing better strategies to support the tab apps they implement. And clever developers are taking steps to help page owners understand best practices for apps on Timeline. Pages and developers that haven’t changed their approach have seen their numbers bottom out, as in the first graph above.

The key difference since Timeline is that now page owners have to actively promote their tab applications, whereas previously the app was the first thing new visitors saw when they came to the page. Woobox’s DeCarlo says he immediately recognized this and when Timeline launched, Woobox added a feature to give page owners a short shareable URL with a customizable image, headline and summary that would appear when the link was posted to Facebook.

Thunderpenny, another page app developer that is seeing an increase in users, has a new Tips & Tricks section that explains what page owners should do now that the default landing tab option is gone. For example, the developer recommends changing the links on a company’s website to lead to a specific tab rather than the main page. It also recommends giving the app prime placement among other tabs and using the new “pin post” option to prominently feature a status update that links to the tab.

MORE:  A few page tab apps begin to recover losses following removal of default landing tab: here’s why.

 

How to avoid being lost in the digital crowd

 Marketing, Your Brand  280 Responses »
Jul 232012
 

While search engine marketing and optimization are critical elements of marketers’ branding efforts through Google, other sites, such as Google+ and Twitter, offer additional branding opportunities. In particular, Facebook provides the best example of the benefits of building brand identity within a destination site.

The outreaching brand

On Facebook, marketers were quick to launch branded pages linking to their own websites. The traffic to their Facebook pages quickly took off. However, consumers don’t always want to leave the Facebook site to click out to individual business websites — in many cases, they are happier to interact with the brand in the Facebook environment. The key was to bring the brand to the consumer.

Today, successful brands go where consumers congregate rather than wait for consumers to come to them. This requires building up an extensive brand presence within consolidated sites — in essence, syndicating the brand experience on digital properties outside of their business’s own domain. Brands such as Coca-Cola, Disney, and Starbucks have been successful in creating powerful brand destinations within Facebook, with ever-growing fan bases of more than 20 million each.

MORE:  How to avoid being lost in the digital crowd

 

Facebook adds new duplicate page finder tool for admins to report unofficial pages

 Internet News, Your Brand  298 Responses »
Jul 172012
 

Some Facebook page owners are seeing a new “Report Duplicates” module that allows them to search for pages related to their own and report those that are unofficial. Facebook will review the duplicates and then recategorize them as community pages that link back to the official fan page.

 

MORE:  Facebook adds new duplicate page finder tool for admins to report unofficial pages.

 

Less than 10 percent of traffic to Facebook pages comes from outside Facebook.com

 Internet News, Marketing  268 Responses »
Jul 172012
 

About 5 to 10 percent of traffic to Facebook pages comes from external sources rather than from within Facebook, according to data from PageLever.

The Facebook analytics company looked at 500 Facebook pages each with more than 100,000 fans and found that the average of 7.56 percent of traffic to pages came from external referrals between March 2011 and February 2012.

 

MORE: Less than 10 percent of traffic to Facebook pages comes from outside Facebook.com.

 

Choosing your social network

 Marketing, Your Brand  256 Responses »
Jul 172012
 

People tend to start with the most well known, i.e. Facebook or Twitter, or they set up profiles on lots of different platforms and then struggle to keep them updated. This is what I would call a ‘tools first’ approach and it should be avoided if you want to get the best out of your social media activity.

There are two problems with this approach. First, you’re making an assumption that your target audience is actually using the platform. And second, if you are working with a small team, or on your own, it’s going to be a struggle to keep all of your profiles and pages effectively updated.

Before you do anything, start with your objectives; what are you trying to achieve? Do you want to drive traffic to your site? If so, which page do you want to drive them to? Or maybe you want to use social media to help drive new business enquiries or to position yourself as an expert in a particular subject.

Being clear on what you’re trying to achieve will make it much more likely that you will be successful.

via Choosing your social network | Opinion | .net magazine.

 

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