Friday 8 March 2013

What Facebook's New News Feed Means for Marketers

Facebook-news-events

Facebook on Thursday unveiled its first major redesign of the News Feed since 2009, making the page more visually rich, and giving users new options to filter what they see by different feed categories like Music, Photos, Games and Close Friends. At first glance, the changes appear to be a win-win for users who want more control over their Facebook homepage, but the redesign may prove to be more of a mixed bag for marketers.

For brands, the biggest positive about the new changes is that there is suddenly more real estate for in-stream ads. Facebook has expanded the size of the News Feed itself and shrunk the right and left rails surrounding the Feed. "Having a larger canvas to work with will be a real benefit to marketers," said Debra Williamson, an analyst with eMarketer. "[Marketers] have always wanted more real estate and Facebook has always been more reticent to give them more play. By expanding the News Feed, that by default gives advertisers more room to play with as well."

A Facebook rep confirmed to Mashable in an email that Sponsored Posts will appear in-stream in the new News Feed just as they do in the current version, only "richer/bigger."

Greater real estate isn't the only big perk for marketers. Facebook is emphasizing visual content like pictures and videos in the feed, which provides brands with the opportunity to get creative. Williamson expects that brands will be able to capitalize on this by increasing their use of imagery in Sponsored Posts and eventually, if not inevitably, turning to video ads. "We didn't hear Facebook talk about video ads in this presentation," Williamson says, "but certainly Mark Zuckerberg has alluded to the fact that there will be more video in the News Feed, so there's an opportunity for brands to display video."

Beyond that, Facebook's decision to streamline the News Feed design across desktop and mobile is also a boon to marketers. According to Dan Slagen, SVP of marketing at Nanigans, this move "reduces friction" for advertisers planning out campaigns for mobile and desktop by ensuring a similar experience on each. "You are able to take one message and put it in the mind of a consumer and you are really able to drive that message home," he says.

However, the situation gets murkier for brands and marketers when it comes to the many new subfeeds that Facebook has introduced. Until now, content from brands and publishers appeared in a user's News Feed right along side posts from friends and family. With the additional feeds, users have a quick way to focus on only what their friends are sharing (through the All Friends category), or even more specifically, on what their closest friends on the social network are sharing. Any user who choose these options is effectively opting out of seeing content from publishers, businesses and influencers whose pages they follow, but who they are not in fact friends with.

"The friends-only feed could get a lot of the volume, which may be a concern," said Simon Mansell, CEO of TBG Digital. "It might affect our ad delivery in the short-term if everyone starts using it."
"The friends-only feed could get a lot of the volume, which may be a concern," said Simon Mansell, CEO of TBG Digital. "It might affect our ad delivery in the short-term if everyone starts using it." That said, Mansell argues it's a necessary risk for Facebook to take to ensure the quality of the "core platform experience." Marketers may still choose to advertise in those feeds, but Mansell says they'll need to think harder about how to do so: "If you're trying to focus on your friends, you have to be careful how brands interrupt in there."

On the other hand, the additional feeds finally provide brands and advertisers with a way to better target the appropriate audience on Facebook. Before, a Sponsored post from Sony might show up in a user's News Feed regardless of what the user was doing in that particular session. Now, a company like Sony might only choose to place a Sponsored Post on the Music or Games feed, where it's presumably more relevant to that audience. Likewise, if users check their Following feed, it essentially means they've opted in to see content from brands and publishers, which means promotional content placed in that feed might see greater engagement from users.

"With most changes like this, it is always going to affect some people positively and some negatively," said Mauricio Aguayo, senior social strategist with Rokkan. "The user is now much more in control about what they want to see and they will be much more prone to engage with it because they've in essence raised their hand and asked to see this publication. But for awareness purposes and pushing content out, it may be a little negative." Aguayo speculates that Facebook may eventually offer brands and publishers the option to surface their posts in other feeds besides Following for an additional cost.

Facebook, for its part, suggests in a blog post that the new Following feed will benefit brands and publishers: "Thanks to a new 'Following' feed on the right-hand side of the home page, people will be able to discover more content from the Pages they like and the people they follow."

For better or worse, Facebook has also effectively downplayed the presence of ads in the right rail in order to place more emphasis on ads that appear in-stream. Not only is that problematic for marketers who rely on the sidebar ads as a cheaper way to reach users on the social network, but Williamson says it also undermines what has historically "been a pretty big contributor to Facebook's ad revenue."

The assumption going forward, according to several of the marketing experts we spoke with, is that providing more real estate and more prominence to visual content will help Facebook command greater ad rates. While that's good for a public company still looking to show meaningful revenue growth to Wall Street, it also means advertising on the social network will likely become significantly pricier and more competitive in the future.

Image courtesy of Facebook

Wednesday 6 March 2013

How Google+ Can Boost Your Business


Google-sunset

Google’s algorithm that informs how search results are ranked constantly evolves. However, one element is clearly important: how your business fares on Google+.

So in case 250 million users, 150 million of which are active, isn’t enough reason to entice you to incorporate Google+ into your company’s social media marketing, ranking higher in search results is definitely a reason to get involved. That and the fact that Google adds more than 10 million new users each month.

While Google hasn’t come out and said exactly how Google+ figures into its SEO equation, social media experts have a pretty good idea of how it all works. “Google is using the number of +1s, shares and general activity on Google+ as a ranking factor in the personal results of logged-in users,” said Mike Arnesen, senior SEO analyst at SwellPath. “This even extends out to the second degree, so friends of your friends will be affected when you +1 pages.”

None of that means you have to go to Google+ to do anything. Working similarly to Facebook and Twitter buttons, +1 buttons on your site allow your customers to recommend your site and/or blog posts. And Arnesen insists the +1 button should take priority over other social networks. “Having Google +1 buttons on your website are vastly more important than having Facebook Share or Like buttons on your site,” he said.
Should you want to take your business to the next level, however, you’re going to need to get more involved in the social sphere. You can start by filling out your Google+ Local page, in particular your About page, making sure it’s filled with relevant keywords. Don’t be thrown by the fact that you already have a Google Places page. Google simply ported all Places pages over to Local pages, so if you have one you have the other.

Then you have to build a fan base, in much the same way you would with Facebook or Twitter: through engaging others. “Share things that your target audience is interested in, +1 things that your fans are sharing, comment on their shares,” Arnesen said. However, avoid asking for +1s in the way that you’d ask for Facebook Likes. Arnesen says, “Users on Google+ seem to be more hesitant to engage with brands just because.” Instead, give them a reason to support you and you’ll likely do well.

There are no set rules for how often to post or how much is too much, according to Arnesen. But he recommends you post a few times per day during regular work weeks.

What’s more important is to make sure you’re sharing more than just content specific to your business. Arnesen recommends a 1:4 or 1:3 ratio between your content and content from external sources. Regardless of the source, posts with images always do better than those without. They’re more visually appealing and will get you more +1s. Also, experiment with text markup in your updates using boldface or italics.

If you start with these basics, you’ll have a thriving community in no time and will then be able to take on social ninja status by expanding your reach to Google Events and Google+ Hangouts. But you first must crawl before you learn to run.

Mashable composite, image courtesy of iStock, Diverstudio

Monday 4 March 2013

Instagram Hits 100 Million Monthly Active Users


image

Facebook affiliate Instagram has announced that it now has over 100 million monthly active users, five weeks after it reported that it was registering 90 million MAUs.

The photo editing and sharing application, which was bought by Facebook almost ten months ago for roughly $1 billion dollars in cash and stock, had a long running feudwith Twitter in December after the picture sharing site stopped supporting Twitter Cards.

Associating itself with Facebook and alienating twitter seems to have benefitted Instagram, however, as has increasing the site’s web-presence on desktop devices: around the same time as the 90 million MAUs announcement, Instagram launched web profiles, which now display the Instagram feed.

In the announcement post on the Instagram blog, co-founder Kevin Systrom reminisces about the moment he realised Instagram could be really successful:

Instagram’s first office had few redeeming qualities—and insulation was not one of them. There were only two of us, so we rented desks in a co-working space on a pier over San Francisco Bay. At night, it was common to find us working in winter jackets huddled over our laptops where the air was so cold we could see our breath. It was October 2010 when we launched Instagram, and San Francisco had dealt us a particularly unforgiving and chilly fall.
One night soon after launch, about a half-mile away, the Giants’ stadium was full of fans cheering on their team in a race for the NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies. You see, having so little insulation in the office had an unintended consequence of being able to hear the crowd roar every time someone hit a long ball out towards McCovey Cove. Back in the office, we’d lift our heads up from code with every eruption of the fans, wondering who was at bat, what had happened, and whether the ball had made it or not. We never knew, but that wasn’t the point.
While we may only have had a few thousand people around the world using Instagram that night, we had a sense that maybe through Instagram we could tune in to what was happening just a few steps away. With a few quick commands at his terminal, my co-founder Mike’s screen filled with images of the game: the bullpen, dugout, concession stands, cheering fans and a panoramic view from somewhere up high. In a matter of hours, the people in that stadium had recorded moments in time through Instagram and allowed us to tune into an event while we sat a half a mile away, working—winter coats and all.

Systrom then acknowledges and congratulates Instagram’s 100 million MAUS for their efforts in making the company a global phenomenon:

Now, nearly two and a half years later, over 100 million people use Instagram every month. It’s easy to see this as an accomplishment for a company, but I think the truth is that it’s an accomplishment for our community. Now, more than ever, people are capturing the world in real-time using Instagram—sharing images from the farthest corners of the globe. What we see as a result is a world more connected and understood through photographs.

After picking out some of the examples and inspirational stories from Instagram users around the world, Systrom thanks all of Instagram’s users in a concluding paragraph:

Images have the ability to connect people from all backgrounds, languages and cultures. They connect us to aid workers halfway across the world in Sudan, to entrepreneurs in San Francisco and even to events in our own backyards. Instagram, as a tool to inspire and connect, is only as powerful as the community it is made of. For this reason, we feel extremely lucky to have the chance to build this with all of you. So from our team to the hundred million people who call Instagram home, we say thank you. Thank you for sharing your world and inspiring us all to do the same.

Here are some other Instagram’s statistics, published on their Press Centre page:


40 million Photos Per Day
8500 Likes Per Second
1000 Comments Per Second.

Are you one of Instagram’s 100 million MAUs? What do you think the company should do next to improve the service?