Inside Facebook

On a recently released page on Facebook’s help site, users can read about the way this new ad unit will display in their Feed. These featured stories will be denoted in users’ News Feeds by the word “Featured” on the bottom right hand side of the post. It is important to note that these Featured Stories are part of the Sponsored Stories ad unit and will only be shown to users who currently like the Page buying the ad unit. This means your news feed is safe from unsolicited ads, for the moment.

This ad unit is being rolled out slowly and users will only be exposed to one featured story in their News Feed a day.

Have you seen a featured story yet? Do you think it will affect your Facebook usage?

Appearance

The first element we compared was appearance.  As you’ll see below, the Sponsored “Like Story” ad focuses solely on the connection between the target audience and their friend’s connection to the Page, while the traditional “Like” ad predominantly focuses on a creative message.

Directing Action

After developing the ads, we took a look at our ability to dictate a user’s action once they clicked on the ad. Using the Sponsored “Like Story” ad, our options were limited, as Facebook automatically set the ad to direct to the Page’s Wall, or default tab setting.

Traditional “Like” ads, on the other hand, allowed us to send users to any section of our Page we denoted. This is part of a recent update by Facebook, allowing admins to choose a destination tab for each traditional “Like” ad they create. This means Page administrators can drive users to customized tabs based on their demographics. For instance, a company that serves both the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore areas could create two different welcome tabs and different ads for each city so that when a user clicks on their respective city ad, they will immediately be directed to a tab customized with more localized and relevant information.

Comparative Results

So how do these two types of ads compare in terms of results? We ran a quick test campaign with the two ads pictured above, spending roughly $15 on each type of ad and targeting the same audience (people who live within 25 miles of Baltimore, MD; are age 25 and older; whose friends are already connected to MGH).

Here are the results of our experiment:

Sponsored Story Ad:

Spent: $14.58

Likes directly to the ad*: 2

Click-thrus from ad to page: 41

Traditional “Like” Ad:

Spent: $14.79

Likes directly to the ad*: 30

Click-thrus from ad to page: 38

*Only includes Likes directly to the ad itself; not Likes collected after a user clicks-through from the ad to the Page.

As you can see, preliminary results show, in this case, the traditional “Like” ad out-performed the new Sponsored Story ad. However, further experimentation will be needed in order to determine the conversion rate of users who “Like” the page after clicking-thru from the ad.

Conclusion

The point of sharing our quick experiment is not to discount the new Sponsored Story advertisements. Every ad campaign is unique and, had we used a different image/copy in our traditional “Like” ad, or had we tested the ads against a different target audience, our results could have significantly varied.

What we do hope you take away is the importance of exploring all of Facebook’s  ad-type options, as well as the necessity to test various target audiences and creative options, in order to find the best fit for your message and brand. Additionally, it is equally as important to constantly monitor your ads’ performance and make adjustments in order to make the most out of your Facebook advertising investment. Because, with the right strategy in place, Facebook advertisements can be one of the most cost-effective ways to recruit new potential customers to your subscription Fan base.

What about speaking to a virtually empty room on a daily basis?

Unfortunately, for many brands using social media, that’s exactly what they’re doing – talking to themselves. Too often, companies become complacent with their followings on Facebook, Twitter and the like, and do nothing to grow their networks. As a result, they end up preaching to the same small choir. Over and over again. And, for small businesses, this choir can often be composed of friends and family. This is not, and should not be considered successful social media marketing.

Your number of Facebook fans matter.

They matter because they represent potential. Potential for engagement. Potential traffic to your website. Potential subscribers to your e-newsletter. And, most importantly, potential customers.

The larger your reach (more fans), the greater your potential. It’s the difference between pitching your product to a room of five qualified people vs. pitching to a room full of 5,000 qualified people.  [Obviously, this assumes qualified reach, meaning that your Facebook fans are composed of users who fall within your target demo, and were acquired by above-the-board means (Facebook advertising, as an example) – I’ll get to that later.]

I won’t deny that there are other factors that go into driving success through one’s Facebook Page, or any social site (good content, engaging posts, a strong mix of promotional to conversational, etc.). But say you have a network of 100,000 fans and you’re able to convert 5% of your fans to leads (5,000 leads). You’re doing a whole helluva lot better than the company who has 500 fans and a 5% lead rate (25 leads).

Think about this way – if you’re a brick and mortar store, why wouldn’t you want more people to come through your door? Each person that steps across your threshold marks an opportunity for you to sell your product. The same goes in the social media world.

In addition to the number of fans one has, the growth of this fan base is of equal importance. No matter how strong your content is, consumers have a tendency to grow indifferent over time, and may eventually stop producing results. This is just the fickle nature of the Web, and something every online marketer has to deal with. That’s why continually growing your list of qualified subscribers is so important, as it ensures that your social media results won’t suddenly drop off.

As we all know, it’s not just the number of fans, or growth of your fan base that matters; it’s also important how you acquire these subscribers. As previously alluded to, having a Facebook Page of 100,000 fans means nothing if they’re unqualified and aren’t likely to engage or buy.

So the question becomes how do you ensure that your fans are indeed qualified and that your messages mean something to them? Aside from the standard acquisition tactics used by most marketers first entering Facebook (email to existing subscriber list, in-store signage, etc.), Facebook ads have also proven themselves to be an effective means of obtaining a network of qualified followers. They’re inexpensive, and allow you to target based on any number of factors.

Facebook ads make certain that your Page continues to grow, while being populated with those who are most likely to buy from you. There’s a very good reason why large brands on Facebook continue to invest thousands, if not millions of dollars in these social ads – it’s to continually have a new network of people to sell to, relationship with, collect feedback from, etc. And if it wasn’t working, they wouldn’t be doing it.

Once you’ve acquired these fans, it’s absolutely critical that your content is strong, you engage with your subscribers, and that your Page becomes more than just a means of driving the lead.

Social media is not your typical sales tool, and requires that brands invest time and resources into “playing the social media game” with consumers – coming up with content that people want to interact with, monitoring for conversations related to their brand, responding to inquiries or complaints, etc.. If all of your posts tie back to driving that sale, your fans will tune out as quickly as they tuned in.

Engagement shows that you understand the medium and that you’re willing to put forth a real effort in order to drive that sale. It keeps people coming back to your Page, and ensures that your hard work to acquire those qualified fans was worth something.

And this leads me back to my original point…

All too often, we see companies settle within social media. If people are commenting and engaging with their content, they assume that all is well within the world. But they’re missing out on some big opportunities. Opportunities that stem from growth and expansion to new, qualified audiences.

So grow your network. Make sure you acquire those fans before your competition gets to them. And, once you have them, make sure you keep them by giving them the type of content they want to see, interact with and – most importantly – that spurs them to action.

As it turns out, Facebook has quietly discontinued its own conversion tracking altogether.  Here’s the official word:

“We are no longer going to offer our conversion tracking beta product. Over the past few months we have tested this beta with a small number of advertisers. While we learned a lot from the process, our focus is not on building a full featured conversion tracking tool. Moving forward, we will continue to invest in tools that help marketers better understand the effectiveness of ads that are social and that include social context from friends. We recently launched social metrics in our Ads Manager as a way of doing just that.”

What “social metrics” Facebook has in store, only time will tell.  My bet is that they will tie in to Facebook’s more expensive advertising products, such as event engagement and poll engagement.  It will be interesting to see if advertisers increasingly change their calls-to-action to encourage “Likes” or other social metrics.

In the meantime, if your ads send users to your site, outside of Facebook, MGH recommends leveraging third-party conversion tracking like Google Analytics to append the destination URLs for all of your Facebook ads.  Otherwise, if you’re leaning on Facebook for conversion data, you could be losing valuable reporting metrics.

According to Facebook, the updates to the Like button are:

• The ability to like canvas URLs for Facebook applications that represent things such as a cause, movie, or any other real world object
• The ability to link a Like button to a Facebook Page
• “Box count” layout that displays the total number of likes above the button

Let’s dissect these changes one by one to figure out what they mean for the marketer and the consumer.

1) The ability to like canvas URLs – This new function will allow developers to install the Like button on apps operating on the Facebook platform.

This gives users the ability to like both a Page and an app within the Page. So, if Coca-Cola has an app on its Page, I could now like both Coca-Cola the Page and Coca-Cola the app. Once I like it, that action will be shared on my News Feed and will link back to the specific app (creating more shareable content for brands).

In addition to liking apps, Facebook is also allowing users to like virtual goods and real world objects that live outside of websites or Facebook Pages. This could be huge for advertisers, as it will allow users to like things in the real world, such as products, events or movies.

2) The ability to link a Like button to a Facebook Page – Currently, when you see the Facebook Like button on an external site, it is linked to a specific piece of content, such as a video or a news article. With this change, Facebook is now allowing advertisers to attach a Like button to a piece of web content that will make you like their respective page as opposed to the content. This is a sticky situation and something that both consumers and advertisers need to be aware of. Users could potentially be “tricked” into liking at page when they think they are simply liking a one-off piece of content, such as a news article.

Our recommendation for consumers is to be aware of this and be conscious of what you are liking before you click “Like”. Our plea to advertisers is to use this new feature ethically. Be transparent and let your users know what they are liking.

3) “Box-Count” layout change – The third change announced today is more cosmetic than functional. This change simply displays the number of likes in a box above the Like button (very similar to the way Twitter displays how many times content has been tweeted). The new design element is displayed below. Expect to see it popping up on pages soon.

Like MGH on Facebook!

If you are a developer you can find out more about these changes from Facebook’s official blog at http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/407. If you are a business owner and would like to talk about how these changes can affect your brand feel free to contact me at RWalters@mghus.com .

In order to begin the merge process, business owners will first be asked to visit their Place to claim that business as their own. The easiest way to do this is to check in to that Place via your phone and then do a search for your business’ name on Facebook.com.

If a business is not already in the system, users will be given the option to create it as a Facebook Place. The user will then click the “Is this your business?” button to begin the verification process.

Once verified as the owner,  the user will then be given the option to merge their Page with their Place. But this is where things get a little tricky…

Merging a Facebook Page and Place will cause the layout of that business’ Page to be drastically altered. Let me say that once more just to emphasize how important this really is…

Merging a Place with a Page will DRASTICALLY change the layout of your Facebook Page. We’re not talking about a couple of changes; we’re talking about a full redesign of your Page that you’ve worked so hard on.

You can view an example of the merged design here or see a screenshot below.

Some of the bigger layout changes we’ve noticed include:

• Top navigation has been moved to the left-hand side of the Page. This is the most significant of  the changes, altering how users will interact with your Page and its content areas.
• Addition of a Bing map to the top of the Page. Facebook has also added a “Get Directions” button.
• Removal of the “Write something…” box. Users must now click on buttons that read “Write on Wall,” “Add Photos,” and/or “Post Link” in order to post something to a Page’s Wall.
• Addition of “Check-ins,” which notifies users of how many times people have used Places to check in to that location.
• Removal of the “# People Like This” box. Rather than showing you the names and images of people who “Like” a business’ Page, Facebook now just tells you how many people are fans.

It’s still unclear as to whether or not these changes will be the standard for all brand Pages moving forward. But, as you can imagine, they are likely to cause waves among business owners and marketers who have invested countless hours into learning and tweaking their Pages.

As for now, MGH recommends refraining from beginning the merge process until more details about Facebook’s plan for Pages/Places become available.

*UPDATED 8/24* After reading through a series of blog comments, it appears as though most users have not yet been given the option to merge their Place with their Page. Perhaps Facebook is still working out the details? More to come…

Once fully rolled out, Places will allow Facebook’s millions of users to “check-in” to the physical locations they visit via their mobile devices, and then broadcast their locations to their Facebook friends. So on any given day, you could see that Chris is eating lunch at Red Lobster, and Julie is drinking a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Sound familiar? It should.

That’s because, aside from a few subtle differences, Places is nearly identical to Foursquare. You’ll use Places to check-in to locations around town, connect with friends, interact with businesses, write and receive tips, etc. It’s Foursquare, but with a different name and place to live.

The obvious advantage Places has over Foursquare is its established audience of more than 500 million Facebook users. Even if just a small percentage of these users adopt Places, it should be easy for Facebook to outpace the up-and-comer.

So how can business owners and marketers start taking advantage of this new service?

Well…we’re not quite sure yet. Flipping through Facebook’s Guide for Businesses, it’s still not very clear how brands will interact with consumers through Places.

On Foursquare, businesses are encouraged to create specials that can be unlocked by customers who visit their location once or multiple times (e.g. “Free bagel for every five check-ins”). But, as of yet, we’ve seen no reference to any sort of similar offering from Places. Note that Facebook tends to drag a little with rolling out new products, so we’ll likely see this in the near future.

The other question that remains to be answered is how Places with interact with brand Pages. Facebook has said, “…not all Pages and Places can be merged at this time.” But what will it look like once they are merged? And how will what happens on one’s Page impact what happens on its Places page? There is some reference to this in Facebook’s Guide for Businesses and in its Help Center, but much of it is still unclear.

As more information becomes available, MGH will be sure to update you with answers to any of our unanswered questions.

But, for now, back to Foursquare we go!

*UPDATE 8/23* AboutFoursquare has released some additional details about the merging of a brand’s Facebook Page and Place. Here’s what we’ve learned thus far:

In order to begin the merge process, business owners will first be asked to visit their Place to claim that business as their own. The easiest way to do this is to check in to that Place via your phone and then do a search for your business’ name on Facebook.com.

If a business is not already in the system, users will be given the option to create it as a Facebook Place. Once verified as the owner,  the user will then be given the option to merge their Page with their Place. But this is where things get a little tricky…

Merging a Facebook Page and Place will cause the layout of that business’ Page to be drastically altered. Let me say that once more just to emphasize how important this really is…

Merging a Place with a Page will DRASTICALLY change the layout of your Facebook Page. We’re not talking about a couple of changes; we’re talking about a full redesign of your Page that you’ve worked so hard on.

You can view an example of the merged design here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hubstown/111260105555214?ref=ts

Some of the bigger layout changes we’ve noticed include:

• Top navigation has been moved to the left-hand side of the Page. This is the most significant of  the changes, altering how users will interact with your Page and its content areas.
• Addition of a Bing map to the top of the Page. Facebook has also added a “Get Directions” button.
• Removal of the “Write something…” box. Users must now click on buttons that read “Write on Wall,” “Add Photos,” and/or “Post Link” in order to post something to a Page’s Wall.
• Addition of “Check-ins,” which notifies users of how many times people have used Places to check in to that location.
• Removal of the “# People Like This” box. Rather than showing you the names and images of people who “Like” a business’ Page, Facebook now just tells you how many people are fans.

It’s still unclear as to whether or not these changes will be the standard for all brand Pages moving forward. But, as you can imagine, they are likely to cause waves among business owners and marketers who have invested countless hours into tweaking their Pages.

As for now, MGH recommends refraining from beginning the merge process until more details about Facebook’s plan for Pages/Places become available.

*UPDATE 8/24* After reading through a series of blog comments, it appears as though most users have not yet been given the option to merge their Place with their Page. Perhaps Facebook is still working out the details? More to come…

Want to preview the “Like” button that will soon be sweeping the web? Head to IMDB or CNN.

On IMDB, each movie’s page now includes a “Like” button and lists the number of connections the movie has already acquired. CNN articles include a button that says “Recommend.” In either case, when I select the button, my image and name appear on the page.

The action also creates a story on my Facebook News Feed linking back to the movie or article.

My Facebook friends can visit the movie page or article and see my name and picture, which link back to my Facebook profile. If someone who isn’t my friend visits the page or article, they cannot see my connection, only that “73 people like this.” Additionally, the “Like” or “Recommend” buttons are only available when a user is signed in to Facebook. Otherwise, clicking them launches a pop-up asking for your Facebook log in information.

It’s a simple and lightweight action to “Like” or “Recommend” anything across the web – just as Facebook intended it to be – but the privacy concerns that the new API generates may not be so casual as your Facebook information is shared across the rest of the web.

See other announcements from F8 on Mashable.

While the changes were leaked at the end of March, many users did not see them coming.  As usual, reactions from the Facebook community are mixed. Some find the new terminology awkward, since there’s no easy term for “users who ‘Like’ a Facebook Page.”

Those who support the change seem to be on board with Facebook’s reasoning – “like” is less heavy than “fan” and will no doubt lead to more connections. But as we previously discussed, a lighter affinity for a brand is unlikely to produce the results marketers hope for. The passionate “fan” is out of the picture.

Naturally, the news pushed Facebook to a trending topic on Twitter, with plenty of users threatening to quit among the new wave of changes. But despite threats, Facebook is unlikely to lose their user base, and pages are unlikely to take a hit in their fan group-of-users-who-designate-preference-for-them base. As we’ve seen before, people will get used to the latest switch and settle down until the next change comes along.

At first, users may get confused between “Liking” a page and “Liking” a page’s update, since a “Like” function already exists within Facebook. While the change might mean pages will accumulate more connections, it will be difficult for brands to distinguish which users are true ambassadors, and which users subscribed to the page accidentally. But even if users intend to “Like” a page, expect some connections to become much less meaningful.

In an Advertising Age article, David Berkowitz explains what it meant to be a Facebook fan: “Consumers needed to think twice about whether they’d become a fan of a brand because it meant something, even in a small way, to include that as part of their persona. It meant at least as much for brands to know who their real fans were; they already have a sense of who likes them.”

The shift from “Fan” to “Like” weakens the relationship between users and brands. Facebook’s release states: “‘Like’ offers a light-weight, consistent way for users to connect with the things they are passionate about.” Calling the action “light-weight” takes away from the enthusiasm most brands would hope for when users subscribe to their updates. A user’s light-weight connection to a brand won’t produce the kind of results marketers would hope for, rather, it will produce superficial fans who aren’t likely to translate into customers.

Facebook also recently proposed new privacy settings on their blog, introducing the idea of pre-approved partner websites that may access users’ data to create a customized experience. Think Facebook Connect on a much bigger scale, though the blog post claims the feature would only be available “with a small, select group of partners and we would also offer new controls.”

Both changes seem to be in conjunction with rumors that Facebook is developing a “Like” button for content created all across the web. You can already “share” content on Facebook with the click of a button, but rumors speculate that the “Like” feature would go way beyond that. According to AllFacebook.com, “Facebook also intends to allow developers to apply the ‘Like’ button to practically any structured object on the internet, if initial rumors are accurate.”

Regardless of the rumors, marketers should plan to focus on their presence on Facebook as it continues to integrate with content and user experiences on a wider scale. As the social networking site continues to make changes to become the top contender in content sharing and web search, you should prepare your brand to be a top contender in their domain.