Facebook allows marketers to embed – what’s the big deal?

Yesterday Facebook revealed a new capability to their Facebook PMD Strategic Partners – the embedded post. This social plug-in allows users to easily embed public Facebook posts onto blogs, news sites and pages. Embedded Posts are a way to put public posts (by either a page or a person on Facebook) on your web site or web page.

The embedded post will show any type of media attached to it (hyperlinks, videos, pictures, etc) and it will show the number of likes, shares, and comments that the post has. Embedding posts will let people using your web site see the same user generated content that is  on Facebook.com, but directly on your site where it may be relevant to the conversation.  Embedded posts will also allow readers to follow or like content authors or Pages directly from the embed.

There are a few critical things to know about his capability:
– Only public posts from Pages and Facebook users can be embedded.
– They are launching Embedded Posts with CNN, Huffington Post, Bleacher Report, People Magazine and Mashable, with broader availability coming soon.
– Embedded Posts display just like they do on Facebook, with the ability to show pictures, videos, hashtags, and other content.
– People can interact with Embedded Posts by liking or sharing them, liking or following their authors, or visiting their related comments on Facebook.

What this means for marketers is a chance to comment on things in the news and start a conversation around that topic. The burden on brands who wish to participate with Facebook using the embedded post is that they will need a resource (similar to Twitter marketing) to be the voice of the brand. However being engaged with consumers in a genuine way is fantastic opportunity to learn, participate and show the face of you brand to the consumers.

Facebook has not created a dedicated API but you can talk with your Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) provider and get more information.

Two types of Tweeters – which are you?

Do you tell a secret or rock a megaphone?

Twitter is an interesting social media channel for businesses. Currently, there are two very popular uses for Twitter in business marketplace – usually Twitter is used for customer service and often people set up automated search to respond to someone looking for or complaining about something.

In both of those instances it is an intimate conversation – usually the people engaging are specifically responding to an @ Someone. They are whisperers. Whisperers want to pull someone aside in a crowded bar and look in their eye and ask them what they need. It’s as intimate an engagement as 140 characters allow – and as you might expect they have a lot less followers.

The next type of person is the bullhorn. This is the guy at the starting line of your local 10K race who is yelling about where the water stations are, what to do when you finish and how long to the start. He is using Twitter as in the old form of advertising and that is broadcasting one to many. Not a lot of interaction

The bullhorn is characterized by one specific characteristic – they retweet a lot of links. Nearly 300 times more than a typical Whisperer. So if you want more followers – get a megaphone and start finding interesting content. You can’t tweet too much either. On average the most followed brands tweet twice an hour during the work day.

Big Tip: The final big tip of the blog comes from Dan Zarrella who has a new book out called the Science of Marketing. He looked at millions of tweets and sorted them by number of times the Tweeter self-referenced (used “I, me, mine, etc” ) and found, not surprisingly, the more someone talks about themselves the les followers they have. Dale Carnegie said years ago – be like a puppy always happy to see someone else and really concerned about having fun with them! Always remember: The key to social media marketing is user generated content. Here’s the graph:

Independence from 20% rule – Happy 4th of July

Yearning to put a pithy message on your Facebook cover photo? Now is the time. Facebook has thrown the 20% rule overboard like tea on an old wooden ship.

But before you jump ahead and start plastering your cover with prose consider these three quick times from SocialBlockers:

1. A picture speaks louder than words

Just because you are allowed to include as many words as you like, it may not always be a good idea. A good rule of thumb to live by when marketing on Facebook is to remember the power of the picture. Facebook fans interact with images more often than any other post type, which means they like to be visually engaged. If your photo is memorable, it’ll speak for itself. If in features user generated content it is gold!

2. Ain’t nobody got time for that

A cover photo that is cluttered with too much text is not only unattractive, the chances are that nobody is going to take the time to read your carefully crafted prose. Think in terms of a headline rather than Hemmingway. Make sure that you strategically place your text, keep it organized, catchy, and relevant to your message.

3. Skip involved product pitches

Recently, Facebook lifted its ban on call-to-action texts on cover photos. So, brands have free range to promote deals, entice fans with give aways, and hold contests through their cover photos. Though, however tempting it is to cram your photo full of products and offers, remember that Facebook is a ‘social network’ for you to engage with your fans, not hard sell to them. Cover photos are the first thing Facebook users see when visiting your Page, so why not leave them something more memorable than a sales pitch?

User generated content just increased in value thanks to Facebook

A policy change can change the value of many things. This time its what appears on individual’s walls on Facebook – the prime real estate int eh world’s largest word-of-mouth network. 

Facebook just announced several changes that are going to take place in October of this year. One of the big ones for marketing and digital agencies is that no longer will an API be allowed to share on friend’s wall. 

The official word from Facebook:

“We have found that posting content via API (stream.publish) on a friend’s wall lead to a high incidence of user dissatisfaction (hiding content, blocking the app). After the migration period, posting content to friends’ timelines via stream.publish will no longer be allowed. Please use the Feed Dialog for posting.”

What does this mean to marketers and brands?

If you follow the new KPIs of Social Media and Events one of your key efforts is likely around viral engagement and earned impressions on Facebook. This used to be enabled automatically by API that allowed sharing on a connections wall. Now you will have to rely on solid user generated content to get virality and impressions.

I’ve said numerous times on this blog that the way to get user generated content that is highly effective is to catch people at the time when they are having fun doing a very unique event or activity and post for them so all the friction is removed. From the Olympics to the Stanley Cup Play-offs user generated content has ruled the social sphere. Now that you can’t use an API to post to another wall you have to be smart and figure out how to get others to do it for your brand and become social media brand champions. 

Facebook Dark Posts update – Video ads eligible for News Feed. Is it a B2B win?

Up until this week only photo ads were eligible for what Facebook calls Unpublished post ads and the industry generally calls “dark posts”. The release this week of video capability expands the utility of dark posts and potentially is a big win for business to business marketing on Facebook – but many people might miss that subtlety. 

My supposition that video dark posts will see significantly higher usage on laptop and desktop focused ads. Research data has shown that because of both screen and bandwidth constraints photos are still a much bigger engagement platform on mobile. Mobile usage peaks on Facebook are much different than desktop  usage. Desktop usage still peaks mid-day on Wednesday where as mobile is moving toward Sunday afternoon.

Big tip: The usage data would suggest that video post ads targeted to a rich, high-bandwidth experience would be optimal for B2B and best served the beginning and middle of the week. Obviously using some A/B comparison ads and Facebook data is a quick way to determine if my advice is correct for your business but this is one giant leap in that direction.

The best video ads you can produce would be based on user generated content. It’s easiest to catch user generated video at your own events or sponsored locations like stadiums, events and locations. Check out how Major League Baseball should do social for more ideas. 

Think you know more about social than a 4 month old puppy? (Please share!)

New! Facebook allows Atlas tags for targeted adverts – what’s it mean for you?

I just wrote a blog for dwinQ about targeted advertising using Facebook and the success of such programs. Now there is even better news from Facebook you use Atlas post-impression measurement tags (often called view tags) on ads targeted to custom audiences, partner categories and lookalike audiences.

So what does this mean for Facebook advertisers and those trying to amplify their brand on Facebook?  Better analytics and measurement of ad spend. Now Facebook can offer view-through measurement on custom audience targeted ads. More and better information for spending your precious dollars.

A quick look on the old Atlas Blog gives all the benefits of using the view tags with Facebook targeted advertising. In a  nutshell you can compare Facebook advertising directly with display advertising online and see how that influences search. So if Facebook is more effective than your Google Adwords or Yahoo advertising you can move (and justify moving) more spend to Facebook for better results.

Remember, my big rule of thumb for success on Facebook – work with a PMD vendor, use as much User Generated Content as possible, and try to amplify live events with product placement on Facebook using technology like RFID and QR codes. That’s the foundation of the new marketing mix. Using Atlas tags can help go beyond your gut and show you how effective things really are. Good luck!

 

IBM, Apple and Google brands worth $400 BILLION – what’s yours worth?

In a Dr. Evil-like post last week Venture Beat reported that IBM, Apple and Google have the worlds most valuable brands – worth an estimated $400 billion dollars.

That’s good news for me since I own both Apple and google stock – but is it good news for you and your brand? Yes, if you take just a minute to see how they built those brands up. IBM has been around for ever so let’s take them out of the equation. Apple and Google can sum up their brand value in a single word: Focus

If you want your brand to be valuable and increase the success of your overall company stay focused. This is even more true on social media than it is in the real world. Apple focused on one thing user-friendly innovation. Google focused on one thing: accurate search. Those single, well defined attributes catapulted the respective companies to the top of the list.

The other thing they both did was brand individual products separately. Gmail, Glass, Analytics and iPhone, iPod, iPad are all differnet than company names. Look at a company that is not in the top three but should be (HP). One of the reasons their brand is discounted compared to the company value is the lack of clarification and tightly messaged purpose. They also have terrible product names that muddy the branding water. 

Build value in your brand – find your one well-defined message and speak that in all your communication via social media. If you enable great user generated content make sure you add your messaging there as well, and make it easy (frictionless) so that you have a bran
d champion speaking your one brand message. 

 

 

Integrated Print Forum – where digital and physical meet in the ‘burgh

I’m key noting at the integrated print forum #IPF13  in Pittsburgh. Stop by this morning and see how conneting the real world and online world is a key piece in any marketing puzzle.

Tap to call Home on Facebook – marketing prediction

For those of you who have not played with Home yet on an Android it really is pretty cool. It’s like a slide show of screensavers that are made up of your newsfeed. The posts are vibrant, alive and engaging. The ads are another story – no doubt they are sometime annoying. This is especially true (for me) if they are for some time-sucking game that fit into the following catagory: my locker neighbor from high school is spending all his time at working trying to get to the next level, and apparently needs me to be his Cato, or Hutch, or Joe Biden.  I know I am digressing about terrible game ads. But the ads do have a negative impact – right now. They will get better and brands had better pay attention. 

My prediction is that the biggest impact of Facebook’s new Home operating system is that   advertisers will gain an ability to enable immediate action. What is going to happen in the next six months is that home will have a click-to-call feature. 

This click to call integration will allow immediate tracking of sales conversion from Facebook ads and bring data collection into the stratosphere. It will also take away any buying friction that was existent in the old model. Brands can significantly optimize this if they make ads that don’t suck and if they allow user to take action.

My advice start designing ad programs that include click to talk capability and remember that using user-generated content has proven head and shoulders above everything else for driving engagement. This will be true for driving buying actions as well. In the next six or 12 months Home is where the money will be.

The best way to ensure ads on Facebook home and mobile are working is to make them subtle and leverage user generated content. Seeing something your friends are talking about is a lot more powerful than something a sales guy is talking about. So look for click to call soon on home and mobile and think of creative ways to collect user generated content at events, promotions, and sponsorship programs that already exist – that’s how to really drive ROI home.