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The Most Important News from Facebook’s F8 Keynote

April 19, 2016/by Corey Padveen

There is a lot to look forward to in Facebook’s future, as evidenced by the Facebook F8 keynote.

Last week, Mark Zuckerberg delivered the keynote address at the Facebook F8 summit and shed some light on what the future has in store for the social networking giant. (It should be noted that at this point Facebook is a giant in many – if not most – respects, and not only when it comes to social networking.)

The Age of Spiritual Machines

So maybe we haven’t yet reached that fateful period that Ray Kurzweil has prophesied, but Facebook has certainly taken a step in that direction by embracing bots (and a form of artificial intelligence) when it comes to brand engagement on Messenger.

The idea behind automated interaction like this is to improve the distribution and engagement with brand content (and other content from around the web). At first – as with all things that are unfamiliar to us – it will likely feel like an intrusion. As these bots adapt to your tastes and mold to your Facebook engagement habits (not to mention the improvements that will surely come) it will certainly reach a point where it passes a Turing Test.

Following the announcement, two big content distributors – Business Insider and The Wall Street Journal – announced the launch of their bots, and those brands using this service has only increased since then. We can surely expect to see brands (of all sizes) start to embrace this service in the near future, if for no other reason than to test its capabilities.

Sharing Text Just Got Easier

You’re reading a book, you see a quote that inspires you, it’s time to share. Now, that process (which was pretty easy to begin with) just got easier.

Now when you see text in an integrated app (Amazon Kindle will feature this soon) that you would like to share, you can simply highlight it and choose to share it to Facebook. Sure, the aesthetics of a beautiful sunset setting the backdrop for some inspirational text might still be preferable, but who knows where this option might go from a creative angle. That might be phase two.

For now, sharing text is a click away.

Streaming Coming Up in a Big Way

Facebook is making an even bigger play in live streaming content. In their ten year roadmap, their connectivity focus includes plenty of drone, 3D, 360 and live streaming elements.

There has been a lot of excitement and hype around the live streaming space. That’s exacerbated by the fact that Facebook has been putting plenty of weight on content that is live streamed in its News Feed algorithm. But if we were to imagine live streaming on the Gartner Hype Cycle (shown below) where would it fall?

Realistically, we would probably see live streaming between the Peak of Inflated Expectations and the Trough of Disillusionment. Yes, there are undoubtedly applications and yes it is an exciting new field as far as content delivery goes, but it still has yet to find a balance. That said, it is easy to understand why Facebook is putting a lot of weight behind it.

Better Bookmarking

Lastly (at least lastly for this article, but there is plenty more to catch up on) Facebook is venturing into the bookmarking space in a more robust way. Every day, more and more people are using Facebook to digest news content. A lot of what was discussed in Facebook’s F8 keynote was news-related.

Bookmarking is another way that Facebook is trying to extend its value to consumers. Bookmarking and better segmenting the content you see is an area where Facebook offers little right now. That’s going to change as they extend how bookmarking on the platform works, and what benefits there are to using it.

Conclusion

A lot was announced by Facebook, which is nothing new. Every day, there are plenty of great innovations coming out of the social networking behemoth. It’ll be exciting to watch how they approach (and adhere to) their ten year roadmap.

8 Important Facebook Mobile Stats and What They Mean for Your Business

March 3, 2014/by Corey Padveen

The importance of Facebook mobile for business has grown considerably with the increasing popularity of the app.

One of the most fascinating realities of the digital marketing world is the rate at which it evolves. It wasn’t long ago that Facebook and MySpace were the only two ‘networks’ out there as we understand the term today. The idea of connecting on mobile devices was an afterthought at best. Today, Facebook mobile is becoming exceedingly important to business, and the proof is in the numbers. Below are a few of the most impressive (and shocking) statistics when it comes to Facebook mobile with some explanation as to how these numbers relate to your business.

1. There are 945 million monthly active users (MAU) on the Facebook mobile app.

That means that nearly every Facebook user is taking advantage of the network on-the-go. In today’s mobile business landscape, your brand cannot afford to be stagnant. You need to travel with your Facebook audience and appeal to them with mobile friendly content (i.e. responsive and short).

2. There are 8,400 Facebook advertisers on mobile.

This is a huge opportunity! There are over 25 million businesses with registered pages on Facebook and on the website, there are only a million advertisers. That’s roughly 4%. If you think that is a big opportunity, consider how few advertisers there are competing for attention on mobile!

3. There was an 89% increase in the usage of Facebook Messenger among teens (16-19) in 2013.

To anyone that tells you Facebook is losing its teen demographic, refer them to this statistic. The popularity of Facebook among teens still exists, it is just evolving as the nature of teen engagement does: moving to mobile.

4. 927 million hours are spent every month on Facebook apps and games by Facebook mobile users.

Are you a game or app developer, or are you considering gamification for your brand? Then you should probably consider spending some time focusing solely on Facebook mobile apps. Why? Because people are spending over an hour per month, on average, playing games on Facebook mobile. In an age where it is hard to keep someone’s attention for more than eight seconds that’s quite an achievement.

5. There are 556 million daily active users (DAU) on Facebook mobile.

Consider this: if you have a mobile ready blog that you share across your social networks every day, there are 556 million people that can be targeted through social ads on Facebook mobile to read your article.

6. Your content is twice as likely to be shared or clicked on a mobile device than it is on a desktop.

The world is full of distractions and perhaps the greatest distraction of all is in the palm of your hand. Think about your daily activity on your mobile device; you are probably liking pictures on Instagram, liking status updates and re-tweeting great content on Twitter. Well, when you share content to Facebook mobile, users are, as with anything on mobile, twice as likely to engage with it than they are on a desktop.

7. 60.3% of social sharing on mobile devices can be attributed to Facebook.

Massive engagement is generated from Facebook mobile. Of all the social networks on which people can share content, Facebook is the most active. If you are trying to reach a broader audience and expand your mobile presence on social media, there are few options better than Facebook.

8. 45% of social logins are through Facebook.

If you require a login on your mobile site or app, make sure there is an option for social logins. People simply want to press a button and have their Facebook account connected to an app as opposed to creating an account. This is also beneficial when it comes to targeting your content strategy, as you will have far more insight into your engaged audience (through Facebook).

How do you leverage the power of Facebook mobile for your branding and content strategy? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter! (Stats courtesy of ShareThis, TechInAsia, Facebook, Venture Beat, AllFacebook)

How to Measure ROI on Facebook in 3 Easy Steps [VIDEO]

November 9, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Measuring ROI on Facebook is essential to knowing the success of your program, and it is much easier than you think.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel here.

Social Media Case Study: McDonald’s on Facebook

September 19, 2013/by Corey Padveen

A great example of practices to avoid in your Facebook strategy comes from McDonald’s on Facebook.

Have you ever visited McDonald’s on Facebook? The brand might look great by the numbers – nearly 30M likes, tons of check-ins, and plenty of engagement on their individual posts – but if you look closely, you’ll see that the brand is displaying some bad habits that smaller companies, without a household name, should probably avoid.

When it comes to McDonald’s on Facebook, there are certain things that the company can get away with based solely on the nature of the brand. Those golden arches are recognized the world over, and there is little the brand can do without getting a massive amount of attention for it – for better or worse.

There are three things that the brand does on Facebook, however, that might work for McDonald’s, but should be avoided at all costs by smaller brands without the commercial clout the fast food chain has to fall back on.

No Engagement

Despite the fact that every post shared by McDonald’s generates hundreds if not thousands of comments by fans of the brand, McDonald’s has virtually never responded to a single user.

Now when a post generates hundreds of responses in a matter of hours, it might be hard to respond to every one of them – that’s fair. But there is not so much as a ‘Thank You’ by the brand anywhere. Now pretend this was not McDonald’s. Let’s say it was a small, single-location restaurant with a loyal customer base. Would it not seem strange if people were sharing content and reaching out to the company and being completely ignored?

There should always be some form of Social Care in place – customer service on social media. Let your audience know that you are listening and being social, and not simply using the platform to promote your brands.

And that brings us to the second faux pas by the brand.

All About the Sale

Go through the posts shared by McDonald’s on Facebook, and you might be surprised to see that almost everything the company is sharing is promoting their products – and nothing else. With the exception of a few albums for some McDonald’s-sponsored events or Monopoly, everything McDonald’s shares has that sales pitch feeling to it.

Again, what would people say if a brand without the commercial clout that McDonald’s has started doing this? It probably wouldn’t go over so well.

No Thanks Given

Despite consistently high levels of engagement with their sales-based posts, there is nothing unique offered by McDonald’s on their Facebook page in order to reward loyal fans.

Take a look at what Cadbury did to thank their fans on Facebook, and you’ll see an excellent example of a brand showing customer appreciation. McDonald’s makes no effort to show gratitude, and one has to assume that if those golden arches were not behind it, would they find as much success on Facebook?

It might look good on the surface – hard to argue that close to 30 million fans is a bad thing – but in reality, McDonald’s exhibits several ‘Do Nots’ when it comes to Facebook. Smaller brands would be best to take the McDonald’s Facebook strategy as a list of practices to avoid.

What big brands do you think have done a great job on Facebook or other social channels? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Facebook Marketing: 8-Step Checklist to Getting Started

August 6, 2013/by Corey Padveen

When it comes to Facebook marketing, there are a few steps that need to be taken when getting started.

You have a company, you have a page and you are ready to get started with your Facebook marketing program – all great things!

But in order to find success with your Facebook marketing, there are a few things you need to do right at the outset.

Below is an 8-step marketing checklist for getting started on Facebook (in order).

1. Pick a Page Name (if possible, with a keyword)

If you are John Smith and you own a steakhouse, try and name your page ‘John Smith Steakhouse’. Keywords in the page name are among the few areas on Facebook where they can benefit SEO, so try and get it in there when you choose your name.

2. Create a Vanity URL

A long Facebook URL with a bunch of numbers at the end of it is not very nice to look at. Go to https://www.facebook.com/username and create a vanity URL for your page to maintain professionalism.

3. Optimize Your Sections for SEO

Your About section and your mission statement should have links and keywords close to the front in order to optimize your page for SEO. Do not leave any sections blank. It simply does not look good when people come by.

4. Add Photos and Videos

This includes your profile picture (Hint: 180X180px) your cover photo (Hint: 851X315px) and your page photos (Hint: They fit into 400X400px space on your Timeline). Get content up quickly so you do not have an empty company page.

5. Add Tabs to Your Page

A ‘Like’ box and a selection of photos is not impressive. People want to see that you pay attention to your Facebook page the same way you would pay attention to your customers. Add some custom tabs to your page and make it look great! (Note: Tabs should highlight your goals and expertise.)

6. Promote Your Page

It may sound silly, but people are generally a little hesitant to ‘Like’ a page that has no activity. Reach out to friends and existing clients and invite them to ‘Like’ your page in order to get the ball rolling. You might also want to create a promotion of some of your content for a few bucks to a targeted audience and build your audience that way as well.

7. Familiarize Yourself with Insights

Facebook recently updated their Insights, and there is a lot to learn. As a page owner, you should know what Insights are available, what they mean and how you can use them to increase the business you drive from your page.

8. Start Engaging!

Ask questions, share updates and encourage conversation on your page. Though the average engagement rate on pages falls somewhere in the 0.5%-1.5% range, you should be aiming to shatter that number with your page!

These 8 steps are crucial to getting started with Facebook marketing. However, once they have been taken, it is time to start watching business grow with the help of Facebook!

Which step do you think is the most important? Do you have any others? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Understanding the Facebook EdgeRank Algorithm

May 8, 2013/by Corey Padveen

The Facebook EdgeRank algorithm is something we have all heard about, but what exactly is it and how should it be considered when developing content for the channel?

First and foremost, for those who are unfamiliar with the feature, what is the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm? It is a system used by Facebook to determine what posts appear on each user’s timeline based on certain criteria. The purpose? In theory, it is in place to ensure that each user only sees the most relevant and engaging content based on their history and activity.

What does the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm mean for brands? It can be either a good thing or a bad thing. There is an endless stream of content being shared on Facebook, and if you are not properly implementing a content strategy, yours may never be seen.

There are three main variables that make up the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm: affinity, weight and time decay. These terms sound impressive and technical, but like anything on social media, it all really comes down to engagement.

Recently, Will Cathcart, Facebook’s News Feed Product Manager, broke down the EdgeRank system and clarified exactly how it works and what you should be focused on when it comes to getting your content seen on your fans’ timelines.

The Individual

On an individual level, there are two key points of focus. First, history is a major factor. The more your audience engages with your page over time, the more likely it is that they will see your content appear on their timeline. That’s a given. The second factor, however, is a little more specific.

Individual engagement matters. But as a brand, you need to take note of the types of content your audience is engaging with. If, for example, images receive plenty of interaction but your videos are ignored, your audience may only see images as they are posted and your videos will disappear into the annals of Facebook.

What is important? Study what individual fans are engaging with and encourage engagement both on popular and unpopular types of posts in order to ensure that all of your content is showcased for your audience.

The Network

The second level is the network. There is a secondary effect on Facebook that can help you reach a broader audience. Have you ever noticed that when a post is receiving a lot of attention, your reach sometimes exceeds your fan count? As reactions and interactions from direct users increase on a given piece of content, more people are exposed to that post. Therefore, high engagement on a post might mean bringing back fans that were once lost for lack of engagement.

Second, sentiment plays a major role with network reach. If people are engaging negatively, then you stand to lose a good deal of your reach, and your content might be hidden from users that were once engaged in the future.

What is important? Monitor the popularity of your posts and modify your strategy in order to share only content that is receiving high levels of engagement and reaching broad secondary audiences as a result.

The Facebook EdgeRank algorithm is not a horribly complex phenomenon to understand. Sure, we may not be tech-savvy enough to know how it is coded, or how it does exactly what it does, but we can certainly understand how it produces the end result. Knowing that gives us leverage when putting together a Facebook content strategy, and can certainly give us a competitive advantage when it comes to Facebook.

Did you know about EdgeRank? Did you understand it? Have you done or will you do anything differently with knowledge of how the algorithm works? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Tips to Creating a Great Facebook Ad Campaign

May 6, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Facebook can be a successful, cost-effective channel on which to promote your business, and these tips will help you create a great Facebook Ad campaign.

We see Facebook Ads every time we log into the social network. They may not always be captivating, and you may not always notice them, but they are always there and always trying to grab your attention. But more often than not, they are not achieving the goal of converting eyes into clicks.

Facebook Ads may be easy to use, straightforward and simple to monitor, but there are a few key factors that distinguish your average-performing Facebook Ads and great Facebook Ad campaigns. Below are four tips that should help take your Facebook advertising to the next level.

Do Some Research

The first time you put together an ad campaign on Facebook, you are going to be eager to get your content out there and watch the “Like” counter shoot up. Unfortunately, without at least a little bit of research, you are not going to see the results you are hoping for.

Look through your insights, study engagement levels and develop a campaign that both fits the brand you’ve created on Facebook and appeals to a specific audience. If you are trying to target everyone, you might end up reaching no one. (Don’t worry – that makes more sense after you see the next tip.)

Target a Very Specific Audience

When you first start building your ad and you see your options for targeting, you might be excited by the prospect of potentially reaching upwards of 150 million people (and that’s in the United States alone!). But the reality of the situation is, if you are not creating an ad directed at a targeted audience – namely, one based on the research you did before you got started – there is no telling who will see it, and you will likely miss out on opportunities to reach engaged audiences as opposed to a broad audience of uninterested persons.

To put it in perspective, if you are trying to attract people to your page about food and dining for female college students, a broad, unspecific audience might only show your content to middle aged professional men. The result? A lower-than-hoped-for conversion.

Create an Appealing Ad

Sure – it sounds like a no brainer. Why would you do anything else, right? Well, it is not as easy as it sounds. The key to a great Facebook Ad campaign is appeal. People should be intrigued by the content in your ad – and you don’t have much of it considering it might be as small as a little image and text on the right-hand column of someone’s news feed or timeline.

This is where you need to let your creative juices flow. The content and images in these ads should not simply be your logo and a brief description of your company. Leave that on your page. Share a fun fact, an interesting quote, an curious question or any other engaging bit of content. People should feel compelled to see what else you are offering when they see your ad.

Though it has been done by plenty of businesses, let’s look at the “abs of steel concept” we often see floating on the right of our Facebook screen. It might be for a personal trainer, a mail-order program or a diet, but they are showing a picture of a killer six pack and asking something along the lines of, “Do you want abs that look like this in 60 days? Then click here and get started today!” Even the skeptic is compelled to click, just to see what the offer is. Go for something irresistible and your click-through rates will be much higher than average.

Try, Try and Try Again!

There are a billion accounts on Facebook and your first campaign is not going to reach them all. In fact, you might be disappointed in the results of your first campaign. What went wrong? Were you targeting the wrong audience? Was your content not as great as you thought it was? That’s all part of the learning process.

You might find after a few tests that your most engaged market is nothing close to what you thought it was. That’s a great lesson and can translate into a lot more business, and it is not particularly expensive to figure out; your ads can be budgeted very modestly. Testing is the best way to turn your trials into great Facebook Ad campaigns.