By Ian Cleary
Published May 16, 2013

Are you wondering how your Facebook Page compares to competitors?

What can you do to improve your performance?

Insights into how your competitors are using Facebook can help you better understand your audience on Facebook and how they use Facebook.

In this article, I’ll review 5 different tools that can be used to help you compare your Facebook Page against competitors and identify tactics to help you improve your Facebook marketing.

#1: Compare Your Statistics With AgoraPulse Barometer

AgoraPulse provides a free tool called the AgoraPulse Barometer, which performs an analysis of your Facebook Page and compares it against other companies’ Pages (that also used this tool) that have a similar number of fans.

The Barometer calculates the average percentage for several criteria based on your last 50 posts. The resulting report shows the score for your Page in black compared with the average score in red for other Pages that ran this assessment.

The table gives an assessment of your Page compared to other Pages with a similar fan count.

Information provided in the chart above includes:

Fans Reached. This is the average number of fans who receive your content. Facebook generally shares your content with a small percentage of fans unless you have a very engaged community. The key to increasing this figure is having a community that comments, likes or shares your posts.

Engagement. This is the average percentage of users who’ve seen your post and then either liked, commented, shared or clicked on the post. If you focus on increasing this figure, it will help your Page significantly.

People Talking About. This is similar to engagement, but doesn’t include people who clicked on the post, so it will always be lower than engagement.

Negative Feedback. This is the average percentage of users who gave negative feedback by hiding a single post, hiding all Page posts or reporting a post as spam.

Viral Reach. This is when people who are not fans get to see the content you shared. This could be because the content gets shared out by your fans to their friends.

Organic Reach. This is the average percentage of fans and non-fans who see your content when it’s posted.

Click-Through Rate. This is the average number of people who interacted with your posts by watching a video, clicking on a photo or listening to an audio file.

As well as the above table, there is a drill-down provided, which compares some of your Page’s statistics against the average achieved through other people who ran the Barometer report for their Page.

You can view a breakdown of each area in graphical form.

Monthly Organic Reach. Percentage of people who saw at least one post on your Page over a month.

Monthly Viral Reach. Percentage of friends of fans who saw at least one post as a result of their friends either liking, commenting or sharing.

People Talking About This (monthly). Your fans who liked, commented or shared at least one post over a month. This excludes viral or paid reach.

With AgoraPulse Barometer, you can produce a very easy-to-understand summary report of your Page’s performance, and focusing on how you compare against competitors helps you strive for improvements.

#2: Score Your Page Using LikeAlyzer

I covered LikeAlyzer in more detail in a previous article, but it’s still a tool that I find is very popular due to its simplicity.

LikeAlyzer gives you a rating out of 100 in comparison to other Pages and gives you some recommendations on how you can improve your Page.

The following shows the type of report that LikeAlyzer produces.

LikeAlyzer provides you with a very easy to understand assessment of your Page.

Here are the different areas it reviews:

Page Information. It will check that you have filled out information on the Page with sufficient details such as the website name and some milestones.

Posts by Page. It will go through an analysis of the posts on your Page and suggest improvements based on the following:

• Posts per Day. You need to post regularly every day on Facebook. One of the main reasons is that most people don’t see your posts and some posts may not resonate with your audience, so you need to post frequently.
• Posts per Type. It’s important to include a variety of post types on your Page. Pictures get a lot of engagement, but text-only updates recently started doing well on Facebook. The key is having a variety of posts.
• Average Length of Posts. Shorter posts typically do better than longer posts, so a post with a shorter text update is better.
• Curiosity. Questions get more interaction and the more interaction on the Page, the better it will perform.
• Encourage to Like. If you encourage people to like a status update, they are more likely to click like. For example, saying “Click like if…” followed by a statement works well. You don’t encourage clicking like with every status update, but you should consider using this occasionally.

Posts by Others. This assesses how responses from fans are dealt with.

• Everyone can post to your timeline. Interaction on your Page is good, so it’s better if you allow people to post on your timeline.
• Posts by fans. Are fans posting enough on the timeline? You want fans to put up their own posts.
• Response time. This is how quickly you respond to interaction from fans on a Page. Fans expect you to interact quickly!

You can see at a glance what you’re doing well, but more importantly it draws your attention to the areas you need to focus on.

As well as running a report for your Page, you can also run the report for a competitor’s Page and then do a comparison. If your competitor gets a higher score, you can see what areas they are scoring better in and get some ideas for making improvements.

#3: Find Out Who Wins With Fanpage Karma

Fanpage Karma is a paid tool that provides a free version that allows you to do a fairly detailed analysis of your Facebook Page and a comparison with your competitors.

Start by entering your Facebook Page name or the Page name of your competitor and click on the button to get free insights.

Enter the name of the Page you want to analyze.

When you run the report, you see an initial table for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This gives an initial assessment of the Page based on certain metrics and provides an overall Page performance score.

Overall summary of the Page’s key performance indicators.

The criteria the Page is assessed on include:

Fans. Total number of fans of the Page.

Growth. Growth of fans over the previous month.

Talking About. Fans on Facebook who are interacting with Page updates.

Ad Value. The cost to reach these fans in a month if you were using paid advertising. (This is calculated based on the industry average cost (CPM) for online advertising.)

Posts per Day. Average number of posts per day.

Response Rate. How many Page posts made by fans get a response from you.

Response Time. How quickly you respond to fans.

Post Interaction. The average number of comments, likes and shares compared to the number of fans of your Page.

Karma Level. A weighted engagement factor where shares are valued more than likes. (This is not related to number of fans.)

Page Performance. This is calculated using a combination of the growth of fans and engagement and is scored out of 100.

A more detailed analysis of the Page is also provided that contains many interesting graphs.

Here’s an example of one of the graphs from each section.

Content. Overall details related to the content including a posting history, details of the strongest and weakest posts, details of interaction on all posts over that period, most frequently used words and links and a graph of the average length of posts.

This shows you the average length of posts and the post types. You can also click on the circles and see what the post was related to.

Times and Types. This shows what, when and how often posts were added to the Page, the best engagement by time of day and details of posts by post type.

Find out when is the best time to post.

Influencers. Who are the most active fans, where do they come from and which other Pages are they most active on? This is very useful to see which of your competitors’ fans you should target!

A breakdown of fans by country.

Fan Posts. Indicates the most popular fan posts on the Page; that is, the ones that got the most reactions. It also indicates the percentage of fan posts that the Page responded to, as well as how quickly the Page reacted to those posts.

Percentage of posts from fans that the Page commented on.

Ad Value. The cost of reaching the same number of fans if you used paid advertising. This is calculated using the industry average cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for online marketing. If you upgrade to the premium version, you can get a more accurate analysis of your actual spend on advertising compared to the visibility you are getting organically.

Shows the equivalent value of these posts if you had to pay for them using online advertising.

History and Benchmarking. Provides details on the historical performance of the Page, so you can see how it has performed over a certain period of time. You can also compare the Page’s performance against other Pages in the same category and Pages of a similar size.

Details of how many people are interacting with the content.

You can also run a side-by-side comparison with another Facebook Page. Just select the option to compare two fan Pages.

Select the option to compare two fan Pages and enter their Page names.

Once you enter the two Pages you want to compare, Fanpage Karma will display a detailed side-by-side analysis.

The initial chart displayed is an overview of the performance for each of the Pages. From this you can pick out very interesting comparisons.

For example, in this comparison, one Page has a 6.4% engagement rate compared to 0.3% on the other Page. This means significant performance improvements are required for the Page with the 0.3% engagement.

View an overall summary of performance of both Pages side by side.

The more detailed comparisons that follow show graphs on areas such as the breakdown of post types.

What’s interesting is that the Page with a much higher engagement is sharing significantly more pictures than the Page with a very low engagement rate. This is enforced further by the engagement matrix, where you can see that this Page has the most engagement on pictures, so it is clearly capitalizing on that.

View an analysis of the type of posts each Page is using.

The Posts per Day graph shows the distribution of posts each day, so you can see which days are the most active for each Page, while the posting frequency gauge shows how often there are posts to the Page.

Here you can see a drastic difference in the frequency between these Pages. While one Page may not be posting enough, the other Page may be posting too much.

In addition to the side-by-side comparison with one competitor, you can also do some benchmarking against a range of Pages. You simply add multiple Pages to your dashboard as shown here.

View competitor comparison within a dashboard.

The top section shows you a direct comparison on each Page’s KPIs, but if you scroll down you can do some further comparisons.

For example, Performance Benchmarking is where you can compare how your Page is developing and growing compared to the competition over a period of time.

View comparison of key statistics between Pages.

For each report, you can choose what information is displayed, and you can even download the report to Excel for use in your management reports or presentations.

Export reports to Excel where further filtering is made available.

#4: Are You a Conversationalist?

CScore is a free analytics tool that does an analysis of your Facebook Page and then categorizes and scores it based on the behavior of your Page.

To run the report, just enter your Facebook Page name or your competitor.

Just enter the Page name to do an analysis.

CScore looks to determine the success of a Page as opposed to its popularity, and focuses on 4 things:

Broadcasting. How frequently the Page initiates conversations; for example, posting updates, pictures, videos or simply asking a question.

Response to Fans. How many posts the Page responds to. This includes responses to comments that someone made on a post or it can be a response to a fan’s post. Participating in conversations is seen as adding value to the Page.

Virality. How viral the Page’s content is, in terms of both the quantity of responses and the quality of the responses.

Fan Love. How popular the Page is with Facebook users (i.e., fan count and active fan ratio). While the fan count is taken into account, it doesn’t get as high a weighting as the other areas when determining the overall score.

Here’s a sample report that was run on Kim Garst’s Page. Kim always has a lot of engagement on her Facebook Page and posts very regularly. You can see from the chart that 53 out of the last 100 posts contained images.

Kim strongly encourages interaction on the Page and because of this, she is listed as a Conversationalist. In fact, based on the last 100 posts on her Page, she participated in 46% of the posts. With a high score of 85 out of 100, it is clear that Kim’s Page is doing well.

Each Page is categorized and rated.

However, to know how well you are really doing, it is always good to compare your performance against your competitors. You can run the report on any number of Pages.

In addition, CScore also lets you look at the top scores for other businesses listed in the same Facebook category as you, so you can see how your Page compares against the best in your area. Just click on the Leaders tab to the right of the scoreboard.

In the chart below, Kim’s Page just happened to be considered one of the top Pages in the “Business Person” category. Of course the comparison is only done against other Pages that also analyzed their Page using CScore.

A comparison of other people within the Business Person category.

Pick people on the list who have a higher or lower score or are categorized differently. Look at their reports more closely and see why that is.

At the moment, the different designations within CScore include:

Viral Wonder. Fans and friends of fans tend to share or comment on the content a lot.

Broadcaster. Shares a lot of posts with fans on a daily basis.

Conversationalist. Listens and responds to fans and tries to strike up conversations.

Fan Favorite. A very popular Page that is growing rapidly and has a high percentage of active fans.

Starter. This is the lowest grade and is generally given to a new Page with very few fans and updates.

If your score is low and you want to improve it, you can connect CScore to your Facebook Page to get some recommendations for content.

Log in via Facebook to get suggestions for content to improve engagement.

When you connect, you are brought to Recommend.ly, which is a tool that recommends and posts content to your Page or profile.

Browse recommended content and choose to post immediately or add to the queue for later.

Once you find something relevant to your Page, you can then select one of the updates, change text if required and post it to your Page immediately. This can also be added to a smart queue where Recommend.ly will pick the most appropriate time to post the update.

While I really like the idea of this tool, I did find it difficult to get good relevant content recommendations for my business Page.

#5: Compare Your Facebook Pages Using Simply Measured

Simply Measured is a powerful reporting tool that provides a wide range of analytic reports for Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Instead of offering a signup for a free 14-day trial, Simply Measured lets you get a taste of what they can provide by giving you access to a set of free reports.

One of these is a competitive analysis report, which enables you to compare your Facebook Page against up to 9 other Pages to assess how well you are doing.

Select Free Tools from the menu at the top and choose the option for a Free Facebook Competitive Analysis Report.

Select from a wide range of free reports to get started and see what Simply Measured can provide.

For this report, you can enter up to 10 Pages that you want to compare, including your own Page. After entering all the Pages you want to run the report for, click Continue. While Simply Measured provides the report for free, they do ask you to like their Facebook Page to continue.

Enter the names of all the Pages you want to run the report on.

Depending on the number of Pages you are comparing, it can take a while for the report to generate. Therefore, you are asked to enter your email details so you can be notified once the report is finished.

Competitive Analysis Report for up to 10 Facebook Pages.

Once the comparison is complete, Simply Measured provides you with a very visually appealing and useful set of graphs for you and your competitors.

Here is a breakdown of each subsection in the report.

Competitive Leaderboard. A side-by-side comparison of the key statistics for all the Pages.

Overview. An overview of the performance of the Page, including details such as a comparison of fans, fan engagement and people talking about the Page.

Engagement on Admin Posts. Details on how much engagement posts were getting from fans. Are fans liking, commenting or sharing your posts?

Community Health Details. Details on how responsive each Page owner was to fan comments. Ideally you want to be very responsive to fan comments as this encourages more comments.

Content Details. A list of the top posts from each Page with details of each post.

You can also export any reports produced to an Excel file or a PowerPoint presentation.

When you export to Excel, there are some filters you can use on the data. For example, you can adjust the statistics so that they reflect a monthly, weekly, daily or hourly view. Also on the Content section, you can filter by engagement, likes, comments or shares and adjust the sort order

By Chantal Tode

May 16, 2013

 

Google’s new music streaming service is the latest sign that the Apple iTunes model for music is starting to look outdated as users increasingly migrate to cloud-based subscription services such as Spotify.

Apple is reportedly working on its own streaming music service, but Google made it to market first, announcing Google Play Music All Access at its annual software developers conference yesterday. While Google may be looking to steal away some of Spotify’s thunder, the latter has the longer history when it comes to knowing what consumers are looking for in a streaming music service.

“Apple’s model was perfect for the time,” said David Bryant, chief creative officer at Organic, San Francisco. “If you look at the broader trends in cloud-based services, it is simply more economically efficient to have a cloud-based service.

“I love iTunes – I still don’t really understand it because I don’t know where half of my playlists are at any one time,” he said. “I use Google Play because everything is in the cloud – it just makes life a lot simpler.

“There is definitely a move away from the Apple walled-garden, device storage-based way, which is definitely more archaic and more old fashioned than the cloud-based service. The subscription model is the way to go.”

Late to the game
With music streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora quickly growing and being heartily embraced among mobile users, Google and Apple have both been looking to enter the market.

However, Google could run up against some challenges in trying to gain some traction, especially since the service is not remarkably different from Spotify.

For one thing, Google is a late-comer here, as Spotify has already been in the market for a while, building its chops. It also has some very loyal users.

Spotify is also focused primarily on one thing – digital music – while Google is known to develop and try a lot of different services to see what sticks. This could be a challenge in the music category as consumers tend to be passionate about music.

“Google tries a lot of things – that is in their nature,” Mr. Bryant said. “They will go out and experiment with 20 different products, and they will see which one catches on and then they will optimize off of the back of that.

“Which is a very, very different business model from somebody waking up one day and saying, ‘I’m going to make the greatest music-streaming service and I am going to spend the rest of my life trying to make it perfect,’” he said.

“I think Spotify has a huge head of steam built up. A lot of its programming is very tricky that allows them to stream very high-quality music in a way that most streaming companies like Pandora just aren’t sophisticated enough to develop that kind of work.”

Music is social
Spotify has also focused on getting all the rights in place for this kind of service for some time, which can be tricky. It has also already accumulated a lot of data about what people are willing to listen to and what they will spend.

The other issue is why exactly Google is looking to offer a music streaming service. It could be a move to boost some of its other strategies, such as mobile advertising and its social network Google +.

Spotify

“I think Google may be doing this to help bolster support for Google +, rather than the other way around,” Mr. Bryant said.

“Spotify created Spotify and then they looked at places like Facebook to make that experience more interesting,” he said. “That was a peripheral function for Spotify – the ability for social sharing of music.

“I think Google might be bringing in a music service in order to populate Google + more. That might be putting the cart before the horse a little bit.”

All Access
Google Play Music All Access enables users to stream songs on-demand to their computer or Android device for $9.99 a month. It adds another layer to the company’s existing music store for Google Play, which already offers some cloud-based services.

Google has the potential to take music discovery to the next level by integrating its full suite of services, such as YouTube’s music video content.

Features include the ability to incorporate both local tracks and streaming music into one integrated searchable library, something the competition does not offer. There is also a recommendation engine, the Explore feature, which is designed to pique users’ interest with new music they may not have already discovered.

“The challenge is to establish Google Music as an entertainment brand/destination, while brands like Spotify, Pandora and Twitter #music have established themselves as respected leaders in a saturated internet music category,” said Desmond Marzette, creative strategist at Zambezi, Venice Beach, CA.

“There is an opportunity to elevate the music discovery service to include content beyond audio,” he said. “Google Music can do more than deliver music; it can deliver the artist via YouTube, Google+ and even search.”

The marketing angle
Users can also create radio stations based around particular artists and give the thumbs down to songs they do not like.

There is a Listen Now feature that highlights new releases.

The price for the service is $9.99 per month, with Google offering a 30-day free trial and a lower monthly fee of $7.99 for those who sign up by June 30.

From an advertising perspective, it will enable Google to collect more user data and to enrich ad targeting by understanding music preferences as well as create more incremental ad inventory.

“They’re going to have to start thinking about how to monetize it,” said Marc Poirier, co-founder and executive vice president of business development at Acquisio, Brossard, Canada. “Based on how they have operated thus far, I think they’re going to support the service with advertising and offer a paid, ad-free upgrade.

“Mobile devices and apps introduce interesting opportunities,” he said. “One of them is to use the AdMob framework for ads in apps, but down the road I imagine location based advertising will come into play.

“Perhaps some standard form of audio ad, generated from templates, could draw in users of the music service who are geographically close to the advertiser’s store.”

Article by Maximize Social Media LLC

Whew! If it seems like mobile messaging is an increasingly popular topic for social media consulting firms to cover…well, you are right! None other than Zuckerberg has proclaimed that Facebook is now a mobile platform and other major social media sites are following close behind. Social and mobile are made for one another and users know it. Unfortunately, the vast majority of small business owners have been slow to catch on to this latest trend. Find out why and how to properly implement, measure and analyze mobile push notifications in order to maximize your social media marketing efforts!

What is Mobile Push?

In mobile marketing, a push message is one that is sent to a client. Push provides a unique opportunity to close the deal, capture the attention of clients in nearly “real time” and relate relevant messages on demand. Business owners also benefit from the ability to increase retention rates and enhance user engagement. In fact, the research is clear; clients that use push applications are twice as likely to engage with a brand or business. Unfortunately, despite the numerous clear cut benefits derived from push notifications, very few business owners have made a point of using the technology….much to the detriment of their own business and the well-being of clients.

Why the Low Levels of Usage?

So, why have small business owners been reluctant to use mobile push notifications despite evidence demonstrating high effectiveness rates? In large part it is a fault of social media management firms and mobile marketing agencies; small business owners really don’t know it’s there nor the benefits to be derived. However, that is only a part of the problem. These same agencies have been slow to communicate the exciting potential due to the inability to measure outcomes in a meaningful manner. Fortunately that is now a “non-issue” thanks to the ability to create a custom push notification ID when running a campaign and other new generation tools.

How to Properly Measure a Push Campaign

Let’s take a look at a generic push campaign. There will be two very important elements contained in each campaign which will provide an immense amount of important information: 1. the inclusion of a unique campaign ID embedded in the notification and 2. information on whether or not an app was launched in response to the push notification. A working example will demonstrate. Assume for a moment that a local real estate agent creates an app to notify clients about new listings and special deals. The client receives a notification along with an offer for discounted closing or some other incentive. There is a unique campaign ID embedded into the app as well as a tracker to see how many people opened or used the app. So, it now becomes possible to track whether or not the application was launched or used as well as the notification ID but it could also be used to formulate more information of benefit to the business owner. For example, different messages can be tested against one another. Different classifications measures, even different target audience segments. In fact, nearly any data bit desired can be included including the impact of direct selling or marketing versus automated messaging, the status of an order for social support measures, event triggered data such as check-in or leaving a page. It is limited only by your imagination!

Don’t Get Carried Away!

As exciting as mobile push can be it is important to use some restraint. Don’t overwhelm fans and followers with push messages and be sure to mix things up from time to time. Research has shown people quickly become annoyed when receiving the same old message time and time again. Simultaneously, there are three metrics which should be included in every analysis: 1. application launch, 2, total amount of time spent and 3. screen views. By comparing these three key metrics against non-push users, it quickly becomes apparent what is working and why as well as the downstream impact on conversion rates and actual sales.

Interesting Contradictions

From time to time, business owners are confused by the results of contradictory conclusions. For example, a florist was stunned when a Valentine Day’s push message resulted in very low overall launches…and equally high conversion rates (well over 50%). On the other hand, plenty of promotions may result in an open app but fail to add to the bottom line. Never assume one equals the other!

Common Problems Associated with Push Campaigns

As push campaigns become more widely adopted by business owners, it is imperative to recognize a few of the more common problems likely to be encountered…especially when used in conjunction with a social media marketing campaign.

1. Over-use. Frequency and timing are equally important. It is entirely possible to have great timing but send out too many or too few messages. It’s equally possible to have a well received frequency that is too early or too late.

2. Poor content. Know what will trigger an action on the part of a client. Carefully create a compelling message that is both inviting and engaging. Be sure the purpose is absolutely clear!

3. Negative user experience. Nothing…absolutely nothing…is worse than allowing a client to have a negative user experience when using push message. Make sure the app works in advance!

Is your business using push messaging in your social media marketing to drive conversions? If not, it’s time to speak with your friendly social media manager about this exciting opportunity!

By Mickey Alam Khan

May 17, 2013

But in the consumer’s corner?

Each day’s headlines are dominated by the key movers and shakers in mobile – Apple, Google, eBay’s PayPal, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and Samsung. Left out of this discussion is the one company that once set the agenda for business tools and processes and now threatens to join Kodak and Polaroid in the hall of has-been pioneers: Microsoft.

While cofounder Bill Gates stepped away from the CEO’s job in 2000, handing over the day-to-day running to lieutenant Steve Ballmer, he cannot be blind to the obvious: his legacy is about to be undone. Unless Microsoft gets its product and customer focus right, it will wither on the vine.

Windows open, but doors shut Each smartphone and tablet sold is another vote for mobility. Eventually, consumers will learn to live without personal computers and, by association, the need for a Windows operating system and the Office suite comprising Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Exchange.

No matter how much revenue Microsoft makes from its Xbox and ancillary ventures and enterprise efforts, if it cannot keep pace with where consumers are conducting their work, play and home lives, it will teach its audience to live without its core products.

Microsoft’s strategy should not be to produce a better phone or tablet or to be the best mobile content provider. It cannot out-Apple Apple. Instead, it should focus on what it used to do best: make easy-to-use software tools that enabled business to do business better.

Mickey Alam Khan is editor in chief of Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily

In other words, Microsoft should focus on making Windows, Internet Explorer and Office the best applications on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, and at some point, extend them to television when that medium becomes truly interactive and linked to mobile.

As things stand, the Windows operating system has won few fans among handset and tablet manufacturers that worry about investing in a platform that has little traction from the broader consumer market.

It is a chicken-and-egg situation. If Microsoft cannot land enough phone and tablet manufacturers ready to install its Windows OS, it does not have enough opportunities to reach the mass market. 

Samsung’s Windows Phone 8 phone

All may not be Microsoft’s fault.

Same old story: galaxy domination Wireless carriers such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile may not want to face the fate of computer manufacturers who are largely beholden to Microsoft for the software guts of PCs. Carriers want to keep control and not let Microsoft extend its PC dominance to mobile.

That is one reason.

The other reason is manufacturers such as Samsung and HTC who prefer an open OS versus a controlled system. It keeps them in charge of their total phone and tablet package. Apple is an exception in that it makes the phone, tablet and the operating system, as well as controlling content, commerce and payment.

So, right off the bat, Microsoft is faced with these two challenges. Carriers and manufacturers are leery to let Microsoft into their ecosystem – of that there is little doubt.

Add to that a public relations battle that Microsoft has lost to Apple, Google, Samsung and Amazon.

However, what the media raises high, the media brings low. Not a day goes by now without virulent criticism of Apple and its CEO, Tim Cook. His main fault: he is not Steve Jobs.

Soon, the knife will turn on Samsung. Already the reviews for the Galaxy S 4 smartphone are tepid: the screen is too brittle, too much gimmickry and it is a mild improvement over Galaxy S 3.

Once-dominant BlackBerry and Nokia have been humbled in the market and the media. Google, too, faces its fair share of censure over privacy issues and lack of focus – or how it passes off its various sideshows including Google Glass.

Facebook Home, so far, has failed to hit a home run. And Twitter is a media vehicle in denial banking on sponsored posts and display ads – Facebook’s weakness too – for revenue and investor returns. Good luck.

Suite nothings While it would seem presumptuous to tell a $71 billion, 37-year-old company what to do, common sense is itching to break the banks of this river: Microsoft should stick to its knitting and focus on what it does best. So here goes.

First, cut back the time spent on the Windows Phone operating system.

Make it easy enough for manufacturers to use Windows should they choose to offer variety other than Google. Because, at some point, Google turns from friend to frenemy of all its partners. So does Apple. And that is when Windows will look attractive. Its ambitions or usurpations will be clear for all to see.

Next, make Office extremely mobile-friendly and easy to use on tablets and smartphones. That will be the single-biggest tipping point for consumers to switch their production tasks to mobile devices.

The downside to making Office mobile is the devastating impact it will have on PC sales worldwide. But the proliferation of cheaper, smarter and lighter tablets has already convinced many consumers that their next upgrade from home PCs and laptops is a tablet.

So the die is already cast – consumers are adopting tablets for play and mild work, even in the absence of Office apps such as Word for documents, Excel for spreadsheets, PowerPoint for presentations and Outlook for email. They are turning to paler imitations from Apple, Google and other developers, paying way lower prices. Further inaction will reduce that work-tools category to commodity status.

Microsoft, in other words, will not be able to charge a premium – or at least keep the price consistent with Office on PCs – for its Office version on mobile.

A smart leader at Microsoft would make this call: release the best version of Office for smartphones and tablets, charge the same price as it does for Office on computers and then offer cloud-based services to handle the data load and cross-device access to apps and programs.

Then Microsoft should take the next step and tackle the retail point-of-sale software market as more retailers and small merchants turn to iPad tablets and Square for last-mile use. That is where Microsoft’s colorful tile-based Windows operating system will be perfectly at home.

That said, Office for mobile should be tailored to smartphone and tablet usage, and not just simply adapted. Consumers use mobile devices differently than they do PCs and laptops: it is a two-finger world versus two hands.

IT IS BETTER for Microsoft to cannibalize its own products on PCs rather than wait for Apple, Google and Amazon to wean consumers and businesses off Office.

Indeed, Microsoft should focus on the part of mobile that makes the consumer’s life better, regardless of phone, operating system or carrier. Office adoption on most smartphones and tablets will do what others have failed to do: make devices and operating systems commoditized.

At that point, only the guts of the devices will matter. Microsoft’s play should be for the guts, not the skin.

Office and the development of similar app and mobile Web software suites for mobile is the future of Microsoft. Let others build the shell. Let them clamor to be gatekeepers. Best for Microsoft to be the diamond that is guarded than be the building, door or glass box.

By Debbie Hemley
Published May 8, 2013

Are you looking for actionable tips to improve your social media marketing?

Are you wondering what the common themes of social media experts are these days?

This April, 1,100 passionate marketers from every corner of the world traveled to San Diego for Social Media Marketing World (#SMMW13), to find out.

The number of conference takeaways and buzz was immense.

For this article, I’ve focused on 26 takeaways from SMMW13, including notable quotes by presenters and their session titles.

CATEGORY: Calls to Action

#1: Get More Leads With Calls to Action

Throughout the conference, the topic of calls to action (CTAs) came up in numerous sessions. What is a CTA?

A social media call to action is an integral and often overlooked element of an effective social media strategy. Social media gets prospects, customers and the public primed to want to find out more about your offering or to engage with you further, but you must lead them to the next step in your sales or other conversion process.

Regardless of the platform—blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.—posts will receive better success rates if they contain calls to action, compared to ones without them. So, all the more reason to use them!

From the post, “Theft: 9 Ways to Protect Yourself From Losing Your Data” by Michael Stelzner.

#2: Optimize Your Facebook Posts With Calls to Action

“On Facebook, posts that include the call to action “share” receive more shares, comments and likes.”

—Mari Smith, 10 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Reach

Sometimes just the act of inviting someone to share your post will be the encouragement a fan needs to take your suggestion. Once they share the post, it will travel on further to their colleagues, friends and family, thus expanding your reach. Truly one of greatest benefits of social media!

This post was shared by 42 people, in addition to 59 likes.

#3: Grab Readers’ Attention With CTAs

Examples of calls to action include: click here, sign up today, get your ticket, join us at, RSVP here, buy now, enroll here, check this out, click, and comment.

—Rich Brooks, Beyond Likes: How to Turn Fans Into Customers; Amy Porterfield, Facebook Strategies to Launch a New Product; Pat Flynn, Podcasting for More Exposure, More Leads and More Money

When a reader is on your page and you have the privilege of having their attention for even the shortest span of time, make your CTAs an integral part of your marketing plan. Something you had front of mind—not an afterthought. Then you’ll have some influence on where readers navigate next and what steps you want to encourage them to take.

Calls to action grab attention.

#4: Get the Most Bang for Your CTA Buck

Make your CTAs crystal-clear and stick to one CTA per post. Avoid excessive calls to action.

—Cliff Ravenscraft, 15 Tips for Creating a Podcast People Can’t Live Without

When you present clear and direct CTAs, you reduce the risk of overwhelming readers with too many choices. They came to your post to learn something and the last thing you want to do is to make them feel they have to give you everything if they decide to become a follower of your content.

Decide what action you want users to take.

#5: Experiment With Different CTA Touch Points

On Twitter, if you want to target people who aren’t following you, try using a call to action to engage.

—Kyle Lacy, 5 Social and Digital Trends Impacting Consumer Behaviors

Twitter is a fast-moving stream of content. Updates can quickly flow by readers. While they’re deciding on whether to read your full update, a call to action can help seize the moment. If they like what they see, they’ll be more inclined to follow you, retweet your message and visit your website.

Reach out and touch someone!

#6: Take the Guesswork Out of CTAs

Effective calls to action can result in completed lead generation forms, phone calls and email signups.

—Rich Brooks, Beyond Likes: How to Turn Fans Into Customers

When you put a call to action out there, you’ll know which ones have been effective. For example, if no one is signing up for your free website consultation, ask yourself if the call to action is buried too far down on the page, could the wording be more enticing, are readers worried that once they do that they’ll be hounded by salespeople?

What can your call to action do better to be more effective? Knowing the answer will enhance your marketing efforts.

Gather information with forms.

To learn more about CTAs, a 13-Point Checklist to Optimize Social Media Calls-to-Action can be found in an article by Heidi Cohen.

CATEGORY: Content Strategy

#7: Give Content the Priority It Deserves

It may not be much of a surprise that the topic of content received “royal” treatment at SMMW13. Whether the focus of a workshop was on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, etc., many focused on the importance of fresh, frequent, quality content.

“Content is King but engagement is Queen, and she rules the house.”

—Mari Smith, 10 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Reach

Content is kind of a catch-22. The best content in the world won’t receive traffic unless people engage with it—sharing, commenting, liking, etc. Give your content the royal treatment—dot the i’s, cross the t’s, and most importantly, make it engagement-friendly. Then you’ll be able to see great results!

15,000+ tweets and pics sure sounds like good engagement!

#8: Be Generous With Your Content

Useful content that people continue to remember long after the post was read becomes “sticky.” The content keeps you in the person’s mind. They may be willing to check out your products and services. By giving generously and gaining a reader’s trust, you earn a reputation of being a reliable resource. With all the competition out there, useful content will help differentiate you in the marketplace.

Content is fire, social media is gasoline. Content should be so useful that it’s seen as a “YOUtility”; in other words, content marketing that is so useful, people will want to keep you close and even be willing to pay for it.

—Jay Baer, How to Create Customers for Life by Informing More and Promoting Less

Switch from a “me” to a “you” mentality.

#9: Keep the Content Flowing

We’ve all been there. Landed on a blog that hasn’t been updated in months. Or on a Twitter account that has an egghead avatar and was abandoned in 2010 after the user wrote: “Hello world.” What’s wrong with these pictures? Lack of content.

[Only] 36% of people surveyed believe their content marketing is effective. Biggest challenges they’ve faced are producing enough content and the kind that engages.

—Joe Pulizzi, 10 Content Marketing Secrets That Will Propel You Beyond the Competition

Content requires a strategy, a production schedule with designated authors and engaging topics that encourage readers to return. Find ways to cover your content bases with an effective content plan.

Verbal and visual content that delivers on a frequent and regular basis will increase your chances to catch up to your competitors and join the ranks of those with effective content marketing strategies.

How will you create more content?

#10: Offer Subscriptions to Your Content

Content can easily be missed on Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds. One way to help ensure that your content is seen is through subscriptions.

Focus on subscriptions to your content; for example, “Join over 40,000 of your peers. Get daily articles and news delivered to your email inbox and get CMI’s exclusive ebook…free.”

—Joe Pulizzi, 10 Content Marketing Secrets That Will Propel You Beyond the Competition

Delivering daily articles and news to a subscriber’s email inbox is highly effective for busy businesspeople. Even if their inbox is overflowing, when they chip away at reading their emails, they’ll find your content pointing and linking to your articles.

Users may miss your tweets but will be more likely to receive your email.

#11: Give Credence to Analytics and Post Data

Social media data is the keeper of all kinds of useful information such as location of readers, topics and keywords that attract and time and day an update is more likely to be seen by your audience.

Amazing content yields great leads. Don’t get attached just to shares—find out which posts are getting leads.

—Brian Carter, Turning Social Advertising Into Leads and Sales

Set aside time each week to review your analytics and what you can learn from them. Content may not magically convert a lead to a customer, but you’ll be more likely to increase your funnel of leads when you provide great content.

Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut around the sales cycle. Print placement ads, radio and TV commercials never promised that either. With social media marketing, you still have to work a lead!

Could it be any clearer?

#12: Give Your Posts More Pizazz

Some posts read like they’re just giving the facts, something that you’d find in an old-time Yellow Pages ad.  Nowadays, we have to go the extra couple of miles.

Posts that are shareable give advice, warn, amuse, inspire and amaze… don’t be boring.

—Cliff Ravenscraft, 15 Tips for Creating a Podcast People Can’t Live Without

“Don’t be boring” might be one of the harshest tough-love pieces of advice that you’ll receive. But it’s true. How many times are you more willing to read an article with catchy titles and cool images or watch a video with great camerawork and music or listen to a podcast that presents a dynamic interview or industry report? If you build amazing content, they will come!

What? We need to be interesting, too?!

#13: Meet Social Media Followers Where They Are

How many times have you felt that a company isn’t letting you in? That they’re not telling you more about the business culture or values that are important to them? One of the true assets of social marketing is the ease with which we can converse with our followers.

One kind of content that has been effective for TaylorMade is real-time, ‘inside-the-ropes’ information to consumers.

—Liz Phillips of TaylorMade, Twitter Marketing: Success Tips From Brands

Real time is the real thing. Inside-the-ropes information makes followers feel a part of an online community—and connected.

Consumers like to be in-the-know.

#14: Tune Into What’s Being Talked About

Time passes quickly and topics do, too. It’s become increasingly important for social media marketers to know what readers are most interested in today, this week, this month—and as projected into next year.

Content is the greatest sales and trust-building tool in the world.  Find the most common phrases and their keyword rank in monthly searches.

—Marcus Sheridan, How to Build a Business Blog That Grows Your Brand, Generates Leads and Makes Sales

With free and paid keyword tools at our disposal (e.g., Google Keyword Tool, Long Tail Pro), you have a tremendous opportunity to tap into the content that is resonating the most with your audience. This will cut down on useless projects and make each and every post an important spoke in your marketing hub.

Using higher-ranked keywords will make a difference.

#15: Look for the Best Ways to Promote Your Content

Content promotion is an important part of content marketing strategy. With the ease of ebook creation, many businesses have found that putting together new or repurposed content into an ebook format may be one of the most advantageous ways to get their content out there.

Ebooks are best used to promote content. Businesses should focus on the value that users will receive from your content.

—Rebecca Corliss, How to Generate Leads With Social Media

Ebooks offer the ability to create cost-effective, well-designed pieces that don’t require the expense of printing.

HubSpot displays their ebooks on a Pinterest board.

#16: Know Thy Customer

By keeping your customer in mind during your content strategizing, you’ll be more likely to engage the people you’re looking to attract.

Use the social data you have about your customer to improve content strategy.

—Kyle Lacy, 5 Social and Digital Trends Impacting Consumer Behaviors

Buyer personas and knowing how topics rank among their interests will be helpful ways to improve content strategy.

Knowing who you’re talking to is a big part of the content equation.

#17: Write Great Blog Posts

In an earlier 26 Tips piece, we discussed Tips for Writing Great Blog Posts. Writing great content involves many aspects beyond the ideas you set down on the page. It includes factors such as layout and design, formatting, whether the content is original or curated and more. Producing quality content requires proactivity.

Take an active approach to content development. Create content all the time.

—Amy Porterfield, Facebook Strategies to Launch a New Product or Program

Even when you’re not in the middle of a new post, jot down ideas as they come to you and see whether you can work them into a post.

Keep the content rolling.

#18: Think Beyond the Written Word

Content assets include images, videos, printed word and audio. When you have an idea for what you want to communicate, you may find that one format will serve your audience better than another. At SMMW13, there was a lot of buzz about podcasts and the impact that mobile phones and working on-the-go have on our ability to reach people, even when they don’t have time to sit down and read an article.

Podcasts cannot live without content.

—Cliff Ravenscraft, 15 Tips for Creating a Podcast People Can’t Live Without

What information could be communicated to your audience via a podcast?

Offer a variety of topics.

#19: Deliver Targeted Content

If the demographics of your target customer are diverse, then targeted topics or specific platforms may suit one audience better than another.

Slice and dice content to make it highly targeted… be consistent, authentic and relevant.

—Michael Bepko of Whole Foods, Twitter Marketing: Success Tips From Brands

Maybe you have one blog that speaks to a younger audience and another that addresses issues of more concern to middle-aged people. Messaging isn’t one-stop shopping.

Whole Foods takes “slicing and dicing” very seriously (and literally).

#20: Motivate Customers

Don’t just communicate. Motivate. Find the niche area that makes readers stop, listen and watch.

Who are your customers, what do they want to hear about, what do they talk about to friends and family, what are their obstacles, what are their worries, how can you inspire them, how can you coach, mentor and motivate?

—Brian Carter, Turning Social Advertising Into Leads and Sales

Make your content motivating and inspiring.

#21: Use Keywords Strategically

Keywords should stay front and center. Don’t think of them on a piece-by-piece basis. Instead, what are the topics that will cover the range of topics of most interest to your audience?

Develop 5 key topic areas and at least 20 unique pieces of content for each of 100+ keywords per year.

—Joe Pulizzi, 10 Content Marketing Secrets That Will Propel You Beyond the Competition

Being prepared with topics and keywords will make it easier to create unique content.

Knowing keywords and topics you will be writing about will help keep you focused. Readers will learn what they can expect.

#22: Alter Your Ways of Looking at Content Development and Delivery

Your content strategy will make a lot more sense to your authors and your audience if you think about people and where they are in the sales cycle. The information will be helpful in making a decision about whether to write a blog post, conduct a webinar or engage in a LinkedIn group forum.

Map content to customers’ journeys through the sales cycle—awareness, interest, consideration, purchase, retention and advocacy.

—Lee Odden, How to Integrate Blogging With Content Marketing That Inspires

Targeting content to the sales cycle can be highly effective.

To learn more about content marketing, 10 Content Marketing Tips can be found in an article by Cindy King.

CATEGORY: Email and Social Integration

#23: Integrate Email and Social Media Marketing

Consider this: “Email has had a long history, beginning in 1971 when U.S. programmer Raymond Tomlinson allegedly sent “QWERTYUIOP” as the first network email, and he was the first to connect his computer to his mailbox by using an ‘@’ symbol… Email has become a major part of our lives, consuming 28% of our workday.”

With the maturity of media, preceding ones will become displaced. Email, which has been a key player for 20 years, hurt postal delivery. Today, many are using Facebook messages instead of email.

—Mike Stelzner, Social Media Marketing in 2013: New Research and Its Implications

Facebook messages improve the odds of having direct contact.

#24: Interact With Your Audience Via Opt-In Emails

With the subscriber opts into your emails, your business can get in front of your audience’s eyes on a daily and weekly basis.

The inbox is the best social network in the world.

—Chris Brogan, Are We Getting Better or Just Busier?

Social Media Examiner not only sends email updates, but also tells you the number of subscribers.

#25: Vary Your Email and Social Integration Strategies

Below are a number of great suggestions from presenters at SMMW13:

• Advertise on Facebook to your email list.—Brian Carter, Turning Social Advertising Into Leads and Sales
• Subscribers who follow brands on Twitter are three times more likely to open an email than a subscriber who’s not on Twitter.—Kyle Lacy, 5 Social and Digital Trends Impacting Consumer Behaviors
• During the promote phase of a Facebook campaign, build your launch email list with a signature promotional giveaway. When launching, your email list can be your most powerful profit-generating resource. Use an autoresponder as part of your email campaign.—Amy Porterfield, Facebook Strategies to Launch a New Product (autoresponder)
• The third time you email someone, just pick up the damn phone.—Jay Baer, How to Create Customers for Life by Informing More and Promoting Less
  

  Set up any number of email messages to be sent either immediately after a new user subscribes to your mailing list, or after any period of time has passed.

To learn more about email and social media integration, 9 Ways to Integrate Email and Social Media Marketing can be found in this article by DJ Waldow.

#26: Set Personal and Business Goals for Social Media

• Personal: Self-expression, exercise writing, be a useful resource, connect with bloggers, contribute to the community
• Business: Brand awareness, elevate publicity, support customers, recruit, attract new business referrals, create an editorial calendar

—Lee Odden, How to Integrate Blogging With Content Marketing that Inspire

• Google Analytics to create and track goals via a goal funnel, a series of pages leading up to the goal destination—for example, a contact page.

—Rich Brooks, Beyond Likes: How to Turn Fans Into Customers

Be sure to create and track your business goals.

To learn more about setting social media goals, 4 Social Media Goals Every Business Should Measure can be found in this article by Andrew K. Kirk.

Concluding Thoughts

Perhaps the most telling number about the significance of social media marketing was reported in the April 8, 2013 PeekAnalytics report for the hashtag #SMMW13 that states:

The content [at SMMW13] was shared by consumers who have a combined total of 4.8 million social connections across their social graphs.

The speed-of-light communication that social media provides with its far-reaching capabilities is unprecedented and undoubtedly will continue to change the way businesses engage with customers, prospects and leads. What will we be talking about at SMMW14? Stay tuned!

By Chantal Tode

May 15, 2013

 

Marketers have a staggering number of options when it comes to messaging mobile users – SMS, push notifications, in-app alerts and mobile email – and many are overwhelmed just trying to decide which to use and when.

Mobile is an important way to message consumers, who increasingly have their smartphones and tablets within arm’s reach 24-hours a day. However, it is easy for marketers to fall into the trap of sending too many messages and annoying users, especially when the same message is being delivered across mobile’s multiple messaging platforms.

“Marketers are overwhelmed with the number and variety of communications channel in the mobile and social space today,” said Matt Silk, chief marketing officer at Waterfall Mobile, San Francisco.

“Navigating the optimal use cases for SMS, Passbook, push, mobile email, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or others has grown exponentially in complexity in the last couple of years,” he said.

“The key to attacking this problem however is simply putting the customer first and prioritization.”

A push notification from Walgreens

Message overload
SMS is a widely popular method for reaching mobile users and is expected to remain relevant for some time.

However, mobile users are also increasingly using their devices to check for email messages, making it imperative for marketers to ensure their emails are optimized for mobile.

Then there are push notifications, which are becoming a popular way to reach users who have downloaded a brand’s app. These can include local push notifications, app-originated notifications and in-app alerts.

But the choices do not stop there.

Mobile social is another increasingly popular way to communicate with a mobile audience. Soon, there will also be HTML5 push notifications, giving marketers a way to message users who are on their mobile Web sites.

Being relevant
The challenge for marketers is that because mobile is such a personal medium, users have a high expectation that messages be relevant and add value to their lives.

There are ways for marketers to address these issues, including A/B split testing and increasingly sophisticated user analytics that provide customer context. As with any direct marketing strategy, testing and learning is key.

“There are an increasing number of choices for how marketers can message consumers on mobile. However the challenge is aligning the choices, or channels, with the user experience on mobile,” said Brendan O’Kane, CEO of OtherLevels, San Francisco. “For example SMS gets tremendous cut-through, however is not a channel that a user would associate with app communication and might work better in directing users to mobile Web pages.

“Email is now ubiquitous on mobile, however the volume alone can overwhelm users and lead to users ignoring emails,” he said. “Similarly push is more closely aligned with reaching users who have downloaded the publisher’s App. 

“Also there are a growing number of messaging opportunities in the app experience itself, from local push notifications to in-app alerts to message fragments embedded in buttons and the content itself. Hence one of the challenges for marketers is aligning the channel with the target user experience on mobile.”

 Managing ongoing communications
One place to get started with addressing this issue is to ask customers in a communications preferences panel, survey or service call what types of communications they want and where, when and how they want them, per Waterfall Mobile’s Mr. Silk.

He also suggests marketers review the unique strengths of each channel and compare with their customer requests alongside a realistic appraisal of their ability to effectively manage an ongoing communication strategy via each channel.

SMS should continue to be the major way marketers communicate with users, per Fatema Hamdani, global account director at Syniverse Technologies, New York.

For example, Syniverse is working with large hotel brands for on-property messaging to get offers into visitors’ hands for on-premise restaurants. These companies are also looking at using Waif to determine a user’s location so they can send an SMS message to inform guests that their appointment at the spa is soon and how to get there.

Ms. Hamdani also notes that many marketers do not recognize that they may be reaching the same user with the same message three different times across SMS, push and email.

It important for marketers to think of mobile messaging as a two-way communication channel.

“Don’t think of it as siloed experiences – there is a complete customer engagement whether it is push, email or SMS,” Ms. Hamdani said. “You especially want to get them how they want to be reached.

“You can’t be giving users the same message across all three – it will be annoying,” she said. “Using mobile CRM to help navigate through all of this messaging is critical.”

“You need to think about mobile as being interactive. Gen X, Y is hugely driven by instant gratification and the fastest way to reach them with an interactive message is SMS – they send something and get it back right away.”

OtherLevels’ Mr. O’Kane recommends marketers develop a clear strategy that identifies the needles they would really like to move, the segments that will most likely move them, and develop a tactical messaging plan for each segment. 

For example, light app users might be targeted with messages that encourage re-engagement, while heavy users might be targeted and encouraged to share content with their social networks.

It is also important to identify the right metrics to measure.

“Review analytics that reveal the total effectiveness of the messaging campaigns,” Mr. O’Kane said. “Most messaging vendors with basic analytics reports merely report messages sent vs. messages opened, but that’s not the complete picture.  Marketers need to evaluate conversions to goals. 

“For example, how many messages encouraging heavy users to be social were opened and how many resulted in a click to share?,” he said.

By Rachel Sprung Published May 7, 2013

Are you struggling to keep up to date with the latest Facebook changes?

Are you conducting activities that are against Facebook’s policies?

It isn’t easy to keep up with all of Facebook’s updates.

Here are 5 ways marketers can stay up to date on Facebook updates and policy changes.

#1: Follow Facebook’s Business Pages for regular updates

Just like businesses keep their Facebook Pages updated with the latest announcements from their company, Facebook also keeps their Pages updated to inform their users about the latest changes and announcements.

In particular, Facebook for Business, Facebook for Privacy and the Facebook blog often post updates when there is a change to their guidelines.

Facebook for Business takes you step by step to create a business Page that is effective but also follows their guidelines.

Facebook for Business Page to learn how to reach the right audience.

The Facebook and Privacy Page post an update every time they revise a guideline or policy.

In addition, they post tips every week to make sure people are informed about some of the changes that they made previously. Following this Page will allow you to stay up to date when there is a new announcement and also stay informed about older policies.

Facebook and Privacy Page, how to exercise your choice to share what you want.

Here’s an example of a Facebook and Privacy update.

Finally, you can find updates on the Facebook blog.

You can add the Facebook blog to your RSS feed so you receive a notification every time there is a new post. This can help you gather real-time information to make sure your presence online is always relevant.

Facebook blog where you can find out what’s happening behind the scenes at Facebook.

#2: Follow the Facebook Tag on TechCrunch

Technology journalists jump at the news of a Facebook update. One of the best ways that we as marketers can stay updated on this topic is to follow technology journalists or even the Facebook tag on websites like TechCrunch or Mashable.

To find the tag, scroll to the bottom of an article and you will see at least one tag on the article.

To find all Facebook articles on TechCrunch, you can go here.  This will allow you to quickly and easily find all of the latest updates to Facebook in one place.

The Facebook tag on TechCrunch.

#3: Set a Google Alert for Facebook Updates

A hack to get Facebook updates as soon as they happen is to set up a Google Alert with the term “Facebook Privacy.” That will send an email right to your inbox with any articles that are written about updates to Facebook guidelines or new privacy rules. And you can be sure that there will be a ton of articles written whenever Facebook updates anything.

Once you create your Google Alert, type in “Facebook Privacy” as your search query.

You can choose what type of results you want, whether its news, blog articles, videos, discussions, books or everything. You can choose the frequency you wish to receive these updates and the number of updates you would like. Finally, you can insert your email address to let them know where you want the results delivered.

Facebook Privacy Google Alert setup.

After that is set up, you will receive emails that look like the image below. They will separate your information by the type of result, allowing you to be instantly notified when there is something important to know about Facebook.

Facebook Privacy Google Alert Preview.

#4: Follow New Posts on AllFacebook

AllFacebook is the unofficial Facebook blog that can be a great resource for anything new that is posted about Facebook. They consistently update their website with new information on Facebook, whether it be news about their guidelines and privacy issues or just general updates that marketers should know about.

In addition, they host an annual conference called the AllFacebook Marketing Conference in San Francisco where attendees can learn even more about marketing with Facebook.

The AllFacebook blog.

AllFacebook Marketing Conference coming in June 2013.

#5: Follow Social Media and Tech Experts

In addition to the blog articles you can read and conferences you can attend to learn more about Facebook updates, there are many thought leaders who can be great resources to learn everything you need to know to market on Facebook.

People like Mari Smith, Andrea Vahl and Pete Cashmore are great resources to follow on Twitter and stay updated on Facebook news.

When there is something that marketers need to know, you can be sure they will be discussing it and sharing their knowledge on the subject.

By Chantal  Tode

May 1, 2013

 

Starting today, Apple will no longer accept applications that use a device’s Unique Device Identifier to track users in an attempt to get marketers to embrace its own tracking standard, the Apple Identifier or IFA.

While Apple started deprecating the use of UDIDs last year in the wake of growing concern because the standard does not allow consumers to opt out from mobile ad tracking, marketers have been reluctant to switch to something else. However, the conversion tracking enabled by the new IFA standard should help marketers optimize their marketing by channel and creative, resulting in a lower cost per acquisition and higher returns on investment.

“With Apple’s IFA now replacing UDID, marketers can adopt this new standard in their ad tracking, with the knowledge that it provides device level opt out for consumers on all iOS 6+ devices,” said George Kennedy, vice president of marketing at TapSense, San Francisco. “Because of the legal grey area around UDID, many marketers decided to simply remove tracking altogether and others tried to rely on other IDs to track ROI.

“With the legal issues from UDID now resolved, much of the friction that was holding back large advertising budgets is starting to be released and we anticipate spend in iOS mobile advertising to rocket throughout the year,” he said. “IFA is ultimately bringing confidence to the industry which will benefit brands, agencies and ultimately the mobile user.

“IFA will help to bring confidence, regulation and increased spend to the iOS mobile advertising market and greatly improve ROI in ad campaigns that were previously running without any tracking.”

The conversion funnel Apple’s IFA alternative enables users to opt out of any tracking method by changing a setting at the device level. It has been available since the release of iOS 6 last year, but should start to gain wider traction now that UDIDs are no longer an option.

IFA also offers deeper visibility into the conversion funnel, making it easier for marketers to understand an acquired user’s lifetime value. In turn, this will enable marketers to focus on getting users who spend in their apps.

Marketers can use conversion tracking to attribute users to the right source and avoid having to pay twice for the same user from different networks.

Additionally, marketers will be able to follow users through the conversion funnel and identify drop off points so they can correct them.

Early movers Other benefits of IFA include being able to use only one conversion tracking SDK in apps so marketers can avoid managing multiple SDKs and the ability to work with publishers, ad networks and other third parties.

“The biggest benefits will come to the marketers who capitalize on IFA early,” Mr. Kennedy said. “IFA will not only allow them to track campaigns, but gain visibility deep into the conversion funnel.

“Smart marketers can then use this data to optimize and improve their advertising, making it work more efficiently to get a greater return on their ad spend,” he said.

“Also, because acquisition costs on mobile are still a fraction of what they are on the PC, the big wins will be for those who figure out how to transition their PC business from the Web and acquire high value users cheaply. Before the prices go up in the next two to three years.”

Universal approach needed However, despite the benefits offered by IFA, it is still focused exclusively on Apple and does not address the broader issue of tracking ads across mobile platforms or outside iOS apps. Without such broader tracking capabilities, marketers are still hampered in their efforts to drive ROI from mobile.

As a result, some are calling for the adoption of a universal approach to device recognition such as is offered by AdTruth and others.

“The Apple Identifier moves iOS app developers away from cookies, but it fails the universality test because it is limited to one platform and only one use case – mobile apps,” said James Lamberti, vice president and general manager at AdTruth, Scottsdale, AZ. “For marketers to derive the greatest ROI from their mobile campaigns, they need a solution that is able to scale and function on all devices, in any operating system and in every use case across desktop and mobile Web and app.

“There’s an opportunity for the entire industry to adopt a universal approach to device recognition, and that opportunity is here today,” he said.

“With universal device recognition technology such as AdTruth’s, can better reach audiences at scale while respecting consumer privacy and choice.”

By Chantal Tode

May 2, 2013

 

Facebook executives are talking up what they say are significant advances made in mobile during the first quarter, including the launch of Facebook Home and improved targeting capabilities. However, Facebook continues to look for ways to deliver rich advertising experiences to mobile users.

The social network’s mobile advertising business took another leap forward during the first quarter of 2013 as ad revenues from mobile reached 30 percent of total ad revenues, up from 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 14 percent in the third quarter. Overall, Facebook’s revenue from advertising totaled $1.25 billion, up 43 percent from the same quarter last year.

“We are still in the early days of what we are doing and that is particularly true in mobile,” said David Ebersam, chief financial officer at Facebook, Menlo Park, CA. “A year ago we didn’t have any mobile ad revenue and now it is 30 percent of our ad revenue.

“We believe that mobile has the opportunity to be huge for us if we can execute well,” he said. “We’ve got a really large mobile user base, they are very engaged and spend a lot of time with us. We have an ad format that works for us on mobile and we have identities, so that we can put the right ad in front of the right people.

“Obviously, we will continue to develop tools to enable us to monetize our advertising better and potentially in new ways as well. The big opportunity that is right in front of us is trying to make the mobile advertising product higher quality and more relevant.”

Home sweet home
During a conference call with analysts to discuss the first quarter results, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the launch of Facebook Home is an important milestone for the company because it creates a completely new mobile experience for users and promised that it would be rolled out to more people and will continue to be updated with new services in the coming months.

Facebook Home is available on Android devices and enables users to users to interact directly with friends from the home screen and lock screen of their device. Users do not need to go into the Facebook app to view notifications from their connections.

While there are no ads at first, Facebook has said they will be there eventually.

The social network also introduced new advertising products during the first quarter such as Lookalike Audiences, Managed Custom Audiences and Partner Categories, which help marketers improve their targeting capabilities on Facebook, including on mobile.

In a big win for the company last month, GM reportedly launched a mobile-only advertising campaign on Facebook for the Chevrolet Sonic.

The second largest U.S. marketer famously pulled all of its advertising from Facebook last year shortly before the social network made its initial public offering. While GM’s departure played a role in Facebook’s rocky second half, the automaker has reportedly decided to return to Facebook following numerous refinements of its mobile advertising offerings such as better targeting capabilities.

“I think they definitely have improved their mobile advertising offering but I think that the challenge for anybody including Facebook is how do you make it a rich experience on the small screen,” said Matt Wise, CEO of ePrize, Pleasant Ridge, MI. “They are making advances in targeting but I don’t think they have solved the rich user experience yet.

“This is something that a lot of people are working on,” he said. “I am encouraged by the fact that Facebook is putting so much focus on it – it encourages me that some new innovative models will come out.”

User insight
Other key results from Facebook’s first quarter ended March 31 include that mobile monthly active users totaled 751 million as of March 31, an increase of 54 percent year-over-year.

Facebook also reported that Instagram reached 100 million monthly active users in the first quarter of 2013 and the monthly active users totaled 1.11 billion, up 23 percent year-over-year.

The social network’s revenue for the first quarter totaled $1.46 billion, up 38 percent year-over-year. The company’s net income totaled $219 million, up 7 percent year-over-year.

“Facebook has reported that its browser usage has shifted almost completely over to their mobile apps – 80 percent of total users – and is now allocating massive resources to monetizing its mobile traffic, drawing big spenders to experiment with various advertising techniques,” said Sephi Shapira, CEO of MassiveImpact, Tel Aviv, Israel.

“A key to sustainable future growth in ad revenue will be a utilization of Facebook’s vast amount of user data in ad serving techniques, making ads substantially more relevant to the end user and in turn more profitable for the advertiser,” he said.

By Sara Hawkins

Are you confused about the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) disclosure rules and how they relate to your social media activities?

Do you want to know more about what you need to disclose and how to make disclosures on social media to comply with U.S. consumer laws?

In March of this year, the United States Federal Trade Commission released the first update to the .com Disclosures guide.

Here’s a look at the key points in this update relevant to social media marketers today.

Read the .com Disclosures guide for full details.

The Environment Has Changed

First, it’s important to understand the environment in which this guide was published.

With the first release in 2000, the .com Disclosures guide was an attempt to narrow the gray area of how marketing and advertising worked on the Internet so companies could maintain compliance with consumer protection laws.

When the initial .com Disclosures guide came out, we were breathing a heavy sigh of relief having “survived” Y2K.

There was no such thing as an iPhone (first sold in 2007), Twitter was 6 years away, MySpace was on the horizon (2003) and many were eagerly awaiting Windows XP (2001).

A lot has changed since the year 2000. Image source: iStockPhoto.

Even more important, a lot has changed since the research that went in to creating the .com Disclosures guide was done back in the late 1990s. More than a decade of technology has come along and how we communicate now is vastly different than it was 5 years ago, let alone 13.

For the past several years, advertisers were trying to overlay new technology onto guidelines that never projected the platform. And in trying to do what’s right, there have been instances where it has all gone wrong.

Initial Observations

While the .com Disclosures guide of 2013 does reduce some confusion, it does not eliminate it entirely.

Before breaking down some of the key points, if you read the guide one thing you’ll likely notice missing is how all of this applies to nontraditional businesses. Bloggers, entrepreneurs and startups, for example, may not consider themselves digital advertisers but, in fact, many are.

It’s important to know how this will affect your business to avoid confusion. Image source: iStockPhoto.

In addition, many of the examples presented don’t relate to how many online companies market or advertise their products or services. In my opinion, the biggest disadvantage of the update is it’s still heavily weighted toward “big company” digital advertising and does not provide much guidance for nontraditional marketing and advertising programs.

As marketing, brand, social media, PR and digital professionals, what does the 2013 .com Disclosures guide mean for you? With regard to consumer protection laws themselves, not much. With regard to how digital marketing and advertising programs are executed, there will likely need to be changes.

These Are Not Laws

The .com Disclosures guide is not definitive law. Rather, the guide is just that—a guide. For all the times you’ve wished you knew exactly what the law meant, this is your gift.

Consumer protection laws have not changed and the FTC still maintains oversight of most of those laws.

Consumer protection is to ensure the rights of consumers as well as fair trade competition and the free flow of truthful information in the marketplace. Image source: iStockPhoto.

Truth in advertising laws have applied to every aspect of web and mobile communications since the technologies were developed and as they change. There is no change in the fact that all consumer advertising and marketing must be free from deception and unfair practices.

The guide was designed to offer insight into common consumer advertising and marketing programs that seem to be of greatest concern to the FTC regulators.

They Apply to Anyone Engaged in Digital Advertising and Marketing

Since consumer protection laws apply to everyone who advertises or markets to consumers, so does the .com Disclosures guide. Compliance with the guide is voluntary; however, practices inconsistent with the information provided in the guide can be the basis of corrective action taken by the FTC.

While the FTC has specifically stated that they are not monitoring blogs, websites or individual social platforms, the agency is fielding thousands of consumer complaints daily.

A one-off inconsistent blog post won’t likely be enough to draw the agency’s attention, but a pattern of noncompliance by bloggers may trigger an investigation of a brand’s or agency’s practices.

If you’re working with a brand or agency, pushing their message on your website (whether paid or not), appropriate disclosure will be expected. As a digital marketing or advertising professional, it will be of significant importance to ensure all programs with third parties include appropriate disclosures.

One example in the guide (Example 21) included a sponsored blog post and specifically noted that the blogger, while including a disclosure, should have placed her disclosure differently.

The FTC considers that this blogger should have made the disclosure more obvious. See the Examples section at the end of the .com Disclosures guide for all examples.

While bloggers may be required to place a disclosure in accordance with laws related to endorsement and testimonial advertising, clearly the FTC is including bloggers in this new guide as well.

Automating Social Messages May Need Reconsideration

There are various schools of thought about automating social engagement, but those who use some form of automation will need to review how it’s used and, if necessary, what changes may be needed.

The FTC has made it very clear that the inability of a platform to allow for an appropriate disclosure does not excuse the need for disclosure.

Hashtags Are Not Necessary

While hashtags allow for easier searching on some platforms, the FTC has not specifically said hashtag use would or would not make a disclosure compliant.

The hashtag is used by many across platforms. Some platforms are adding hashtag trackability. Others are removing it.

The FTC wants to focus on the message, and adding “#” before a word, in their view, is not necessary.

Is it helpful for the brand? Maybe. But remember, the FTC’s focus is consumer protection.

Character-Restricted Platforms Must Still Have Disclosures

The FTC has clearly stated that if your advertising message and disclosure cannot both be made in the limited number of characters, then that medium may not be appropriate.

The goal of the disclosure is to allow consumers to understand that what they will be reading or clicking on is an advertisement, is sponsored, or involves some type of business relationship that may have influenced the information provided.

In Example 15 of the guide, using the words “ad” or “sponsored” may be sufficient if provided BEFORE the message.

You must make full disclosure obvious on all social platforms. See the Examples section at the end of the .com Disclosures guide for all examples.

For disclosures that are lengthy or unable to fit in a space-constrained platform along with the message, the advertiser may link to a website where the disclosure is clear and conspicuously displayed.

The Disclosure Must Be Clear and Conspicuous

As with all truth in advertising laws, the consumer must know he or she is being sold to before reading something or taking action to purchase. And keep in mind that the advertising or marketing message may require more than one disclosure.

When it comes to digital advertising, there are many variables that play into how a message is delivered. Sites are optimized for different browsers, mobile devices vary in size, apps use different interfaces and yet the exact same information may be shown.

How consumers see the information may impact their ability to determine the truthfulness of the message.

All disclosures should be:

1. Proximate to the information so the consumer does not have to hunt for it
2. Of at least the same size as the message
3. In the same format as the message
4. Accessible on all platforms used
5. Understandable by the consumer

Check out the full text of the .com Disclosures guide to find out all of the suggestions provided.

Be mindful of technology limitations or quirks.

Many consumers hate pop-ups, so they install blockers on their browser. There are some mobile operating systems that do not read certain scripts. And there are apps that may have limitations depending on whether they are free or paid.

Despite all of these unique characteristics of technology, digital advertisers and marketers must ensure their disclosures are seen by consumers. It is the responsibility of the advertiser to ensure that all providers (be it their own website, social media platforms or blogs) are capable of including an appropriate disclosure.

If a disclosure is included in hover text but a consumer can’t see hover text on a mobile device, this will not be considered a meaningful disclosure. Disclosures that are on subsequent pages on some mobile devices but not on others need to be standardized so consumers aren’t forced to hunt for them.

Advertisers Are Responsible for Ensuring the Disclosure

In today’s online media, it’s not uncommon to find advertising and marketing promotions driven by social media shares or blog posts. While many brand and PR reps want to respect the authenticity of the hired influencer, the fact remains that the advertiser (the brand, the PR company, the digital agency, etc.) will most likely be held responsible if the FTC determines consumer protections were missing and corrective action is necessary.

Bloggers are often unsure what, if any, disclosure is required. Since the consequence will likely fall to the advertiser, the advertiser (whether it is the brand, the PR company, the digital agency, or the like) should feel comfortable providing guidance to any and all parties and platforms about what disclosure may be required and where the disclosure will need to go.

If you want to use a hyperlink for your disclosure, take the time to read pages 10-13 of the guide and seek legal counsel to ensure your link will be deemed adequate.

Don’t Just Link to a Disclosure

How many of you have ever clicked on a disclosure link at the bottom of a website? How many have seen a graphic at the bottom of a page you were reading and had no idea what it really meant?

In an effort to be compliant, companies have formed to “help” brands, online companies and bloggers meet FTC disclosure requirements.

Unfortunately, for the average consumer, these custom links or graphics are not meaningful disclosures. If you, an online professional, aren’t always sure what something like http://discl.se/Level6 would mean, then neither does the average consumer.

You can find this example of insufficient disclosure in the .com Disclosures guide.

This is not to say hyperlinks to a disclosure page are always inappropriate. In certain circumstances, such as when a lengthy disclosure is necessary or the disclosure is not integral to the claim, a hyperlink to a disclosure may be acceptable.

For most circumstances that trigger a disclosure, a hyperlink may not sufficiently alert the consumer to information needed to make an informed decision if the link is not accessed.

Relying on hyperlinked disclosures requires the consumer to be sufficiently educated to know they must click for important information.

Read the Guide to Understand “What” Disclosures to Use and “Where” to Put Them

Overall, the 2013 .com Disclosures guide provides insight into what an FTC investigator may be looking for when evaluating digital advertising and marketing programs, claims and promotions.

The FTC recognizes technology is continuously changing. However, enforcement will continue to be scrutinized using traditional criteria, which may not wholly translate to these new and innovative platforms.

While the guide provides detailed insight, what it is clearly lacking is the “when.” It contributes greatly to the “what” and “where” with regard to disclosures, but still leaves advertisers and marketers searching for clear guidance on exactly when one is required to disclose.