Facebook Ads: Fan vs. Like

You've all probably formed opinions of your own now that Facebook has officially rolled out the switch from "Become a Fan" to "Like" for subscribing to Page updates. So besides "WTF, Facebook?!" here's something I've noticed that I haven't seen many people talking about.

When setting up a Facebook social ad campaign, you can choose to "advertise something I have on Facebook" or "advertise a web page". Before the switch, it was clear which ads would keep you on Facebook when clicking and which ones were for external websites.

Now that everything is "Like", all the ads look the same. One of the advantages with the "Become a Fan" ad feature was that people could scope out your page knowing they'd stay within Facebook. All ads look the same now, website or not. It's no longer clear whether your click on "Like" will end up with a "you like this ad" or "you like this page". And it's not clear whether a headline click will take you to the Fan Page or to MyFreeCrazyPage4U.biz

So, out of these ads can you tell which ones are linking to websites or to properties within Facebook? Sort of like Facebook ad roulette, no?

Are Older Men Closet Gossip Fiends?

Okay, this is just a question that I came up with when reading Facebook's February 2010 US Traffic by Age and Sex by InsideFacebook.com:

Are older men closet gossip fiends, or do they really just not care about this sort of thing?

InsideFacebook.com found that the amount of males joining Facebook is higher than females in the 18-44 range (at least in February 2010), but women are still much more likely (2x) to join than males among older demographics.

Initially, I thought to myself, "Yeah... this makes sense. Old men 'don't give a rat's ass' about who's doing what and when. They save that for the old bitties on their rocking chairs, trying to get a date for the socially awkward, but secretly charming 30-year-old neighbor boy."

But then I thought about the curious case of Mr. Houselog. Yes, my father pretends to be one of those gossip-averse older men, but that is nowhere near the case. He uses a "pen name" when it comes to Facebook: Darla Houselog.

Yeah, that's right. He pretends to be my mom.

He outright refused to get his own profile when my siblings and I decided to sign up our mom for Facebook, but now he does basically all of the updates, photo uploads, conversations, "friending," etc. I can honestly guess that my mother hasn't touched her Facebook profile for months, yet she somehow still updates her profile. Strange. He is constantly on Facebook through his iPhone, announcing when anyone does anything... my siblings, my old high school friends, my great aunts (weird.)

So, is this just a strange happening among a small sample (a.k.a. just my dad)? Do older men want to know what's going on with their friends/family, but don't want to be known as someone who wants to know? Or don't they care at all?

Farmville Dreamin'

me: farmville now sometimes redirects to famrville.com from facebook...

Erin: whaat

me: right!
i mean the FB connectivity is still there
i bet they're getting more ad opportunities

Erin: right

me: there are no advertisers on farmville.com yet
but
there can be
if i were an advertiser i'd insist on game integration, not banners
i mean cmon
yes i want to gift my friends a Ford pickup

Erin: RIGHT

me: or they have these theme limited edition items, they just had all these fair-type decorations. yes i want the minnesota users to see MINNESOTA STATE FAIR gear
or like wells fargo has the college effort. i want the college users to have a wells fargo sponsored coin box
frickin that would be insane

i'm gonna just yaybia this snippet

Erin: SNIPPLET

Innovative Facebook Photo Use - Koo Koo Kamera

I was creepin' out on Facebook the other night and checked up on the profile of Neil's band, Koo Koo Kangaroo. I've known Neil since I was in middle school and it's great to see him rockin' the Minneapolis music scene. I know Neil and Bryan appear to have several screws loose, but they're actually really smart. Neil has been promoting bands off and on for 5 years and is trying new things to connect with fans through Facebook and Twitter. Anyways, I was looking at some of the new photos that were posted from the video shoot and show on Friday when I noticed several albums titled Koo Koo KAMERA.

What is Koo Koo KAMERA?

At every show they boys set up a Macbook near the merch table. Fans at the show can take photos of themselves with their friends, strangers or the band using the Photobooth app. Neil creates Facebook albums of the photos as soon as he can after the show. Fans are eager to check the photo albums the next day to find their photo and tag themselves, adding a little social currency to their "photos tagged of" section. As fans rack up tagged photos for each show they attend they can compete with other fans for the most tags. It's also great organic promotion for the band as people exposed to fan networks will see updates about their friends being tagged in a Koo Koo KAMERA album.

OMG that man has a donut and Hey! That's my sister with Neil's siblings on the right!

Why it's great and what it means for brands.

When people are out with their friends and cameras are involved, I'll bet you five beers that you'll likely hear "omg that's my new profile pic", or "don't you dare put that on Facebook", or even "that's totally gonna be the name of my next FB album," Tagging your friends in photos keeps the shared experience going, even after the hangover fades.

While Koo Koo is operating as an open Facebook Profile instead of a Page, this fun use of albums can still be used with Pages. Finding a unique way to use existing features of social sites can be challenging, but giving fans the ability to interact with your brand without having to add another application will make life easier. Another example is Modern Amusement's use of the Like feature - Libby recapped the contest last week.

Creating strong offline/online connections is key for cohesive branding and specific campaigns. Keeping the photo concept in mind, brands could implement the photobooth self tagging concept at events or to enhance in-store experiences. Or integrate product photobooth to share your in-store purchase or to tag them for online purchase at a later date. Real time photo tagging can also be used with TwitPic to give fans the instantaneous credibility of being present at exclusive locations. These photo proof points are a win-win for fans and brands as the connection lives on the can't-live-without photo application.

1-800-FLOWERS.com Facebook Store

1-800-FLOWERS.com just launched their Facebook storefront which eliminates extra steps in the buying process and makes it slightly easier to make up for the drunken post to your ex's wall last weekend.

Users can search through all products and order directly from the Shop! tab. Wasn't anticipating 1-800-FLOWERS.com to be a leader in Facebook ecommerce activity, but maybe this will help them get their act together to combat all the "I Hate 1-800-FLOWERS" groups.

Libby Issendorf likes this: Modern Amusement

Remember when Erin and I yelled about social media not being an awareness driver? There are a few rare exceptions. One I'd like to highlight comes from apparel brand Modern Amusement. They're a relatively obscure (some might say hipster) brand looking to get their name out with, presumably, no budget. They asked existing Facebook fans to submit photos of them in Modern Amusement clothing. The photo with the most "Likes" wins. That's it. It requires minimal effort for existing fans (most already have a photo on their computer or on Facebook), it's dead simple for Modern Amusement to track the leaders, and it invites fans organically through their network.

For brands with huge awareness already, like Volkswagen or Starbucks, a contest like this might not invite the level of engagement they're seeking. These brands also have highly recognizable products that don't require an entire fan photo album to showcase. But for Modern Amusement, this is the perfect way to introduce themselves. Fans are basically building them a free catalog and endorsing it. When the contest is over, they should comment on these photos with Buy links to the merchandise in the photos, or tag them with the name of the clothing item.

And all you Yaybia readers should absolutely become fans of Modern Amusement and click "Like" on the photo of my co-worker Chase (the entry pictured here), who introduced me to the contest in the first place.

*Side note: Remember BMW films and how revolutionary it was to put VIDEO on the INTERNET? Moment of silence for Fallon's glory days.

Who You're Really Talking To

Christian at Idea Drunk shares this pearl of wisdom:

I’m not saying that it isn’t correct to have an aspirational target. I’m saying that you shouldn’t forget that the majority of [your target] doesn’t live in the city where you’re making your advertising. The majority of [your target] doesn’t frequent hipster bars on Ossington and shop at H&M. They drink beer at their campsites, shop at Wal-Mart and go to Boston Pizza for a nice meal. And sometimes, they have handlebar amazing moustaches.

Couldn't agree more. So often we are marketing to the people we'd like to buy our product, but we ignore the people who actually do. Fortunately, it's getting easier to identify our true fans.

Facebook Insights is now offering in-depth looks into the people who are using Pages and interacting with brands. Insights has been rolling out new metrics regularly, so I hope top interests and keywords will soon be a component of the analytics. In the meantime, why not take a random sample of Twitter followers and Facebook fans and figure out who's really listening to your messaging? If it's die-hards who will fight to the death about Pizza Hut vs. Domino's, offer incentives to share stories and media. If it's college kids looking to score coupons, show them some cheap pizza love. But figure out who you're talking to. It's never been easier to do it.

So, what did you do on Friday night?

Well, I set my alarm for 10:45pm, stayed in, and watched the countdown on my screen in my living room with Erin and Libby. That would be the screen of my Facebook account, where thankfully I got to register my domain of www.facebook.com/carina

200,000 people registered in the first 3 minutes (go geeks, go!). 1 million in the first hour. What is the big deal? It isn't about this SEO thing people are talking about - it is all about branding. 

Then, after I got super excited, and tweeted my Facebook URL, I realized how bad I was doing at branding myself. I am a connection mess:

@NICKNAME

facebook.com/FIRSTNAME

linkedin.com/in/FULLNAME

So I fail. Brands, do as I say, not as I do. BE CONSISTENT.

One hashtag that I saw started (I believe by Facebook employees) is #/isthenew@.  Is it now just as essential to get your brand's /brandname as @brandname? Likely, if not even more. Facebook has been around longer, and gets more traffic than Twitter. That alone is enough to make most any brand want their own /brandname.  Now, Facebook is not putting up with squatters, and brands could register ahead of time with their registered trademark number, starting early last week. BUT I want numbers on how many were actually fast enough to do that.

I went and checked a few popular brands:

www.facebook.com/coke redirects to www.facebook.com/coca-cola

www.facebook.com/pepsi redirects to www.facebook.com/refresheverything

(BUT, http://www.facebook.com/apple is a 404 and someone is squatting on http://www.facebook.com/appleinc)

So it appears there is some more special treatment for brands going on, but I am guessing those are the brands that paid for their vanity URLs back when they were only available when you shelled out some $$$ for a branded Facebook page.

The next rush comes on June 28th when anyone can register a unique domain for their profile or page, even if they signed up for facebook after 5/30 or if their page has less than 1000 fans.  I recommend all brands get moving on this. Now. Get started now so that by June 28th you are ready.

#squarespace - Really for the Fans?

Right after the WWDC on Monday I noticed tweets with #squarespace and "iPhone" trending high and popping up in my feed. My memory was a little fuzzy about the Squarespace name, so I checked it out to be sure of what it is. Squarespace is a DIY website builder with some high profile users - Ecko and Element to name a few. Anyway, while the geeks were geekin' about WWDC, Squarespace was busy plotting a Twitter contest to give a "gigantic THANK YOU to all of our favorite Squarespace fans." All their fans had to do was send a tweet with the #squarespace tag to be eligible to win a new iPhone. That's great and all, but it's quickly turned into a hashtag fest with hundreds of thousands of non-fans just in it for the goods.

So I'm wondering: How do you separate the fans from those that just want to get their hands on a free iPhone?

To thank users, there are better ways to leverage Twitter than a flood of tweets from people who will never use Squarespace:

• Current users could post success stories, favorite features or job-winning portfolios on Twitter, still using #squarespace, to highlight the brand's name AND functionality at the same time.
• @squarespace could send tweets showcasing the unique ways people are using the platform. People could then be entered into the contest by voting via Twitter for their favorite designs. @extendr is doing a great job of showing off their users' profiles in order to gain more fans.
• Facebook is also another great space to connect with existing fans because it gets others interested in what's going on. Fans could post status updates, notes or even photos expressing love for Squarespace in order to win a new phone.
  

It's also likely this "fan" contest was really a move to gain awareness through Twitter. Giving away new iPhones at the exact moment that Twitter was buzzing about WWDC was a smart move. But if that's the case, don't disguise it as a thank you to your true fans.

Happy Earth Day!

The Yaybia Crew loves the earth! Hell, we ALWAYS recycle our beer cans (though mostly to get rid of evidence that we actually bought a case of Keystone Light).


There are lots of ways to celebrate Earth Day today using my favorite medium, Social Media.


Facebook: Join in the green efforts AND win awesome prizes by adding the Hot Dish application


Twitter: After only one minute of viewing the "Happy Earth Day" search on Twitter, I was notified that 44 new posts just appeared in the last 5 seconds! Join the trend and tweet your support!


YouTube: YouTube's spotlight videos all feature green news and tips, and to check out even MORE green online videos, check out the YouTube LiveGreen channel!



Blogs: One of my favorite social media blogs, Mashable, has posted 5 Inspirational Earth Day Videos, including the trailer for the newest Disney-produced movie "Earth," which opens today.



Happy Earth Day!!!

Yaybia Weekly Link Love: 4/4/09 - 4/10/09

ON THE WEBS

Nissan Cube marketed to Gen Y as a "mobile device." Yeah, but in MN, I still can't text from behind the wheel.

Facebook hits 200 million users, but for some, fatigue may be setting in. Twitter's growing faster, but it just reached 10 million worldwide uniques this month. We're ready for something new.

How to figure out whether your brand/company should Tweet. Pretty much dead-on.


ON YAYBIA

Coke's Ringtone spot is back!

We're digging Tide's "take care of your clothes" campaign, especially this promo.


LOVERS & FRIENDS

Aaron Landry helped us bid adieu to the best TV show of all time.

On Ypulse, Anastasia and Libby each talk about how Facebook might be on the decline among its original users.

ELY 2016!



LAWL

We didn't laugh at all this week. Send us links!

Mmmmm, SPAM.

It was inevitable that when social media overtook emailing in popularity, the spammers would follow suit and target a new outlet. With advanced filters, spam mail hasn't become nearly as annoying as it was back in the early days of email. Social media spamming, however, has the potential to be the newest thorn in our sides.

While I know this is technically a communications tactic, my personal opinion is that spamming has to be one of the least effective ways to connect with an audience. Sure, annoying commercials have a tendency to stick in our heads, but annoying spams just end up in the trash, unread.

Smart social media networks do as much as possible to prevent this from happening. Below is my "Spam Report Card" for my favorite social media sites. Some are doin' it right, some... not so much.


FACEBOOK A- With formal methods available like creating Fan Pages, Applications, and other such additives, spamming doesn't make sense for most companies. Another bonus: when posting a link you are asked to identify your validity, eliminating the possibility for rogue links. One negative: the bout of viruses infecting profiles, creating fake status updates and wall posts for many users. Such as "CHECK THIS OUT: I JUST FOUND MY CRUSH" and then a link. Annoying, but as far as I can see, hasn't happened as of late. Facebook is quick to fix these glitches.

TWITTER: A Twitter has been fairly immune to spamming, however lately more and more Twitter handles are being created solely to "follow" users with a spam message. These messages are anywhere from the usual "win a free Kindle" type messaging from obscure sources, to legitimate companies spamming their products and coupons. The nice thing about Twitter is, if you don't click "follow back" to any of these handles, you are nearly uneffected.



MYSPACE: C- MySpace has been pretty spam-filled from the start, at least in my experience. There is a consistancy of new "friends" being created as a front for spam messaging. If you don't immediately protect your wall to be private, it too will be filled with spam messaging. Similar to Facebook's temporary problem, viruses are prominent, creating fake wall posts from you to your friend list. One plus is that MySpace seems to be as quick as possible to remove profiles that are created for spamming purposes.


Any others doing it right? Or others that are far from spam proof?

Facebook Makes Brands More Friendly

Facebook has overhauled Pages to make them look and function more like Profiles. "Soon you will be seeing updates from Pages in your news feed."

With this adaptation, Facebook flies in the face of Alan Wolk's claim that your brand is not my friend.  Now your brand can post links and pictures to my news feed, just like my friends...your brand's wall looks more like my friends' walls...soon will your brand write on my wall in return?  

Is this a reaction to the one-to-one communication on Twitter or to marketers pushing for more interaction?  Facebook users hate change; will this be a minor rustle like the last layout change or a major upheaval like Beacon and the TOS?

The TOS scandal was a wake-up call to a lot of Facebook users that maybe it's Facebook who isn't your friend.  They're out to make money by capitalizing on your private information.  And while getting relevant information that I subscribe to in a centralized place is great, Mr. Wolk has a point--is having a brand literally write on my wall (note:  I don't know if this is actually a feature, but that seems like where it's headed) going to cross a sacred invisible line?  Will it encourage a more human interaction like Twitter has?  Or will it just pare down a brand's fans to its absolute zealots?

It opens up a huge opportunity for brands to do things wrong.  Like Wolk said, if brands start using social networks to push out irrelevant product information and humanless hard-sells, users will drop them like they're hot.  I love crappetizers from Applebee's, but if random pictures of their mozzarella sticks and buffalo wings start showing up in my newsfeed, I will X out of that shit immediately. 

 

This isn't as much of a hazard on Twitter because brands start with zero followers; those who use it wrong simply won't attract a crowd of loyalists.  But many Facebook pages already have hundreds of thousands of fans and plenty of room for missteps.  So I'm viewing this as a great opportunity for PR agencies, digital strategists, and media professionals to guide big brands to play nice and act, well, friendly.  How about writing on my wall when a new Applebee's opens in my zip code?  It's all about providing value.

Thoughts and predictions welcome!

Yaybia Weekly Link Love: January 19-23, 2009

Welcome to our first of many weekly recaps, where we'll harness the rumblings of the interwebs into one post for your reading pleasure.

ON THE WEBS: In case you were under a rock and/or wasted all week (it's ok if you were!)

• We got a new President on Tuesday!  Google searches took a nosedive while we watched his speech, and a lot of us were watching online.  J9 talked about Facebook/CNN connect and how awesome it was.  To bring the federal government into 2009, the new administration overhauled whitehouse.gov at exactly 12:01pm--and it looks rll good.
  
  
• Another bad week for print as 3-year-old Wondertime magazine went under and Google nixed its newspaper ad network.  
  
  
• Google brought video to Gmail chat windows.  Anyone who knows what I mean when I say "AIM Aptus" is dying inside.
  
  
• Mashable posted awesome examples of how Twitter can help you IRL.

ON YAYBIA:

• Lam & Lib teamed up to give AgencySpy readers the lay of the land of 10,000 lakes
  
  
• The University of Minnesota embraces blogging and Twitter. Go Gophers!
  
  
• Click in the next 10 seconds and we'll DOUBLE YOUR ORDER!

LOVERS & FRIENDS: Shoutouts to our loyal readers and fellow bloggers

• Jacey and the crew at space150 hosted Deepspace 2009 Trends
  
  
• AS brings us more State of the State posts from Chicago and Denver.

LAWL: Links Lam and I sent each other in Gchat all week

• Be good, kids.  The President is watching...
  
  
• BOB! HELP! 
  
  
• We. Love. The. 90s. 
• 

CNN and FB Win on Inauguration Day

So CNN and Facebook aligned their forces for some refreshing news coverage. Like all of you, I was sneaking coverage of the Inauguration since the early hours. To my surprise, a partnership with Facebook added a new element to CNN's coverage. On the right side of the video, viewers could open up their Facebook profile and watch people's responses to the live events. And of course, they could submit their own comments.

Here is why I think this partnership is a win:

• High Involvement: CNN said they are receiving over 2,000 comments per minute, wowser.
• Exchange: The news is no longer static and CNN allowed viewers to voice their opinion about this highly emotional event.
• Listening: The simple act of letting people share responses show's viewers that CNN values their opinion. The positive responses of this partnership is proof that people appreciate this simple gesture.
  

One final note, advertisers may not be crazy about this open comment format. A Starbucks ad all about the "grassroots" movement was highly booed by Facebook commenters. Apparently, people did not appreciate Starbucks pretending to be a "grassroots" company.
[I have yet to find this ad, but I'll post it if I come across it]


"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

[The 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama]

Social Media's Fail(?) of the Day

I waffle between security v. convenience all the time; especially online. It is more secure to have a variety of passwords over all accounts, but much more convenient to have 1. In this case, this potential security v. convenience fail comes from Facebook.

For the first time today I got this:

While trying to update my status so my friends can have the link to this very cool article about our own Yaybia! But, today, instead of updating immediately I got a Security Check, and if I don't want to get this every time I try to update something, I have to have Facebook verify that I am a real person by sending a confirmation code to my mobile phone (standard rates and other fees may apply). Well, I did it. And still got the security things.

The point of this is to verify your existence, and they reason that if you are on Facebook you must have a mobile phone. Also, I could still have my old fake account (RIP Thunder Girl) and still send the message to my phone. Also, what if I don't want Facebook to have my phone number?

This might make Facebook a tiny bit more secure, but right now I'm voting for convenience.

BUTTONS! Fo' free!

Finally, a sponsored "gift" on Facebook that I can get behind.  This morning when I checked my Facebook for the gazillionth time, I noticed today's free gift was a "Obama '08" pin for my friends to adorn their wall with.  (Oh yea.... Facebook also offers a free "McCain '08" pin as well.)

Anytime I see a "free gift" on Facebook, I notice about a dozen or so friends who pass the gifts out with little messages, probably simply because it was free, and was a break from the normal "hey girl heyyyy" messages they type out on each other's walls (oh don't worry, I do the same thing).  What a great way for a company to sneak a message onto thousands of Facebook pages.  

So, sneak your message (whoever you may be voting for) onto your friends' pages.  Because the most important thing we will do in the next four year span is coming up really soon. 

VOTE, people.  VOTE!   

Killerstartup?

Facebook meets amazon meets brandtags
DigaDing.com* is a new social network based on users' preferences for brands. Members can create their own “home story” by adding logos and pictures of their favorite brands to their profile. They can post stories about why they like a particular brand and find other users who share their taste. When adding a brand, members are also presented with a link to amazon.com and the like where they can buy what they love. The two young creators from Switzerland, however, assure that they won’t sell user data to companies. They rather intend to create revenue through targeted ads.

In their own words (well, translated)
Digading – that’s me. That’s what I like. Our network connects people through brands. We were fascinated by how friends and couples often like and dislike the same products and brands. On Digading users can create their own home stories like stars, easily meet like-minded people and buy 2.5 million products.



Why it might be a killer
I would never date a guy who hates Vitamin Water, basically all my friends have Apple computers and I proudly wear my Cheap Monday’s. In a world of flexibility and mobility, brands are a means of identification and integration. They are part of our life. They tell stories. They matter.

Some questions
Would I date a guy, only because he drinks Vitamin Water or build a friendship on a common taste in electronics or jeans? Do I need to know why a stranger likes Coke and Cheez-its? Why not buy the stuff I like directly?

What do you think?

*Ding means "thing" in German, which explains the bilingual name. Kind of.

Facebook Fail 2: With a Vengeance!

I'm jumping on the Fail-Train. Woot Woot!

As one of the largest aggregators of personal information, Facebook's ad-targeting capabilities should be second-to-none, or at least top 3. Sometimes, however, I am served an ad that just does not make sense (since when have I spoken Arabic, or whatever language that is?):

facebook fail

On my previous note of failing:




I haven't quite figured this one out - but it has happened to me many times. So you log in, and suddenly you get a redirect sending you to some other website. Now mind you, none of these are major websites, but if we are going to look at this from a marketing point of view: your annoying site just hacked my facebook experience. i will never go to your site.