Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- Platform Update: User Viewport Info, Per-Post Impression Data From Pages
- Facebook Hasn’t Signed Any Deals to Enter China — At Least Not Yet
- Facebook to Hold Webinar Discussing How Developers Can Migrate to Facebook Credits
- The New Yorker Tries Requiring Users to Like Its Facebook Page to Access Articles
- Featured Facebook Campaigns: Nike, Hyundai, State Farm Insurance, Oscar de la Renta and Monopoly Millionaires
- Phrases, Badoo, Zoosk, Book and Movie Challenges, Yahoo and More on This Week’s
| Platform Update: User Viewport Info, Per-Post Impression Data From Pages Posted: 11 Apr 2011 04:06 PM PDT The most recent Facebook Developer Blog’s update announced the ability for developers to pull information about the viewport their application is being displayed in and scroll to a specific point. Pages can now grant access to their per-post impression data to applications. Facebook also recounted recent changes we’ve previously covered including the inclusion of titles, images and descriptions in posts published by Like buttons, and the introduction of a preview of these posts seen when buttons are clicked.
The JavaScript SDK now includes new functions for iframe canvas apps. FB.Canvas.getPageInfo returns information about the height, width, and length of user’s window viewport and the application’s iframe viewport. This information can help a developer configure their app’s viewport to create the optimal viewing experience. FB.Canvas.scrollTo allows developers to scroll to a specific point in the app’s canvas by specifying pixel coordinates. Viewport configuration will be especially useful as users move to using Facebook from a variety of devices with different screen sizes and resolutions. For instance, it can help developers show their dialogs in the right place. Viewport capabilities have become a standard part of mobile browsers through the use of viewport meta tags. Applications that have receive the read_insights permission from a Page’s admin can now pull per-post impressions from the stream FQL table. This will allow third-party analytics tools to help Page admins determine what timing and content produces the most user engagement.
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| Facebook Hasn’t Signed Any Deals to Enter China — At Least Not Yet Posted: 11 Apr 2011 03:13 PM PDT Facebook is close to signing a deal with leading Chinese search engine and web conglomerate Baidu to introduce a version of its site in China, according to a new rash of rumors that broke out late last week and continued to appear through the weekend. Facebook is dismissing the rumors today, with sources close to the company saying that no deal is in place. However, Facebook’s official statement on the matter makes it sound like one could be coming: “We are currently studying and learning about China, as part of evaluating any possible approaches that could benefit our users, developers and advertisers,” a company spokesperson tell us. Founder Mark Zuckerberg said last fall that Facebook couldn’t ignore China, and instead would figure out a way to work with government censorship and business regulators to figure out how to gain access. He took a trip to China over the winter holidays that included meetings with high-profile internet executives in the country, where possible partnerships were reportedly discussed. Other tech companies, notably Google, have had trouble doing business in China due to censorship and business restrictions placed on them by the government. While many other parts of the world are experiencing dramatic social and political changes due to internet access — notably in the Middle East, over the last several months — China has gotten more restrictive with what its citizens are allowed to view. We’ve covered the saga, most recently examining the strange stop-and-start growth that Facebook has been experiencing in China, as well as in China-controlled Hong Kong, and in Taiwan. Facebook shot up from around 100,000 to over 600,000 users over January in China, even though it has been blocked in the country for years. It has lost many of those users over the past couple of months, though, and as of today only has under 400,000 monthly active users. It had already been big over in Taiwan, but it similarly surged from 8.7 million to 11.8 million over January, but has also fallen. Today it has 9 million monthly actives, not much more than where it’d been at the start of the year. Hong Kong, with around half its population on Facebook already, has meanwhile apparently maxed out with 3.6 million monthly actives. Why the random growth? Maybe just a bug, maybe some odd unsanctioned workaround by users in China, or maybe some early tests of official Facebook integrations? See our previous coverage for more analysis of Facebook’s challenges and possibilities in China. The above data is derived from Inside Facebook Gold, our stats and analysis service for Facebook data. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook to Hold Webinar Discussing How Developers Can Migrate to Facebook Credits Posted: 11 Apr 2011 01:21 PM PDT Tomorrow, April 12th at 11am PST, Facebook will stream a webinar explaining why developers should migrate to Facebook Credits as their payment method, and featuring a technical demo of how to handle the migration. For those few developer who are not familiar, Facebook is requiring all apps using paid currency to make Credits the exclusive option by July 1st, 2011. As the event tomorrow shows, the company is trying to get as many developers as possible to migrate early to ensure a smooth transition this summer. Migrating to Facebook Credits for Developers will air on the Facebook Live Page, and then be archived on the Page for future viewing. Developers can submit questions to the webinar’s Facebook Event ahead of time, or use the Livestream-powered app’s question interface to pose questions during the session.
Facebook announced in January that developers would have to migrate to Credits as their exclusive payment platform by July. 22 of the top 25 game developers have already migrated, including Zynga, Disney/Playdom, and EA/Playfish. To encourage hold-outs concerned with the 30% cost, Facebook launched a page of statistics and testimonials recently that touts increased revenue and decreased costs as reasons why the migration will be good for developers. Facebook also announced a new set of rules surrounding in-game offers and rewards that will go into effect alongside the migration. Developers who use use Facebook Credits as their premium in-game currency rather than requiring users to buy proprietary premium in-game currency with Credits can access a number of special incentives including Frictionless Payments, Buy With Friends, and the getBalance API. These allow developers to earn more money through quick, small transactions and group deals for virtual goods, as well as learn how many Credits a user currently has in the account.
Navigating these rules and incentives can be tricky, so rather than wait until the deadline when delays can cost developers money, Facebook is seeking to address questions now. By signing major developers early and assisting attentive developers with this “Migrating to Facebook Credits for Developers” webinar, Facebook should receive fewer frantic support emails or claims of negligence come late June. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The New Yorker Tries Requiring Users to Like Its Facebook Page to Access Articles Posted: 11 Apr 2011 11:57 AM PDT The New Yorker magazine has made one of its articles available only to those who have Liked its Facebook Page. The test of a Like-gate for text-based content is a break from more popular distribution methods such as making articles free online, freemium (charging for only some content), and paywalls that require a paid subscription. If Like-gating of certain articles successfully draws Likes and generates increased Facebook referral traffic for the publication’s website, other text-based content providers might consider adopting the model as well. The New Yorker’s Page, which reportedly had 200,000 fans earlier this morning, has already acquired 4,000 more Likes.
The article “Farther Away” by Pulitzer Prize-finalist Jonathan Franzen will be available to fans of The New Yorker’s Facebook Page for one week. Otherwise it can only be accessed with a paid digital subscription to the magazine’s website, and presumably in its print edition. The “Fans Only” Page tab app hosting the article also includes a Facebook Comments Box social plugin through which users can publish links to the article to their news feeds, drawing additional users to the promotion. Facebook began formally allowing applications and Pages to gate content behind Likes in late 2009. Since then, Like-gates have proven useful for some popular musicians as a way to exchange their songs or music videos in exchange for Likes. However, the model requires strong user demand for the content, otherwise user won’t be willing to sign up for future news feed updates to access it. Content providers with weak brands, or those who Like-gate less compelling content may see users refuse the value exchange.
Since Pages hosting Like-gated content can only distribute links to those who’ve already Liked them, these types of promotions need to be paired with a method of drawing non-fans. Many brands use Facebook ads pointing to their Like-gated content, but The New Yorker has wisely chosen Facebook’s Comments Box and Recommend button. When users scroll to the bottom of the Franzen article, they can choose to leave a comment for other readers to see, but a checkbox defaults those comments to be published to the user’s stream. This leads their friends back to The New Yorker’s Fans Only tab where they too might decide to Like the Page and share their comments. A Recommend button also allows users to distribute the article without adding a comment. By using these two social plugins, The New Yorker can drive non-fan traffic to the app without paying for advertising. This combination of free Facebook promotional mechanisms is a savvy move for The New Yorker. It strikes a balance between giving content away and making users pay, focusing on a long-term strategy of gaining Facebook fans to which the magazine can distribute its links and potentially convert into paying subscribers later. As internet users have grown accustomed to accessing content for free, they may be more willing to provide publishers a way to contact them rather than paying with dollars, as with Google’s One Pass and The New York Times paywall. Media publishers should closely watch The New Yorker’s fan count and consider whether they have the right brand and content to try Like-gating. For more information on how media websites and Pages can integrate Facebook’s social plugins to increase referral traffic and drive Likes, visit the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network’s Inside Network's complete guide to marketing using Facebook. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 11 Apr 2011 09:11 AM PDT Brands were big on giveaways this week, as Nike, Hyundai and Oscar de la Renta lured fans with free products. Meanwhile State Farm zeroed in on its Latino customers with a specialized Page and Monopoly Millionaires worked to get users excited about setting a world record. We've excerpted two of the campaigns below. You can see the full week's coverage in the Facebook Marketing Bible, which also includes detailed breakdowns of dozens of other featured campaigns by top-performing brands and businesses on Facebook.
Hyundai's Coachella Campground ExperienceGoal: Network Exposure, Engagement, Product Purchase Core Mechanic: Hyundai ran a contest giving away airfare, Coachella music festival tickets and $500 spending money for four people, as well as a camping space and car service. Method: Hyundai ran the sweepstakes on its Facebook landing tab and has since closed the contest. The contest also asks fans to weigh in on a t-shirt contest with Hyundai. Impact: The Hyundai Page has more than 141,000 Likes and the Coachella music festival giveaway is likely to attract younger users. Because Coachella tickets sold out very quickly this year, brands can offer especially enticing promotions by finding a sold out event, securing some tickets or a VIP package, then targeting ads promoting their ticket giveaway contest to users who Like the Page of the event.
Nike Golf's Ball GiveawayGoal: Engagement, Product Purchase, Network Exposure Core Mechanic: Nike Golf launched a promotion of giving away a sleeve of limited edition golf balls to Facebook fans; the promotion was powered by ShopIgniter. Method: The promotion was so popular that it was over practically before it began, lasting just a few minutes. The company then had to create two more days of giveaways. Impact: The Page counts 454,900 Likes, but since the promotion didn't require users to Like the Page, it's difficult to estimate how much the promotion added in this sense. The high value of the giveaway was sure to draw a lot of people, but also cause frustration once the limited supply ran out. Nike did well to offer those who didn’t click through early enough a discount code for free shipping on its site, as well as additional chances on subsequent days. This scheduled promotion style gives users time to tell their friends, driving more traffic to the promotion, and also drive additional sales of its merchandise. Since the giveaway was of such high value, Nike could have Like-gated the promotion. However, this would have irritated users who Liked but then were denied the prize. Some users were also irritated that the promotion was only open to those in the U.S.; Nike could have used the location parameter of the Facebook Page’s update publisher to make the post only visible to those in the U.S. to avoid this problem. How are top brands in the industry designing their Facebook marketing campaigns? See the Facebook Marketing Bible for detailed breakdowns of dozens of Featured Campaigns by top-performing brands and businesses on Facebook. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Phrases, Badoo, Zoosk, Book and Movie Challenges, Yahoo and More on This Week’s Posted: 11 Apr 2011 07:53 AM PDT
Top Gainers This Week
Phrases topped the list this week, seeing a whopping 1.7 million MAU, representing just a 9% increase for the app that allows users to post interesting quotes to their stream. Phrases is not currently available in the U.S. A similar app, Phrases (new) also made the list, but with 484,600 MAU. Frases Diarias, Phrases in Spanish, was a hit in Mexico with 980,000 MAU this week, representing a 14% increase.
Badoo was a big hit this week, too, with 1.6 million MAU; the dating app's Q&A format has users answer questions about their friends, publishing a feed story with each answer. The app grew mostly outside of the U.S. Then there were three more dating apps that also made the list: Cupid grew by 769,000 MAU, Are YOU Interested? by 740,500 and Zoosk by 423,600 MAU. Book List Challenges grew by about 1.1 million MAU, a 222% increase. The app allows users to complete a survey of which books they've read, publishing results to the stream with inviting language, often prompting other users to comment and submit their own results. A similar app, Movie List Challenges, saw 462,100 more MAU this week, a 1,104% increase.
Connect apps on the list included friend.ly with 963,100 MAU and Yahoo with 833,600 MAU. Turkish app Profiline Bakanlar? grew by 727,200 MAU, another Turkish app, Daily Horoscope with daily Wall posts, grew by 512,800 MAU. The Thai การวิเคราะห์สมอง brain analysis app grew by 448,900 MAU and encourages virality by publishes feed stories and photo albums tagging a users' friends. Friend Buzz is a Q&A app for users about their Facebook friends that publishes to the Walls of user's friends when a question is answered; the app grew by 422, 600 MAU. Finally, iframe + Static FBML + Welcome Tab = iwipa allows users who are Page administrators to compile their social media content into one tab; the app grew by about 411,000 MAU. |
The Platform Update also included some details about how Facebook’s platform team spends their monthly “roach motel” day where they address the backlog of developer-submitted bugs. Along with trying to reproduce bugs and file them to be fixed, the team also writes 
The New Yorker has built a strong brand around Sunday read-style long form text content, and is therefore a good candidate for the program. Franzen also has his own following that might be willing to Like the Page rather than pay to access his work. The New Yorker’s Page has a relatively low fan count compared to its general popularity, increasing its need for Like-driving campaigns, and indicating there may be many Facebook users with an interest in the publication who have yet to Like its Page.
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