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Inside Facebook


Study: Auto-Posting to Facebook Decreases Likes and Comments by 70%

Posted: 06 Sep 2011 03:52 PM PDT

Facebook Pages that automatically publish content to the news feed through third-party apps such as HootSuite, TweetDeck, and NetworkedBlogs receive an average of 70% less Likes and comments on their posts per fan, according to a new study by Applum, developer of Page tool EdgeRank Checker. The study says the difference is likely due to Facebook reducing the prominence of posts published by third-party APIs, and Facebook collapsing updates from the same API from across a user’s friends and Liked Pages.

As Likes and comments increase a post’s prominence in the news feed, driving more impressions and clicks, all Pages using auto-posting apps should look to switch to manual posting if possible.

Many companies, public figures, organizations, and news outlets (including our own) use auto-posting apps to create Facebook Page updates by syndication their Twitter posts or converting their blog post headlines. This increases efficiency but relieving the admins of these accounts from having to copy and paste headlines and links from one platform to another.

The practice is subjectively considered  sub-optimal, though, as different platforms have different publishing capabilities and norms. Facebook for instance allows for rich media posts, so authors can select a thumbnail image and caption along with posting a link and headline. It’s typical for Twitter accounts to post up to a dozen times a day but that volume could be viewed as spam on Facebook. Therefore, auto-posts can appear robotic and less compelling.

EdgeRank Checker’s study is the latest of several reports we’ve covered that reveal obstacles to engagement on Facebook. A recent PageLever study showed the average Page gets only 7.49 daily unique news feed impressions on its posts and only 3.19 daily unique Page views per 100 fans.

EdgeRank Checker’s Data

Now, EdgeRank Checker has revealed empirical data that automatically published posts perform worse than manually published one. EdgeRank Checker analyzed over 1,000,000 Facebook updates by more than 50,000 Pages with a combined reach of over 1,000,000,000 fans including duplicates. It then calculated the engagement ratio of the total Likes and comments on a Page’s post divided by the total fans of the Page the at the time of the post for the ten most popular third-party publishing APIs.

The study determined that compared to the engagement of posts published manually to Facebook’s web or mobile interfaces, the reduction in engagement ratios of the top third-party publishing APIs are:

  • HootSuite – 69% reduction
  • TweetDeck – 73% reduction
  • Sendible – 75% reduction
  • Networked Blogs – 76% reduction
  • RSS Graffiti – 81% reduction
  • Twitter – 83% reduction
  • Publisher – 86% reduction
  • twitterfeed – 90% reduction
  • dlvr.it – 91% reduction
  • Social RSS – 94% reductions

These averaged out such that posts published through a third-party auto-posting app saw roughly 70% fewer Likes and comments than those published through Facebook’s first-party interfaces. This is in part due to Facebook’s direct punishment of the EdgeRank of posts by third-party APIs. Also, if a user’s news feed contain multiple posts from a single API, whether from a single author or several different Pages and friends, the posts are collapsed and must be unfolded to be seen.

The takeaway point of the study is that it is well worth it to take the extra minute it to manually craft a Facebook post rather than auto-post. This might require changes to workflows or allocation of additional human resources. Still, Page owners could be sacrificing a lot of their social media performance and return on investment to save a small amount of time and effort.

Facebook Becomes a Competitor and Complement to iTunes as MP3s are Sold for Credits via Pages

Posted: 06 Sep 2011 01:56 PM PDT

iTunes and Amazon take note: musicians are now selling MP3s directly from their Facebook Pages. Electronic music producer and DJ David Guetta this week added a tab application to his Facebook Page that allows him to sell MP3s for Facebook Credits. The Nothing But The Beat app, developed by French marketing agency KRDS, allows users who’ve Liked Guetta’s Page to listen to previews of tracks, publish audio clips of songs to the news feed and the walls of friends, make payments, and initiate downloads.

The enhanced and retention viral features, ability for artists set their own download prices, and the fact that Facebook and iTunes take an equal 30% cut of sales could make Facebook Page tab apps an increasingly popular digital distribution channel for musicians.

Facebook has emerged as a digital media store this year, allowing third-party developers to use its Credits payment system to offer an alternative purchase point to iTunes and Amazon for film rentals, pay-per-view video streams, and now music. Facebook isn’t officially pushing this use of Credits, but may offer a first-party MP3 store or payment portal to streaming services such as Spotify, Mog, and Rdio as part of its anticipated Music Dashboard that’s expected to launch later this month at the f8 developer conference.

David Guetta now has the 39th most popular Facebook Page according to PageData, collecting 23.6 million Facebook fans despite not being a household name. He’s accomplished this by being a savvy early adopter of music technologies, using creative tab apps and partnerships with developers such as MXP4 to frequently reach our fastest growing Pages charts.

Guetta’s app prices MP3s at 19 Credits, or $1.90 apiece, making them 1.47 times more expensive than on iTunes. The app may therefore be designed to attract impulse buys and those looking for convenience rather than savvy music shoppers. However, any artist could develop a similar app and sell tracks for equal or cheaper than other popular music services in order to draw customers to where they have a higher lifetime value.

Facebook Offers Musicians Better Retention and Virality

With artists increasingly driving their fans to their Facebook Pages that offer strong retention and marketing capabilities, offering MP3 sales from the same presence could be lucrative. Otherwise, musicians must force users to open the iTunes desktop software or direct them offsite to Amazon or other webstores before they can execute purchases. The friction of these extra clicks and load times cause some users to drop off, diminishing sales that might have been completed if users didn’t have to leave Facebook.

Virality and retention is also much better on Facebook than on other music stores. By hosting MP3 sales apps on their Pages, musicians can gain the opportunity to market to users in the future, especially if they require users to Like their Page to access the app. iTunes only allows users to subscribe to updates about an artist through its failed Ping social network, and Amazon doesn’t offer any long-term retention mechanic.

By using Facebook’s social plugins and stream publishing capabilities, developers can let listeners share albums, tracks, and artists to the news feed with a single click, while iTunes and Amazon require multiple clicks, sometimes through hidden drop-down menus. When users click the Like or Send button on a song through a Facebook app such as Guetta’s, friends can play an audio preview of the track straight from the news feed. iTunes and Amazon’s song shares don’t offer in-line play so users must click through to the desktop app or site to hear a song recommended by a friend.

Since iTunes and Amazon downloads are served from the servers of those services, artists can’t offer free or deeply discounted downloads without approval. On Facebook, though, artists serve downloads from their own servers and don’t need Facebook’s approval for anything. The social network simply gets its 30% cut of any Facebook Credits purchases, so artists can offer free or cheap downloads as loss leaders to win over new fans.

The enormous number of credit cards numbers iTunes and Amazon have collected and their roles as go-to digital media buying destinations means artists aren’t likely to sell exclusively on Facebook. Instead, they’ll add the site as another distribution channel alongside other digital stores, their own websites, and physical retail stores.

Sales on Facebook could cut into those on iTunes and Amazon, though, while creating a new revenue stream for the social network. Established online music stores will need to consider improving their retention and virality mechanics to give artists better access to their customers and improved lead generation through rich media sharing. Otherwise, they could see digital music sale market share slowly slip to Facebook.

Announcing Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2012

Posted: 06 Sep 2011 12:00 PM PDT

2011 will be remembered as the year that Zynga filed for its IPO, Google launched Google+, and Facebook executed the Credits transition. With the first potential social gaming IPO, Zynga plans to raise up to $2 billion to fund its continued global expansion. Meanwhile, Google is putting its weight behind what appears to have the potential to be the most serious competitor to Facebook as a social gaming platform in North America since the demise of MySpace. And at the same time, developers are still navigating through the Facebook Credits migration, while many are also expanding substantially onto mobile platforms to increase growth and expand reach.

Get the Annual Membership

Get Annual Membership (Includes Report + 3 Additional Quarterly Issues): $2,495 $1,995 USD*

OR Buy Single Report: $995 $795 USD*

* Pre-order discount ends September 19, 2011. All pre-ordered reports will be delivered on September 20, 2011.

Inside Network is proud to announce a new original research report by Justin Smith and Charles Hudson that is exclusively focused on the future of the social gaming market, entitled Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2012. This is Inside Network's third annual edition of the Future of Social Gaming report. It will be released on September 20, but is available for discount pre-order now.

How big is the market, and where will social gaming go in 2012? How will existing players fare as Facebook Credits shifts the social gaming landscape and continued changes to the platform? Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2012 provides deeper insight into social game monetization, development, customer acquisition, and the key questions facing the space in 2012 than you'll find anywhere else.

About the Report

Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2012 gives you an inside view of the future at this critical juncture in the intersection of social networking and online games.

We have compiled months of original research from dozens of top executives and entrepreneurs from all parts of the social gaming ecosystem to produce eye-opening source data and analysis that is not available anywhere else. Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2010 takes the closest look at the present state of social games and the future of this strong but still rapidly changing industry.

What We Cover

  1. Facebook Credits and the New Monetization Landscape: Early Results - Now that the transition to Facebook Credits was completed on July 1, what are the early results that developers are reporting? We take an in depth look at metrics and trends.
  2. Will 2012 (Finally) be the Year of Mobile Social Games? – Now that mobile games monetizing through the virtual goods model are becoming a bigger market in the US and around the world, many social game developers have expanded their efforts to tap these new platforms as well.  Will 2012 finally be the year that social games take significant root on mobile?
  3. Social Game Development and Design – How do small, medium, and large developers organize their teams? What do development cycle times for original titles and "expansion packs" look like? What is the role of testing and metrics in the development process? A few key game genres with proven mechanics and monetization have spawned dozens of fast followers. Understand how publishers are continuing to innovate as we head into 2012.
  4. Monetization Data and Payment Trends– Now that developers have proven the virtual goods model, what are ARPUs, ARPPUs, and LTVs really like for different game genres? What is the lifetime value of users, and how long do players stick around? We take an in depth look at monetization methods and rates, and shed light on where payments are headed in the coming quarters.
  5. Customer Acquisition and Marketing Trends – As the social gaming landscape has evolved over the past four years, so have the ways that developers acquire and retain new users. How have user acquisition costs changed, and what do Facebook's changes spell for the future of the marketing funnel? We take an in depth look at data and trends.
  6. Facebook's Platform Changes, and What's In Store for the Future – Facebook has continued to change Platform communication channels and functionality over the last year, significantly altering the way social games reach users through Facebook. Continued change is likely – what will it be, and how will it impact the industry? Finally, will we see another platform (like Google+) emerge? Our overview covers these developments, their impact on the industry, and what else is in store.

What you get

In addition to our deep dive into key aspects of the social gaming ecosystem, the report also offers extended coverage on:

  • A brief history on the evolution and growth of this space in the US, including a description of all key players and how they rose to the top.
  • Total social gaming market size estimates for 2012.
  • Our take on the key issues facing the growth of social gaming, including our outlook and projections for 2012.

More Data, More Actionable Insights

In 2011, social games continued to show what kind of value can be created on top of social networks. 2012 will be an even more important year.

Social gaming, powered by virtual goods, continues to expand. If you're involved, or are considering jumping in, Inside Virtual Goods will be one of your most important tools.

One year of original data and exclusive in-depth reports delivered on a quarterly basis is $2,495 and contains:

  • A detailed overview of the current state of the industry
  • Specific estimates on market size by segment
  • Diagnosis of key opportunities and issues by segment

About the Authors

charles-hudson-headshotCharles Hudson

Venture Partner, SoftTech VC, CEO and Co-Founder, Bionic Panda Games

Charles Hudson is a Venture Partner with SoftTech VC and the CEO and Co-Founder of Bionic Panda Games, a mobile games company based in San Francisco, CA.

Until February 2010, he was the VP of Business Development for Serious Business, a leading producer of social games. Zynga acquired Serious Business in February of 2010. Prior to Serious Business, Hudson worked at Gaia Interactive, Google, IronPort Systems, and In-Q-Tel. Hudson also founded Third Power LLC, a conference and events company that was acquired by WebMediaBrands. Charles holds an MBA and BA from Stanford University.

justin-smith-headshotJustin Smith

Founder, Inside Network

Justin Smith is the founder of Inside Network, the first service dedicated to providing news and market research to the Facebook platform and social gaming ecosystem. Justin leads Inside Network’s analyst services, manages Inside Network’s AppDataservice, and serves as co-editor of Inside Facebook and Inside Social Games. Inside Network was acquired by WebMediaBrands (NASDAQ:WEBM) in May 2011.

Prior to Inside Network, he was Head of Product at Watercooler, now Kabam, a leading social game developer on the Facebook Platform. Prior to Watercooler, Justin was an early employee at Xfire, the largest social utility for gamers, which was sold to Viacom in 2006.

Justin holds a degree in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford University, where he was a Mayfield Fellow and a recipient of the Terman Award in Engineering.

Get The Annual Membership

Get Annual Membership (Includes Report + 3 Additional Quarterly Issues): $2,495 $1,995 USD*

OR Buy Single Report: $995 $795 USD*

* Pre-order discount ends September 19, 2011. All pre-ordered reports will be delivered on September 20, 2011.

Although the report will not be released until next Tuesday, September 20, we are offering a special pre-order discount for those who purchase now. A one year subscription is $1,995 until September 19, at which point the price will go to US $2,495. The one year subscription includes three quarterly updates on key developments in the space.

Or, you can download just this report. The pre-order price is $795 until September 19, at which point the price will go to US $995.

New Facebook Platform Industry Hires: Kontagent, Wildfire, Vitrue and More

Posted: 06 Sep 2011 11:32 AM PDT

Kontagent looks to have hired a Director of EMEA Business Development as Wildfire hired a few more account managers, Vitrue and AdParlo hired some technical staff and a few other companies hired other employees. If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we'll get it into next week's post. Also, please note that information about most new hires, below, comes directly from company updates from LinkedIn.

Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here's this week's list of hires:

Kontagent

  • Mark Stranger, Director EMEA Business Development – formerly an independent consultant to Mindscape UK Ltd.

Wildfire

  • Clara Caruthers, Customer Experience Specialist – previously a student.
  • Alex Theumer, Project Manager – formerly a General Manager at Art's Cyclery.

Vitrue

  • Andrew Oliner, Software Engineer – previously an IT Specialist at Elgia, Inc.

AdParlor

  • Shawn Berney, Software Developer – formerly an application developer at MUNDO Media.

Nanigans

  • Nicholas Barrameda, Advertising Operations Analyst – formerly a sales and merchandising intern at Shanghai Silk Group Co.

Buddy Media

  • Macrina Aivazian, Project Manager – formerly the Show Coordinator at CCK Events, LLC.

Work4 Labs

  • Hongyi Li, Business Development & Strategy Intern – formerly a fundraiser at Cal Calling Center.

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

Facebook Places Pages Show Recommendations From Non-Friends, Prompt Users to Recommend

Posted: 06 Sep 2011 10:30 AM PDT

Facebook has expanded its “Recommendations” feature on Places Pages to now show endorsements from non-friends. Previously users only saw “Recommendations from friends” in the right sidebar. The site is also testing a new way to get users to write recommendations for Pages that are shown in a Page’s sidebar and published to the news feed. A small percentage of users are seeing a prompt to “Help your friends discover great places to visit by writing a recommendation for [currently viewed Page]” when they click the Like button for that Page.

The display of recommendations by non-friends, and the tested prompt if rolled out, could generate more news feed distribution and social endorsements for Pages, convincing more users to Like them.

Early this summer, Facebook added the “Recommend This Place” module to the right sidebar of Facebook Places Pages. Users visiting a Places Page then began seeing “Recommendations from friends” in the right sidebar if any of their friends had filled out the module. These recommendations were also posted to the author’s wall and the news feeds of their friends, giving local businesses and other Pages listing a street address an opportunity to attract new fans and convert visitors.

While recommendations from friends are probably more convincing than those from strangers, Facebook seems to have determined that both are worthwhile additions to Places Pages. If one of a user’s friends has left a recommendation, they’ll see that in the sidebar, but if none have, users will see endorsements from non-friends. Since a Page’s wall or tab apps don’t always give a clear depiction of a Page’s purpose or value, the explicit approval of other users might persuade a Page visitor to click the Like button.

Via the newly tested prompt to add a recommendation, this Like could start a chain of endorsement. The prompt is a significant increase in prominence for the recommendation feature, popping up in the center of the screen when a user clicks the Like button atop a Places Page. This is much more noticeable than the feature’s previous location in the sidebar, and will likely lead to a higher rate of completion of recommendations, benefiting Places Page owners in turn.

Facebook has made several moves as of late to assist local businesses. Its launched new free growth channels for their Pages such as the recommendations feature, pushed to get more business owners to claim their Places Pages, and added new ad targeting options to help them reach nearby potential customers. These efforts may be designed to entice local businesses to make Facebook a more central component of their marketing mix and buy more ads on the site.

[Thanks to David Hutnik for the tip]

Local business owners can find more strategies for gaining Likes and walk-throughs of Facebook’s latest Pages features in the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network’s comprehensive guide to marketing and advertising on Facebook.

Community Pages, Music, Movies, Football, Best Buy and More on This Week’s Top 20 Growing Facebook Pages

Posted: 06 Sep 2011 08:34 AM PDT

A variety of Community Pages made our list this week, as did the retail store Best Buy courtesy of being featured in Zynga's CityVille recently, then there was music, several football (soccer) Pages and a mix of everything from authors to video games. Pages on our list this week required 290,900 and 2.1 million Likes to make the top 20 this week. We compile these lists with our PageData tool, which tracks Page growth across Facebook.

Name Likes Daily Growth Weekly Growth
1.  Manga 2,214,848 +2,132,300 +2,157,470
2.  Best Buy 4,353,578 +28,791 +642,390
3.  Official Blink-182 5,178,312 +5,525 +471,702
4.  The Smurfs 3,763,082 +60,276 +418,432
5.  Titanic 13,486,119 +57,296 +409,479
6.  Twilight 22,210,630 +64,746 +398,748
7.  Facebook 52,143,844 +49,452 +366,933
8.  Harry Potter 34,084,123 +55,366 +364,700
9.  Music 27,248,665 +50,655 +363,342
10.  Anne Rice 540,430 -1,135 +338,800
11.  Call of Duty: Black Ops 10,846,790 +46,597 +337,561
12.  facebook realesed the new Dislike Button™! Add it Now!! not a fake! 445,351 0 +333,025
13.  Twilight Series 415,535 -18 +322,497
14.  Leo Messi 24,368,964 +45,359 +317,135
15.  Texas Hold’em Poker 49,757,711 +45,811 +317,093
16.  Element Skateboards 363,887 +1,090 +312,214
17.  Rihanna 44,688,868 +46,638 +311,563
18.  FC Barcelona 19,983,422 +43,833 +293,300
19.  Angry Birds 6,942,765 +44,542 +293,160
20.  Cristiano Ronaldo 33,612,334 +42,178 +290,948

Manga, a Japanese form of comic books, is a Community Page with 2.1 million new Likes this week. The Music Page grew by 363,300 Likes and the Twilight Series grew by 322,500 Likes. Then, as previously mentioned was Best Buy, which grew by 642,400 Likes; the landing tab on the Page asks visitors to Like it, but being able to place a Bests Buy store in your CityVille city allowed users to collect five popular products up until today. The CityVille feature was advertised significantly on the Page's news feed.

Musicians today on the list included Official Blink-182 with 471,700 Likes; the band is releasing new music, touring and updating frequently with updates and contests and the like. Then Rihanna's Page grew by 311,600 Likes. Popular movies included "The Smurfs" with 418,400 Likes, "Titanic" by 409,500 Likes, "Twilight" by 398,700 Likes and "Harry Potter" by 364,700 Likes.

Football made our list in the form of two famous players and one team. Leo Messi's Page grew by 317,100 Likes; the Argentine FC Barcelona player has been updating the Page frequently and includes a landing tab asking visitors to Like the Page. Then FC Barcelona was on the list with 293,300 Likes this week. Finally there was Cristiano Ronaldo with 291,000 Likes. Most of these Likes seem to be organic.

There were two games on the list Texas Hold’em Poker with 317,100 Likes and Angry Birds with 293,200 Likes. The rest of the list was a mixed bag. Facebook grew by 367,000 Likes. Novelist Anne Rice saw most of her 338,800 Likes in the span of two days, perhaps a consolidation, although she also recently public "quit" being Christian on Facebook. Call of Duty: Black Ops grew by 337,600 Likes,  facebook realesed the new Dislike Button™! Add it Now!! not a fake! by 333,000 Likes and Element Skateboards with 312,200 Likes.