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Inside Facebook

Facebook tweaks requirements for app activity featured in ads

Posted: 14 Feb 2012 12:17 PM PST

Facebook has quietly changed the conditions that determine whether an app is eligible to be shown as a Sponsored Story, according to the Ads API documentation.

The change reduces the amount of time required for a user to engage with an app before displaying the activity as a Sponsored Story, but shortens the window during which the activity is considered relevant.

Previously, "app used" activity was eligible to be shown to a user's friends as a Sponsored Story if a person used an app twice in the last 28 days or for longer than 10 minutes in one session within the last 28 days.

Now when someone uses an app for at least four minutes in the last 14 days, that activity can be shown to the person's friends as a Sponsored Story like the one seen right. The story is also eligible to be featured if the user has used the app twice ever with one of those times occurring in the last 14 days.

The new threshold seems to strike a better balance for users and developers. Four minutes in a single session is more reasonable requirement than 10 minutes since many apps and games are meant to be used in short bursts.

Reducing the relevant date range to 14 days rather than 28 means Sponsored Stories will be more timely, though it might reduce the audience a developer can target. Previously a user could have stopped playing a game or using a seasonal app two weeks ago, but the activity could still be displayed in an ad unit. This is an improvement for users, however, the "twice ever with one of those times occurring the last 14 days" stipulation might not be. This change gives developers more people to target, but might not always be representative of a user's true activity with an app.

We imagine Facebook will continue to vary the requirements for Sponsored Stories, especially as it tests new types of ads surrounding Open Graph app activity.

Facebook management applications Shoutlet, Vitrue release updates

Posted: 14 Feb 2012 10:54 AM PST

As more brands turn to third-party social media management tools, companies like Shoutlet and Vitrue continue to add new features and integrate more services into their applications. Both companies released significant product updates in the past week making them worth another look for marketers who might be interested in tools for publishing, monitoring, analytics and app development.

Shoutlet
Social marketing software provider Shoutlet announced several additions to its platform today to help marketers schedule posts, launch applications and maintain customer profiles.

Many social media management tools allow companies to schedule posts for a day and time in the future, but Shoutlet's new "Social Switchboard" feature lets marketers schedule posts to go live after a designated trigger. For example, the app could push out a new post to fans once a contest receives 500 entries or the page reaches a million Likes. Triggers can also be set to launch new Facebook tabs or deliver coupons.

With its new "Social Canvas" feature, Shoutlet lets users design page tab applications with drag-and-drop templates instead of coding. This latest version of the software also includes additional CRM functionality. "Social Profiles" gathers information on user preferences, interests and frequency of engagement based on interactions consumers had with Shoutlet applications and publicly listed information online.

Vitrue
Vitrue expanded its analytics integration and introduced new metrics to help marketers understand their audience and performance last week.

Vitrue now integrates with Adobe Omniture, Webtrends, Google Analytics and Coremetrics to show marketers how their social media efforts work across the web and where new fans are coming from. Vitrue has added a "Top Engaged Users" feature for companies to see the top 10 most active users on their Facebook pages. This is helpful for page managers to understand the audience their content is most resonating with and to let the company know who its hand-raisers are. The product also now incorporates Facebook's new Insights, such as negative fan feedback and more metrics for individual posts.

UNO, Intel, Adele, Whitney Houston, more on this week’s top 20 growing Facebook pages

Posted: 14 Feb 2012 08:35 AM PST

UNO topped our list of fastest growing Facebook pages this week, perhaps in part because of what we mentioned last week, that app profile pages were removed on Feb. 1, spurring consolidation of some game pages.

Musicians were also popular, given that the Grammys were held Sunday. With Valentine's Day this week, romantic films like "The Notebook" and "Titanic" saw significant gains. Pages on our list this week grew from between 464,600 to 1.1 million Likes. We compile this list with our PageData tool, which tracks page growth across Facebook.

Name Likes Talking About Daily Growth Weekly Growth
1.  UNO 8,933,532 602,344 +58,424 +1,198,190
2.  Intel 5,878,102 872,867 +94,643 +995,148
3.  Adele 18,026,955 1,079,767 +190,476 +943,523
4.  Facebook 61,461,128 1,212,637 +87,928 +634,879
5.  Titanic 15,920,906 847,646 +87,085 +624,036
6.  Whitney Houston 1,904,219 41,057 +338,617 +617,449
7.  McDonald’s 15,700,621 744,124 +78,024 +597,261
8.  Angry Birds 15,350,190 942,906 +77,268 +587,293
9.  YouTube 52,549,265 818,589 +81,181 +581,042
10.  Will Smith 26,737,765 857,114 +76,561 +529,991
11.  Harry Potter 41,286,908 736,976 +68,280 +524,531
12.  Bruno Mars 18,587,192 688,123 +78,242 +509,117
13.  Google 7,310,668 612,337 +65,956 +503,909
14.  Mr. Bean 18,955,337 632,180 +69,444 +501,417
15.  The Notebook 9,992,921 444,160 +73,483 +486,178
16.  Bob Marley 36,280,882 915,238 +60,592 +485,842
17.  Shakira 46,297,005 676,434 +69,173 +481,061
18.  Google Chrome 9,790,385 585,391 +62,890 +474,285
19.  Shrek 21,546,170 609,078 +59,154 +467,019
20.  The Simpsons 39,938,314 681,667 +63,541 +464,555

UNO has been using status updates to engage fans, while Angry Birds shared more photos. Angry Birds launched a Facebook version of its popular game on Monday. Musicians were popular, especially Adele who was on the "60 Minutes" program before her big win at the Grammys. Whitney Houston‘s page saw a surge in Facebook fans after the singer died Saturday. Actor Will Smith has been posting photos from the set of his latest film.

Google products were popular — Google,  YouTube and Google Chrome made the list. McDonald’s is apparently pairing its new chicken product marketing campaign with a CityVille promotion that might have influenced its growth.

"Titanic" has been on our list for the past few weeks because the movie is coming back to theaters soon in 3D, but as Valentine's Day approached, it might have gotten another push. "The Notebook" jumped to No. 15 on our list as ABC Family began airing the romantic film from 2004. "Mr. Bean" also saw growth on the page after the trailer clip was released for the upcoming film.

onsdag den 15. februar 2012 at 07.38