gravatar

Inside Facebook

Inside Facebook

Facebook privacy settlement approved, Netflix CEO buys FB shares, and more on this week’s news roundup

Posted: 10 Aug 2012 06:00 PM PDT

Facebook privacy settlement finalized - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said today that Facebook finalized its settlement related to charges that it deceived users when it changed their privacy settings in 2009. The settlement requires the social network to give users notice and allow them to opt in to sharing information beyond their current privacy settings. Facebook agreed to the settlement in November, but there was a public comment period until now. Facebook will also be required to maintain a new privacy program, and have third-party audits every two years for the next 20 years.

Netflix CEO buys $1M in Facebook stock – Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who also sits on Facebook’s board, bought 47,846 shares of the social network’s stock last week at an average price of $21.03. Presumably, Hastings believes the company is worth much more and wanted to pick up more shares while they were low. The stock hasn’t picked up very much since then, closing at $21.81 this week, still well below its $38 IPO price.

Facebook responds to click fraud allegations – In an interview with Forbes, Facebook shared some information about how it deals with click fraud, responding to allegations by one start-up that claimed 80 percent of ad clicks might come from bots. Facebook says it uses historical information and statistical models to identify which accounts may not represent real people and to evaluate click quality. It also monitors user click activity over intervals of time. If the company’s systems detect click activity it suspects is invalid, Facebook says it does not charge for those clicks. The social network apparently asked Limited Run, the company that made the allegations, for data to investigate their claim, but say Limited Run has not provided it.

Facebook employee owns ‘world’s cutest dog’ – AllThingsD discovered that Boo, the well-known "World's Cutest Dog," is actually owned by Facebook employee Irene Ahn. The dog, which has nearly 5 million Facebook fans, has been in the spotlight for years without its owner’s identity being revealed.

Facebook urges court to treat Likes as free speech – Facebook filed to support a deputy sheriff who was fired after Liking a Facebook page that his boss didn’t approve of. In 2009 Daniel Ray Carter, Liked the "Jim Adams for Hampton Sheriff" page, which supported his boss’ opponent. The incumbent sheriff fired Carter shortly after he won re-election. The deputy sheriff lost his case, but has appealed the decision. Facebook filed a brief that says a "Like" should be protected symbolic speech like a bumper sticker or a campaign lawn sign, which citizens use to express political opinions.

Hackathon project turns Facebook photos into postcards – Facebook has partnered with Sincerely, makers of Postagram, to allow users to turn their photos into physical postcards and mail them to friends. The "Mail A Postcard" feature was developed at as a Hackathon project and is available to a limited group of users for now.

Sweepstakes, Olympic Game City, Puzzle Chasers and more on this week’s emerging Facebook apps by MAU

Posted: 10 Aug 2012 01:55 PM PDT

Aptivada’s Sweepstakes app led our list of emerging Facebook applications by monthly active users this week with 110 percent gain.

We define emerging applications as those that ended with between 100,000 and 1 million MAU in the past week. This week’s top apps grew between 110,000 and 230,000 MAU, based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook.

Top Gainers This Week

Name MAU Gain Gain %
1.  Sweepstakes 440,000 +230,000   + 110%
2.  Olympic Games City 700,000 +220,000   + 46%
3.  Puzzle Chasers 580,000 +210,000   + 57%
4.  VIDEOS VOLTAJE 350,000 +200,000   + 119%
5.  TDP4 Team Battle 830,000 +200,000   + 32%
6.  Dreamland 370,000 +190,000   + 131%
7.  Static HTML… [Eleventh Tab] 890,000 +190,000   + 27%
8.  Telly 540,000 +170,000   + 46%
9.  《數位時代》第四屆粉絲團爭霸賽 170,000 +168,686   + 12,838%
10.  Pockie Ninja II Social 580,000 +160,000   + 38%
11.  MTV.com 570,000 +140,000   + 33%
12.  Keek 790,000 +140,000   + 22%
13.  Static HTML… [Twelfth Tab] 970,000 +140,000   + 17%
14.  OpenSky 380,000 +130,000   + 52%
15.  ★ Photo of the day 320,000 +120,000   + 78%
16.  StreetRally 510,000 +120,000   + 31%
17.  Lost Legacies 610,000 +120,000   + 27%
18.  Spa Life 310,000 +110,000   + 55%
19.  Waze – Drive Social 600,000 +110,000   + 22%
20.  Tab Builder: Like 890,000 +110,000   + 14%

No. 2 Olympic Games City is the official social game of the London 2012 Olympic Games. It was developed by LIFO Interactive and published by Neowiz Internet, who also published the official mobile game for iOS and Android.

Social games make up about half our list this week, though a few page tab apps from Thunderpenny and others made appearances, and some web integrations like No. 8 Telly and No. 11 MTV.com continue to grow.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned next week for our look at the top weekly gainers by monthly active users on Monday, the top weekly gainers by daily active users on Wednesday, and the top emerging apps on Friday.

Report: Gannett to acquire Facebook ad optimization company BLiNQ Media

Posted: 10 Aug 2012 11:49 AM PDT

Gannett Co., which owns USA Today and a number of digital media properties, has agreed to buy Facebook ad tech company BLiNQ Media for $92 million, according to TechCrunch sources.

Gannett, which already owns rich media ad company PointRoll and full-service digital agency GannettLocal, is likely looking to have a more direct connection with Facebook advertising as the industry grows. For example, The Washington Post last year started its own agency, SocialCode, which has access to the Facebook Ads API. TechCrunch says Gannett and BLiNQ have already been working together for about a year on ad campaigns for clients. BLiNQ is a Preferred Facebook Marketing Developer certified in the ads and insights categories.

It has been a summer of exits for a number of social marketing start-ups, including Buddy Media, Vitrue, Involver and Wildfire. TechCrunch says Gannett will pay $92 million for BLiNQ over a period of three to four years, with $23 million coming up front. The start-up was founded in 2008 by David Nicol Williams, who previously founded search marketing firm 360i. The company now has about 50 employees and has raised $3.1 million, according to CrunchBase.

Facebook now reports fan impressions so page owners can better understand their audience

Posted: 10 Aug 2012 10:38 AM PDT

Facebook has added four new metrics to its Insights API that help page owners understand how many fans versus non-fans are seeing their posts.

Starting this week, Facebook is providing the following new metrics:

  • Post impressions fan – The number of impressions for a page post among people who have Liked the page.
  • Post impressions fan unique – The number of fans who saw a page post.
  • Post impressions fan paid – The number of fan impressions that game as the result of an ad, Sponsored Story or promoted post.
  • Post impressions fan paid unique – The number of fans who saw a page post in an ad, Sponsored Story or promoted post.
Previously, there was no way to tell how many of a post’s impressions came from existing fans or new visitors who hadn’t Liked the page. These new metrics will help page owners better understand who they’re reaching and how Facebook’s News Feed algorithm works. For example, posts that gets several Likes and shares have higher reach than those with less engagement. It has never been quite clear whether the reach is higher because friends of fans are seeing the activity in their feed, or if it’s because the engagement becomes a signal for Facebook to show the post to more fans than usual. The answer might be both, but now with actual numbers for fan impressions, page owners will be able to know with more certainty.
For now, these metrics are only available via the API, but they should be available in the insights export for “post level data” soon. We’ve heard that this information will also be presented visually to page owners, but the design hasn’t been finalized. We imagine Facebook will put these metrics in the insights dashboard or in the hover card that appears when admins mouse over the reach data below each item they’ve shared.

 

Don’t like Facebook ads? Facebook wants to know what you do like

Posted: 10 Aug 2012 09:52 AM PDT

Facebook has recently begun asking users to “tell us what you like” after they hide an ad. The module then links to the page discovery browser, which presents a number of pages that users can Like and add to their interests.

When users see a Facebook ad they don’t care for, they can click the X that appears in the top right corner. The ad will be hidden and users can indicate why they didn’t like the ad. This week we noticed that after this step, Facebook now prompts users to visit the pages browser. The site, which Facebook introduced in 2010, shows icons of pages that are popular in a user's country, but also factors in pages which are popular among their friends.

Getting users to Like more pages will help Facebook show users more relevant ads. Even though it’s advertisers who choose their target audience and users who define who they are on the site, the social network often gets the blame when users see ads they don’t relate to. For example, one analyst from BTIG got some press on Thursday for claiming that Facebook’s mobile ads are mostly irrelevant to him.

While poorly targeted ads can be jarring to users, well-targeted ads range from unobtrusive to even useful. We’ve heard that Facebook is looking at a number of ways to get users to add more pages to their interests, including promoting the page discovery browser in different places around the site. In addition to this recent implementation when users hide ads, the social network has also been including links to it in News Feed since March.

lørdag den 11. august 2012 at 07.42