Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- Facebook’s ‘promote’ button rolls out beyond pages to some personal accounts
- Facebook makes major mobile play by allowing its data to be used to target ads on some mobile sites and apps
- Facebook announces ability to purchase Promoted Posts via mobile
- What Facebook search can answer
| Facebook’s ‘promote’ button rolls out beyond pages to some personal accounts Posted: 18 Sep 2012 05:51 PM PDT
New reports of the feature appeared on Hacker News today, and The Next Web confirmed with Facebook that the social network is testing the feature among more users. Originally called “highlight,” Facebook now seems to be calling this option “promote,” which is what it also calls an advertising feature for business and fan pages. Users who are part of the test will see a promote button next to Like and comment on a user's Facebook posts. After clicking "promote," users will be taken through a payment flow. Initially, prices ranged from free to US$2, though a user today says he was prompted to pay $6.30. Users can pay with PayPal, a credit card or money they have saved from paying for virtual goods. The promoted post will appear at the top of friends' News Feeds with an indication that the user paid to place it there.
People who have chosen to enable subscribers might be interested in the feature since they have a wider audience than most users. There may be other cases when a user would be willing to pay a few dollars to make sure that friends see a post, for example, a birth announcement, a post about looking for a roommate or a link for fundraising. Still, we’re surprised to see the company expand this test because it seems to go against the idea that Facebook is free for users. The social network has previously struggled with rumors that it would charge for its service, despite a note on its homepage that says, "It's free and always will be." Asking users to pay for friends to see their posts seems likely to fuel further speculation and hostility from some people. It also might lead users to question what happens to their posts they don't pay to promote. It does not reflect well on Facebook' algorithms if users have to pay to get their most important posts seen by friends. It’s understandable to have businesses pay to reach consumers, but seems distasteful to do to users who want to share things with people they know. |
| Posted: 18 Sep 2012 04:49 PM PDT
Essentially, Facebook will serve as an “ad exchange layer,” as TechCrunch calls it, that will add demographic- and interest-based targeting capabilities to traditional mobile exchanges that bid for placements on mobile ad networks. Many have wondered whether Facebook would create its own third-party ad network, but for this test, it’s feeding into some existing networks rather than competing directly. If the test shows promise, we imagine Facebook might ultimately build out its own mobile ad network. For this test, TechCrunch says advertisers will be able to work with Facebook and set a bid for a particular demographic. Facebook will sync its anonymous user IDs with a number of mobile ad exchanges — companies like Mobclix or Nexage, for example, though Facebook didn’t identify its beta partners. When someone visits a particular mobile app or site on an iOS or Android device, the participating exchange will check to see if the user’s ID has a bid set to target them. If so, Facebook will pay the exchange a portion of the bid and the user will see an ad, which will look like traditional banners or interstitials linking to a mobile website or app download page. Publishers do not need to be using Facebook login for this to work, but the user will need to be signed into Facebook on their phone. The images below show the type of ads that could be part of this trial, but they are simply examples and do not represent the advertisers or publishers involved with the test.
The ads that are part of this test will not include social context about whether a user’s friends are connected to the advertiser. Although these details can improve ad performance on Facebook.com, they might be jarring for users to see outside the Facebook environment. To avoid privacy scandals during the initial trial, it makes sense for the company to show restraint here. However, the future potential of combining Facebook targeting with social context on platforms or sites besides Facebook.com is likely very interesting to advertisers. In June, we discovered the first hints of a Facebook ad network when Sponsored Stories and other Facebook ads began appearing on Zynga.com. At the time, the social network said it would not be showing ads on other sites. Facebook already has so much desktop inventory, it might not make sense for the company to launch a display network at this time. Instead, it created Facebook Exchange to bring cookie-based retargeting ads to Facebook.com, filling up some of that inventory. As users shift to mobile, though, Facebook can’t deliver as many ads in its own apps or mobile site without infringing on user experience. With the test announced today, the company can reach more mobile users, while improving the targeting options for existing ad exchanges. These ads can also be more disruptive than Facebook would allow on its own properties since users will not be likely to associate the ads with the social network. Today’s announcement could instill more confidence among investors who have wondered how Facebook will make money selling ads on mobile devices. We’d point out that in the future, Facebook data could be used to help target advertising on many more platforms, including connected TVs or digital out-of-home advertising. Anything with a display could end up being inventory for a future Facebook ad network. |
| Facebook announces ability to purchase Promoted Posts via mobile Posted: 18 Sep 2012 02:11 PM PDT
The ability to use Promoted Posts via mobile makes it easier for businesses to hand pick which posts they wish to promote to their fans. Pages, like users, are not able to reach all of their followers organically. Promoted Posts allows advertisers to make their page posts more prominent in more users news feeds. Because they appear in the news feed instead of in the right hand ads column, promoted posts are better suited for mobile impressions than other Facebook ads. Besides being able to purchase ads through the app, users will also be able to see the amount of people reached through their promoted posts similar to how it is on desktop. According to Facebook, the feature has been heavily requested among businesses of all sizes. Also in today’s update to Pages Manager, admins gained the ability to schedule their page posts via mobile.
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| What Facebook search can answer Posted: 18 Sep 2012 08:38 AM PDT Investors' ears perked up last week when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a few thoughts on how the social network might approach search. Zuckerberg raised an interesting concept when he spoke about Facebook offering "answers" in a way that might differ from traditional search engines.
But what does this really mean for users? There are plenty of specific questions that Facebook can answer, but these are not necessarily the questions people have been asking Google. Take Zuckerberg's example, What sushi restaurants have my friends gone to in New York in the last six months and Liked? Facebook can absolutely answer that, but users aren’t currently framing questions that way. With Google they might try a string of keywords, but the real question on people’s minds is, Where should I go to eat? In some cases, a list of where friends have been might help lead users to an answer. The social network has a lot to offer in situations like this where people are looking to learn more about a topic, conduct research or make comparisons rather than find a definitive, factual answer. Facebook has some potential to answer non-social queries, though Google is significantly ahead in that domain. Facebook will need to make some key new hires if it wants to improve its existing search offering and expand into answering user questions. Here are some general types of queries and a look at how Facebook might be able to address each one. Navigational
Facebook has a lot of room for improvement in this area of search. To encourage users to begin using Facebook to search for queries they typically turn to Google for, the social network will need to offer better navigational search for people, places, pages and apps on Facebook.com. Then, the company could begin introducing more web-based results, which it has indexed because of Open Graph and social plugins such as the Like Button. Few websites have properly tagged their sites with Open Graph meta data, but SEO specialists should consider looking into this now. Some websites are already benefiting from this integration and are appearing as “shared links” in the typeahead results.
Informational (Facts)It will be a big challenge to break into this aspect of search, which Google excels at. However, Open Graph gives Facebook an opportunity to answer users' questions that have factual answers, for example, a store's business hours or the director of a movie. Facebook pages, as well as websites that have properly configured their Open Graph tags, include structured data that Facebook could use in a new search product. Below is the type of information that could be included in the meta data for an episode of a TV show, however, we haven't seen Hulu or IMDB adding all these details to its Open Graph objects. More websites might do this if they knew it would improve their chances of appearing in Facebook search. Until then, Google has the advantage with its “Knowledge Graph,” which it uses to display relevant facts alongside traditional web results.
To compete, Facebook could begin offering Bing results in line with Facebook.com results. In July the social network added a "search the web" function to its typeahead search results, which leads users directly to a page of Bing results. If Facebook replaced its current typeahead search menu with a full page of results, similar to Google Instant, users would be able to get these kinds of answers without additional clicks.
Informational (Recommendations)Here's where Facebook can provide users with more relevant results than traditional search engines. Friend recommendations go a long way when when it comes to things like products, travel destinations, restaurants or books. Facebook can already surface a lot of information about what a user's friends like, where they've been, what they've read, posts they've made about a topic and more. Rather than create a search engine to direct users off Facebook, the company could create the ultimate landing pages for any entity. Many Facebook pages already include a mix of general information, company history, social context about how friends are connected to an entity, recent news, official content and consumer opinions. If Facebook were to consolidate Open Graph objects and eliminate fake pages, as it has been doing for place pages, it could provide a great service for consumer research and recommendations.
The company has an interesting start to local business search and music recommendations. We'd like to see Facebook take these efforts further and build out an easier way to search and discover the trove of data that users add every day.
Beyond Search
For instance, when a user schedules a lunch with a friend, Facebook could suggest conveniently-located restaurants that people are both likely to enjoy and happen to be open during that time. Or, rather than searching for a movie to stream and looking up reviews, users could turn on their TV and see a dashboard of what friends have watched and what they said about each film. After listening to a particular album, users might be notified that the artist has an upcoming show in town and they could simultaneously see a list of friends who also like the artist. Simply being at a location may soon lead a user’s device to offer relevant information and social context without requiring a search. For example, a user at a mall might see notifications about which stores have sales on items similar to the style of things they’ve previously bought or which store has a product that a friend with an upcoming birthday would enjoy. There are many other possibilities that may arise as technology and behavior evolve. Facebook might also find unique ways to answer user’s questions through partnerships with Wolfram Alpha or Apple’s Siri. Read more recent articles about Facebook search
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Facebook continues to gauge interest in an option for users to pay to promote personal posts at the top of friends' News Feeds, expanding on a test first discovered 
Facebook today begins a test allowing its unique targeting data to be used for mobile advertising in third-party apps and sites, 
This is the main type of search done on Facebook today. Users look for friends, pages and apps. Currently, this is only useful if users know exactly what they want (and even then Facebook often has trouble matching exact names). People cannot enter keywords to find related pages or apps, for example, "movies opening in 2012" or "photo editing apps." People are also unable to use additional keywords to navigate to a more specific piece of content or section of a page, for instance "Le Cheval menu" or "Lincoln movie trailer."
It is important to note that the types of searches we discussed above might not be as relevant in a mobile-first world. The act of searching may become less common as our devices begin to automatically suface the facts we need and recommendations we might want at a particular time. Given that Facebook has the most data on individual users, it seems well-suited to power this future, either itself or through third-party apps.| You are subscribed to email updates from Inside Facebook To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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