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Inside Facebook

GraphEffect moves beyond Facebook marketing with Shift collaboration platform; hires PMD manager to lead partnerships

Posted: 18 Oct 2012 06:00 AM PDT

Social marketing company GraphEffect today announced the expansion and rebranding of its collaboration platform, as well as the hire of former Facebook partner manager Adam Gerston as VP of Strategic Partnerships for what is now called Shift.

Shift offers open APIs for developers to make their software more collaborative — essentially creating a version of Open Graph for the enterprise so that actions within work-related applications can be shared with internal and cross-organizational teams. GraphEffect's Facebook ad and page management software will operate on top of Shift. Kenshoo, which builds social and search advertising solutions, is among a number of alpha partners building on the Shift platform.

Gerston, who build the Preferred Marketing Developer program during his two and a half years at Facebook, will lead a similar effort at Shift. Other partners announced today include order management software Lettuce, mobile DSP Gradient X, social/mobile app development agency HYFN and recruiting software The Resumator. HYFN and Kenshoo are both part of the Facebook PMD program along with GraphEffect.

GraphEffect launched its collaboration platform in beta under the GraphEffect name about a month ago. Although that was billed as a sort of social network for marketers, Shift aims to serve any vertical through profiles, feeds, messages, groups and apps. It also includes task management and communication features called "follow-ups" and "sidebars."

CEO James Borow has a vision for Shift to be the infrastructure that makes any enterprise software more collaborative.

"We can do for the enterprise what Facebook did for our social lives," he says.

At the same time, Shift will be building a graph of its own.

"We want to be the most reliable graph of how you work," Borow says, noting that LinkedIn's professional graph has "gotten out of control" because many users add everyone they've met or want to know. "We want it to be reflective of the people you actually work with."

Shift will slowly roll out LinkedIn and Facebook login so users don't import all their contacts and devalue the relationships on the network. Shift is meant for users to connect in teams that reflect those they work with offline. And since a user's ID persists, they have a fluid work identity that isn't completely lost when they change jobs. Borow says that's the difference between Shift and enterprise networks like Yammer, which he feels is too restrictive.

Borow wants Shift to be free for users and developers so it won't charge people to sign up and it won't take a cut of application revenues. He says the platform can monetize by providing additional services for the enterprise like additional security or storage.

GraphEffect raised $12 million led by Rincon Venture Partners in June. The company is expected to generate $40-50 million this year through its social advertising platform, according to Business Insider. GraphEffect is one of 12 Facebook Strategic Preferred Marketing Developers.

Facebook’s Talktime program in India pays new mobile users in calling credit

Posted: 17 Oct 2012 04:00 PM PDT

Facebook has launched a program in India called Talktime, which gives 50 Rupees (almost $1) in calling credits to users who sign up for Facebook on their mobile devices. Users also get an additional 50 Rupees for every user they refer who signs up to Facebook with a mobile device.

An Inside Facebook reader first tipped us to a story about Talktime posted on Machine Happy. A Facebook spokesperson has since confirmed the program to TechCrunch with the following statment:

"We partner with a number of telecoms companies around the world, many of whom offer incentives for their customers to use Facebook, such as zero rating mobile Internet access to the service. This test is another such initiative."

Facebook's Talktime initiative in India is in line with the social network's strategy in territories where most users are likely to access Facebook through their phones. The company says it had 59 million MAU in India in June, an increase of 84 percent compared to the same period in 2011.

Facebook Head of Mobile Partnerships Emily White said in June that 30 percent of users in India are now registering for the site through mobile phones. It's likely these users are among those who never visit Facebook on desktop. Most are using the Facebook for Every Phone App, a native mobile app compatible with more than 3,600 different Java-enabled feature phones. An analysis using the Facebook ad tool suggests that about 35 percent of India's active users are feature phone users and about 17 percent are smartphone or tablet users.

Red Bull, Lindt Chocolate USA, Coca-Cola and more among this week’s top PTAT gainers for food/beverages pages

Posted: 17 Oct 2012 03:15 PM PDT

Red Bull is this week’s top gaining page for the People Talking About This metric among the food and beverages category. The page received 847,427 additional engagements this week.

The top 10 food and beverage pages saw PTAT growth between 95,109 and 847,427 engagements. We compile this list with our PageData tool, which tracks page growth across Facebook.

# Name People Talking About Daily Growth Weekly Growth 
1   Red Bull 1,389,711 0 +847,427
2   Lindt Chocolate USA 553,704 +14,087 +500,227
3   Coca-Cola 3,254,539 0 +363,846
4   Burger King 466,605 0 +207,501
5   Monster Energy 797,967 0 +177,786
6   Pringles Australia 221,763 -5,153 +116,333
7   BrahmaSeleção 966,961 +25,676 +110,502
8   Bingo! 139,541 +3,919 +107,380
9   Rockin’ Wellness Inc. 137,020 +10,497 +104,048
10   5 Gum 122,526 0 +95,109

 

Last Sunday, Red Bull sponsored Felix Baumgartner’s free fall from the edge of space which was streamed via YouTube. YouTube reports that over 8 million live streamed the jump making it the most watched live event ever for the video sharing site. The page also published multiple posts about the event, the most engaged post receiving 525,328 likes; 69,868 shares and 15,395 comments. Red Bull also had an entirely separate Facebook page specifically for this event, called Red Bull Stratos which has a PTAT of 1.2 million.

Second on this week’s list is Lindt Chocolate USA, most famous for their Lindor Truffles. On Oct. 3, the company published a post saying that it would be announcing something big on Oct. 9. The company continued to build up this announcement through the week. When Oct. 9 finally came, Lindt revealed a promotion rewarding their fans with a coupon for a free bag of Lindor Truffles. As of now, there are no remaining coupons, but fans seem to still be looking to redeem it, leaving comments on the post and writing on the page wall.

Lindt did not use Facebook Offers to run the promotion, but instead ran it through a third-part tab. PTAT does not include the number of offers claimed in this case. Had the company used the internal Facebook Offers, it might have been shared with more friends and would have seen significantly more viral growth. Facebook recently said that three-fourths of Offers claimants discovered the Offer through friends rather than the page itself.

[UPDATE 10/17/2012: CoupSmart, who facilitated Lindt Chocolate's coupon promotion, has contacted us about their promotion. They have told us that this type of promotion would be impossible to do through Facebook Offers due to different manufacturer restrictions and fraud concerns.]

Visit PageData to see more about the top talked about pages among food and beverages, as well as other categories.

Facebook tests profile completion percentage, asks for current city

Posted: 17 Oct 2012 02:39 PM PDT

Some Facebook users are noticing a profile completion percentage in their About tab. The social network is also asking for users to provide their current city in the info section right under their profile picture. These are a few new ways that Facebook is encouraging users to add more information about themselves and improve the targeting options for its advertisements.

The profile completion percentage appears in the top right corner of the About tab on a user’s Timeline. This feature is similar to the profile completion percentages on other social networks such as LinkedIn and Google+. The more information a user provides, the larger the percentage. These details include basic information such as birthday, gender, religion, languages, and interests, as well as contact information such as phone numbers and address.

The feature doesn’t seem to provide users with guidance on which areas to fill in, however, users who do not have a current city listed in their profile will see a prompt on the front of their Timeline under the profile photo. In early 2011, Facebook did something similar with a sidebar module asking, “Which city do you live in?” These modules encourage users to provide more personal information in their profile, which also affects the profile completion percentage. It is likely the suggested current city comes from a user’s IP address, or possibly their listed place of work, recent check-ins or post geotags.

These profile details are very important when it comes to the targeting options present for Facebook marketers. It is in Facebook’s best interest to have more users with a high completion percentage as it creates even more value as a marketing channel. The more complete a user’s profile, the more likely they will be able to be reached by hyper-relevant ads.

This completion percentage is similar to Facebook’s account security status in the way that it prompts users to take action. Both of these completion bars are dependent on the amount of information provided by the user.

Facebook launches ‘global pages’ for brands to offer localized experiences

Posted: 17 Oct 2012 01:59 PM PDT

Facebook today announced the launch of “global pages,” a new structure that allows international brands to maintain a single fan page with localized experiences for users in different countries.

Global pages have a unified Like and People Talking About This count, but the language, profile image, cover photo, posts and tabs can differ by region. Users who visit a global page are automatically directed to the version specific to their region, but they can access any regional or global page through a drop-down menu.

We first discovered Facebook testing this global/regional structure on its own Facebook Marketing page in May, and have since heard from many brands that were interested in the functionality. Kit-Kat, Dove, Holiday Inn and Frankenweenie are pages that had early access to global pages.

Global pages address a number of issues that large brands encounter on Facebook. Many pages have amassed large global fan bases, but any given post reaches a small subset of those people. Sharing region-specific content with the right audience can have a big impact on reach and engagement. Dove, for instance, used to do this by geo-targeting its posts, but now it uses the global pages structure to accomplish the same goal. Other brands have created country-specific pages, but it’s not always easy for users to find the page for their country. And many users would be more likely to Like Kit-Kat than to Like Kit-Kat UK or Kit-Kat Austria. Now, users don’t have to choose.

At this time, Facebook seems to be offering this new structure for country pages, not on a state or city level. Brands can talk to their Facebook reps or contact Facebook here about getting access to global pages and migrating their regional pages into the new framework.

Facebook mobile app install ads available to all iOS, Android developers

Posted: 17 Oct 2012 11:04 AM PDT

Facebook today announced that its mobile app install ads have come out of beta and are available for all iOS and Android developers that have integrated Facebook into their apps.

These ads, which went into beta in early August, allow developers to promote their native mobile apps through Facebook News Feed. When a user clicks on the ad, they are taken to a download page in the Apple App Store or Google Play. Developers can use the same demographic and interest-based targeting options as they can for other ads on the Facebook platform, including being able to target users who have not already connected with an app. Other mobile ad networks do not have a way to determine if a user has already downloaded an app, but Facebook can see if a user has logged into an app with Facebook and then avoid wasting impressions on those users.

Facebook says beta partners like Kabam, Fab, TinyCo and Big Fish were able to efficiently drive installs among relevant audiences. For example, TinyCo saw 50 percent higher clickthrough rates and significantly higher conversion rates compared to other mobile advertising channels. Some Preferred Marketing Developers were also part of the beta, buying mobile app install ads on behalf of developers. For example, Nanigans saw 8-10x reach compared to other mobile ad buys it has done for clients. Ad Parlor saw CTR consistently between 1-2 percent.

As we wrote about Tuesday, Facebook recently began testing a new design for these ads, which are larger and include the "Install Now" call to action, as well as star ratings.

3 out of 4 users who claim Facebook Offers do so after hearing about it from a friend

Posted: 17 Oct 2012 10:26 AM PDT

Facebook says the majority of users who claim an Offer on the social network do so after seeing a story about it from a friend, not the original page post.

Specifically, of the 100 most popular Facebook Offers, three-fourths of the claims came from friends of people who shared the Offer, explained Facebook Vice President of Business and Marketing Partnerships David Fischer at DMA 2012. Because claiming an Offer generates a story in News Feed and Timeline, these promotions can quickly go viral and reach a broader audience than a company's fans. It’s important for Facebook to make this point, especially since Offers are no longer free to run.

About a month ago Facebook began requiring page owners to spend a minimum of $5 or $10 per Offer, with the option to pay more to promote the deal and reach a larger audience. As with Promoted Posts, costs can vary by page, however the first Offer a page creates is free.

Offers are created directly from the page publisher and do not require approval from Facebook before going live. Users can claim Offers on desktop or mobile and they will instantly receive an email from Facebook that includes the Offer voucher. Businesses have the option to add a barcode or unique coupon code to these Offers, allowing them to track how a campaign affected in-store and online sales.

Page owners looking for help creating an Offer can read a how-to on our Facebook Marketing Bible site.

torsdag den 18. oktober 2012 at 07.36