Facebook’s new Premium Ads are a boon to marketers, who now have a way to slyly insert their ads into the news feeds of non-fans. The way it works is that companies can turn a post on their Facebook page into a “sponsored story.” Before, these advertisements would appear among other ads in the right hand column for fans. Now they can also appear directly in fans’ news feeds as “featured stories”. And if the fan interacts with the featured story by commenting on it or liking it, the ad will then also appear in their friends’ news feeds.
Over half of Facebook’s users access the system via a mobile device. Previously, there was no way to serve up ads to these 425 million people (source). Now that the ads are actually in
the news feed instead of on the right rail, they are suddenly visible to mobile users.
In addition, Facebook has shrunk the size of regular ads on the right rail so they can squeeze in seven instead of the former six. And they’ve begun selling the real estate on the page that appears after users log out. These are very large ads that can include video. Since Facebook is preparing for an IPO soon, it appears they’re attempting to squeeze every nickel out of the platform that they can.
Will Facebook users object? Will they notice that the “posts” appearing in their news feeds from trusted brands are often actually ads? Will they care that their friends will see ads from brands that they like? Will the friends have any idea that they’re reading ads-disguised-as-posts based on their friends’ behavior? Will anyone care? Read more…
All business pages will be
migrated to the Facebook timeline format on March 30! Here is all the information, broken down by topic, you need to know on changes you need to make and the new options that are available to you.
Facebook Cover
Image:
The most noticeable feature of Facebook timelines is the addition of a cover image. The image size is 851px wide by 315px high. This must be an image that you have permission to use and it can’t include pricing, email,
phone number, or any sort of call to action.
Tabs:
You will have 4 visible tabs and the others will be accessible via an arrow expand button on the right. These can be moved around so that your most important tabs are in the front.
Pin Content:
If you have an important post that you wish to keep at the top of your page, you can “pin” it. This will keep it at the top of the page for 7 days and new content will appear below it.
Milestones:
Like personal pages, business pages have the option of creating milestones.
Admin Panel:
The Admin Panel for page admins has been updated as well. Mashable has a great article on the admin panel if you would like more information. Link: http://mashable.com/2012/03/20/facebook-admin-panel/
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Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” motto has been quite a punchline for years, as Google continues to find new and creative ways to separate advertisers from their money. It appears that Facebook has taken a page from Google’s playbook:
- Cr
eate Unique, Quality Relevant Content
(the best search engine / the best social media site)
- Get People Totally Hooked (70%+ market share / 850 million users worldwide)
- Get Brands Totally Hooked on Free Exposure (SEO / Facebook’s brand pages)
- Severely Limit Free Exposure (more paid ads, Google Places & other content in the search engine results that push down regular organic listings / “Edgerank” & the new Timeline for Pages)
- Force Companies to cialis canadian pharmacy Pay for Exposure (PPC ads for both
Google & Facebook)
First, Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm started limiting how many of a company’s fans to see its posts in their newsfeeds. Now, with the rollout of Timeline for Pages, businesses can’t have fans land immediately on their branded content, game, poll or whatever. Fans will instead have to click on a tab to bypass the new timeline home page.
For more on this, read this post by “Friend of PPI” Nan Dawkins: Facebook’s New Brand Pages: Combined With Edgerank, a Final Solution That Forces “Pay to Play”.
Well played, Facebook. Well played.
We are seeking a new team member with deep experience in Search Engine Optimization. We’re looking for candidates located in Atlanta. They will become part of a team that rewards performance, encourages growth, values relationships with our famil
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(Not to mention, we were named one of Atlanta’s Best Places to Work in 2011!)
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