It’s a bit late, but I’ll run through the changes and why I think facebook made them anyways. If you haven’t already, you can access your new profile via this link.

In a nutshell the new profile layout has done 4 things

1)

Neatly bundles together basic info about the user at the top of the profile.  This can include job, education, location, relationship status and birth date.

WHY? It gives users viewing the profile a simple, fast snapshot of who that person is, where they are located, how old they are and what type of relationship they are in, if any.  It works to give extremely quick personal context around that individual.

2)

Gives users faster access to the most engaging content about their friends, images. Five images now appear at the top of the profile.  These are the latest images the user was tagged in.

WHY? Again, it is an extremely fast way to understand what the individual currently looks like, who they’ve been hanging out with and essentially what they’ve been doing recently.

3)

Organizes profile information in a smarter way.  New information controls can be found on the left hand side of the profile underneath the profile pic.

WHY? It was tough for users to find personal info about a person through the old profile setup, you had to click the ‘info’ tab at the top of the page then scroll down.  The new design places this info section tab right under the most highly viewed piece of content on the profile page, the profile pic.  I think facebook did some user testing and realized more users would click on the info tab when it was placed here, rather than on the top of the page.

The information displayed on the info page is much more uniform, using images as placeholders as appose to just text.  I would expect this approach to gain more interaction than the previous design.

4)

Provide more social context between the viewer and the user who’s profile the viewer is looking at.  This is by far the coolest thing about the redesign for me.  Social context is key and facebook is just starting to expand out the possibilities that it can provide in this space.  On the right hand side of the page you’ll find info specific to you and the user you are viewing.  Information provided here includes images that both of you are tagged in, interests you both share and the amount of friends you have in common.  Some of you may remember facebook bringing out ‘friendship’ pages about a month or so ago, I believe that was a soft launch for the type of functionality around social context we are now seeing through the new profile layout.

WHY? This info is facebooks greatest strength, it’s secret sauce, it knows more about you and your real-life social network than you probably know yourself and now it’s just starting to surface that information for you to start viewing and using.  It’s THE most potent and engaging information it has about you.  It’s the reason facebook will become the next Google, it’s the reason facebook will run the web for the next 10-15 years.

Hope this gives you get a better understanding about the changes.

FYI – it’s a Richard Branson autobiography

Whoop.

There are basically 4 different ways you can update a facebook page. If you want to be successful in generating engagement on facebook, its incredibly important you understand how each of these updates vary from one another and what they should be used to do.

Text Update

How to : Write the text directly into your pages update publisher (the box at the top of the page) and hit Share.

Effect : This is the only update that will appear and remain at the top of the page, to the right of your page name after you have posted it.

Tip : Everyone who visits your page will see the wall.  Therefore they will also see your last text update (see ‘Effect’ above).  So it’s a smart strategy to have a call to action here, something short, sharp and relevant that won’t take users long to engage with – a question with 2-3 provided answers always works well.

Image Update

How to : Hit the image icon in the bottom left hand corner of the update publisher on your wall.  Now choose from one of the three options provided.

Effect : Image can be clicked in newsfeed and will bring fans into the photos section of your page.  Image updates DO NOT appear and/or remain at the top of the page.

Tip : Image updates are by far the most effective update to generate interaction with your fans, so make sure the image is as unique and eye-catching as possible.  You MUST accompany image updates with text.  Include a short call to action that encourages the user analyze or acknowledge the image then provide feedback on it.  Image updates will a smart call to action are consistently the highest engagement earners in our experience.

Link Update

How to : Hit the link icon in the bottom left hand corner of the update publisher on your wall.  Now paste the destination link into the link box provided.

Effect : Link can be clicked in the newsfeed and will take fans to the destination of the link.  Link updates DO NOT appear and/or remain at the top of the page.

Tip : Used correctly, link updates are the most powerful weapon in facebook marketing.  They basically act as an instant conduit from your fans to anywhere on the web YOU want them to go in just one click, so if you’re a business it makes sense to send them to your business website.  But be warned, the content on your website must be relevant to the fundamental reason your fans are on your page or else click through will be low and credibility will be lost. Rip out the body text of the link and only leave the title and URL as you see above, no one likes information overload and you’re update will be clicked less if its there.

Video Update (includes youtube)

How to : Hit the video icon in the bottom left hand corner of the update publisher on your wall. Now upload the video and hit Share.

How to (youtube) : Read How to on the link update article, it’s exactly the same.  NOTE, youtube videos are kept as links in your page archive, not videos.

Effect : Allows fans to view videos through the newsfeed. Video updates DO NOT appear and/or remain at the top of the page.

Tip : Remember that the majority of fans will view your video through their newsfeed, so keep it short, preferably no longer than 30 secs.  We’ve also always found that including a call to action at the end of the video increases engagement.

Hopefully this is helpful.

Last night facebook released a new set of upgrades to the backend of their pages product.  Simply put, it affords page admins easier control over their pages, which according to most page admins I talk to is a welcome move forward.

I’ll run through the updated control options as they appear on the tab menu once you access the new backend.

Manage permissions

Country restrictions – It is now possible to make pages only viewable to a certain country or countries.  This is potentially a massive game changer for large multi-national companies on facebook who have several different pages of the same brand name across several different countries – if these companies set each countries brand page to only be viewable in that country, they would save alot of confusion for their users as the only page they would see is the brand page for that specific country.

Age restrictions – This is pretty straightforward. Whilst facebook had it’s own regulations in place for alcohol or gambling related age restrictions prior to the change, this option makes the process even simpler and more straightforward to implement.

Page visiblity – If you’re the secret squirrel type, this option would suit you.  It only makes the page visible to those who have administration rights to the page.  I’m out of ideas as to how this could be useful as the revamped groups offering affords the same closed community controls.

Wall tab shows – Allows you to show what default content fans see when they arrive at your page: your posts, fans post or all posts.

Wall spam filter – This is a facinating change, one that I am yet to see in action across any of our clients pages.  Instinct would presume that facebook will automatically filter out messages that have been flagged as spam elsewhere on facebook if they get posted to your wall – something that would be awesome if you’re running a highly trafficked page.  I’ll update this post when I see evidence of it working.

Default Landing Tab – Here you can choose what page new users of your page will see first.  If you’ve developed a specific FBML landing page and have created a seperate tab for it, this is where you will change the landing page to that specific tab.

Posting Ability – Allows you to choose what your fans can do on your page: Users can write posts and comments on your wall, users can add photos, users can add videos.

Delete Page – Finally, an easier way to delete a page!  I’ve known how to do it for a long time, but the amount of people that were nearly in tears because they didn’t know how to delete a page was overwhelming.  Now its super simple. Click ‘Permanently delete this page’ and you page will be permenently deleted. (or will it? i’ll leave that question to the facebook cynics out there)

Basic Information

No change here, nothing to elaborate on…

Profile Picture

This will be a great change for most newbie admins as changing the profile pic through the old settings proved quite challenging and confusing.  Here you can change the profile pic quickly and easily whilst still in the backend.

Marketing

Again, this will become an incredibly useful section for admins not 100% familiar with the old page admin layout.  It offers you four options:

Advertise on facebook – directs you through to the facebook money making factory, ie the advertising platform.  Advertising is proving to be the single most effective way to grow your page fanbase quickly.

Get a badge – Gives you the code neccessary to create a cute looking badge of your page for a third party website.  This feature is pretty redundant in my opinion as like boxes are less visually intrusive and have far more interactivity options available to them.

Add a Like Box to your website – Behind advertising, like boxes are the most effective way to drive new fans and traffic to your page.  If you haven’t already, I highly recommend adding a like box or button to a third party site that your page represents.

Send an update – I’ll play devils advocate here and say updates are a waste of time.  Please comment if you regularly check your updates, or even know where to find them.

Manage Admins

In the past this task was often difficult.  Now its super simple.  You can add and remove admins as you wish.  A tip - Remember to add admins via email, not via friends.  The majority of companies we work with give us work emails to add as admins.  Most of the time these emails aren’t the ones they use for facebook.  Get them to give you the personal emails they use for facebook and add them as admins this way.  It avoids you having to ‘friend’ them to add them as a admin. Remind them that noone will never be able to see their personal info when they do this procedure, as this is question that often pops up.

Applications

Very similar to the old backend, just with a cleaner and more functional user interface.  It will show you which applications you are currently using and will also offer up application suggestions.

Mobile

None of the options have changed but i’ll run through them quickly anyways.

With mobile email - Allows you to update page status and videos via email on your mobile.

With mobile web – Tells you how to view your page via URL – sends you through to the facebook.com/username page to set your page URL if you haven’t already.

With the iPhone – Briefs you on how to favourite pages within the iPhone.  Do this for pages you admin as it makes the updating and monitoring process of your pages 10x easier.

With text messaging – Allows you to update your page via text.

Insights + Page help

Both are self explanatory, the insights option will send you through to the insights menu, the page help option will send you through to Page help!

PAGE NAME CHANGES – Pages with fan counts under 100 fans now have the ability to change their page name.  If the page is bigger than 100 fans, bad luck.

There you have it, mudos take on the new admin backend.  Big up’s to facebook for making the changes.  What do you think of the upgrade?

A major hurdle has just been overcome in the ‘how do you measure social media’ debate.

About 3-4 hours ago facebook page admins will have noticed that one new line of data appears under their branded page updates, impressions and % feedback.

This is significant to the advertising industry for three reasons – marketers now have justification to create a pricing model around facebook updates through CPM, smart marketers will be able to determine the best time of day to send updates for the most exposure/engagement and lastly marketers will know the effectiveness of each individual update in realtime, as engagement is occuring.

Below are just a few thoughts about how this development could really change things.

Creation of a ‘per update’ pricing model

Marketers now have a concrete and tradititional measurement unit with which to charge out facebook page management and update creation. The days of facebook pages being ambiguous and hard to sell to the boardroom in terms of reach and cost are effectively over.

Updates can now justifiably be sold to 3rd parties

Now that page admins have access to the amount of impressions each of their updates receives, its conceivable that owners (brands) that have a large fanbase will now be able to sell updates to outside advertisers through a traditional CPM pricing model.

Realtime engagement monitoring

Being able to track feedback in realtime is incredibly insighful for fb marketers as it allows them to keep brands informed on consumer sentiment as it happens, effectively allowing them (the brand) to react instantly.

Lastly, I think the biggest question is….how much is a fb update CPM worth compared to a traditional CPM?

Traditional CPM

• Usually targeted at a cluster of ’similar’ websites that have a ’similar’ audience.
• Your message can often be associated with content that doesn’t suit your brand.
• It can be relatively unclear who is actually seeing and engaging with your message.
• There is no flow on (viral) brand effect when a consumer engages with your message.
  

Facebook CPM

• You know exactly what type of consumer your message will be getting exposed to, as the consumer connected themselves to the page, the relationship is voluntary, they want to receive the message from the page (basically the inverse to traditional CPM banner ad’s offerings).
• You can monitor and communicate with consumers who engage with your message in realtime.
• You can see the exposure/reach the message is getting and how effective it is as it happens.
• There is significant flow on effect through facebooks social graph when your message is engaged by each consumer, increasing brand exposure throughout the platform.

I think a facebook CPM should inherently be more expensive than traditional CPM’s because

1. the market they reach is more qualified
2. consumer sentiment data and reach are both offered in realtime
3. consumers can actually engage and share opinion about the message
4. brands can respond to consumers engaging with the message instantly
5. their is significant flow on effect for brand exposure, ensuring your message will reach more consumers.

Will facebook update CPM’s become an integral part of the advertising landscape?

Will they will be more or less expensive than traditional CPM’s?

What do you think?

Heyy,

So i’ve been reading alot recently about data portability, in particular Googles Opensocial plans, plans that involve facebook….but facebook currently wants nothing to do with it. Why?

Data portability when it occurs on a large scale, will be a paradigm shift, one that i see being pivotal in the future direction of the social web.

Lets have it from both sides…

Google/Open social
Ok, so Google wants to do the honorable thing by opening up all the social network(s) data so that users can easily transport their personal data into other social networks or Applications.
It has been the next ‘big step’ in social media for a wee while now, the problem was always getting the right social networks on board. Google thought it had this problem covered 3 weeks ago when facebook agreed to come on board. That came unstuck 3-4 days later when Mr Zuckerberg decided facebook was opting out.

facebook
The question for facebook here is, what is our business? Its simple, facebooks business is information. The platform they own allows millions of people around the world to create/trade/share/discuss information with their friends. So what happens if you allow that information to be freely moved around the internet, away from facebook? Would facebook be losing eyeballs or creating new ones?

Its not an easy answer, one that i and facebook execs (im guessing) are currently trying to figure out.

heres the 200 words or less version of my answer to date….

if facebook decides to push ahead without the use of opensocial and create their own data portability ring, users will either ditch facebook because they cant transport their data to places opensocial can, or stick vehemently with facebook as it is where the bulk of their personal data is stored and see it to be too hard to recreate that data with google and opensocial.

So the power is with the user (as it should be). If a majority of users stick with facebook after they announce plans to manage their own data portability, facebook wins in a big way. In a big way i mean ‘the next google’.
facebook still wins if they decide to join opensocial, but they will, from that point on, forever be under the google umbrella…..and i dont think Mark Zuckerberg likes umbrellas.