Experiments in reviewing the impact of content types on Edgerank
Along with most commentators on Facebook, I've written extensively about the new Edgerank algorithm in recent weeks. It's clear that many brands have experienced a significant drop in organic reach (although to be fair I'm not the only one who has reported a significant increase in reach since the back-end of November as Facebook appear to have tweaked the algorithm again - see below).
There have been myriad opinions expressed. I tend to agree with Jon Loomer's conclusions that viral reach is particularly affected and that even the tiniest "negative feedback" can significantly affect your reach.
Recommended Guide: Smarter Facebook Marketing
Engage your Fans and use…
These stats prove it!
This video (only a few minutes long) is worth a watch, some great insight into Facebook usage.
You can see the clip on Facebook here.
Here are 10 things that I learnt
1. Two thirds of Brits use Facebook
2. It's popular with 1 in 5 of online minutes being spent on the site
3. We average 130 friends, with 30% of all users being over 50
4. 71% of users connect daily - with 67% of 18-34 year olds connecting several times per day
5. 62% of users watch TV whilst on Facebook
6. More 18-34 users can be reached through Facebook than through TV
7. 19 million people use the mobile app, that's 62%
8. 37% ask for brand recommendation via Facebook
9. Where most active midday but tablet usage is higher in the evening
10. 60% of users are…
New techniques to assess the impact of Facebook ads on conversions
Value (larger businesses): [rating=4] (smaller companies): [rating=1]
Recommended link: Techcrunch summary
With recent research being used to assert by Forrester and Business Insider that Facebook and Twitter Do Almost Nothing for Sales, this is an interesting measurement initiative by Facebook that urgently needs to prove to advertisers and shareholders alike that Facebook does influence sales.
The measurement approaches applies to Facebook advertising rather than wider Facebook marketing using company pages. There is certainly a need to prove the value of Facebook advertising with high profile advertisers like GM terminating a $10 million investment in Facebook advertising earlier in the year.
The new ad tracking options in Facebook
1. View tags give a method of placing cookies on users’ devices where they view a Facebook ad. View Tags are supported for Marketplace ads and Premium ads in Self Serve. I’ve marked this feature as…
5 Reasons why Facebook Edgerank shouldn't be taken for granted and how to improve it
Each time you check your Facebook account, it’s a given that you’re going
to check your News Feed. Why? Because you want to know what's going on with
your friends, what new things they’re checking out, and how you can be a part of it.
But Facebook doesn’t let you see everything each of your 500 friends is doing. It would end up being such a huge, fast-moving mess on your feed that reading an update would tire you out. This is why Facebook introduced Edgerank.
What is Facebook Edgerank?
Edgerank is an algorithm Facebook uses in order to determine what should appear on a user’s News Feed by looking at your interactions and your interests so that it can show you what you most…
Facebook responds to brand backlash...
Last week I explained the changes to the Facebook algorithm which resulted in a huge drop in organic reach for brand pages.
Facebook has responded with a small tweak, just rolled out in the last day or so, which will enable fans to choose to see all a brand's notifications to their wall. AllFacebook.com have more on how Facebook's new notifications work.
Once brands realise this is now out of beta be prepared for a slew of notifications instructing fans to tick the Show in News Feed option. So my advice would be to "get in early".
And given that just posting a request to Fans to get Notifications on Facebook is probably likely to get to a measly 10% of your fanbase, you probably have no choice but to make it a Promoted Post.
On the…
How Facebook's push for more ad revenue is causing challenges for advertisers
Facebook marketers have been having a pretty torrid time the last few weeks. Organic reach on posts from brand pages has been slashed in Facebook's drive to extract as much cash from commercial sources that it can. Even consumers can pay to have their status updates promoted nowadays.
The result has been a big increase in revenue for Facebook that's above their target, but the company is still struggling to keep shareholders happy amidst a sliding stock price. And all is not well with brands. There have been numerous grumbles across the blogosphere in recent weeks as the kind of reach levels brands previously enjoyed free of charge are only now attainable with some hefty advertising spend. This sudden change has caught many brands unawares and has been a bumpy ride for many used to enjoying free promotion…
Facebook improves options for international marketing through “Global Pages”
Value: [rating=1] or [rating=4] for brands marketing to local country audiences
Recommended link: Facebook announcement on managing Global Company Pages
Until this month brands wanting to use Facebook company pages to communicate with their customers in different countries have had a challenge. The challenge has been the resource needed to manage different company pages in different countries in a way that provides consistency and management for their communications. Each country has required separate administrators and reporting has also been separate unless third-party tools were used.
In October 2012, Facebook launched “Global Pages” as a solution for managing company pages in different countries. This is how Facebook describe the new approach:
“With this new structure, Facebook users will be directed to the best version of a Page based on the country those users are in, enabling them to see localized cover photos, profile photos, Page apps, milestones,…
An example of a test using Facebook's new paid offers
Facebook Offers was launched earlier this year, allowing retailers to send deals to their Facebook fans' newsfeeds. Until recently it's been a free service. I wasn't even aware of it until I saw an ad for the new paid-for service in my newsfeed this week and decided to give it a go. Here is what I discovered.
The ad is pretty self explanatory. Users claim the offers by clicking on the ad in their News Feeds and redeem the vouchers to get discounts.
How to create a Facebook Offer
Creating the ad is really simple. As well as the option to update your status or post a photo/video, you now have the option to post an Offer or Event (or various other content such as a poll). You can choose to set up a…
Showing how Facebook apps can increase engagement - will we see these due in Google+ soon?
A new report from social media software vendor Wildfire (recently acquired by Google) uses some of their latest data to offer a few useful tips for Facebook marketers. You can dig into the case studies in the report right here.
We're sharing it, since it's not just about Facebook Page Likes, it's about deeper engagement with a social media application hosted by Wildfire such as competition and quizzes and includes examples. Can we expect these types of applications in Google+ soon?
It defines three levels of engagement with the app: joiners who participate (83%); sharers who simply share (15%) and advocates who share and advocates who share and then encourage others to participate (1.5%). So this gives some figures to benchmark against and help build…
Measures to benchmark engagement of Facebook brand pages
Some interesting insight was published by Social Bakers this week where they look at engagement rates of Facebook pages in the UK.
Of course, Facebook admins can see the level of engagement of their own company page through Facebook Insights which gives measures like Reach and PTAT (People talking about this). However, this doesn’t allow you to benchmark against other companies.
Social Bakers uses two simple measures of engagement that can be used to benchmark sites. The first measure, Average Post Engagement, is based on the Post average, the second, Daily Page Engagement rate is based on the total daily interactions:
The useful thing about this compilation for UK brands is that you can calculate engagement for your own Facebook page using these measures and then compare to other similar pages, or simply…
