Tag Archives: social media marketing

The post-Facebook apocalypse

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You’ve done the social media course. You’ve given the meticulously researched presentation to senior management full of infographics, embedded videos and pie charts. And it worked. You get the green light for the organisation to start ‘doing’ social media.

Where to start? Well, Facebook obviously. Anyone who knows anything knows that Facebook is the big bopper in social media. So if you have to be active in social media it obviously has to be on Facebook. Or so the corporate thinking goes.

After all, Facebook is now the recognised social media channel so there’s little risk and a lot of sense in putting all the company’s social media eggs in that one basket. Look at the facts: over a billion global users, 2nd most popular website in the world / Australia, powerful geographic, demographic and psychographic targeting. It’s a no-brainer.

But what if everything changes? What if, in a few years – or months – time, Facebook loses its appeal and consumers go elsewhere for their social fix? Unlikely, you say. Remember the billion users thing? My friends and I are on Facebook all the time, you say. And it’s valued at over $50 billion dollars, for goodness sake!

They’re valid points.

But consider MySpace, circa 2007. Facebook was the runt of the litter and MySpace was not just the social media master of all it surveyed, it was the most visited website in the US. The usual suspects flooded MySpace with their marketing campaigns: Pepsi, McDonald’s, Nike, Toyota, Sony, Hilton and Ford to name a few.

Fast forward a mere six years and MySpace is now the 133rd most visited website in the US.

While MySpace is still a viable business, certainly according to new owner Justin Timberlake and his partners, it’s no longer the must-have digital marketing option it once was.

Of course, the fortunes of websites and businesses rising and falling are nothing new. The difference today with marketers hitching their social media star to the Facebook wagon is that it is often done without any meaningful planning or strategic thinking. Many companies feel that they’ve ticked the social media box just by having a Facebook page.

Because social media marketing is so relatively new there are not enough people that have a deep enough understanding of what should and should not be done in this space. The end result that we’re seeing now: poor decision making.

The foundation of social media marketing – creating, building and maintaining long-term direct relationships with consumers – can be easily forgotten with all the technical and creative fun to be had with Facebook and other social platforms. Results are measured by the number of Likes, comments and shares. Don’t get me wrong, they’re important statistics. But they can’t be viewed in isolation if you’re looking to generate that all-important ROI from your social media investment.

Consider what will become of your social media program should a future visit to Facebook, the main plank of that program find virtual tumbleweeds and a few hardy zealots clinging to their almost empty newsfeeds. It truly is an apocalyptic thought.

It doesn’t have to be, of course. You need to question how you’re genuinely engaging with your consumers beyond throwing up some nice (in your opinion) posts, photos and polls. Are you thinking of what interests them as opposed to what suits you? Are you creating multi-faceted relationships where you engage on any number of levels – real and virtual – that are relevant to your consumers?

It’s telling that PR agencies are running the Facebook show for many companies. PR is an incredibly powerful tool, particularly in a digital context. But by definition, PR is all about me, the brand talking at you the consumer. Generate ink, air and pixels all about ‘me, me, me’ and the job is done.

Is that a valid way to run any sort of relationship?

Recent Pew Research found that 61% of users suffered from ‘Facebook Fatigue’ and had taken a break from the platform for several weeks or more. Had you even heard of Facebook Fatigue 12 months ago? Neither had I.

The simple conclusion is that Facebook must be viewed as a communication platform, much like TV sets, car radios and mobile phones. Yes, it’s a wildly popular, dynamic and powerful platform. Today. As for tomorrow, well, it may still be Facebook. Or it may be Roamz, Nextdoor, Sgrouples or some other platform that’s still being developed on a kitchen bench somewhere in the world. Heck, it might even be MySpace again.

The main game is guaranteed to always be your consumer. They must be informed, engaged, entertained and motivated in any number of ways. They must find you interesting, funny and even exciting no matter how you communicate with them and via what platform. Remember, they’re nothing if not fickle.

Up to speed: 2012 in social media marketing

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Facebook floated, Pinterest took flight, Tumblr bolted and Instagram soared, while social TV, social search, social commerce and social media customer service dominated industry buzz.

2012 saw the use of social networks for marketing reasons mature, despite falls from grace from the likes of Qantas and McDonald’s, and social giants introduce a range of ad options in a scramble to monetise their success.

Facebook, which went public in May, introduced a range of promoted post and ad unit variations through the year. It cracked 1 billion users globally and stood at 11.8 million Australian users in December, a 10% increase across the year.

In response to growing pressure to boost lacklustre profits, it looks set to introduce auto-play video ads to its news feed and a ‘want’ button on photos featuring brands or products this year.

Twitter, which boasts over two million Australian users according to socialmedianews.com.au, also tinkered with ad options introducing promoted tweets and users for brands. The microblog is currently in the process of rolling out promoted tweet targeting options that will enable targeting by location and interests.

Scrapbooking social network Pinterest experienced the biggest jump in visitor numbers, up by 306% to reach 650,000 unique Australian visitors (UAVs) in December. It looks to be paving the way for brand pages, with features for marketers launched in November.

Instagram, acquired by Facebook in April for $1 billion, grew phenomenally in 2012 and is estimated to have reached 1.2 million users by December. Use of the platform by brands continues to grow strongly also, with more than half of the world’s largest brands maintaining a presence on the photo-sharing platform.

See: Marketing‘s social media and brands in Australia infographic.

Social network-blog hybrid Tumblr also had a big year, increasing its unique audience in Australia by 220% to command an audience of 3.2 million unique visitors in December.

Social network growth – January to December 2012
Note: where user numbers are not available, unique visitor figures have been used.

While MySpace continued to decline, down 29% in visitors between January and December, the ‘new MySpace’ launched in December with a redesign featuring a horizontal Pinterest-style interface.

Video sharing site YouTube held steady at around 11 million views per month across the year, while blog networks Blogspot and WordPress commanded audiences of 3.5 million and 2.5 million unique visitors respectively in December.

Google+, which is used by around 377,500 Australians, still has potential according to many industry commentators, despite its comparatively slow growth. Read: The marketing director’s guide to Google+.

What will 2013 hold?

With social TV gaining a head of steam in the last few months of the year, it is sure to be a trend to watch in 2013 as TV networks look to socialise programming and IPTV becomes more prevalent.

A number of big brands, including NAB which recently invested in a social media customer service ‘command centre’, have set up dedicated teams to respond to enquiries and complaints posted on social networks. More are likely to do so in 2013 as organisations adopt an increasingly ‘human’ style of interacting online.

Social search is billed as another area set to grow – Yelp, Foursquare and local start-up Posse are taking on Google in this space.

And social commerce (see Marketing’s top10 uses of social commerce) will continue to be a focus as retailers look for smarter ways to drive traffic to their sites.

Add your own predictions to the list, by letting us know what you think the major trends will be in social media for 2013 in the comments below.

Data sourced from socialmedianews.com.au, Quantcast, Comscore, Google Ad Planner tool, Google Trends, Google Insights, Facebook self-serve advertising tool/ Checkfacebook.com. Additional analysis by Marketing.

Facebook seeks to put advertising concerns to rest with ROI tool

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Facebook will attempt to put to rest questions over the value of its advertising solutions with the launch of a tool to help marketers track return on investment on their campaigns.

The company, which went public in May, is testing a tool that it claims will help marketers track ROI from ad campaigns on its platform, Marketing UK reports. The tool will track conversions or responses to Facebook ads that take place outside of the social network, such as click throughs and sales on ecommerce sites.

Since floating, pressure from marketers to prove the ROI of its advertising has mounted, forcing it to bow to the “highly requested” demand for definitive proof of ROI.

Marketing UK (no relations to this Marketing magazine) reports:

“Facebook claims the tool, which is available via its Ads Manager, will help marketers optimise future campaigns for better ROI. It also enables advertisers to use optimised cost per impression (CPM) bidding, to show ads to people more likely to convert on their off-Facebook site.”

The social network plans to roll out the tool globally at the end of this month. While it will focus on click attribution responses for etailers, the tool is aimed at helping all direct response marketers, according to Marketing UK.

One of the trial cases for the tool, designer items retailer Fab.com, has dropped its cost per acquisition by 39% after optimising its CPM using the tool, Facebook claims.

Facebook has come under heavy scrutiny since going public, with a number of sources calling the value of its network as a marketing tool into question and accusations of cherry picking data in an attempt to put to rest such questions. Advertisers, including General Motors, pulled their ad spend from Facebook amid claims it was ineffective.

 

KLM’s social marketing is flying

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KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is one of the world’s largest airlines. The courage and ingenuity they have been demonstrating in their social media activity helps to show why. The company’s social media strategy shows its leaders are willing to push beyond their comfort zone, and take calculated risks. Not all of these risks have paid off since they ventured into the world of social media in 2009, but enough of them have worked for KLM to now be considered one of the best brands at converting Facebook ‘likes’ into customers. Let’s look at what they have done to achieve this success.

Airlines are not always known for being approachable, but KLM has being going out of its way to be just that, and have been reinventing the way that they think about marketing in the process. A fantastic example of this is a campaign they called KLM Surprise that ran last year. This ‘campaign’ was not an advertising campaign in any traditional sense. In fact, when one sees the YouTube case study, it feels more like a social experiment than a marketing activity.

KLM carried out little acts of kindness for passengers traveling to and from Amsterdam Schiphol. The campaign was designed to spread happiness and delight KLM customers. It started by looking for passengers who indicated via Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare that they were traveling with KLM. Based on an analysis of customers’ social media profiles, KLM worked out what an appropriate ‘small gift’ might be – for one passenger it was a Nike+ wrist band, for another it was tickets to a movie. KLM used a busy holiday period at the airport to delight their customers with a small personal gift. The results of this activity speak for themselves. They got an additional 17,528 followers on Foursquare, a Twitter reach of 2.6 million and over 250,000 views on YouTube.

I think a much more telling result is the way KLM is describing this campaign on their Facebook page. They use the line, “discover what happens when a brand stops advertising and starts spreading happiness”. This reflects a cultural shift within KLM about the perception and role of marketing, and is fundamentally altering the way they view their customers. They are brave enough to be a brand that has stopped the traditional ‘look at us, aren’t we great’ marketing language, and have refocused on understanding their customers and communicating with them in personal and surprising ways.

Another stand out is something they call ‘Meet and Seat’. A passenger can connect their LinkedIn and Facebook profiles to their flight and see who else is on the flight. The passenger can then request to be seated next to that person. KLM are using social data to become a business networking tool. Not everyone would want this service, but some will consider a plane trip a good networking opportunity, as long as you are sitting next to the right person.

Can your brand stop advertising and start providing new ways to surprise and delight your customers?

 

Goodbye, Facebook, and thanks for all the fish…

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Build engagement. That’s what social media is about, isn’t it? Engaging with the people who’ve chosen to like your page in order to build a relationship and hopefully nurture a purchase or recommendation from them. Build a community and talk to them frequently about your brand to create an army of adorers.

I, for one, have been a staunch advocate of social media in the past years, and most notably, Facebook as a platform for businesses of all size to reach their target market, or their biggest fans. But I fear it’s time to say goodbye, pack our bags and discover a new way for the SMBs, and even the bigger boys, to engage with their fans.

Let’s use our Facebook page as an example. We have 1200 fans and, dare I say it, genuine fans. Maybe they’re not all potential clients, but they’re certainly people who are interested in what we have to say. We post four or five times a week – not excessive or heavy use – but interesting things we think people will want to read or look at, discussion points and the odd piece of self-promotion.

Our average ‘reach’ over the past 10 posts is 195, or 16%. Sometimes just 94 people see a post, even those posted during the day or at peak traffic times.

A client we work with does a really good job posting to his page on a daily basis. Their page has 5400 fans and the average ‘reach’ over the past ten posts is 657. This is just 12% of the fans. By contrast, their recent email campaign was opened by 28% of his database. If they sent an SMS campaign that would be opened by over 90%.

A further client has 4500 fans and hardly posts at all. Maybe 10 times in the last four weeks. Their reach is 19%.

It’s been well-documented across the blogosphere that these reach numbers are dropping, as Facebook’s algorithm develops to encourage business owners to put their hands in their pockets and spend money to reach fans that freely opted in to hear from the brands they want to know about.

The logic, for Facebook, makes sense. All other avenues of communication for brands cost them money, so should social media. If a business wanted to tell their fans about a special offer in store, they’d have to design a poster, or a flyer, get them printed, and hand them out. So why shouldn’t Facebook make money out of brands talking to fans online?

Because this wasn’t what Zuckerberg talked about when he presented the social web. It was based on cooperation, sharing, following something you liked, engaging with them. It wasn’t based on who had the most money pushing the little guys aside. Facebook isn’t seeing fans as a community anymore, they’re seeing them as numbers. And when you see someone as a number, you start worrying more about what they’re spending than what they’re sharing.

We tried sponsoring a particular post several weeks ago and opted for the ‘people who like your page and their friends’. Now, we’re an Australian business with the capacity to deliver in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. We ended up getting 8445 people seeing the post and 180 likes. Great! Lots of interest on our post and there’s bound to be one or two potential clients there, right?

Wrong. Here are five of the names from those who liked the post:

  • SuperKid Niia Underpressure
  • Rhuudy Trd Speed
  • Jumadi Crooz Metaldeathstreetteamtangbar
  • Abdoel Idttu Gakgpherluepintehrr
  • Coorniajustine Thumberlikes

95% were like this. All based in SE Asia and if genuine at all, totally useless to us. Facebook had found the cheapest route to spend our money by showing the post to thousands of people linked to just two or three of our fans.

Facebook’s IPO several months ago delivered a high expectation of profit from a platform built and developed on the principle of sharing for free. These two things were always going to be mutually exclusive of each other and now the proof is starting to show through.

I would suggest that building a Facebook community and fan base for a small business is now bordering on being too costly for the ROI it will deliver. And not only costly in a financial sense, but incredibly time consuming. So what are the alternatives?

How about we take it out into the real world instead? Spend that time, money and effort not on social media, and spend it in a face-to-face dialogue. I recently spent a weekend at Grand Designs Live in Melbourne watching 30,000 people walk through the doors over three days and engage with 100 different exhibitors. Those exhibitors that were collecting data, selling off their stands, allowing customers to touch and feel what they were selling and handing out information had a huge success. This is engagement. We’re not just talking and touching, but we’re collecting data and really explaining our product to potential purchasers.

For a smaller business, we don’t have to be aiming as high as a larger-scale exhibition. Small engagement strategies can work just as well: a pet food company we work with is looking at developing sampling teams to visit pet stores and dog parks in order to help bring the brand directly to their consumers. Time spent on social media, or time spent putting the dog food into an actual dog?

There has always been a cost associated with activating social media, and despite the title of this article, I’m not suggesting we abandon social media completely. But Facebook has moved itself from a position where imagination superseded cost, to the point where both are now factors in implementing a strategy. Pure creative strategy doesn’t cut the mustard anymore – you need to pay for the reach.

There are other social networks that can deliver engagement in return for ideas and time, but the golden goose of Facebook is no longer laying its eggs. Being able to reach just 15% of your brand advocates who have opted in to receive your communication isn’t a great ROI for your time and effort. Facebook is no longer a must-have, but a nice-to-have. And if the numbers don’t stack up with a declining natural reach, it may even become a not-going-to-have.

 

Window shopping Pinterest users seek out retailers

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Around two-thirds of Pinterest users sign up to the social scrapbooking network specifically to identify potential purchases or engage with brands, a study found.

BizRate Insights’ ‘Online Consumer Pulse’ compared the shopping and brand engagement behaviour of  Pinterest and Facebook users, finding that in addition to generating a huge amount of referral traffic, Pinterest users are far more likely to ‘window shop’ than their Facebook counterparts.

The website monitoring company surveyed 1248 Pinterest users and 4738 Facebook users in North Amercia, revealing 69% of Pinterest users buy or plan to buy an item they found on the social network, compared to 40% of Facebook users.

In addition, 70% of Pinterest users cite ‘to get inspiration on what to buy’ as a main reason for using the social network, while only 17% of Facebook users reported the same motivation.

While Pinterest’s member base cannot compare to Facebook’s billion-plus users, it continues to grow. According to Australian statistics compiled by Social Media News, Pinterest was the eleventh-most visited social network in September, commanding 640,000 active monthly users.  Engagement with the site ranked higher than its user base though – fifth among social media sites with an average of 13 minutes spent per visit.

When it comes to engaging with brands, Pinterest users do so differently than Facebook, with the latter more likely to passively participate with a brand, join a contest, or claim special offers. Pinterest users are much more active evangelists, re-pinning a brand’s posts or pinning items they find at a brand’s website, the study found.

Pinterest also appears to be the stronger vehicle for brand association. A greater percent (55%) of Pinterest users have engaged with retailers and brands via Pinterest, compared to the percent of Facebook users that engage retailers or brands on Facebook (48%).  43% of Pinterest members consciously use the network to ‘associate with retailers or brands with which I identify’, compared to just 24% of Facebook users.

The scrapbooking site is used ‘to keep up with the latest trends on things I like (e.g., fashion, home décor, other interests)’ for 67% of ‘pinners’.

BizRate’s study was conducted between August 9 and August 17, 2012.

 

Infographic: Social media and brands in Australia

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Social media marketing is like putting on a stage show. Give your fans what they want and they’ll love you – they’ll connect with your brand and share word of your prowess. But if you fail to hit the spot, they’ll sling rotten tomatoes your way.

Marketing‘s infographic from the October issue of our magazine looks at the use of social media and what consumers want from brands. With 62% of Australia’s online population a member of at least one social network as of June, the point of critical mass has been reached. However, usage patterns around the country differ slightly, with Twitter use more prolific in NSW and the ACT, and LinkedIn use more pronounced in NSW and Victoria than neighbouring states.

The medium lends itself to some categories better than it does others. Users are most likely to share their views on travel and leisure related industries, with hotels, restaurants, bars and movies the most commonly reviewed topics.

Many consumers refer to social networks as part of the product research process – 67% on an occasional basis and 33% on a weekly basis. On two in five occasions, this research ends in a purchase. Clothing/ fashion is the category most likely to be researched, followed by music and electonics.

Discounts and giveaways continue to be one of the most attractive forms of content, however strong brands or compelling products have no trouble attracting an audience keen to engage in news and imagery.

While more agreed with statements in support of advertising than disagreed, conventional wisdom is solidying around the medium as more suited to social conversations rather than push-based advertising.

Click to enlarge

Pinterest analytics firm launches contest app and Facebook integration

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Pinterest analytics firms Pinfluencer has launched a competition platform for the social scrapbooking site that provides the architecture to manage promotions and integrate with Facebook.

The platform is similar to the competition apps that social marketing software companies such as Wildfire create to help brands manage promotions on Facebook.

‘Pinterest Promotions’ launched yesterday, according to Adweek, allowing brands to set up contests and sweepstakes on Facebook or the brands’ own sites that link back to their Pinterest pages. The idea is to convert Facebook fans into Pinterest followers and stimulate sharing, or ‘re-pinning’ of the brand’s Pinterest content.

Fashion retailer Gilt has come onboard as a launch partner for the platform with a ‘Pin to Win: Gilt Wedding Style!” contest. The competition asks users to create a pinboard and repin one of five bridal gowns from Gilt’s wedding pinboard, as well as add images of other parts of their dream wedding.

Ten other companies tested the platform in beta over the past month, Adweek reports, and EBay and Sephora are set to launch their own Pinfluencer-powered campaigns next week.

CEO of Pinfluencer, Sharad Varma, said the platform will enable brands to cross-pollinate their Facebook and Pinterest fan bases, but added that its more than just an acquisition play. “Through our contest analytics dashboard, brands can easily get high-level ROI metrics,” Varma said.

Pinfluencer measures Pinterest page performance metrics like number of pins, repins, clicks and page views. It also has the ability to track revenue from purchases that stemmed from engagement on a page or from one of the Pinterest Promotion contests.

Brands can use that data to see what content performs best on Pinterest, but down the line they could use it to inform off-Pinterest advertising, Varma told Adweek.

“At some point, [brands] can also use contest pinboards and promote them on online display ad networks as a way to drive traffic to the boards,” Varma said.

 

Facebook sponsored stories boost conversion rates… if done right

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Facebook has many advertising options but one that seems to be serving brands well is sponsored stories. In fact, Advertisers are enjoying the increased click-through of these ads so much we anticipate they will account for approximately 50% of Facebook ad budgets by the end of 2012.

Sponsored stories differ from other marketplace ads by including or highlighting user endorsements. Facebook sponsored stories are more effective and relevant to the average user and more likely to be clicked on than the traditional Facebook ad. If executed well, sponsored stories provide a significant boost to conversion rates, in part because these ad placements appear not only on the right rail but also prominently as a part of users’ news feeds.

As with all advertising, sponsored stories need to be tailored in order to influence the social context of Facebook. Below are four options of sponsored stories and the benefits they will bring a brand if done well.

Check-in story

Facebook combined with mobile devices adds a new element to the social context of Facebook. When a user checks in at a store, the information gets distributed to each of their friends’ news feeds, promoting the brand and store location. Check-in stories create an engagement opportunity for retail marketers with high brand recognition or a strong local presence. With check-in stories, it is important for companies to claim their locations first so they can advertise against them. Measuring the value of the check-in story is difficult as purchases that result from this ad unit are likely to happen offline.

Page post story

Facebook ‘likes’ are great for a business pages however positive comments via posts are better. This is where page post sponsored stories are beneficial. When a user visits a Facebook page and leaves a glowing review of a product or service, page post stories allows the company to turn this endorsement into an ad. This ad serves as a testimonial and in turn can be useful in building a brand or generating leads. Advertisers choose which comments become page post stories eliminating the risk of accidentally promoting a negative comment.

Domain story

If a company’s goal is to drive traffic from Facebook to its website, domain sponsored stories are highly effective. Domain stories are quite comprehensive and require more time to set up however if done well they offer significant value. It is a great tool for performance marketing or ecommerce companies looking to acquire leads from social networks as it allows them to navigate users to their website from Facebook.

Domain sponsored stories work when a visitor comes to a company’s site while logged into Facebook and ‘likes’ the site. After the user likes the site, a story is created about it in their news feed telling their friends that they have ‘liked’ the site. A click on this ad would send the user to the advertiser’s website. Sponsoring these stories increases the visibility of these posts, either in the news feed or on the right rail, creating additional opportunities for clicks to the site. Domain stories offer advertisers a way to generate new leads and revenue through word-of-mouth marketing.

Page like story

Page like stories are very similar to domain stories however rather than promoting a visitor ‘liking’ a website, page like stories promote when a visitor ‘likes’ a Facebook page. When users view and click on these posts they are directed to the company’s Facebook page.

Page like stories are particularly useful for brand advertisers seeking to grow the popularity of their Facebook pages because when a user sees that a friend has liked something they are more inclined to view it. Most importantly, because the unit is well integrated into the news feed, it reinforces the brands image of being a valued part of social activity on Facebook.

 

For marketers, choosing the right mix of sponsored stories is integral to the overall success of a campaign and increasing a company’s brand awareness. If utilised properly, sponsored stories can be the most powerful adverting tools in social media. They are cost effective, easy to use, provide insight into target audiences, allow users to generate their own content, are measurable and highly engaging, have wide reach, increase credibility and most importantly generate strong results.

 

Facebook to enable promotion in news feeds of non-fans

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Facebook has announced that brands may soon be able to pay to have page posts shown in the news feeds of non-page fans, extending their reach beyond users who have ‘liked’ the brand.

Tests of the new ‘ad unit’ will begin soon, Facebook wrote in an email to Marketing:

“Starting soon, we are beginning a very small test that will allow marketers to promote page posts to people beyond their fans in the news feed… These ads will look like other page post ads in news feed and be labelled as sponsored.  We think this will make it easier for businesses to reach more people.”

The ads will appear in both desktop and mobile versions of the social network. It is another extension of ‘sponsored stories’ which Facebook made available in the news feed of page fans in March. Described as a ‘reach generator’ product, it allowed brands to pay for a guaranteed reach of 75% of their fan’s news feeds. The new ad product will allow brands to take reach a step further by targeting people who are yet to ‘like’ their page.

Facebook says they will gather feedback from participants in the test to help improve their ad experience.

New Facebook ad unit

 

Facebook’s ‘move-fast, break-things culture’ sparks emergency ad summit

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Facebook held an unpublicised emergency summit with ad agencies in New York two weeks ago to clear up confusion about its policies for ads, apps and pages, Adweek reports.

The social network met with nearly 40 ad agencies after many were found to be pitching campaign ideas that didn’t meet with the platform’s guidelines. Billed as the ‘Facebook Policy Summit’, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and various other ad agencies attended the meeting aimed at resolving numerous pain points associated with the social media marketing platform.

Interactive director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Ivan Perez-Armendariz, described Facebook’s policy as being longer than the US Constitution. “Facebook has a move-fast-and-break-things culture,” Perez-Armendariz told Adweek. “You might have a green light on a concept only to find out later on that the policy has changed … We’ve had instances where a major investment has been made, and then it gets shelved.”

Reported to have taken place 10-11 July, various ad firms from major holding companies to smaller digital agencies convened with Facebook executives at the newly public company’s midtown New York offices.

VP of global agencies and clients at Facebook, Blake Chandlee, said the top question on the agency’s lips was how they could find out about policy changes before they get implemented. Chandlee said agencies will participate in a brainstorming session about how Facebook can better communicate new policy information.

“That’s something historically that we haven’t done that well,” Chandlee said. “[We want to] more effectively do that because it’s a big community. There are hundreds of thousands of employees who get affected by this stuff around the world.”

According to Adweek, Chandlee described the policy summit as a good start to remedying a fairly persistent headache for creatives.

“Sometimes you read policies and think, ‘Why would they do that? Why are they trying to reduce the creative canvas that I have?’” he said. “[Last week] when we explained we were trying to protect the user experience and the value it delivers to both users and brands, it seemed the light bulb went off for a lot of people. And it will be an ongoing dialogue.”

Whether the policy summit becomes a recurring event is yet to be determined, Facebook said. The event is yet another effort to build advertiser confidence in the network, which in the last 18 months have included indicatives such as Facebook Studio, Facebook Studio Live, Facebook Studio Edge, Facebook Studio Awards and Shipyard.

 

BBC punches holes in Facebook with virtual bagel stunt

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The BBC has conducted a test to show that Facebook ‘likes’ generated from sponsored ad placements within the social network may be of little value unless tightly targeted.

The experiment, in which technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones bought ads for a fictional ‘virtual bagel’ company, found that many likes received from the global campaign appeared to be from fake accounts or users from Egypt that liked thousands of pages.

With so much of the value of the social networking giant based on its potential ad revenue, and questions over the efficacy of advertising in its tightly controlled ecosystem circling, the exercise speculated that global activity in particular, whether it be number of ‘likes’ or clicks on ads, may be of little or no value.

The page for the virtual bagel company was set up with very little information apart from a brief, vague description so that it would be of little interest to Facebook users. However, through an ad in the right hand sidebar that prompted users to like the page with the text “We send virtual bagels, just click to enjoy”, Cellan-Jones received 2999 likes in just a few days.

The ad was set to display in the UK, US, India, Egypt, Indonesia and the Philippines to users aged 13-45 years with an interest in health and wellbeing, cooking and early adoption of technology, exposing the ad to a potential audience of 66 million people.

Almost all of the likes came from users in India, Egypt, Indonesia or the Philippines, according to Cellan-Jones, with few coming from the US and the UK. Facebook’s analytics show where a page is most popular, which in this case emerged as Cairo among 13-17 year olds. Cellan-Jones made the point that some of his page’s fans looked to be fake accounts which had liked over 3000 pages.

“All of this raises questions in my mind and probably in advertisers’ minds about the real value of untargeted advertising on Facebook,” he says in a video showing his approach to the experiment. “What seems to be happening is that people in certain parts of the world are incredibly keen to click on random adverts for no apparent reason. That generates a lot of money for Facebook in the short term, but may have an impact on the long term perception of its value.”

Facebook responded to the test by saying it had “not seen evidence of a significant problem”. You can see the company’s full response to the test here.

The exercise was conducted using an untargeted campaign and in doing so makes the point that global pages of large brands may have likes from users with limited value, but it also speculates over the value of pages and Facebook ads generally using a single methodology flawed by its lack of targeting. However, Facebook in its defence of the efficacy of its system has also been guilty of cherry-picking data to paint a positive picture in the past. Meanwhile, the industry is still yet to see the full picture of the social network’s effectiveness from an independent point of view.