Archive for the 'Facebook' Category

Why use Facebook to market your brand…

Published
by
sarah
on August 4, 2010
in Facebook and Social Media
. 0 Comments

Essentially because everyone is doing it and if you don’t you will be left behind!

Brands are embracing the Facebook fan page as a way to market online and to engage their customers.  With Facebook membership soaring to unbelievable levels, now 500 million users worldwide, there is no wonder that brands are harnessing the power of social media to market their wares.

Here are some features the fan page has:  they are visible to unregistered people and are thus indexed, you can host a discussion, there is a discussion wall, a discussion forum, extra applications can be added, you can message all members,  you can get visitor statistics, there is public exchange of video and photos to name but a few.
Coca Cola has an unbelievable 7,219,810 fans! The Hangover film has 5,428,923 fans, Red Bull has 6,054,643, Disney has 4,323,163 fans and Ben and Jerry’s - 1,313,604 fans.   Quite astounding I think you’d agree.
If top brands are embracing Facebook fan pages then this must be telling us something.   It seems to be a winning formula; you can communicate with your customers via a platform they use regularly, in their language, engage them and at the same time get some free stats on customer demographics which is all very valuable.  There is a wealth of information.  It’s a marketers dream! We’re all for it her eat Nudge, of course.

Social media – it’s a two-way street!

Published
by
sarah
on July 29, 2010
in Facebook and Social Media
. 0 Comments

Using Facebook to market your brand is a new and wondrous thing! However, it’s not something that you can do on a one off basis. It takes a serious investment of time to create a genuine two-way relationship.
Social media after all is about interaction. If your brand wants to use social media then it must be aware that this is what customers are expecting. They do not want to see a wall full of static adverts and generic brand tag lines. They want dynamic and fun content. They want to be entertained at the heart of it.
It’s also not advisable to leave the management of your social media campaigns/Facebook fan page to a junior. Any communications sent out are in real-time and so mistakes can not be made. The manager of the page must be well versed in what your brand stands for and know what constitutes an acceptable message to put out in the public domain. Once this is understood, however, let the love flow!

If you’re not on facebook, you’re not invited!

Published
by
sarah
on July 27, 2010
in Facebook and Social Media
. 0 Comments

Now that almost everyone has a Facebook account, understanding how different people use
it, and how it has changed the way we interact with others in the real world, may lead to a
better understanding of human social nature, and help see the effects Facebook will have on
our lives in the future.
One of the big differences in usage of Facebook is the way it has become an integral part of
some people’s lives and just a toy for others, this could be because of many factors such as
age, access to internet or a user’s outlook on life. Age is a good example as the difference
is easily seen when contrasting elder users with young users; the elderly (if on Facebook at
all) tend to use Facebook in ways that they understand, to send messages and sometimes
upload pictures like a message board, and who spend relatively few hours on Facebook.
Contrast this with many teen users who, with a greater grasp of virtual concepts and more
internet knowhow, spend large amounts of time on Facebook, commenting, sending invites,
creating events, groups and “Facebook stalking”. These users rely heavily on Facebook for
their social lives and lack of access can restrict access to things in real life. An example of
this is my own experience with social events. One of my friends I don’t see often was having
a BBQ, I was invited via Facebook but had never before used the events part of Facebook
so never saw the invitation and missed a supposedly “Killer feed”. Even only a year ago
things would have been different, I would have got a text message regarding the event.
Facebook had a real effect on my life regardless of whether I chose it or not, in a way forcing
me to log on to get access to my own friends.
The move to use Facebook for notification of events is just one of the ways Facebook is
changing how we interact with others. For example Facebook is now the way I communicate
with my friends, when only a year ago I would have been emailing them. If I take photos
now, I post the best ones to Facebook because I know my friends are there to view them.
It has given me a new way to interact with my friends and family that I never had before.
The increase in connectivity has opened up access to more social groups and events but at
the same time has come at the cost of human interaction. For example because of the ease
in which I can contact and interact with some friends, I less frequently see them in real life.
Facebook is now so big there would be an outcry were it to disappear or change too
drastically, it is moving to replace many of the social interaction humans have established
in the past and it is important for us understand this so we have some measure of control
over our social networks. Some people may like or dislike these changes, but is a reality of
a future in which we are all connected through the giant that is Facebook.

Nabil Boag

Take aways from the Facebook Developer Garage in London

Published
by
guillaume
on June 24, 2010
in Facebook, Nudge News and Social Media
. 0 Comments

The Facebook Developer Garage held on Monday 21st June at the Barbican centre was probably the best one I have attended so far as Mark Zuckerberg and other senior figures from Facebook were present to give more information on where Facebook is heading and what their plans are for Europe.

So here is a list of the information we got throughout day:

Figures:

70% of Facebook users are not in the US, so Facebook has to start a real global push.

200 million gamers on Facebook playing 4 games on average per month

Now 26 million UK users (the UK is the second biggest market for Facebook)

300,00 websites have implemented the like button (50% are European websites)

More than 1 billion pieces of content are ‘liked’ every day

Social Gaming:

  • Facebook is the biggest gaming platform worldwide and had just launched the beginning of a revolution. As the CEO of Playfish said, we have only scratched the surface of social gaming.
  • Social gaming breaks down access barriers to the games people play, requiring nothing that a user doesn’t already have (e.g. Facebook account, mobile phone, and computer) - as opposed to a console: PS3/XBOX/Wii.
  • Facebook credits simplify micro-transactions, and there’s a social element too. Credits build trust so that when a user sees a payment request from an app they can see the friends that have trusted the service before.
  • Facebook credits are a key to profitability for the company. As Facebook takes a commission of 30% on any given transaction, it represents a strong revenue stream for the company.

Recommendations Features (Social Plugins):

  • Implement Amazon style recommendations on your website. The Recommendation Facebook social plugins offers new opportunities for brands to personalise the content of their website: it applies the Facebook engine to your website content (what everyone likes + what your friends like + what you liked before).

How Facebook Works as a Company:

  • First the great idea, then the monetisation plan. The company focuses on a great idea and monetisation will follow if it works, Facebook (even in its leaner days) didn’t think about monetisation until the idea had developed and succeeded on its own merits.
  • Facebook still perceives itself as a start up. Mark Zuckerberg kept saying that this was the beginning of the journey. And even when describing his company, he insisted they were still small, with a team of 30 engineers taking care of the platform and only one guy in charge of the chat function (which is the 2nd or 3rd biggest in the world).

Facebook in Europe:

  • Europe is a key territory for Facebook’s future expansion. As there are 140 millions Facebook users in Europe, it has become a market as vital as the US for the company. And as the penetration rate is lower, in the long run, Europe will overcome the US in terms of users. So by investing in Europe, it looks like Facebook plans to generate more revenue from here too.
  • Facebook is going to extend its European presence to strengthen its relationship with developers and agencies. It means more support for developers in Europe with engineers available on European time zones. This also involves more Facebook Developer Garages organised all over Europe.

Location Feature:

  • “Coming soon” was Mark Zuckerberg’s comment when the question was raised.

‘Liked’ by Everyone:

  • Everyone within the Nudge team liked Mark Zuckerberg. He is a lot more down to earth than he appears when he does public speaking.

What I found extremely interesting throughout the day was how Facebook CEOs insisted that what they have achieved so far it is just the beginning of the journey. So expect Facebook to become the social network of choice for 1 billion users, have one of the most demanded (virtual) currencies on the planet and be implemented on every website. Get used to it: Facebook will be the web.

Facebook Developer Garage Hackathon

Published
by
steve
on June 21, 2010
in Facebook and Nudge News
. 1 Comment

A different way to spend a Sunday - yesterday saw Facebook executives and senior members of the Facebook development team stopping by the Facebook Developer Garage Hackathon in central London. The aim of a ‘hackathon’ is to bash out a complete Facebook application in one afternoon (or one afternoon and a full night for those with the stamina), mirroring an exercise Facebook carries out internally to generate platform ideas.


Steve from Nudge talking through an idea with Mark Zuckerberg

Teams presented their entries to a panel of high-profile judges including Mr Mark Zuckerberg himself, with three winning teams going on to present their hacks to attendees and the general press at Monday’s special edition of the Facebook Developer Garage.

Nudge scored a great result, with a team headed up by Toby being chosen as one of the three winners. The app, titled “Tube Warning”, pairs Facebook Event data with the freshly released London Underground API to create a mashup that warns users of impending travel problems before they leave for their specific event.

A good (long) day was had by all - as well as some great idea’s being presented, it was also a great opportunity to chat face to face with Zuckerberg about Facebook’s intentions regarding Open Graph and Facebook for websites.

See more photos over at the Nudge Facebook Page

Decode the Facebook Insignia

Published
by
guillaume
on June 18, 2010
in Facebook
. 0 Comments

In case you haven’t heard yet, Mark Zuckerberg had a bit of a Nixon moment when he was sweating during an interview at the D8 conference. But more embarrassing than this was when he took off his hoody and everyone discovered a mysterious insignia on the inside of it.

The insignia tells us a lot about the direction the company is taking:

  • The unofficial mission of Facebook as a company is to “Make the world open and connected”.
  • 2010 appears as an important milestones for the company as it now has three pillars:

1. The stream that aggregates and displays users’ content.

2. The platform that enables brands to engage customers through bespoke applications.

3. The open graph that lets Facebook index the web and re-organise the information.

  • Facebook’s use of user data, represented by the blue ring, is the cement of their strategy, used to sustain the three pillars and enable further expansion.

So what do you think of this insignia? Do you find it useful to explain Facebook’s strategy? Does it scare you? Or do you just think its cheesy and completely geeky?

The True Value of a Facebook Fan

Published
by
guillaume
on June 15, 2010
in Facebook
. 0 Comments

Syncapse has compiled a fantastic empirical review to determine the value of a Facebook fan to a brand. The study was run in the US and is based on 20 mega brands including Nike, McDonald’s and Sony PlayStation.

Here are the highlights of the study:

  • Fans were reported to spend on average $71.84 per year more than respondents who were not fans.
  • Fans are not created equal: if the average value of a fan is $136.38, the fan value can reach up to $270.77 in the best case, or go down to $0.
  • The most valuable fans are those of McDonald’s who present an annual value of $508.16.
  • Facebook fans are 20% more likely to continue using a brand than non-fan consumers.
  • 68% of Facebook fans indicated that they are very likely to recommend a product compared to only 28% for non-fans.
  • 34% of respondents are more likely to become a fan of the brand if they see that one of their Facebook friends is already a fan.
  • 36% of respondents are more likely to try a product if one of their Facebook friends became a fan
  • 81% of fans feel a connection/empathy with the brand, compared to 39% of non-fans.

As Syncapse states it in its report, “It is important to note that this audience would still have value without Facebook, although arguably much less discernable value”.

Lost in Translation on Facebook

Published
by
guillaume
on June 10, 2010
in Facebook
. 0 Comments

Semantically speaking, Facebook fan pages have always been weird. They are officially called ‘Public Profiles’, but as you were used to ‘Becoming a fan’ of them, they were called by the marketing industry and Facebook users a ‘fan page’ - an easier to understand and more funky name than the official one.

However, now that you ‘like’ a page, the question is: ‘What should you call them?’ Well based on what happened before, we should probably call them ‘Like pages’ and so the people that liked them are ‘Likers’ and not ‘fans’.

It doesn’t sound terribly exciting, which might explain why Facebook and everyone else have kept the previous name. So now I’m wondering what would happen if Facebook changed the ‘Like’ to ‘Awesome’ instead? Users that like a page would be ‘Awesome users’ and brands would have ‘Awesome pages’. Now we have a name that rocks!

Build a Facebook Application, Stupid!

Published
by
guillaume
on May 28, 2010
in Facebook
. 0 Comments

5 years ago, if you were a Brand Manager and had to launch an online campaign, you would have built a micro site. Today, you would build a Facebook application. Here is why:

You cannot ignore 400 million users (and counting)

Facebook has become the entry gate of the web. If you take an average internet user, he automatically does two things when he has access to the internet: He checks his emails and then he checks his Facebook account. By creating something that is already on Facebook, you put your content a step closer to users.

You can do so many things with users’ content

As Facebook users put so much of their own content on the platforms, (picture, status updates, notes,   videos, etc) it means there is a solid basis you can use to convey your message. You can mix this content with that of your brand’s, to create a social mash up of content, that users will share with their friends, and this ensures it will go viral.

Fans vs. Visitors: A long lasting relationship vs. A one time visit

When people visit your microsite, they give you a 30 second attention span and they might never come back to it. If you attached your application to a fan page, users ‘Like’ it. This means you can reach them through their newsfeed or messages, and make them come back to you.

It is cheaper

You can build a state of the art Facebook application for £25,000. Can you say the same for a microsite?

It has a higher retention rate

As half of the Facebook users come back to the application every day and there are strong mechanisms to get their attention, (stories on wall; invites; notifications) you have the means to make users coming back to your content a lot easier, than with a microsite.

It spreads more easily

Because you engage users on their favourite platforms, they are just one click away to sharing your content with their friends. And, as any activity they perform appears in their newsfeed, it means it will get the attention of their friends.

Users have changed

In 2010, users want to interact with campaigns that are fun and which engage them with their friends. And there is no better platform for this than Facebook.

How to Run a Competition on Facebook

Published
by
guillaume
on May 25, 2010
in Facebook
. 0 Comments

So, you have defined a strategy for your presence on Facebook and launched your fan page. Now you want to initiate the last sequence of your master plan, by setting up a competition on Facebook to get more fans on your page. In addition to all the general regulations for this kind of action, here are the most important points from the Facebook promotional policies:

  • You need to go through an approval process of Facebook giving you the green light.
  • Your application can only be run on the tab of a fan page or on canvas (i.e. on an application).
  • You need to buy ad space (know that the minimum spent is $10,000 for 30 days).

If you want to see successful examples of competitions on Facebook, have a look at the ‘Superfans’ application for Domino’s Pizza or the ‘ModNation Football Legends’ applications for Sony PlayStation.