Facebook pages will soon have access to a new free story type that allows page owners to post offers that users can collect from News Feed or ad units. Unlike check-in deals, which required users to first visit a physical location, offers can be redeemed in-store or online. The social network plans to remove check-in deals in the coming weeks.

Offers will be created directly from the page publisher and do not require approval from Facebook before going live. Check-in deals, on the other hand, were available through a hard-to-find dashboard and needed to be reviewed by Facebook. Starting today, no new check-in deals will be approved, but Facebook hasn’t provided exact timing for when these deals will be removed from the site completely.

For users, getting offers is frictionless. One click (or tap on mobile) sends the offer to a user’s email account. From there, they can use the voucher at a brick and mortar location or enter a coupon code into an e-commerce site. When users get an offer, a story is available to be shown on Timeline and in their friends’ News Feeds, increasing the viral reach of the promotion.

Creating an offer is free for page owners, just like making any other post. Companies, however, can pay to boost the unit into a Sponsored Story by using the self-serve ad tool, or turn it into a premium homepage ad by working directly with Facebook.

We first saw Facebook testing offers in December. At the time they were called coupons. The company has since tweaked the wording and design of how offers display in News Feed and in Sponsored Stories.

Pages will get this feature in the next few weeks. We have not yet seen the interface for creating offers, but will provide details on how to create them when it is available.

As anticipated, Facebook announced today its page insights product will now update in real time.

This gives page owners instant access to insights such as People Talking About This, and Page post metrics including “reach” and “engaged users.” Previously this data was updated every 48 hours. The information will only be visible within the insights dashboard, not inline with posts as it was previously.

Real-time page insights will be made available to all page admins over the next few weeks.

In January 2011, Facebook tried to show insights in real time underneath each page post. Many page owners found the data inconsistent with actual performance. It is very technically difficult to achieve real-time insights at the scale Facebook is working on. There were more than 37 million pages with 10 or more Likes as of Dec. 31, 2011, according to regulatory filings made by Facebook ahead of its initial public offering.

Having all insights in real time instead of on a two-day delay isn’t likely to change most page owners behavior, but it could help organizations better track how their posts perform each hour. We talk more about the implications of real-time insights here.

Facebook announced today that premium ads will be displayed on a new “logout experience” page, immediately after Facebook users log out of Facebook using their desktop web browser. This is part of a significant overhaul of its premium advertising options available to advertisers working directly with the company.

Previously, when users logged out of Facebook, they were redirected to the logged-out home page that prompts users to either login or register a new account. Now the page can feature a very large and prominent ad, which logically replaces the signup portion of the page that is not relevant to users who already have Facebook accounts. Below is a sample photo, provided by Facebook, of the logout experience page:

Though many Facebook users stay logged in for long periods, this potentially represents monetization of hundreds of millions of monthly pageviews that previously display advertising. The addition of premium ads to the logout page will help Facebook generate enough impressions to reach the 75 percent of fans that it guarantees through its Reach Generator solution for Premium advertisers, also announced today.

Any premium page post ad is eligible to be shown on the logout screen. This includes videos, photos, offers, events and questions. A user does not have to be connected to a page in order to see this type of ad.

Stay tuned for more coverage of today’s fMC event, and see our liveblog of the keynote presentation.

The Inside Network Job Board is dedicated to providing you with the best job opportunities across social and mobile application platforms.

Here are this week’s highlights from the Inside Network Job Board, including positions at GREE International, Inc., Nickelodeon Games Group, SponsorPay, Atari, Addmired, Social Point, TinyCo, King.com, PlayMesh, RealNetworks, Inc., Mob Science, PopCap Games and Index Middle East Ltd. Co.

• Senior Manager, Corporate Development

• Creative Director/Creative & Game Design Lead, MQ
  
• Managing Producer / Product Director, Monkey Quest

• Director of Developer Relations

• Monetization Analyst – Mobile/Social Games
• Acquisition Marketing Manager – Mobile Games
• Mobile Producer
• Mobile Advertising Sales Manager
• Business Development Director – Mobile Games

• Erlang Infrastructure Developer
• C/C++ Game Developer
• Tools Engineer
• Scalability Engineer
• Build/Release Engineer
• Senior Producer/Project Manager
• QA/CS Director
• Senior Operations Engineer
• Acquisition Manager/Mobile Ad Buyer

• Product Manager (Video Games)
• iOS Developer
• Senior Systems Administrator

• Data Analyst
• Product Manager
• C++ Game Engineer
• Game Designer
• UI Artist
• MySQL and Vertica DBA
• Backend Engineer

• Ad Operations Traffic
• Senior Producer, Social Games – King.com
• Product Manager Network

• Backend Game Developer

• Product Manager

• Game Designer

• Flash Developer

Index Middle East Ltd. Co.

• Mobile Games Producer

At today’s fMC event in New York City, Facebook announced that Sponsored Stories and Premium ads will begin to appear in News Feed on m.facebook.com and native iOS and Android apps. This marks the first time the company has brought ads into its mobile products and is part of a significant update to its marketing and advertising products, centered around the introduction of Timeline for businesses.

Sponsored Stories in the mobile News Feed will appear similar to Sponsored Stories on the desktop News Feed, which were introduced in January. Premium ads are only available to advertisers working directly with Facebook representatives, not from the self-serve or Ads API tools.

While the introduction of Sponsored Stories to the mobile News Feed was expected, the appearance of Premium Ads in both the desktop and mobile News Feed (as opposed to their previous position on the right side of the desktop homepage) is very new. This allows premium advertisers to reach fans connected to their Page from within News Feed, even if there is no friend activity that could generate a Sponsored Story. While Premium ads in the News Feed are still relevant to the user, as they are only displayed to users who have already liked a given page, they are arguably less organic than Facebook’s past offering of Sponsored Stories in the News Feed, as they are focused on promoting content at scale, rather than friend activity on a Page.

Users who do not want to see promoted page posts in News Feed can unlike those pages. However, if a friend interacts with a page and the page is paying for Sponsored Stories, those items can show on desktop and  mobile.

Stay tuned for more coverage of today’s fMC event, and see our liveblog of the keynote presentation here.

At today’s fMC event in New York City, Facebook announced Reach Generator, a new premium advertising solution for large clients seeking to reach a higher percentage of fans via sponsored activity.

Reach Generator allows advertisers to pay Facebook on an ongoing basis, as opposed to a CPC or CPM basis, to sponsor one page post every day, and guarantee a 75 percent reach of the page’s fanbase over a month-long period. The company said that test partners, including Ben & Jerry’s, were able to reach 98 percent of their page’s fans using Reach Generator, a massive increase over the 16 percent of fans that Pages, on average, reach without ads or Sponsored Stories.

Reach Generator was outlined briefly on Facebook’s mobile site for the event, and then hidden from view. Below is the text from Facebook’s description of Reach Generator:

Make sure your fans see your stories

This “always on” packaged solution makes it easy for you to regularly reach and engage 75% of your fans with meaningful content from your Page. You focus on creating engaging content on your newly designed Page, while we ensure that your fans see the stories you are telling.

• Reach Generator is easy and simple to use.
• You post great, relevant content on your Page, and Facebook will automatically distribute it to your fans.
• We guarantee you will reach a majority of your fans and see great results.

We’re at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City covering the Facebook Marketing Conference. The social network launched Timeline for pages this morning. Now Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, VP of Product Chris Cox, Director of Global Business Marketing Mike Hoefflinger and VP of Business & Marketing Partnerships David Fischer will lead a keynote for about 1,500 marketers.

Tune in to the livestream of the event here, and watch this space for updates.

10:10 a.m. Sheryl Sandberg takes the stage and begins to share emotional stories about how Facebook has enabled individuals connect and help each other. These stories “reflect a really fundamental change in society,” she says. “Technology is empowering us.”

10:15 a.m. Sandberg talks about real identity and the power of personalization and connection through Facebook. “Everyone can have a voice.” She notes, “The power of individual voice is not new,” but “the difference now is that so many people can have voice at scale.”

“What it means to be social is if you want to talk to me, you have to listen to me as well.”

10:18 a.m. “People think technology brings us apart. We think it brings people together.”

10:19 a.m. Sandberg shares stories about NATO and “Imagine if politicians all over the world used Facebook to be that transparent.”

10:20 a.m. Sandberg tells how Victor Cruz shared Spotify playlist before Super Bowl.

10:21 a.m. Sandberg says much of what’s happening on the web is taking things from offline and putting them online. TV commercials become online videos. Billboards become Facebook posts. We believe that will no longer work. People want to be a full part of the conversation. This is a really pivotal time for all of us. We’re going to find our voice, learn how to use it, listen and adapt. This is going to happen in small and powerful ways everyday.

10:22 a.m. “Your customers are listening, so engage them.” We want to make the entire world more open and connected. We know that if we want to take everything and make it social, we can’t do it alone. We are a partnership company. As our business grows, others will too. We provide technology that enables others.

“If we’re going to make marketing truly social, it won’t be us. It will be you. It will be the people in this room today.”

10:25 a.m. “We’re at the very beginning of what’s possible, if we put people at the center of everything we do.”

10:27 a.m. Chris Cox takes the stage and tells his story about interviewing at Facebook years ago. Co-founder Dustin Moskowitz told Cox not to think about Facebook as just a site for profiles. He told him to think about “The Graph.” The connections between people.

First Facebook profile was designed to be a directory for people around you. It was designed to be the first five minutes of a conversation.

10:29 a.m. Timeline for profiles is meant to be the next several minutes or hours of a conversation.

10:30 a.m. Cox talks more about what Moscowitz told him the future of Facebook would be. He talked about News Feed becoming personalized newspapers for people.

10:33 a.m. News Feed has moved beyond college gossip to include more links, photos and other stories.

10:34 a.m. Now we’re starting to see brands and artists sharing interactive, rich content.

10:35 a.m. Facebook is meant to be a social platform with tools that can be applied to any device. The current model for most software is that people are anonymous interacting with a interface. Cox talks about people’s relationship with television. He suggests a future of turning on a TV and seeing what friends have watched, clips that people are talking about, shows like others you like.

1:37 a.m. Director of Global Business Marketing Mike Hoefflinger takes the stage. He starts talking about razors. He says decades ago, people bought products based on relationships with the people who made them. Then when companies had to operate at scale, they had to rely on advertising. Now with Facebook, relationships are back. He says stories are replacing ads. ”Ads are good. Stories are better.”

1:41 a.m. “Pages are mission control for your business, your stories.”

1:56 a.m. “Pages will be mission control for premium on Facebook. It’s time to introduce something a little more. As a part of Premium on Facebook we say those stories are eligible for News Feed, me mean desktop and mobile.”

Introduced Reach Generator, a new way to scale distribution, engagement and results. 

Premium on Facebook is the most impactful way to distribute your content. Over the last few years we’ve tested the efficacy of premium ads. We can achieve 3x return on investment and sometimes more.

Starting today when you are telling stories, when you are communicating with people you are connected to and running premium ads, your stories are eligible to show in News Feed. Beta tests showed 5-10x CTR over the rest of Facebook.

“When we say stories are eligible for News Feed, we mean desktop and we mean mobile starting today.”

1:58 p.m. We’re introducing a fourth optional placement to show ads during the logout experience coming in April. Shows content to users when they log out of Facebook.

“One story — we take care of distribution to other areas.”

“Premium on Facebook is the best way to get your stories in front of an audience.”

2:03 p.m. VP of Business & Marketing Partnerships David Fischer takes the stage to lead a panel with Walmart EVP and CMO Stephen Quinn, CEO of Aegis Media North America Nigel Morris, and President of 1-800-Flowers.com Chris McCann. They talked about how the industry has changed in recent years and how social media is affecting their businesses.

Facebook today unveils Timeline for pages — a combination of design elements and moderation features that give organizations the controls they need to maintain an effective presence on the social network.

The redesign, the largest for pages since February 2011, creates a more unified look and feel for the site after profiles and groups were updated earlier this year. Page owners will have a 30-day window in which to redesign their pages and publish when they are ready. On March 30, all pages will automatically switch to the new format.

The layout features a cover photo and larger stories presented chronologically, similar to Timeline for personal profiles. What differs is the ability to pin a post to the top of a page and a friend activity box that makes pages more relevant to each user. Page tabs still function, but there is no longer an option to set a third-party tab as default. A new admin panel, activity log and direct message feature will help page owners manage their communities.

We had a chance to preview the new pages. Here’s what we found:

Cover Photo

In lieu of a unique landing tab, pages have a 851×315 pixel photo to convey a brand message. Facebook wants to keep cover photos from looking like banner ads, however, so images cannot include price or purchase information, contact info, calls to action or references to Facebook features such as Like or Share. Page owners might be frustrated by this, but we can see why Facebook would do it as most users won’t understand what aspects of a page are done by third-parties versus done by Facebook. If pages use cover photos like advertisements, many users could confuse them for actual ads.

Timeline

Page owners can now add milestones and choose to make featured posts larger than others, similar to what users can do with life events on Timeline (see below). Pages can also hide individual posts without deleting them. This allows pages to display only its most engaging posts without losing important data.

Additionally, page owners can pin an important post to the top of the page — something they’ve wanted to do for a long time. Pinned posts can stay for up to seven days. Unlike on Twitter, pinned posts are available to all page, not just premium advertisers.

Admin Panel

A new management tool appears at the top of pages to which a person has admin rights. It gives a snapshot of insights, people who recently Liked the page, fan activity notifications and a message inbox. Pages can now accept direct messages from users, which is similar to a feature we saw tested in December 2011. This allows customer service issues and other sensitive matters to be discussed privately instead of on the wall. Pages cannot initiate direct messages with fans.

The admin panel also includes Help Center items like “Request a name change for your page,” prompts to create ads and other tips for page owners.

Activity Log

As on personal profiles, the activity log is useful for finding and editing old posts. Admins can sort items by year or type of story. The activity log is only visible to users who have admin rights to the page. From screenshots we’ve seen, insights for each post are not shown in the activity log, but this would be a helpful addition.

Applications

Page tab apps continue to function, but instead of listing apps down the left side of the page, apps are available on the right beneath the cover photo. Fewer tabs can be highlighted above a “See more” option, but all apps benefit from larger thumbnails. App images are 111×74 pixels instead of the 16×16 pixel favicons used previously. Apps themselves can now be up to 810 pixels wide. They render on a new page underneath a header with a link back to the page, a drop-down menu with other tabs and a Like button if users don’t already.

Facebook will no longer allow default landing tabs. The company recommends pages pin a post that links to a particular tab. According to cover photo guidelines, pages cannot add images that use arrows or text to direct people to visit tabs or take particular actions. The social network seems to be weaning pages off of tab applications. The vision is for Facebook to be integrated into third-party websites and mobile apps, not to have applications running within page frames. Because many companies already invested in developing applications for their pages, however, the social network could not simply get rid of them at this stage.

We will be reporting from the Facebook Marketing Conference in New York City today, providing updates about the new pages and any other announcements the company might make at the event.

American Express took top honors in the Facebook Studio Awards for its Small Business Saturday promotion on the social network. A jury of marketing executives selected 10 more winning campaigns that used the Facebook platform to promote social interactions and sharing.

Digitas and CP&B helped American Express create Small Business Saturday as a counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday after Thanksgiving. The credit card company gave cardholders $25 credits when they shopped in independent stores on Nov. 26. Amex also provided small businesses with in-store signage, social media advice, email support and $100 advertising credits on Facebook and LinkedIn. An estimated 103 million people participated in the second annual event, and sales recorded on American Express cards on Nov. 26, 2011, were up 23 percent from the same Saturday in 2010.

“It is the type of work that would not have been possible without Facebook,” Facebook Director of Global Creative Solutions Mark D’Arcy says in a Q&A on the Facebook Studio site. “With Small Business Saturday, multiple agencies and the client worked together to create a platform that has been transformational for Amex’s business and has lived far beyond a typical campaign. The work also genuinely made the world better.”

Other winners were:

• Flair’s “Fashion Tag” by Duval Guillaume (Gold)
• KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Make a Better One Yourself” by Hasan & Partners (Gold)
• Wrigley’s “Serenading Unicorn 2011” by Evolution Bureau (Gold)
• Social Democratic Party of Switzerland’s “What Zurich Needs” by Walker Werbeagentur (Gold)
• Health insurance company Dovera’s “My Blood Group” by Zaraguza DIGITAL (Silver)
• Intel’s “Progress Thru Processors” by Noise (Silver)
• Commonwealth Bank’s “Community Seeds” by Imagination (Bronze)
• Nike’s “Corrida Sp-Rio 2011” by LiveAD (Bronze)
• Wrigley’s “Mob the Rainbow” by Evolution Bureau (Bronze)
• Nike’s “Nike+ GPS App” by R/GA (Bronze)

“One of the things we really valued was when the passion and energy from a campaign manifested itself in real-world activation,” D’Arcy says.

Of course, the winners were operating on a scale that most businesses cannot replicate, but that was part of the judging criteria. The effort had to be part of a larger multimedia campaign. We’d like to see Facebook develop a way to acknowledge smaller campaigns and companies that exemplify social thinking year-round. Right now it does not use its own Marketing Solutions page to great effect. Spotlighting pages, apps and campaigns would be more useful for the hundreds of thousands of people following this page.

More details and links to the winners’ work are available here.

Two more social software companies announced integration with Facebook page publishing and ad management tools this week on the heels of news that Buddy Media acquired Brighter Option to offer a platform that combines paid, owned and earned efforts.

Wildfire partnered with Adaptly on Monday to add social advertising capabilities to its suite of page management and promotion applications. Now today GraphEffect launched a new version of its social media management platform to establish more of a link between marketing and advertising, combining the Facebook Ads and Insights APIs.

These changes, like what Buddy Media has done with Brighter Option, allow businesses to see how their Facebook posts are performing and then easily choose which to amplify as paid page post ads. This is likely to encourage brands to begin prioritizing content creation ahead of traditional advertising.

We expect social media software companies to continue to consolidate. As social media marketing efforts become tied with paid advertising campaigns instead of being standalone efforts as they often have for the past few years, companies are going to be looking for a single software solution to help them manage it all. However, we can see how things might get complicated for brands that work with different agencies that use different software. These platforms will have to find ways to differentiate themselves and make it easy for brands and agencies to know which is right for them.