Inside Facebook

Purchase this report The Facebook Marketing Bible - September 2008 Edition Buy PDF: $39 USD OR Buy PDF + 3 Months of Free Updates: $49 USD

The newly revised, expanded, and hot-off-the-press Facebook Marketing Bible: 37+ Ways to Market Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook - September 2008 Edition is now available!

The Facebook Marketing Bible has been purchased by hundreds of agencies, marketers, social application developers, entrepreneurs, and educators, and is the leading resource on Facebook marketing today.

The Facebook Marketing Bible contains three detailed sections: Tools for Guerilla Marketers, Tools for Advertisers, and Tools for Application Developers. Each part outlines the best available channels and strategies for reaching your audience inside Facebook. Please see the full table of contents below.

The September 2008 edition includes updates on the following topics:

• The latest on viral channel changes and opportunities going live with Facebook’s site redesign. Facebook has made several important changes to the way application developers can use the News Feed and Invitations/Requests in recent months. Get the latest on what’s possible as the new site goes live.
• Details on new Facebook advertising products. Last month, Facebook released a new social video ad unit that’s got users talking (in a good way). Find out how you can make the most of your Facebook ad dollars with details on every ad unit available inside Facebook.
• New tools to restrict content on Pages and Applications to underage users. Last month, Facebook changed a policy prohibiting application developers from promoting beer, wine, or alcohol sales. Since then, it’s released new tools for Page owners and application developers to restrict content to underage users. Learn all the details on what you need to do to take advantage of these new tools.
• The changing SEO landscape inside Facebook. In recent weeks, Facebook has increased the exposure of Groups, Pages, and Events to Google and other search engines for indexing and searching. Learn more about what opportunities these changes may present to search engine marketers (SEMs).
• Plus, updates on Facebook Platform analytics providers, Facebook for iPhone, Facebook growth numbers, and more.

For those interested in learning more, click the purchase link above. The price is $39, or $49 with three months of free updates emailed directly to your inbox. As always, please make suggestions if you’d like to see more attention paid to any topic!

Table of Contents

Introduction

I. Tools for Guerilla Marketers

1. Profile Page

2. Groups

• Strategy: What about spamming existing groups?
• SEO
  

3. Pages

• Strategy: Groups and Pages are very similar. Which makes more sense?
• Strategy: I’ve just created a Page. How do I promote it?
• Group to Page Migration
• Guidelines for Promoting Pages Outside Facebook
• Official vs Unofficial Pages
• Ways Page Owners Can Restrict Content for Underage Users
  
• More Features Coming Soon

4. Events

• Events API
• Events SEO
  

5. Notes and Photos

6. Messages

7. Marketplace

8. Share / Posted Items

9. Mini Feed and News Feed

10. Feed Importing

> Data: Tracking Facebook’s International Growth by Country

> Recommended Strategies for Guerilla Marketers

II. Tools for Advertisers

11. Social Ads

• Summary of ad units available to Facebook advertisers

12. Localization Opportunities

13. Integrated Opportunities

14. Beacon

• Strategy: Should I try Beacon?

15. Polls

16. Facebook Platform Ad Networks

• List of Leading Facebook Platform Ad Networks
• What eCPMs do apps charge? Data from Facebook application developers

17. Facebook Platform Application Sponsorships

• List of Leading Facebook Platform Sponsorship Resellers/Rep Firms
• Strategy: Why sponsor applications when I can sponsor Facebook itself?

18. Sponsored Facebook Groups

> Recommended Strategies for Advertisers

III. Tools for Application Developers

19. Profile Box

• Strategy: Where do most new application users come from?
• 5 Things Developers May Not Know About the Upcoming Facebook Redesign
• Profile Integration: Tour of New Facebook App Settings

20. Application Tabs

21. Application Info Sections

22. Designing Feed Stories

• Strategy: Designing High Performance Feed Items
• News Feed Optimization: Strategies and Techniques

23. Feeds 2.0

24. Feed Publisher

• Publishing in the Feed with Feed Comments

25. Requests / Invitations

• Policy Updates: Requiring Invites to Access Hidden Features, Offering Incentives for Invites, Ads on Profile Page Prohibited
• Strategy: Facebook’s Evolving Approach to Platform Governance

26. Facebook Notifications

• Chat Integration: Facebook Wants More Synchronous Notifications
• Policy Update: Bulk Pre-Selection Prohibited

27. Email Notifications

• Updates: Email’s Status as Core Application Marketing Channel in Doubt

28. Application Bookmarks

29. Application Directory

30. Demographic Restrictions

31. Verification and Certification

• Great Apps Program
• Application Verification

32. Translations

• Data: Stats on Facebook Apps Built for International Markets
• Tutorial: Translating Your Applications Using Facebook’s Crowd-sourced Translation Service

33. Facebook Connect

• Overview: Integrating Facebook Connect with Your Website
• Related: Google Friend Connect

Purchase this report The Facebook Marketing Bible - September 2008 Edition Buy PDF: $39 USD OR Buy PDF + 3 Months of Free Updates: $49 USD

34. Analytics Tools

• List of Leading Third-Party Facebook Platform Analytics Providers
• New Metrics for Developers with Facebook Profile Redesign

35. Search Engine Optimization

36. Mobile

• Facebook for iPhone and Connect for iPhone

37. Customer Service

> Poll: Which viral channels do Facebook users hate most about apps?

> Recommended Strategies for Application Developers

Conclusion

An agency strategy perspective

Where we are:

Despite significant evidence that times are changing, most of today’s websites continue to follow the traditional publisher/audience model. The site publishes an article or content, users view the content for free, and in exchange, view a banner ad.

User time spent reading editorial on a news website has dropped to an average of 8 seconds. Industry wide banner ad click thru rates hover in the .01 percent range, and only the best funded, integrated campaigns garner decent click thru and conversion numbers. Even campaigns with large budgets are challenged to generate enough frequency (repeat views) to gain enough visitor attention for positive results.

What we’ve learned:

Banner ads and the traditional publisher models suck online.

Where we’re going:

Strategic communication that mirrors human communication.

This is where applications come in. Facebook has changed the way that users interact with the web, becoming a central hub of communication, friendship, and networking. Facebook’s apps garner substantial repeat usage, often several times per day, every day, on an ongoing basis.

For publisher, marketing, and media types reading this article: Imagine that type of loyal visitorship on a traditional website.

Facebook apps provide a utility, a service beyond content. Users interact with their friends and share app interactions in methods similar to human communication and word of mouth. Users spend time with the app, and are engaged, two of the most vital metrics in today’s rich media (read: fancy banner) ads.

PointRoll’s most recent newsletter places their benchmark interaction rate at 6.47% (Interaction Rate: Total Interactions/Total Impressions). Their benchmark brand interaction time sits at 14.67 seconds (weighted average of total seconds that panels were displayed within an individual impression).

As you’d expect, app based ads have the potential to blow rich media out of the water. There isn’t much data out there at this point; however, you can be sure we’ll see more as the large app companies pursue their monetization strategies. If you need proof, think of your most recent interaction with your favorite app. Did you do more than seven things when you loaded the app? If so, your app is beating the best that rich media and interactive advertising has to offer.

While it’s a little early in the app world to discuss the realities of cohort groups, we’ll see messages placed within apps shared offline within groups, stimulating word of mouth. Think of reaching an entire group (network) of friends with similar interests at once. Apps are quickly expanding their audiences. It’s just now that it’s starting to be possible to reach demographics other than those under 20, and the future is looking pretty cool.

Aaron Gasperi is an Interactive and Research Analyst at Kruskopf Coontz.

As we reported yesterday, Facebook has released a new Applications menu that significantly improves applications’ overall visibility in the new design. While the direct links in the shortcut bar and the menu itself have received much acclaim, the “Add bookmark” icon could prove to have the greatest material impact on developers.

Bookmarking an application is a relatively new behavior for users on Facebook, as previously the application sidebar was populated by links that were added during the initial installation process. Before the introduction of the application menu, some developers (and users alike) complained that the bookmarking process was too unclear. Now, the “add bookmark” icon is readily available to users, thus those complaints should largely disappear.

Gone from the prior Applications menu implementation (which used to be in the new design’s top nav) is the “Recently used” section, which used to sit above a user’s bookmarked applications. Now, the Applications menu exclusively features bookmarked applications. This change is subtle, but the impact could be substantial. For example, if a user were to “allow” a new application, she would need to bookmark it during her first session or possibly have no easy means of rediscovery in the future (other than recall). In most cases, that user is effectively lost as a potential repeat visitor if she didn’t click “add bookmark” during her first visit.

If developers were able to integrate the “add bookmark” functionality directly into their canvas page experiences this problem could largely be mitigated, though this implementation would lack the elegance and consistency of the icon in the menu bar. Alternatively, the “Recently Used” section could resurface either when the full Applications list is opened or in place of the application bookmarks in the homepage’s right column, which is essentially equivalent to the new menu bar.

While that is largely speculation, and the currently menu bar is likely to change, the issue is indicative of the reality of Platform: developers and companies can be seriously impacted by even the smallest of Facebook’s changes.

The 11th London Facebook Developer Garage took place last night at Sun Microsystems, the gold sponsor of the event. Here’s a quick rundown of highlights from the night’s speakers:

Chris Thorpe from MySpace gave us a quick introduction to their platform:

• MySpace would love to see more developers on their platform
• Make sure any applications you develop are complying with the terms of service as the approval process is more stringent than with Facebook applications

Duncan Arbour and Jon Marks from LBi on the agency and brand perspective:

• Brands producing applications can be a hit-and-miss affair
• Advertising on existing successful applications may be a more viable and predictable way forward

Toby Beresford from Nudge on an Englishman at F8:

• Applications are treated as viable businesses in their own right, which is less common in the UK
• People with money and developers mix much more freely in the US than they do in the UK

John Cole from Adknowledge (which includes Cubics) gave an introduction to the company:

• Adknowledge are currently serving 8 billion impressions a month

Reto Lämmler gave an introduction to the Doodle application:

• Doodle provides users with a common, shared calendar to easily arrange social or work events
• Currently serving around 1 million users a month via the Doodle website
• Recently launched Facebook application provides integrated functionality with the main website, and users can switch between the two transparently

Max Niederhofer from Atlas Venture gave us some valuable insight from the venture capital world:

• Before engaging with VCs, make an effort to understand their needs. (“Read a book FFS.”)
• VCs are interested in £1m plus, business angels in lower amounts, so there is something of a gap if you’re looking for £500k
• Make sure you can explain your idea in simple terms
• Although the undoubted main thing that VCs bring is money, there is often a strong network of consultants and trusted agencies that can benefit a business
• Always do due diligence on everybody involved in a deal, and hire a good lawyer who’s done VC work before

Finally, Iskandar Najmuddin from Nudge gave us a rundown on the latest technical changes on the platform and the prize for application of the month was presented by Stewart Townsend of Sun to Doodle.

The next London garage is on Wednesday October 8th. More details will be announced before the event on the garage group page.

A few weeks ago, Facebook employee Adam Hupp posted a Facebook Connect WordPress plugin to his personal website. It’s since been taken down, but Spanish social application developer Sixjumps has now built a Facebook Connect WordPress plugin themselves. Check it out in action below!

(if you can’t see the video, click here)

Facebook Connect brings a powerful new dimension to identity on the open web. Now, authors and commenters can connect their activity on blogs across the web to their Facebook accounts if they so choose - sharing their activity with friends through their Facebook feeds.

The Sixjumps Facebook Connect WordPress plugin sports the following features:

• Log in with Facebook authentication. The plugin automatically creates a WordPress user account when for new users when they log in.
• Invite Facebook friends to the blog using a multi-friend-selector much like that available to apps running inside Facebook.
• See which Facebook friends are part of the blog’s “community” (have authenticated on the blog)
• Comments are syndicated out to users’ Facebook Mini Feeds
• The blog owner can show Facebook profile photos of the blog’s latest visitors, much like MyBlogLog

Sixjumps says it will open source its plugin when Facebook Connect launches out of beta early this fall. Still, the plugin shows the potential of Facebook Connect to become an important part of the web’s infrastructure.

Currently, Facebook Connect is only accessible to developers.

Related Inside Facebook Resources:

• Overview: Integrating Facebook Connect With Your Website
• Facebook Connect Developer Docs Released

While Facebook last week announced that all users would be moved to the new version of the site this week, the company now says it is actually more likely to be a “few more weeks” before all users are switched over. While the release date of the new profile to all users has never been made official, it has slipped from estimated launch dates a few times now.

While Facebook continues to receive complaints from users on the site redesign (the “Petition Against the New Facebook” group has grown from 400,000 users on Saturday to nearly 1 million users tonight), many users have already switched over fully to the new version.

In the meantime, Facebook Platform application developers will have to support users of both the old and new versions of the site for several more weeks.

As announced earlier today, Facebook this evening released updates to the new site design that make it easier for users to find and bookmark applications. Facebook has made applications are now a more prominent part of the overall visual design by:

1. Showing all authorized apps in the Applications menu
2. Adding a bookmarked apps shortcut bar (reminiscent of Windows) in the bottom menu bar that can hold up to 6 direct links to applications, and
3. Allowing applications to easily be bookmarked while in use

Facebook Platform Program Manager Josh Elman said tonight,

In the new applications menu, all of a user’s bookmarks will appear and be easily accessible. In addition, up to six application icons will be shown to the right of the menu button. When a user is using your application, they will be able to easily identify and bookmark your application with just one click.

Feedback we received indicated that users were having trouble with the Applications link in the top menu. People weren’t easily finding their way to their favorite applications. By moving this menu and displaying a few icons at the new location, users will always be able to find the applications they use, as well as easily bookmark their favorite applications or the ones they use the most.

Developers who want their icons to appear correctly in the shortcut menu should use transparent GIFs.

The changes to the new Facebook design that were rolled out last night, which changed the way applications are bookmarked and accessed have concerned developers today. Some developers have said that if they have trouble finding their own applications, how will users fare?

A few hours ago the Facebook Platform Team issued the following clarification:

Thanks a lot for your feedback. We’re still in progress of rolling out some features that make these even easier and make apps more discoverable and available on Facebook as well as easier to bookmark.  We’re sorry about the confusion — we’re in the midst of finalizing the feature and what you see here is definitely not final! Expect it to be out very very soon, and hope you’ll be as excited as we are.

Thanks,

Facebook Platform Developer Operations & Support

Developers will undoubtedly be glad and relieved to hear that news. We’ll see what takes place over the next few days.

As Facebook becomes a larger player in global media, multinational agencies are playing an increasingly active role in the marketing ecosystem around Facebook and the Facebook Platform. Inside Facebook recently sat down with Camilo La Cruz, Executive Creative Director at Rapp Collins Worldwide, to learn more about how the global agency sees Facebook.

Thanks for your time today Camilo. What does the Facebook ecosystem look like to you at Rapp Collins?

We see our task for our clients as creating communication that can enable a dialogue. Frankly, that will never work if you don’t have anything interesting to say. But we are hyper-social creatures. Ultimately, we see brands as facilitators of social engagement under the general umbrella of entertainment or knowledge gaining. Facebook is one of the biggest places where that is happening right now. The question is how do you activate that “social tissue” and add real value?

We’re definitely still in the early stages. Most of the things that we’re doing are experimental. We’re an agency rooted in direct marketing, so we measure everything (and we have to or we’re not invited back to the table). Today’s Facebook is a mass medium in its own right, but that doesn’t mean you can activate it with traditional mass media approaches.

So how do you go about it?

You have to think about how to activate the social tissue. We start with a concept focused on people (not “consumers”) that we want to engage. For example, take Kidnap!, an application created for the Travel Channel with Context Optional. We’ve had two million “kidnap requests” sent since the application launched in July. Why? It’s entertaining, and it’s built with the traveler in mind - not the tourist. It’s delivered in an unbranded space, and only people that dig deeper for information about a particular location are exposed to the brand. However, that doesn’t mean that if Kidnap goes extremely well we wouldn’t build it as a standalone application or a gaming application.

How does Rapp think about working with Facebook directly vs. on the Facebook Platform?

Facebook is still trying to figure out how to engage and monetize their users, which leads them to think about experiences that are ultimately more interrupting in nature - even though they are more social. 98% of applications have less than 1,000 users per day. We want our brands to provide value to people as a service - either entertainment or information. Brands can’t just say things, they must do things. We see applications in particular as an interesting way to experiment.

My ultimate concern is my client’s business. One thing we’ve all learned is that the old model of interruption is no longer viable. The touch points with users must be emotionally rewarding. Facebook is a great space for that to happen.

We need to add value to your life so that you pay attention. And we want to allow co-creativity so that you can share it with your friends and make it social.

Can you talk about any other projects to date?

We’re working on several things that I can’t talk about yet. We’re very proud of our early accomplishments with the Travel Channel. I think we’re at around 250,000 monthly users. It’s definitely working for the brand by other KPI’s as well - like website traffic directly from the application, and in general. We’re fans of Facebook, and we will cotinue experimenting.

Thanks Camilo.

As Facebook migrates all users to the redesigned site this week, it is still tweaking the design of several pages and navigational elements updated in the redesign.

Tonight, Facebook pushed a few changes to the overall navigation of the site, including changes that affect the ways applications can be reached:

1. The Applications menu, accessible from the header, now only contains a user’s top 8 “Bookmarked” applications. Previously, it contained a) Bookmarked applications, b) Recently Used applications, and c) A scrollable list of all applications a user had authorized.

2. Applications can no longer be “Bookmarked” from the Applications menu while using the application. Previously, users could add apps to their Bookmarks list using the Applications menu in the header. Now, applications can only apparently be “Bookmarked” by selecting and dragging apps to the top of the list in either the Applications > Edit All Applications page, or after clicking “More” in the Applications list in the right rail of the home page.

3. The “Bookmarks” section in the right rail of the home page has been renamed “Applications,” and it now contains 6 “bookmarked” applications instead of 8.

4. “Home” has been added to the header navigation, and “Profile” has returned as the label of your profile in the header’s main menu. Previously your name (i.e. “Justin Smith”) was the label of this tab. Facebook added a second link to the profile page in the right side of the header which is actually labeled with your name, and added full height highlights in the header menu.

Finally, Facebook pushed a couple small tweaks to the News Feed tonight:

1. The “Top Stories” default News Feed filter on the home page has been renamed “News Feed.”

2. The first three “News Feed” stories are no longer always Status Updates, as they have been for the last couple of weeks. (Update: it appears this was only temporary; three Status Updates still sit at the top of the feed.)