Tag Archives: Facebook

Facebook Is Tracking What You Do

Facebook Is Tracking What You Buy to Provide Marketers Better Ad Analytics
By Josh Wolford From WebProNEWS

Facebook’s already tenuous relationship with its users over privacy and the sharing of personal information has a new wrinkle, as it looks like Facebook has waded into the retail sales tracking business.

According to The Financial Times, Facebook has already measured the effectiveness of a few dozen ad campaigns with the help of a data mining company called Datalogix. Measuring the effectiveness of ad campaigns may seem innocuous at first, but it gets a little trickier when you learn that the measuring process involves matching Facebook user data on ad impressions with retail data mined from nearly every household in the United States.

Read the rest of the article:
http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-is-tracking-what-you-buy-to-provide-marketers-better-ad-analytics-2012-09#comments

Best SEO Practices for Twitter and Facebook

It is critical that you optimize your social presence so that people can find you easily. You know that it is important to do that; however, you should also have an understanding of why it is so important.

If you don’t start out by having a clear understanding of why it is so important for your business that you optimize effectively, you will be faced with obstacles that may prevent you from accomplishing your goals as quickly and easily as you would like.

Connecting social media sites and searches

The first question that you need to answer is why you feel that it is important for you to connect your social media sites and how they relate to searches. Your objectives are actually quite simple.

What do you need to do to get your pages to rank higher?
What do you need to do to get your website to rank higher because of your social media connections

One fact that is undeniable is that there has been a tremendous increase in activity with interactive social media sites. Many well-known brands have gotten involved with interactive social media sites and it is really making a difference to their success. Businesses have finally started to understand the need to be involved with social media because it is advantageous for their businesses.

Getting your pages to rank higher

Links are a very important element when it comes to getting your pages to achieve high rankings. There are many different links that are valuable and that will add value to whatever content you are offering. Providing links in your content that lead back to your website is the easiest way to drive new online traffic to you so that you can start to interact and build relationships. It will give you instant gratification.

Don’t be afraid to…

Use brand names in your articles. The

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To read the full article:
Article source: http://www.business2community.com/seo/best-seo-practices-for-twitter-and-facebook-0266572

Facebook Launches 60 New Timeline Apps

Facebook’s 60 new Open Graph app partners span a range of domains, from food to fitness to travel, as announced in their live press event January 18. In addition, they will begin the process of approving apps for the new platform, which will allow for greater expression of activities; “If you’re into reading a book, or running, or knitting … the sky’s the limit,” the social network announced.

Opening up the app building and approval process also presents a huge opportunity for brands and marketers to engage users. The announcement isn’t surprising, but builds upon the groundwork they laid last year at the f8 Developer’s Conference.

According to the announcement, app content will show up on the Timeline in three different places. At the end of each Timeline section, Facebook will summarize all of your app activity for the month.

Users can start adding apps right now and, as long as they are using the Timeline, can authorize all 60 by tomorrow. Some of the apps were already available, but this newest release allows them to post to Timelines by default. You authorize once, it posts continuously. You can set privacy for individual apps.

App partners include TripAdvisor, UrbanSpoon, LivingSocial, Airbnb, Pinterest, Instagram, BranchOut, FundRazr, and more.

In a just-released blog post on the Developers blog, Facebook’s Eddie O’Neill writes, “Starting today, developers can build apps that let people add anything they love to their Timelines – whether it is eating, traveling, shopping, running or taking pictures.” He continues, “The apps launching today are just starting to demonstrate the types of self-expression that are possible with the Open Graph. There are many more stories to tell and great apps to tell them. Get started today!” The Facebook Developers blog has a tutorial to help users get

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To read the full article:
Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2139898/Facebook-Launches-60-New-Timeline-Apps

Facebook and Google Execs Equally Suck at Social Media

From SearchEngineWatch.com

Michael Degusta at The Understatement posted a fun study yesterday on how little Google’s management team actually use their Google+ service. These managers need to stand behind their product, he says, and Facebook’s management are “far more active on their public feeds than Google is on theirs.”

I completely agree… except for that part about Facebook sharing information publicly. Welcome to my own fun little study, called “Facebook Execs Sharing Publicly on Facebook (or not).”

This is completely unscientific, but here’s what I did: Took the 12 execs listed on Facebook’s bio section on their website. Searched for them on Facebook, looking for People and Pages, and filtering down to Palo Alto as their location and Facebook as their employer when they were a lot of results. Used my patented facial recognition technology (my eyeballs) when identity was in doubt. Counted their public posts from June 2011 to October 5 (today). Made a little spreadsheet and then an infographic, because we all like visual aids.

You can even try this at home.

Facebook Execs Not Embracing Public Sharing

This is going to shock you and rock the technology world, but Facebook executives aren’t sharing a whole lot of their personal information publicly, either. Some don’t even seem to have Facebook accounts. One has everything set to private. Welcome to my pie chart infographic:

*Note: Please do not judge me on my pie-chart making skills. Believe it or not, I don’t do this professionally and I’m actually quite sensitive.

Not too many of them average more than four public posts a month in the time I checked, from June til today. Does this mean they’re not using Facebook? Possibly. I really don’t know. Do you? The ones without accounts could be using fake names. Who knows?

We can’t really determine how often Google or Facebook executives use their own services if they’re doing so privately. I do agree with Degusta that it would instill more public confidence if, while they’re telling us to share the music we listen to, where we eat, who we date, and what we’re reading, they would do the same.

This applies for all social media companies networks, not just Google+.

What About Mark Zuckerberg?

A few days ago, Mark Zuckerberg responded within minutes to a Facebook user post about himself by a guy who said, “In the same way drug dealers don’t use the product they sell, I doubt Zuckerberg is on Facebook all day. Visionaries don’t idle online.”

Zuckerberg showed that indeed, they do, by responding, “No, I really do use Facebook all day long.”

Oh, snap! It’s like that Bloody Mary game you played in front of the mirror as a kid… spin around three times chanting, “Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg…” and he will appear.

But is he using it the way he expects you or I to use it? With a total of 13 public posts in the last four months, not a chance. Most of the Google and Facebook executives do not use their products in the way they want you to use them.

They’re watching and listening, though… oh yes, they are.

Raw data:

What About Larry, Sergey, and Eric?

Google’s triumvirate of Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt have shown little use of the new product and Schmidt doesn’t even have an account. Interestingly, Douglas Edwards, former Googler and author of “I’m Feeling Lucky” about his time with the company, posted to Google+ that many of the executives are just too busy.

“I worked with a lot of these people. They don’t chat. They don’t participate in long threads on company email lists. They don’t write long missives. If they were doing any of those things elsewhere, I’d say it’s a valid criticism, but they’re not,” Edwards wrote. “It does however, indicate why they were so slow to get the importance of social media. It’s not relevant to the way they communicate (on the rare occasions they choose to do so). Google search is as strong as it is because they actually use that product all the time and insist it meets their expectations.”

Frank Watson also contributed to this report.

Save up to $400! Register now for SES Chicago 2011, the Leading Search Social Marketing Event, taking place November 14-18. SES Chicago will be packed with sessions, keynotes, exhibitors, networking events, and parties. Learn the latest strategies on PPC management, keyword research, SEO, social media, local, mobile, link building, duplicate content, multiple site issues, video optimization, site optimization, usability and more. Early bird rate expires October 21!

Facebook Launches Bing-Powered Translation Service

From SearchEngineWatch.com

Facebook users have a new option for reading foreign fan pages. Through Microsoft’s Bing Translator technology, Facebook users will be able to click a link to translate Facebook pages not written in their language without leaving Facebook.

Announced yesterday via the Facebook Pages wall, the move comes weeks after Microsoft’s announcement for the new Microsoft Translator API.

“Bing is excited that its friends at Facebook have now implemented the API to enhance their site with real-time, in-place translation,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Search Engine Watch. “Bing had nothing new to report about any integration partnerships with Facebook.”

This is, however, another win for Bing on multiple fronts. It is one more commitment from a social network into their service. It’s also another major player to use their translation API.

Many companies will be forced to decide what to do about translation, since Google decided to make their Translate API a paid service only, effectively shutting down the free translate API as of December 1, 2011.

The translation doesn’t happen automagically. Translation is provided via an app that users must install (give permission to) in order to translate Facebook pages into their own language.

When you click on a translate button, Bing Translator will provide the translation to your language in a popout window. In addition to the translation, users will also have the opportunity to correct the translation and submit it. In true social fashion, if a user-submitted translation receives enough support, it will replace the Bing translation automatically each time future users click the translate button for that individual post.

Facebook page admins can select to allow translations submitted by the community, only by Microsoft or their own supplied translations. There are also options to turn the translation ability off altogether.

Facebook Traffic to Retail Up 92%, Twitter Shoppers Spend More Than Google

by SearchEngineWatch.com

The recently released Online Consumer Report from RichRelevance offers several valuable insights for online retailers in the lead up to the 2011 holiday shopping season. Data gleaned from over 200 million shopping sessions on major U.S. retail sites shows trends in browsing and online shopping behaviors and how consumers make purchasing decisions.

The study examined consumers navigating to a retail site via bookmarks, search engines, or social networks. In the reporting period, the month of August 2011, more than 4 million orders totaling $500 million were placed and included in the study.

How Search Engine Traffic Shops Online

Organic search engine results are still a top traffic source for online merchants, providing 18 percent of all traffic. Google takes the lion’s share of the credit for organic search engine traffic, with 81 percent of those visitors coming from Google search properties. AOL fared the worst, sending just 1.7 percent of organic traffic to studied retail sites. Bing and Yahoo drove 7.5 and 9.7 percent, respectively.

AOL traffic does, however, convert highest and places the highest orders, at $105.27 on average per order.

Twitter Traffic = Big Spenders

Facebook traffic to retail sites increased an astonishing 92 percent year-over-year for August, yet Twitter and Facebook still account for less than 1 percent of traffic.

Facebook and Twitter traffic showed conversion rates of 1.2 and 0.5 percent, respectively, but spent more than those who landed on the site through Google’s organic search. Twitter shoppers topped the list of big spenders across all traffic categories with an average order of $121.33.

“As retailers vie to get their share of an estimated $450 billion in holiday spending, there is a tremendous opportunity to respond to the different ways that people are shopping on their sites,” RichRelevance CEO David Selinger said of about the results. “The ones who succeed will be those who most effectively wrap the e-commerce experience around each shopper, whether they come from Facebook or Google or a direct email link.”

Increased 2011 E-Commerce Spending Could Mean Happy Holiday Season for Retailers

Q2 2011 U.S. retail e-commerce spending grew 14 percent over the year prior, to $37.5 billion, according to comScore. It was the seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. eMarketer credits social commerce, mobile commerce, and daily deals sites with the continued growth of the online retail space. They predict over $100 billion in annual online retail sales by 2015.

Facebook F8 Wrapup: Timeline, Ticker, GraphRank for Users & Marketers

by SeachEnigneWatch

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and guests including Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Zuckerberg-doppelgänger Andy Samberg unveiled the third major evolution of Facebook today at the f8 developer conference. Pretty, shiny, flashy new Facebook aims to curate your entire life on a single page.

Zuckerberg likened the three major versions of Facebook to a conversation with someone you’ve just met. The initial Facebook had one photo, no wall, and was just the first five minutes of an introduction; this is who I am, nice to meet you. The second version, launched in 2008, was the next piece of the conversation: this is what I’ve been up to. This latest Facebook, he says, is a way to express who you are.

“The next five years will be defined by the apps and the depth of engagement possible,” according to Zuckerberg.

Two major announcements came out of the keynote: a new profile called Timeline, and a revamped Open Graph system with a new class of apps and analytics.

Facebook’s New Timeline, News Ticker, and GraphRank

The idea behind this new timeline is that users will curate their entire lives on a single page. Everything you’ve ever done and decided to share in one place.

Once we get into the new class of apps and how the average user is apt to use them, you may be as frightened as I am. Frightened, intrigued, yet hopeful. I imagine if I’m feeling this way, the average user is confused as hell right now.

Timeline has a glossy, magazine look, especially if you’re heavy on photo posting and multimedia use.

Facebook had identified a problem with the previous version; you spend so much time curating the story of your life, and it just falls off the bottom of your wall. To address this, they created Timeline, the official mantra of which Zuckerberg repeated several times: “All your stories, all your apps, and a new way to express who you are.”

Content appears in chronological order down your wall. The further back you go in time, the more Facebook summarizes and collapses your content. Timeline can be sorted according to the type of content a user wants to see. You can choose to view only a user’s Videos, or Photos, for example.

One interesting change with the Timeline profile and the Newsfeed Ticker is that your posts won’t display in friends’ news feeds at all anymore, unless your posts are “part of a pattern we don’t quite understand yet,” or if the activity is generated by an app. Part of the Timeline/Ticker/Newsfeed change is a new algorithm called GraphRank. According to Facebook, GraphRank is an algorithm for apps “designed to give more prominence to engaging activity… GraphRank isn’t a global score, but a personalized view of you and your friends’ tastes.”

The New Open Graph and the Language of Like

Where the profile was an introduction and conversation, Open Graph is an evolving language, said Zuckerberg. Open Graph, when it first launched, added nouns to the conversations you had with friends: the who, what, where, why, when, and how. This new Open Graph (currently in beta) and coming apps add the verbs: Watching, Listening, Reading, Cooking, Hiking. It comes complete with a new set of analytics.

Zuckerberg commented numerous times on the magnitude of the information we share, and these latest developments allow sharing in an order of magnitude never seen before. As an example of an app developer contributing to this revolution in sharing, he brought to the stage Spotify CEO Daniel Elk.

Spotify is one of the dozen or so music app developers partnering with Facebook in this new generation of “canvas apps.” By simply hovering over content being watched, listened to, or otherwise shared by a friend, you will be able to listen to songs or watch entire movies within the Facebook platform.

Facebook wants to revolutionize the music industry, Elk said. They have spent the last few years building a service that is fair tot he music industry. You discover new music through friends, instead of being locked out of music you haven’t bought yet, and are actually enticed to buy more. And therein lies the crux of the problem with Facebook’s launch of the new design as a completely user-centric experience, friends.

“We Wanted to Design a Place That Feels Like Your Home” (Or: “Why You Should Lock Your Doors”)

That’s right, Facebook wants you to feel right at home sharing everything from what you’re cooking, to how often you exercise, to what you’re listening to and what movie you’re watching. All time-stamped and available online.

There are obvious privacy concerns here and Facebook is no stranger to public floggings over privacy issues. They have recently introduced in-line privacy settings to help users control how content is shared. However, the data that is shared with Facebook and with third-party app developers should be worrisome for the average user.

The words “frictionless” and “serendipitous” were used to the point of almost meaninglessness in the keynote; we are meant to believe that this new launch is all about the user experience and helping you, Dear Facebook User, to share all of that stuff you’ve kept inside that is just itching to get out.

Reality check time: There is a reason corporations want to know what you’re watching, who you’re sharing it with, what you’re cooking and who else is eating it, how often you go for a jog, what kind of music you like, etc. They are collecting data to market products to you.

Plain and simple, take all of the touchy-feely, warm and fuzzy life curation/scrapbooking out of it and understand that every time you check in, post, share your activities, or otherwise engage online, you’re being profiled.

What This Means for Marketers

This type of data, collected at such a personalized level, is a marketer’s dream. I suspect, though, that this could spell the end of Facebook as a marketing platform for small to medium businesses, at least outside of the Facebook Ads model.

Zuckerberg talked about how the new profile and apps models are going to revolutionize the music and film industries. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings made a brief presentation and admitted that when first approached by Facebook, he had concerns about the social media giant having access to the user data of all Netflix users.

The new apps and profile, however, seem to have convinced him that sacrificing user data privacy is worth it in the long run. He explained that Zuckerberg has told him that success for Facebook is if Netflix wants to achieve “x” and Facebook can bring them to “2x.” This is great news for those in the entertainment industry. I suspect major brands like Starbucks and Coca Cola will also be just fine.

Those who will struggle with New Facebook are small and medium businesses. Facebook fans don’t engage and interact with Pages like they do with Friends. They may be listening, and your marketing message may have gotten through in the past, but with the birth of the News Ticker and the removal of most posts from the news feed, how will a business get noticed? We asked for clarification on GraphRank and its effect for Pages and were informed it does not apply to Pages at all; they still fall under the EdgeRank algorithm.

What this means, though, is that users won’t see brand updates in their news feeds at all anymore, unless the user is incredibly active in liking, commenting, and posting to the Page. A Facebook rep told Search Engine Watch, “Ticker is designed to give people real-time updates, which includes Page updates from brands.”

I have to think it’s a calculated move on Facebook’s part. With more than 750 million users, they have the lion’s share of the consumer base already on board. If businesses now have to pay to be seen, all the better for Facebook.

If Google+ is able to draw Facebook users over to their platform and offer benefits for businesses at the same time, they’re going to give Facebook a run for their money in the social sharing = big business economy.

Hootsuite, TweetDeck & Other Third-Party APIs Kill Facebook Engagement [Study]

by SearchEngineWatch.com

A recent study by Applum, published on their EdgeRank Checker blog, proves a theory widely held in the social media marketing community: auto-posting Facebook updates to pages using a third-party API reduces the level of user engagement.

The extent of the damage is surprising, though; in comparing 10 of the top APIs to manual Facebook posting, Applum showed that Likes and comments decreased by an average of 80 percent.

Social RSS topped the list of engagement killers at a 94 percent decrease. Dlvr.it, twitterfeed, Publisher and Twitter rounded out the five worst offenders list at 91, 90, 86, and 83 percent, respectively. They also tested auto-posting software RSS Graffiti, Networked Blogs, Sendible, TweetDeck, and HootSuite. The study examined over a million updates on 50,000+ pages.

Third-Party API Posting Affects EdgeRank – For Some

EdgeRank Checker offers a few different theories on why this is so. The first is that Facebook collapses the posts of third-party APIs, grouping them together and only displaying the most recent one and thereby negatively affecting EdgeRank by reducing the opportunity for people to view, like or comment … at least, this is what happens with those outside of its Preferred Developer Consultants program.

By default, Facebook collapses multiple posts from the same API. However, InsideFacebook.com seems to have confirmed the existence of Facebook’s secret white list, which protects third-party publishers in their PDC program from collapsed posts, meaning their posts have a much higher chance of being read.

You can see more evidence of this in a post at AdAge’s DigitalNext blog, by Buddy Media Inc. CEO Michael Lazerow. Buddy Media is one of Facebook’s Preferred Developer Consultants and as such, is able to offer their clients the benefits of auto-posting software using multi-tenant enterprise products without running the risk of hurting their EdgeRank. In section 1.B) of his post, Lazerow shows that even single-tenant, branded applications used by large companies like Verizon, the subject of his screenshot example, are subjected to post collapsing by Facebook.

The moral of this part of the story is: auto-posting using consumer applications like HootSuite and branded single-tenant third-party APIs can hurt your EdgeRank and severely impact the level of engagement on your Facebook page. Using enterprise-level products by developers in Facebook’s PDC program may mitigate that risk, but that could change at any time.

Other Third-Party API Factors That May Affect EdgeRank

EdgeRank Checker hypothesized that three other factors may contribute to the drastic reduction of Likes and comments on third-party posts:

Facebook penalizes third-party APIs EdgeRank – they believe Facebook manually reduces the weight (one of the EdgeRank algorithm’s factors) of these types of posts. EdgeRank Checker purports that this could be to encourage more content creation within the platform and increase ad impressions. In his post, Buddy Media’s Lazerow disputes this, blaming it solely on the collapsing posts issue and adding, “In my four years of working with Facebook, not once have I seen Facebook prioritize an advertising product above user experience.”
Posts through third-party APIs are likely automated and/or scheduled. It’s difficult to create timely content days or weeks in advance. They suggest that “any negative impacts of scheduled posts are most likely correlations with poorly developed content.”
The content is not Facebook optimized. Simply put, if you’re posting the same content to LinkedIn, Blogger, Facebook, and Twitter simultaneously, you’re missing your audience on three out of four. Optimize content for the audience you have on each platform.

Should you stop using third-party apps for Facebook? Not necessarily.

Bit.ly showed us last week that Facebook links have a 3.2 hour half-life (the amount of time by which half the clicks the content will ever receive is reached). It makes sense to share the same content at different times of the day, maybe two or three times over a period of a week. Auto-posting or publishing software can be useful for this, especially if you have fans in different time zones.

Other times it may be wise are when a small business owner or sole proprietor is away on vacation, or it’s simply not possible to post for a few days. Also, these apps still work well on other platforms, like Twitter.

We don’t need to throw the baby out with the bath water, but common sense is needed if your social media strategy is to include a publishing app. Auto-posting cannot replace a real person behind the wheel.

Targeting Users with Specific Content May Help

Facebook lists really haven’t proven themselves very useful, but Facebook has been testing new ways to filter friends and automatically categorize contacts using newsfeed filters and Smart Lists. This could be incredibly useful for businesses and marketers and ties in one of the major benefits Google Plus had going for them over Facebook. Friend filters and Smart Lists are not yet available to all users.

Another question that remains is whether this filtering capability, allowing users to target certain groups of people with content, will become available to business pages as well as personal accounts. Even so, content posted through third party APIs will continue to suffer the same fate as long as Facebook collapses posts by the same API together. Marketers will have to use these tools wisely and not rely on them for the majority of posts.

Graphics courtesy of EdgeRankChecker.com

Users Respond to Google+ and Facebook Interfaces Nearly Identically [Study]

by searchenginewatch.com

The findings from an Eye Track Shop study (findings reported by AllThingsD) demonstrates how users perceive Google+ and Facebook differently – or, as the case happens to be, how they don’t perceive them differently at all.

The Eye Track Shop Study

Eye Track Shop, a company that provides eye-tracking technology that interacts with the webcams of participants, has taken a look at how users interact with the interfaces of Facebook and Google+. The study created heatmaps based on the average behavior of 54 participants. The conclusion is that users behave almost identically on Google+ and Facebook.

Here is the aforementioned heatmap:

As you can see, the majority of the attention goes to the main feed, with the notifications on the left and right getting the next most substantial amount of attention. The items further down on the right column (for Facebook, ads, and for Google+, invitations to sub-features of the network) get the least amount of attention.

But it doesn’t necessarily happen in that chronological order:

The study found that users look to their stream first, their left notifications second, their right notifications third, their status bar fourth, and the bottom-right of the page last. However, it all happens very quickly.

Most users looked at an advertisement on Facebook about five seconds into looking at the page, and maintained focus for one second. The behavior was similar when Facebook ads were overlaid in a similar position on the Google+ interface.

This means that users are perceiving Google+ as being virtually identical in its UI – unsurprisingly, considering how similar the interfaces look. More importantly, it means that Google+ could take advantage of a similar monetization with ads if they chose to.

Register now for SES San Francisco. In addition to high-level strategy, keynotes, an expo floor with 100+ companies, networking events, and parties, you don’t want to miss out on the latest trends and strategies during sessions on SEO, PPC management, social media, keyword research, local advertising, mobile engagement, link building, duplicate content, multiple site issues, online video, site optimization, usability, and more.

Beware of Facebook’s Terms of Use Policy

Facebook backs down, reverses on user information policy

Story Highlights

Facebook this month changed its policy to say user content belonged to Facebook
Outraged members canceled their accounts or created online petitions
On Wednesday, Facebook reviewed user “feedback,” and reverted to its old policy

(CNN) — Under fire from tens of thousands of users, the social networking site Facebook said early Wednesday it is reverting to its old policy on user information — for now.

Backlash against Facebook began after a consumer advocate site flagged Facebook’s policy change.

The complete story…

Bottomline:

Be careful what you post anywhere, they will try to say they have right to your content for using their service.

From FaceBook:

Facebook Terms of Use Update

Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog.

If you want to share your thoughts on what should be in the new terms, check out our group Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

South Florida Web Marketing Blog

Website Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and Important Issues