I was recently asked by Chief Marketer where a mobile budget should be allocated – on an app or mobile web?
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Chief Marketer Commentary: App vs. Mobile Web
2015 Digital Sponsorship Trends
I was recently asked by the IEG Sponsorship Report to provide insight into what I feel will be macro digital trends in 2015.
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Internet of Things: Beacons Conference
On February 10th, I will be in Chicago joining a panel discussing beacons at MediaPost’s Internet of Things: Beacons conference. If you are in the area it will be a great day of discussion.
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5 Reasons to Consider Snapchat in 2015
This morning my new article “Why Your Brand Will Love Snapchat in 2015” is the cover story for iMedia Connection.
The article outlines usage patterns, brand examples, advertising opportunities, connecting digital and physical and publisher partnerships.
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Marketers Should Eye Cuba Opportunity With Patience & Caution
I was recently asked by Mobile Marketer to provide commentary and analysis about the marketing opportunities and barriers about Cuba opening up the US.
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Best of iMedia 2014 – Advertising in 2020
I was pleasantly surprised to see that iMedia had selected my Advertising in 2020 cover story as one of the best of 2014. It was reposted on December 31st to close out the year. Thanks again to all of my readers and here’s to a great 2015!
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ESPN Sportscenter App Rebrand Strategy Analysis
I was recently asked by Mobile Marketer to provide commentary and analysis about the recently announced efforts by ESPN to rebrand the SportsCenter app and the potential implications and benefits that this type of rebranding may provide.
(Mobile Marketer) Why is ESPN: SportsCenter app to be renamed “ESPN”?
ESPN is looking to unify all of their digital properties into a single brand. They are looking to unify the website, mobile experience and mobile app and allowing for greater personalization by the consumer.
(MM) To what extent is the rebranding across all these properties an effort to reach consumers across the full range of mobile platforms?
ESPN is taking the next step to provide a unified experience that is designed to be frictionless across devices and ultimately allow the consumer the ability to personalize the experience based on interests and affinity to their favorite sports and teams. This approach can be compelling for fans and consumers as the experience is the same across devices and the more contextually relevant the experience, the greater potential to maintain the interest of the consumer.
(MM) What is the implication for mobile marketing?
By providing a more contextually relevant experience that is unified across platforms, ESPN is setting the stage to maximize their reach with consumers and provide an always on solution that is consistent and personalized.
From a mobile marketing perspective, by offering personalization in exchange for a profile of the individual, they can begin to map multi-channel usage behaviors which can provide insights into how to further connect with their consumers and apply greater relevance to their ad products and partnerships.
(MM) Why is it so important to allow users to select the sports content they want?
Self-selected and curated content is the new normal when it comes to consumer behavior and entertainment. Combine that with a fans affinity for content about their favorite teams and it is important for content providers to allow users to control the experience. This freedom and access can lead to increased frequency and retention if the content is compelling and relevant.
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Do Snack Brands Need Content?
I was recently asked by Mobile Commerce Daily to provide commentary if Snack brands need meaningful content to drive in-store purchases via social. Below are my full responses to the various topics discussed.
(Mobile Commerce Daily) To what extent are food and snacks CPG brands starting to understand and activate social media within the purchase funnel?
Social media has been an integral part of the marketing mix for CPG brands for some time now. CPG social strategy has evolved with the evolution of social platforms and shifting consumer behaviors. Many platforms such as Facebook are shifting away from engagement as a primary metric and focused on reach, resonance and reaction, which aligns social media activation further down the purchase funnel.
(MCD) What are the challenges CPG companies face in leveraging social media to drive purchases?
The snack category is highly dependent on context and timing. With the convergence of social, mobile and digital and the focus shifting to targeted cross screen engagement, there is a renewed interest in aligning digital, physical and data to impact purchase decisions.
(MCD) Besides motivating purchases, what additional benefits/negatives in terms of consumer engagement does a social campaign bring the CPG company?
Social centric campaigns allow brands to deepen their connection with their consumers, empower them to help drive the brand forward (Doritos Legion of the Bold and Do Us A Flavor), impact brand perception and for a number of brands provide impactful reach through social engagement.
(MCD) What are some examples of top food and snacks CPG companies that have effectively leveraged social to drive consumers deeper into the purchase funnel?
Frito-Lay is a company that is continually looking to leverage social as a means to drive consumers further into the purchase funnel. Whether it is a brand campaign that empowers consumers such as Lay’s Do Us a Flavor, or it is creating a community of brand advocates like Doritos Legion of the bold, or connecting in-store elements seamlessly into socially centric campaigns, Frito-Lay is approaching social in a smart and relevant way that connects with consumers and ultimately impacts purchase.
(MCD) What’s your favorite example of a food and snacks CPG social campaign that drove purchases?
My favorite examples are Lay’s Do Us a Flavor and Doritos Crash the Superbowl programs.
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McDonalds & Apple Pay
I was recently asked by Mobile Commerce Daily to provide commentary about McDonald’s incorporating Apple Pay as a potential revenue driver.
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$500 Million and Destiny
Since the day Destiny hints were first discovered in HALO 3: ODST years ago, then sprinkled throughout numerous Bungie presentations, to the first public leaks in late 2012 I was hooked. The concept of a persistent open-world shooter by the makers of Halo was a dream come true. Having played both the Alpha & Beta versions and on the eve of the official release I wanted to take a look at the marketing efforts leading up to the worldwide release.
Destiny easter egg hidden in Halo 3: ODST highlighting the “traveler”
Certain outlets are claiming there will be up to 10 million players day one and I will definitely be one. Every gamer I have talked to recently knows of the impending release. Over 4.5 million of us played the beta and there have been discussions about which of the 3 character classes they will align with, who has the best pre-order incents (Hint: It’s GameStop) and which gamemodes are going to occupy our time.
One of the key areas of growth in gamer numbers is the fact that Destiny is rated T for Teen vs. M for Mature. This opens up the market and for parents like myself who are hesitant to let their kids play M rated titles, Activision will get double the revenue from my household this time around.
When I fire up my Xbox One I will think back to my beta experience and prepare for what lies ahead across uncharted planets. This is an exciting moment in next gen gaming as not since TitanFall launched in March of this year has there been a true AAA shooter release that was developed specifically to push the next gen hardware.
Ready to take the experience from beta to full release
One of the key elements beyond word of mouth and the reputation of bungie has been the persistent presence of Destiny through the whopping $500 million in marketing spend that Activision had earmarked for the promotion of the game. This rivals the biggest of Hollywood blockbusters as game launches have taken on AAA treatment.
From the “Sharing” spot that launched around the time of the Titanfall launch
To the most recent live-action commercial shot by TRON: Legacy & Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski which has already garnered almost 6 million views at the time of this post.
The game is receiving a boost to attract mainstream and hard core fans alike with traditional and socially centric activations including a first of it’s kind collaboration with Google which allowed for Google Street view maps of the worlds in Destiny.
Destiny has also received a special collectors edition of Newsweek to celebrate the launch
Destiny is already trending on Twitter and tomorrow the hype will turn into action and I am predicting Destiny will break the previous sales records for a new franchise launch. And if any team can pull it off it’s Activision & their partner Step 3 PR.
The last Call of Duty Black hit $1 billion in one day sales and at the time was the largest entertainment launch in history. I fully expect Destiny to break new franchise records ($500 Million) and foresee a healthy return for Activision on their 10 year relationship with Bungie.
Tomorrow it will be time to #Becomelegend. You will find me roaming the Xbox One galaxy as TheBlackFin.
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True Innovation = IKEA BookBook
This morning I received a note about a “seriously fresh” innovation from IKEA. It’s called the BookBook. Prepare to have your mind blown. Definitely take note of the color coding system, sharing and voice activated security.
Get ready to experience the power of a bookbook.
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New Instagram Business Tools
Instagram recently announced they are taking major steps to enable brands by providing greater insight into the performance of both organic and paid content. These tools are a welcome addition to the highly visual platform and will create tighter alignment with business goals as it pertains to tracking impressions, reach and engagement.
The tools are built around three primary areas of account insights, ad insights and ad staging.
Account Insights – Account insights is the primary dashboard for mapping performance and engagement of organic content. This includes insights around the weekly performance of content, aggregate impressions over time as well as additional insight into the brands audience.
Here is a screenshot from the Instagram Blog highlighting account insights
Ad Insights – Ad Insights is the campaign performance hub for Instagram paid media that houses brand analytics (impressions, reach and frequency). Instagram, similar to parent company Facebook, are heavily focused on reach and frequency vs. engagement as a primary value proposition for brands. The Ad Insights dashboard is a quick and easy reference against the current campaign goals and all of the data can easily be exported for additional client reporting.
Ad Staging – One of the more exciting tools, especially for Social Agencies that partner with Media agencies on behalf of their brands, is the Ad Staging option. This tool will allow cross functional teams to collaborate together to preview, save, and collaborate on ad creative.
These tools will be made available to all Instagram advertisers and will enable tighter campaign integration as well as invaluable data around how the brands target is engaging and interacting with both organic and paid content. Building recommendations on a strong data foundation is a key to maximizing the impact of a visual content strategy.
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World Cup Real Time Marketing Win = Snickers
Over the past few years the brands that can seamlessly inject themselves into real-time events in a relevant and often funny way are normally the winners of the never ending PR game. The World Cup is no exception. During yesterday’s Uruguay v Italy match, Uruguay’s star Luis Suarez is believed to have bitten an Italian player and this served as the perfect opportunity to have a little fun with a global moment by injecting a bit of the Snickers brand into the conversation.
I am very proud of my TMA/Fanscape social team in NYC. They worked closely with the BBDO & Mars team to inject a little Snickers branded fun into the #LUISSUAREZ conversation. Snickers is all about the fact that you are not you when you are hungry.
This led to pickups in both Mashable & AdWeek (See below). A lot of work goes into the creation of a single real-time message and I am proud of the structure that we have put in place between the TMA/Fanscape team, BBDO and the Mars client.
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Harley-Davidson Project Livewire
Today marks the reveal of Harley-Davidson’s 1st Electric Motorcycle, Project Livewire. I served as a member of the core The Marketing Arm/Fanscape Harley-Davidson team and very happy to be a part of today’s big reveal.
Here is the Project Livewire teaser video launched on the 19th.
Here is today’s reveal of the Project Livewire electric motorcycle supported by our teams creative, strategy, influencer activation & production.
Join the conversation with #projectlivewire and for more information go to http://www.projectlivewire.com
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From Virality to Engagement to Reach & Frequency. Facebook’s Latest Strategy Shift Explained.
Facebook is rolling out major changes to their platform that greatly affect marketers. To help navigate this shift, I have worked closely with the Facebook team to understand the nuances of the shift and created a white paper that should help organizations to understand the shift and what steps to consider next.
The overarching point you need to understand is that organic Facebook reach is being reduced dramatically and it will cost you to reach your own audience. Facebook is now less about brand-published content being the sole driver of engagement. You must pay to amplify your content and you must create multiple variations of your content based on targeting different segments of your audience.
Here is a summary of what you will find in the white paper:
1) Past: Facebook Reach = Earned Media. Present: Facebook Reach = Paid Media
2) Trend of organic reach of content on a brand’s Facebook page:
- October 2013 reach = (approx) 12% of followers
- February 2014 reach = (approx) 6% of followers
- Soon reach = (approx) 1-2% of followers
3) Now, more than ever, brands must pay for reach on the platform
4) Near Term considerations:
- Re-evaluation of your creative
- Frequency of posting
- Personalization
- Optimization
5) Defining the “Way Forward”
- Reach and Frequency Focus
- Engagement Focus
- Community Focus
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Tesco & iBeacon
Recently, I was asked by Mobile Commerce Daily to provide commentary about the recent iBeacon pilot by Tesco. What makes this pilot unique is the focus on customer service vs. beacon focused sales.
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iBeacon & Entertainment
Recently, I was asked by Mobile Marketer to provide commentary about how iBeacon can add extend the reach of entertainment brands. The discussion also included insight into the current challenge entertainment brands face with iBeacon as well as recommendations to effectively leverage iBeacon technology.
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Google Blurring the Line of Native, Traditional & Social
There is a reason Google is trading over $1,000 a share and closed platforms such as Facebook & Twitter are at $55. Google owns 66% of search marketshare in the US, the #1 online video site with YouTube and Google claims 540 million monthly active Google+ users and 300 million monthly active “in-stream” users. Now Google is looking to change the game when it comes to paid amplification and content discovery by extending social content through their entire network with +Posts.
Here is a graph outlining Google Plus user growth
Content discovery, distribution and streamlining the user experience across the the Google ecosystem appear to be the future and the future is now. Recently Google deployed single sign on across the ecosytem, rolled out new content discovery options within Google+, refined the TruView suite of paid tools via YouTube and further integrated main properties such as Google+ comments embedded within Youtube.
Here is an example of the latest SSO option for Google properties
Here is an example of Google+ comments embedded within YouTube
I recently published what I call Google+ Circle Impact Theory outlining the intersection of social & search. Google+ represents the intersection of search & social via contextual search driven by engagement. The launch of +posts is a significant addition that truly leverages the breadth of the Google ecosystem vs. simply driving discovery of content within Google+.
The +Post is built to support content discovery. Taking organic content from a brands Google+ page and allowing distribution through Google’s Display network. The key difference is the “open” approach to boosting the content through Google’s Display network and replacing a traditional banner with a piece of relevant social content that can create conversation within the unit itself.
Here is a video overview of +Posts
Here is an example from Toyota USA’s Google+ brand post. The brand post is published via Google+ and aligned contextually with individuals through Google’s display network.
The +Post is extensible through Google’s display network combining Native & Traditional elements. The boosted posts can create more points of engagement and expand the reach to look-a-like individuals further boosting post level engagement.
Once expanded the +Post opens via a lightbox and allows the user to +1, share and comment to that single piece of content directly from the unit.
Then the CTA will direct the user to whatever the specific action is to engage with the content.
From a Circle Impact Perspective, the higher the post level engagement, the higher the probability that content will rank in SERP even for those not following the brand via Google+.
From a pricing perspective, charges for brands boosting +posts is only incurred when a user hovers over the ad for two seconds.
This approach is a major shift from Facebook & Twitter’s closed native platform approach of boosting posts within the confines of their networks. Google’s approach increases the likelihood of content discovery and potentially extends the shelf life of content. Further driving value as the organic reach of some of the closed platforms continues to decrease for brands.
This is an important launch for brands and marketers focused on shopper marketing as delivering the right message at the right time is key to driving a shopper to action. The ability to create a content centric shopper strategy that can be targeted and deployed next to key publishing properties where users can create conversations directly is very appealing.
A final thought is that Google’s display network offers multiple tools for contextual & affinity segmentation across multiple screens. This means that not only are they enabling the syndication of social content but also offering the robust targeting capabilities of Google’s ad tools. +Post ads are currently in beta but you can sign up here.
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Linkedin Showcase Pages Create New Points of Discovery
Linkedin has proven to be an incredible asset for B2B Social Media Strategy & execution. With Hubspot defining Linkedin (45%) as the most effective B2B source for lead generation followed by Facebook at 33%.
Linkedin continues to focus on creating relevance for company pages. The latest roll-out called “showcase pages” allows businesses to highlight specific brands or products by creating product centric content hubs that allow users to further align with relevant content.
Each showcase page is setup to exist independently from the company page while still showing (below the fold) a connection to the parent page as well other showcase pages.
Here is an example from HP focusing on their Converged Infrastructure offering with the company & additional showcase pages expanded.
Users can follow specific showcase pages and connect directly with the content they are most interested in. This natural segmentation can create more targeted opportunities for brands to connect with audiences who are interested in specific product lines.
Here is an example from Adobe Marketing Cloud.
Brands can easily create up to 10 showcase pages that also includes access to page insights & analytics. This combined with the 3 million existing company pages can exponentially increase the amount of content in the platform.
It is easy for an organization to create a showcase page
The organization has the ability to define the showcase page URL, define the industry and connect up to 3 existing Linkedin groups.
Here is a screenshot of the creation screen for the showcase creation.
Here is an example of a MIcrosoft showcase page. Linkedin Company pages have worked well from a search discovery perspective and showcase pages provide an additional option to create new points of discovery for products & services.
Here is an example that shows the Microsoft Office example was indexed almost immediately upon launch. At the time of this writing the page was posted 20 hours before.
This latest addition will allow Linkedin to align paid advertising with in network content hubs to create engaging & targeted experiences within the platform vs. driving off-site. The more content that is created and housed within Linkedin means higher amounts of eyeballs which essentially means more potential advertising revenue for Linkedin.
This new showcase option will need to be carefully considered though when deploying. As determining which products have enough content to support the audience in addition to further segmenting the brands following into subgroups and aligning master brand content against product specific content will need to be considered prior to rolling out showcase pages.
Company pages vs. Showcase Pages
VS 
The benefits though of having subsets or micro-content hubs is that the audience that engages is truly interested in the product and is actively searching for information. This also allows more flexibility in terms of search discovery as well as one of the issues with other platforms such as Facebook is that you are limited in terms of new points of discovery via organic search.
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Visual Storytelling Twitter Style
In celebration of Twitter’s IPO, I recently put together the following POV on the new visual Twitter experience outlining what changed, potential impact for programs as well as best practices directly from the Twitter team.
When: This update was rolled out to the public on October 29th, 2013
What: Images, Videos & Vines in users Twitter feed for both web client & mobile apps are now auto expanded (contingent on users updating their iOS & Android apps to the latest update version of the Twitter app).
Why: Twitter wants to make the service a more visual experience heading into their IPO. One of the core goals of Twitter is mainstream adoption and user growth. In Q3 their user growth rate declined slightly so the goal is to make the product more approachable by incorporating a more visual feel to the timeline similar to Facebook & Tumblr.
Impact: Previously, a user would need to click on a link to see the preview of the image or video. Now, the user will see a preview of the image and have the ability to zoom in or watch the clip in stream. The visual redesign has also streamlined the ability to replay, retweet or favorite a tweet without leaving the timeline as before.
Currently there is no way for a user to turn off the visual previews via the web. However, users can opt to turn off the visual option in the mobile application via settings. Based on past behavior though, this extra step may not be taken by a majority of users.
From a metric standpoint, this change may have an impact on the total interactions per tweet as prior to the update users would need to click on the link to preview an image and that would count as an interaction.
Thus interactions via the tweet may go down, but providing more visual content directly in the stream may impact overall engagement in a more positive way as the visual content will stand out from the traditional text based tweets.
Final notes: The new visual Twitter update still does not support animated GIF’s and there is currently no filter or blocking functionality for the individual user. Also, Instagram and other services are currently still represented as links vs. auto expanded.
Note this example highlighting Instagram as a link & images uploaded to Twitter as expanded
Recommendation: The new best practice associated with image posting per Twitter renders at 440 x 220 and uploaded via pic.twitter.com in order to be auto-expanded.
Here is additional info that I just received from Twitter RE: Image pixel size and file size:
The longer side of your photo should be 1024 pixels and the shorter side should be proportionately fewer pixels. This applies to horizontal, square, and vertical photos with any aspect ratio. For example, a horizontal photo with a 4×3 aspect ratio should be sized 1024 x 768 pixels. A square photo should be 1024 x 1024 pixels
Photo file size limit is 3MB
To show your entire image in the Tweet preview:
Use an image in horizontal/landscape orientation with a 2:1 aspect ratio (e.g. 1024 x 512 pixels)
If you do this, the preview image will be the same as the image shown when the Tweet is expanded and/or when the photo is fully revealed.
Currently, there are no text restrictions on the images, so there is an opportunity to maximize the real-estate of images. One key point of consideration is that mobile users still need to update their Twitter app to get this feature so that is still a barrier to removing legal copy from photos as only 6% of Twitter users use the web client. Also note that Twitter has been very strict with 3rd parties who use their API, so at some point this update will push through that ecosystem as well.
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5 Reasons to Consider Flipboard to Support Your Content Strategy
I was recently briefed by the Flipboard team and was pleasantly surprised by how their platform is scaling to support brands. Here are 5 reasons to consider Flipboard to support your branded content strategy.
Flipboard is a content curation and discovery social magazine app that over 85 million people are using. The application visualizes your social feeds such as Facebook & Twitter as well as providing access to curated topical magazines all while allowing the user flexibility in how they consume their content of choice.
From a brand perspective there are 5 key areas of interest to leveraging Flipboard to it’s full potential.
Reason #1 – Brand Magazines – Over the past few months more than 60 recognizable brands have launched curated magazines. This includes Callaway Golf, Levi’s and more. With such a large user base combined with users appetite for both curated and original content, Flipboard is becoming an ideal destination to aggregate and present information in a unique and compelling way.
Here is an example from the Callaway Golf Team. They created a brand magazine to support the launch of their new Apex Irons.
Flipboard launched an online editor earlier this year. The editor allows anyone the ability create customized titles and over 3.5 million customized titles have been created.
Here is an example of a BlackFin360 magazine that was created via the editor
Reason #2 – Flip It Web Bookmarklet – Flip It creates a connection point to update brand magazines quickly based on newly discovered external content. Simply add the bookmarklet to your browser of choice and quickly add curated content directly into a brand magazine.
Simply identify the content and hit “Flip It” to add directly from anywhere on the web
Another use for Flip.it links are to extend brand magazines into the web as well. With a Flip.it link, you can connect to a web enabled version of a brand magazine that exists in the Flipboard ecosystem.
Here is an example of the BlackFin360 Brand Magazine viewable on the web via a Flip.it link.
The Flip.it link when opened on a Flipboard app enabled device will open the magazine via the web and offer an option to open directly in Flipboard.
Reason #3 – Sponsored Search – As part of an advertising package with Flipboard, there is an opportunity to highlight a brand magazine via a promoted element appended to keyword search results.
Here is an example from Levi’s promoting their Modern Frontier magazine tied to the Levi’s keyword.
Reason #4 – Full Page Paid Advertisements – Brands have an opportunity to align with prominent publishers and associate their content in the form of full page ads that can also link directly within Flipboard. In this scenario, Flipboard can act as the agent with the publishing partners.
Here is an example of a Levi’s Full Page add that also connects directly to their Brand Magazine
Paid advertising only appears within the pages of formal publishing partners such as Conde Nast publications. According to a recent interview with Flipboards CEO Mike McCue, he referenced click through rates averaging around 3% across both mobile & tablet.
Another Example of a Full Page Ad
Reason #5 – Editorial Opportunities – With Flipboard curating & creating content, there are editorial opportunities for brands that can also drive additional value for a brand. This would require working directly with the Flipboard team but relevant content sessions can be created and distributed through inside.flipboard.com
WIth a total of $111 million dollars raised to date and a growing user base, Flipboard is riding a key consumer trend and providing a service that will be incredibly relevant over the next few years as more brands create content and look for platforms that can organize and distribute content in a relevant and cost effective manner.
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Instagram Ads are Here
Instagram just announced upcoming support for video and image based ad support. This move was inevitable based on Facebook’s ownership of the platform. This announcement is also very timely considering Twitter’s upcoming IPO.
Here are a few of the details from their announcement:
“In the next couple months, you may begin seeing an occasional ad in your Instagram feed if you’re in the United States. Seeing photos and videos from brands you don’t follow will be new, so we’ll start slow. We’ll focus on delivering a small number of beautiful, high-quality photos and videos from a handful of brands that are already great members of the Instagram community.
Our aim is to make any advertisements you see feel as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos many of you already enjoy from your favorite brands. After all, our team doesn’t just build Instagram, we use it each and every day. We want these ads to be enjoyable and creative in much the same way you see engaging, high-quality ads when you flip through your favorite magazine.
We’ll also make sure you have control. If you see an ad you don’t like, you’ll be able to hide it and provide feedback about what didn’t feel right. We’re relying on your input to help us continually improve the Instagram experience. As always, you own your own photos and videos. The introduction of advertising won’t change this.”
With so much of Facebook’s focus on in-stream engagement and discussions tied to interactive units in stream on Facebook, it will be very interesting to see how users will respond to the new ad types. The Instagram experience is primarily delivered via Mobile, with a single image feed. By injecting units in this environment, it increases the disruption to the end user so it will be very important to see how the ads are delivered and what considerations or potential changes to the feed will be made to support the new ad types while maintaining a clean user experience.
From a brand perspective this is a welcome addition as the ability to extend a cross-platform campaign that incorporates Instagram ad support can be a key reach driver for certain types of campaigns. It is also a natural assumption that best practices from Facebook’s advertising platform will make its way into Instagram ad support as the ability to drive relevant targeting will be a key point of consideration for adoption.
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Facebook Announces Major News Feed Algorithm Update
Today, Facebook held a press conference to announce more changes to the News Feed as well as a significant update to what was formerly named the EdgeRank algorithm. EdgeRank had been the formula that determines what content is to be seen in a users feed.
In March of this year Facebook announced the first major change to the Facebook News Feed in six years. The theme at the time was reduction of clutter by providing more choice and control over the content and stories users will see in their feeds.
Any time there is an update to the algorithm it is big news as Facebook has stated that 88% of engagement happens via the News Feed. The last major update to the algorithm was September of 2012. A month later there was concern over the changes impacting organic brand reach. Since that time organic post visibility has been stable at ~16% visibility.
This has led to the need to either amplify relevant owned content via paid (Paid + Owned = PWNED) or partner with Facebook & pay for reach generation to “guarantee” reach. With today’s announcement it initially appears that these changes will positively enhance a brands ability to impact organic reach.
To date, most brands focus on creating a compelling content strategy that creates relevant connections with their fans. But even with increased engagement & organic post visibility it is becoming increasingly difficult to cut through without some form of paid amplification to boost reach. Today’s update will hopefully allow relevant & engaging content to once again impact organic visibility.
Today’s announcement
Today’s announcement started with a stat outlining that the average person has about 1500 stories they could see in the newsfeed – some have tens of thousands..
Every eligible item to show in news feed gets a score when the news feed is loaded. Each story in feed gets a score based on how relevant we think it is to the user. with the goal of putting the most relevant items at the top. The algorithm was called EdgeRank but as of today has been retired.
Moving forward the News Feed algorithm will continue to focus on your relationship to the person/source and how you have interacted with them before. Facebook is promising more transparency going forward about news feed & ranking/scoring.
As the changes come into play there are three primary areas of focus for updates to the algorithm. Two of which will be incorporated, one will not.
1) Story Bumping – Story bumping considers showing not only all new stories, but considers all stories that are new to the user that may have driven engagement since the last time you visited. If you miss stories on one visit, they may be eligible to show on the next visit. This was tested with 80% of employees, older stories were at the top of the feed and interaction went up on organic content during internal testing. Stories read went from 57% to 70%.
Story bumping is separate from the ad system and applies to organic content only. Story bump is live now on web & coming soon to mobile.
2) Last Actor – This is another new feature to the news feed algorithm and “captures your current state of mind”. This new element takes into consideration the most recent factors from your Facebook activity. This ties to your last 50 interactions with content and gives those users a slight bump in news feed ranking. An example is if you interact with an individual in the morning that same person’s content may be weighted slightly higher later in the day.
This has led to 1 to 2% bump in the number of interactions with posts. This feature is now live on mobile & web.
3) Chronological by Actor – One additional item that was tested and not launched was chronological by actor. This feature gives a higher score to most recent stories from your friends. This element caused issues with mapping unrelated stories and will not be launched at this time.
What does this mean?
Now the News Feed algorithm responds to the following signals
- How often you interact with the friend, page who posted (Last actor)
- The number of likes, shares & comments a post receives
- How much interaction with this type of post in the past (Story bumping)
- Reporting associated with a post
For brands both story bumping and last actor represent new opportunities to increase organic reach. By allowing more relevance with older stories that drive engagement as well as Last Actor’s “current state of mind” this allows brands to impact organic reach via engagement which is definitely good for brands with a solid focus on a relevant content strategy that begets engagement.
One additional note, Facebook’s VP Chris Cox did state that they are still working on balancing how many posts users will see from publishers.
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Pinterest Partner Event Recap
I recently attended the first ever Pinterest Partner Marketing Summit in NYC. This invite only event unveiled their emphasis on developing a strong partner program and also served as an opportunity to introduce new staff to the Pinterest partner team, new resources for brands and agencies and best practices to maximize the platform.
There were five primary areas of focus for the event.
1) Why Pinterest
2) Pinterest Interest Graph
3) New product enhancements (Rich Pin & Mobile Pin It)
4) Analytics & Partner Tools
5) Partner case studies & Best Practices
WHY PINTEREST
Ben Silbermann, Pinterest Co-Founder & CEO started the day by telling the story of Pinterest. He discussed his love of collections when he was young… stamps, butterflies, baseball cards, etc… he saw an opportunity as there was not an elegant solution to organize collections online.
He had roots with Google and was enamored by how the search giant was able to so seamlessly focus on enabling search & retrieval across the web. If you know what you are looking for Google provides an ideal platform for search & retrieval.
He actually related Pinterest more to Google & search than to other social channels such as Facebook. With Pinterest people vs. bots are indexing the webs content and organizing them by interests, something that is a bit more subjective but aligns with human behavior.
One of his key points was in defining Pinterests role in discovery of content.
“Discovery on the web is an unsolved problem & massive opportunity” – Ben Silbermann
With Pinterest, people are making discovery possible by organizing the web’s content around interests. This is their key point of differentiation as the platform is about discovery and action.
It was interesting to hear Ben’s story about the roots of Pinterest and it also provided insight into where the platform is going which leads to the Interest Graph.
INTEREST GRAPH
The Pinterest team spent a good bit of time discussing what they coined the Pinterest Interest Graph. An interest graph is an online representation of the specific things in which an individual is interested. And because the focus of Pinterest is based on what people are indexing on the web and then categorizing by interests, the Pinterest Interest Graph is the foundation for their business moving forward.
A key point of differentiation between Facebook’s Social Graph & Pinterest & even Twitters interest graphs are the fact that Interest Graphs are used to create people’s interest networks whereas Facebook and other social networks are organized around an individual’s friends and connections that follow them across the web.
The key to the interest graph for Pinterest is the ability to create personalized experiences that change based on an individuals life stage and interests. The association is less with people and more with things. This may include life events such as marriage, children, etc… and Pinterest hopes that by focusing on interests they are building a sustainable platform that can grow with users over time and continue to provide both utility and relevance based on discovery.
The key to the interest graph from a brand perspective is that a single product can be repined into other areas. As the single object passes across the interest graph across categories you are able to leverage the network of interests and passions vs. pushing a message and see how your product resonates in real time. This leads to driving discoverability by interest as well as distribution and lengthens the shelf life of content as it continually gets repined.
Interest Graph in action for me… I like Robots
PRODUCT ENHANCEMENTS
Pin it Button – the theme that was repeated the most over the course of the event was the focus on the Pin It button. Pinterest reiterated that a strong Pinterest strategy starts with enabling your domain. By enabling and focusing on driving & optimizing pins down to the individual product level are the key to driving more engagement and driving higher referral traffic.
Mobile Pinning – Earlier this week Pinterest launched the ability to integrate the Pin It button into a brands mobile application to further drive discoverability via mobile for both iOS & Android via SDKs. The SDK allows a brands users to create Pinterest content inside the branded app. Currently, this only supports pinning from the web, but the ability to pin local images is on the roadmap as well.
Here is an example of Mobile Pinning in action from the Brit + Co (launch partner) mobile app
Rich Pins – Also tied to this weeks launch was the release of Rich Pins. Pinterest hopes that Rich Pins lead to action and by adding more brand data to a pin tied to products, recipes & movies that more direct attribution and value for brands and users will be apparent. Product pins from a brand can showcase active inventory as well as price & references the source directly from the pin. Recipe Rich Pins allow more data to be added directly to the pin and movie pins offer insight into reviews as well as cast directly from the pin.
Product Pins
Recipe Pins
Movie Pins
Implementation – In order to implement Rich Pins meta tags need to applied to your domain and decide on the type of rich pin you want to apply for. Then once the meta tags have been validated you can apply to get them from Pinterest.
From a brand perspective, this is the first step to further enabling brand content and attribution. Especially the product pins can be of value to further drive action when discovered.
ANALYTICS & PARTNER TOOLS
On March 11th, Pinterest launched their data analytics tool. This was another key discussion point during the course of the event. The analytics tool supports Pinterest’s position to enable a brands .com as the suite focuses on content pinned directly from the .com and focus on how many people are pinning from the website, impressions & reach over time and which pins receive the most repins and who pins them as well as what other content people are pinning alongside them.
This data can be extremely useful when incorporating top pins into tailoring content for the website as well as other social channels. Nordstrom was a presenting brand and the key takeaway from their presentation was their focus on curating pins and using analytics as a driver for surfacing content on their website, e-mail as well as in store. By leveraging Pinterest in this way, Nordstrom claimed increased sell through in stores and online.
Nordstrom Top Pins via .com
Nordstrom in store
Pinterest also rolled out new partner tools starting with a revamped business.pinterest.com as well as a new business blog that will focused on enabling partners and will serve as the location for new product feature announcements. The team also announced that they will soon be providing webinars on best practices to further enable partners.
Unlike Facebook & Twitter, Pinterest is less about working directly with their partner teams and more about enabling the platform to allow brands to maximize their presence.
CASE STUDIES
During the course of the event four brands were represented including Target, Sephora, Nordstroms & Sony Electronics. I have already referenced how Nordstroms is leveraging Pinterest data to drive their content & in-store strategy. Below are a few key points from the Sephora & Sony Electronics presentations.
Sephora
The most compelling elements from the Sephora case study was their laser focus on identifying trends via pins. Their goals were tied to making it easier to pin from Sephora.com, use e-mail to encourage Pinterest engagement and encourage clients to pin their beauty shopping lists.
- Focus on top pins to inform content strategy across channels
- Content goes beyond simple product to incorporate DIY type content
- Testing various types of Pin to Win initiatives that are cross promoted
- Embedded Pinterest across social channels such as Facebook
- Created pinnable e-mails drove significant results including a 60% increase in referral traffic from Pinterest that has not subsided
- Focus on creating a shoppable experience on Pinterest
- Claimed that shoppers are closer to purchase in the path to purchase and stated a statistic of 15x the sales impact vs. Facebook
Sony Electronics
I was most impressed by the work of Sony electronics of the four brands that presented. What I liked about their story is they are not the first brand you think of when you think about the Pinterest platform. They are a manufacturer vs. retailer and their audience is a younger, high tech male group who is not the primary audience of the platform. They had very clearly defined strategy objectives of driving sales, acquisition and brand affinity on the platform and they have leveraged the social power of their internal organization as well as consumers to power their experience.
- Audience (Sony electronics appeal to more than women)
- They curated content that existed, retro products, artist style, influencers who shoot with their cameras etc…
- Launched presence with an employee contest to educate and curate relevant content across the organization
- Drove awareness via the Sony Electronics blog & e-mail
- E-mail is a critical component to their Pinterest strategy, pin, collect, share –> Pinterest focused messages get double the open rate
- Inform their content strategy based on Pins
- Leverage 3rd parties such as Curalate to identify influencers
- Executed innovative programs such as Pin Deals – unlock via 20 pins – flash sale & Pin it to give it – repins = $1 to charity and received 13,000 pins
- Partnered with relevant brands to enter new categories such as Pinterest partnership with American Airlines to enter travel
BEST PRACTICES
The following is a list of best practices that were discussed during the course of the event. This is not a comprehensive best practices list, but does highlight the key points that the Pinterest team & brands represented did speak to repeatedly.
Strategy
- The Pinterest team reiterated that the best Pinterest strategy starts with your domain.
- Remember boards are not destinations, most of the interaction will happen at the Pin level
- Pinnable E-mail is a critical component to a successful Pinterest strategy, enable content to be pinned on the individual content level
Platform
- Add Pin-It Button to domain
- Verify the business with Pinterest
- Enable Domain Analytics
- Activate & Incorporate Rich Pins to create a cleaner connection to inventory and enabling action
- Leverage the Mobile SDK’s to further enable sharing directly from a brands app
Content
- Learn from top pins, timely relevant pins that map to domain are key
- Optimize pins, Sony’s audience preferred product shots while Target’s audience resonates with Lifestyle images
- Short Captions are key, the goal is to tease to promote click through
- Focus on content that will drive repins
- Pin your product along with other inspirational content to boards
- Focus on creating ripples with content vs. “feed stuffing”
Contests
- When it comes to Pin It to Win it type of initiatives, it is important to ensure that there is a variety of content to pin
- A pin from a Pin it to Win it is good, but the focus should be on repins. Repins are the key to successful promotion on the platform
SUMMARY
The first Pinterest partner event was definitely insightful and the event closed with the following points:
1) Discovery on the web is an unsolved problem & massive opportunity
2) People are making discovery possible by organizing the web’s content around interests
3) You can make your business more discoverable by inspiring people to pin
Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360
Benefits of Facebook’s Custom CRM Audience Targeting
Recently a new Facebook feature rolled out of beta that can provide brands with a viable process to connect their offline CRM databases to those users on Facebook. Now, this process of custom audience list targeting has just rolled out to all brands who advertise on Facebook.
This new feature can be a significant enabler for a brand, as most have larger customer databases outside of the social sphere (after years of traditional CRM outreach) than they have engaged on their social properties.
With Facebook’s new targeting capabilities, brands can bridge the connection of their offline data through social channels. By targeting the exact individuals that the brand already has or had a relationship with, the impact of the targeted reach can be greatly enhanced.
With the new Power Editor, the brand has the ability to identify “who” they want to target beyond the general parameters that have been available. This applies to current customers, prospects, people who like specific products, lapsed users, etc… The ability to take these offline lists and create custom audiences via Facebook’s ad platform is a major step forward for the platform and allows a greater level of targeting to a base that has already established a self-selected affinity towards the brand at some point in that customers brand life cycle.
Brands can create lists based on email addresses, phone numbers, etc.. that represent the groups of people in a CRM database. These elements are then matched to Facebook’s own records to create the custom lists.
In terms of ownership of the data, Facebook does not receive the brands customer data fully. The data is protected and resides on your local computer, then the data is imported via hashes. Facebook then matches the hashes to it’s own records and deletes the data. All that remains is a custom target list. This list is then tied to the individuals Facebook ad account. No other advertisers can use the list.
My recent discussions with Facebook state that their clients have seen a higher ROI based on beta interactions. This applied to higher conversion rates, lower cost per fan, lead or reengaged users than with other campaigns.
Brands have the ability to create unlimited lists at no cost and have the ability to keep audiences up to date. One additional benefit, is that it is possible to map the custom lists to those who have and have not liked the page.
This option is not available at the page level, but only as part of the advertising platform. The ability to marry offline data with Facebook’s social graph to further amplify existing connections is a key addition to the platform.
Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360
The Rise of Shazamable Ads in 2012
Let’s play a quick game of word association. I say “Shazam” you say _____. The default answer by most would be “music”. If that was your initial response then you may want to think again as Shazam Entertainment Ltd. hopes to change your association with their app.
From This…
To This…
Chances are that you have either downloaded, used, heard about or seen Shazam in action as it is available for both iOS & Android. With over 150 million users and 45 million installs on smartphones & tablets in the US, the potential reach is impressive. Boosted along the way by great reviews, exposure via Starbucks App pick of the week and continually adding new features to the ever evolving product roadmap, Shazam is quickly moving from simply being a music identification service to a player in the digital activation space.
Shazam’s recent Starbucks Pick of the Week. Yes, I may have grabbed more than one….
With a recent investment of 32 million dollars, Shazam is aggressively extending the platform to support different forms of digital activation & engagement. Key changes in their model such as allowing unlimited tagging of content across all levels of their offering and strategic partnerships with NBC Universal properties has led to new features that support entertainment based tagging vs. simply tagging music.
In other words TV Spot + Shazamable Call to Action + User Tagging = Digital Activation.
By now you may have seen one of the many Shazamable ads or shows that highlights the Shazam icon placed strategically on the screen for a period of time. Initially, you may be thinking “why would I want to shazam this commercial”? Case in point, this recent Marshall’s ad.
Notice the Shazam marker in the lower right
The app then uses it’s spectrogram based audio footprint of the ad to identify and launch the tagged content. Instead of the standard artist & song information, the experience shifts to become the direct response launch point of branded experiences. Now Shazam supports driving a user to a branded destination as well as enable social connections with the brand, or push to an e-commerce offering. The opportunities to create an engaging digital experience is now viable by simply tagging an ad or show with the app.
Without a doubt in 2012 you will see the rise of Shazamable ads. With 150 million user reach and the fact that the second screen is becoming a mainstay to our television viewing experiences, brands & NBC Universal partners will look to Shazam as a means to drive digital interaction directly from your primary screen with the hopes of either enhancing the viewing experience or incenting users to engage with branded destinations.
The biggest barrier at this time is the stigma that Shazam is primarily a music identification service. Work will need to be done to continue to educate the 150 million current and future users that the app is going beyond figuring out what the cool song was in the latest Apple ad to that ad now creating additional digital touchpoints and the ability to buy the featured product via the app and oh by the way still tell you what the name of the song was as well.
Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360