February 29, 2012 by Majestic Media by Majestic Media

Facebook Insights Lagging

Are you experiencing problems with your Facebook Insights? Many companies have reported an apparent lag in their Facebook Insights. Many have reported that they have not received updates since February 15.

PageLever, an analytics company, has posted web page showing how far Facebook Insights is behind. At the time of this article, the site stated that Facebook Insights is four days behind. The site also gives users the option to tweet the current delay in an apparent attempt to exert pressure on Facebook. Facebook has responded by marking the bug as high priority on the Facebook developers blog Sunday. Facebook generally responds promptly to issues that it marks as high priority. Hopefully we should see a resolution to this issue shortly.

February 28, 2012 by Majestic Media by Majestic Media

Facebook Improving iOS App Discovery

In October 2011, Facebook introduced social app discovery. It appears that Facebook will be improving that existing platform. Facebook has implemented additional settings in order to improve the amount of traffic that native iOS apps receive from the mobile timeline, search and various other functions.

Now developers can optimize the performance of their app by allowing single sign on (SSO) and deep linking (allowing users to be directed to a specific page or image rather than the general landing page). By implementing SSO, an app can gain distribution from the Facebook iOS app in the newsfeed.

This news comes shortly before the Facebook Marketing Conference at which it is expected that Facebook will be implementing mobile ads. The development of the mobile platform over the coming months will be extremely important for marketers and developers alike to keep track of.

February 27, 2012 by Majestic Media by Majestic Media

Report: Facebook Stands To Make 1.2 Billion A Year From Mobile Ads

Since Facebook filed its IPO, there has been much speculation over the monetizing of its mobile platform. The speculation originally centered around in what form Facebook ads would be implemented in. Now, the latest rumors are coming from analysts who are attempting to project the possible income that can be derived from mobile ads.

The latest projections come from a UK based firm Mobile Squared. The company states that Facebook could potentially earn 1.2 Billion dollars in its through the US and it’s 5 major European markets ( U.K., Spain, France, Germany and Italy).

Nick Lane, chief strategy analyst, explains how these estimates were reached:

Across the 6 markets – France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK and US ‑ mobile^SQUARED estimates there are a total of 185.3 million Facebook Mobile users. According to comScore the average Facebook Mobile user in the UK spends 24 hours per month on the site. We’ve taken a slightly more conservative approach to this, and assumed a market average of 12 hours per user per month.

Based on a further assumption that Facebook will serve an ad every 20 seconds via its mobile sites or apps – not based on when the page refreshes ‑ using a CPM model of $0.25, it means Facebook would generate $653.7 million in revenues from mobile advertising in the US alone over a 12 month period.

It remains to be seen what the CTR and other valuable metrics will be for brands advertising through mobile. However with the large mobile market, if brands and Facebook are able to establish an effective method of advertising, they both stand to profit substantially.

February 25, 2012 by Majestic Media by Majestic Media

Is Facebook Commerce Dead?

Once big brands began amassing large groups of followers, many began opening up e-commerce pages on Facebook. After the initial surge in F-commerce (Facebook commerce sites), many of these pages have been shutting down their F-commerce tabs recently.

A Bloomberg report cited the closing of GAP, J.C Penney, Nordstrom and Gamestop’s commerce sites as a potential reason that Facebook is not a viable source of revenue. This follows increasing speculation that Facebook would move in to the E-commerce realm with a great deal of success.

GameStop spoke to Bloomberg about the shutdown of their site:

“We just didn’t get the return on investment we needed from the Facebook market, so we shut it down pretty quickly,” Ashley Sheetz, VP of marketing and strategy at GameStop, told Bloomberg.

Does this mean an end to the potential that Facebook once had as a commerce site? Not necessarily. Facebook may still be a viable platform for E-commerce if brands approach it correctly.

A common thread amongst many of the retailers attempting to sell on Facebook, is that they made their Facebook commerce site extremely similar to their existing webpages. The most common formula was to implement their online catalog in to an existing Facebook app and to make the items available for purchase. The question that arises when using this formula is, what incentive do shoppers have to use Facebook to purchase products over your existing webpage? This question gains even more weight when considering the fact that Facebook apps tend to run slower than most basic E-commerce websites, adding further motivation for users to shop on the brands existing site.

It seems that many brands did not fully take advantage of the Facebook platform when designing their F-commerce sites. Facebook offers many advantages a simple website cant. The most obvious component of Facebook which brands should leverage, is the fact the site is social in nature. Although some are looking at this as negative in the commerce aspect, if leveraged correctly it can certainly drive a brand’s online sales.

Through utilizing the new open graph system a brand can utilize Facebook actions to display items bought, on the news feeds of the purchasers friends. Furthermore with the rumored improvements to premium ads, brands may be able to pay to sponsor these actions and have them appearing in a prominent role on news feeds. Brands may also be able to deep link these items having a user click on the story in their news feed and be brought directly to the product purchased by their friend instead of a generic landing page. This is just one method of utilizing the social nature of Facebook in an advantageous fashion.

As with most things related to the Facebook platform, Facebook will provide the tools but it is up to the marketers and developers to find creative and effective ways to implement them. As brands begin to realize the full potential of the new open graph system expect to see another surge in F-commerce sites.

February 24, 2012 by Majestic Media by Majestic Media

Pinterest: Another Timeline Success Story

According to the Facebook Developer Blog, Pinterest has seen remarkable success since launching it’s timeline app. Since launching their Open Graph integration less than a month ago, the number of Facebook users visiting Pinterest every day has increased by more than 60%.

Although many users have yet to fully embrace the new timeline feature, it seems that brands that have been utilizing the new open graph system, have been extremely successful. Facebook attributes the success of Pinterest to the following factors: Pinterest focused on the most frequent and social things people do on their site – pin and follow – and built Open Graph stories that people could identify with. Pinterest also prompts people to add the app to their timelines through a clear call out that is integrated into the design of the site.

One may wonder why Facebook would be highlighting what appears to be one of their main competitors success story. It would seem that Facebook does not view Pinterest as a direct competitor. One reason maybe the fact that Pinterest has yet to find a way to effectively monetize its growing traffic. Another factor maybe that Facebook has reached the size that it feels comfortable operating as a Hub, driving traffic to external social media sites that cannot offer all of the features that Facebook does.