Testing Out Facebook’s New Ad Product: Promoting Posts

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As Social Media Specialist at Curry College in Milton, MA, I manage a bunch of Facebook Pages and was recently presented with a cool opportunity from Facebook to participate in a product research study (applicable to just one of the college’s pages – the main, institutional one.) I have dabbled in using ads (mainly ‘Sponsored Stories) on the site, and have experienced solid results driving page likes, and by participating we would receieve a $250 ad credit – a no brainer. Plus I was curious to use the new ad product.

The ad product we would be testing out and providing comments on is called “Promoting Posts.”

Full Promoting Posts PDF Guide.

We had Commencement coming up fast, so I worked with our graphic design department to create a jpg. announcing how our community could use social to interact with each other, friends, family and staff during the ceremony and that we could then post and “promote.” At that time we had been reaching on average 600 people per post (I just created the page in September 2011).  So, I promoted the post for $5.00 and monitored closely (you can promote a post that you’ve created within the past 3 days just by clicking “Promote” under the post.) The promotion runs for 3 days automatically and you can pause or stop the promotion of the post (which can be photos, status updates, offers, videos and questions) before the 3 days are up. From what I saw and was told the promoted post is pushed into more newsfeeds than normal of a pages’ fans and for people interacting with the post (liking it, commenting, sharing etc.), into more of their friends newsfeeds – thereby increasing awareness and hopefully, Actions.

Importantly, when being served up in the newsfeed it’s fairly subtle that it’s a promoted post, as the only sign is the word “Sponsored” displayed under the post.

Also, the post becomes a “Sponsored Story” being displayed in the right hand column with your friend’s names who liked it, commented on it or shared it attached.

Here are the results of the 3-day campaign to promote our “pre-commencement social graphic:” (Note the 19 Actions are just for the post being displayed in newsfeeds, when it was simultaneously served up as a Sponsored Story it received 14 more Actions. You can see these results in the same Campaigns and Ads section in Facebook, and under the first screenshot below.)

So, as you can see we reached more people than average (although, this bump might be explained by Commencement being our biggest event of the year, and the social media call to action) – but Facebook also provides a couple other cool metrics by which to judge the campaign’s success – Click Through Rate (CTR) and Actions. I was happy with the 9.555% CTR and can see promoting an interesting post that points to your website working quite well. In terms of the 33 Actions, I wasn’t as happy, as we’ve experienced many more than that organically on a similar photo post.

At the end of week two I was emailed a brief survey, completed it and was indeed sent the ad coupon code. So, all-in-all I was happy to have participated and if/once this ad product is available for all, I would try it again (especially to see how successfully it works driving folks to our website or a landing page). What do you think? Are there negative implications for a brand paying to promote one of their posts?

Note: I posted the pre-commencement social graphic normally (not using the ad product) one day before promoting it, so the slight discrepancy in likes, comments and 1 share shown in the screen shot above is due to this fact. The total 33 Actions is just for the campaign.

The Information Needs of Communities: The Changing Media Landscape in a Broadband Age, a report by the FCC

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Is it possible to capture how much the information revolution has changed our world?

I was just listening to the weekly radio show On The Media (June 17th 2011 episode), when I heard a segment about the FCC’s recently released 360 page report that OTM calls “one of the most comprehensive overviews of the US media ever produced,” and in its scope, certainly attempts to answer the quote above in the affirmative.

The report, authored by the segment’s guest and head of the project Steven Waldman, is titled The Information Needs of Communities: The Changing Media Landscape in a Broadband Age.” The project and subsequent report is the product of over two years of work and “600 interviews and workshops held all over the country,” and the findings in my opinion are vastly interesting. I therefore wanted to share the full report and some of its salient findings with you.

First, here are a few key discoveries the project uncovers pertaining to local reporting and digital media:

• While the media, in general, are rich and vigorous, local reporting has taken a “palpable hit.”

• Neither old or new media seem to have the resources to hold government accountable (i.e. local accountability reporting.) For example, the report states that 27 states have no reporters in the nation’s capital.

• Even as information blooms online, journalism’s crucial function as a local watchdog has been stymied.

• As technology offered people new choices, upending traditional news biz models and causing massive job losses (approx. 13,400 newspaper newsroom positions in just past four years,) gaps in coverage have been created in which even the fast-growing digital world has yet to fill.

• At a time when digital media is empowering more and more people, there is a countervailing trend occurring where citizens are shifting power to institutions because institutions (govn’t, companies etc.) are in a better position to drive the story-lines.

• Far from being nearly extinct, the traditional media players (i.e. TV Stations, Newspapers) are the largest providers of local news online.

• Individual citizens need to be thinking about this issue as an important part of building a better community and better country.

After reading please come back and add your comments below as to what you think of the FCC’s report. Thanks!

Here is the OTM Transcript:

OTM June  17th

Here is the full PDF of the report:

The_Information_Needs_of_Communities

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Information Vegetables and Information Desert: The Personalization Era

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As we continue to barrel toward a world operated almost completely by digital technologies – and the very real possibility of a collective future that offers untold possibilities for “social, economic, practical, artistic and even spiritual progress,” as Douglas Rushkoff recently wrote, many academics, sociologists, marketers and technologists are offering their take of what this all means for humanity (and therefore business), and what avenues we should or shouldn’t then take.

And of course, the Internet, and how we interact with it (and how it interacts with us), resides in the center of this discussion/debate. For a quick rundown see: Sherry Turkle, the Director of MIT’s Initiative on Technology & Self; author and journalist Nicholas Carr; author, teacher and consultant Clay Shirky, and media theorist and author Neil Postman.

This whole debate fascinates me and as citizens living through this transformation era I think that we should be absorbing and thinking about ALL views – not just the ones we are apt agree with.

On a related note, and the impetus for this post, I was recently listening to an audio interview with MoveOn.org’s former executive director Eli Pariser on the daily tv/radio news program Democracy Now! and I heard something quite interesting that I will mention in a minute.

What is the Internet Hiding From You?

Pariser was on the show to be interviewed about his new book, “The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You.” His thesis, in a nutshell, is that the Internet is increasingly becoming an echo chamber in which sites tailor info according to the preferences they detect in each viewer. As an example he talks about two of his friends who both google “Egypt” from their respective computers and get two vastly different results – one about the protests and revolution and the other receives travel-related search results.

He posits that Google uses accumulated data from these two friends to deliver the results on Egypt it thinks they will click on – with the reason being more page views and ad dollars. Therefore not everyone receives the same results and a case can be (and is) made that Google is diverting from their original philosophy and algorithm that users and their pointed links to sites are the arbitrators of authority and therefore, determine the best, most useful search results.

A Facebook “Important Button.”

But what really caught my attention is what Pariser begins to discus about 38:30 into the show in relation to this perceived echo chamber (conformational bias) phenomenon and the social networking giant Facebook. He talks about the fact that the way info is passed around Facebook, and therefore consumed by the community, is through the “Like” button.

“The “Like” button has a very particular valence. It is easy to click like on ‘I just ran a marathon,’ or ‘I baked a really awesome cake,’ but its very hard to click “Like” on ‘war in Afghanistan enters its tenth year,'” says Pariser

Therefore, “Info that is “Likable” gets transmitted, information that is not “Likable” falls out” he adds. His suggestions to begin to remedy this and take back some control?

1). We need to be aware of whats happening, in terms of these filters operating invisibly i.e. “Use Your Head.” 2). And the idea that inspired this post – a grassroots campaign to develop an “Important Button.” This would be a way to signal that something is not only “Likable” but also important.

And consequently, and most important, different, more varied information/stories would then began to be viewed and consumed by more people.

“This [campaign/idea] can start to remind these companies that there are ways that they can begin to build in more civic value into what they’re doing”

So, what do you think about an “Important Button?” I think its certainly an interesting and viable idea and would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Here is the link to the video interview

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Moving Past Twitters’ Gate-Keepers

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More and more it seems that Twitter is becoming an integral part of/player in the news of the world. Whether it be breaking the news, for example, the 2009 US Airways flight ditching in the Hudson river, or actually being the news, as it has been most recently concerning the role it played in the Egyptian revolution, “Twitter” and “News” are becoming synonymous.

A recent article on Paul Sutton’s blog The Social Web, and the report by HP found below, got me thinking about the topic of media gatekeepers, Twitter, news and how digital marketers can engage with Twitter to make it (news) and get results.

First, Paul’s piece asks some great questions concerning PR and the fact that Twitter now is the news and breaks it many times even before the mainstream media sites do. He writes,

“As for PR, our job used to be to provide newspapers, magazines and broadcast media with stories; facts and comments about client projects that managed or created reputation and demand. But is our job now to feed Twitter? Do we try to create news ‘breaks’ through seeding news to Twitter sources and journalists?”

This study by HP, which collected its data through Twitter’s own search API over 40 days in the fall of 2010, states that mainstream media brands such as CNN and the NY Times drive a “disproportionate” number of Twitter trending topics – by being the source of most RT’s while a topic is trending. Therefore, taking this into consideration and attempting to answer Paul’s question, I would offer that first I am a bit disappointed that this may illustrate, quite predictably, the saliency of traditional gate-keepers like the MSM on social channels. Although, the study also reports that

“Even though mainstream media sources tend to be extremely well-represented within social media discussions, a significant percentage of trending topics do stem from non-mainstream sources.”

So, in regard to the question of should we as PR professionals and digital marketers seed news to mainstream Twitter sources and their journos, I would posit that yes we should. Going by this report, this is “one” way to create and sustain buzz. But as a guy inspired by citizen journalism and emerging media I am more hopeful that we can find equally-powerful and mutually beneficial ways of creating and sustaining “buzz” on Twitter and other channels, in effect bypassing these conventional sources.

I would love to hear your ideas! Please share below.

Photo credit: Joshin Yamada

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7 Crucial e-books for Young Communicators

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As this is mainly a blog for younger, entry-level communicators, I often want to post resources that will aid in navigating the PR, Marketing and Journalism landscapes and provide powerful and effective tips, tools and techniques to those in search of them.

Because communications, sales and specifically public relations and web marketing now revolve around creating and building useful and valuable content for niche audiences (the Long Tail), and establishing thought leadership and brands, free industry e-books from companies and individuals have become quite prevalent and very important (for both the companies themselves and their customers). As David Meerman Scott says, we must all “think like a publisher.”

Therefore, I scoured the Internet and came up with a list of 7 valuable e-books for young communicators from today’s thought leaders. I realize that this has been done many times before, but I’m attempting to zero in on e-books that specifically provide value to us as young professionals. Enjoy!

• Brink: SHIFT’s Todd Defren wrote this e-book on social media, consisting of his best thinking over the past five years and offered it for free on his blog PR Squared. Defren explains the book best: “Let’s face it: most of this blog’s readers already ‘get it.’ You understand that we are poised on the ‘brink’ of amazing change. You can already see how social media is irresistibly changing the face of marketing. But, I’ll bet you have a ton of friends who either ‘don’t get it’ or only ‘kinda-sorta do.'” What I find handy here is that Defren illustrates, using real situations faced by real companies and through a familiar human voice, how we as communicators can/should create interactive channels through which we share, learn and directly participate within the appropriate markets that define our business.

• Social Media Marketing GPS: “Interviews with 40 Marketing Leaders” by Toby Bloomberg. Shel Israel writes in the forward that “SMGPS will tell you the why & how using social media, 1 tweet at a time. You’ll learn essentials in digestible little spoonfuls.” This e-book focuses on conversational methods of marketing and succinctly explains why old broadcast practices are becoming obsolete. I found useful and engaging the format of this resource with the short, but concise interviews and answers from practitioners (thankfully “digestible,” considering the info overload we face today), with each of their Twitter handles easily accessible for following. Especially worthwhile is the section on metrics – what to measure in social media marketing and why – as well as the section on the esoteric but meaningful topic “social media ethics.”

• The New Rules of PR: “How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly.”  e-book from author, keynote speaker and marketing strategist David Meerman Scott. Although the e-book is from 2006 I include it here because crafting releases is something new hires are usually tasked with and because it lays a solid foundation for current industry practice today – PR and web 2.0. He writes, “It is time to step it up and consider the promise Web 2.0 public relations holds.” I also put this on the list because the implications of a proper, effective press release strategy are far-reaching and integral to PR best practices. Meerman makes plain the utility and power of utilizing the press release as a direct consumer-communication channel. Take heed!

• Geeks Guide to Promoting Yourself with Twitter: “Promote yourself or your business in 140 characters or less on Twitter.” This e-book is produced by GeekPreneur and it explains why you need to be on the service, the ins-and-outs of promoting yourself on Twitter once there and how to brand your business on Twitter, among other nuggets. This is basically just a refresher for most but I believe it is relevant to us young communicators because it explains how to take hold of the service, its various “Twitter Tools,” and how to then utilize it to create a more interactive experience, which results in getting your name out there as someone who is adept in social media and has something valuable to offer. It also helps sow the seeds of a community that you can learn from and rely on in your burgeoning career.

• The Social Web Analytics e-book: This highly detailed and informative e-book is from Philip Sheldrake , a partner at Influence Crowd LLC. The author writes “I review [in the book] how all organisations can try and make the most of the unprecedented wealth of information afforded by the Social Web, the incredible facility to ‘listen in’ on conversations close to their heart, and to initiate and engage in this dialogue.” The really insightful part of this book, which also touches on the semantic web, is that Sheldrake explores “text mining technologies,” the disadvantages of traditional market research and the advantages of continuous engagement instead. He also covers the controversial but increasingly important terrain of measuring and evaluating PR and marketing campaigns. This adds context to the metrics section of SMGPS found above – Really important aspects of any strategy or campaign in today’s business environment.

• Marketing in 2009: “12 marketing professionals reveal their execution imperatives.” e-book from Valeria Maltoni and offered on her blog Conversation Agent. I included this book because it explores traditional marketing quite well and from different angles, as well as what social media means to it. Why some organizations won’t adopt social media in their business strategies and the necessity of building internal social media evangelists is discussed. I think its important for millennials to understand the big picture (not just social media), and where we have been.

• Johnson & Johnson Does New Media: case study e-book by Ron Ploof. This e-book is solid because it is a case study, and as such, it provides (although somewhat specific to 1 company) a detailed picture and an opportunity for the reader to sharpen their analytical and problem solving skills. It chronicles J&J’s journey into the world of New and Social Media and it includes some links to their various social and multimedia efforts. The lessons contained within could possibly be used to illustrate to management the utility and advantages of an online communications campaign.

Here are some bonuses –  Ragan.com offers a great list of PR, Marketing and Media podcasts.

• The Essential Guide to Social Media: e-book by Thought Leader Brian Solis. An outline of social media tools and resources needed to listen and participate, guiding PR, customer service, product development, and marketing. This e-book is essential because it covers a wide array of PR 2.0 topics as it explains the vital role social science plays in social media – blazing a trail to success for us in a very clear and conversational tone. And what would a social media list be without Brian Solis?

Photo credit: Daniel Lobo