Simple (Yet Impactful) Facebook Design Tip

simple-yet-impactful-facebook-design-tipBy: Britnee Johnson

Over the last few years, Facebook has evolved brilliantly, avoiding the pitfalls of its social network ancestors from Xanga to Myspace. Much of the success has been due to its more subtle and natural use of advertising. Facebook limits customization and flagrant ads and makes marketers work hard for user attention.

Instead of banner ads and pop-ups, Facebook advertisers must savvily use ads and sponsored stories to be less invasive and more personal. But many marketers miss the visual “pop” of old fashioned (and admittedly, obnoxious) banner ads of yesteryear. Some clever brands have married the creativity and visual stimulus of old ad types with the more natural feel of Facebook’s new ad integrations by creating photo banners.

Now, individual users on Facebook can customize their images to create personal photo-streamed collages to make their personal and commercial pages stand out from the stock. Whether through a profile banner creator or manual compilations, these banners stand out both on your profile and in others’ news feeds.

A brand that is taking full advantage of the feature is HBO, which offers personalized profiles (reminiscent of MySpace), allowing the brand to capitalize off of loyal fans willing to champion their favorite show, as shown on HBO’s Game of Thrones page. Another great example is BMW, as it strategically draws in audiences to show-off the latest campaigns and avoid the familiar look-over with traditional advertising.

But brands aren’t the only ones catching on. Facebook users have created custom banners to showcase their photography, display their art pieces and even broadcast their business card or resume in a whole new way. Twitter has also recently jumped on the visualization bandwagon with their photo sharing menu that has an uncanny resemblance to Facebook’s similar functionality. Customization is so far not an option, but where there’s a clever developer or hacker, there’s a way.

Ultimately, both individuals and brands are finding the value in sharing images to amplify their message and stand out in the Facebook crowd of 750 million. As often as Facebook re-imagines features and functionalities, there is plenty of room for more customization in the future. So what’s next? The return of the customized profile? Videos in your top banner? Revamping of the infamous “poke” feature? Let us know your thoughts.

Twitter: Technology for Scaling Good

This post is part of Amy Jo Martin’s monthly contributions to the Harvard Business Review Insight Center Marketing That Works.

Three years ago, I developed “Random Acts of Shaqness” — Twitter stunts designed to help Shaquille O’Neal bridge the virtual and physical worlds by, for example by posing like a statue in Harvard Square so fans could take pictures with him. Shaq wanted to surprise and delight his fans, to connect with them and make smiles scalable. No doubt this was a brand play at the time, and one that worked. Random Acts of Shaqness has been wildly popular and helped change the nature of O’Neal’s endorsement deals to include social media.

Recently, though, I had a revelation about the formula responsible for making RAoS successful: It can bring more than just smiles. It can be the technology that scales good deeds to the global level. It has already started.

To read the post in its entirety, visit the HBR Blog here.

State of The Twitter Union

By: Britt Johnson

For every social media startup, there are dozens more that have fallen to the wayside and equally as many new platforms waiting in the wings (Goodbye Google Buzz, hello Google+).

With its own humble beginnings, Twitter could have easily been lost in the crowd. Literally sketched out at the hand of founder Jack Dorsey in 2006, Twitter aimed to deliver quick bursts of information to specific groups of people. The result was the microblogging boom. In just five years, Twitter has revolutionized communication and connected our world in an unprecedented way.

Of course, there will always be the cynics and skeptics. But for those who believe in the power of numbers, read on. After you are done, ask yourself this: are you or your brand taking full advantage of Twitter’s impressive (and exponentially growing) influence? Without further adieu, here is a glimpse of where Twitter stands today.

FACT: There are more than 200 million Twitter accounts worldwide.

That is the equivalent of signing up every person in Australia. With that kind of reach, it is undeniable that there are people out there who are interested in what you have to say, and what you have to offer. From celebrities to satirists, athletes to artists, every user finds a unique application for Twitter use. DoubleTree by Hilton, for instance, operates more than 260 hotels worldwide. There is a select group of properties that operate Twitter accounts to better serve guests on a local level by offering deals, contests and most importantly, extend the DoubleTree by Hilton CARE customer service to the online space. It’s all about delivering value to your audience when, where and how they want it.

FACT: 460,000 new accounts are created on Twitter each day.

Think back to when you joined Twitter: Who were the people and brands you followed first? Position yourself as a thought leader and expert within your field to stand out in the crowd. New users are looking for trustworthy and reliable sources, ones that can provide content that they won’t find anywhere else. We like the mantra Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh coined for tweeting: Make all of your tweets ICEE; They should inspire, connect, educate or entertain.

FACT: More than 200 million tweets are exchanged everyday.

Some quick math can tell you that with 200 million users, and 200 million tweets each day, the site is buzzing with activity. Familiarity with the medium will tell you there is a large community on Twitter that is vastly more engaged and more influential to your brand than those on other platform users. Of Twitter users who use the platform daily:

  • 72% publish blog posts at least once a month
  • 70% comment on others’ blog posts
  • 61% write at least one product review a month
  • 61% comment on news sites
  • 56% write articles for third-party sites
  • 53% post videos online
  • 50% make contributions to wiki sites
  • 48% share deals found through coupon forums

You want to make sure you participate in these conversations. The best way to do that is authentically engage your followers. Use replies and @mentions, retweets and the newly-powerful favorite function on a regular basis to make your followers feel like they are being heard and appreciated.

FACT: 13% of all American adult Internet users are registered on Twitter.

… And 70% of Twitter traffic comes from outside of the US. In a world where almost all business has the potential to be international business, this is great news. Additionally, the Twitter audience has been proven to be more affluent and to have more buying power than the average consumer. Factor in that following is an opt-in process and 33% of Twitter users log-in everyday, and you get a higher chance at conversion from users who have the desire and ability to buy what you’re selling (whether that be a message or a product).

FACT: 55% of Twitter users are female, while 45% are male.

Women typically make up the larger gender demographic across most social platforms, Facebook included. You may know how to market to your traditional audience, but your messaging may need to be adjusted in order to fit your Twitter following. Strategize content not only for the audience, but the platform. Resist the urge to push the same message through all of your social accounts, as followers may interpret it as spam.

Unfortunately, there is no crystal ball to tell us where Twitter will be in the next five to ten years. A safe assumption is that it will continue to evolve as users needs and demands change. Whether it stands the test of time or not, Twitter has been the lab for testing an entirely new type of people-fueled and focused medium. There is no doubt that the no holds barred conversation transpiring on Twitter is, and will continue to be, the overpowering force in marketing and advertising, but above all, communication as a whole. The numbers don’t lie.

Video Rentals Hit Facebook

By: Dustin Thompson

The evolution of video rental has been almost as dynamic as that of music buying. First there was Blockbuster, then came NetFlix and Redbox, and recently YouTube debuted its own streaming platform to rent movies. Now, Facebook launches a similar functionality, the next step in Facebook bridging the virtual and physical worlds through currency-based transactions.

Universal is offering none other than The Big Lebowski streaming at the price of 30 Facebook credits (or $3). You can also earn credits by sharing and inviting friends to watch; Social integration to gain exposure and evangelism.

With the behemoth sharing power of Facebook, this could be a huge success for Facebook and movie studios. It’s also a win for the fans because at $3 for a 48-hour rental (compared to the 24 hour Redbox policy), it’s a heck of a deal. And in-scene commenting functionality similar to that on music sharing platform SoundCloud, movie watching has never been more social (except for maybe when you saw the last Harry Potter movie with that friend who didn’t read any of the books).

The bigger picture is Facebook’s continuing journey in becoming much more than the social network it once was, but hub of value exchange, whether that be news, entertainment or tangible goods.

Will this be the end of Netflix or Redbox? It’s too early to tell but it will be interesting to see how brands adapt to the change in the marketplace and studios leverage the new conduit to fans.

Will you rent movies through Facebook? Tell us what you think.

Are Free Social Media Analytics Tools Valuable?

By: Kirsten Stubbs

When I was about 10-years-old, I remember every one of my friends had the Razor Scooter. It was the Mercedes-Benz of pre-license transportation. Suddenly my five-speed mountain bike and teal rollerblades paled in comparison. I had to have one.

When, for my 11th birthday, my mom bought me one, I was briefly overjoyed and then subsequently horrified when I realized it wasn’t a Razor Scooter. It was its distant, black sheep cousin in the scooter family: the more economically-priced Wal Mart Scooter. Would the wind blow through my hair as briskly, the rubberized wheels glide as gently on this Wal-Scooter? And what would my friends say? Would I be shunned from the Tetherball courts and Pogs tournaments?

It turned out Wal-Scooter did, in fact, live up to my wildest scooter fantasies and I was the only one who ever noticed Razor was not obnoxiously scrolled across it. There was no shunning, no denied Tetherball games or Pogs play. Life went on.

Long-winded, nostalgia-laden anecdote short, sometimes less expensive versions fare just as well as their higher-end counterparts. Case and point: social media measurement tools. Unless you are employed at an agency or large company, chances are you won’t be able to afford pricey analytical tools to decode your brand’s online ecosystem. However, there are plenty of free measurement tools online that, in conjunction with human listening and monitoring, can act as a foundation for analyzing your brand’s social media presence, even if you lack funding.

I consulted a few members of the beach cruiser (the adult equivalent of the scooter, of course) fleet at Digital Royalty to come up with a few of the best analysis tools you can use for free:

1)   Google Analytics: One of the first and best analytical tools provided for free. Simply insert a snippet of code on your website’s back-end and you unlock a treasure trove of real-time analytics including referral sources (great for tracking the click-through rates on social media directing to your website), visitor demographic and traffic details. Plus, the dashboard is clean and easy-to-read and allows exporting, making it perfect for reporting.

2)   Topsy: Similar to search.twitter.com and kurrently.com, Topsy helps you find relevant tweets and volume of tweets within a time span. What sets Topsy apart from other tools of its kind is the length of time you can go back in searches. Most other tools we’ve used stop at around four days before the time of search. Topsy goes back considerably longer and includes an analytical dashboard.

The one disadvantage of Topsy is it only accounts for what it calls “significant and valid” tweets, those that have been retweeted or contain links. Keep this in mind when providing cumulative totals.

3)   Twiangulate: Twiangulate allows you to search and compare Twitter users by number of followers, mutual followers and biography keywords. Looking to promote a food-related event to the socially savvy community in Austin? Use keyword search to find biographies including “foodie” & “Austin” or “Austin” & “food blog.”

You’ll be amazed at the ease that you can uncover influential tweeters ranked by number of followers. Similar tools include WeFollow.com, which, while more aesthetically pleasing and easy to use, is opt-in and therefore not representative of the entire Twitter population.

4) Twitter Counter: A simple tool that helps you monitor your Twitter growth and compare it to competing accounts. Twitter Counter also helps predict future growth, compares your account among all Twitter users and plots a clean graph for reporting purposes.

5) Facebook Insights: Like Google Analytics but for Facebook, Facebook Insights allow you to break down those who “like” your page by gender, language, age, country and other attributes and provide a myriad of statistics available in custom date ranges including media consumption, page views, performance of posts and unsubscribes. The tool also allows you to export all statistics.

The one con of Facebook Insights is the 48-hour lag time in statistical updates, so make sure you’re weekly or monthly report deadlines are scheduled with a two-day buffer.

While the majority of these tools only offer quantitative metrics (half of the social media analysis puzzle, the other have being qualitative: sentiment, semantics, etc.), for the social media measuring rookie or company renegade trying to prove the power of social media to the powers that be, any or all of these tools may be to you what the Wal-Scooter was to me ten years ago.

As at some point I had to trade in my beloved Wal-Scooter for a set of four wheels, at some point you might find it necessary to trade up for paid analytical tools or hire a digital agency that not only has access to paid analytical tools, but also the time, experience and expertise to provide you with information that will be truly valuable to your brand.

Interested in learning more tips and tricks for making the most of your brand’s social media presence? Email info@thedigitalroyalty.com for more information about Digital Royalty University.


© Digital Royalty Inc.