Facebook Privacy: Users Should Check These Settings as New Changes Roll Out

What’s disappearing? The social network announced in December that it was retiring the option for users to control whether they show up when others type their name into the search bar, but said Thursday that it would finally be notifying those who use it that the setting will be removed. The option, which shows up in privacy settings as “Who can look up your timeline by name?” was already cut for people who weren’t using it. 

How was that setting useful? It wasn’t perfect. It would not have stopped, for example, Facebook users from being able to access those protected profiles if those users had been tagged in a public post or picture. Still, it did help those users to keep a lower profile on the social network, such as those trying to hide their profiles from abusive ex-partners or harassment.
 For those who chose that option— a “small percentage” of its users, Facebook says -- the change now allows anyone to type those names into Facebook’s search engines to see their profiles. 

Can I replicate that option with other tools?: No. The main feature of the setting was that people wouldn’t be able to find a user by name in the search bar. There appears to be no way to keep that function. But there are still some setting that can lower a profile on the site.

Facebook is trying to encourage people to control their privacy on an item-by-item basis. So, whenever and however you post, you should be checking to see if what you’re putting up is for public view or just for friends or specific lists of friends. Also, consider turning on Timeline approval, which shows you what your friends may be posting about your location or whom you’re with. You can ask them to remove your name from those posts. Facebook has settings that let you review posts and photo tags before they’re posted to your Timeline. If privacy is a major concern, use these tools and don’t hesitate to ask other users to remove posts about you that make you uncomfortable.

It’s also a good idea to create group lists of friends so that you can share some posts exclusively with certain lists and exclude other groups from seeing those posts. That’s particularly important if you spend a lot of time on Facebook’s mobile app, where privacy tools can be harder to finesse. 

What else can I do for privacy? Another key option in the privacy settings menu is one lets users disable your search engines from linking to their timelines. That will at least cut down on the chance that someone looking for you outside the social network will be able to find your profile.
If your whereabouts or similar information are sensitive, particularly if it’s a safety issue, you should be very aware of locations on your posts — no check-ins — and be careful about writing posts that give clues about where you are. 

Users should also remember that they can also always block specific users from seeing their Facebook page or from contacting them, but this is more of a reactive step than a proactive one. Plus, just as you could alter your name (yes, in violation of Facebook’s guidelines) to hide your identity, so could anyone who is looking for you.

If you’re concerned about past posts, Facebook has a setting that lets you limit the audience for posts and information that are already on your profile. You can also go to the “Activity Log” on your timeline to get an action-by-action view of how your activity shows up on the site.

And finally, as Facebook itself makes clear, remember that “things you hide from your timeline still appear in news feed, search and other places on Facebook.” There include some things you just can’t hide, namely profile pictures and cover photos, but also some news feed activity.
There’s been much discussion over how much social networks should expect users to fine-tune their settings in order to hit the levels of privacy that they want. Facebook has been evolving its settings to be more granular — which can be good for thinking about privacy at a more real-time pace. But it also means that it requires those for whom privacy is a major concern to set broader controls.

My Top Predictions for Facebook's Secret January 15th Announcement

 

 

 1) Facebook to Release a Smartphone!

Facebook has received a lot of negative feedback over its poor mobile usability -- from consumers and advertisers alike -- but they have been taking strides to improve it. For example, consumers recently got a "Share" button so they can share another friend's update on their mobile devices just like they would on a desktop. And advertisers have received mobile-only ad targeting, allowing targeting for users only when they're using Facebook from, well, a mobile device.
Since Facebook and the mobile world need to get closer and closer together, it's certainly a possibility, but I think most people are agreeing that Facebook releasing its own smartphone isn't too likely for the 15th, considering Zuckerberg himself denied it in July of 2012. But hey, that was over five months ago ... that's a long time in internet years.

2) Facebook Finally Enhances Much Adored 'Poke' Feature!

Because of public appeal, Facebook has invested millions of dollars and thousands of engineering man hours into the enhancement of its 'Poke' feature. On January 15th, users will be able to not only poke, but also pinch, flick, stroke, trip, slap, punch, or tickle a friend. Businesses will be able to do this to page fans, too.

3) Facebook Launches New Gaming Platform!

If you recall (I didn't, until I read some news over at ITWire), during its IPO, Facebook identified gaming company Zynga as a bit of a weak point. Since they've been trying to separate from one another, it's possible Facebook will announce that its built its own gaming platform on January 15th. A gaming platform would be one more way for Facebook to earn even more revenue, on top of their growing ad network.

4) Facebook Builds, Launches "Facebot!"

Facebook's been working on building an actual robot, available for purchase, that will follow you around and speak your status updates to you. This eliminates the need for people to spend all day scrolling through their Facebook News Feed to stay up to date on what their friends are posting. For a small monthly fee, robots will display the user's profile picture on its face.
If you'd like to stalk someone, simply speak the name of the friend to the robot, who will tell you what they're doing, where they're going, and who they've been talking to. If you have a private message, the robot will tap you on the shoulder and lean in for a whisper.

5) Facebook Unveils Site Redesign!

Facebook's release of Timeline last year was the talk of the town -- some people loved it, some hated it (probably more than "some," but consumers are always up in arms about Facebook's changes), but all of us probably have a couple pieces of feedback on the layout. It's plausible, and many are chattering about this, that Facebook is announcing another redesign. It's pretty unlikely a redesign would do away with Timeline; you might notice other social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn have adopted the horizontal cover photo because it is actually pretty sweet. Many are speculating it will do away with the two-column update layout we have on our current profiles and pages, and instead will replace one side with more tools and widgets.
There's also a possibility, however, that Facebook really will scrap the whole Timeline design and launch something totally out of left-field. After all, they've never been ones to fear experimentation and disruption.

6) Facebook Trades in Blue for Pink!

While its trademark blue has gotten them far, Facebook's an agile, forward-thinking company. They know when it's time to experiment, and embrace change. That's why, on January 15th, 2012, Mark Zuckerberg will announce that their social network will now be sporting a soft shade of baby pink in lieu of the blue we've all become accustomed to. To promote the new skin, Zuckerberg will also be trading in his bluish grayish hoodies for more of a pinkish purplish hue.

7) Facebook Launches Dating Site!

Ooooh, am I being silly or serious? A little bit of both, I suppose. Facebook has a ridiculous amount of intelligence about its users: music taste, favorite movies, hobbies, profession, education, location, sexual orientation, relationship status. Why not build the option for users to opt in to a paid dating site, bringing over their information from their profiles, and suggesting matches for one another based on that intelligence? Hey, it's not the most far-fetched idea to solve Facebook's monetization problems.

8) Beast Announced as New CEO of Facebook!

It would be foolish to think Mark Zuckerberg could run his Facebook empire forever. And it turns out he's found new adventures to pursue, and as a result, has named his lovable dog Beast as his successor. He's supremely qualified for the role, as he's been maintaining his own Facebook page for several years now, and has amassed over 1.3 million Likes.

 

9) Facebook Buys Google!

In a surprise twist in the M&A world, Facebook has purchased Google for eleventeen billion dollars. Facebook acknowledged the need for a better search function, which Google's nailed pretty well with their search algorithm, and Google acknowledged they were in over their head with Google+, and that it really isn't that different from Facebook at all.

10) Google Integrated Into Facebook Search Function!

It is true that Facebook's in need of a more robust, more accurate search function. In fact, this is what many of my colleagues settled on as a possible announcement on January 15th -- perhaps not Google integration into Facebook's search function, but a brand spankin'-new search function built by Facebook. If Facebook could truly nail social search, perhaps by using social signals such as Likes, shares, or even user and business tags, it would present a great opportunity for marketers who can figure out and nail SEO for Facebook.

Will YOU Get Money From Facebook?

Facebook's Sponsored Stories Settlement Means It's Facebook's Turn To Pay You

After Facebook's IPO turned early employees into overnight billionaires, many users demanded to know when they would get paid for all the sharing that had made the social network a success.
Wait no more: Facebook has started notifying some users that they could get up to $10 from the company.
This isn't Facebook's way of saying "Thanks for all the vacation photos from Cancun," but rather a payout in a class action lawsuit concerning Facebook's "Sponsored Stories" ads that reached a preliminary settlement late last year.
The lawsuit alleges that the Facebook ads "used Facebook members’ names and likenesses to sell products without their consent." (Case in point: Facebook used one member's name and face, without his knowledge, to promote a 55-gallon tube of personal lubricant) Under the terms of the settlement, any current or former Facebook users who had their identities shown in a Sponsored Story ad -- name, nickname, profile picture, photo, etc. -- could be entitled to a check from Facebook.
The majority of Facebook's U.S. users could get paid: the social network estimated in August of last year that around 125 million users in the United States are eligible for a payout, or nearly three quarters of Facebook members in the U.S. (SocialBakers, a social media analytics company, estimates that Facebook now has over 168 million Facebook users in the U.S.).
Facebook has set aside $20 million that will be used in part to compensate users. If the number of claims exceeds $20 million, Facebook will donate all the money to a shortlist of nonprofit organizations, with no cash going to its users. The nonprofits will also receive any money that might remain in the fund after users are paid.
The social network has already started emailing some users to inform them that they could be eligible for a payout. Other Facebook members can learn more about the settlement here.

Facebook Now Includes Business Pages in Local Mobile Search Results

For local businesses, there's now all the more reason to create a Facebook Page. Yesterday, Facebook announced updates to the 'Nearby' tab within its mobile app, giving local businesses an even better opportunity to get discovered by Facebook mobile users. And considering there are more than 600 million of them, this isn't really a benefit brick-and-mortar businesses should overlook. In fact, with Facebook's latest update, it seems like Google might have some new competition when it comes to local search.
Let's take a quick look at what Facebook's updates actually entail, and how local businesses can win their piece of the Facebook local search pie.

What Exactly Did Facebook Do to Its Nearby Tab?

Before yesterday's update, the Nearby tab was dedicated to showing users where their Facebook friends had checked in. With Facebook's update, now users of the Facebook app (for both iOS and Android) will not only see which friends have checked in at specific places, but they'll also be able to discover places and businesses that are nearby. These results are ranked primarily by the recommendations of the particular user's friends, which factor in criteria such as star ratings, check-ins, and Likes. And if there are no recommendations from the user's network available, result rankings will default to the larger Facebook community’s engagement with that business or place.



Furthermore, Facebook mobile users will now be able to search for places by category -- such as restaurants, coffee, nightlife, outdoors, arts, hotels, and shopping.



Finally, users will also have the ability to connect to businesses directly within the Nearby tab on their smartphone by performing actions like Liking, checking in, calling, or getting directions. They'll also have the opportunity to share their recommendations with either the public (by default) or just to specific Facebook connections, as well as rate places using a five-star rating system (which are always public, but editable over time). That being said, users will only be able to leave ratings if they've legitimately checked in.

How Should Local Businesses Make the Most of These Updates?

Great question! If your business has a brick-and-mortar location, here's what you should be doing to make sure you show up in the Nearby tab ...

• First and foremost, create a Facebook business page! Follow our simple step-by-step instructions, accompanied by a video tutorial, to get set yours up today.
• Make sure your page is updated with all your business' basic information in its 'About' section, especially your physical address, store hours, phone number, and other critical company details.
• Check to ensure your page category is accurate, so people will be able to find you when looking for your specific type of business. To change your page's category, click 'Edit Page' from the top of your page, select 'Update Info,' choose the page grouping and the appropriate category for your page, and then click 'Save Changes.'
• Encourage engagement! Use your marketing assets to motivate your mobile Facebook users to Like, check into, rate, and recommend your place page in Facebook mobile.

6 Things to Consider About Facebook’s Newest Feature: Promoted Posts

The summer of 2012 will be remembered as a roller coaster ride for Facebook, weathering growing pains and declining stock values while still keeping up a spirit of optimism for their potential growth. The company’s disappointing IPO last May had some questioning whether the site could adapt and remain an enduring part of popular culture. In addition, when Facebook launched Timeline last year, some businesses were dissatisfied with the opportunities available for promoting their brands on the site.
With Timeline, Facebook created a clear distinction between how businesses and individuals can use the social networking site. While individuals share their personal information in a profile, companies promote their business on a page. Recent statistics suggest that, on average, only 17% of a company’s fans actually see the content that it posts on its page. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and company have taken notice.
Facebook recently unveiled the concept of Promoted Posts, where businesses pay a fee to better ensure their posts will reach their intended audience. In October, Facebook extended that option to regular users at a cost of $7 per post, so anyone can now pay a fee to maximize the number of friends who see their posts. The information below assesses the introduction of Promoted Posts in the U.S. and contemplates what effect it will have on Facebook’s outlook for the future.

Ease of Use

Promoted Posts work like this:

• Step 1: Users create a post.
• Step 2: Then, they click the “sharing” tool.
• Step 3: Then, they click the “promote” tab and agree to pay for the service.

It’s not rocket science, so users won’t have trouble adapting to the new service. Any backlash from users based on confusion or technical difficulty is unlikely.
Concern Over Cost
While users have become accustomed to enjoying all Facebook has to offer for free, Promoted Posts are a part of a larger strategy in which the site aims to generate much-needed revenue to make up for its recent shortcomings. Although $7 isn’t a fortune, for some small businesses, it’s not exactly pocket change either. It remains to be seen whether users will accept this concept after years of never having to pay for using Facebook.

Increased Predictability

Many people may be surprised to learn that only a portion of their Facebook friends actually see their normal posts. That may happen for a variety of reasons. For example, if people have thousands of friends, there could be too much activity to appear on their news feed, so some content posted by their friends gets omitted. In addition, if a friend is not logged in to Facebook when you post something, there is a chance it might not show up on their news feed. Promoted Posts prevent that problem and give users assurance that their friends will at least have the opportunity to view their posts. Promoted Posts are also more prominently displayed on friends’ news feeds, thus increasing the chances that your voice will be heard.

No Guarantees

While the advent of Promoted Posts gives users a way to increase their potential to grab friends’ or fans’ attention, paying for this kind of promotion is no guarantee. Users who want to maximize their investment will still need to focus on creating captivating content. Indeed, if your post has no character, its placement at the top of someone’s news feed likely won’t get you the results you intended.

Analytics Prove Value

Another important feature of Promoted Posts is that users paying for the service can track how effective their outreach efforts are. That is, Facebook provides users with statistics on how many friends viewed these posts so a user can actually objectively measure their promotional success.

Overt Promotion

Some Facebook users consider the site an entirely social experience, rejecting the commercial aspect that has all varieties of businesses trying to attract potential customers online. These purists may be turned off by the overt self-promotion available with Facebook’s new venture, finding the concept narcissistic and unnecessary. The underlying concern is that increased advertorial content within news feeds will ultimately drive average users away from the service to new social media alternatives.
Whether Promoted Posts will become a staple among the options available on Facebook remains unclear. What is crystal clear, however, is that Facebook’s management is willing to take risks and experiment in an effort to perfect its product. Therefore, as with other new features introduced over the last several years, expect Facebook to carefully watch how users react to this new addition.

How to Triple Your YouTube Video Views With Facebook

Do you want more people to watch your YouTube videos?
Are you looking for an easy way to improve the quality of the content you share on Facebook?
All you need is some great content and a cool Facebook technique that I recently discovered.

A Quick Overview

This technique lets you automatically attach your videos to the updates that appear on Facebook after someone likes content on your website.
By leveraging Facebook’s Open Graph and using this technique, I’ve seen phenomenal results!
I shared this tactic with a brand operating in the travel industry and they generated more than one million aggregated views of their product videos on YouTube (and significant website traffic) in a matter of weeks.

By integrating this Open Graph tactic, Marmara, a French travel company, generated 93K likes on its website, which in turn generated 13 million impressions of their videos in the Facebook newsfeed! Not to mention the 16K clicks they got back to their website. All in just 2 weeks and for free.

Using this technique, you can see in the image below that when you like an article on a blog, the story that’s automatically generated on Facebook for your friends to see already has a video embedded into it.

With this feature, each blog article that you write automatically shares a video of your choice.

This is a great way to boost the visibility of your YouTube channel! If you want to see this example live, you can click here.
And this video is ready to be clicked and played in the Facebook newsfeed, ticker or personal timeline of the person who liked your content.
This can be valuable to your business. It’s a very smooth way for you to combine useful and interesting content with a video showcasing your products or services!
Imagine how you can use this tactic to get your product videos shared automatically with useful content throughout the social web.
In this article you’ll learn how to use Facebook’s Open Graph to get more views of your videos on YouTube.
You’re also going to learn how to get everyone who likes your Facebook Page or one of your blog posts to automatically share one of your videos on Facebook.

Understanding the Open Graph

If you have a website or blog, you’ve probably already integrated social sharing buttons, and in particular the Facebook Like button on your site.
For this tactic, simply installing the Like button is only half of it; you must also insert Open Graph meta tags into the source code of your website or blog page to optimize the sharing of your content on Facebook.
These meta tags let you control the manner in which your web page is shared on Facebook when your visitor likes it, comments on it or sends it to friends via the Like, Comment and Send plugins provided by Facebook.
If you’re not familiar with Open Graph meta tags and their importance, I encourage you to watch Facebook’s video on the subject.
I also encourage you to consult the official Open Graph protocol page. There you’ll find out about all of the different meta tags, their uses, their functions and the advantages they give to your content.
Of course, if all that seems a bit too technical, don’t hesitate to hand over the reins to your agency or technical director.
But let’s continue so you can fully understand the role this tactic can play in your social media marketing and what it can mean for your business.
Here’s what you need to know.

#1: Understand the Anatomy of a Facebook Like Story

Once your Open Graph meta tags are integrated into your web page, you can control the way your content is displayed when it is shared using Facebook’s social plugins (Like, Comment, Send).
You need to think about the different sections of the post that automatically appear on Facebook when someone likes content on your website.
For example, here’s what the optimal sharing of a blog article would look like:

Here are the different sections of the update that appear on Facebook after someone likes your article.

By customizing each Open Graph meta tag in your content, you control the way it’s displayed on Facebook when someone likes it!
As you can see, the essential meta tags are the following:

• The title of a shared page (meta property=”og:title” content=”Your title”)
• Its description (meta property=”og:description” content=”Your description”)
• Its URL (meta property =”og:url” content=”Your URL”).
• The image illustrating this page (meta property =”og:image” content=”http://link_of_an_image.jpg”)

Below are the Open Graph meta tags for this article when I display the page’s HTML source code. To access the HTML source code of any web page, just right-click on it and select View Source. You’ll then have access to the HTML code of the page you are viewing.

Here are the Open Graph meta tags needed for this technique.

When the meta tags are entered correctly and a visitor clicks Like on your web page, the content is automatically and properly displayed on Facebook.
You’ll find out how to use this technique below.

#2: How It Works

If a photo is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand photos! This is especially true in the case of a Facebook newsfeed story generated by a Like of a web page.
Let’s compare the two Facebook Like Stories below:

The Facebook post on the top has a photo, and the post on the bottom has a video embedded in it that is ready to play.

Depending on how you use Facebook’s social share buttons and Open Graph meta tag code, the same Like can generate two different posts on Facebook: one with a single 200-pixel–wide picture, or one with the same picture but with an embedded video!
These two posts correspond to the same action: a click of the Like button on a web page for a product—in this example, a vacation resort. But in the first case, the action displays a 200-pixel–wide image. The second displays, within that same image, a Play button for a video. As you can guess, viewers are more inclined to click on that image if it displays a video Play button.
This is the primary difference between these two posts, but it doesn’t stop there.
You see, the simple act of clicking on the Play button immediately shows a video, without having to leave the post. As a savvy marketer, you’ll know how to use this to your advantage to market your business.
This technique makes it very easy for marketers to have a useful product video appear inside the Facebook update about liked content. With the right content mix, this can be a strong marketing strategy.

Click on the Play icon located on the picture and you will automatically watch a video showcasing the product that you liked: a vacation resort.

For a vacation resort, a one-minute video highlighting all of the destination’s attractions has a larger impact than a 200-pixel–wide image.
But a tactic like this is not just for vacation resorts. It can be very useful for a number of products.
In the case of a blog, you can use this tactic to enrich Facebook posts when a person likes one of your articles.
For example, if you have video tutorials introducing the functions of your products or showing them in action, you can use these videos to highlight products related to the content in your blog articles.

How this works.
Here’s an example of how I used this.

1. I wrote an article introducing the different page administrator roles created by Facebook, discussing their advantages and limitations.
2. I created a video tutorial demonstrating how AgoraPulse offers richer admin role management features than the ones offered by Facebook.

Then I set things up to automatically attach and display my video when my article is liked and therefore shared on Facebook.

This is how the update appears in Facebook when someone likes my article published on my website.

It’s easy to increase the value of a blog article by attaching a video. This makes your content much more attractive.
Each time a reader likes this blog article, it automatically shares a video tutorial explaining how to manage Facebook Page admin roles with the aid of a Facebook Page management software tool.
This way, you have the best of both worlds: interesting content + relevant product promotion.
What makes this tactic so effective is that the Like automatically shares the video in Facebook, not only in the newsfeed:

Newsfeed before the click.

But also the ticker:

The ticker view.

And even on the personal timeline of the author:

The profile view.

Do you want to see this in action for yourself? It’s easy. Simply go to this blog article, click Like and then go to your Facebook profile to see the result.

Are you interested in doing this on your website? Here’s how to set it up.

#3: Use a Plugin to Add the Meta Tags

It’s easy to get each click of the Like button on your website to automatically share and display a video on Facebook. You just need to add two additional Open Graph meta tags after the existing tags in the code of your page.
As you’ve seen above, the minimum necessary meta tags are the following:

meta property=”og:title” content=”Your title”
meta property=”og:description” content=”Your description”
meta property =”og:url” content=”Your URL”
meta property =”og:image” content=”http://link_of_an_image.jpg”

Simply add these two meta tags:

meta property=”og:video” content=”http://link_of_your_video” /
meta property=”og:video:type” content=”application/x-shockwave-flash” /

So, how do you do all this? It depends on your situation:

• If your site was created by an independent contractor and you don’t have access to the source code, you need to ask the contractor to integrate the meta tags.
• If you created your site with WordPress, you can customize the Open Graph meta tags of your pages (and of each blog article) yourself using specific plugins.

If your website was created with WordPress, you can use a plugin called Like-Button-Plugin-For-WordPress, which allows the customization of Open Graph data. However, I’ve seen two other plugins that provide the same result: Open Graph Protocol in Posts and Pages and Social Graph Protocol.
Each of these three plugins lets you easily add the meta tags you need to share your videos with each Like on the pages of your site or blog.

Specific WordPress plugins will allow you to personalize the Open Graph meta tags for each page or blog article.

The only field you really need to fill in is the video link. Facebook will take care of the size and video type.

#4: Where to Host Your Videos and How to Share YouTube Videos

To display a video on the web, it has to be hosted somewhere on the web. You’ll be in one of these two situations: either you host the video file on your own servers, or you use a self-service video hosting service such as YouTube.
1. If you host the video on your own servers, you must host the file in the .SWF format. Be careful not to host the file in .FLV or any other traditional video format, as the video player that works with Facebook will not read it.
Then you simply need to set the Open Graph meta tag value as the URL of the .SWF file that you previously put online.

Insert the link to your self-hosted .SWF video file here if you use the Like Button plugin for WordPress, for example.

2. If you prefer to use YouTube to host your videos, you’ll need to follow these steps:

• In a web browser, navigate to the YouTube page with your video.
• In the URL, identify the YouTube ID of your video. This is the series of letters and numbers found between the “=” and the “&” symbols of the URL. In the following case, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlQasgOjaxU&feature=plcp, the ID of the video is “dlQasgOjaxU“.
• Insert this ID into the following URL: http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/[yourID]
  Once you have your new URL format, insert it in your browser to test it out. If the URL is right, the video should be displayed full screen (and fit your entire browser window).

• Add this URL to your Open Graph meta tags and you’re all set!
  Insert the link to your YouTube-hosted video here if you use the Social Graph Protocol Plugin, for example.

#5: Track the Statistics of Your YouTube Videos

If you’ve opted for hosting your videos on YouTube (something I strongly recommend), you’ll also have a clear advantage with access to your YouTube statistics.
You’ll be able to see the number of views your video has on Facebook!
The good news is that YouTube offers an impressive amount of statistical data on your videos, including details about the sources for views when videos are embedded on third-party sites like Facebook. This is great to evaluate the effectiveness of one source versus another.
The bad news is that the source statistics of a view are complicated to find on YouTube. To make it easy for you to find, here’s a short screencast:
And there you have it! I hope you’re inspired to use this technique to come up with creative campaigns and make the most of the potential visibility offered by Facebook!

How to Track Facebook Success Or Failure with Real-Time Stats

There’s been lots of gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands and pounding of keyboards about Facebook’s Edgrerank lately. “How dare they!” pontificate the social pure bloods. “We put forth the effort to get fans to ‘like’ our page, and now we have to PAY Facebook to reach them? It’s an outrage!”
It’s not.
Facebook is a publicly traded company. They are interested in their own success, period. If that happens to overlap with your success, it’s gravy. Nowhere and never did Facebook say that they would deliver every kitten photo or other inanity you post to 100% of the people that ‘liked’ your page. And to expect them to do so for free, forever, shows just how little business acumen many social practitioners really have. Would you expect ExactTarget (client) to send emails to all of your newsletter subscribers for free? Would you expect Google to give you limitless free clicks on an Adwords campaign? Does CNN give you free TV time because you “put forth the effort” initially?
You may not like it, but social is a business now. And one of the core tenets of modern business is that you have to be faster than your competition. (in fact, I co-wrote a book about it)
A couple weeks ago, I published on this blog a little chart that provided a simple formula for figuring out when to pay Facebook to promote a post - which shows your post to more of your fans. (Note, the existence of this voluntary option, and Facebook’s refusal to show your kittens to everyone without paying their toll is what is wadding panties)

Facebook Stats Live as They Happen

But now, I’ve got a far better solution to show you. My friends at PageLever (a company in which I’m a proud investor) have just rolled our their new Pagelever Now Facebook stats tracker which gives you reach, comments, and likes data for every Facebook post live, as they occur. 
Starting at $99/month, PageLever Now lets you see stats in real-time, publish posts, and see and reply to comments in a simple dashboard. Most importantly, the live stats show you the perfect time to pay to promote a post, and help you avoid cannibalizing your own attention by publishing/promoting too close together.
I love the easy, five star system they’re using to nudge you to promote a post. Based on your rolling, 30-day average engagement, PageLever shows you how the post in question stacks up. The more stars, the better the post is performing, and the more you should consider promoting it (a key principle of post promotion is that the rich get richer. if your initial subset of fans like a post more than usual, pay to show it to a larger segment)
In this example from one of our clients, the nationally syndicated TV show and video website Right This Minute, you can see that the first post has one star, but the second post (iPad Giveaway!) has five stars, and probably should be promoted.

A Bloomberg Terminal for Marketers

The system also includes post scheduling, and an alerts ticker that tells you whenever something important has happened on your page. Jeff Widman, co-founder of PageLever, says the new Now service is like the “Bloomberg terminals that enable stock traders to make instant decision, but this one is for marketers.”
Peering into this data can yield insights that are contrary to conventional wisdom about Facebook fan page, too. Says Widman:

One of the surprises we discovered with real-time analytics was how short the average post lifetime is. Most posts seem to die within three to five hours, meaning you can safely post to your Facebook page at least four times a day.

This annotated screen shot from Widman shows the overlapping waves of activity of multiple posts, and how ideally they should be spaced out evenly across the day and week.

PageLever Now is set up nicely for agencies, too, as you can toggle between all of the fan pages you manage in a single interface. It would be ideal if this system would allow you to Promote a post from within the dashboard, and if you want historical and deeper post and page data you need to look at the traditional PageLever interface (sold separately). But those are minor points.
There are of course many other ways to get Facebook stats, but I’m pretty certain this is the only source for truly real-time data. For $99, if you’re serious about Facebook marketing optimization, this software is a steal, and can make a real difference in your effectiveness.

4 Advanced Targeting Techniques Every Facebook Advertiser Should Master

 

 

How the Facebook Ad Platform Differs

Most PPC advertisers come from a Google AdWords background, which is very rooted in “intent based” keyword searches. If a person searches for “running shoes,” and I have the snappiest copy and the highest bid on “running shoes,” I win the click, and we go from there.
But as a PPC ad platform, Facebook is fundamentally different.
When we’re on Facebook, we’re not usually searching for anything specific, are we? Instead, we leave funny comments, tag photos of our friends, and share photos of cats and babies.
But more importantly (at least for marketers), we’re Liking pages that reflect our personal interest in sports, music, movies, and celebrities. We’re also entering our zip codes, tagging people as family members, entering our workplaces, sharing our relationship statuses, and all sorts of other stuff that speaks to who we are as individuals.
And on Facebook, the effectiveness of an ad isn’t determined by how well you target a one-off search, but rather how well you understand real human interests and how they relate to each other. Of course, images and copy still matter. But without proper targeting, even the best designed ad is doomed.
In this article, we'll explore four different advanced Facebook ad targeting techniques. This will focus solely on the targeting aspect of Facebook Ads and assumes that you already understand the basics of creating a Facebook ad campaign and can create compelling images at 100x72 pixels. With any luck, this article will help you wrap your mind around Facebook Ads in a whole new way, enabling you to send even more qualified prospects through your marketing funnel.

A Few Quick Notes About Your Ad’s Landing Page

When clicking through some of the ads on my Adboard while researching this article, I was surprised to see that companies like Universal Studios would run a well-designed ad like this:


Only to send me straight to the Universal Studios Facebook Page:



This is a huge missed opportunity, because I was psyched (pun intended here, too) about getting the DVD, but there was nowhere for me to convert.
Lesson Number 1: If you’re going to run a Facebook ad campaign, you should at least set up and drive that traffic to a dedicated landing page where your visitors can convert. Check out this free introduction to landing pages ebook if you’re just getting started.
Lesson Number 2: It’s also a wise move to use the same, or similar imagery when guiding clickers through the path to conversion. In other words, if you use one image in your ad, make sure that same image -- or a variation of it -- also appears on the landing page so visitors know they're in the right place.
In this second example, Verizon also does a reasonable job with its image and copy:
 

But, again, they lose me as soon as I click through on the ad. Notice the lack of Droid RAZR information, which the entire advertisement was based on?



This lack of consistent visual messaging along the click path is confusing and ends up costing more money than it’s worth. Not only are you missing out on sales, but you’re losing money every time someone clicks and doesn’t take an action.
Lesson Number 3: Tell a consistent, visual story starting from the first ad click all the way through to the last point of conversion.
Of all the ads I tested, True Value's ad was the only one I think really nailed it. Go figure.
This ad ...



Leads to this page ...



Even though the page itself is pretty simple, the entire process is crystal clear. The image that was used in the ad was modified for the landing page to include the call-to-action, “Click to print your coupon,” making the next step easy to grasp within a matter of seconds.
And how did they know I’d print that coupon?
Well ... I’m 27, I'm married, I'm a male, I'm a father, and I've Liked the pages Saving Money, Super Coupon Lady, and DIYnetwork, among other things that would signal I'm a responsible adult living on a budget and Likes to take care of things around the house.
Which leads me to first advanced targeting method ...

1) Facebook Ad Targeting by Interests

Using the True Value ad above as an example, the “27, Married, Male ...” targeting might work well enough. However, it's still very broad in a lot of ways. Our first method -- the “Interest Cloud Technique” -- requires you to really get inside the head and shoes of the people you’re targeting.
The goal is to create a cloud of all the potential interests of a person who might get excited by a trip to the hardware store, and then make sure there's a convenient geographic location available to them. For example, while I was impressed with True Value’s marketing funnel, their closest location is roughly an hour away from where I live. Realistically, most people probably aren’t going to drive an hour away just to cash in on a $5.00 coupon.
So if I were to create an interest cloud for someone who would get excited about a $5.00 coupon, it would look something like this.



Actually, this is only about 1/4 the size of how I might target an ad like this. But reading through it will give you a sense of the thought process you should take -- starting broad with DIY, then moving onto specific activities, and then getting even more granular with specific television shows. If I were to continue to drill into this, I’d be also looking up the names of the hosts for many of these shows, writers for the magazines, and other celebrities within the home improvement/home design/landscaping worlds.
Having a broad range of specific keywords like this covers all your bases when marketing to a specific interest graph.
Next, because in-store redemption is critical to the success of the overall campaign, I’m going to run several smaller campaigns using the interest graph above, but targeting the different regions in the country.


The reason for doing this instead of just using “United States” is to find my most responsive markets throughout the different regions of the country.
Ideally, I’d like to find my top-performing markets across the nation so I know how to allocate my budget for future ad spends. For example, If I find my northeast market (Region 1) outperforms the Pacific Northwest market (Region 10), I’d want to put more money into Region 1 for future campaigns.
Because the overall goal of this campaign is to drive more foot traffic into each individual store means I have to drill down into each region and target all of the cities in which there is a store. To do this, I’d open up the store locator and find the addresses for every store in every state for any given region. In New Hampshire, for example, there are 10 stores ...



On Facebook, I’d then target the ad by city, and then enter every city where True Value has a location. Then, I'd repeat for every state until I’ve targeted every store in every city for the entire region. It would look something like this:



I know what you're thinking. "But this takes an incredible amount of time to put together!" You're right -- it does. But the benefit is, now you’ve targeted every single person on Facebook who is most likely to take action on your offer and is within driving distance of your locations. This results in higher CTRs, which is rewarded with lower cost-per-clicks, and more happy customers.


But we’re not done yet. In addition to testing the effectiveness of each region, let’s say you wanted to see which demographic had the most buying power. You could then break the ad targeting down even further by age and gender. In its reporting, Facebook breaks age down in the following buckets: 13-17, 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65+.
Segmenting even further by age range and gender allows you to slightly modify your messaging (if necessary) while honing in on very specific segments of the same customer base. So a sample of the campaign might look like this:

• Region 1, $5.00 off coupon, 25-34, Male
• Region 1, $5.00 off coupon, 25-34, Female
• Region 1, $5.00 off coupon, 35-44, Male
• Region 1, $5.00 off coupon, 35-44, Female

While tedious, this level of depth is intended for you to find your most responsive demographic segments within any physical location. Knowing this will allows you to easily target those markets for future campaigns, and also helps you identify the precise demographics where you’re underperforming so you can strengthen your efforts within that market. That conversation might sound like, “We need a quick boost in sales to reach our Q4 goals. Why don’t we run a promo to females ages 25-34 (with interest graph attached) in Newport, RI; Kent, CT; Holliston, MA; and Highgate Center, VT -- in addition to another promo to the 45-54 males in ...?”
And if you wanted to segment your messaging even further, you can add in targeting criteria by relationship status and partner interests. For example, it’s not hard to imagine that a 25-34 year-old single woman interested in men is at an entirely different stage in life than a 45-54 year-old married man.
Getting this specific with your segmentation allows you to use creative that speaks directly to the person clicking on the ad. Not only does this improve your conversion rates, but in the long run, it also plays a huge role in brand affinity in different markets.

2) Facebook Ad Targeting by Job Role & Company

Now let’s say you sell a product that is targeted specifically for company presidents, vice presidents, CEOs, and other high-level executives, and you want to target very specific companies. In this case, we’re going to use what I like to call the “Michael Scott Office Infiltration Technique.”
We’ll start by using the interest cloud method from earlier and insert all the different positions a C-level executive might use to describe their position within a company. (Check out this Wikipedia entry for reference.)



(Again, if I were targeting, this would only be a partial list.)
Next, add a minimum age filter. I like to start at 25, but this totally depends on who comprises your target audience. Now, without any age cap or location filters, we have a list of 1.2 million Facebook users who are potential targets in the entire U.S.


Where this gets interesting is when we start targeting these high-level executives by the business they’re responsible for. To do this, you simply scroll down to “See Advanced Targeting Options.”


For grins, let’s say you wanted to target the C-Level executives at Facebook.





Or perhaps you’ve created a brand new online marketing software that would be perfect for traditional ad agencies ...





Or maybe -- just maybe -- you’re a really talented freelancer, and you want to shop your resume around to Fortune 50 companies.






The power of the "Workplace Infiltration Method" can’t be emphasized enough, especially if you’re a marketers in a B2B industry. If your business regularly sells solutions to a specific market (like banks, for example), you only need a list of banks you’d like to market to, and the titles of the types of people you’d like to have that engagement from.
Combine this with an effective, organic inbound marketing strategy, and you’ll always be in your target’s field of vision.

3) Facebook Ad Targeting by Socioeconomic Status

But what if you want to target your ads to other higher paying markets? This next one is what I call the “Fresh Prince Targeting Technique.” To start, we’ll use the profession cloud from before; but this time we’re going to geo-target using the 100 richest zip codes in the U.S.
Marketing 101 says that the best sales come when a customer: 1) quickly identifies the need for a product or service, and 2) can easily afford it. And what do we know about people who live in wealthy neighborhoods? They’re probably willing to invest in things they know will improve their careers or make their personal lives more enjoyable.



Let’s see how many 25-34 year-old men in the C-level profession cloud live in just the first 15 wealthy zip codes:


Now the obvious thing to be excited about is, there is a decent potential market in the C-suite. But don’t always think in terms of sales being the success factor. This is just a hunch, but my gut tells me that some of these men may fall into the “celebrity executive” category. With the right promotion, you could potentially land endorsement deals (at best) and huge earned media wins. The key to creating a successful promotion is to find out exactly what executives live in these areas, then recon their social media profiles to discover what kinds of things they like. Oh ... and the best part?


Of course, it’s not just the C-suite you can target -- there’s no shortage of other interests that you can target. The only word of warning is, if you’re going to sell in higher income markets, be prepared to offer something of seriously high value and quality. Don’t think you can peddle mid-level products with a higher price tag and get away with it. There’s a reason they live in these neighborhoods, and it’s not because they invest their money unwisely.

4) Facebook Ad Targeting by Reverse Targeting

This fourth method has to be my new favorite: “The Reverse Targeting Technique."
Using the site http://citytowninfo.com/employment, we’re able to find a breakdown of virtually every profession in every industry in the United States. Not only that, but as you’ll see in the screenshot below, you can also get a quick glimpse of the median pay in the field, number of jobs, and it’s projected percentage of growth.



And when you click on any of the professions, you'll be brought to a page that gives you an overview of the profession, the top-paying locations in the country to have that job, and the top-paying industries for that particular job. In other words, this is a treasure trove of data for someone using Facebook ads! To illustrate, let me share with you the top locations in the country for someone working as a “computer and information scientist.”


By only plugging in these cities (normally segmented by region; I just got lazy) and the phrase “computer scientist” into the precise interests section, I was able to build a very respectable target profile.


If I wanted to segment even further, I could also segment by age and gender. Then, also using the “Top Industries” tab in the report, I could start researching the companies within those industries in the cities I’m targeting.


Doing this allows me to target entire departments within the companies I can enter in “Workplaces.” This is perfect if I offer a corporate training solution, or any service specific to that job. And it's even better if my product is really niche -- like specifically designed for "durable good wholesale computer scientists" -- because now I can filter out all the computer scientists who my product is not made for, and make sure all of my marketing dollars are going to the exact right people.
But perhaps my favorite thing about the Reverse Targeting Method is that it gives you the perfect starting point for finding JV partners and viable markets for affiliate products. Surely, within every industry there are leaders trying to push the field forward. Why not help them expand their reach?

Wrapping Up

With the amount of personal information Facebook has on its users, it’s always surprising to me that more people don’t give the social network's ad platform a shot. By taking the extra time to research all the different ways people might describe their interests, then researching how those interests are marketed, you can create targeting profiles, copy, and images that will not only stand out, but will also make your ad’s click path an enjoyable experience.
If you’ve made it this far, I very much appreciate you taking the time to learn about these methods. If you know someone who might find this article useful, please share it with them, and if you have any questions or any other methods you know are effective, please add them in the comments below.