Facebook has begun rolling out Promoted Posts, a new tool that lets Page owners spend money to show status updates to more fans. At the moment, we can use Promoted Posts from our Marketing Land page, but it's not available to us on Search Engine Land's page, which has about seven times more "Likes." Only new status updates can be promoted this way; you can't go back to an old post and pay to promote it. If Promoted Posts is available on your Page, you'll see a new "Promote" button below the empty status update box. Note: You have to be using Facebook as the Page in order to see this. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Pages | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News

Facebook's average CPM rates globally have increased by 41% since the first quarter of 2011, and 15% since the fourth quarter of last year. Meanwhile, CPCs have risen 23% in the top 5 markets versus Q4. That's according to new global research released by social media agency TBG Digital for the first quarter. In the U.S., average CPM has increased by 11% in the first quarter, as compared to the fourth of 2011, while, in the UK, average CPMs rose 13% during the same period. When it comes to CPCs, the largest growth (35%) was in France, but the U.S. wasn't far behind with a 20% increase. Wh [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Marketing | Facebook: Pages | Statistics: Online Advertising | Statistics: Social Media

Facebook Page owners are getting notices via email this week about a pair of impending changes to how Facebook counts check-ins. Facebook says the changes will provide "a more accurate picture of how people are visiting your business." In the past, all check-ins counted in the "were here" total. Going forward, Facebook will only count one check-in every 12 hours from the same user. The change means that many businesses will soon look less popular, because check-in counts are one of the stats that Facebook shows to all Page visitors. The email also mentions a change to how Facebook [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Mobile | Facebook: Pages | Social Media Marketing | Top News

Timeline is coming to all Facebook pages, and will arrive in just two days.  This is a mandatory change, one that seems to be affecting pages in a positive way.  Timeline for brands was originally announced one month ago at the Facebook Marketing Conference and has seen a great deal of brands make the transition.  On April 1st all brands will be automatically converted to the new Timeline format whether they like it or not. In lieu of the upcoming change, Facebook has provided six tips for making the upgrade to Timeline.  We've identified the tips and highlighted Facebook's last minut [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Pages

Email and social media are pretty similar when it comes to what drives consumers to connect -- or disconnect -- with brands. A new study from email provider Constant Contact and Chadwick Martin Bailey shows that the chance to get discounts and special offers is the primary reason that consumers "like" a Facebook page and why they subscribe to a company e-mail list. The survey, conducted in late 2011, involved 1,481 adults in the U.S. who completed a 15-minute online questionnaire. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they subscribe to a company mailing list to get discounts and spe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Email Marketing | Email Marketing | Facebook: Pages | Facebook: Statistics | Social Media Marketing | Statistics: Email Marketing | Statistics: Online Behavior | Statistics: Social Media

You need to be where your consumers, fans and prospects are, but, with so many social platforms, it can be difficult to keep up and make sure everything works together. Ensuring the marketing, strategy, and consumer journey is consistent, fits together, and tells a story that ladders up to your objectives and goals is easier said than done. It’s safe to bet that Facebook has evolved into the hub of your social media marketing, and the announcement of Timeline for Pages may make it even more central. It is the place where your content, stories, and communication live as well as thrive. B [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook Marketing Column | Facebook: Marketing | Facebook: Pages | Pinterest | Social Media Marketing

Along with the new Facebook Pages launched this week, another interesting element for marketers was spotted in the wild - interest lists. Social Fresh, a social education company, spotted this addition alongside the new Facebook pages, an addition that was quickly hidden from marketers. The Interest Lists button displayed directly underneath the brand's cover page: Users were also given the option to create new interest list to see a special news feed of related posts: Interest lists could be yet another powerful tool for companies on Facebook, one that can continue to help di [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Open Graph | Facebook: Pages

Today Facebook rolled out a new version of pages that look much closer to profiles thanks to the addition of Timeline.  As reported, this release coincides with the Facebook Marketing Conference (fMC) occurring today in New York.  The new look Pages have much bolder and visually appealing look: Some of the highlights of the new pages give admins the ability to add milestones, cover pages, customize the page with pertinent information, message privately, view activity logs and have access to more admin tools. Cover Photo Just like Timeline for profiles, Pages will now have the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Pages | Facebook: User Interface | Top News

Facebook and some of its biggest advertisers will gather tomorrow in New York City for the first fMC -- Facebook's conference for marketers. COO Sheryl Sandberg is one of several heavy-hitters from inside the company that will be speaking, and other guests from outside Facebook should be involved, as well. The event will include a keynote presentation and breakout sessions, and Facebook is expected to make several ad- and marketing-related announcements. Here's a look at what Facebook might reveal at fMC. Timeline For Brands Facebook first announced Timeline last September at its F8 c [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Facebook | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Insights | Facebook: Mobile | Facebook: Pages | Top News

"Anything you can do on your Page, you can do in ads." That seems to be the primary slogan/message for a set of new Premium Ads that Facebook will reportedly announce next week -- likely at its fMC Marketing Conference on February 29th. On GigaOm this afternoon, Peter Corbett of iStrategyLabs posted a PDF and slide deck that appears to have come from Facebook and introduces the new Premium Ads product. The documents reveal that Facebook plans to make it possible for advertisers to take any type of content posted to their Facebook Page and turn it into an ad. The new Premium Ads will [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Pages | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News

From the beginning, Facebook has been about a community of real people and has used everything from .edu email addresses to mobile verification for support.  Now Facebook is helping top users (those with the most subscribers) gain more prominence by verifying their account with physical IDs.  TechCrunch announced that Facebook is inviting "prominent public figures" to verify their accounts and display a preferred nickname. This verification process will help users be found easier as well.  While no verification badge will be shown, verified users will appear in the Facebook Subscribe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook | Facebook: Business Issues | Facebook: Marketing | Facebook: Pages | Social Media Marketing

Some U.S. companies with Facebook pages will be able to use Facebook's new Timeline interface at the end of this month, according to a new report. Ad Age is reporting that Facebook will launch Timeline for brands/business pages during its fMC conference in New York City on February 29th. FMC is Facebook's first event geared specifically to marketers using the company's platform. Facebook announced Timeline at its F8 conference last September, then formally launched it to non-business users in mid-December. Ad Age reports that Timeline for brands will only be available to "a handful of [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Pages | Facebook: User Interface | Social Media Marketing | Top News

While most Super Bowl viewers were concentrating on the Giants-Patriots final score, we were tallying up a different score -- call it the Social Network Bowl, if you want -- and the final score was just as close as in the real game. Based on my informal tracking, Twitter and Facebook shared equal visibility during the Super Bowl, being mentioned in eight commercials each. And both of them skunked Google+, which wasn't mentioned at all during any Super Bowl ads. Out of 59 total commercials -- that's my unofficial count beginning with kickoff and ending when time ran out in the fourth [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook | Facebook: Marketing | Facebook: Pages | Features & Analysis | Google | Google: Google+ | Google: Marketing | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Hashtags | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Marketing

The biggest brands in the world are adopting Google+ at a quick rate, to the point that Google+ pages are beginning to close the gap with Facebook pages. But with Facebook pages having been around much longer, brands still have exponentially more fans there than they have followers on Google+. According to BrightEdge's December SocialShare report, 77 of the top 100 brands now have Google+ pages -- a 26% rise from the 61 brands that had pages a month earlier. Google+ is catching up to Facebook, where 93 of the top 100 brands have pages. The numbers are particularly impressive when you [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Facebook: Pages | Facebook: Statistics | Google: Google+ | Social Media Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

Did you miss it? Part of this week's changes to Google+ was the debut of a new figure combining +1 counts and followers for brand pages. It's nice, but it still doesn't rectify problems with how Google+ badges are displayed and used. Counting +1's My earlier article, The Broken Follower Counts & Confusing Buttons Of Google+, looked in detail at how, until this week, Google+ Pages featured a confusing count of +1's that a brand had received, based on: +1′s of the brand’s Google+ page +1′s of ads that the brand runs +1′s of the brand’s web site home page This count di [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Pages | Features & Analysis | Google: Google +1 | Google: Google+ | Top News | Twitter: Buttons & Widgets

Another promising Facebook test has been uncovered, this time around the always hot-topic: coupons.  While Facebook currently has check-in deals for local businesses,  no functionality exists to offer discounts and savings to non-local users.  Screen shots have surfaced showing how these coupons may integrate into the current Facebook environment: One of most interesting elements to the new coupon is the ability to integrate directly into a Facebook ad iteself: Facebook has been testing Post-based Ads, expanded ad units featuring friends of users and Sponsored Stories in a push [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Pages | Top News

Talk about Freshbuzz: Subway, the almost ubiquitous sandwich restaurant, holds the title of Most Talked-About Brand on Facebook. But Gogo, the company that sells wifi service on a growing number of airlines, has the most passionate fans. That's according to new stats from Fan Page List, which recently added data from Facebook's "People Talking About This" metric to its collection of social media brand tracking statistics. Subway doesn't show up in Fan Page List's chart of the top brands on Facebook because its 9 million fans aren't enough to crack the top 20. But when that list is sorted [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Pages | Social Media Marketing | Top News

New messaging capabilities for Facebook pages have popped up recently and would be a big boost for brands/companies/organizations.  Currently all communication between pages and fans occurs publicly via posts or comments on the fan page.  This new functionality gives pages the ability to respond privately to those users who are commenting and posting on walls. Here is a look at the new button that was initiated for admins of some pages: When viewing a comment or post, the page admin also saw the following new "message" option: Facebook also tested a single location for all [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Pages | Social Media Marketing

This week, Facebook gave us the Subscribe Button For Web Sites. Unfortunately, the button doesn't let anyone actually subscribe to web sites, much less the Facebook pages associated with web sites. Here's what Subscribe does and doesn't do and how things should change. Subscribe: Facebook's Version Of Follow Back in September, Facebook introduced the concept of Subscribe, along with a new Subscribe Button. It allowed anyone on Facebook to allow others to "subscribe" to their personal profiles. Personally, the button dramatically changed how I shared on Facebook. I share plenty through my [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Pages | Features & Analysis | Social Media Marketing | Top News