No wall posts, no ‘likes’ and other interesting Facebook facts

In an excellent mini-whitepaper  DoseOfDigital's Jonathan Richman points out five facts about Facebook Page I didn't know yet:

• If you turn off commenting on your Facebook Page's wall, you also turn off the Like function.
• Updates from your Page turn up in the "News Feed" of your Pagebook Fans' profile page. Most only read the top of their "Top News" (as opposed to "Most Recent"). So it's very important to rank high in your Fans' "Top News" feed.
• Whether your updates rank high in "Top News" or not depends on a Facebook algorhythm called EdgeRank.

What is EdgeRank?

EdgeRank is the algorithm that Facebook uses to determine the order of items in your Feed. In the end, it’s really simple, as it has just three factors: affinity, edge, and decay.

1. Affinity is basically the connection between you and the piece of content. The more times you’ve interacted with the source of the content (Facebook calls it an “object”) in the past, the higher the affinity. For example, if you comment on your sister’s Wall everyday, content from your sister will have a high affinity score because you interact a lot with her.
2. Second is “edge.” [...] All that edge refers to the relative weight of objects. For example, a comment on a Wall Post probably carries more weight than a Like because it take more effort to post a comment. [Note: making your Page content mostly text will probably affect your Edge negatively].
3. Last, and simplest, is decay. This is the time that has past since the object was created. [Note: Updating content rarely will probably affect your decay negatively]

• In the Facebook page analytics tool Insights can give you an idea of the amount of impressions (= how many times your content was shown)
• Facebook Insights are only available for verified, authentic pages. To get a Facebook Page verified, you need to fill in this form.

Further reading:

• EdgeRank: The Secret Sauce That Makes Facebook’s News Feed Tick @ TechCrunch
• Why Your Facebook Page Doesn’t Exist @ doseofdigital.com

The Social Consumer: who is she?

From the introduction to Attensity360's whitepaper "Social Customer":

The era of the passive customer has come and gone. The time of the social customer is here, and she has a lot to say.

• She is hyper- connected, creative and collaborative.
• She expects to customize her products: “make it mine”.
• She is connected to her social and professional circles via phone, email, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and forums.
• She is critical of claims made by brands, influenced more by friends, family and “people like her”.
• She wants to make sure that brands are listening, and will go to great lengths to make sure they are.

The fundamental shift in the relationship between the traditional customer and companies is driven by the social web; it is here to stay, and is the biggest shift yet in the history of business. Understanding her is critical to the success of your business.

Further reading:

• Download the whitepaper

Must-haves for your social media policy and training

From the excellent Social Media: Business Benefits and Security, Governance and Assurance Perspectives whitepaper (.pdf) - Any strategy to address the risks of social media usage should first focus on user behavior through the development of policies and supporting training and awareness programs that cover:

Personal use in the workplace:

• Whether it is allowed
• The nondisclosure/posting of business-related content
• The discussion of workplace-related topics
• Inappropriate sites, content or conversations

Personal use outside the workplace:

Business use:

• Whether it is allowed
• The process to gain approval for use
• The scope of topics or information permitted to flow through this channel
• Disallowed activities (installation of applications, playing games, etc.)
• The escalation process for customer issues

Additional information on Social Media:
- A Corporate Guide For Social Media @ forbes.com
- Best Practices for Developing a Social Media Policy @ socialmedia.biz
- Should Companies Lock Down Social Media Tools? @ LinkedIn Answers
- Online as Soon as It Happens (EN) @ enisa.europa.eu
- A Collection of Social Network Stats for 2009 @ web-strategist.com
- Online Database of Social Media Policies @ socialmediagovernance.com

Filed under: Conversity, Files, Social No Comments

Razorfish: “The recession has subsided; marketers are spending again on digital”

The 2010 Razorfish Outlook Report takes a snapshop of marketing trends and media spend.

Some interesting takeaways:

1. Marketers need to transform themselves. or die.
2. The recession has subsided. marketers are spending again on digital.
3. Contrary to popular belief, clients were willing to experiment during the recession.
4. Mobile marketing has arrived, finally—thanks to Apple.
5. Marketers will invest more into digital video.
6. Brands will take over twitter.
7. Brands are focusing on social influencers, not social media.
8. Brands are getting savvier about measuring social.
9. Google still dominates search. but not for long.
10. Global brands are learning how to think and act locally.

See also 2010 Razorfish Outlook Report Key Findings on Slideshare.