Tag: Facebook

Why I love Facebook (still)

Last week I shared an article about deleting the Facebook application from my beloved iPhone 7. I definitely experienced some withdrawal symptoms ranging from FOMO (fear of missing out) to a big empty void of free time. The latter was a boon after the FOMO wore off (took only a few days). Suddenly I felt human again – asking people in person about how their day was, what they did in school… making eye contact with people… Okay, I jest a little, but there’s a lot of reality grounded in that statement. Being on Facebook, as I’ve stated before can be very filtered from reality.

So why am I keeping my account and why am I not part of the #DeleteFacebook movement?

It’s simple.

Facebook is here to stay. It has become a part of our lives. Be it through photo sharing with distant friends and relatives, celebrating achievements like births and new jobs, or sharing in grief when hard times hit. We need Facebook because it has become a part of our vernacular and routine. Maybe it won’t be “Facebook” in the future, but rather, a different service… as Facebook displaced MySpace who displaced Friendster and so on. But we have a need for Facebook-like service in our lives. My overture to deleting the app is a personal one about slowing down and focusing on what I feel is important. I do feel there is value in Facebook; in connecting the world and creating communities, movements and facilitating free speech.

And on a side note, I really do love Facebook. After all, much of my career is based upon helping brands evangelize their value and connect with consumers. I do this really well because I have a great tool in helping these brands, Facebook.

So, you won’t find me deleting my Facebook account any time soon.
Why I deleted the Facebook app from my iPhone

I work in marketing. In fact, I’ve made a great career out of it – helping organizations evangelize their products and services in a honest and transparent manner. Part of my success is predicated on social media, and specifically, Facebook. In prior roles, I was a very large Facebook advertiser, spending millions per year on ads and content to reach potential customers.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like Facebook. Love would be too strong of a word. I love my wife and son, not Facebook.

I’ve spent the majority of many speaking engagements and presentations at conferences helping all types of organizations understand how to best use Facebook, engage with their audiences and succeed on the platform.

So why did I delete the Facebook app from my iPhone?

It’s simple… the time I was spending on Facebook was being wasted. Or rather, it was being misdirected. I found that Facebook was entertaining, but when I dug in to it, I was misdirecting my time… I should have been spending that time with my friends, family or personal enrichment.

Facebook provides a filtered view of the universe. I’m not talking about Russian manipulation of your crazy’s uncle’s political views, either. I’m talking about what most people post to their feeds. They post a filtered view of their life – things they want you to see. Mitch Joel wrote one of my favorite articles on the subject, what you see vs. what is happening. You need to read this article because it makes my point – that what people post on Facebook is not reality. It may be true, but it is a filtered view – it’s only the stuff people want you to see – it’s an airbrushed view of themselves. It’s how they want the world to see them.

The end result is that staring at unrealistic filtered views of peoples lives can make you believe they are {insert whatever you want} than you. They are {better, smarter, prettier thinner, richer, cooler, and so on.} That is just not healthy. You are you and you should strive to be the best you you can be each day. (I know I used “you” five times in the prior sentence, but it helped me make a point.) But, you should not fall to false comparisons of filtered lives. Instead of being inspired, you can become envious or jealous.

Then I became somewhat voyeuristic. Not in a creepy way… in a waste-of-time way. I spent time looking at what happened to people I used to be acquainted with… past classmates and co-workers. I spent time looking at other people’s photos and reading their posts. I got angry when I read their opinions if I disagreed with them, I felt myself being judgmental.

So I gave it up. I deleted the Facebook app and I haven’t really looked back. I still log on to Facebook to catch up with family and friends that I don’t normally get to see, but I spend a lot less time going down those destructive rabbit holes of filtered realities. I now spend my time interacting with people, spending time with my family and friends, having real conversations and working on personal enrichment. I have focused my energy on positive things. Not comparisons.
Get Smart! Make Better Social Media Decisions through Analytics
Have you heard of Social Media Week? If not, check it out here: http://socialmediaweek.org/

This February, Social Media Week will take place in 10 cities:
1. Copenhagen
2. Hamburg
3. Lagos
4. Miami
5. Milan
6. New York
7. Paris
8. Singapore
9. Washington DC
10. Tokyo (TBD)
How does it work? It’s a collection of events sponsored by a wide variety of companies and organizations throughout each city, bound by the common theme of social media.

Last year I spoke on the ROI of social media to a standing-room-only crowd in Manassas, VA. This year, I will be presenting the following session:

Get Smart! Make Better Social Media Decisions through Analytics
Leveraging Facebook EdgeRank and Google Analytics to Drive a Return on Business Objectives

So you’re adding social media to your game plan for your organization, moving it from an afterthought to front-and-center. You’ve even got a staff member ready to roll up their sleeves and manage your social media strategy for the organization (and that person might be you!) But now what? How do you decide which campaigns are working and which ones are not? In this session, attendees will learn how to leverage Facebook Insights, Facebook EdgeRank and Google Analytics (all free tools) to measure campaign ROI (return on investment) and ROO (return on objectives).

While I’m still working on the details of the venue, I do know it will be somewhere in the DC metro area. I hope to have a venue locked down by 1/21/13. So check back to the event page early next week for more details.
Posting on Facebook as a Business – You Need to Read This!

I’ve been traveling around the country a bit lately talking a lot about Facebook’s edgerank algorithm. I won’t explain edgerank here, but I will say it is what Facebook uses to determine which updates will show up in your news feed. Yes, not all of them show up. Most don’t.

If you’re a brand, you maybe in trouble here. The only way out is to start paying Facebook. That’s right – pay to play!

To learn more about this, here’s a great article to get started:

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2221131/facebook-stole-your-fans-and-wants-a-ransom-to-get-them-back
Facebook to eliminate fake likes

Mashable is reporting that Facebook will start removing fake likes from pages. I see this is the first step, but not the last step in combating fraud on Facebook. Click fraud is rampant, and that must be addressed as soon as possible.
Facebook Click Fraud Issues

In a recent publicized report, thanks to Facebook having to keep its business in more of a public eye due to the company being publicly traded now, we learned that 8.7 percent of Facebook accounts are “fake”, more more than 80 million. We already knew this. Why? Because most Facebook advertisers who know what they are doing have been measuring the performance of their ads and have found that they get billed for more clicks then they really received. And most likely, these clicks are from fake accounts and bots.

In fact, a company called Limited Run reported that 80% of its clicks were from bots!

My own research from clients puts this number at closer to the 1-in-3 or 33% range, still horrendous by any measure. And, that’s based upon about $1.5 million dollars worth of clicks analyzed.

It’s the cost of doing business with Facebook. In other words, if the ROI you are obtaining from your ad campaign is tolerable, then the click fraud is just part of that campaign’s cost. Obviously, we would all love to higher higher ROI (via a lower cost). Facebook is not motivated to put systems in place to do better at weeding out click fraud. Google is much better – having been sued several times into improving. So, maybe its time to start forming a class against Facebook so that advertisers can obtain rebates for these fraudulent clicks. Its to Facebook’s long term sustainability and advantage to not bill clients for these clicks because that lowers client’s campaign ROI – making them less likely to run more campaigns over the long run. So, if Facebook rebates these fraudulent clicks, ROIs go up, costs go down, clients are happier and keep pouring money into Facebook, and in the end Facebook generates more revenue.

Until then however, make sure you allot about 1/3 of your budget to “sunk costs” of click fraud – clicks that will generate no value for your business whatsoever.
Google and Facebook — The Next MySpaces?

Mark Twain famously quipped, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

And in this vein,Eric Jackson for Forbes.com writes, “Here’s Why Google and Facebook Might Completely Disappear in the Next 5 Years.”

Jackson’s article is more than compelling – its nearly dead-on accurate with regards to how technologies evolve faster than companies. So, its difficult for companies that have devoted their resources heading down one path to get up, back track and head down a new path. This is especially difficult in the face of competitors who get a fresh start down a new branch.

Think of a tree. Start with the trunk. That’s the start of technology… And as companies create products based upon this technology they head down a branch, say “ecommerce”. However, as they are heading down that branch, a new one sprouts – “mobile commerce”. The problem is, that branch is very different and has its own barriers to entry and competitive forces. Companies on one branch don’t necessarily have the know-how to hop branches and change courses.

Jackson’s article discusses this by breaking down technology into three phases and grouping the big tech companies into those three phases to articulate his point. It’s very compelling.

However, I do believe that many of these newer companies have the cash to acquire technology through M&A so that they can more easily hop branches. Also, I believe some of them have management that will endeavor as best they can to pivot their giant organizations and adapt to change. But this doesn’t always work, as Jackson points out, like in the case of the once almighty MySpace.
Facebook Revenue Climbs, but Click Fraud Questions Linger

As a Facebook advertiser, I have long seen a substantial discrepancy between what Facebook charges me (the number of clicks) and what my analytics software records as visits to my site.

The obvious issue is whether all clicks of ads result in a “ping” of the analytics code snippet on your site. With the new asynchronous code snippet from Google Analytics and your ability to place the code in the header, fewer visits should result in not being recorded.

The other option is that JavaScript or cookie blocking is in place in the visitor’s browser. However, this is a very limited subset of people who click on advertisements.

However, the gap is substantial – as much as 35% (or even more in some cases) between Facebook’s bill and the analytics program. This begs many customers to ask the question, why is Facebook charging me for clicks that don’t result in a visit to my site?

These clicks provide no value the advertiser. And actually, they don’t provide long term value to Facebook, because it reduces the success of advertising campaigns, turning the advertiser away.

However, Facebook has decided to continue ignoring this issue and raking in huge profits along the way.

Some companies have tried to sue Facebook, with limited success.

At the end of the day, you basically have to bake in this cost (click fraud and invalid clicks) into your campaign as a cost of doing business with Facebook. If, after all is said and billed for, you can still achieve your desired ROI, you’re good to go. Otherwise, I suggest taking your hard earned dollars elsewhere.

I suggest that Facebook up its game in this area and stop billing customers for click-bounces… Clicks that don’t register a hit on the customer’s server. I think a 3-second rule is a good idea – if the visitor isn’t on the advertiser’s site for more than 3 seconds, then they don’t get charged for the ad.
Facebook Reduces Ad Text from 135 to 90

Recently, Facebook notified its advertisers that new ads would be subject to a 90-character limit while existing ads at the 135-character limit will be grandfathered.

I have read a few articles about this over the past few weeks and most agree that this will be a new challenge for marketers accustomed to the extra room. A decrease of 35% is substantial, and this will be a big deal for advertisers to update their ads moving forward.

These changes do not favor marketers, they favor Facebook’s bottom line. Reducing ad copy and increasing the number of ads reduces an advertisement’s effectiveness. While initially the extra inventory may lower ad prices, at the end of the day, those will be countered by lower CTR and conversion rates for advertisers.
What is the ROI of Social Media?

What exactly is the ROI of social media? When Gary Vaynerchuk was asked this question, he replied, “What is the ROI of your mom?” Obviously Gary was illustrating that just because it may not be possible to provide a quantitative assessment of a campaign, doesn’t mean it lacks ROI. And, for that matter, it doesn’t mean you cannot measure it.

I’ve written about this topic before, specifically about Facebook’s ROI, as well as measuring social media. Last week I presented on the topic at the Social Media Strategies Summit in Las Vegas.

Tomorrow (2/15/2012), I will be presenting on the subject live, in Northern Virginia as part of Social Media Week (DC). You can find more info about my presentation and how to attend for free here:

http://socialmediaweek.org/event/?event_id=1176

We have nearly 200 attendees registered.

If you cannot make it, I will be uploading parts of the presentation (recorded) as well as some materials to this blog later in the week. So bookmark this post and check back in a couple of days for those materials.