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The Open Graph became available this week as Facebook unveiled the “the next generation of the platform which enables people to tell their stories through the apps they use” on Wednesday evening. Spotify and Washington Post Social Reader have seen a lot of usage prior to user’s profiles being converted to Timeline. Now that Timeline is integrated on the platform, Facebook kept their promise on by releasing the Open Graph with over 60 apps to kick things off on Wednesday night. Watch the Apps introductory video here.

Apps give users the opportunity to express their personalities through apps they are connected with on Facebook. Whether it’s cooking, movies, fashion or travel, there is an app. Or if there’s not yet, there will be one soon. In fact, if there isn’t an app for an activity you enjoy, you have the option to create one and integrate it with the Open Graph for use on Facebook. The apps introduced Wednesday are just the beginning of a movement that is bound to be big, as more and more people use Facebook (active users are projected to cross the 1 billion mark this summer).

Now that Facebook has made it even more simple for users to tell their story by infusing Timeline with better photo tools, life events and now by providing apps to share the things they enjoy most, businesses who are already social can be amplified, and those who aren’t are going to need to become so to stay competitive in this quickly changing media landscape. The Open Graph apps integration will keep marketers and developers extremely busy as businesses adapt their social media plans accordingly. Pinterest is a great example. The virtual pinboard site is no longer just adored by the design and DIY crowds, but has become the darling of the social media sites and will only continue to grow with this new Facebook integration. Brands are flocking to Pinterest as they realize the reach they will have is not only on the site itself, but also on the biggest social network of them all.

Timeline will become richer as the release of Open Graph expands opportunities for simply sharing life.

More information related to this article can be found here:

https://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150469721182131

https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/634/

https://www.facebook.com/about/timeline/apps

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from fbadz.com, become a fan!

Every time I receive notification of a post in Benny’s Surf Club of Awesomeness, I get a little homesick for the West Coast. My friend, who lives in San Diego, started this group nearly a year ago. It’s a really active, fun group of people who love life, the beach and surfing. How can I not feel a tinge of longing as I am notified of their posts about group BBQs and surf excursions during the frigid months of the East Coast winter? A year or so ago, I would have joined a group and not really followed what was going on. Thanks to the group improvements in 2011, I am now fully aware of what I am missing out on.

Improvements to Groups was just one of the upgrades Facebook made in 2011. In continuing our Top Facebook Moments of 2011 (read Part 1 here), let’s round out the list with several of the changes implemented in conjunction with f8 this year.

Groups
As my personal experience illustrates, unless we were checking in on them constantly, we didn’t have as much of an opportunity to be envious of group activities taking place in Facebook groups of the past. Groups were not as integrated into the home page and users had to make more of an effort to find out about current events. As more “personal” social networks popped into the picture in 2011 ( Google+  and Path), Facebook tailored Groups to better fit the user experience. Facebook’s new product manager, Paul Adams, had been advocating that our online networks should align with our offline networks since he worked at Google . His research keeps Facebook competitive as technology evolves with the user’s experience. The Groups improvements include:

• Groups now have a Wall that summarizes all the recent activities of people within the group and a Publisher that enables members to share content
• Group activities will now be delivered to your News Feed
• Interacting with Groups will become easier since you can follow the links to the content directly from the News Feed stories or make comments on these stories directly from your home page

 Like Button Extension

Changes to the Open Graph related to the Like button were announced at f8 2011. These adjustments made the Like button more relevant to the apps users interact with. Facebook simultaneously launched partnerships with media companies such as Spotify and Netflix to give users the ability to publish activity to their News Feeds, resulting in more sharing capability, as friends will see what media you consume as you click Watched, Listened to and Read.

This addition introduces new permission and privacy issues: “Previously, users had both grant an app initial permissions upon install and fill out a sharing prompt every time they wanted to publish something to Facebook. Now, users will grant a new type of permission that allows an app the ability to instantly publish activity without showing a prompt.”

These app interactions are bringing about enormous opportunities for social media marketers who are now able to target users according to their interaction with content to tailor Facebook ads.

Mobile
Over 350 million active users currently access Facebook through their mobile devices. With the exponential increase of smart phone users, online experiences are rapidly being converted to mobile apps. Savvy businesses know how important mobile is for their online enterprises, and Facebook provided a vehicle for mobile as it increased its mobile functionality this year. Facebook kept good pace this year with announcements around Facebook Messenger and their highly-anticipated iPad app. Facebook Messenger was adorned with the following features https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=132470183510042:

• Swift messaging: one-click access to messages through your phone; messages update in real time
• Message friends one-on-one or start a group conversation with friends on Facebook or, if you’re using the app on an iPhone or Android, anyone in your mobile contacts
• Location mapping lets you see where the people in your conversation are, so it’s easy to meet up on the go
• Messenger is integrated with your Facebook messages and chats, so you can access all your conversations right in the app
• Ability to personalize and organize your messages by naming and choose a picture for your group conversations

As more and more users employ iPads for business and entertainment, the need for a new interface was eminent. iPad received it’s own app in October.  Some highlights of the app include:

• A fun hands-on navigation approach
• Easy access to games, apps, friend lists and messages
• Chat, games and other features
• Bigger better photos; ability to take photos with the iPad itself

Offering users the opportunity to treat an iPad like a photo album, flipping through big, gorgeous pictures is right inline with another Facebook upgrade: the change in photo view and size.

Photos
Story telling has become a remarkable branding tool. Devising the most creative, engaging brand stories often time takes adding a few compelling images. In preparation of the launch of the Timeline, which utilizes visuals to a greater extent than the previous user profiles, they upgraded the photo-sharing tool.

We examined the refined photo tool in our post A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: According to the Facebook Blog, the photo sharing tool has been upgraded with an accelerated uploading capability and larger images (720 pixels to 960 pixels), giving users quicker access to more refined pictures. The viewer has also been redesigned to make images pop. This is wonderful news for users and marketers alike. To say photo sharing has skyrocketed in the past few years would be an understatement. Marketers would be wise to be mindful of the magnified role visual content is now playing on Facebook and its associated apps (Instagram recently upgraded their app with the ability to upload full-size photos to Facebook).

Honorary Mentions

Subscribe Button
The subscribe button can be likened to following someone on Twitter, however, if you are a business it helps you gain more audience and potential customers while still keeping your personal profile. We’ll see how it evolves this year.

Deals
Facebook deals are designed to help businesses connect with loyal customers, while giving them the benefit of social distribution, as stories about the deal are published to users profiles when they are redeemed. There are currently four types of deals (individual, friend, loyalty and charity); performance has been excellent for small businesses.

New Messages
The old Facebook messages were a little clunky, so it was newsworthy when we welcomed the refined Message format this year. Upgraded features include the ability to:

• View your messages, chats, and texts in one single location
• View related conversations with a contact in one single conversation thread
• Demarcate email messages from sources other than your friends in a separate folder
• Attach Office documents such as Word Excel and PowerPoint
• View Office documents such as Word Excel and PowerPoint

More information related to this article can be found here:

http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-upgrades-2011-12

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from fbadz.com, become a fan!

The moment I found out Facebook would be testing the new Timeline in New Zealand, I immediately clicked over to my friend’s page. He lives in Auckland, and I was really, really curious to see how the Timeline worked on someone I have known for years. Several weeks later, when it was released to users in North America, I couldn’t WAIT to upgrade my own profile. The Timeline rocks!

A flood of status updates positively reviewing the Timeline has since illustrated that I’m not the only one who appreciated the upgrade, however, there has been diverse sentiment about many of the changes Facebook made this year. As we move toward the New Year, let’s recap some of Facebook’s greatest moments of 2011.

Timeline
The highlight of the year for the majority of users was the implementation of the new Timeline. Historically, users push back and struggle adjusting to the changes Facebook has made, but most people just rolled with this one, and have been delighted as it pops up on more and more profiles. The Timeline was announced in October at f8, so there was plenty of time to build anticipation around its debut. There were many creative presentations explaining it. One of my personal favorites was the video of Don Draper presenting the Timeline. Watch it here.

News Feed
The changes after f8 simplified and emphasized that ability to categorize your friends (a much needed improvement for the underutilized Lists feature). Following suit, the News Feed was also restructured into the main feed, taking up the majority of the space, and a new feature, the ticker, which was a smaller view of what is going on with all of your friends. This allowed more targeted content in your main feed, while the more superfluous news was filtered through the ticker.

GraphRank was introduced as a new component into EdgeRank, the algorithm that determines what shows up in users’ News Feeds. GraphRank takes into consideration edge signifiers generated from users’ activity that takes place outside of Facebook. This leads to more information competing for News Feed visibility. This move reinforces the “Content is King” slogan marketers have to adopt. Brand content has to be relevant and engaging for users to have a chance to appear in users’ News Feeds. This in turn helps the brands because users will interact more with the brand and its content, which ties in perfectly to our next greatest Facebook moment of 2011:

Sponsored Stories
Advertising on Facebook is evolving into something much more organic than when it first popped into the side of our News Feed a few years ago. Remember the ads that would ask for an explanation about why you didn’t like them when you tried to delete them? The Sponsored Stories are essentially word of mouth marketing which highlight user’s interactions with their favorite brands for all of their friends to see. The varieties of Sponsored Stories have increased in leaps and bounds this year and include:

1. Page Like Story

2. Page Post Like Story

3. App Used / Game Played Story

4. App Share Story

5. Check-in Story

6. Domain Share Story

A year from when they debuted, Sponsored Stories will be moving into the News Feed in January 2012. Users activity will ultimately decide if sponsored stories will stay in the News Feed (there’s a lot of speculation on their success).

Privacy
Facebook’s security technologies earned the nickname “Immune System” in the media this year. The system cleared out some of its most common digital maladies by implementing the following fixes:

• Partnering with Web of Trust has enabled the site to identify and block posts that include insecure web addresses
• A social verification system provides a means of recovering lost passwords through trusted friends
• Log-in approvals send code to mobile devices so users can authenticate attempts to access accounts from unrecognized machines
• Smart friend lists create groupings of contacts with things in common, all but forcing people’s hands to use this features for microsharing instead of publicly posting everything for all to see

Facebook also introduced Inline Privacy Controls by co-locating privacy controls near content sharing spaces on Facebook profiles, empowering people to take control over their own privacy. The options for what you share and who you share it with increased, and the process became more streamlined and user friendly.

Metrics
The Talking About This metric was introduced. This new page insight was visible for all to see and provides information about how engaging a page is with a quick glance. Read all about it in our post People Are Talking About: Facebook’s New Metric.

Negative Feedback Metrics have been designed to measure negative feedback gleaned from page posts that have matriculated through the News Feed. This metric will be potentially huge as it is refined in the coming year, and content continues to be imperative to a page’s success on Facebook.

Credits Incentives
Credits became mandatory for all applications that request payment in exchange for premium content in 2011. The following devices were implemented for developers to facilitate more income:

• Get balance – shows individual users’ balances to developers
• Buy with friends – which encourages people to recommend purchases
• Frictionless payments – which enables gamers or shoppers to pay for goods without leaving the application

http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-upgrades-2011-12

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from fbadz.com, become a fan!

Remember friendship bracelets? Those colorful, woven (sometimes knotted) bracelets we used to make for our friends in elementary school?

I had forgotten about them until this season of giving, when I’m on alert for gift ideas. A beautiful image caught my eye in my Facebook News Feed one afternoon. I clicked to my friend’s page, where she had posted a link to an Etsy seller who makes friendship bracelets made of swarovski crystal beads. A sudden flood of fun memories came to mind as I reminisced about exchanging the bright bracelets with my best friends in school. VOILA! What a great gift idea for my girl friends!

The Buying Decision Process

Taking into consideration a traditional look of what influences purchase decisions, companies now have a greater opportunity than ever to influence what we buy leveraging social media platforms. The level of influence increases with the strength of their online communities and the strength of word of mouth marketing based on fans’ sharing content to their social graphs (friends recommending products to friends on social networking sites). The Buying Decision Process has five steps:

1. Need Recognition
2. Information Search
3. Evaluation of Alternatives
4. Purchase Decision
5. Post Purchase Behavior

There’s a new insight on Facebook, and a lot of people are either talking about it or wondering what it means. Facebook’s new “Talking About This” metric means more transparency for brands and a smart way for administrators to measure their content’s ability to engage.

The following list contains Facebook’s current top ten consumer brands, ranked by engagement:

1. Coca-cola

2. Starbucks

3. Oreo

4. Red Bull

5. Converse All Star

6. Converse

7. Skittles

8. Playstation

9. Pringles

10. Victoria’s Secret

The list changes a bit when we re-order it not according to “Likes”, but according to how many people are “Talking About This”, or rather, are engaging with the brand on Facebook:

1. Starbuck’s

2. Coca-cola

3. Victoria’s Secret

4. Skittles

5. Oreo

6. Red Bull

7. Playstation

8. Converse

9. Pringles

10. Converse All Star

The first list is ranked by how many people “like” the brand’s page. This means they clicked “like” one time. Until now, we had no idea exactly how they were interacting past that point.

The second list is ordered by how many people are “Talking About This” brand. The following actions add up to the “Talking About This” metric:

• Liking a Page
• Posting to a Page’s wall
• Liking, commenting on, or sharing a Page’s post (or other content on a page, like photos, status updates, videos, albums or other content)
• Answering a posted Question
• RSVPing to an event hosted by the Page
• Mentioning a Page in a post (users must formally tag the page)
• Tagging a Page in a photo
• Liking or sharing a check-in deal
• Checking in at a Place

The “Talking About This” metric is visible for anyone who visits a Facebook Page, increasing transparency for the user. Your fans can see if your page is active and engaging just by glancing at this metric.

Here’s a snapshot of Coca-cola’s numbers:

This new gauge of engagement reinforces the brand to fans, and it also offers Facebook Admins a sharp measurement tool. When you are planning content for your page, you want to be mindful of which types of posts are engaging your fans, and what time of day is optimal for sharing content. The “Talking About This” tool gives you the insight you need to gain traction with your fans, as well as measuring the virality of your content.

“Talking About This” has its own tab in the new Facebook Insights. It looks like this:

The tool breaks down fans that have engaged with your page into various demographics, such as, age, sex, location, language, as well as telling you how these fans are talking about your page by illustrating the following:

• Page Likes
• Stories generated from your posts
• Mentions and photo tags
• Posts by others

Facebook Insights does a remarkable job at painting a picture with their visual graphs; however, if you want to dive deeper, I suggest you export the insights. Facebook Insights Data Export gives you an extremely detailed and intricate story of what is happening on your page. Spend some time getting lost in it and you will find very applicable knowledge about your fans.

The most noteworthy measurement tool included in “Talking About This” is the Viral Reach metric. Virality helps measure the reach of a post against those talking about it. There is a formula for this:

People are Talking About / Reach = Virality 

As Facebook continues emphasizing engagement, the insights provided by the “Talking About This” metric will help Page Admins understand what drives the numbers and how to best engage their advocates. Another reminder about the relationship between quality content and engagement.

More information related to this article can be found here:

http://searchengineland.com/demystifying-facebooks-people-are-talking-about-this-metric-96104

http://mashable.com/2011/10/09/top-facebook-brands-talking-about/

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from fbadz.com, become a fan!

I grew up watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade each year as my Mom set about preparing our dinner. I looked forward to watching the bright and fun festivities. This year, my family will be flying to the east coast to attend the parade in person. The six-year-old in me is super excited, while my adult self is thinking, is it really that time of year already?

As marketers, we should plan our holiday campaigns far before those big balloons make their way down Broadway. It’s becoming second nature for consumers to turn to social media to find promotions, comparison shop and find gift ideas during the holiday season. Facebook holiday shopping trends indicate:

●      Social networking sites experienced a 17% increase in unique visitors during holiday 2010

●      Social visitors to a retail site are twice as likely to convert as the average visitor

●      20% of survey respondents said Facebook was “influential” or “extremely influential” when making purchase decisions

A prime case is my sister’s recent Facebook post:

My sister wants to buy her nearly two-year-old daughter a special baby doll for Christmas. Even after doing research, she is unsure of which doll to purchase, so she extended the question to her friends on her blog and Facebook. This is an ideal example of how social media has the opportunity to influence her decision before she buys – and illustrates the many roles it can play in the buying decision process:

●      Need recognition – Tysha may have decided long ago that she wanted to buy a baby doll, but it’s quite possible she recognized the need from a Wall Post (from the brand or a friend’s post or album), Facebook Ad, blog post from a mommy blogger, photo on Pinterest, newsletter from the company or maybe in a store window. Now that she’s blogged about it and shared it with her friends on Facebook, another young mom may have become aware of the need to buy a Christmas gift in the form of a doll.

●      Information Search – Tysha, being a natural researcher, has probably scoured the web to find information from websites, review sites and social networking sites related to baby dolls. Tweets, blog posts and Facebook pages are sources of information consumers look to when researching products.

●      Evaluation of Alternatives- In this example, Tysha is weighing the alternatives but making the decision social by asking her blog readers and friends and family on Facebook for their input. Here you can see that social media plays a critical role in her actual purchase decision.

●      Purchase – Knowing Tysha, she may announce right away what doll she’s purchased, but she’ll definitely thank everyone for their input and share what doll she decided on (which may also make it easier for her friends to decide which doll to purchase too if the need arises).

●      Post-Purchase - Tysha’s pretty active online with her blog so she’ll probably take pictures of when her daughter opens the present and share those photos on her blog and on Facebook too. She may even share them on the doll company’s page or write reviews on the doll. Or she may simply read another couple of reviews or blog posts about the doll she chose to reinforce the decision she made. If the brand is smart, she’ll be compelled to engage on their Facebook page and stay engaged for when the next holiday rolls around and Tysha needs another gift for her daughter.

When you begin to plan your holiday campaign, the first thing to think about is timing. This question above was posted in mid-October, as my sister wants to finish her holiday shopping by December 1. Obviously, not everyone is such an early bird, however it is important to be mindful of key dates when planning your holiday promotions. Below is a chart based on CPC trends from 2010 to guide you in your planning as suggested by Facebook.

Consumers are scouring the web for deals, gift ideas and suggestions. Here are a few tips from Facebook to meet your marketing objectives. Remember that content is key as you plan the creative components of your campaign and the News Feed remains at the heart of a successful presence on Facebook.

Objective 1: Increase traffic and sales

Create viral holiday promotional events and publicize special offers. Every time fans RSVP, click, or check-in, that action gets shared with all of their friends.

Tips:

●      Decide on a sales goal and the promotional activities that will help you get there

●      Offer valuable check-in deals to increase foot traffic (promote the deal with ads before it goes live)

●      Spread the word about your promotion through Standard Like Ads, Sponsored Stories and Page publishing

Objective 2: Generate Awareness

You can leverage Facebook’s tremendous reach and targeting capabilities with ads and Sponsored Stories to generate awareness about your promotions.

Tips:

●      Integrate Social Plugins such as the Like Button into your website, which will allow actions people take off of Facebook to show up in the News Feed and be amplified through Sponsored Stories

●      Post interesting content to your Page with clear calls to action that encourage fan interaction and sharing

●      Boost stories about friends who have engaged with your business

Objective 3: Drive Differentiation

Think of your Facebook Page as a key customer touch point to bring your brand to life. Drive differentiation by creating highly customized and personalized experiences for fans.

Tips:

●      Use the graph API to enable people to shop based on what their friends like

●      Use Applications to bring your brand to life (Ex: create a wish list app for fans to select their favorite items and share with their friends)

●      Build an eCommerce store through an app on your Facebook Page so users don’t have to leave Facebook to make a purchase

Objective 4: Build loyalty and deepen relationships

The people who like your page are saying they want a relationship with you. Show them you appreciate their loyalty with special rewards.

Tips:

●      Listen and respond to customer feedback and inquiries to show fans that they can trust and rely on your business

●      Provide exclusive holiday promotions, merchandise sneak peeks and early access to Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales for fans

Facebook Advertising: Holiday Best Practices

Ad Units

●      Utilize event ads to generate awareness around holiday sale events

●      Run App Shared and App Used Sponsored Stories to boost stories about friends who have interacted with your holiday application

●      Run Standard Like Ads to drive traffic to specific promotions or alert fans of upcoming check-in deals

●      Use Page Post Ads to enhance distribution of Page posts that mention special offers and promotions

Copy

●      Incorporate words such as free, discount and promotions whenever applicable

●      Include a strong call to action that incentivizes fans to share their interactions with your brand to all their friends

●      Include Facebook specific discount codes to give users a sense of exclusivity

●      Identify promotional periods and emphasize end dates on special offers

Targeting

●      Expand your targeting parameters over the holidays to include those making purchases for your target audience

●      Get more impressions and potentially more clicks by utilizing broad age match targeting and broad category targeting

Bidding

●      Due to increased competition, expect CPCs to increase during the holiday season

●      Monitor bids closely to ensure that bids are still competitive enough to win the auction

●      Bid what you’re comfortable paying for your ads

A big thank you to Facebook for providing all of these holiday marketing tips. At publishing time, my sister is leaning toward the American Girl doll for her daughter. Her Facebook friends let her know that they had just opened a big American Girl store in Seattle, so she is already thinking about the great memories to be made there. She invited me to come have lunch with my niece and her new doll at the American Girl bistro.

May you all be so successful in making your brand part of someone’s story.

More information related to this article can be found here:

*This post is based on Facebook’s 2011 Holiday Kit

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from fbadz.com, becomeafan!

Facebook announced the Expandable Ad Unit last week at Advertising Week in New York. Expandable ads? The first image that comes to mind when I hear “expandable” is of the “boyfriend” I was given several years ago as a funny Valentine’s Day gift. My friends gave me a Grow a Boyfriend:

You are supposed to put this tiny man figure in water and watch it expand into a “boyfriend”. Silly, right? The gift was funny and made me laugh, however, the idea of it, an item that expands when you interact with it, something recommended by a friend to capture your attention, is precisely what Facebook’s expandable ad unit is going to do for ads.

The screen shot below, from the popular infographic The History of Advertising on Facebook, illustrates the advertising evolution we are experiencing on Facebook. Navigating the new features can be tricky, so let’s clarify the expandable ad in relation to other ad types available on Facebook.

Here is what the new ads will do:

●      The new ad will expand when a user or one of their friends “like” or comment on the brand.

●      You will be able to see other ad-related content.

●      It will contain an advertiser’s message.

●      In short, users will be able to interact with the ad as if it was any other piece of shared content.

What the ads won’t do:

●      The ads won’t appear in the news feed as a “like”.

●      It won’t tell you if a friend took action with the brand, such as with Social Ads.

Below is an example of what the ads will look like:

The trend towards blurring content so it doesn’t necessarily appear as an ad or a wall post is epitomized in the expandable ad. Have you ever been influenced by your friends? Have you ever experienced a brand or activity so great that you really want to get the word out? Think about a movie you’ve seen, or a great new restaurant you tried. On the other hand, if you are looking for a show or a place to eat, who is the first person you ask? I’d bet pretty high that it’s your friends. The desire to share is innate, and the new ad unit makes it easier than ever. Engaging their audience’s friend base is a natural way for brands to expand. It’s a win-win for the user and the business when sharing becomes seamless.

Given that the new ads will not “feel” like an ad, they will become more relevant and less obtrusive, utilizing the evidence that users are best able to influence their friends. The expandable ad gives them another tool to do so.

More information related to this article can be found here:

http://mashable.com/2011/10/02/facebook-expandable-ad-unit/

http://news.accuracast.com/social-media-7471/800-million-targeted-by-new-facebook-ad-format/

http://mashable.com/2011/10/03/facebook-ad-strategy/?WT.mc_id=obinsite

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from fbadz.com, become a fan!

There is an episode of Mad Men where the creative team is brainstorming about ideas for a Popsicle campaign. The group has warm feelings for the cold treats. Sentiments such as, “I love popsicles!” and “My mom would always break them in half, so my sister and I could share.” float around the room. A couple of scenes later, we witness Peggy Olson, the ad agency’s rising star copywriter, do what she does best. She reaches the audience on an emotional level by unveiling a picture that perfectly captures the brand’s story. Facebook introduced an enhanced photo app this week, providing a refined tool for brands who want to strengthen their stories using images.

According to the Facebook Blog, the photo sharing tool has been upgraded with an accelerated uploading capability and larger images (720 pixels to 960 pixels), giving users quicker access to more refined pictures. The viewer has also been redesigned to make images pop. This is wonderful news for users and marketers alike. To say photo sharing has skyrocketed in the past few years would be an understatement. The chart below gives us a visual of just how big Facebook’s photo library is.

Sites such as Flickr, Snapfish and Shutterfly have emerged, as well as photo sharing apps, like Instagram. Smart phone usage continues to spread like wildfire; the devices have been instrumental for Instagram’s rise to fame. Mobile photo sharing apps have increased the popularity of sharing images in real time.

The possibilities for taking classic storytelling to the next level become abundant with photo sharing. For brands, it’s the difference between telling a story and being part of a story as its written. It’s an interactive experience. Social Media allows us to listen and create conversations with consumers, getting to know them on a more intimate level than has ever been possible. Photo sharing is an opportunity for your customers to pass your story on to their friends through tagging and sharing, expanding your convertible audience.

A prime example of integrating photo sharing into a campaign is the return of the Pepsi vs. Coke cola wars. Pepsi recently launched an integrated campaign with The X Factor. Part of the campaign was a packaging promotion that tied Pepsi packaging with the show The X Factor through a digital photo contest promoted on Pepsi’s packaging. Consumers were challenged to take a digital snapshot of the Pepsi and X Factor logos together, and send it in for a chance to win a trip to Los Angeles to watch a taping of the show. The contest was in real time and provided an interactive experience for the consumer. It was also an attempt to gain traction ahead of their rival, Coca-cola, who sponsor Americal Idol.

There are many clever ways to use photo sharing in your storytelling and integrated communications plans. Facebook is ahead of the game in realizing the importance as we move forward in the digital era.

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from fbadz.com, become a fan!

On September 22, Facebook developers, entrepreneurs and innovators will gather at the San Francisco Design Center for possibly the most anticipated conference of the year: f8. This is where everything that has been “in the works” makes a big splash. This is where the fun starts.

Perhaps you’re one of the lucky invitees. At the very least, I know you’ve seen a few of your friends “like” f8. In fact, you’ve probably developed some serious “liking” skills yourself this past year. One of the biggest announcements in the history of the web happened at f8 2010 when Facebook made their vision of the “Open Graph” public. The Open Graph has changed the way we socialize and do business on the web. Because of this, we can now build a website with plug-ins that allow us to link to our Facebook connections. We can “like” a song on Spotify, and instantly share our favorite new jam with our Facebook friends. The list keeps growing as the Open Graph continues to revolutionize our online experiences. For in-depth information about f8 2010 click here.

So what is everyone whispering about leading up to f8 2011?

I mentioned how much easier sharing music has become with streaming services, such as Spotify, being connected via the Open Graph. Facebook has been aching to integrate music for ages; therefore we are expecting some of the excitement at f8 2011 to be around a big music announcement. There are rumors that Facebook may partner with some well-known music streaming services. Some other pieces that come with incorporating music and Facebook could be a possibility of buying songs with Music Credits, a virtual currency, as well as adding a music dashboard to the interface. These additions would have the potential to generate ad exposure.

An announcement regarding the iPad app will likely be released at this time as well. Instagram’s ride in popularity seems to have folks thinking that a new photo app will be introduced at f8. The app would feature filters, similar to Instagram. Read more about Facebook’s mobile photo app here.

Finally, there is that Spartan project we keep hearing about. Spartan is a platform that is aligned with all of the mobile growth that is happening these days, and is being considered a “Mobile Safari” completely based on HTML-5. This will give Facebook a great amount of control in the mobile space.

We look forward to whispers turning into shouts as f8 2011 unfolds.

More information related to this article can be found here:

http://fbadz.com/2010/04/what-f8s-announcements-mean-for-you-page-admins/

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from fbadz.com, become a fan!

We often discuss ways that Facebook can be used to promote and market your business, but Facebook can also be a great platform for collaboration. I have successfully managed a team of interns on the other side of the country with a combination of Google Docs and Facebook features, along with many hours spent on the phone. I really wish Skype and Facebook had announced their partnership a year and a half ago! Here are some Facebook features that can be utilized for collaboration:

• Friend Lists: Friend lists are key in letting you segment all of your Facebook “friends” into different categories based on how know them. By putting all of your coworkers into a friend list you can set your privacy settings according to that group. That way you can complain to your friends about your coworkers on Facebook without your coworkers knowing (NOTE: I’m half-kidding. It’s never a good idea to complain about your coworkers on Facebook). Friend lists are also really helpful with Facebook Chat. During the workday you can make yourself available to your coworkers while appearing to be offline to everyone else. You can answer a teammate’s question and not be bothered with interrogations from your mother (Hi Mom! Love you!). The reverse is also true. If you don’t want to be bothered with work-related questions on the weekend then simply click “Go Offline” for that friend list. More on Facebook chat in a bit…

• Facebook Groups: Facebook Groups are the ideal tool to serve as home base for a department or even a short-term project. If you really don’t want to be Facebook friends with your coworkers, you can still be part of the same Facebook Group. You can adjust the group settings to adjust how often you receive email and Facebook notifications about the group and how often updates show up in your home navigation (what we like to call your News Stream). You have the ability to post links, photos, videos and questions in the group and you can even create events, which are great ways of sending out meeting reminders. If you need more than 420 characters then you can create a Doc, which is similar to the Notes function on a Facebook Page. For when you’re on the go you can send an email to the group email address (groupx@groups.facebook.com) and it will post in the group. You can easily add and remove members as your team changes over time.

• Facebook Chat: Facebook has recently made some “awesome” updates to Facebook chat. It was already a great way for me to correspond with coworkers quickly and easily. Ignoring my calls and emails are you? Oh look you’re available on Facebook Chat “Hi you!” Now Facebook archives the conversations as part of the Facebook Messages function so you don’t have to remember what was said, you can just look it up! They’ve also added the ability to add friends to the chat so if you need to have a discussion with just three coworkers rather than one at a time or the entire department, you now have that option.

• Skype: Facebook also announced an “awesome” integration with Skype that will allow you to make Skype calls to anyone of our Facebook friends regardless of whether or not you have a Skype account. So if you need to have a more in-depth discussion than Facebook Chat simply send a request to connect with a Skype video call and voila you’re now talking face-to-face. (NOTE: If you work from home like I do, you may want to make sure the upper part of your body is presentable before having a video call.) This truly would have saved me a lot of money on my phone bill had it been integrated earlier.

Are there any other Facebook features you find helpful when collaborating with a team? Share your ideas in the comments below.

Post written by Biana Bakman aka @bianalog. To learn more from fbadz.com, become a fan!