Modern Idea

At the risk of making this blog seem as though it is centered on Facebook, I do have one more nugget to share. Recently Facebook introduced Social Ads in an effort to “increase relevance” (and click-through rates). Here is an example of a social ad:

The ad is part of an awareness campaign for a targeted cross section of the US demographic. The ad drives traffic to the Modea Facebook page (previously plugged here). As you should know, Facebook pages are a new capability for bands, companies and products to ‘live’ in the Facebook universe. These pages have the ability for users to “Fan” them. The social aspect of the ad kicks in when someone you know has fanned the page. In the above example, Seth is one of my friends and has previously fanned Modea. By seeing your friends attached to the ad, the relevance and likelihood of you clicking on the ad will increase. Or so it is presumed.

I have been holding off on posting about this because I wanted to determine a way to quantify the increased effectiveness of these ads. Given the level of effort I’m willing to put in, it just isn’t going to happen. I would certainly be interested to know any stats that can help prove the effectiveness. Unless you are friending people you don’t really care for, social ads can’t possibly hurt—unless they creep you out!

Here is an FAQ on Social Ads (may require Facebook login)

@facebook request: I would like to see a break out of impressions and click-through performance when a social ad version is displayed from the non-socially enhanced version.

Do you remember way back in the mid 90’s when television commercials would advertise AOL keywords?  AOL held such a dominant influence over the online space that this was a necessity. By the late 90’s AOL keywords were being advertised along with the actual URL. AOL loathed the growing popularity of this thing Al Gore created called the Internet. They built their business on a closed platform and were able to control the user experience. Even as the Internet gained in popularity, millions of users preferred to stay within the familiar walls of AOL. Yet in the end, a closed system could not compete with the combined contribution of hundreds of millions of people. You no longer see AOL keywords being advertised in commercials.

Facebook (r)evolution

A few long years later Facebook has grown into a platform that is similar to the shell of what AOL once was, and what they could have been. Facebook has done this through the systematic addition of new capabilities and by maintaining the familiarity of the blue and white structured interface. When things get out of line they reign in control and shift to a new format. This is how Facebook recently kept their system from resembling MySpace through as users were installing countless apps.

A recent addition to Facebook is Pages. Now bands, companies, products and services can enjoy a presence similar to an individual within the Facebook closed system. Today, a Facebook Pages page can share notes/photos/videos/music about them as well as install applications. The ability to add custom applications allows an organization to build any functionality they require into their page in a manner that leverages the social interactions and demographic information available through the API. The NY Times has leveraged an existing application to promote stories on their page. This is a natural evolution of capabilities within the confines of the Facebook platform. It won’t be long before custom applications are built specifically for Pages. Modea has a Facebook Page providing a behind the scenes glimpse into our company culture. Check it out and while we’re at it, go ahead and Fan us!

The Future of E-Commerce

Major websites are now integrating with Google Checkout. Amazon has recently countered with Checkout by Amazon and Amazon Simple Pay. Why would businesses dis-integrate their system to open up other payment options? A: To lower the barrier to a sale.

Facebook has some issues to work out with respect to how organizations are able to monetize applications within their gates. In time, Facebook will provide a solution that fits within the concept of what they have established. So too will they introduce commerce.  The next major announcement from Facebook may be the introduction of commerce features into their API similar to what Google and Amazon provide today.

Conclusion

As users are able to get news, read blogs, research companies and products, explore bands and shop from their favorite stores they will have little need to venture outside Facebook. That doesn’t mean the Internet is going away, but the direction of Facebook has been to reduce the frequency for that quick hop over to Google (read: the Internet).

AOL pulled a coup by purchasing one of the most significant traditional news media companies, yet they were unable to keep the Internet at bay. Will Facebook be able reduce Internet traffic of its users to a trickle?  The push for data portability and open APIs presents both an obstacle and an opportunity for Facebook.

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My blog: she might be ugly but she’s got a great personality. And by personality, I mean technology set.

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You can’t fault them, really. Nearly every large company is paying “Web 2.0 consultants” to develop a strategy to profit off the captive audiences found on Facebook and other lesser social networking sites. Thus far, this has consisted of transparent attempts to persuade people to add commercials to their profile pages. A successful widget strategy must keep in mind that there are 27,977 Facebook applications as of the time of this writing. Guess how many of the top 100 applications are made by traditional product or service companies? Just one—two if you count Hot or Not as a traditional company. Do you?

A successful widget strategy must either provide value or entertain its users—or it will go nowhere. Product marketers and brand managers must put as much effort into one of these two areas as they do their self-serving interests such as determining how to increase the brand impact. (more…)

After a long hiatus I am going to get back into blogging on a regular basis. In the past I’ve blogged about a wide assortment of things which is why my old blog eklektos was named just that. Moving forward you can find personal posts on my facebook profile page. Bear with me as I find my blogging voice. It’s been awhile since I’ve written on a regular basis.