I Like Facebook Real-Time Ads

Facebook owns You. Or if they don't already they will in the future. They're like this quiet mega giant swallowing us all without us even noticing it.



A friend of mine was "hanging out" with another friend yesterday and all of a sudden they realized they were sitting there with their two laptops not even talking to eachother. Instead commenting on eachothers pictures and status updates on Facebook.



Targeted advertising has never been so specific as now, but it will be MUCH more targeted in the future.
Imagine you're walking down the street and updating your FB status to "In the mood for a pizza" and you immediately get an ad saying that less than 2 minutes away there is a Domino's.
Or being at the post office waiting in line, putting "Never gonna go to the post office again, waiting in line forever" and you get an ad recommending you a new pick-up-mail service at home.
Or having waited 3 months for internet installation from http://www.orange.es and being so fed up that you post "Fed up with Orange, need internet NOW" and you see an ad of another internet company offering you 20mb within one week.
Real time ad targeting. The possibilities are endless.
Check this site to see a bit of what's possible already. Notice that you will see your friends on top since the algorithm takes care of that. RELEVANCY.
http://likebutton.com

Some facts:


Facebook.com is the most popular website in U.S. history, by total usage.


Facebook is now bigger than Google in terms of total audience


The average user spends 15 or more hours per month on Facebook.


Facebook is now the largest seller of display advertising in the U.S. generating a staggering 770 billion page view per month.

Successful concepts and services that other companies do, Facebook already does or will do shortly after it's been introduced.

Facebook Events (evite)

Facebook Causes (various)

Facebook Places (foursquare)

Facebook Deals (groupon)

Facebook Credits (paypal)

Facebook Messages (email)

Facebook Mobile

…and the soon to be announced Facebook phone (iphone)

I had a discussion with a friend about this subject the other day. Maybe you've seen the invitations from people all over Facebook telling you to change your news feed settings so that you see ALL your friends instead of only "the friends you interact with the most". Some people were so angry when they realized this default setting. I was not. I totally prefer 10 times to see a smaller portion of the friends I'm actually interested in seeing. Yes, you're right, maybe I should "unfriend" the people I have no interest in but hey, once in a while I check their stuff too and in this sense I have a bit of Facebook-conflict-fear. "You unfriend ME, WHY?!" "Um..well I just didnt wanna see your updates every day".

The point here is I like to see a selection that fits me. I like for someone, Facebook or whoever to facilitate the ads that fit me the best.

Yes Facebook gets a TON of information of me, and YES Facebook owns my pictures for 25 years. SO WHAT?! What are they possibly gonna do with my pictures? Sell them? No. Use them in a porno magazine? No.
If they can make my life easier by offering me a place to fix my bike and maybe even with a discount JUST after I update my status "My bike just broke" I'm ALL for it.

It's almost impossible to NOT see ads in todays world. Now, if I'm gonna see ads them please target me with ads relevant to me.

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How to use different tactics on Facebook, Twitter and on your blog

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60 billion photos on Facebook

OK so to go back to my post a week ago about Flickr:


Now this tells me I can go ahead and skip Flickr for a while...
Facebook houses about 60 billion photos compared to Photobucket’s 8 billion, Picasa’s 7 billion and Flickr’s 5 billion. 

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Twitter ranks low on Brand Value

So I wrote a previous post about What Makes Me Click. Today i thought of What Makes Me Follow?

Its about Twitter now for you who didnt "follow" that one (yes I´m wearing the funny mask today)

Someone once told me "Twitter is like CNN says, Be The First To Know".
As a user I care about live updates on the spot, where it happens, where I would love to be but can´t be for some reason. An event on the other side of the planet, a concert that I was suppose to go to but couldn't go to cus I got stuck in bed with the flu, the mobile congress in barcelona that I would have loved to go to is I was a millionaire... Those type of things ya know...

This article shows that Twitter doesnt rank so high on security and brand value:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=144422

I have NO clue what the heck Myspace is even doing on the top 50 list but oh well...


Top Social Networking Sites Ranked By Brand Loyalty
1 Facebook
2 MySpace
3 LinkedIn
4 Flickr
5 TwitterTweet

What Makes Me Click?

This thing about privacy and to spend all your time on Facebook. To get so addicted until the point where you live your life on there, you may be crossing the limit.

People who post more than 3 updates per day I punish with the "hide-button". I simply dont see any updates from some people who used to take up all the newsfeed all the time. 

Same thing with people complaining about not having enough time in their lifes, quit facebook-ing while working then. 

Another thing that turns me totally off is when people take polls or play games and post their scores. "I just got 455 points while playing the Bananagame" Do I really care? Whopps Shoops you´re gone from my newsfeed too.

Another danger could be to get too personal, write things that upset people. Found these two examples below. Seriously though that woman running down her cousin should take a chill-pill.

What turns me ON then? What makes me interested, what makes me CLICK?

Vacation photo albums, we like that. 

Funny updates of people making fun of themselves, "I feel ugly today. At the bus, next to 30 kids, do someone notice if I fart right now?" made me laugh the other day. Or "Best way to destroy your self esteem, having the period and going to a step class with 17 year olds. I feel fat and slow" These small everyday funny posts rank highly in my book, those get my Like. Important news or links is also a safe card.

Brands they need to start offering me something, SOON. Not just hey we are Zara and here is our latest collection.I want value, ADDED value. Check in get a discount. Share this to 3 people and you will get a free download. Vote on the best shoes and one person will go to Australia to play with dolphins. Those things get my attention.

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Facebook Advertising

Are fans worth $1.07 each for brands? Why has the price gone up? What does it really mean to gain fans for your business? 
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Planning a contest on Facebook?

Sorry its a NO-GO.
If you work with social media you probably already know this but SO many people do not seem to know this. 
"Lets set up a contest, a photo voting contest on our wall and its FREE?! Yay! 


NOT Yay people. Illegal.


One or two years ago Facebook dramatically changed the rules. No more using their platforms and having angry customers claiming their Bananahat or free download from them. Enough is enough.


The promotion guidelines are a bit tricky to understand since obviously a lawyer wrote them on FB´s Help page. So, lets try to clear this out once and for all shall we?

Facebook requires you to run your promotion via a third party application, usually on a Page tab. (WildfireApp or FanzApp being 2 of them)

This, along with clear verbiage about Facebook’s non-involvement in the promotion, allows Facebook to avoid any liabilities associated with an unhappy Fan who never got their free download (for example).

Linking off-site to a promotion on your company website or third party site does not require Facebook approval (here is when the microsite could become useful!). 

Facebook requires you to complete the checklist tasks below, prior to promotion launch:

• Designate an individual to act as a primary contact to address any communications from Facebook with respect to the promotion

• Include the following provisions within your official promotion rules: Acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

• Complete release for Facebook from each entrant or participant.Any questions, comments or complaints regarding the promotion will be directed to you, not Facebook.

YOU MAY NOT:

•Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as making a post on a profile or Page, status comment, like, or photo/video upload. This means all contests similar to “First 50 people to comment on our status will be entered to win a free pickle” are a no-go.

• Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a Fan of your Page. 

• Notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages. This means you need to use email or SMS to communicate with a promotion winner. Notifying the winner via Facebook comments, messages, updates, or wall posts is prohibited.

• Instruct people (in the rules or elsewhere) to sign up for a Facebook account before they enter the promotion. 

• Market to individuals who are under the age of 18.

• Market to individuals who reside in a country

• If a sweepstakes, cannot be open to individuals residing in Belgium, Norway, Sweden, or India. Cannot promote any of the following product categories: gambling, tobacco, firearms, prescription drugs, or gasoline.

There are more rules and things to understand people so read up well on this before you start your Promo campaigns!

Read more here!

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Facebook Facebook and Patatas Bravas

How many hours do YOU spend on Facebook? Personally I must be close to 5-6 per day now. Considering I work with the platforms on a daily basis it may not be strange and it most certainly does NOT say I DONT work, more the opposite.

Now they´re talking about a voice-chat in FB. Like having Skype inside the profile. And the Facebook currency system, "Buy with friends" soon we are never going to leave this platform. Our lives spin around it, we communicate through it, we find information through it, we get married through it, we break up through it, we laugh we cry we stay up to date with where the hell the world is spinning through it.

But what about in a country where the physical meeting part of a relationship still is very important? Where an email almost doesn't count as contacting someone, you have to call, twice, to have something done.


I am not criticizing Spain, I love it!
I love how we spend time together, outside, with a glass of wine, having sun almost every day of the year, enjoying the core pleasures in life.
I love how I can cancel a meeting last minute if I don't feel like going (even though I am still not doing this, I more like the THOUGHT that I possibly could :-).
I like that people don't take themselves too seriously like we do in the nordic countries. I love how there is no non-fat sour creame to find and their are only 2 choices of milk in terms of fat, half fat or full fat. I love the patatas bravas and the salsa that you enjoy with a cold beer...on a TUESDAY.

But where does this online revolution fit in in this society? My friends first reaction when Facebook rolled out their Places-feature was "THIS IS TERRIBLE! PEOPLE ARE GONNA KNOW WHERE I AM ALL THE TIME".
But today when I got a free coffee for checking in at Starbucks that same friend had to admit, it was preeetttty cool to get free stuff by pushing one single button.

I was surprised when I looked through a couple of apps in my phone to see who was on Viber and who had WhatsApp and realized half of them were Spanish (or Catalans, sorry :-)

So this makes me think people are going to move quickly here. Foursquare, Places, Gowalla and the rest are already pumping out locations, offers, badges everywhere here. The Mobile Congress is right here, the new generation of people here are going to adapt faster than ever to this.
We just need the old people to step down or hang out on the Costa Brava more and let us do what we do much better than they do.Tweet

A letter to Michael Rapino at LiveNation

Live Nation is a huge concert promoter. The worlds biggest actually with a reported revenue in 2007 of more than 4 billion dollars. They produce thousands and thousands of events every year all over the world and they are the home to artists such as U2 and Madonna.
Their base station is in glamorous Beverly Hills California but of course they have offices all over the world who act sometimes a bit independently if they happened to be bought up by the giant a few years ago, but they have been forced to report to the big boss in America now.
In countries such as Spain this meant they all of a sudden had to perform well not just in peoples eyes but on paper AND filing as correct as possible tax reports.


A year and a half ago I had an interesting experience with this company. 
I was contracted to do what I do best and what I´ve always done best. Make buzz, create a social media strategy, reach out to new ambassadors and ultimately increase the appearance online. 
This was in Spain ladies and gentlemen, not in Beverly Hills but me being just a bit naive thought that these things would be interesting for the former GAMERCO who had recently turned into "Live Nation".


After 2 weeks I noticed that this wasn't interesting for them at all. Probably they liked saying "we have someone who knows social media" but I wasn't given even 5 minutes per day to do any of these things. I think another reason they hired me was because my boss didn't speak a word of english and every time someone called from another country I had to translate while he was on the speakerphone. 


Now I´m not going to tell you the details of this disgraceful workplace (I hope that word is enough for you to know it wasn't all that cool even though I was backstage with Elton John and Depeche Mode), but needless to say I stayed 2 months and left the company, pretty disappointed.


So I made them a new, better and magical freelance offer, with a 40% lower price than I usually charge just because I really wanted to create something good for them and be able to have them as a reference. 
"Nana carinyo, we will do it ourselves, we will put an intern on it, or someone already overloaded with work who can do this on their free time" was more or less their answer.


What a big misstake. How sorry I felt for these uneducated ignorant people.
But I got over it and 6 months later I gave them some examples of other jobs I had done, I showed them new jaw dropping statistics of peoples behavior online, and offered them to at least consult the intern so they could improve their crappy FB page at least a bit.
No answer.


The company now after 1,5 year has 1300 fans on their FB page. Whohey!
Live Nation America has over 300.000 fans. Live Nation Sweden have a few people exclusively dedicated for this in specific. But Spain, Gamerco? Naaa, they do their thing. As they have always done.
Michael Rapino, CEO of the company. (If you´re still there that is)
You know these things are important, how could the spanish company not spend even 0,1 percent of their budget on Online Business/Marketing and Promo? It still amazes me and it just can not understand it.

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Flickr, who the hell uses that?

I was asked the other day for a work projects if we should include Flickr in our strategy.
My first thought was "Flickr, is that still around?" next thought was "I hardly know how to work with Flickr cus its just so not for me" but then I had a long thought about it. Do I know ANYONE who uses Flickr? No. Oh sorry, I know 1 person who´s a pro photographer and uses it but the mainstreem Facebook addicts out there dont really see the need do we?
With all my photo apps in the phone I´m satisfied and if I wanna share something I do it where everybody is, on Facebook.
After having read two articles about it, one of them being from the New York Times I was convinced.


“Traffic is shrinking. Unique visitors to Flickr in the United States fell 16 percent, to 21.3 million, in December compared with a year earlier, according to comscore. 
Meanwhile, for that same time frame, use of Facebook’s photo features grew 92 percent, to 123.9 million users”


Click here to read the article


I remember I tried to get into the whole Flickr thing a while back but it was just complicated and boring, create a group what? Add to that ZERO people to share my stuff with so I dumped it.


Facebook gives me all I need. I have it in the background all the time, "People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook" (from Facebook statistics page)


Better to well on a few and important platforms than be everywhere in my opinion.

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