Facebook Linking to "Find More Pages" As Part of Sponsored Like Stories

Interesting move by Facebook here. Basic Feed post about a user liking a fan page... in this example, Labatt Blue US. It is a "Sponsored" post (as you can tell in the bottom right after the timestamp).

But there is also now a "Find More Pages" link. When clicked, it takes users to a page full of other brands / pages that can be liked with a single click. Think of it has Pinterest for fanpages.

Obviously the implication here is: can Facebook drive secondary likes beyond the ad unit? Can they charge for that? And does this Find More Pages concept (which launched a year and half ago) be a more meaningful finding / search experience?

Facebook's Bud Light Ad Unit: A Mini Fan Page

Almost exactly two years ago, Facebook introduced a series of new ad units around gifting, polling, liking, etc. Two years later, here is a view of the new Facebook Bud Light campaign - which is an expanded unit and includes several social functions.... think of it as a miniaturized fan page: the unit contains / enables all of the core functionality a page does. The single sponsored unit contains: - Your friends who like the the page - A link to the advertiser's page - Related posts - A link to the advertiser's album - A larger-than-normal photo from the album - Expandable likes and comments - A like button - Ability to comment in-line

Facebook Continues to Improve Comments: Links, Images Now Included

It wasn't long ago that Facebook rolled out their commenting system to off-Facebook publishers. They then enabled @ tagging within Facebook comments. And now it appears that they are enabling more robust content creation / sharing (ala the normal "status" update box). Here is an example where I commented with a URL and it expanded it into a full "link" treatment: image, summary, hyperlink, etc. You can also see that I referenced a Facebook page using the @ sign and it auto-linked it:

Of course, if you're interested in seeing the page I was linking to - it's SpoonFashion.com!

Amex + Facebook Likes + Social Graph

This is powerful. And it happens to showcase my favorite brand, Dunkin Donuts... so of course I had to share it:

From American Express:

"You and your friends like and share many things on Facebook. Now, American Express has deals and experiences for you based on those likes and interests. And once you sign up and choose your deals, all you have to do is use your American Express® Card and statement credits will be sent directly to your Card account.

No coupons. No hassles. Just a credit on your statement, and savings in your pocket."

Facebook Deals Continues to Get Interesting.

I have written a fair amount about Facebook Deals and why it is interesting & worth keeping an eye on.... and it's timely as Groupon nears its IPO and Google & Amazon begin to enter the space more aggressively. On a side note: I continue to believe that Google be a leader in the space. Android + NFC + merchant / buyer market share give them several leverage points. Facebook Deals is clearly a work in progress - and it's not clear what kind of priority it is internally. However, there are signs that it could be interesting and powerful. Here is yet another reason to believe so:

1. I received the following deal via email. Remember that deals are all about email... and Facebook has the largest, most engaged email list on the web.

2. The deal directs me to the merchant's Facebook Page. This is really important. I am not being directed to Facebook.com/deals.... in fact, there is no link to get there. The integration between Pages & Deals takes advantage of:

A. the vast collection of merchants already on Facebook

B. further extends the importance of operating a Facebook Page

C. further extends the importance of driving Fans and rewarding engagement

D. connects Deals to Facebook Ads. Advertising on Facebook is more effective when it keeps users ON Facebook. This is yet another model for advertisers & merchants to make conversions work on Facebook.

ESPN Experiments with Facebook Ads for SportsNation.

Between on-air promotion and daily feed interactions, ESPN is aggressively ramping their Facebook usage (perhaps they are watching the NBA's success?). As an example, hit ESPN2 show SportsNation is quickly approaching 750,000 fans (was 600,000 April 1st). In fact, they are now advertising for the page:

It is unclear how much growth is from the campaign - but it is interesting because the page itself is not directly monetized. Clearly this is an opportunity to ESPN to understand:

- the relationship between on & off-air consumption - the ability to incorporate social activity in live airings - the beginning values of online, off-ESPN.com users

And perhaps it is something bigger: the roll-out of deeper social integrations on ESPN.com.

Bud Light Cleverly Runs Promotion on Facebook Page.

Brands have used all sorts of mechanisms and promotions to drive social activity (see Redbox example)... and Facebook's new page layout has complicated that. Here is Bud Light's approach: 1. Drive Like's

Bud Light is running a $10,000,000 promotion... and the only way to access and enter the page is to Like the Facebook page. Once you like the page, the promotion is no longer grayed out and it is accessible. Of course, to get access - you need to become a fan.

2. Improve Page Navigation / Findability

One of the complications for brands on Facebook is that users generally do not move across the page's various 'tabs' (formerlly were laid out more prominently across the top - now they are buried horizontally beneath the page logo). Bud Light defaults to landing visitors on the wall (my strong recommendation!) and, to drive awareness of their promotion has done something interesting: promote the "Best Round Ever" tab with prominent arrows in the logo.

#1 is probably more effective... but #2 is a clever, free way to drive awareness. Ultimately, the most effective action is to cleverly promote via the newsfeed (great, engaging content).

Much to Learn from the NBA's Facebook Fan Page

When asked who does the best job of managing their Facebook page and community, I recommend looking at two pages:- for e-commerce: ShoeDazzle (and yes, it's a Polaris company) - for media and big brand: the NBA The NBA does a fantastic job of updating the page daily and engaging fans with questions, polls, and timely / unique content (such as the "5 Best Plays of the Day").

Here is a good, simple example that takes advantage of the NBA's Facebook community and their daily interactions: the NBA updates its Facebook profile picture to reflect that day's televised games. They do this each and every day. In fact, if you visit the NBA's profile picture page, you can scroll endlessly through previous profile pictures.

Nike Golf's Facebook Contest Promotes the Masters & their new 20XI Golf Balls

In time for the PGA Masters, Nike ran a daily Facebook promotion for their 20XI golf balls. Nike Golf's 450,000 Facebook fans could win one of 25 sleeves of their exclusive Masters edition 20XI golf balls. The first 25 fans to click through Nike's newsfeed post won. I am not writing this to gloat of my winnings (though I am excited), but rather because the contest was done quite well for a few reasons:

1. Nike has run several Facebook promotions aimed at driving immediate engagement around surprise newsfeed activity. Nike Basketball has a promotion around Kobe Bryant where exclusive content is uploaded at 'random' times to Facebook ("the Black Mamba can strike at any time")

2. Not only is the promotion time sensitive, it is timely: doing this around the Masters is relevant, fun and impactful (as it's the most watched golfing event each year).

3. It is actually viral. See the step-by-step example below.

So here's how it worked:

Nike posts to their newsfeed. Time is of the essence: within five minutes, ~50 people have liked the post... but only 25 sleeves of balls are being given away:

I somehow got there fast enough to win the sleeve:

And the 'transaction' occurs entirely on the Facebook fan page. So I've never left Nike Golf:

Once you complete the 'order', you are prompted to share on Facebook:

The feed post describes the balls rather than the promotion (I would probably have changed that to encourage discussion / awareness among friends):

And within seconds of my feed post - 42 seconds to be exact - friends noticed and liked Nike Golf.

Low cost, easy and fun way for Nike to engage fans and drive greater awareness.