360i Report on the Facebook F8 2011 Updates

Integrated Solutions. Measurable Results.

September 2011

360i Point of View on
Facebook s F8 2011 Updates
Overview
The Facebook F8 Developer Conference capped a busy week of updates and new feature releases
for the social networking giant. These changes have already begun to impact consumers and brand
marketers in different ways, with even bigger rolling out over the next several weeks.

Introduction

Images in this POV courtesy of Facebook

From a marketing perspective, there is no reason to panic. The new features officially introduced by
Facebook have the potential to increase the number of people who are exposed to and interact with your
brand, your products and your digital content. These updates present a number of opportunities for
brands and will reward those who adapt. Still, this will present a number of new hurdles for many
brands, and those are detailed further below.

The features that Facebook announced, described in detail in this POV, reinforce the notion that
engagement matters more than ever. Brands must continue to create and share relevant content,
experiences and applications on a regular basis. A core objective for marketers remains becoming a part
of consumers personal stories in a shareable way.

In addition to being a media outlet and an underlying utility to facilitate social communication and
sharing, Facebook is now positioning itself at the intersection of everything people do and the social
content they share. Understanding where and how brands fit into this changing landscape means first
understanding what is actually new or changing.

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©2011 360i LLC. All Rights Reserved


September 2011

What Facebook s New Features Mean for Marketers

Feature: Timeline

The Timeline view, replacing the old profile pages, allows users to aggregate and curate a page for all
actions taken on Facebook that matter to them. Users can create special events (e.g., a wedding, a
new job, getting a new pet) and associate various actions (e.g., posts, photos, videos) with that
milestone. People can even edit the history of their timeline, back to the time of their birth, to update
and celebrate moments from the past. Facebook applications can request permission for users to add
actions taken with that app to be included on the Timeline.

Why it matters: Social actions that matter most to users will appear on the Timeline. This will
invariably include lots of status updates and photos, and it won t include a lot of day-to-day actions,
such as liking a page or making a new virtual friend in a game (those latter actions will appear in the
Ticker; read more on that below).

Brands will want to find ways to generate actions that appear in the Timeline. Those actions will differ
for various kinds of fans and consumers. One important way is to create meaningful applications that
resonate with their users; such applications can gain prominence in the Timeline by connecting with
the Open Graph (read more below).




September 2011

Feature: Open Graph and Custom App Actions

Last year, Facebook introduced liking, allowing members to like any brand page, app, website, or
real world location. It was the year of the noun, as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted; users could
like any person, place, or thing. 2011 is the year of the verb. Instead of just liking something, people
can say they re reading, watching, or listening to something as a default action that can also be
included in the Timeline. Additionally, brands will be able to create custom actions such as cooking,
trying on, drinking, flying, or any other verb. All of these tap into Facebook s Open Graph, which
is what Facebook uses to connect all actions and pages around the web with social activities on
Facebook. Facebook made additional changes allowing users to give permission once for apps to post
content continually to the Ticker and Timeline.

Why it matters: Facebook users likely will love the flexibility of generating social actions connected
to what they share. Brands will play an important role, as these social actions will frequently be
generated by branded applications. The action won t just say, Todd ran, but rather, Todd ran 4.3
miles with Nike+. It won t just say, Iliana cooked, but Iliana cooked Beer Battered Fried Chicken
from the Acme Cookbook. All such actions will appear in the Ticker (read more below). Brands can
also request that its app users add the app s custom actions to the Timeline, giving the brand more
lasting real estate. The most successful brands will be able to generate a consistent stream of
repeated branded social actions on a large number of people s Timelines. Actions can also come from
mobile apps that connect with Facebook.




September 2011

Feature: News Feed Update and the Ticker

The most visible changes this week are the updates to the News Feed. The Facebook home page
user interface is now organized by top stories and no longer splits into Top News and Recent News
sections. Instead, Facebook populates users News Feeds with recent updates and "stories," featuring
Top Stories most prominently. If someone hasn t visited Facebook for a while, the first things he or
she will see in the News Feed are the most relevant posts since last visiting. People who check
Facebook more frequently will see the most recent stories at the top of News Feed.

To keep up with friends in real time, Facebook has also created a Twitter-like Ticker, which resides in
the top right portion of the screen and streams live updates (like photo tags, comments and Open
Graph actions) from one s network. Liking, commenting and participating in the conversation can be
done easily by clicking on one of the stories.

Why it Matters: A natural question is whether these updates will have a positive, negative or neutral
impact on brands Pages. Will Pages be able to reach their fans? It is probably too early to tell. We
need to analyze the data to assess whether the changes increase or reduce the visibility of Facebook
Page posts to fans. With more potential competition for real estate in the News Feed, brands should
concentrate on engaging content that drives higher feedback scores and impression rates.

Rich media content, like photos and videos, helps to naturally boost Edge Rank (Facebook s relevancy
algorithm) and is even more important considering another of Facebook s other minor changes an




September 2011

increase in the size of photos in the News Feed. Photos are more prominent and likely to catch a
user s attention. Status updates and wall posts that ask questions or solicit responses to open-ended
updates typically drive higher levels of engagement with users, which will be important to maintain in
order to secure a brand s place within the Top Stories.

The real-time nature of the Ticker also means brands should consider increasing the frequency of
messaging, monitor the results and optimize all of this accordingly.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

Smart Lists
Facebook now automatically creates relevant lists of people grouped
together by common connections and interests, such as all friends who went
to the same school or live in the same city. Unlike with Circles on Google+,
users will get notifications that they re on a list. When users access a list,
they see a News Feed of all actions from people on that list.

Why it matters: Brands can also be added to these lists, except the default
list of Close Friends. Brands can look for opportunities to encourage being
added to these lists. These lists are largely designed around people rather
than Pages though, and for users who often access Smart Lists, brand posts will be minimally visible.
We don t expect this to have a major impact though, as the vast majority of users will likely stick with
viewing the default homepage feed of all their friends updates.

Share Button

Pages now automatically include Share buttons on each post, so fans and even people who aren t
fans can share a post with their friends, in addition to liking or commenting on the post. Brands can
see how many people shared each post.

Why it matters: Brands can encourage users to share noteworthy posts. Additionally, shares are
counted toward page interactions. This is a very positive step for Pages, as it allows brands to take
into account additional forms of engagement with their content.




September 2011

Challenges and Considerations
· The new changes should generate a tremendous amount of additional content on Facebook.
That means brands will have an even harder time breaking through the clutter. Brands will
have to be even more strategic, creative, and relevant to their fans to stand out.

· Will brands have access to the data in people s Timelines? Facebook should clarify much brands
can know about other kinds of patterns that Facebook is tracking.

· How much interest will the Ticker drive? For some users, it may be so much information that
they ignore it. If it s polarizing, that can still be a positive scenario, as marketers will benefit if
there is at least some reasonable percentage of users checking it. The potential is underscored
by the recent comScore report that Facebook now attracts 90% of time spent on social
networks.

· Can brands and Pages create their own custom timelines? Wouldn t it be great to curate a
history of how consumers have interacted with your products? It s on our wish list.

· Mark Zuckerberg himself is heavily invested in making the Timeline work; he was practically
teary-eyed when announcing it. This doesn t mean it will appeal to users. The degree of the
Timeline s success will determine how much brands should focus on creating actions that
appear there.

Potential Action Items
There s no one-size-fits-all approach for what to do about these Facebook updates, but brands should
work with their strategists and community managers to consider the following actions:

· Determine whether posting to Facebook more often will generate more fan activity due to the
Ticker.

· Consider what kinds of apps can tap into the Open Graph and generate actions that appear in
the Timeline.

· For brands creating or updating apps, or for those focusing even more on growing their Page
audiences, consider to what extent paid media should be part of the promotional strategy.

· Consider whether partnerships with popular media and entertainment properties can further
generate brand exposure through Facebook, as these properties may benefit even more from
Facebook s default social actions read, watch and listen.

· Test and learn!




September 2011


Conclusion

Overall, the essential concept of what makes Facebook so powerful is the well-established network of
users already in place. Roughly half a billion people are using the site on a daily basis in some way or
another. Facebook is focused on the depth and quality of engagement through its site, and the
relationship that individual users have with one another.

Will any of this change the way brands use Facebook? Probably. But as long as you continue to do
things that spark interest and engagement, your brand will continue to get noticed. In reality, the
impact on brands will depend on how the 800 million registered Facebook members embrace these
changes.

Additionally, this will only make Twitter, Google+, and others even more motivated to adapt faster.
With Google+ rolling out brand pages within the coming month, brands will have ever-increasing
opportunities to connect with audiences through social media.

Next Steps
Contact your 360i strategic advisor to determine how to adjust your social marketing programs in light
of Facebook s latest changes.

About 360i
360i is an award-winning digital marketing agency that drives results for Fortune 500 marketers through insights, ideas
and technologies. 360i helps its clients think differently about their online presence and evolve their strategies to take
advantage of the new world of marketing communications one where brands and consumers engage in interactive
and multi-directional conversations. In 2010, Ad Age named 360i to its prestigious Agency A-List. Current clients
include Kraft Foods, JCPenney, Coca-Cola, NBC Universal and H&R Block, among others. For more information, please
visit blog.360i.com or follow us on Twitter @360i.



360i Report on the Facebook F8 2011 Updates

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