cyberbuzz | Buzz Bishop's technology and wired culture blog.

Facebook’s Timeline Pages For Media Brands

March 2nd, 2012 in facebook / media insight

Facebook Pages for brands are now upgradable to the new Facebook Timeline layout. You have the month of March to test and tweak, the layout will be pushed out to all on March 31.

So what do you need to know?

CONTENT IS KING

Most importantly, as a brand, you should know your actual page doesn’t really matter. Most Facebook users live in their newsfeed. They share, comment, consume and interact with content on their own individual news stream. While the layout of Facebook brand pages is changing, the way the content is consumed by the user isn’t. The stream remains the same.

A recent issue of Marketing Magazine was dedicated to Facebook and has page after page of great context including this from a TNS study that reported this attitude from half of respondents: “social networks are a place where I don’t want to be bothered by companies/organizations.”

In Canada there are 18M Facebook accounts. 12M of those people will access Facebook on any given day. There are 6M people that don’t want to hear from brands – only 4M have even bothered to like a brand. Yet, 44% concede that social media is a good place to hear about brands and when a friend talks about a brand, 81% see it as valuable.

When someone does breaks out and gives you a “like”, it’s a piece of gold. They are your P1, they have given you the ultimate gift of permission marketing, don’t treat it lightly.

The key for your brand needs to still be pushing out interactive, captivating, engaging content that will harness the attention of your audience. The more your audience interacts with your brand’s content, the higher your EdgeRank becomes and the more likely they are to see more of your content show up in their news feed.

So, regardless of the pages of advice you will see on how to manage the new Facebook Pages for Brands the key is: create content people care about and want to see.

BIG CHANGE, NO SPLASH

facebook call to action splash page If your content is on point, then you can start worrying about your layout. The biggest takeaway by Facebook with this Timeline layout is the disappearance of the splash page.

Many sites would default a big graphic for their landing page that would encourage people to like the brand (like Heinz at the right). You can’t do that anymore. Now, when someone lands on your page they will see your page, that’s it. Whether they like your page or not, you can’t push people to action, you have to earn it.

Facebook has strict rules for what your banner image can’t include:

– Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”

– Contact information such as web address, email mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section.

– References to use interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features.

- Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

There are still many different things you could use as a header. City skylines, logos, secondary marks, collages, here are some tools you can use to create brand headers. I used my 851×315 pixel header to convey the different messages my brand conveys online.

Facebook is in the business of advertising, if you want to motivate people to like your page with a call to action, you’ll need to buy some of those ads that run down the right hand side to do it, or pin a promo to the top of your feed.

PINNING COMES TO FACEBOOK

Pinning isn’t just a buzz word for Pinterest, if you want to announce big promotions, urge people to like your brand page or force a call to action, you can do it by pinning a post to the top of your feed.

Running a big contest? Have a huge announcement? Breaking some important news? THIS is where you put that piece of information (not in the banner image). You can pin content to the top of the timeline for up to 7 days and you can even stretch it out across the full width of your page for better visibility.

ITS ALL ABOUT THE BOXES

The apps that used to run down the left side of your page, now get more focus as boxes below the main header. You can arrange the order the boxes appear, but photos will always remain in first position.

These boxes are great places for your videos, your Twitter stream, specific homes you’d like to have for contests, personnel profiles etc.

The new layout of the Facebook page is really making it much more like a traditional website (oh, is Zuckerberg trying to make the old web obsolete?) and you can pour as much or as little effort and information into it as you want. Brands like the New York Times and Manchester United are using the timeline to tell complete stories of their brands’ history.

You might want to be careful about how much you invest into apps. Facebook has removed the splash page app as part of their mobile initiative. Instead of having apps nested within the Facebook framework, they’re moving to a more streamlined approach. Apps still exist – for now, but with the move to mobile you should be careful how much you invest in them at this time.

Mashable came up with a great overview of the topics discussed:

Here are some of the articles I’ve been reading this week on the changes to Facebook Pages for Brands:

Inside Facebook: Timeline for Facebook Pages Complete Overview
Mashable: Facebook Timeline Pages Cover Photos
Edelman Digital: Facebook Gives Brands A Story To Tell
Ragan: What PR Pros Need To Know About Facebook Timeline For Brands
All Facebook: Facebook Timeline For Pages Is Here, With Pinning
All Facebook: How We Upgraded Our Own Facebook Page To Timeline
Mashable: Facebook Timeline for Pages: Which Brands Will Win and Lose?
Mashable: Why Facebook Timeline Will Be Huge For Brands
Mashable: Timeline For Brands: How To Prepare Your Company’s New Facebook Page
Mashable: Facebook Marketing: Why News Feed Still Trumps Timeline Pages
All Facebook: Facebook Timeline Features You Haven’t Heard About Yet
Mashable: Facebook Timeline: The Complete Guide
Kruse Kontrol: Warning: Facebook’s Massive Changes Mean You Must Engage
All Facebook: How To Run Promotions On Facebook Timeline
Vectorash: Facebook Timeline Brand Pages

Can You Manage Instant Success?

February 26th, 2012 in media insight

4 Comments »

alanis and buzz bishop

ALANIS OR ELASTICA?

Back in the summer of 1995, Alanis Morissette arrived at Vancouver radio station Z95.3FM for an interview. However, just as quickly as she had walked in the station door, Alanis walked out again to take a call from her management team.

A pregnant Sinead O’Connor had just pulled out of Lollapalooza and they wanted Morrissette to take her place for the summer. You Oughta Know was riding up the charts, and everyone wanted a piece.

She declined. It was too much, too soon.

Alanis (and her team), were trying to do the impossible – manage her growth. Keep it organic. Let things build slowly and naturally without overexposing her. They wanted her career’s balloon to fill at a natural pace, instead of instantly filling, and, ultimately, popping.

Turning down the big break worked, Jagged Little Pill sold 33 million copies, garnering Morissette 9 Grammy nominations and 5 wins. Elastica, the band that said yes to the Lollapalooza gig to replace O’Connor, were one-hit wonders.

PINWHEEL OR PINTEREST?

Now take that growth management lesson from Alanis Morissette and look at it in a tech context from Flickr co-founder, Caterina Fake, as she looks to build her next big thing, Pinwheel.

“My perspective is it takes a while to grow this stuff,” she said. “It takes time for the culture to grow. You need time to develop antibodies to spammers and trolls.”

Adding user registrations at such a fast pace doesn’t leave enough time for a dedicated, engaged user community to organically create itself and establish norms, Fake argued.

“Being an incumbent, you can get seduced on this,” she said, pointing at the steep line for Google+. “It’s like getting high on your own supply.”
[All Things Digital]

It’s easier for Fake to try to put the brakes on growth than it was for Morissette. Fake has hit her home run. She’s made her millions, and now she can conduct things on her own terms. Alanis, while having had success in Canada, had yet to be an international star when the world started to debate who her back-row theatre boyfriend was. Even though Alanis was being offered big things, she still had the confidence and foresight to turn down the volume.

Pinterest, the darling of the web du jour, is trying to do the same thing – manage growth at a time of instant popularity. Despite seeing meteoric membership growth, you still need an invite to get on board.

But in an age of instant celebrity, where the media shouts “SQUIRREL!“ at every sexy scoop they see, Pinterest is on the verge of overexposure.

Morrissette got to manage her fame in the very very early days of the internet. You have to wonder if she could have had the same restraint today. Warhol’s 15 minute clock seems to run double time in 2012. The time between obscurity, virality, and obsolesence feels like mere seconds.

In regards to Pinterest, there are already seminars, keynotes, and experts trying to help businesses monetize the model. The Calgary Herald touts it’s Pinterest page on the front of their website. Never has old media been so quick to a new media party, only underlining the potential of burnout.

ALEX BURROWS OR JEREMY LIN?

That overexposure is certainly going to happen to Jeremy Lin too. The good story of a Harvard kid who gets his chance and runs with it has nowhere to go but down. He won his first 9 games as an NBA starter, often putting up huge numbers and hitting big shots.

His success hasn’t necessarily been instant (the Knicks are his 3rd NBA team), but it has been explosive. In a fishbowl town like NYC, one person can be made king very quickly. You have to wonder if Lin’s story would have been different if he could have cultivated an organic growth chart from the beginning of his career instead of opening a bottle of lightning in the Big Apple.

Alex Burrows of the Vancouver Canucks could lay claim to a similar story as Lin, but with a more stable growth path. There are very few players in the ECHL that ever get to see the inside of an NHL jersey, let alone a career lasting 500 games and counting, but Burrows did that.

Burrows started at the bottom and has had a measured rise to the top. He has put in time at each level of the game. He started playing short minutes as a grinder before catching his break on the top line on the top team in the league. His growth chart has been gradual, his spurts coming in measured intervals.

But because Jeremy Lin is in New York, he can’t slow the stardom. He can’t manage his growth. The NBA is a league of stars: you either are one, or you’re not.

Lin was cover boy on Sports Illustrated for back-to-back weeks, something only Michael Jordan and Dirk Nowitzki had done previously.

In the span of a month, Linsanity has been designated by the Global Language Monitor as an official word. Bennifer and Brangelina didnt even hit those heights.

The moral of this essay is quite simple: you can’t sprint through a marathon, you have to pace yourself.

Who would you rather be: Alanis Morissette or Elastica? Pinwheel or Pinterest? Burrows or Lin?

Facebook’s New Guidelines

February 17th, 2012 in facebook

No Comments →

Facebook‘s new content guide was leaked yesterday. That’s the guide they use to decide which photos and posts to censor and remove.

A few things they allow photos of are kissing and groping, animals killing each other in nature, and artwork showing nudity. But things like drunk people passed out with stuff written on them or people releasing bodily fluids will be censored.

Here are 10 highlights of what they will and won’t censor.

1.) Foreplay like kissing and groping will not be censored. Even, quote, “for same-sex individuals.” But actual sexual activity will be censored, obviously.

2.) Photos that show a side-by-side comparison between a person and an animal will be censored.

3.) Photoshopped images might be censored. If the Photoshopping portrays the person in a negative light, the photo will be removed. But if the Photoshopping portrays the person in a positive or neutral way, the photo can stay.

4.) Images of drunk or unconscious people with stuff drawn on their face will be censored. Which is a surprise, because I see these all the time.

5.) Graphic photos of dead animals will be censored. Unless the photos are in the context of food prep or, quote, “hunting as it occurs in nature,” like a lion eating a zebra or something.

6.) Works of art showing nudity will not be censored. But cartoon nudity will be removed.

7.) Adult love toys might be censored. If they’re in the context of sexual activity, they’re gone. If you’re just, like, holding a vibrating toy, you’re clear.

8.) Bodily fluids will not be censored. Vomit, snot, earwax, and anything in the toilet are all probably clear. But not if you post a photo of someone in the act of actually releasing bodily fluids.

9.) Photos of poaching endangered animals will be censored, and will be reported.

10.) And finally, photos of, quote, “blatant depiction of camel toes and moose knuckles” will be censored.

BBC Breaks News By Breaking Twitter

February 8th, 2012 in media insight / twitter

No Comments →

The BBC broke news this week when they said reporters are not allowed to break news via Twitter.

More than 2 years after the CBC declared an ‘online first’ mandate for their newsroom and after many other are flocking to the social networks to promote their stories, newscasts, and provide real-time updates to stories as they happen, the BBC is turning back the clock – sort of.

“When they have some breaking news, an exclusive or any kind of urgent update on a story, they must get written copy into our newsroom system as quickly as possible, so that it can be seen and shared by everyone – both the news desks which deploy our staff and resources (like TV trucks) as well as television, radio and online production teams.”
[BBC]

Really what the Beeb is trying to do is close the barn door before all the horses get out. In an era of daily death hoaxes and false leads, Twitter can quickly become a game of broken telephone.

The BBC is trying to bring a moment of sober second thought to the breaking news method. By alerting the news desk of a hot story, all channels can be on the same page and facts can be verified by the entire team. News can still be broken quickly, but it will be done – hopefully – without killing a man before he’s dead.

Last August, ESPN implemented a similar guideline preventing reporters from breaking news on Twitter. They also urged their reporters to think before they tweet or re-tweet.

Many called out that decision as a feeble attempt by the network to strangle new media with the traditions of the old.

Other news outlets are responding to the shifting technical tides of journalism as well. The UK’s Sky News and the Associated Press have each updated the rules of retweeting.

Sky News is banning journos from retweeting saying that when you retweet, you endorse the content of the tweet as factual. Without an editor to verify the information, Sky believes that accurate reporting is at risk.

So, to reiterate, don’t tweet when it is not a story to which you have been assigned or a beat which you work.

Where a story has been Tweeted by a Sky News journalist who is assigned to the story it is fine, desirable in fact, that it is retweeted by other Sky News staff.

Do not retweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter. Such information could be wrong and has not been through the Sky News editorial process”.
[The Drum]

The Associated Press is warning journalists against ‘naked retweets‘ saying that context must be added before blankly passing along the words of another.

TWITTER’S BEST PRACTICES FOR NEWSROOMS

While the traditional media is grappling with the new way of doing things and trying to rationalize old school ethics with new school breaking news, Twitter has tossed up an entire section on how newsrooms and journalists can use Twitter. There are best practices, strategies for search, tools, branding, display guidelines, tips for effective tweeting, and many more sections.

Twitter is doing it right, building a bridge between new and old:

We want to make our tools easier to use so you can focus on your job: finding sources, verifying facts, publishing stories, promoting your work and yourself—and doing all of it faster and faster all the time.

We know you come from different generations. Some are native to the pilcrow, others to the hashtag. You began your careers in different media: radio, print, broadcast, online and mobile. But you share a common bond: the desire to make a difference in the world, bringing reliable information to the communities you serve.

The question is: Will old media cross that bridge and listen to the natives who will guide them through the new media wilderness?

TV’s Strength Is The Second Screen

February 8th, 2012 in future shop tech blog / media insight

1 Comment »

TV numbers aren’t shrinking.

It counteracts conventional wisdom, that tv should have it’s revenue grow in an era of time shifting, PVRs, piracy and streaming. But it’s true.

To be fair, we’ve been able to time shift (with a VCR) since the 70s, even though the PVR makes it easier, 95% of television is still watched within 24hrs of the first broadcast.

#HASHTAG #THIS

The reason? Social. The second screen is driving television viewing. The little “bug” in the lower right corner of tv shows no longer is just for the logo of the broadcaster, hashtags are showing up to drive the backchannel conversation online. #glee, #thebachelor, #thevoice, and more are popping up during all the big shows.

The second screen, (phones, tablets, laptops), that people so often watch alongside the programs is turning television into must see / must chat tv. The hashtags are encouraging people to join the live back channel conversation about the program. Cat-calling outfits on The Bachelor, loving the music on Glee or cheering on contestants on The Voice or American Idol online is an integral part of the tv experience.

Where generations used to have “water cooler” chats about Seinfeld, Friends, Dynasty and others, the “water cooler” is now a second screen with a conversation involving millions.

By pushing the hashtags and encouraging the back channel, broadcasters have a legitimate defence against the PVR that would have people fast forwarding through commercials.

While you can engage in the hashtag conversation on social networks, some are creating specific apps to drive engagement.

ENTERTAINMENT APPS

CityTV’s Social Stream app is all things Bachelor with threaded conversations pushed out to twitter and facebook but gathered inside a smooth experience.

There is a great argument put forth that every network website and app should flip into “second screens” for each program. Gathering the conversation and creating hype and enthusiasm for the back channel will drive the front channel experience. Not only is there a chance to monetize the second screen, you’re driving numbers to the live experience of the first screen where the real gravy is made.

Into Now from Yahoo! is trying to do that sort of thing for the networks. It recognzes your program based on ambient audio in the room (think Shazam but for tv) and then links you in to all things social related to that program.

Get Glue is a similar app, where you “check in” as you would on FourSquare and can then track friends and the social web to see who is watching, listening and talking about entertainment. Bonus for Get Glue users are spanky little stickers you can collect.

SPORTS

It’s not just entertainment that is driving second screen engagement. Sports is something that is a MUST to watch live and all you have to do is witness the explosion of hashtags during the Super Bowl to realize that the conversation can continue after a commercial is over.

In fact, in some cases the #hashtag replaced last year’s Facebook page address, but the good old corporate dot com had a big return.

Feels like hashtags are jumping the shark. #jumpingtheshark

— jimmy fallon (@jimmyfallon) February 5, 2012

An entire Social Media Command Center was created for the game in Indianapolis. More than 40 people were in the center monitoring the social networks to drive conversations, answer fan questions and raise the level of engagement.

In an ESPN interview with the Raidious CEO, Jackson stated “We saw a way Indianapolis could take things to next level in terms of how we use social media to deliver a great visitor experience. If they’re online talking about anything about this [Super Bowl experience], we’re able to determine that and respond to them.”

The second screen was effectively employed by those not even broadcasting the game. SportsNet tapped into the power of Fantasy Football by having fans sign up to pick rosters of players to compete against friends. The engagement was kicked up when fans were allowed to adjust their rosters each quarter based on performance. A live game, with real online engagement.

POLITICS

And it’s just getting started. There were more than 700 000 tweets during Obama‘s State of the Union address. GOP debates have been rabidly commented and hashtagged on Twitter. As the presidential campaign pushes forth through the rest of the year expect the conversation to heat up online and for broadcasters to try and own that conversation.

IT’S CALLED THE BACK CHANNEL FOR A REASON

There’s just one wish I have for this rise of the second screen – that it stay on the second screen. It’s great if broadcasters can create hubs for the conversation to be aggregated, but when they start reading tweets on air, they lose context.

The conversation is fast and flippant in the back channel. It’s a very valuable tool that can add humour, call bs and cheer on the program – but it shouldnt be part of the program.

I can sift through the tweets on my own, if I can just get them to slow down. (video is real time of the #thevoice hashtag after the Super Bowl)

25 Project Management Apps

February 8th, 2012 in press release

No Comments →

Project management software is used for scheduling projects, cost control, resource allocation, communication, quality management, and documentation.

Here are 25 contenders from Get App to help you GTD with the best project management app to suit your needs.

GetApp.com helps you review, compare and cvaluate small business software: the marketplace offers software, SaaS and Cloud Apps independent evaluations and reviews.

Via: www.getapp.com

The Growth of Digital Billboards

February 8th, 2012 in press release

No Comments →

Billboards are changing. When you’re stuck in traffic, you’re more likely to be faced with a digital billboard now than a staid image.

Digital billboards can quickly rotate messages, they’re flashy, catchy, and they’re catching on.

Here’s an infographic about the growth of digital signage and how it’s affecting the advertising landscape:

Via: Media Signage

Twitter Is More Important Than Facebook

February 2nd, 2012 in facebook / social media / twitter

No Comments →

If you could only live with one social network, which would you choose? Facebook? Twitter? Google+? LinkedIn? Pinterest?

Despite filing public offerings and having an estimated value of $100B, Facebook showed it is not the powerhouse it thinks it is this week.

Where did the conversation happen about the IPO? Where did the news break? Where were the links to comments and analysis?

Twitter.

How many of you saw detailed discussions of the happenings of the day on your Facebook wall? Not likely. My Facebook feed was clogged with pictures of battleshots and Super Bowl ad teases.

Twitter is a flowing river of news and no matter how “active” Facebook‘s news feed has been made to be in the past little while, it can’t keep up to the pace of Twitter.

I can follow hashtags to track conversations, I can breadcrumb conversations between influentials. I don’t know about you, but even though I can “subscribe” to different feeds on Facebook, I’ve done none of it. Facebook is a personal place where I go to talk about my kids, see what my sister is up to and converse with colleagues.

Twitter is where I go to get news and to interact and engage. It was no wonder that when the IPO was filed this started being passed around:

Without Twitter, where would we talk about the Facebook IPO?

— Chris Sacca (@sacca) February 1, 2012

It’s true. Even Bill Gates, engaging in a Facebook chat the day after the IPO news, took to Twitter to publicize the event.

Answering your questions live on Facebook, starting now. #askbillg b-gat.es/AtCrtq

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) February 2, 2012

Twitter is fluid. Facebook is static. I like my social news to move.

Film At Eleven

January 18th, 2012 in media insight

No Comments →

You know the stereotypical tag line when breaking news happened back in the day. The authoritative news anchor would come on and give some background and then end with “Film at 11″ to get you to watch the late local news.

That may have worked in an unplugged world, but in 2012 you can’t hook like that. Old media can’t bait the viewer to tune in later for information on breaking news, there are just too many sources for information.

Witness today’s breaking story of the Keystone XL pipeline being denied by the US government. Sue French, a CTV Calgary reporter, broke the news on twitter and tried to bait viewers for her newscast:

Keystone Xl pipeline denied. Official from US state department. More at 5.30 on CTV news

— CTVSueFrench (@CTVSueFrench) January 18, 2012

This is the classic ‘film at eleven’ hook. She teased with the headline and then asked viewers to come back for more information later. Two decades ago she would have received an A+ from her broadcasting school instructor and a pat on the back from her news director. In 2012 she failed her network miserably.

All this hook did was bait me to seek out information elsewhere. Why should I have to wait 4 hours to get the details? Within seconds of this tweet there were dozens of stories online including a full transcript from the company denied the pipeline.

A story posted to the website with details beyond a 140 character tweet would have been simple to craft. A couple of sentences with a tag on that story encouraging viewership at 5:30 would have sufficed.

By linking to your own website you keep the traffic internal. You bolster your brand as a source for breaking news and you keep the searches to your site. There’s no need for me to Google the breaking news.

Meanwhile, Shirlee Engel, a reporter with Global, used Twitter to blast out details as they became available.

Here is the State Dept release re: #Keystone XL 1.usa.gov/yYwz0j #cdnpoli

— Shirlee Engel (@ShirleeEngel) January 18, 2012

For Engel, Twitter became a reporting platform, not a place to blast out hooks for her broadcast.

News wants to be free and if you try to lock it up, you lose. Unless you have a locked and loaded exclusive story that nobody else has details on, you can’t use ‘film at eleven’ as a hook because the internet will tell me now.

A Path Around Facebook

January 16th, 2012 in social media

No Comments →

Already I have a Facebook page, and a Facebook profile. I’m on LinkedIn, and Google+. The one I use the most is my Twitter

I gave up on Foursquare (I’m just not the right demo). I have Instagram, but I’m not a social photo surfer, I prefer it for the photo taking than the sharing options. I have a Pinterest account, but don’t really spend much time there.

Google+ is creeping up in my use, but only because the long form content that people are posting there is reminiscent of the early days of Twitter.

If you’re into Twitter, you’ll notice many people have it synced with many of their other social network accounts. The overlap of content is starting to build into many many layers and now … there’s Path.

The social network that limits you to Dunbar’s Number of 150 friends is all the rage as people flock to this latest social network because of … social overload?

Yes, apparently, we’re sharing too much so we need a new social network so we can share less and keep tabs of it all.

I’ll load up Path and stick the icon in the “Social” folder on my iPhone, but I’ve already mentally put it in the same folder as Foursquare – the “delete” folder.

Here’s a hint: stick to Facebook and stop accepting friend requests from people you don’t really “know.”