(My view: The latest move by team facebook is to offer business users more intuitive and redeeming feel to the facebook page. This is another way to counter the Google + syndrome slowly picking up...the argument I had already posted sometime back )
SOURCE : AdAge Digital
Facebook today unveiled a major redesign to its profile
pages called Timeline, which transforms the list of status messages and
comments into a scrapbook of a user's entire history on the platform. Even
though this transforms the entire aesthetic and function of profile pages, this
doesn't apply to brands and their pages.
While the updates revealed at Facebook's F8 conference add a
suite of new tools for users to express what they are interested in -- like
music, recipes, TV shows and news -- there's little detail on what brand pages
will look like going forward. What we do know is that they won't look exactly
like Timeline, but, according to Facebook VP-Global Marketing Solutions David
Fischer, will be "consistent" with the Timeline look-and-feel, which
is picture-heavy and curated to highlight only the most important events in a
user's life.
The new Timeline pages let users feature any content --
check-ins, photos or other updates -- in longer-view reverse chronological
order. So instead of the status updates and likes from the last week or month
of activity, a user profile page can look like a summary of his or her entire
existence on the social network.
"It suddenly gives [users] the opportunity to share
what business you're in, the products you're using or buying and sharing that
with your friends," said Mr. Fischer.
Users can also tack applications from media companies and
developers on their timelines. For example, with the Nike Plus app, users can
publish the runs and distances recorded on its mobile app straight to Facebook
pages. Media behavior can also be stored there with top-viewed movies or TV
shows or favorite songs or albums gleaned from apps from Hulu, Netflix or
Spotify respectively.
So what's the opportunity for marketers?
The most immediate implications are for entertainment
marketers. Now that users can share what they are listening to, watching or
reading on Facebook through media partner applications, marketers can grab
those mentions and give them wider distribution through sponsored stories. So
far, marketers have only been able to take users' check-ins or status updates
about their brands and distribute them to a wider Facebook audience. Sony
Pictures for the upcoming movie "Moneyball" plans to promote when
users watch the trailer; the band Coldplay will promote when users are
listening to its music.
"Marketers want to promote stories about the things
they're affiliated with but don't always own the apps," said Gokul
Rajaram, Facebook Ads director of product management, referring to apps from
services such as Spotify, Netflix or Hulu that allow users to share what
content they're consuming. "Now you can promote stories from any app about
objects you own, not just from the page owned by the marketer."
But for Facebook, which eMarketer predicts will clear $3.8
billion from advertising this year, will all these changes add up to more
revenue? "Anything that increases engagement on Facebook, and captures
more user data, will drive up ad revenues," said Hussein Fazal, CEO of Ad
Parlor. "The announcements today definitely hit both of these key
points."
This also opens up a whole new way to target. What users are
listening to, watching or reading now will become a filter to serve ads
against. For now, this new way to target ads will only be available through
Facebook Ads' API and its direct sales team.
Posts
