Month: July 2013

New Top Level Domain Names Could Render Facebook Pointless

The social media giant “Facebook” has for the first time in history lost users to other social media channels according to Ryan Holmes – CEO of HootSuite.

This article reflects what I have seen coming for many years. Why should it be any different to any other empire? All good things must come to an end.

With the creation of new branded top level domains due to begin the approval process in the last quarter of 2013, Facebook is set to be attacked by brands looking to communicate better with their customers using social media. Ferrari, Tiffany, NFL, ANZ and about 900 other brands can carry a pretty big stick.

Soon customers of these trademarks could be offered a personalised domain name to coincide with their new personalised branded web presence.

This transformation means that brands will be able to provide social media platforms with which to communicate (without restriction, without Facebook) to their customer base. While I don’t believe that this will be the end of Facebook, it is clear that Facebook is already being pressured by existing social media competitors. So imagine what it will look like when these powerful global companies start to flex their social muscle by taking it to a whole NEW TOP LEVEL of competitor.

These brands took the leap of faith and invested up to around $500,000 just for the privilege to run their own slice of the Internet. Therefore they are not going to be wasting this opportunity to create added value to their brand where their competitors can’t without a fight. There is just too much invested, to much at stake, too many heads that might roll, too much on the line for something that is little more than a naming convention.

However what that naming convention means is what counts. Global brands are looking for profit increases of as little as 1% in order to generate millions of dollars of new revenue. These new gTLDs provide that incubator for brands to be able to make that become a reality.

It is this drive that will make these new branded top level domain names successful and why Facebook needs to be very, VERY watchful. Many of these brands are wealthy and highly powerful and together they can make a big impact on Facebook’s social customer base. There is only so much time you can dedicate to being social on the Internet. So while brands currently HAVE to drive traffic to Facebook in order to do business, soon they won’t and that could be devastating. I certainly wouldn’t have shares in Facebook at the moment.

Perhaps Facebook not applying for their own gTLD will be their undoing. More likely (and something I would be prepared to put a wager on) Facebook will apply in the second round (if there is one) and suddenly the kid who was the “cool kid”, will now be the “new kid” on the block.

Here is the article from Ryan Holmes – CEO of HootSuite
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130709145114-2967511-global-social-media-networks-set-to-overtake-facebook

The Social Media Principles

Keeping up to date with all latest news and inner workings of social media is a part of my job that I really enjoy. I love learning new things and discovering how and why people interact with social media content, what works and what practices will get the best results.

I was reading about Jonah Berger’s new book Contagious: Why Things Catch On, which highlights six principles that make people share content, ideas or talk about products. Understanding why people share things is very important to social media marketers and businesses so they can make the most of their social media efforts and avoid wasting time. These ideas come back to a necessity that we have pointed out in previous blog posts, which is, use the right bait for the right fish. That is, know your audience and use the right message to reach that audience.

Keeping Berger’s six identified principles in mind when creating content or campaigns for social media will certainly help in the success of those endeavors. Obviously, most things you post will not become a viral success like Psy’s Gangnam Style, but can still be shared and interacted with by many.

Watch our latest video to learn more about these six principles and how you can apply them.

Why you NEED to understand Edge Rank

As Facebook is the ‘go-to’ social network for many businesses, it is important to understand how the site works so that you can get the most out of it.

Understanding EdgeRank

Facebook’s News Feed is organised by an algorithm that determines which stories will show up in your newsfeed. To ensure the newsfeed is not completely overwhelming for users (imagine seeing every one of your friends’ activities in your newsfeed!) Facebook uses the algorithm to determine which stories will be of most interest to you and cuts out what it perceives to be junk.

Why should I care?

Because your fans won’t see your updates if they aren’t engaging and interesting! Facebook ranks stories by their score, which is determined in three parts:

Weight
Affinity
Time Decay

A story (or, edge) is given Weight with comments, shares and likes. Generally comments and shares are worth more than likes. Certain content, such as photos and videos can hold more weight and thus be more visible in the newsfeed, but it depends on the type of interaction the story receives. A text post with lots of comments and likes will rank higher than a video with no comments. The lesson here is to try and make each post engaging so it can show up in your fans’ newsfeeds and spread virally to the fan’s friends’ newsfeeds.

Affinity is a one-way relationship between users which rates how ‘connected’ you are. If you post on a friend’s wall and have lots of mutual friends, etc. Facebook will assume you want to see more of that person’s posts. As it’s a one-way score, that person won’t necessarily see all your posts unless they frequently interact with you also. It is important to note that affinity scores can wane due to inactivity, so keep your fans coming back to your page!

Time Decay is pretty self-explanatory. As a story gets older, it’s score drops because it’s less relevant than something posted two minutes ago. EdgeRank is a running score and your post in competing against all the other updates for that moment in time.

As you can see, it is important to understand how Facebook’s News Feed works to make the most of your social media activity and avoid wasting time. As this can be tricky to grasp or keep up with Facebook’s constant changes, please give us a call if you need any help. You have the option to outsource your social media management or receive consultation to get you on the right track.