Facebook Updates

YouTube Steps Up Facebook Integration, Shows Shared Videos
Over the weekend, YouTube announced it's now allowing users to see what YouTube videos their friends are sharing on Facebook. When you log in on YouTube you can connect with Facebook and see Recent Activity of your friend's videos. YouTube's blog says that they plan to integrate more social networks with the site. When YouTube videos are shared on social networks, it happens at real-time.

Facebook Ad Model Is Friend to Small Firms

Facebook allows advertisers to target specific audiences based on the personal information that's shared collected from users' profiles. This was something that I had noticed, but never thought about before, advertisers can type in an age range, location, keywords, gender, etc. to reach their consumers, and the article even says: birthdays, geography, interests, education level and connections. I also was always curious about the price of advertising on Facebook. Facebook has different payment options: "pay per impression" is based on the number of times the ad is viewed by users; and "pay per click" is based on the number of times users click on the ad to visit the company's website. Advertisers set a daily budget, and Facebook removes the ad when the daily limit is reached.

Now it gets complicated. The cost of ads is based on similiar ads competing for page appearances in an automatic auction. Facebook ads have no set costs, but if you allot a high daily budget, then your ad will appear more frequently. IF the ad loses the auctions, and the daily budget is not reached, the leftover money will go towards tommorrow's budget (as Carmen Nobel compared to roll over cell phone minutes).

Ads are simple with just a photo and minimal text. The challenge is getting users to click on the ad; successful methods include funny ads, online scavenger hunts, and puppies.

Facebook to Change "Become a Fan" to "Like" on Fan Pages

Become a fan will soon become the more popular "like" button. Clickz reported that Facebook hasd sent confidential emails to ad agencies about the change to give them advance notice to change their advertising strategies and telling consumers to "find us on facebook" or "like us on facebook." The "like" button will be different than the current like button, and research has shown that people are more opt to like something than become a fan currently.

Social Media: 5 Rules, Facebook Tops Google, Effect on Olympics

• The 5 Basic Rules for Social Media was a blog post that was prompted by Nestle stating that it is interactive dialogue that could work well or fail. Nestle serves as a perfect example of what NOT to do and the debate is still not over.
• Because social media is always changing, some of the main things Facebook page administrators should do are:

1. update posts regularly and respond to fans' posts;
2. allow both positive and negative comments & respond timely to each (by allowing both you're establishing credibility & authenticity);
3. ask questions to get audience engaged;
4. post on other pages & profiles;
5. and include personal info to help fans understand you and your company.
   
   

• As of March 15, 2010, Facebook passed Google and became the most visited site in the US. Last week, out of all web visits, Facebook made up 7.07% while Google had 7.03% (Source) Although, this is only a slight margin, I believe that Facebook's user base is still expanding. Since September 15, 2007, Google has remained the top website. From this time last year, Facebook's total visits have increased 185%, but Google has only grown 9%.
• Another article stated Facebook may be the top visited website, but Facebook's revenues are estimated to be around $1 billion which is only one-third of Google's revenues (Source). Chris Dixon wrote that Google has a revenue made up of the perfect combination because people frequently visit the site, leave fast, and sometimes have intent to purchase something. While on the other hand, Facebook has a lot of visitors who socialize not purchase anything or click on ads. "Facebook is like a Starbucks where everyone hangs out for hours but almost never buys anything." I found this article interesting because most of the articles I come across just talk about the importance of social media, the expansion of social media, but not really about the Facebook corporation.
  
  
• Social Media Impacted the Olympics! NBC believes that social media is the reason more people tuned in this year to the Super Bowl, the Grammy’s and Winter Olympics (Source). Facebook fans could interact with one another on the Olympics fan page, congratulations to winners, and information about events were exchanged through social media outlets (YouTube, Twitter, and Blogs) The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics topped the 1996 Olympics as the most popular foreign winter games to watch because of social media's impact. In February, Facebook had surpassed more than 400 million members that month and Twitter had 50 million posts daily.

• I found another article examining Facebook's worth. Every month 400 million people visit the site; half visit daily. 48% of users check Facebook from their bed nightly (Source). Facebook's advertisements are growing because of virtual games gaining users and brands making Facebook pages. "Pay With Facebook" gives Facebook 30% of the virtual goods market on their site and could become a one-click payment option online. The site calculated Facebook's value around $35 billion through calculating its share price and the total estimation of fully diluted shares.
  
  
• IRWebReport published an article about a survey of influences on investors. Blogs and websites are the top influencers, but for those investors under 40, they are influenced by friends, family, and coworkers (Source). This indicates the importance of sharing info on social network to IR professionals.

Nestle is in a Crunch

Nestle's Facebook Fan Page is filled with ex-customers now boycotting the brand and voicing their opinions and alternative shopping lists. On Search.Twitter.com, I found a tweet "skidwell: a lesson 4 sure RT @mahumbaba: The Nestle PR problem gives Facebook "fans" a new meaning. They're not always friends" Which shows that using the social media outlet is good for fans in this sense, but not the company. Nestle buyers who weren't aware of the company's current issues were notified on their Facebook home page as long as they were "fans" of Nestle."

The IRWebReportBlog's author has a good point saying that the company could do a better job monitoring the Facebook fan page to fix their own company image and present all of the facts and changes for the future. Right now the fans are controlling the Facebook page, Nestle's administrators need to regain control of the information flow. And also, that if company's take this example as a reason to refrain from social media, we the consumers are the losers, not the company. I am interested to see Nestle's comeback to win back prior customers.

Green Peace's Website offers the Full Story. In my marketing class last semester we developed a new product for Kraft, the second largest food company, behind Nestle. The company's use of palm oil has doubled over the last 3 years. The company instead of establishing a green way of production is highly destructing the rainforest and its inhabitants. I know that I will stop buying Nestle and I will pass this news on to friends and family. On each website there are ways for the reader to contact the company, and different means of voicing their opinion on the issue, which only adds to the importance of these trending social media outlets.

Nestle removed the YouTube video by Green Peace and objectors voiced their opinions and reposted the video using Facebook and Twitter. Nestle once had negative buzz for marketing baby food to poor mothers, however social media causes information to spread quickly, and the whole Nestle fanbase is still spreading the word.

2 Weeks of Google Alerts

" Facebook has become an online

home to many people of all ages "(Source).

• On my Google Alerts, John Greenlaw's Blog came up with a post about the biggest challenge with IR and social media. (Source) After disclosing and posting information, it is available to billions of people. What is said about your company should be monitored and IR should build a positive image to promote their company. However, online freedom allows IR practitioners to damage control, but ultimately they cannot control information or opinions shared by others outside of the organization.
• A blog about Corporate Reporting to Stakeholders wrote about Investor Relations and Social Media Usage. In September 2009, IR Alert conducted a survey of IR professionals and their usage of social media.
  Results: 270 participants, 60% of industry uses social media in some way (especially smaller firms). Only 12% of IR & CFO said they use social media to disclosure financial information to shareholders & the market. Conference Calls & Press Releases are used to communicate information to shareholders & the market; 6.3% use corporate blog. Twitter is the most used social network and LinkedIn is growing.(Source)* I would be interested to see if the study was conducted again if the results would differ; especially with the introduction of Google Buzz. The study was done 6 months ago and popularity of social media sites is still growing.
• Managing Shareholder Engagement on Facebook. Public companies use Facebook to communicate with shareholders release company or industry news, and provide useful links. Mike and Trina Elliot from NETGENPR shared their social media strategy. In their Discussion Board section of their Facebook page they have a topic "Removed Posts Board" where the posts from the wall are archived and explained why they were inappropriate and hence removed. Mike emphasized that using social media is more than sending out random posts, but the purpose must also match business objectives. He also stressed you must be diplomatic and monitor social media in order to build your company's image and work towards achieving company objectives. Terms and Conditions should also be published so fans know posts violating guidelines will be removed. This was an area I had never thought of; you would assume posts would simply be removed and not posted elsewhere and explained.
• A forum relating to tips on IR and social media. A tip posted was social media gives investors the chance to reach a greater audience on sites where they are already looking for info, and costing your company less. An authoritative voice should be used such sites
• Web Marketing Secrets of a Successful Internet Business Finally Revealed: This article gave tips to businesses about advantages/disadvantages of Pay Per Click advertising, Web 2.0 Marketing, offline advertising, and fax/email broadcasting.
• Social Media: Brand Breaking & Brand Breaking: Regarding social media, the author highlighted important tips for the CEO, CFO, COO, and CMO. When good/bad news happens - get facts & talking points released FAST; have a what-if strategy incase something does happens; make sure legal team understands social media; person in charge of social media should be tech and business savvy; social media strategy should be on the same lines as media strategy; monitor!; and quality will filter out noise on the internet.
• Thoughts about Social Media Marketing eMarketer predicted the future of social media, "As social media becomes truly integrated into all marketing efforts, the strongest business models in the future will incorporate analytics, the TV, in addition, will become more social as will search. Location will become more important to social media, and brand monitoring will increase in sophistication so that companies can begin to understand the "why" of consumer chatter as well as the who, what and when." Social media gives little companies a chance to compete through exposure against major companies.
• PR Firms Survive Difficult Year: During tough economic times, the PR budget is the 1st one cut or maybe even eliminated, which ultimately can harm market share and brand recognition. This also gives an advantage to competitors who don't downsize their PR staff.
• Facebook Founder Wont Rush IPO: Zuckerberg said the company will go public EVENTUALLY because of their promise to investors and employees, but there is no rush to do so. Facebook does not require cash to build factories or for marketing efforts. Zuckerberg said they don't need the capital and the pressures are different. Rejected offers include Yahoo for $1billion and Microsoft for $8billion.
• Microsoft to Pull Facebook & Myspace into Outlook: This add-on software will be called Outlook Social Connector. Users can read emails, and the pane fills with recent social media activities like Facebook status updates and professional contacts on LinkedIn. This software will allow senders and receivers jointly working on a document on the company's server to receive updates if one has made edits. The LinkedIn plug-in is already available, but Facebook and Myspace won't be available until June when Office 2010 is released. A concern is that this will make employees less productive because of the accessibility. Office's VP Will Kennedy said, "We don't want this to sort of be the next great time waster in the workplace."
• I read a NY Times article about a Blogging Bootcamp for Moms, where during the conference participants were told they were permitted to tweet. (Source) Normally, you are advised to turn off cell phones during business conferences, so it is neat to see tweeting actually recommended.

Webinar Replay

I just finished re-watching the Webinar Replay – Monitoring Social Media for Investor Relations (found here). Richard Brewer-Hay from eBay and Serena Ehrlich from Startup Army addressed many popular questions facing companies' usage of social media.

This is an important area of interest because as the slideshow says 67% of the worldwide online population use social networks & blogs.

Some key points were to monitor social media websites to see what is being said about your company.

• If financial analysts begin to follow you on Twitter, follow them back.
• http://www.socialmention.com/ allows you to search for your company name.
• Use http://www.search.twitter.com/ to read about what Twitter users are saying about your company.
• search your company name followed negative words like hate, sucks or bad.
• http://www.peoplebrowsr.com/ is a web-based application that can be used to browse your company's mentionings.
• do not forget to read about conversations involving competitors. Examine websites with negative mentions of your company to see if they receive a lot of site traffic to determine if it is worth spending time on. It will take time to determine if a source is credible, but over time relationships and connections with your company's community will form over time, as well as credibility.
• It is important for you to invest time and personal input into social media because it will payback
• Although, discretion is advised because not everyone wants a response from the company, some are merely complaining.
• Social Mention breaks down if what was said is positive or negative.
• People Browsr provides plug ins that allow you to download charts of the data found to present right to your managament.
• Tweet Deck allows you to schedule when tweets will be posted.
• Both professionals recommend to use two computer monitors.

Richard used the quote "fish where you're fishing" to help narrow down where to look for your company's name mentioned on the endless amount of social media sites. Richard engages with anyone and everyone on these sites because that is what social media is for.

Companies have different reasons for engaging in social media, Richard at eBay uses them to promote brand advocacy; other reasons could be to increase site traffic, increase media interest, to get your company's message out there, and to reduce advertising expenses.