Tag: Facebook

Facebook Debuts Trending Topics On The Web

Posted on by Lab Team

When Facebook announced hashtags, you knew it was only a matter of time until the social network announced trending topics. And following testing on the web and mobile in August, Facebook today launched a redesigned version of the “Trending” section on the web sidebar in the US, UK, Canada, India, and Australia. It showcases personalized lists, based on what you’ve liked and what’s trending across the social network, of the most mentioned words and phrases of the moment, with explanations of why each os trending. The idea is to spur public sharing, drive return visits, and make Facebook a place to go for trending current events – in the way that Twitter is at present. Facebook’s “Trending” section is different from Twitter’s in that there is a reason offered to users for why the trend is happening – as opposed to just a hashtag – to provide a context for the user so that they don’t leave the site to do a web search. And by keeping users on the site longer via these current events topics, it hopes to drive revenue derived from users clicking and sharing ads – an important category of revenue in its post-IPO world.

Faecbook & NBC Reach Olympics Agreement

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Facebook and NBC have agreed to share their content – on TV and online – during NBC’s live coverage of the Olympic Games next month. Facebook and Instagram posts will be included in live TV, while NBC will post original and exclusive TV content to the social network. As well, NBC commentators will answer user questions in real time online. It mirrors Facebook’s partnership with Fox Sports, who in the past agreed to partner with Facebook for the NFL and college football seasons. The two deals – one on the heels of the other – point to a new way of doing business for the TV and Internet-based content industries, one that relies on complete unification across the mediums available to them. As TV continues to try and remain relevant in the era of cordcutting, moving online in this way may represent a viable solution to an increasingly challenging problem. 

Facebook Acquires Branch For $15 Million

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Not to be outdone by the crazy week of announcements that came out of Las Vegas, Facebook announced that link-sharing service Branch agreed to join the Facebook network for $15 million. The idea, it seems, is to help users bond over interests based on link-sharing. As Branch is best known for its web-based link-sharing that keeps conversations circulating around news stories, it makes sense to assume that Facebook is going to use Branch’s technology to make conversing around breaking stories – particularly in mobile devices – that much easier. How this pans out, precisely, remains to be seen, but it’s a big announcement for the ever-expanding social network.  

CES 2014: Consumers Now Wary Of Google, Facebook, Twitter

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Consumers are significantly more wary of companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google, according to a study by McCann that was discussed at a CES panel led by Ad Age and IPG at CES. People are very sensitive about their private data, and when asked which companies are the greatest threat to the future of privacy 59% cited Facebook and 40% cited Twitter, while 32% responded with Google. These numbers represent a doubling from just one year ago, and it’s no surprise, given the important NSA revelations that have happened since that date.

What’s important to point out, though, is that people aren’t necessarily concerned with what might happen to the data immediately; they’re very concerned with what might happen in the near future as technology’s powers expand. As well, they’re concerned about what happens to their data on the back end, with respect to advertising, how data is bought, sold, and thereafter targeted; broad support was voiced for a Do Not Track system. The important takeaway, for both the advertising and technology industries, is that consumers are beginning to pay much more attention to their data and how its being used in an era of rapidly-advancing technology. Their trust is the foundation for much of these industries, and once it’s gone it will be very tough to win back. 

Facebook Trials Autoplaying Video Ads

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It turns out that the rumors are indeed true: Facebook is bringing autoplaying ad units to News Feeds on mobile and desktop. According to the social network, previous trials have indicated that there’s great advertising value in autoplaying ad units, and that they generate an increase in viewer engagement of 10% over traditional, non-autoplaying video ads that debuted in September. In the face of news earlier this year from Ad Age that organic reach was on the downslide, Facebook is doing everything within its power to compete with Twitter and Pinterest, who continue to expand their advertising reach. 

Facebook Upgrades Messenger

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In 2013, messaging apps became a hot topic in the mobile sphere, but there is still no hands-down dominant service in the U.S.  Facebook upgraded its offering in the text messaging space by revamping the two-year-old Messenger app, adding free calls and stickers, following the lead of Asian messaging leaders Line, Kakao Talk and WeChat.  The service also added real-time statuses to allow users to tell if their friends are online or on mobile, and phone number-based messaging to allow connections to non-Facebook users.  While Messenger might not be as full-featured as its Asian counterparts, don’t write it off just yet, as Facebook’s 1.2 billion active users could serve as a starter user base for the service to become as dominant a player in mobile messaging as it is in online social messaging.

Facebook: Soon With Commercials?

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Facebook is ready to bring auto-playing videos to your mobile news feed in a bid to make videos a more attractive option for users.  Videos will auto play without sound while in the context of the feed, but a simple tap will expand the video to full screen and unmute the audio.  This a proposed solution to the problem that Facebook’s video platform is ineffective from the mobile creation environment all the way to playback, and could bring far more videos to your news feed in the near future.  If that happens, that could also mean video ads blending into the news feed in the same way.  Video ads are a potentially lucrative source of revenue for Facebook, with estimates placing the cost of distributing a 15 second video for one day on the platform between $1 million and $2.4 million.

Snapchat Gets More Daily Photos Than Facebook

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According to CEO Evan Spiegel, Snapchat now shares 400 million snaps every day, up from 200 million just this June. The 400 million mark surpasses the photo-sharing activity on Facebook and Instagram, who see 350 million and 50 million photos uploaded per day, respectively. It’s unclear how many of the increased photos on Snapchat are privately shared photos, as opposed to the new “broadcast” snaps. Nonetheless, these impressive numbers bode well for Snapchat’s upcoming round of funding, and the company’s prospects for brands and marketers in the future.

Facebook Partners With SportsStream

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Facebook partnered with SportsStream to make sense of its real-time data, both for sports networks and advertisers. SportStream will offer broadcasters and sports teams an interface to search through Facebook’s Keyword Insights, which will allow access to metadata on teams, players, leagues, games, and more to see who’s saying what about live games. It’s an important move for Facebook, which knows that it has a mountain of data about live events – particularly sports events – but is still unsure about how to get that data to the people who are looking to make the most of it. This should allow teams to get a better understanding of how many people they’re reaching, and where, and in addition it will allow advertisers to get all the more targeted on Facebook. This could be a particularly potent partnership for all parties involved. 

Facebook’s New Android Feature Sets TV Reminders

Posted on by Lab Team

Though initially this move might seem like a minor footnote, it’s actually a pretty big deal. It positions Facebook in direct opposition to Twitter, whose IPO is largely predicated on TV and advertising dominance. Facebook’s feature works like this: Users who like a show’s Facebook Page can choose an option to get reminders about when that show starts. It’s a simple premise, but it plays into two important trends: social’s integration into TV via the second screen, and notifications as subtle forms of advertising. How well the move pays off for Facebook could be a big indication of the effectiveness of both trends.