Social Matters Preparing Your Brand Page for Facebook’s Evolved News Feed & Timeline / 29 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Thursday, April, 13 Rethinking Your Brand’s Visual Presence on Facebook In March 2013, Facebook announced significant While these changes are primarily aimed at changes to the way that content will be displayed individual users and will roll out over the next to users in three of the core elements of the several months, the Critical Mass social media Facebook platform: strategy team has identified the impact these News Feed Ad units Timeline adjustments will have on Brand Pages and has outlined the implications and action plan for each element / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved NEWS FEED / 29 Thursday, April, 13 What’s Changing Based on current user behavior, Facebook announced several significant changes to the News Feed that will have a major impact on how brands consider and construct the content they share through pages, apps and ads: - Primacy of visual content Screen consistency between desktop and mobile Enhanced News feed filtering / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Primacy of Visuals With News Feed content continuing to trend towards multimedia sharing, the real estate allocated to this type of content is being increased - The size of photos and videos will increase significantly - Thumbnails from linked content will have a cleaner look with more white space - Image-driven apps will be given more prominence - Page likes will now display both the cover photo and the profile image / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Examples - Photos/Videos Before After / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Examples - Thumbnails Before After / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Examples - Page Likes Before After / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Screen Consistency Facebook’s continuing evolution to a mobile-first experience has seen the social network continue to adjust to the way users choose to access their profile and share content with each other As of December, 2012, 608 million users accessed the site from their mobile devices In recognition of this continuing trend, Facebook has unified the News Feed experience across all devices for the first time / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Screen Consistency Example 608 million 10 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved FACEBOOK ADS 15 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 What’s Changing Some of Facebook’s ad units have received makeovers in line with the look of the updated News Feed, but it seems they are taking their time and testing different types as the News Feed rolls out over the next few months As is shown in the following examples, some sponsored story units have a new visually-enhanced look, while marketplace ads that appear in the right rail have a cleaner look One key change to note is the prominence of the “hide” button on the new ad units 16 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Examples - Facebook Ads in the News Feed Page-like sponsored story Before After 17 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Examples - Facebook Ads in the News Feed Page-like sponsored story with recent post Before After 18 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Examples - Facebook Ads in the News Feed Page-post photo ad Before After 19 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Examples - Facebook Ads in the right rail Notice how the ad titles align with the rest of the copy, giving the ad images more prominence Before After 20 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Action Items for Brand Pages Relevant, compelling content is still the key to success in social Use of the entire Facebook ecosystem (page, apps, ads) ensures reach and engagement Improve the visual quality and cadence of the visual content your brand is sharing Create and optimize images for use on desktop, tablet, smartphone and Facebook media Consider adding image-sharing apps to your social footprint (e.g Pinterest, Instagram, Vine) Use short, direct, well-crafted copy to support images Monitor Page Insights as the Newsfeed is adopted by all users to determine if Page reach and engagement drops due to filtering 21 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved TIMELINE 22 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 What’s Changing Facebook introduced Timeline to personal profiles in September 2011 and followed that with Timeline for Pages in February 2012 While rolled out much more quietly in the days following their News Feed announcement, Timeline is getting a new look in line with the other imagecentric changes Even though this will roll out to personal profiles first, it’s safe to expect that Brand Pages will see this change come in the months ahead as Facebook likes to keep the experience consistent The key changes in the personal Timeline that are most significant are: Two-column layout adjusted to 40:60 ratio from 50:50 Other recent changes - Personal posts will be in the expanded right to content structure and policies have recently been In addition to the Timeline layout, additional changes announced that will have a more immediate impact column on Brand Page design and content strategy: - What is being called the “About” section displays down the reduced left column and mandatorily - Comments on posts will be threaded making it features “About ,“Friends” and “Photos” Other easier to have a discussion in the comments former tabs can be selected along with apps that you wish to display here Tab icons have been removed - Cover images can now contain calls to action, though Facebook still maintains text must take up no more than 20% of the image - Possible inclusion of hashtags to allow for - Some brands use custom tab icons to add aggregation/searching of posts similar to Twitter additional visual interest to their page A cleaner design will put more focus on the cover image and profile picture 23 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Examples - Timeline Before After 24 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Threaded Comments 25 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Action Items for Brand Pages As there has been no word on how Timeline will be rolled out to Brand Pages, there is very little to be done proactively Should there be plans to invest in new content or pages in the later part of 2013, consider the following: Prepare for changing dimensions of images in future single-column posts Prepare for need to resize older images in posts and milestones Prepare your Brand Page layout for the elimination of tab icons Experiment with integrating image-centric apps like Instagram and Pinterest Test using calls to action in the cover image and gauge response from page fans Adjust community management protocols to accommodate replies/threaded comments 26 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Critical Mass About Follow Social Media Team Critical Mass, an Omnicom digital ExperienceMatters.criticalmass.com David Jones, VP Social Media marketing agency, helps the world's leading companies use digital media to create extraordinary experiences— @DoctorJones Twitter.com/CriticalMass @AlisonFraker experiences that bring together creative thinking, smart ideas and emerging Alison Fraker, Sr Social Planner Facebook.com/CriticalMass.Agency Daniel Honigman, Sr Social Planner technologies to drive our clients’ @DanielHonigman businesses Consistently recognized as Kyle Bottoms, Social Planner a leading interactive agency, Critical YouTube.com/CriticalMassAgency Mass operates globally from offices in Calgary, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Nashville, Los Angeles, London, @KyleBottoms Lindsay Renwick, Social Planner Slideshare.net/CM1234 Amsterdam and Costa Rica @LindsayRenwick Nikki Lloyd, Community Manager @Nikki_Lloyd www.criticalmass.com 27 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Further Reading http://www.insidefacebook.com/2013/03/07/how-ads-look-in-the-new-news-feed-layout/ https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2013/03/13/making-apps-a-bigger-part-of-timeline/ http://newsroom.fb.com/News/584/Improvements-to-Timeline http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/13/facebook-timeline-redesign/ http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/Infographic_Photo_posts_get_120_more_engagement_on_46290.aspx# http://www.buddymedia.com/newsroom/2012/09/salesforce-buddy-media-facebook-timeline-best-practices-wall-posts/ 28 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved CM Offices Calgary London Nashville Toronto 1011 9th Avenue SE 52-58 Shorts Gardens 209 10th Avenue South 312 Adelaide St West Suite 300 London, United Kingdom Suite 507 6th Floor Calgary, Alberta, Canada WC2H 9AN Nashville, Tennessee, USA Toronto, Ontario, Canada 37203 M5V 1R2 +1 504 301 8385 +1 416 673 5275 T2G 0H7 +44 (0) 203 077 1350 +1 403 262 3006 Chicago Los Angeles New York Costa Rica 225 N Michigan Avenue 12555 West Jefferson Blvd 711 3rd Avenue, Floor 11 300 metros al oeste de CENADA Suite 2050 Los Angeles, CA, USA New York, New York, USA Metro Park, zona franca metropolitana Chicago, Illinois, USA 90066 10017-4043 Edificio 5b-B, Barreal de Heredia, +1 310 305 5381 +1 212 801 8318 60601 +1 312 288 2500 +1 855 242 6427 29 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 Costa Rica ... Facebook platform: strategy team has identified the impact these News Feed Ad units Timeline adjustments will have on Brand Pages and has outlined the implications and action plan for each element... Facebook Ads in the News Feed Page- like sponsored story Before After 17 / 29 Thursday, April, 13 © 2013 Critical Mass, Inc All Rights Reserved Examples - Facebook Ads in the News Feed Page- like sponsored... Items for Brand Pages As there has been no word on how Timeline will be rolled out to Brand Pages, there is very little to be done proactively Should there be plans to invest in new content or pages