Everything You Need To Know About New Facebook Timeline For Brands And Ads

FMC 2012 Conference ATTENTION POINT-‐OF-‐VIEW (POV) I. Executive Summary/Overview: On February 29, 2012 Facebook announced a significant platform change that will alter the way that brands communicate with consumers across paid, owned and earned media. With over 150MM consumer to brand daily interactions, brands are in a position to offer more effective and targeted communications, content and experiences. Now, there is an even greater need for a wholly integrated Facebook marketing approach. Overview Two significant changes to the Facebook platform were unveiled at the 2012 FMC Marketers Conference. As Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg notes, these changes will result in “a shift from the wisdom of crowds to the wisdom of friends.” The purpose of this document is to make further sense of these changes, analyze what they may mean within a broader context, and identify specific opportunities for us to take advantage of these developments from a practical marketing perspective. Two major functionality changes were announced at the conference: 1) Timeline, the customizable “lifestream,” has migrated to brand Pages and will turn the Page format into a true storytelling canvas 2) Admin Panel and Activity Log allow brands to manage their Page in one place, by responding to users, assessing Page insights, and editing all Page posts 3) Premium on Facebook and Reach Generator allow brands to ensure that the right people see their stories in the right places via paid media II. Breakdown: Through these changes, brands can: • Brand their Page • Highlight what matters • Manage content, applications and media in one centralized location • Amplify compelling content In the section below, we will outline the details of each update and what they mean for brands. ATTENTION 160 Varick Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10013

FMC 2012 Conference Brand Your Page Cover Photo The cover photo should highlight the essence of the brand, showcase the product or service, or call out a current campaign: • Brand can change their cover photo as often as they like • Size: 851x315 pixels • Cover Photo policies stipulate that Page images cannot include: o Price or purchase information (e.g. “40% off” or “Download it at our website.”) o Contact information for the brand such as website, email. That should go in the “About” section o Reference to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or any visual cues directing users from the cover photo to any of these features o Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends” • The Profile Picture still exists, but it is now a square image o Size: while there are not specific requirements for this asset, the quality should scale well from 180x180 pixels to 32x32 o This image is used as a thumbnail image in the news feed stories, ads and Sponsored Stories Views and Apps Instead of being pushed out to the brand Page’s side gutter, photos and custom apps will now appear at the top of the Page: • Brands can customize their application images/icons, and change the order of all of these icons apart from the Photos, which will always remain in the far left position o Icon size: 111x74 pixels • The timeline is now the default landing place for all users, fans and non-‐fans alike. This means that brands can no longer set a tab or application as their default landing page for non-‐fans o Users will no longer be under the assumption that they cannot engage with a brand without Liking them, first. Now, their first interaction with the brand will be seeing its organic content and what their friends are saying. Ultimately, this will be better for consumers and will keep them on the site, and the brand Page, longer o Tabs will still have unique URLs so brands can promote them in Posts and ads o Tabs can still be like-‐gated if brands would like to share exclusive content with users that are only fans of the brand’s Page. Please note, the Like button has changed, so if a brand’s non-‐fan tab image contains a “Like” call-‐to-‐action, it will need to be updated ATTENTION 160 Varick Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10013

FMC 2012 Conference o An underutilized resource is the Object within tabs. As a Page admin, brands can require users to Like an individual object within a tab to access a special asset or deal Highlight What Matters Through Timeline, when a user visits a brand’s Page, they’ll see a mix of stories published by the brand, by their friends, and stories from other users that have received considerable engagement (e.g. Likes, comments, and shares). This is markedly different from the dedicated Page-‐only and other users-‐only feeds prior to the launch of Timeline. However, users can opt to visit those dedicated feeds through filter settings on the Timeline. Friend Activity Users can see how their friends are engaging with a Page through the Page Timeline. This information is featured at the top of the Timeline, as it is most important to users. They can see: • How many of their friends Like the Page • What their friends are saying about the brand Pinned Post Brands can anchor the most important story to the top of their Page for up to 7 days. This is another great way to guarantee that fans see the brand’s most important and engaging content. • This is a great way to call out a current campaign or drive traffic to an important tab or application ATTENTION 160 Varick Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10013

FMC 2012 Conference • These posts are featured at the top left of the timeline and are denoted by a small yellow flag at the top of the post Star and Hide Content Administrators have the ability to highlight important stories and make them more prominent as well as hide stories that are no longer relevant. • This can be done for both brand posts and user posts Larger Stories The new Timeline features larger photos, which will ultimately drive increased engagement with a brand’s Page: • Including a photo album or picture could generate 2x more engagement than other posts • As these images are larger, the photos will have better quality Milestones Define a brands’ key moments in time through this tool (e.g. launch, certain number of fans, winning and award) • These updates are likely favored by the EdgeRank news feed visibility algorithm, and may receive more impressions in the newsfeed and more prominence on the width of the brand Page • They are denoted by a special flag icon at the top of the post • Dimensions for milestone images are 843x403 pixels Date Selector Users can select which portion of a brand’s Timeline they would like to see. The default setting is to view the most current content, but users can choose to select a certain year or month to expand • This is featured along the far right gutter of the Page ATTENTION 160 Varick Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10013

FMC 2012 Conference Offers Offers are a free method for brands to share special deals or promotions with their fans directly through their Facebook Page: • Deals can be distributed through the newsfeed or promoted as an ad unit • Users can redeem Offers via email or on a mobile device Private Messages A new solution for CRM, users can now communicate directly with a brand without posting on the Timeline • Page Timelines allow users to send direct private messages , creating a new customer service channel where brands can address users’ concerns without having to discuss issues in a public forum on the Page’s wall/Timeline • Pages cannot proactively send messages, brands can only respond to users inquiries Centralized Management All Pages feature an Admin Panel at the top of the Page. Rather than sending admins to a separate interface, the new Admin Panel drops down and appears overlaid over Timeline on click. It displays notifications of recent activity such as posts to Timeline by fans, a list of a brand’s most recent Page Message conversations, new Likes, and a snapshot of a brand’s Insights data, including the volume of brand-‐ posts, total reach, and the number of “people talking about this”. Each section offers detailed analytics via dropdown. Notifications This section offers a quick snapshot of users to whom brands need to respond, both users who have posted on the Page, and users who have sent a private message directly to the brand. • Brands can respond to both formats within the Admin Panel Insights This gives brands easy access to Page performance. • View new Likes, top performing posts, and other important metrics Build Audience Through this feature, Page admins can share the Page, invite friends to join and create ads to broaden reach. ATTENTION 160 Varick Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10013

FMC 2012 Conference Activity Log Here, Page admins can see every published post, including hidden posts, as well as those posted by users mentioning the brand. • The Activity Log makes it easier for brands to curate their Timeline • View posts by year • Star, delete and hide stories or change the date of a post • Highlight a user’s post to be visible on the Page’s Timeline to all visitors by setting that post to be “Allowed to Timeline” o As it stands now, only posts that are very popular or posted by a user’s friends will be visible to users on the timeline o Admins can also control the general visibility of users’ posts on the page Amplify Compelling Content Facebook has launched two new promotional tools: Reach Generator and Premium on Facebook. Both tools empower brands to ensure that the right people see their stories in the right places. When combined, these new solutions demonstrate immense opportunities for brands to connect with consumers and drive measureable business results. Through these tools, a brand’s content can convert to ad content, promoting a brand’s most engaging content. Brands have the ability to reach 200x the number of fans they have through socially aware ads. Currently, Marketplace ads are the only self-‐serve ad unit. Premium on Facebook and Reach Generator must be purchased directly through Facebook. Ads: Marketplace and Premium • Conventional Facebook ads as they were once known are now obsolete. There are no longer ads with pre-‐determined copy and image • Through these new tools, the content a brand publishes to Facebook and the metrics associated with those posts are the front-‐end of the ad system. The posts that receive the most engagement are those that, through paid amplification, will be distributed further • Marketplace ads appear on the right-‐hand side of Facebook. These are bought directly through Facebook’s self-‐serve portal o Brands can still run self-‐serve Marketplace ads that drive off the Facebook platform • Premium on Facebook highlights the most important or compelling stories in the best places on Facebook to engage and influence people o Maximize the number of users interacting with, and talking about, a brand o Placed in the most influential spaces on Facebook, these ads have 5-‐10x more engagement than other places on the site. They are featured in:  Right-‐hand side of the homepage (served to non-‐fans and fans) ATTENTION 160 Varick Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10013

FMC 2012 Conference  News feed on the homepage (served to fans)  News feed on MOBILE (served to fans)  Log-‐out experience (optional) • Note: 37M users logout each day. 105M logout each month o The possible ad formats are:  Like Page Post (up to 90 characters of text and an image)  Video Page Post (90 characters of text and a video thumbnail)  Question with for answers or three with a “see more” link  Status Page Post (up to 150 characters of text)  Event Page Post: Event details with up to 90 characters of text and an image or video. This has the ability to drive RSVPs o Premium ads offer automatic social context and engagement options  When the friend of a brand’s fan sees this sort of ad, the ad unit will automatically expand to provide enhanced social context about those friends who are fans.  As with past ad formats, users will have the ability to Like a brand directly through an ad unit. However, they will now also have the ability to like the content or post directly through the ad o Premium ads and sponsored stories on the right-‐hand side are typically 40% more engaging and 80% more likely to be remembered than all previous offerings o Like everything else on Facebook, these ads start with publishing engaging content o Any post can be converted into a premium ad. This has two larger implications:  The content on a Page needs to be compelling  Fans will ultimately tell brands what content they should use for ads by voting with their clicks, Likes, comments and shares Reach Generator Currently, Pages reach about 16% of their fans on average, due to factors like time and EdgeRank. Reach Generator ensures that a brand’s Page content reaches 75% of their fans each month, and 50% of their fans each week in a simple, “always-‐on” way: ATTENTION 160 Varick Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10013

FMC 2012 Conference • Fans will see a brand’s message as a Sponsored Story on the right-‐hand side of their homepage or in their newsfeed on desktop or mobile o Posts that are to be amplified in this manner should be 90 characters or less to avoid being cut off • This will greatly increase the volume of engagement with your brand (Likes, shares, comments) by 2x As mentioned earlier, these tools allow a brand to not only better tell the story of their business, but also allow them to connect with users through more powerful and more meaningful ways. Timeline: What We Think Through the new Timeline for Pages and its added functionalities, brands are given more tools to share their story, engage with fans, and control the content on their page: • Additions like the cover photo, milestones and pinned content will allow brands to highlight their most important moments and will ultimately increase a Page’s EdgeRank and drive fan engagement • The additions of the Admin Panel and Activity Log will make the lives of community managers and customer service representatives much easier, as all messages and metrics will be concentrated in one centralized hub • Customer Service issues will no longer clutter the wall of the Page but can be addressed through one-‐on-‐one communication between the consumer and the brand. Furthermore, this will heighten a brand’s image in the eye of the user as they will not see a litany of complaints on the wall when they first arrive on the Page Premium on Facebook and Reach Generator Thus far, brands have invested in fans. And brands have invested in content to engage them. Now, by investing in Reach Generator and Premium on Facebook, brands have the ability to guarantee that fans see this content. While brands are paying for distribution, brands are receiving significantly more engagement. This will greatly increase a Page’s EdgeRank score, which will, in turn, grant a greater ROI as more of a brand Page’s content will be viewed over time. IV. Conclusions + Next Steps: These changes are ushering in a new era of consumer engagement on the Facebook platform. Users are put in the driver’s seat to determine which content is most important to them, thus allowing it to rise ATTENTION 160 Varick Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10013

FMC 2012 Conference through the ranks along the brand’s Timeline. But brands are also granted new special powers to tell their own story and control their image on Facebook. Potential Action Items Below is a list of simple updates to a brand Page and additional options • Design a cover and profile photo • Create a list of important brand moments throughout time to retroactively post in the timeline as Milestones • Outline a schedule of important content to be pinned on the Page’s timeline in the coming weeks • Check your settings on the activity log to see what sort of user content is being featured on your Page • Evaluate any upcoming specials your brand is running and asses if they would be good Facebook Offers • Assess the current reach of a brand’s Page to determine if Premium on Facebook and/or Reach Generator are appropriate solutions for the brand • Continue to tell the brand story through compelling content for your fans! ATTENTION 160 Varick Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10013

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Everything You Need To Know About New Facebook Timeline For Brands And Ads

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