This document summarizes Geoffrey Colon's presentation on using Facebook timelines as a publishing tool for brands in today's paid, owned, and earned media world. The key points are: 1) Facebook timelines allow brands to become 24/7 publishing engines to tell their story visually and engage audiences across devices. 2) Publishing on timelines integrates well with paid tools like sponsored stories and ads to fuel word-of-mouth sharing beyond a brand's organic reach. 3) Graph search will eventually allow brands to target users based on interests to promote content, though it currently only works for personal profiles.

1. Brand Timeline: A 21st
Century
Publishing Tool in a
Paid/Owned/Earned World
Presented by Geoffrey Colon,
For MEDIABISTRO Social Media Bootcamp
July 24, 2013

2. Overview
• Think of Facebook as a Publisher
• Publishing is the Platform
• Paid/Owned/Earned
• Paid Tools Fuel Earned WOM
• Graph Search
• Future
• Questions

3. Think of Facebook as a
Publisher
• A storytelling engine
• Visually appealing
• Engaging
• Targeted messaging
• Publishing
• Multi-Device Friendly
• Timeline is the default for personal and
brand publishing

4. Publishing is the Platform
• Timeline allows brands to become a
24/7/365 content creation engine
• Many brands use timeline to tell
their story and journey
• Note: The majority of users never
visit a timeline on Facebook. But all
actions on timeline are published
into the newsfeed helping to create
continued consumer engagement
• More pictures, more branding opps
• Serves more as a brand blog than
simply a “Like our page for free
stuff”
• Integrates well with Instagram

5. Paid/Owned/Earned
• Timelines help brands evolve
on the platform from simply a
publishing engine into a
paid/owned/earned ecosystem:
– Sponsored Stories
– Visuals
– Newsfeed advertising
– Mobile UX-friendly
– Targeted Sharing (All fans, fans by
geo, fans by gender, fans by age
demographic)

6. Paid Tools Fuel Earned WOM
• “Viral” is a dirty word
• Due to the nature of the
network, emphasis has
transferred from “likes” to
“shares:”
– Sharing and engagement propagate
content in the news feed seen by
your opt-in audience
– To reach above and beyond the 16%
published content will reach due to
the Edge Rank algorithm, paid
methods ala “Sponsored Stories are
essential barometers toward success
– Organic and earned are still good
ways to reach your existing audience
but not mass
– 3 options: Get more page likes,
Promote Page Posts, See Advanced
Options (CPC on #hashtags)
– Facebook.com/advertising

7. Paid Tools Fuel Earned WOM
(Cont.)
• How do I know what my goals are
when using paid tools?
If you’re advertising your
timeline/page/brand/business presence:
• Target people who are likely to like
your page
• Promote page posts by targeting
people who are likely to engage with
your Page post
If you’re advertising an Event:
• Increase attendance by targeting
people likely to go to your
event/store/shop
Target by Desktop or Mobile
• Figure out your brand/business
demographic or spread evenly across
devices

8. Paid Tools Fuel Earned WOM
(Cont.)
• What can I track?
Limited ROI…
•Track multiple campaigns in one
dashboard
•Track if your campaign helped with
impressions, CTR, indirect conversion
•Change messaging on the fly with
editing tools
•Generate reports that can be used
with deeper analytics tools including
web analytics software, lead
generation tracking, sales conversion
(for those running commerce on
their website)
• What can’t I track?
•Deep personal user data
•Direct conversion
•Content originating on Facebook
that get shared across other
networks (“dark social”)

9. Graph Search
• Graph search is Facebook’s new search
functionality on the platform*
• It is only open in beta for a few
individual users but will ultimately roll
out to brand timelines in the future
• A typical search would be: “People who
live in San Francisco” or “Friends who
like Metallica”
• Ultimately, the tool can be used for
brand targeting, e.g., “people who like
Pepsi” in which Coke can use to target
with an offer**
*Disclaimer: Graph search is powered by
my employer Bing/Microsoft.
**Currently it is only for use by personal
pages.

10. Future
• New News Feed debuting in
September. What effect will it have
on marketing?
– Multiple tabs
– Less clutter
– Same look across devices (mobile, tablet, web)
– Hi image quality
– More mobile friendly
– Less advertising friendly
– More emphasis on “paid” to reach masses.
– Facebook.com/newsfeed

11. Thank You!
Geoffrey Colon, Group Marketing
Manager, Social Media
: @djgeoffe
Questions?