My father and I have a lot of things in common. NASCAR and Social Media are not among them. For every race, track, and driver that my dad can wax poetic about, there are just as many social media tools that cause his eyes to glaze over when I talk about them.

We both can thank Brad Keselowski for changing that last night.

During last night’s Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 (which was rescheduled due to a rain delay on Sunday), a jet dryer burst into flames after being hit under caution by Juan Pablo Montoya. Over 200 gallons of jet and diesel fuel spread over the banking near Turn 3, quickly ignited by the initial impact. Unquestioningly, this brought the entire race to a complete halt while the officials and safety crews responded to contain the blaze.

So what do NASCAR drivers do when their cars are at a forced stop on the track? Well, if you’re Keselowski, you reach out to your fans on Twitter:

Before too long, other drivers were gathering around Keselowski on the track, amused by his social media involvement. His fans were more than amused; they were intrigued and re-tweeted his pictures and posts all over the place. In just over an hour, he had added over 100,000 followers to his Twitter account as people clamored to see the first-person NASCAR experience.

Like any responsible driver, he put his phone away when the race resumed, and the final 40 laps were completed without any other fiery surprises.

But who were the big winners here?

1. Well for one, Keselowski. He more than tripled his Twitter following last night.
2. His advertisers. Namely his main sponsor, Miller Lite, as they are associated with a young driver who is already active on Twitter, which allows them more exposure to a key demographic.
3. NASCAR. There may be some fall-out for a driver having his phone during the race, but their lenient approach to social media allows them to give fans the real track experience (as opposed to other sports, most of which have a strict no live-tweeting policy.)
4. My dad and I. Texting with my father at 11pm about NASCAR and social media is something I never thought possible. He now understands how Twitter is used as a part of a brand experience, and I no longer see NASCAR as just a bunch of people too afraid to turn right.

Las Vegas, Jockey brief underwear sightings, Tweetups and no sleep means that the Ragan Social Media conference has just ended and, well, forgive me if this post is somewhat longwinded, but I am in Las Vegas this week as Definition 6 sponsored the Twitter lounge at this conference, and still not fully recovered. And more about the underwear sightings later.

I've just absorbed so much great insight it still has my head spinning.

Which actually brings me to the one of the key takeaways from the conference, as Chris Brogan put it best in his closing keynote, "we are in consumption overload." Part of the problem is that we have many tools and channels to communicate that it becomes increasingly difficult to cut through the clutter when you try to convey a message, create a connection, and ultimately drive more sales for your brand.  So how can you avoid this?

1- Create good content.  It all begins here. From almost every presenter I've listened to over the past day and a half, they all basically said the same thing.  From Southwest Airlines whose "Nuts about Southwest" blog showcases customers, to Zappos focuses on the mission to "Deliver Happiness" (not just sell products) with video content, it all results in positive social media conversations, high brand affinity and ultimately- more sales.

2- Use Twitter for Customer Service - this is where many companies can exceed expectations or have a PR nightmare.  It's all in the response.  Many presenters talked about this, as Zappos mentioned in their closing keynote, their Twitter account is managed / works closely with the Customer Service teams in the organization.  

3- Tools are not "neato" - stop focusing on the new shiny app, site, platform and create content that resonates. 

4- For lead generation, use Twitter Search vs. "Like-gating" and measuring the value of RTs: Use social media to listen, search for relevant connections and provide value.  By understanding what people are searching for, you can then respond to them and drive sales. 

5- Video Video Video - Video has the power to connect sight, sound and motion, telling your story like no other medium.  Whether you use it as a response to a PR crisis situation, or to highlight the culture of a brand, or even empowering your fan base to create user generated videos that a brand promotes/shares, video has the power to reach us all on an emotional level. 

6 - Google+ is a must. This is the first time I've heard practical advice on why Google+ is so game-changing.  Search Plus Your World combines search, leveraging the data in your circles, connections, and bring you relevant results with meaning.  Every brand should make sure Google+ is on their social media list and do it fast. 

Ragan Conferences are chock-full of great communicators, eager Tweeters and a hunger for knowledge. 

Not only did Definition 6 host a Twitter lounge, but we also had a raffle going on for the best tweet.  The winner was RBelcher3, Ryan Belcher at Jockey, who kept leaving these mini Jockey brief keychains in places around the conference like the Twitter lounge, men's bathroom (so I've heard), conference chairs, the welcome sign and more.  By creating these shareable moments and good content sparked many Ragan attendees to "LOL" and RT the images, and we applaud you for doing so.  With a conference focused on creating content, it couldn't have been a better fit (insert underwear pun here).
 

I just got back from the Social Media Strategies Summit on Las Vegas, a great event put on by GSMI.  Our VP of Strategy and Account Services, Paul McClay and I presented on “How to Create Content That People Want to Share” to a highly engaged group of people that are all doing some amazing things in the social media space.  We talked a lot about how creating shareable content really starts with understanding your audience, understanding their persona, and realizing the core needs that sharing content really helps to satisfy.  We used some great examples where we have been successful with this like HBO’s Trueblood campaign, Coke’s Happiness Machine, and our collaboration with Facebook on the Timeline Movie Maker project.

As we rolled out the Timeline Movie Maker last week on Facebook, it's been interesting to see my movie, and friends' movies, as a one minute snapshot of our lives.  And since Timeline Movie Maker highlights the most engaged photos, videos and other content you have shared on Facebook, it gives you insight into your life - kind of like a mini therapy session that prompted me to go on a 40 day detox from drinking and partying!

But seriously, it's a fun way to look back at your Facebook life, and yes, you can edit it after the first time it renders to insert new images, change the music and well, showcase your life's best moments.

Take a look at mine and you can read more about this on my blog for iMediaConnection on what it means for marketers, and how they can use this as an example on leveraging the power of Facebook to create meaningful connections with consumers.

Ok, so the big game was on Sunday, and I could write a blog on how the some commercials were funny, nostalgic, creative and well, how some were just plain boring!  And I can link to all the other blogs or articles with the typical "Day After Superbowl" recap of the winners, losers, and most creative spots. 

But the most important question for marketers surrounding the Superbowl still remains - what worked?  How does a brand measure success?  Is it the most viewed ads?  The most talked about spots? The ones deemed "winners" by trade publications? 

And the biggest question of all...how did the internet and social media impact the biggest advertising spend day of the year?  What did the second screen do to the ratings and the advertising results? Were spots released online more well received?  Or were those spots not as memorable since the "shock factor" was gone? 

Last year, VW released their Superbowl ad "The Force" online and it was a huge success (and to date it has over 50 million views!)  Did the strategy work again?  Let's take a look.

For this year's ad, they released an online teaser, the full spot online, and then the on-air version aired during the game.  Hit or miss?  It didn't make the top 10 Superbowl commercials list in social TV that AdAge and Bluefin Labs released.  But it did receive over 12 million views for the teaser on and over 5 million views for the full spot on YouTube as of Monday at 4:00pm.

And according to TiVo, it was #5 on top 10 most watched commercials list.  And if you checked Hulu's list of "most liked" ads, VW took the top first and third spot. 

I'd have to say that this was a win.  What works for one brand may not be the best strategy for another, but in this case, VW was clearly trying to reach a social savvy, tech-driven audience and I'd say it worked.  Will it make me go out and buy a VW? I don't know.  But do I think that the brand has come a long way since "punch buggies?" - absolutely. 

Pre-releasing ads does have some sort of a buzz kill for the live viewing, taking the excitement away from seeing the ad for the first time, but it does have merit.  Just look at the top three most viewed ads (according to the TiVo report) which did not pre-release online (namely: 1. Doritos: “Man’s Best Friend”, 2. M&Ms: “Ms. Brown”, 3. Doritos: “Sling Baby”).

It certainly raises the bar for the other ads that don't pre-release - they better deliver!!  And with the second screen viewing, they may die on the vine before their :30 seconds are up (especially with Twitter putting out 10,000 tweets per second!)

For those who haven't seen any of the ads, you can watch them all on AdAge.com.

Last night, Definition 6 hosted the PromaxBDA Emerging Media Workshop to talk about trends for 2012.  Presenters ConnectTV, Crimson Hexagon and Google+ talked about what the broadcast community needs to know as they plan for 2012, including how social TV will become more integral into programming, how data (especially social media data) will evolve and the importance for communication planning - right message, to the right audience, at the right time. 
What truly came out of the event (besides great networking and an excuse to eat pizza while drinking beer and wine) was that unified marketing is critical to the success of any brand.  Whether it's on-air content, social media or other owned media online properties, by leveraging the data we can now gather, unifiying your marketing message into the proper channels will exponentially amplify your message and increase awareness around your show, promotion, event or any other marketing objectives.

Google+ showed examples of this by using a simple story about a guy who had just visited Boston, and was asked "how was the trip?"  By Google's explanation, the answer is dependent on the person asking the question. If it was the guy's mother, his response would probably be drastically different than the answer he gives to his buddies, or even his co-workers.  This idea of the right message to the right audience and the right time, is exactly how we look at marketing and branding at Definition 6.  Our unified marketing approach is just that - leverages data to communicate brand messages appropriately to its core customers, in the proper environments and at the right time. 



Thanks again to PromaxBDA for hosting their event here at our offices!

Now that the year has begun, here are some 2012 predictions for advertising, media, and emerging trends:


 
Hi, Michael Kogon here, the CEO of Definition 6, and welcome to our 2012 video blog. I look forward to talking to you about unified marketing throughout the year, and I want to talk and start the year off with six predictions for 2012. 

1 - Year of Mobile – easy way to say it, but what I really mean by that is, how mobile influences the way we shop, the way we interface with retail, and the way we connect with one another.

2 - Second would be Social Networks.  Not just the mere fact that social networks are here to stay, and that Facebook consumes everybody’s time and life, if you are a meaningful brand you have a meaningful relationship with your consumers enabled by Facebook and others, but the notion that social connections are really informing the way brands and marketers have to work together.

3 – Third would be Video.  Just as we are producing video here, we’re seeing hundreds and millions of hours of videos produced, consumed and sent along all forms of devices and airwaves, as 3G turns into 4G, and we end up with very enabled users throughout the country and the planet, I think video is going to be the way we all choose to communicate and connect with our consumers.

4- The fourth way would be the movement of more money into Display Advertising.   I think Search is going to continue to be a big deal, obviously we’re going to see a lot of our digital dollars go there, but I think more and more of our money is going to be allocated towards display.  Again it’s a little bit of the video, it’s a lot of the social, but more importantly, it’s now brands have figured out how to use display to communicate a deeper, richer message that they can rarely do with direct response search. 

5- Fifth would be Turbulent Consumers.  I think consumers are going to shop on deal, I think deal sites are still a very good way to stimulate purchase trial.  But I think the other thing is that a lot of us are going to feel wealthy, a lot of us are going to feel less than wealthy, at any given moment within the year.  I think that kind of turbulence is going to really have an impact on what we have to do as marketers and time our message with behavior we observe our consumers exhibiting.

6- And the last is the Unknown.  The prediction of #6 is I’m not really sure what is going to happen in the sense that one thing is going to be an inflection point on the year.  Hopefully it’s a positive thing, but it could be a negative thing, like a natural disaster or market correction, but it could be a good thing like the Euro zone corrects itself, the Presidential election shapes up to where the country has optimism.  I’m looking forward to this year with you.  Please come back and see what our customers, our partners, and what the other people here at Definition 6 have to say.  Good luck in 2012. 

Definition 6’s Expert-in-Residence Frank Radice and Account Director Michael Sater attended the International Consumer Electronics show (CES) last week, and they are here to tell you about the insights and highlights from the event.

“So, this is Frank Radice down at CES 2012, where I worked on a panel with a bunch of great people from Bravo and Discovery and Yahoo! and Ovation, and we were talking about Social TV, and does Social TV have a legitimate place right now? Can it be intrusive? Is it a good thing?  I think the most important thing that came out of all of CES, for me, wasn’t a lesson that I hadn’t already learned, it was just something that I was reminded of, that you can’t make television for the other people that are in these rooms that are here at these conventions, you have to make it for the viewer, or the user, or the person that actually consumes the content.”

Frank: “So Michael, what have you seen here at CES that you liked?”

Michael: “Well, in CES 2012, Frank, what I found really interesting, was the immense number of mobile devices, tablets, phones, and I think it’s going to be very impactful for the social consumer.  Whether you are in front of a TV, or you want to grab content off of your television or off of the web, you can now have it traveling with you, which is very powerful.  So the consumer can feel more in command of that experience, so if they are watching something in their home, now all of a sudden they can draw up that content on their tablet.  In fact, TiVo is having a device where they can push the content from one TV to the next, and also to initial devices like their iPad. Companies such as Samsung are trying to bring that digital experience into everything, where now your washing machine will notify you when you are in another room in the house that your laundry is done.  For their primary customer, it’s extremely powerful, that they can now not be a slave to that machine, and they can feel informed at all points in time, with the information that’s relevant to them, when they want it, the way they want it, as they are walking around."

You can follow Definition 6 on Twitter @Definition6 or like us on Facebook at facebook.com/definition6.

My first trip to CES in Las Vegas feels more like the sandstorm that overtook Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible: it came on suddenly and I left blinded, coated with bits and pieces of silicon.



I have only begun processing the whirlwind of flashing lights called CES and though fortunate to have an opportunity to immerse myself in the future of consumer technology, those 48 hours left me with just as many questions as answers.

When Univision asked Definition 6 to create the new song for their flagship Station KMEX-34, I called Randy Wachtler at 615 Music, Nashville. Randy and I have been nominated twice for the National Emmy Award for original music for TV, so 615 was a natural choice. Along with Aaron Grant and the 615 team, we got to work. 

Univision wanted a “Theme” to celebrate the Latino culture and Mexican heritage of Los Angeles.

So Rene Garza, Alejandro Valencia and I composed a wonderful piece of music based on KMEX’s branding concept, Aqui Contigo. We titled the song with that idea in mind and created a piece of music recorded with some of the best studio musicians in the country. Recently, Chava Garcia, the station’s marketing chief, created a work using the instrumental version of the song against the on air personalities in iconic locations in the City of Angels. In the near future, the entire 2:00 piece, with vocal, will air. Until then, here is a sneak peak at “Aqui Contigo.”

It's pretty cool when you get to work on a project that you know is a hit, a project that you know the client will love, and a project you know will get their fans talking.  And sharing.  But then you look at your glass and think, "Wow, this Kool-Aid is really great!" and sometimes you forget about what the people out there really think about your work.

And then your project gets listed on AdAge's Top 10 Social Media Campaigns from 2011, and you remember - yea that really WAS awesome.  And if your project was anything like our Facebook application "Immortalize Yourself" created to launch season four of HBO's hit show True Blood, then your conversations had something to do with any or all of the following: "vampires, witches, werewolves, Alan Ball, Anna Paquin, Alexander Skarsgard, Ryan Kwanten, Kristin Bauer, Deborah Ann Woll, HBO, Social Media, Facebook, complex Flash layering, detailed motion design, great creative, great script, personalization in full motion video, high availability, cloud farms, CDN's, open source, high performance where every millisecond in processing counts, and integration with multiple SaaS providers and their API's" (quoted from our CTO Paul Hernacki).



Thanks to all those folks at HBO and Definition 6 who worked on this project. And a special thanks goes to the fans - who shared this and have Immortalized Themselves and friends in countless videos over the course of this campaign.  In the end, it's all about creating content that is shareable, likeable and "tweetable." We are glad this one did.

Since season four of True Blood is over, we have moved the application from HBO's page to the Definition 6 Facebook page.  If you have not already IMMORTALIZED YOURSELF, go there today and make your video.  Share with friends.  And live on into eternity. 

Check out this video that shows some of the Definition 6 team integrated into the "IMMORTALIZE YOURSELF" Facebook Application.

The next time you hear someone playing Angry Birds or checking-in using Greensquare from inside a bathroom stall, make a mental note with yourself to never borrow their phone. In fact, you might want to start avoiding all other phones from now on.

According to this infographic by Keeping It Kleen, 16% of all smartphones have poop on them. Yuck! And unfortunately it's not just phones that you have to worry about. All tech gadgets from keyboards and iPads to TV remote controls are covered with germs. It's enough to make Howie Mandel take another shower (he's an admitted germaphobe who showers 5 times or more a day).

Take a guess. What is dirtier: Your keyboard or a toilet seat? Toilet seat? WRONG. The average keyboard is 5x dirtier and has 60x more germs than your average toilet seat. Say hello to your new office mate. Her name is Bacteria. And the next time you stay in a hotel and want to worry about the bedspread, wake up and smell the poop. The TV remote is the dirtiest object in the room!!

If you want to make sure your phone isn't part of the 16% that's covered in poop molecules, then try to break out some Purell or rubbing alcohol on a regular basis and give it a good cleaning. And the next time you see a coworker or family member walk out of a bathroom with an iPad, make sure it wasn't yours.

In fact, social media provides such immediacy that the water cooler conversations have gone away and are taking place at the virtual "lounge" (aka Twitter, Facebook, other preferred social media platform).

In a recent Jack Myers blog I elaborate on this further, but it definitely has spurred some controversy among my networks. 

When I posted the water cooler idea on my personal social media "stations" there were, of course, some contrarians.  One said "You're still thirsty after using social media." (funny) But another was even more specific, saying, "I think the whole social media thing is over blown. There was no social media during Tiananmen Square. The Soviet Union fell without Twitter and Facebook. When freedom rings, the masses answer."

True enough....but...

The world saw all that on TV not in the square or at the Wall.  And everyone talked about it the next day.  Not much changed in China, and the Wall didn't come down because of an outpouring of global social action through moral outrage and word of mouth...it came down because it was time, and Ronald Reagan said so!

Social media is now our most effective "word of mouth tool."

So let me ask you - do you agree with this water cooler analogy? 

As holiday decorations in stores change and the first snowfall passes, I can’t help but think about the busiest retail season of the year that is right around the corner.  As an email marketer, this means increased frequency, and a higher tolerance to frequency from your subscribers, as well as promotions kicking into high gear.  However, as an email recipient, the next few months represent the most clutter I get from brands all year long!

I’ve put together my top 6 tips to hold your holiday (and all campaigns in general) together as you finalize your messaging and creative and start sending messages.

1. Reinforce that you know me and get personal. – Use the profile information you gather and personalize your messages to me.  Include my name, information about store hours or shipping windows based on my location, reference prior purchases and cross-sell relevant items to complement what I already own.

2. Understand my buying patterns and deliver timely and relevant messages that match up to them. – If you analyze your data and apply some common sense and a little marketing savvy then it will be easy to segment your subscribers and understand where each group is in the bigger picture.  Let’s simplify this: I bought a warm winter coat within the last year (that should last longer than that.)  This tells you that I need warmth but probably won’t want the same kind of coat.  How do you then sell me winter wear when you have great deals? Market a coat in a different category to me (dress, sport, or something I don’t own), Market other winter items to me – gloves, pants, shoes, etc. if they’re part of your offering.  ** The big key here is don’t tell me that the item I bought last year is now cheaper or technology is significantly lagging because you’ll just frustrate me!

3. Give me something exclusive for being a subscriber: value, content, discounts, etc. – Be unique and tie the exclusive content in your email to the action you want me to take (see below.) Don’t have a 20% off coupon in print, social media, email, and on my website.  If I don’t get anything special why would I remain a subscriber when there are much more passive ways I can get the same deal.

4. Make me want to open your email and load images with interesting visual design that renders well on my client. – Understand if I’m more likely to read my email on my smart phone, tablet, or computer and design so it looks the absolute best there and be different. Imagine what kind of success you could have if your email was personal, focused, and not cluttered!

5. Share similar peoples comments and feedback that are like me (because I trust them more than you)  – Pull in feedback on related items from other channels (social, reviews) into your creative.  This is a great way to let your customers be your voice and also grow following and participation in other channels.  It also makes the copy more interesting if it’s from a “regular” person.

6. Inspire me to take action and reward me for it! – Use a clear call to action (never more than two though, especially this time of year), make it easy for me to convert, pre-fill my information, and reinforce the fact that you know how I got into your conversion funnel and reward me as I move through the steps (hopefully 3-4 max).

You may think that it’s too late to implement these steps into your holiday campaigns but as with everything there are varying levels of implementation so start somewhere and pull out a test segment. Let performance guide you to continual optimization and really solid insights move your campaigns into 2012 as you are planning that email marketing strategy and calendar.

The most fascinating part of the past few weeks for me was the realization that with my 36th birthday came the notion that I could have been born and graduated from high school all over again since graduating from high school.

I’ve always wished there was an interactive marketing version of the reality TV show Shark Tank, or something akin to a digital marketing version of American Idol or X Factor. I’ve also always wanted to be a rock star even though I have absolutely no serious musical talent apart from my claim to fame of briefly appearing as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady and Action in West Side Story while in high school. Pretty far from Rock Star status. But I recently had both wishes granted and it was an awesome experience.

Last week I had the incredibly interesting opportunity to journey to Taipei to co-host an annual event called Interactive@Taiwan. This event brings together leading interactive agencies in Taiwan to host a meeting featuring select speakers from abroad whose companies have gained some degree of international recognition for their work in order to learn from them. Each agency participating sends a cross-functional team that then competes over the course of three days to ultimately present the best concept based on a Challenge Brief. The featured speakers work with each agency team in workshops to refine their ideas and concepts in a near crucible-like environment to arrive at a final presentation, which then is judged by the speakers, with awards granted to the best concepts.

While previous years they focused mostly on the creative aspects and invited speakers like the ECD’s of companies like AKQA and W+K, this year they wanted to focus on the importance of technology in combination with strategy, marketing and creative… they looked to companies who have really brought technology and creative together in a unified manner to make a difference.

I was pretty honored when they reached out and invited me based on their awareness of the great work we’ve done for Coca-Cola on their Open Happiness campaign and the work we’ve done for HBO’s True Blood.

It was also pretty cool to be in the company of the other speaker, Nathan Martin, the CEO of Deep Local which brought the world the Nike Chalkbot and Nog Pong. I can say that in the course of the week I gained a tremendous amount of respect for Nathan and the work Deep Local does.

We set the stage for the event talking about how our agencies marry the fields of creative and technology, art and engineering, marketing and digital, all while staying true to the importance of understanding the brand, the personas of the target market, the desired business results, and the importance of the insights and big ideas. We talked to them about our different models for how we do this to come up with truly innovative ideas and then be able to execute on those ideas. From there we issued them a challenge that basically involved them coming up with concepts for one of their current clients or prospects that involved both digital and post-digital executions that were “outside the box” and leveraged technology beyond simple basics or common approaches.

For two days straight we met with every team in succession, one after the other, several times a day. They brought concepts for brands like HTC, China Trust Bank, FamilyMart, Heineken, Giant Bikes, Samsung and more. It felt like Shark Tank with the weird aspect of being one of the judges and critics. I’m definitely not always right- just ask my wife, my boss, our CMO, or our ECD. But it was amazing to see how much they valued my input and commentary on how to improve their ideas and executions.

Not every idea was great, and many took a long time to work through to something really cool and viable. But in the end, 10 teams from 10 different agencies presented amazing ideas and concepts. There were a few that were fantastic, others that were great, and others that were good and just needed some work. I definitely learned things. I learned how agencies on the other side of the planet are thinking and operating. I learned areas where they are well ahead of the West like RFID/NFC, QR, and mobile gaming. I learned how they operate against very different demands, budgets, and cultures. I hope they learned a few things from me too.

Lastly, my hat is off to the people and culture of Taiwan. I did not deserve it, but they treated me like a rock star while I was there. They are some of the most hospitable people on the planet, I have rarely felt so welcome and well taken care of, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I only wish everyone back here in the U.S. thought I was as smart as everyone over there did.


Added bonus: While I was there it was Taiwan’s 100th anniversary. Fireworks abounded. Very cool to see. Watched it from the top of a building in Taipei thanks to a guy named Mouse and his company Webgene .

There's been a lot of coverage regarding Facebook's recent changes, but what do these updates mean for marketers?  Overall, the key features that Facebook announced place a huge emphasis on engagement. The key takeaway is that it will be increasingly important for marketers to create and share compelling content and experiences on a consistent basis in order to stay relevant. 

Below is an overview of the main changes and their relevance for marketers.
   
Timeline: Timeline will replace users’ old profile pages, and allows users to aggregate and organize all actions taken on Facebook that matter most to them. Users can highlight important life milestones and group content and actions (videos/photos/posts) with that milestone. It also allows users to edit their timeline, even back to the time they were born. Facebook applications can also display actions taken with that app in the timeline (if user permission is granted). 

What it means for marketers: Actions that are most important to users will appear on the Timeline – think status updates and photos rather than day-to-day actions like ‘Liking’ a brand. These day-to-day actions will be shown in the Ticker (see description below). That means that brands will need to find ways to appear in the timeline, and one way to do that is by creating social applications that engage their audience. 



Timeline cover: (increased image space to customize)
Source:  Facebook.com/about/timeline

Social Apps: Social applications allow users to add storytelling into their timeline. Think verbs instead of nouns. Instead of ‘liking’ a band, users can express they are ‘Listening’ to that band; ‘reading’ a book, ‘running’ 3 miles, etc. Additionally, now brands can create custom social actions like ‘flying’ ‘cooking’ ‘drinking’ or any other verb. These apps all utilize Facebook’s Open Graph, and users can give permission for these apps to post their activity on the Ticker and Timeline. 

What it means for marketers: Brands have the opportunity to create social actions through branded applications. The action won’t only say “Ashley ran,” but “Ashley ran 3 miles with Nike+.” All of these actions will appear in the Ticker (see below), but brands can request that the actions appear in the Timeline (increasing exposure). The goal for brands will be to generate frequent actions within users’ timelines.

In addition to creating branded applications, advertisers will be able to deliver sponsored stories against social actions, and even segment for more accuracy. For example, it will be possible to promote to all "listens" from the band Coldplay. The new sponsored stories will only be generated from applications, but advertisers don't need to own the app where the action takes place to target against the behavior. 
 



Example of social apps within a user’s Timeline: 
Source: Facebook.com/about/timeline

News Feed update & Ticker: Facebook updated the news feed, changing how stories are presented to users. The Facebook homepage is now organized by Top Stories and Recent Stories, with Top Stories being displayed much more prominently than recent stories. The first updates that a user will see when logging in are the most relevant posts since their last visit – whether that was 3 days or 3 months ago.
   
Facebook’s algorithm will play a role in determining what are “Top Stories,” but users are able to edit their feeds, either by unmarking a Top Story, or marking a Recent Story as a Top Story. (Screenshot below). Facebook will then learn from this behavior and serve the most relevant content as Top Stories. 
 


Ticker – Facebook has also added the “Ticker” to the top right corner of the newsfeed. The Ticker streams live updates – think day-to-day activities like tagging a photo, liking a brand, commenting, and other Open Graph actions. The thought here is that less important updates are displayed in real time, and don’t distract users from the more relevant stories. Users can join the conversation by clicking on one of the stories in the Ticker.



What it means for marketers: Users now have more control over their news feed, so it becomes more important for brands to share compelling content (rich media, like photos and videos, help to naturally boost EdgeRank – Facebooks algorithm). Brands with irrelevant updates will have lower visibly (but will still appear in the Ticker). Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm will play a major role in determining whether brand updates are seen, but branded social applications and sponsored stories can increase the likelihood of a brand message reaching a mass audience. 




Here are some resources for more information:

http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2011/09/22/Facebook-f8-Timeline-Announcement.aspx

http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebooks-changes-marketers/

http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/Facebook-Timeline-Social-Apps-Branding.aspx

http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-feedback-loop-2011-09

What do you think about Facebook's changes?  Let us know in the comments below, or reach out to us on Twitter at @ashleyhreed or @accarrino.

Recently, I had the pleasure to attend the ExactTarget Connections 2011 Conference in Indianapolis, IN.  One of the sessions I attended was for insights on designing email marketing to be actionable.  I learned a few ways to get subscribers to engage more with email marketing rather than just read it.