Facebook Home: What is means for advertisers

Facebook just had a press release about Facebook Home. Our summary below. If you want to see the event you may find it here (when available from Livestream).

Summary for the lazy ones

• Facebook want to turn your phone into a newsfeed called Facebook Home.
• Other operating systems to come.
• Some Android users may Download Facebook home 12.april 
• No need to change anything for advertisers, really. Just create great content.
• Ads to Facebook Home will not be available at the launch, but maybe later.

Bottom line: 

For now, don't worry about anything than your content. 

Geek summary

Well. A bit more geeky, at least.

From apps to news feed

Today our mobile life spins around apps (browsers are also an app). Facebook is the by far most used app in time spent. 

Top apps in time spent

Facebook thinks our life should spin around people, not apps. For that reason, Facebook launches Facebook Home, a layer that connects the apps on your phone in a different way. 

The main news are the gui, the home screen, and the chat heads,

The home screen

The home screen will be like your newsfeed. Stories passing by

• Read more, comment, like and share directly from the home screen
• Options from the home screen will be messaging, Facebook or see your apps

Apps available one click away from the home screen

Chat heads: Fight for messaging

Messaging will always be available from the home screen from Chat heads. Click a head no matter which app you are in and you will see the dialogue. 

Platforms and operating system

Facebook will not make a Facebook phone. They will not stick to Android only, but is launching on Android now (because Android is more open, of course). 

Tablets to come in some months. Other OSs also later. 

HTC will be the first phone with "HTC First". A phone sold in US with the telco AT&T. Other operators to come.

What does it mean for advertisers?

• If Facebook succeeds, the status updates are even more important. They take control of the home screen for the users of Facebook Home.
• Your content will be even more important. The content will be the hub.
• Facebook willl bring ads to coverfeed eventually, but they’re not their at launch. There’s also no video stuff, no group stories. 
• No changes needed at all for now.

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Facebook changes: all apps to sandbox mode

Earlier today Facebook announced a change to how new apps are created.

All apps created from today will start from in sandbox mode. The main reason for the change is that Facebook wants apps to be tested before they go live. This is what Facebook writes on their blog:

Starting today, all newly created apps will be in "sandbox mode" by default. This hides your app for people not listed as admins, developers or testers, so you can build your app without worrying about other people accessing it. When you are ready to take your app live, sandbox mode can be toggled off in the basic settings area of the App Dashboard.

What it means

• When you have created an app and are ready to go live, you must toogle off sandbox mode.
• You can play around with an app before its live. Good for testing.

Bottom line: the change is good for those who appreciate testing, but bad for those who tend to forget stuff. We will for sure see examples where page owners forget to make their applications live.

Sandbox mode

The app we are testing (Page Metrics) is only visible for page admins.

How to fix (Fanbooster customers)

Per now it is not possible to toggle the sandbox on and off outside Facebook. This means you have to log in to the admin panel after you have created an app. Please contact us if you need any help. You may also use our web site chat to get in touch with our support team.

1. Add to page as usual

2. Go to Change App Settings in Facebook

3. Disable the new Sandbox Mode! 

By default sandbox mode is set to Enabled. Choose Disabled to make your app live.

When possible, we will implement the sandbox-toggle directly in Fanbooster. Until then we will take care of our customers manually. No need to worry, really.

How to fix (All)

Sandbox mode

The app we are testing (the yellow one) is only visible for page admins.

How to go live with an app

1. Find your app in the list or click more

2. Pick your app from the list or use the search field

3. Click Edit settings

4. Disable the new Sandbox Mode! 

By default sandbox mode is set to Enabled. Click Disabled to make your app live.

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System Updates March

Another month has come and gone and our Dev team has been busy making some changes and upgrading the Fanbooster system. Keep reading to find out more about this month's system updates.

Statistics on the URL shortener

fb.st has gained a lot of popularity among all of you and with that was a big request to be able to see the statistics of the URL's being generated and hence being clicked on. Now be able to see a comprehensive view of all your short URL's  - number of hits, what countries your clicks are coming from, who & where the referrers are coming from and what the overall traffic is looking like.

Picture contest updates

We launched this widget with the last system update and this month we have spent more time working with small fixes and upgrades to make it smoother to work with. The most important updates are:

1. Filtering & viewing of images received via the picture contest has now made easier in the fanbooster widget system & on the app in facebook in 2 ways -
a. A more powerful search box that allows you to filter down images even with 1 or 2 characters
b. Stay in the same image pop up and easily browse filtered images  by pressing the previous / next buttons

2. Image pop up in preview fixed - When the widget was placed at the bottom of an application and the app was previewed, images were being cut and not displayed properly. This has now been fixed.

3. Like / Share breaking the Gallery - In the descriptions fields of like & share if the enter button was pressed it would result in breaking of the gallery. It now works smoothly.

4. Back & Forth Arrows on Images: It was noted that when viewing images on mobile the back & forth arrows were in fact too small and did not allow the user to navigate images. Now 20% on each side of the image is clickable and take the user back & forth to images when viewed from a mobile device.

5. Shared image link from Mobile: When clicking on a shared link from the mobile the user was direct to the default page. This is now fixed to ensure the user is taken to the app on the default page.

6. Custom Title & Description fields: When using the form and creating custom title and description fields the same are now reflected in the image pop up when viewed.

Form widget

1. Success Message on From Submission: The success message now shows the message on the part of the screen the user is currently viewing preventing the user from scrolling to have to see it.
2. Spam Prevention: We have made our form more secure and faster to responding to possible spam attacks that could be coming in.

TAB-in-TAB:
Minor updates to make sure the user always gets to the correct tab.

OTHER UPDATES: 
1. URL shorter & Special Characters: The URL shortner now supports special characters such as ø,å,æ & can generate a short URL out of URL's that have these characters.
2. Invite widget: Facebook has now set a limit of 60 characters for the invite widget. The widget center will now alert you when you exceed this limit.
3. Instagram Widget: We have made an improvement that now allows your tab with the Instagram widget on it to handle more traffic.


That's all for now folks. Keep a look out for the next system update & for now do write into us with any bugs or suggestions you might have for the widget system

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New Facebook news feed starting today: What is it and what does it mean?

Facebook had a press event earlier today about their new news feed. Read our summary below and our thoughts on what this means for advertisers.

Summary for the lazy ones

• More space for content.
• Advertisers will have the possibility to target more.
• More sub feeds introduced. (fees for photo, video etc, close friends etc)
• More important with pictures.
• Stories may trend.
• Less content next to the news feed.
• Changes implemented today.

Bottom line, spend more time on your pictures.

Geek summary

• How we use the news feed has changes. The number of photos has increase to almost 50 % and post from pages are almost 30 % of the total shares stories

Based on the changed user behavior, Facebook has changed the news feed. The focus is more on photos and making the user experience similar on all devices.

New news feed design

Detail: News feed content when a user likes a page

Detail: Most shared

Detail: upcoming events

Trending articles

Multiple news feeds 

A typical Facebook user refresh their news feed pretty often to get the latest news. We are simply infoholics and always want more updates. To allow the user spend more time on the news feed, Facebook launched multiple news feeds. More time spent on Facebook is of course similar to more possible ad spendings

Each user will have several news feeds. You can choose to show newsfeed from close friends or with some specific content type like music, photos or others. Facebook will use Graph Search to categorize the news feeds.

What does it mean for advertisers?

• Your page cover photo is even more important. It will now be visible in the newsfeed
• Facebook will work on all devices. 
• There were no news about changes to applications and no new ad formats.
• ..but ads may be even more targeted based on the sub feeds.

To sum it up. You have to work even more on your photos and cover photo. In addition you will soon be able to advertise directly to a specific news feed category. For example music news feed for artists.


See the full press event from Facebook below.

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Facebook clicks: Mobile vs desktop

We all know mobile is booming. Even grandparents use smart phones to read papers, take pictures of their grandkids and play sudoku. We know we use smartphones to check our Facebook feed. But how many clicks on links are there on mobile vs desktop?

Clicks on Facebook links

Based on statistics from fb.st we are able to track the total number of mobile clicks from a mobile vs desktop device. Below are the total average of all clicks on the most used shortened URL on FB.st from 1.Juli 2012 to 28.february 2013.  

1.Juli 2012 - 28.February 2013 for fb.st URLs

The numbers are an average of fb.st URLs in the last half year. 35.48 % of the clicks are from mobile. A majority of the clicks are from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and United Kingdom.

But please remember, this is an average. A further look at the data shows there are huge differences in countries, industry and what is being communicated.

Click per industry

To give you a brief intro into the differences. The graph below shows the click percentage from mobile in five industries. There are also pretty big variations from case to case, ranging from 5.85 % (insurance company) to 59.76 % mobile clicks (fast food company).

The conclusion must be that mobile is a definite factor and no longer a trend. That said it is important you track for yourselves how your users behave on the different devices.

Statistics from  fb.st

The URL shortener fb.st is mainly used for Facebook posts and gives a good indication on Facebook activity.

The example to the right is a good example of how fb.st is used. When the fb.st-link is clicked, we track which devices have been used and can create statistics based on this input

These statistics are all based on fb.st URLs. Several million clicks have been used for this study. But remember. Only links with fb.st are in these numbers.

Working Facebook applications on both mobile and desktop

All Fanbooster applications have a fb.st URL. When the fb.st URL is clicked, Fanbooster automatically directs the user to either a desktop or mobile version of the app.

fb.st is a customers only product. That makes it spam-free and more trustworthy for the user.

Facebook application, mobile and desktop version

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Meet the Eggums

Its about time you meet the Eggums. If you are a Fanbooster customer, you might have run into one of these guys.

The story starts on a rainy day in Copenhagen. Apple has just launched the iPad. The 72 year run of the soap opera The Guiding Light ends as its final episode is broadcast. In The New Theater in Copenhagen David Plouffe, Barack Obama´s campaign manager in the 2008 presidential rally, is  giving an extraordinary key note to a packed audience. Among the audience is the 53 year old Norwegian serial entrepreneur Olav Eggum. Olav was about to sell his shares in the online project management software Projectplace and was enjoying life. 

Seconds before David Plouffe entered the stage

David Plouffe described how the power of social media had made Barack Omaba President of the United States. Olav Eggum was stunned. This world was new to him. He needed to know more. 

Olav jumped on the plane back to Norway and had a drink with Vegard Eggum, his youngest son. Olav was overenthusiastic about how Obama had managed his campaign and was eager to start a new venture in the social media sphere. Vegard and Olav agreed to dig into the world of Facebook. Vegard ordered a bunch of books. Olav finished his drink.

Olav wanted Vegard to leave his full-time job as a rockstar to be, and join a new venture. Vegard agreed on one condition, Olav had to give him a promise: They should never compromise on the business culture. The company should always be filled with passion, honesty and fanatical support. Olav promised. A few weeks later Fanbooster was born in the Eggums hometown, Kongsberg.

The first move of the Eggums was to get a third Eggum on board. The oldest son, Erik Eggum, was the obvious CEO for Fanbooster. In the strict regime of Erik, they built a CMS for Facebook presence and the customers started rolling in. Why, is some sort of a mystery. The Eggums never had time to sell nor market Fanbooster. The common conception among the Fanbooster employees is that the good karma of the Eggums made things happen in those early days.

Fanbooster is still headquartered in Kongsberg, a city founded on silver mines and has given the world superstars like A-HA´s Morten Harket, the psychic Marcello Haugen and the ski jumping brothers Asbjørn, Sigmund and Birger Ruud. In the last year Fanbooster has opened offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Sofia, Bangalore, London and Berlin. Nevertheless the Eggums remain the soul, heart and backbone of the company serving as Chairman, CEO and Product Rockstar.

Olav Eggum, the old guy

Don´t be fooled by the dull picture. Olav is most likely one of the youngest old men out there. Its somehow strange, but Olav is the one keeping us all updated on new technology and trends. Spending lots of his time crawling social media and keeping up with all the new tech stuff.

Most heard from Olav is "check this out", "anyone know this guy?" or "need another drink?". Olav is always eager to pursue new business opportunities.

Want to be Olav's friend?

Erik Eggum, the CEO

Someone has to fix everything. In Fanbooster, Erik is the one. He probably knows everything that goes on in the company. Being the older Eggum-brother, Erik keeps a friendly, but strict eye on all of fanboosters, including his own family. Erik's management strategy is to make sure all employees are having a tremendous time at work, but never letting a single customer down.

Erik can´t drink beer without aquavit, the infamous Norwegian liquor no one really likes.

Want to be Erik's friend?

Vegard Eggum, the product champion 

Vegard´s goal in life is to befriend every single person on the planet. The only thing holding him back from meeting that goal is that he has trouble breaking up from the people he meets. He thinks all people are nice so he simply tends to help them until they´re happy. In Fanbooster, Vegard is the product champion. He is probably the individual in Norway that has built the most Facebook apps.

Vegard spends most of his time outside social media on music. Check out one of his music videos below. It's the last one he made before joining Fanbooster. 

Want to be Vegard's friend?

Vegard is the guy tree climbing lead singer with the cool sun glasses. 

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Vegard´s secrets: How to use Google Web Fonts in Fanbooster!

-Learn how to master Facebook with Fanbooster-

This is the first post of a series of tips&tricks regarding use of Fanbooster, and Facebook in general, written by me - Vegard Eggum, Fanbooster co-founder & Facebook geek.

How to use Google Web Fonts in Fanbooster!

In this post I will show you how to make use of Google Web Fonts in Fanbooster.

Many of us would like to use some cool looking fonts in our apps. The easiest resource for this is Google Web Fonts. It gives you the opportunity to add that little extra to your app.

Step 1:

First off - go to http://www.google.com/webfonts

Browse through the fonts and pick one. Click Quick-use:

Step 2:

Copy the the code of your selected font.

And paste it in an HTML-widget in your Fanbooster app:

*REMEMBER TO CHANGE THE LINK TO HTTPS!

STEP 3:

Head back to see Google Web Fonts and copy the font name:

Paste the font name in the font family field under the Style Settings in Fanbooster:

-----

Then - BOOOM - the text in your Fanbooster app is now using your chosen Google Web Font!

Here you can see GWF in action in a Easter-quiz template that we just released in our platform.

And remember; our templates are completely customizable so if you want to customize anything - you can! :)

Now - go play!

If you have suggestions on topics that you would like me to write about - please feel free to drop your suggestion on our Facebook Page!

PS: you can also download fonts from Google Web Font if you need the same font incorporated in your design. 

/Vegard

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