Facebook Timeline Launch for Brand Pages

FACEBOOK TIMELINE LAUNCH FOR BRAND PAGES AN MWW WHITE PAPER

PHOTO BY JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

OVERVIEW AND STRATEGIC RESPONSE FOR ‘F8’ PLATFORM CHANGES

Facebook recently announced major changes that will significantly change its appearance, impacting the way that both consumers and brands use the platform.

This document provides an overview of these updates and MWW’s recommended strategic response to the changes.

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OVERVIEW AND STRATEGIC RESPONSE FOR ‘F8’ PLATFORM CHANGES

TIMELINE

WHAT IT IS: The biggest change, called “Timeline,” will dramatically change the appearance of Facebook profiles.

All the biggest and most important moments of one’s life will be curated and presented in a simple and elegant stream of history. Through timelines, users can showcase their identity and history in a more complete format.

• The new Facebook format will require an increase in brand creativity • Revamped Facebook advertising and applications will provide new and different opportunities to reach new people • W ithout the right strategies, it will be increasingly difficult for brands to reach customers on Facebook

One particularly noteworthy feature of Timeline is the addition of “cover pages” for profiles. Users can upload a photo or graphic that they feel represents themselves as a welcome banner to their friends.

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OVERVIEW AND STRATEGIC RESPONSE FOR ‘F8’ PLATFORM CHANGES

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BUSINESSES: Our Facebook contacts have told us that the format for Timeline will be very similar for brands as for individual users. Like user timelines, brands will be able to tell more complete and robust stories on their pages.

A shift will take place. Content will move away from one-dimensional status updates to more integrated media such as pictures, videos and audio content. Not only will brands be able to update their timeline to reflect current updates, but they will also be able to go back into their history and add content accordingly. Uploading a brand’s very first TV commercial or a picture of its first store will create a deeper emotional connection with customers that is not available within the current format. Brands will now be able to share their histories in more meaningful ways with their fans.

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Further, MWW sees the new“cover pages” feature as a great opportunity for brands to showcase new products and campaigns to users who visit their pages.

TIMING: Timeline has already launched for a limited number of individual users and will be rolled out to all users in the near future. While the launch date for brands has not yet been announced, Facebook representatives have told us that it will be available “soon.”

We are in regular contact with Facebook and will inform our clients of the launch date as soon as it is shared. We will also provide detailed recommendations as to how to move forward in order to accommodate Timeline for brands.

Timeline is going to require brands to think carefully about the type of content they share. With platform emphasis on multimedia, it is going to be integral for the overall messaging of a brand’s Facebook page to include photos and multimedia. Optimizing the page for fans will be essential in maintaining the base, attracting new fans, and engaging with everyone.

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OVERVIEW AND STRATEGIC RESPONSE FOR ‘F8’ PLATFORM CHANGES

TICKER

WHAT IT IS: Another change to Facebook is the addition of a new feature called “Ticker.” Ticker bears resemblance to Twitter in that it functions as a realtime feed of friends’ activities on the platform. Short snippets of stories (e.g. Mary likes John’s status) will appear and, by hovering over any of these updates, users can then view the full story. This allows users to keep an eye on their friend’s activities in a format that doesn’t clog up their newsfeed.

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WHAT IT MEANS FOR BUSINESSES: Activity on apps, as well as music, photo and video sharing will be given more weight than simple ‘likes’ and generic updates. MWW is taking these changes into account as we move forward with editorial calendars and planning for our clients. We view this as an opportunity for our clients to create even more compelling experiences for fans on Facebook via truly engaging and rich content.

Fewer brand updates will be viewable in users’ newsfeeds.

Instead, they will be relegated to the fast moving Ticker. This means that it is critical for brands to work even harder to post engaging content likely to be shared by fans. This content will help brands can maximize their reach.

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OVERVIEW AND STRATEGIC RESPONSE FOR ‘F8’ PLATFORM CHANGES

APPLICATION

WHAT IT IS: Facebook is also continuing its quest to make all activity even more social.

Their developer tools have been enhanced to help optimize all activities for social sharing including apps built on Facebook as well as those built on third party websites and mobile applications using Facebook’s Graph API. These apps will feed directly into the Timeline and Newsfeed, giving them more visibility across the platform.

As part of this change, the “like” will now be complemented by new types of user actions. For example, a user will now be able to share that they are “cooking” a recipe, as opposed to simply “liking” a recipe. An example of this change can be seen with Spotify (our new favorite digital music

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service!). When a user listens to a song on Spotify, a post is automatically pushed to the user’s profile and to their friend’s Ticker. The post will appear as “Nick listened to…” and feature a playlist of the music they have listed to so that users can easily listen to the music that their friends have listened to.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BUSINESSES: You could look at this as an opportunity for “free” advertising through the creation of a Facebook application.

Brands can also be creative by creating their own action words (such as “eating”, “flying” “capturing”) that use “like” functionality.

Brands will now have the opportunity to reach the friends of people who use their applications. Every time a person interacts with their application and a story is published to their wall, friends of that user will be more enticed to click and interact with that brand.

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OVERVIEW AND STRATEGIC RESPONSE FOR ‘F8’ PLATFORM CHANGES

MWW is excited about the changes that are coming and see this as a tremendous opportunity to increase visibility for brands across the platform. Facebook’s continued changes will give brands new opportunities to cultivate real and engaging relationships with consumer for many years to come.

We look forward to continuing to work with our clients to navigate the ever-changing world of social media and, as always, we will keep our clients posted on new updates as soon as we receive them.

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OVERVIEW AND STRATEGIC RESPONSE FOR ‘F8’ PLATFORM CHANGES

ADDENDUM Facebook’s new premium ads enable users to interact by taking simple social actions.

The ads are geared to increase trust in a brand and increase overall engagement with brands on the platform:

LIKE ADS Like Ads drive engagement by sharing how many of their friends already like the page, which in turn increases nonfans’ trust in the brand.

EVENT ADS Facebook users can RSVP to a brand’s event, which spreads word of the event to the user’s network, increasing the visibility of the brand.

VIDEO COMMENT ADS Sharing videos with Facebook users spurs comments on the content, not only giving feedback to the brand, but also spreading the message to that user’s own network, driving up trust in the brand by non-fans.

POLL ADS Poll ads ask questions and allow Facebook users to immediately see results; when a poll is taken, the action is published to the user’s newsfeed thereby increasing organic word-of-mouth for a given brand.

SAMPLING ADS Sampling ads allow users to sign up to receive a sample from a given brand; the action is posted to their newsfeed, which not only increases brand visibility but drives trial for new products.

SPONSORED STORIES Sponsored stories highlight brands by word-of-mouth recommendations that already exist organically on the platform, providing recommendations from one user to another. These new ads amplify your branded content throughout the platform, allowing you to reach a larger audience.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Mitzi Emrich

Chief Social Media Strategist 646.837.9418 | memrich@mww.com

MWW

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