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How to Triple Your YouTube Video Views With Facebook

November 26, 2012 / Emeric Ernoult / No comments

Do you want more people to watch your YouTube videos?

Are you looking for an easy way to improve the quality of the content you share on Facebook?

All you need is some great content and a cool Facebook technique that I recently discovered.

A Quick Overview

This technique lets you automatically attach your videos to the updates that appear on Facebook after someone likes content on your website.

By leveraging Facebook’s Open Graph and using this technique, I’ve seen phenomenal results!

I shared this tactic with a brand operating in the travel industry and they generated more than one million aggregated views of their product videos on YouTube (and significant website traffic) in a matter of weeks.

By integrating this Open Graph tactic, Marmara, a French travel company, generated 93K likes on its website, which in turn generated 13 million impressions of their videos in the Facebook newsfeed! Not to mention the 16K clicks they got back to their website. All in just 2 weeks and for free.

Using this technique, you can see in the image below that when you like an article on a blog, the story that’s automatically generated on Facebook for your friends to see already has a video embedded into it.

With this feature, each blog article that you write automatically shares a video of your choice.

This is a great way to boost the visibility of your YouTube channel! If you want to see this example live, you can click here.

And this video is ready to be clicked and played in the Facebook newsfeed, ticker or personal timeline of the person who liked your content.

This can be valuable to your business. It’s a very smooth way for you to combine useful and interesting content with a video showcasing your products or services!

Imagine how you can use this tactic to get your product videos shared automatically with useful content throughout the social web.

In this article you’ll learn how to use Facebook’s Open Graph to get more views of your videos on YouTube.

You’re also going to learn how to get everyone who likes your Facebook Page or one of your blog posts to automatically share one of your videos on Facebook.

Understanding the Open Graph

If you have a website or blog, you’ve probably already integrated social sharing buttons, and in particular the Facebook Like button on your site.

For this tactic, simply installing the Like button is only half of it; you must also insert Open Graph meta tags into the source code of your website or blog page to optimize the sharing of your content on Facebook.

These meta tags let you control the manner in which your web page is shared on Facebook when your visitor likes it, comments on it or sends it to friends via the Like, Comment and Send plugins provided by Facebook.

If you’re not familiar with Open Graph meta tags and their importance, I encourage you to watch Facebook’s video on the subject.

I also encourage you to consult the official Open Graph protocol page. There you’ll find out about all of the different meta tags, their uses, their functions and the advantages they give to your content.

Of course, if all that seems a bit too technical, don’t hesitate to hand over the reins to your agency or technical director.

But let’s continue so you can fully understand the role this tactic can play in your social media marketing and what it can mean for your business.

Here’s what you need to know.

#1: Understand the Anatomy of a Facebook Like Story

Once your Open Graph meta tags are integrated into your web page, you can control the way your content is displayed when it is shared using Facebook’s social plugins (Like, Comment, Send).

You need to think about the different sections of the post that automatically appear on Facebook when someone likes content on your website.

For example, here’s what the optimal sharing of a blog article would look like:

Here are the different sections of the update that appear on Facebook after someone likes your article.

By customizing each Open Graph meta tag in your content, you control the way it’s displayed on Facebook when someone likes it!

As you can see, the essential meta tags are the following:

The title of a shared page (meta property=”og:title” content=”Your title”)
Its description (meta property=”og:description” content=”Your description”)
Its URL (meta property =”og:url” content=”Your URL”).
The image illustrating this page (meta property =”og:image” content=”http://link_of_an_image.jpg”)

Below are the Open Graph meta tags for this article when I display the page’s HTML source code. To access the HTML source code of any web page, just right-click on it and select View Source. You’ll then have access to the HTML code of the page you are viewing.

Here are the Open Graph meta tags needed for this technique.

When the meta tags are entered correctly and a visitor clicks Like on your web page, the content is automatically and properly displayed on Facebook.

You’ll find out how to use this technique below.

#2: How It Works

If a photo is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand photos! This is especially true in the case of a Facebook newsfeed story generated by a Like of a web page.

Let’s compare the two Facebook Like Stories below:

The Facebook post on the top has a photo, and the post on the bottom has a video embedded in it that is ready to play.

Depending on how you use Facebook’s social share buttons and Open Graph meta tag code, the same Like can generate two different posts on Facebook: one with a single 200-pixel–wide picture, or one with the same picture but with an embedded video!

These two posts correspond to the same action: a click of the Like button on a web page for a product—in this example, a vacation resort. But in the first case, the action displays a 200-pixel–wide image. The second displays, within that same image, a Play button for a video. As you can guess, viewers are more inclined to click on that image if it displays a video Play button.

This is the primary difference between these two posts, but it doesn’t stop there.

You see, the simple act of clicking on the Play button immediately shows a video, without having to leave the post. As a savvy marketer, you’ll know how to use this to your advantage to market your business.

This technique makes it very easy for marketers to have a useful product video appear inside the Facebook update about liked content. With the right content mix, this can be a strong marketing strategy.

Click on the Play icon located on the picture and you will automatically watch a video showcasing the product that you liked: a vacation resort.

For a vacation resort, a one-minute video highlighting all of the destination’s attractions has a larger impact than a 200-pixel–wide image.

But a tactic like this is not just for vacation resorts. It can be very useful for a number of products.

In the case of a blog, you can use this tactic to enrich Facebook posts when a person likes one of your articles.

For example, if you have video tutorials introducing the functions of your products or showing them in action, you can use these videos to highlight products related to the content in your blog articles.

How this works.

Here’s an example of how I used this.

I wrote an article introducing the different page administrator roles created by Facebook, discussing their advantages and limitations.
I created a video tutorial demonstrating how AgoraPulse offers richer admin role management features than the ones offered by Facebook.

Then I set things up to automatically attach and display my video when my article is liked and therefore shared on Facebook.

This is how the update appears in Facebook when someone likes my article published on my website.

It’s easy to increase the value of a blog article by attaching a video. This makes your content much more attractive.

Each time a reader likes this blog article, it automatically shares a video tutorial explaining how to manage Facebook Page admin roles with the aid of a Facebook Page management software tool.

This way, you have the best of both worlds: interesting content + relevant product promotion.

What makes this tactic so effective is that the Like automatically shares the video in Facebook, not only in the newsfeed:

Newsfeed before the click.

But also the ticker:

The ticker view.

And even on the personal timeline of the author:

The profile view.

Do you want to see this in action for yourself? It’s easy. Simply go to this blog article, click Like and then go to your Facebook profile to see the result.

Are you interested in doing this on your website? Here’s how to set it up.

#3: Use a Plugin to Add the Meta Tags

It’s easy to get each click of the Like button on your website to automatically share and display a video on Facebook. You just need to add two additional Open Graph meta tags after the existing tags in the code of your page.

As you’ve seen above, the minimum necessary meta tags are the following:

meta property=”og:title” content=”Your title”
meta property=”og:description” content=”Your description”
meta property =”og:url” content=”Your URL”
meta property =”og:image” content=”http://link_of_an_image.jpg”

Simply add these two meta tags:

meta property=”og:video” content=”http://link_of_your_video” /
meta property=”og:video:type” content=”application/x-shockwave-flash” /

So, how do you do all this? It depends on your situation:

If your site was created by an independent contractor and you don’t have access to the source code, you need to ask the contractor to integrate the meta tags.
If you created your site with WordPress, you can customize the Open Graph meta tags of your pages (and of each blog article) yourself using specific plugins.

If your website was created with WordPress, you can use a plugin called Like-Button-Plugin-For-WordPress, which allows the customization of Open Graph data. However, I’ve seen two other plugins that provide the same result: Open Graph Protocol in Posts and Pages and Social Graph Protocol.

Each of these three plugins lets you easily add the meta tags you need to share your videos with each Like on the pages of your site or blog.

Specific WordPress plugins will allow you to personalize the Open Graph meta tags for each page or blog article.

The only field you really need to fill in is the video link. Facebook will take care of the size and video type.

#4: Where to Host Your Videos and How to Share YouTube Videos

To display a video on the web, it has to be hosted somewhere on the web. You’ll be in one of these two situations: either you host the video file on your own servers, or you use a self-service video hosting service such as YouTube.

1. If you host the video on your own servers, you must host the file in the .SWF format. Be careful not to host the file in .FLV or any other traditional video format, as the video player that works with Facebook will not read it.

Then you simply need to set the Open Graph meta tag value as the URL of the .SWF file that you previously put online.

Insert the link to your self-hosted .SWF video file here if you use the Like Button plugin for WordPress, for example.

2. If you prefer to use YouTube to host your videos, you’ll need to follow these steps:

In a web browser, navigate to the YouTube page with your video.
In the URL, identify the YouTube ID of your video. This is the series of letters and numbers found between the “=” and the “&” symbols of the URL. In the following case, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlQasgOjaxU&feature=plcp, the ID of the video is “dlQasgOjaxU“.
Insert this ID into the following URL: http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/[yourID]
Once you have your new URL format, insert it in your browser to test it out. If the URL is right, the video should be displayed full screen (and fit your entire browser window).

Add this URL to your Open Graph meta tags and you’re all set!
Insert the link to your YouTube-hosted video here if you use the Social Graph Protocol Plugin, for example.

#5: Track the Statistics of Your YouTube Videos

If you’ve opted for hosting your videos on YouTube (something I strongly recommend), you’ll also have a clear advantage with access to your YouTube statistics.

You’ll be able to see the number of views your video has on Facebook!

The good news is that YouTube offers an impressive amount of statistical data on your videos, including details about the sources for views when videos are embedded on third-party sites like Facebook. This is great to evaluate the effectiveness of one source versus another.

The bad news is that the source statistics of a view are complicated to find on YouTube. To make it easy for you to find, here’s a short screencast:

And there you have it! I hope you’re inspired to use this technique to come up with creative campaigns and make the most of the potential visibility offered by Facebook!

What do you think? Is this something you’ll try? How would you use it? Does it give you some great ideas to market your business? I’d really appreciate you sharing them with me in the comments!

Category: emeric ernoult, facebook, facebook strategy, facebook video, How To, like button plugin, like button plugin for wordpress, open graph, open graph meta tag, video embed, Video Marketing, youtube embed /

9 Facebook Marketing Tips From Top Experts

August 21, 2012 / Cindy King / No comments

Are you looking for creative ways to improve your Facebook marketing?

Facebook continues to be the social media platform of choice for many businesses.

So we spoke with top Facebook experts to find out the hottest marketing tips businesses need to know today.

#1: Leverage videos more effectively on Facebook with Open Graph

Emeric Ernoult

My hottest tip is for those who sell products or services on their websites and have Like buttons attached to them: Share videos, not just still images!

Let me explain. When someone likes a product or service on your website, a story will be displayed on Facebook with a title, a description and an image. It will look like this:

A story will be displayed on Facebook with a title, description and image.

But if you have a video of this specific product or service, you can make the stories published a lot more appealing!

Imagine that every time someone likes a product, it will share a video showing that product in an attractive way or a demo of how to benefit from it—or if it’s a service, an interview of a client saying how he benefited from your service. The possibilities are limitless.

In the example below, when you like a vacation club of this travel company, you will share a video tour of that club. A lot more appealing than a 150-pixel–wide image:

You can make the stories published a lot more appealing with video.

It’s pretty easy to make this happen. Just add the following meta tags to your existing Facebook Open Graph meta data:

<meta property=”og:image” content=”image url” />
<meta property=”og:video” content=”video url” />
(if your video is on YouTube, the link should entered as follows: http://www.youtube.com/v/the-ID-of-your -video. The ID of your video appears in its original URL right after “watch?v=”)
<meta property=”og:video:type” content=”application/x-shockwave-flash” />
<meta property=”og:video:width” content=”width of your video” />
<meta property=”og:video:height” content=”height of your video” />

Emeric Ernoult, founder of AgoraPulse Facebook CRM Platform

#2: Experiment with posting outside business hours

Mari Smith

You have a fan page for your business, so it stands to reason you’ll want to publish your posts during business hours, right? That’s partially true. However, you may be missing out on reaching a huge portion of your fans by not posting outside business hours!

So experiment with posting during early morning periods (4 am-7 am ET), late evenings (10 pm-12 am ET) and on weekends. Then track what type of response you get. Don’t just try it one time and stop; mix it up each week. For example, let’s say you currently post on your fan page twice a day—make one post during business hours and the other post either early morning or late evening.

A recent study of 20 popular brands by Yesmail revealed that “campaigns deployed between 10 pm-12 am ET were an engagement goldmine. Based on volume, however, this timeslot was the least utilized for deployment.” And, “The most popular time of day to deploy campaigns was between 11 am-1 pm ET, while paradoxically, this timeslot was in the bottom 30% in terms of engagement.”

Another study based on 200 fan pages by Buddy Media shows that “ engagement is highest at 4 am, 7 am, and 11 pm, but that brands post the most during business hours.”

By the way, be sure to keep an eye on the location of your fans in your Facebook Page Insights. This is critical to know in which global time zones most of your fans reside.

Image from Buddy Media.

Mari Smith, author of The New Relationship Marketing and co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day (second edition)

#3: Find creative ways to add more photos

Andrea Vahl

Visual marketing is winning. Sharing photos is still the best way to get interaction. Photos are more visible than sharing a link and take up more space in the newsfeed than any other type of post.

Think of different ways you can incorporate more photos. If you are linking to a blog post, upload an image from the post as a photo and then share the link within the status update.

Upload an image from the post as a photo and then share the link within the status update.

If you have a quote, find a good royalty-free image and add the quote to it.

If you need something created to illustrate a particular point, find a good graphic artist to help you. If you are sharing a large infographic, create a smaller picture of it, and then link to the entire post in the status update.

When people comment on or like photos, they can show up in the newsfeed of their friends and are more noticeable than a link or plain text status update.

If people share the photo, your Facebook page name travels with that photo even if a friend of a fan then shares it. So your page is becoming more viral. Try incorporating more photos into your posts for a week and measure your results!

Andrea Vahl, co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies

#4: Use Sponsored Posts

Dave Kerpen

You want content from your page to reach your fans. However, because your content is competing not only with other businesses, but also with all of your fans’ friends, most of your content won’t likely be seen in your fans’ newsfeeds.

Only 16% of brand content organically reaches your fans on average.

Page Post ads allow you to have increased reach for content you want to ensure is seen by more people. For as little as $10, or as much as you’d like, you can reach a greater percentage of your fans through a Facebook ad. The content will show up in your fans’ newsfeeds as a Sponsored Post, and is an excellent way to get more impressions, likes and clicks!

We’ve used Sponsored Post ads successfully for dozens of clients and for our own Likeable Media page (see image below).

Sponsored Post ads are best for already-compelling content, such as videos, free whitepapers or webinar offers, or special deals. Plus, you can test Sponsored Post ads at really small budgets with little risk and then scale up based on your success.

Page Post ads are best for already-compelling content.

Dave Kerpen, author of Likeable Social Media

#5: Involve your fans in product decisions

PJ Jonas

It’s always great to have a big response when rolling out a new product. Whether that product is an information product or a physical product, involve your fans in designing an element of it.

As close to the product launch as possible, ask your fans for their input. Create a sense of urgency by sharing that you are making a final decision shortly and need their input now. If appropriate, include photos of the possible choices.

When you launch the product, thank them for their input and share what you decided on.

Recently we wanted to highlight and sell a bunch of soy candles. I asked on Facebook what scents our customers wanted me to make that day and got 72 responses.

Ask your customers what they want.

We made most of what was asked for and later that day, we posted a photo of the candles.

Share pictures of your product.

Our post stated that they were available on the website, and we sold a majority of the candles within an hour. By getting your customers’ input into the products you offer, they feel a sense of ownership and are more likely to purchase and share your product with others.

PJ Jonas, owner of Goat Milk Stuff, podcaster

#6: Utilize the new scheduling tool

Ben Pickering

Facebook allows page admins to schedule a post to be published at a later time. This type of functionality has previously been available through third-party publishing platforms, but is now accessible to everyone in the native Facebook environment.

Given the continuing unresolved reports that posts scheduled via third parties sometimes receive lower exposure in the newsfeed, there may be reasons to consider using this tool.

Using the scheduling tool can help ensure your messages are delivered at the optimal time to reach your audience, especially when used in conjunction with the location targeting feature.

Aside from not having to log in to post something at a specific time, you can save time by mapping out your communications plan and scheduling multiple messages in advance.

It’s important that not all communication be premeditated in order to remain timely and genuine, but many messages are appropriate for advance scheduling. And don’t forget to consider promoting your post to gain even greater reach!

Using the scheduling tool can help ensure your messages are delivered at the optimal time.

Ben Pickering, CEO of Strutta, a leading platform for social promotions and a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer

#7: Use contests to get more fans

Jim Belosic

Every day our users ask us the same question: “How do I get more fans?” Unfortunately, my answer is pretty boring: “It depends.” There are tons of ways to market your Facebook page and some are better than others. It really depends on your audience and your style of managing the page.

However, one method that I’ve seen work across the board is Facebook contests.

Contests have three main benefits: Getting existing fans to join the conversation, encouraging their friends to join in too and collect information from your fans, such as an email address. That information can be useful for bringing your marketing efforts outside of Facebook—with fans’ permission, of course.

Facebook contests are an effective way to market your Facebook page and there are many third-party apps out there that make it really simple and most importantly, compliant with Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines. Best of all, there is a contest app that will fit your budget. Prices for contest apps range from free to five figures a month.

It’s important to remember that not every Facebook contest is the same. Businesses have to test out different types of contests such as photo or video contests and see which resonates with their audience.

Marketing on Facebook is a trial-and-error process and an ever-changing challenge. Understanding your target audience and offering up incentives for existing fans to continue to check in with your business and new fans to follow your business are key to lasting success.

Jim Belosic, CEO of ShortStack, a custom Facebook apps design platform that helps businesses maximize their social media presence and potential

#8: Get active on your personal profile

John Haydon

Facebook is a friendly network where people connect with people. If you’re not using Facebook for your personal profile, you’ll never really understand user motivations.

It’s like learning to speak French only from a book and then actually visiting France. Those who live there will be able to tell you’re a foreigner in a matter of seconds. You won’t get their jokes, expressions, body language or any other unique characteristics of their local culture.

The same is true for Facebook. You can read all of the various books on Facebook marketing, but eventually you have to become part of the native culture in order to truly understand the language.

Are you interacting as a person with other people? Image: iStockphoto

John Haydon, co-author of Facebook Marketing for Dummies

#9: Allocate the resources needed

Mark Schaefer

Most businesses grossly underestimate the amount of work it takes to be successful on Facebook.

Your strategy should start with an honest answer to this question: “Do we have a company that consistently generates content that people will want to share and discuss—or could we become that company?”

Understanding the implications of this answer will help guide your Facebook presence.

Mark W. Schaefer, author of Return on Influence and The Tao of Twitter

Want to learn more about Facebook marketing?

Watch this video from Mike Stelzner (founder of Social Media Examiner).

If you’re not fully leveraging the power of Facebook, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Most businesses still haven’t figured it out.

There’s one easy way to take your Facebook marketing to the next level. By attending the web’s largest online Facebook conference, Facebook Success Summit 2012, you’ll become empowered to use Facebook to gain more exposure, better engage customers and grow your business.

The great part is you’ll be learning from 20 Facebook experts (including the 9 mentioned in this article).

It’s the web’s largest online Facebook marketing conference. Go here to learn more.

What do you think? Have you used these Facebook marketing tactics? Do you have any others to share? Please leave your comments below.

Image from iStockPhoto.

Category: cindy king, facebook, facebook contest, facebook marketing, facebook marketing tips, facebook post, facebook schedule tool, How To, open graph, page post ad /

Social Media Newsfeed: YouTube Partners | Facebook-Walmart Meeting | Tweet Archives

July 20, 2012 / Tim Sohn / No comments

Click here to receive the Morning Social Media Newsfeed via email.

Thousands of YouTube Partners Now Make Six Figures a Year (GigaOM)
Thousands of YouTube partners are making over $100,000 a year, according to Google senior vice president and chief business officer Nikesh Arora. YouTube had previously put the number of six-figure earners in the hundreds. SocialTimes If you took a sledgehammer to YouTube or Vimeo, you’d have Ptch. Backed by DreamWorks Investments, the social media iPhone app lets you create short movies from video clips and photographs, add music and filters and share the entire process with friends. ars technica Four YouTube videos that had apparently been taken down earlier this week due to dubious copyright claims by the music publisher BMG Rights Management have once again become available to American audiences. The videos showed President Obama singing the opening line of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.” SocialTimes Now, when you upload footage to YouTube that requires anonymity, you can blur out all the faces in the video in one click. When it comes to cats and dogs, it works some of the time anyway. Politico The Romney campaign sent YouTube an appeal letter on Wednesday asserting the footage in the ad, titled “Political Payoffs And Middle Class Layoffs,” was fair use under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and not a copyright violation. YouTube executives agreed with Romney. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Category: Audit Bureau of Circulations, BuzzFeed, facebook, Facebook sponsored results, google, Instagram, mark zuckerberg, Newsfeed, open graph, pinterest, Ptch, Reddit, Sheryl Sandberg, Social Media, social networking, tumblr, tweets, twitter, vimeo, Walmart, youtube /

Facebook Timeline and What Marketers Need to Know

January 24, 2012 / Maya Grinberg / No comments

Are you wondering how Facebook’s Timeline will impact your business and marketing?

Right now Timeline is currently limited to personal profiles and with no schedule set or promised for brand pages.

However, given Facebook’s history with design changes and how changes of this sort first get released to users and later on get applied to brands, it’s likely that Timeline is on the horizon for business pages as well.

This article will explore what the timeline means for marketers.

Timeline for Users

User profiles have been completely overhauled into a sleek new page with large cover pictures, featured actions, certain aggregated information and more.

At its core, Timeline is a chronology of a user’s life on Facebook, with items automatically appearing based on an algorithm intended to capture a user’s most important life events.

A few things to keep in mind:

Some objects are grouped together, such as all things a user Liked in a given month.
The more engaging an action, the more prominently it will appear and remain in the Timeline.
Users can manually add, remove, feature or de-emphasize Timeline events. In his keynote address at F8, Mark Zuckerberg enthusiastically demonstrated how a user can go back to the year of his birth and upload a baby picture.
Although historically, major profile changes have often been followed by similar brand page changes, there is no official word yet on whether brand pages will also be redesigned.

Objects get grouped together at the end of the month, such as all the Likes I subscribed to myself in November, and the friends I added.

Open Graph and Custom Actions

Last year, Facebook rolled out Open Graph, allowing brands to connect to a user’s Facebook social graph. This year, it rolled out significant changes, allowing app developers to create custom actions using any verb and object related to the activity taking place on the app.

These so-called “lightweight” activities can be defined by the app creator and pushed throughout the Facebook experience.

Here are the highlights, and how the actions affect Timeline:

The Open Graph integrates with the News Feed, Ticker and Timeline, making the app a key part of users’ and their friends’ Facebook experiences.
As users engage, the custom action appears on Facebook News Feed, and remains on the user’s Timeline; e.g., Jane cooked a recipe from Best Recipes app.

Changes to the structure of permissions allow a user to give permission one time for an app to post about that user’s activity on the app thereafter.

This is how you’re seeing so many more postings about what your friends are listening to, for example, if they’re using a social sharing music app like Spotify. It even gets its own designated spot in the Timeline and displays a running list of what the user is listening to.

Changes to the structure of permissions allow a user to give permission once for an app to post about that user's activity on the app thereafter. This is how you're seeing so many more postings about what your friends are doing.

What Should Marketers Do?

Now that we know what changes Facebook has made, brands and marketers need to figure out what they mean for social media marketing.

Based on Wildfire’s extensive experience running over 150,000 social media campaigns, here’s our take:

Likes are still very important. This is the way brands build their audiences, with whom they can communicate directly, and promotions are the best way to encourage Likes. Sweepstakes and instant-win campaigns are best for generating Likes; while contests, trivia, group deals and engaging pages are best for fostering engagement.
News Feed vs. Brand Pages. There had been recent talk of apps/tabs/pages decreasing in significance. Now deeper, more engaging actions are the ones that will appear in Top Stories and Timelines and are therefore more persistent within the social graph. Now the “lightweight” actions have been removed to the fast-updating Ticker. In this way, the more “important” stuff, like meaningful interactions with branded content, will remain in the “Top Stories” and Timeline.
Open Graph Connections are easier than ever. Facebook plugins, which are readily available for all domains, are easier than ever to use to increase your brand’s earned media. Decide which plugin(s) work best for your domain and install them to all relevant company properties, like your website and blog. Watch as visitors share the news of your brand for you on their own Timelines!

Having Facebook plugins well-integrated into your business domain increases the opportunity for brand advocates to spread the word about your brand, such as how Alain's Timeline reflects his activity on the Wildfire home page and blog.

Final Thoughts

Facebook Timeline is the newest development in Facebook’s quest to make over the Internet, integrating a social layer into every interaction and information node available. With Timeline, users have an increased ability to broadcast their lives (including any activity with brands, businesses, applications and services) to all of their friends.

These highly personalized interactions and the newly organized way of sharing them serve to lessen the friction among users and the connected Internet world. Preparing your brand to take advantage of Timeline is every savvy marketer’s first step in enhancing earned media potential.

Your Turn

Now that it is available to the public, what do you think of the new Timeline? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments box below. We’d love to hear from you!

Category: brand page, Business Page, custom actions, facebook branding, facebook business page, facebook marketing, facebook personal profile, Facebook Timeline, life chronology, maya grinberg, news feed, open graph, personal profile, Tools, user profile /

Facebook and eBay Introduce Commerce Platform

October 17, 2011 / Kenna McHugh / No comments

Facebook is adopting eBay’s commerce platform to create new social shopping experiences for hundreds of millions of consumers, according to a report from CNET.
continued…