Jul 28

Facebook announces new Q&A service

By Josh Facebook, Social Media View Comments

Facebook has announced the release of a new service, called Questions, that lets you ask questions to the Facebook community and receive answers from your friends, their friends, and the larger community. It will work similar to Quora, but with some additional enhancements. Don’t know about Quora, check out this blog post from Jeff Hilimire.

According to Ben Parr’s post on Mashable, Facebook Questions will have the following features:

  • Photo questions:  For example, if you take a picture of a bird, but don’t know what species it is, you can post the picture on Facebook Questions to get an answer.
  • Polling:  If you’re looking for the answer to a question like “Which is better: Coke or Pepsi?”- you can get an answer by creating a poll.
  • Tagging:  You can tag questions based on a certain category/topic, which will make it easier/faster to look up questions and answers on topics such as cooking, photography, travel, etc.
  • Topic exploration:  This feature will allow users to browse Facebook’s full library of Q&A.
  • Following:  You can follow specific questions for updates and new answers.

Facebook Questions will roll out to a limited group of beta testers today and will be rolled out to the rest of the masses in the future.

What are your thoughts about this new Questions service from Facebook? Would you use it?

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Jul 27

Facebook adds new features to Like button

By Josh Facebook, Social Media View Comments

Facebook has released a new feature for the Like button that will have a HUGE impact for those who’ve added the Like button to their website. Websites can now publish content directly to the news feeds of all the people who’ve clicked the Like button on a webpage.

This update will provide brands that have the Like button embedded within their website the same type of functionality as a Fan Page. For example, let’s say you “like” the movie Avatar on Best Buy’s website. With this new feature, Best Buy can send a news feed story to all the Facebook users who’ve liked Avatar. So, they could post on your news feed about an upcoming DVD special offer or let you know about an extended edition version of the movie. Webpages immediately become two-way communication channels.

Facebook also announced two additional updates for the Like button: commenting for the iFrame version and more robust analytics for optimizing performance. For more information, check out the blog post from Facebook’s Developer Blog.

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Jul 26

When is the best time to post content on Facebook?

By Josh Facebook, Social Media View Comments

This is a common question and one I’m always trying to get a good answer to as I post content for myself and on behalf of clients. According to a report from Dan Zarrella (who has a great website covering social stats/trends), the best time to get content shared on Facebook is during the weekend. This finding is not a total surprise as most companies block Facebook and Twitter from their employees.

From my experience, I’ve had some success posting content during the week, particularly later in the day between 7 PM EST and 10 PM EST. This allows those users who couldn’t access Facebook during the day and those on the west coast the opportunity to see the content. I’ve noticed several brands posting content very early in the morning, which almost guarantees none of the fans on the west coast will have a chance to view or even share the content.

What’s your experience with posting content on Facebook? Do you see more activity during the week or on the weekend?

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Jul 21

Facebook hits 500 million, launches Stories

By Josh Facebook, Social Media View Comments

As anticipated, Facebook announced today that it has passed 500 million users. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced this milestone via a video message on Facebook (see below). Zuckerberg also used this opportunity to announce the launch of a new application, called Facebook Stories, that allows users to share their Facebook story and describe how the social network has uniquely impacted their lives.

What do you think about Facebook hitting 500 million users and the new Stories application?

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Jul 19

Golf + Social Media = Awesomeness

By Josh Social Media, Twitter View Comments

One of the things I love about social media and sports is how it brings fans closer to the game/athletes. I’m a huge golf fanatic (if you’re a golf fan, be sure to check out my golf blog at iLikeBigPutts.com or follow me  @iLikeBigPutts) and one of the pro golfers that I follow on Twitter is Stewart Cink. He was one of the first golfers to embrace Twitter and has over 1 million followers.

Cink’s major sponsor, Nike Golf, came up with a brilliant idea in preparation for his title-defense at the British Open this past weekend: decorate his golf bag with tweets from his fans and followers. Nike asked users to submit their messages on Twitter and Cink selected his favorites to display on his golf bag.

What do you think of the mix of social media and sports? Do you follow sports stars on social media channels?

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Jul 16

Facebook offering FREE Credits

By Josh Facebook, Social Games View Comments

In an effort to get more users to play Facebook games (and ultimately start using Facebook Credits), Facebook is offering users 15 free Credits. I noticed the below message on my Facebook page yesterday. At the f8 conference, I attended a breakout session that focused on Facebook Credits and it was mentioned that Facebook would be offering users free Credits in the future.

Facebook has been aggressively meeting with developers to try to get them to use their virtual currency. Facebook has CrowdStar, LOLapps and RockYou using Credits exclusively in their games. Zynga, the creator of the most popular social game, FarmVille, has been more selective in terms of the applications that offer Credits as payment. Facebook has even pushed Credits to the mobile space with MyTown.

Have you noticed this message for free Credits on Facebook? Do you play any games that use Facebook Credits? If you’re not playing games on Facebook, would you use these Credits to experiment with social games?

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Jul 15

Starbucks reaches 10 million Facebook fans

By Josh Facebook, Social Media View Comments

A few days ago, Starbucks achieved a major milestone on Facebook as the first brand to surpass 10 million fans. Starbucks surpassed Coca-Cola as the most popular brand on Facebook last year and is now chasing the likes of Lady Gaga and President Barack Obama. If you’re interested in seeing a list of the top Pages on Facebook, Inside Facebook has a complete list here.

How did they become the first brand to reach 10 million fans? Starbucks has made social media, specifically Facebook, a major priority in their marketing. Great quote from Justin Smith (editor of Inside Facebook) via MediaPost that sums it up, ”Starbucks got started early, and over the last couple of years has actively used Facebook events, discussions, and notes in conjunction with well-coordinated ad campaigns to drive traffic both to physical stores and online promotions.”

You’ve probably seen or even participated in several of their promotions on Facebook. Last year, Starbucks added 200,000 fans to their Facebook Page in one week through a Free Pastry Day promotion (which drove more than 1 million people to stores). Their most recent promotion was the VIA instant coffee “Taste Challenge” – where fans received a coupon for a cup of coffee on their next visit as well as a $1 off a VIA purchase.

I do a lot of research on what brands are doing on Facebook and I can say that I haven’t seen another brand take this same approach as Starbucks. I realize Starbucks is a huge brand and is well known, but they are 4 million fans ahead of the next most popular fan pages (Skittles and Coca-Cola).  Their approach has been extremely successful in acquiring fans and more importantly, getting them to visit their stores and talk about their brand. It’s not a one promotion and then quit, they are always on “go” mode when it comes to Facebook.

What do you think about Starbucks hitting 10 million fans? Why do you think other brands aren’t taking the same approach as Starbucks?

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Jul 14

Foursquare, the Fox Theatre, & some History

By Josh Check-in, Social Media View Comments

Over the weekend, I was dragged … err I mean, I visited The Fabulous Fox Theatre with my wife to see The Phantom of the Opera (it was a great show by the way). Prior to the start of the show, I went through my ritual of checking-in via Foursquare and Gowalla (I’m down to only checking-in on 2 apps now, sorry to Whrrl, MyTown, & Brightkite). When I checked-in to The Fabulous Fox Theatre on Foursquare I received a notification from the History Channel with an interesting fact about the theatre (see below).

I had heard about a special campaign that the History Channel was running on Foursquare a few months ago, and I forgot that I had started to follow the History Channel on Foursquare until I received the above notification. The campaign on Foursquare was designed to promote a television event on the History Channel. When users check-in around different cities in the US, they can find historical facts about their location and unlock the limited edition History Channel badge.

For someone that enjoys learning new things, I thought this was a creative way for the History Channel to integrate into a mobile check-in app like Foursquare. It’s cool to see brands thinking outside of the box when it comes to social. The History Channel could’ve easily dismissed Foursquare as not a good fit, but found an interesting way to make it work.

Have you followed any brands on check-in apps like Foursquare and Gowalla?

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Jul 13

Twitter adds names to search results

By Josh Social Media, Twitter View Comments

Twitter has finally made it easier to find other users by integrating Twitter names/handles within search results. This has been one of my biggest pain-points within Twitter by not being able to find Twitter names easily.

Now when you perform a search for celebrities or brands on Twitter, the top three Twitter names will appear (See Chick-fil-A example below). It’s important to note that this feature doesn’t work on search.twitter.com as of yet.

What do you think of this new feature? What other changes would you like to see on Twitter?

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Jul 12

Grow virtual pot on Facebook (seriously)

By Josh Facebook, Social Games, Social Media View Comments

As if FarmVille wasn’t enough, you can now grow virtual marijuana plants on Facebook using  an application called Pot Farm. When I first learned of this app I thought it was some sort of joke, but I quickly discovered that it’s completely real. This app was created by a group of anonymous developers (not surprising) and tasks you with growing pot without getting busted by the forest ranger (all virtual of course).

The app works just like FarmVille: plant, grow, harvest, and sell your crops. There are several different types of marijuana plants you can grow, but each plant has a unique level of “Protection.” Since growing pot is illegal, you have to watch out for “Ranger Dick” who can confiscate your plants. The social features of the game are similar to other “farming” apps – you’ve got options to add neighbors, send and receive gifts, etc.

The Pot Farm app has received some significant buzz within Facebook and has almost 1 million active users. I have to admit, I was shocked that the app hasn’t been shut down, but the following disclaimer is present throughout the app:

THIS GAME CONTAINS IMMATURE SUBJECT MATTER AND IS NOT INTENDED FOR ANYONE UNDER AGE 21. ALL PLANTS AND SITUATIONS DEPICTED ARE ENTIRELY FICTIONAL AND ANY RESEMBLANCE TO REAL LIFE SITUATIONS OR PLANTS IS COMPLETELY COINCIDENTAL. THIS GAME SHOULD NOT BE PLAYED BY ANYONE.

If you want to see more of the app without having to install it (and potentially freaking out your friends & coworkers), check out the video below.

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