Facebook Attempts to Ma...

Click on the Insights tab on your Facebook Page and you’ll find a wealth of information. There are graphs and grids, percentages and mini bullhorns. So much data! And yet, every time I try to interpret the data, I come away more confused than ever. I’m a smart girl. I read. I ask questions. And still, Facebook Insights leave me more perplexed than not. I’m being straight with you, so hear me out. Part of the problem lies the contradictions: I have less “Fans” but more “Friends of Fans.” I have two posts with the same Reach, same Engaged Users but one has a virality score of 1.91%, the other is zero. How is that possible? A lot of the problems stem from the fact that Facebook can’t just measure clicks like anyone else. They had to make up their own vocabulary to go with their metrics. In the end, the best thing you can do with Facebook metrics is use them as a benchmark for future stats. If my best virality score is 1.91%, anything higher than that means I’m moving up in the FB world. Today, Facebook admitted there was a problem: In recent months, we’ve been gathering feedback about our Page Insights tool. What we heard is that we need to make Page Insights more actionable. It should be clearer to businesses how to use this information to drive the results they care about. And they finally broke down and agreed to change their silly terms to words we all understand: So moving forward, we’re including clicks in this metric and renaming ‘virality’ to ‘engagement rate’ to be clearer in our definition. Hallelujah. Next, they’re breaking their People Are Talking metric into its parts so you can see how people actually interacted with the post. Was it a like, a tag, a check-in or did they leave a comment. They’re expanding that effort with a new data card for all posts. It looks like this: Right now, you only see this type of metrics on posts you paid to boost. Looks like going forward, it will be available for all. Now this is data you can use. Finally, they’re adding a level of depth to the People page. Instead of just reporting who saw your page, they’re now giving you details on who interacted with your page. Again, so much more helpful.

In Spite of Data ‘Fears...

Hey, you can’t blame Facebook for wanting more data on its users. Marketers want it and will pay for it so Facebook is looking for new ways to provide it. The latest comes in the form of a free wi-fi offering that is being used in the San Francisco area. Wired reports The idea of offering people free Wi-Fi in exchange for their physical coordinates began at Facebook as a one-off experiment, a project by two engineers during an all-nighter in May 2012. Since then, Facebook has gradually spread what it now calls “Facebook Wi-Fi” further and further beyond the company’s corporate walls, deploying the system to cafes in Palo Alto and San Francisco and even into a line of routers made by Cisco. The growth of Facebook’s free internet offering underscores the extent to which the social network is trying to vacuum up more and more information about its members, including their physical movements, and how valuable such data has become in selling advertising. Once again, based on the hunger by marketers for more data and the money that is on the line this kind of offering should surprise no one. The question is whether the users of this service will truly know that they are being tracked and watched by Facebook to an even greater degree than normal? And the next question has to be, do they even care? The service would work like this Intended for use in businesses like cafes, Facebook Wi-Fi asks users to “check in” at the business location using their Facebook account. Once they do, or once they click a small opt-out link, they are granted wireless internet access. Pretty slick. Will it get a more widespread roll-out and adoption? If these experiments prove that more data can be collected on a user than the answer is likely to be an emphatic ‘Yes!’. People love free things, especially wi-fi, and don’t worry much about what they might be sacrificing. If nothing else comes from the recent brouhaha over the government and the information it gathers on US citizens, it will be a greater understanding of the relative indifference of the Internt using public to these concerns. The US is very much a ‘it won’t happen to me’ culture (that is until it DOES happen to someone then the outrage hits the fan) and Facebook, along with other Internet companies, are banking on it. Hey, it’s a free market and it appears that the market will bear it for now, so why not? What’s your take on this one? Good idea that will be widespread or just a one-off?

Google Looks to Distanc...

In the wake of the leaks by Edward Snowden, many tech companies have been looking to distance themselves from the controversy by releasing how many requests they receive for information from the US government. The latest to take that step was Yahoo! yesterday which followed suit with the likes of Microsoft, Apple and Facebook . Google is taking this battle to the next level as reported in the Washington Post Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests the court makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it is forced to give the government. The legal filing, which invokes the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about broad National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic. Google has long told users of certain government information requests in transparency reports over the years but until this latest big brotherish revelation from the leak at the NSA, it seems as if no one really cared much. We stopped reporting on these updates because our readers clearly were unmoved by the information. Now, Google now wants to get ahead of the rest of the pack and move their efforts for transparency to another level. In its petition, Google sought permission to publish information about how many government data requests the surveillance court approves and how many user accounts are affected. Google long has made regular reports with regard to other data demands from the U.S. government and other governments worldwide, but it has been forced to exclude requests from the surveillance court, which oversees an array of official monitoring efforts that target foreigners. Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo in recent days have won federal government permission to include requests from the court as part of the overall number of data requests they receive from federal, state and local officials. Google has rejected that approach as too imprecise to help users understand the scope of its cooperation with federal surveillance. Google is very good at playing the political game. They should be since the Obama administration is littered with current and former staffers coming from the tech giant in addition to its not so subtle backing of President Obama’s election efforts. So what does this mean to the end user? Probably not much since most Internet users are happily using the Internet regardless of what is being collected. These games are being played at higher levels and are ultimately around stock prices and money which is what drives all corporate decisions. If I sound cynical I am since any altruistic moves by companies can always be traced to the current or potential economic impact on the company with almost no exceptions. In the end this is all public posturing as this quote points out indirectly Even overall numbers of surveillance court requests would offer insight “only at a very high level of abstraction,” said Stephen Vladeck, an American University law professor. “I don’t think we’ll learn anything other than how pervasive this practice has been. . . . It will only be a piece of a much larger puzzle.” So where are you on the Internet and privacy? Have you changed your online habits since Snowden went public with the NSA’s practices? Have you kept a close eye on the impact of these actions? Since most of our readers are much more invested in the Internet space than the average citizen, if it’s not impacting you then the John Q. Public likely doesn’t have a clue or doesn’t care. That’s just the way it is. We’ll keep an eye on the ‘big’ aspects of this story but let’s all face it that the truth is we are all being watched and that is unlikely to change. No matter how much companies jockey for PR positioning in the end they will likely need to cooperate with the government and we, the public, will probably never truly know to what degree. In the meantime, we’ll give Google the lead in the “look at what we are doing to protect our users stock price” race and just move on as if nothing has changed because it probably has not and likely will not.

Small Business Lessons ...

Like many kids, I once tried selling lemonade in my neighborhood on a hot, sticky, New Jersey summer day. I was excited when customer after customer handed me a dime in return for a short Dixie Cup of overly-sweetened drink mix. When the lemonade ran out, I was rich! What to buy. . . what to buy. . . Then my mother informed me that businesses have to pay expenses before claiming the profits. She tallied up the cost of the cups and napkins, sugar and lemonade mix and presented me with the bill. Whoops. Guess I should have charged more per cup. Rather than revise my business plan, I filed for bankruptcy and closed up shop. Thankfully, the bank of mom agreed on a greatly reduced settlement. Lesson learned. That was a long time ago, when people still walked around neighborhoods and carried change in their pockets. These days its even harder to run a profitable lemonade stand but lifestyle blogger Kim Stoegbauer from TheTomKatStudio.com has a few tips for young entrepreneurs. (And we won’t tell if grown-up entrepreneurs learn a thing or two as well!) Donate: Donate the proceeds to a local cause. Or encourage people to pay it forward and buy a cup for a fellow neighbor, the local postal worker, or dog walker! Advertise this on the booth using large signs and have brochures about the local cause available to hand out to customers. Grown-Up Tip : 41% of consumers bought a product because it was associated with a cause . It’s not only good for business, it’s good for your karma. Just add Iced Coffee: Expand the offerings to include other beverages like refreshing iced coffee to appeal to parents. While kids enjoy sweet lemonade, parents can sip International Delight Iced Coffee, which offers a variety of authentic coffeehouse flavors and light options for an ice cold pick-me-up that suits every taste. Grown-Up Tip : This information was sponsored by International Delight (There’s even a fun lemonade stand kit to go with it) but the concept is still sound. Expanding your line to include related items is a great way to add a few dollars to every sale. Yesterday, we went to Starbucks for coffee but ended up buying a muffin and an over-priced bottle of water. Add-ons work. Promote: Build a marketing campaign for the booth, a great way to meet the neighbors! Your children can create signs to advertise the booth at corners around the neighborhood, directing traffic to the stand. Tell your friends on your private Facebook page or through a text message or email. Grown-Up Tip : Do I really need to expound on the benefits of wide-spread promotion? Timing and location are critical : Encourage kids to research events coming up that would have good foot traffic moving past their lemonade stand. For example fairs, baseball games, street festivals and outdoor concerts are great options for good sales. Grown-Up Tip : Timing is also essential for social media campaigns. You may work 9-5, but if you’re customer shops online at midnight, that’s when she needs to see your sales Tweet. Here’s another post of ours about social media timing . Incentivize : Create incentive programs to keep children interested in their business throughout the summer. If they choose to donate the earnings, plan a special trip to the organization to drop off the check. Or if they are saving up to purchase something special, establish a “Money Earned” chart showing how close they are to their goal. Grown-Up Tip: Incentives work for grown-ups, too. Reward your employees with bonus perks especially after a big push to finish a project, run an event or a crazy time of the year. (Christmas in a toy store?) You don’t have to give out expensive gifts, small things like a pizza party for lunch or even a $10 Amazon card goes a long way toward insuring employee loyalty. Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community

Google’s Local Search C...

Local search, especially for restaurants, is getting much more interesting as Google rolls out its local search ‘carousel’ to desktop search. It is available in English in the US only for now. Basically, how one ranks in the carousel will be the new ‘victory’ for local search. The post on Google+ announcing the update tells us Starting today, when you search Google for restaurants, bars or other local places on your desktop, you’ll see an interactive “carousel” of local results at the top of the page. Give it a go—type or say “mexican restaurants,” or try any similar search for restaurants, bars or hotels. Click on one of the places in the carousel to get more details on it, including its overall review-based score, address and photos. If you want to see more places, click the arrow at the right of the carousel. And you can zoom in on the map that appears below the carousel to restrict your search to only places in a specific area. While some iPad and Nexus tablet users have seen this new look since December, we’re excited to expand to desktop. The interactive “carousel” is rolling out in English in the U.S.—we’ll add more features and languages over time. Take a look for a search I did in Raleigh. It is going to take some time to get used to and will now put even greater emphasis on certain local businesses getting control of images, reviews and more. What do you think?

Most Serious Mobile Con...

On occasion I get a report that is ‘pitched’ to me that is really well worth the read. Today, that report comes from Econsultancy in association with IBM Tealeaf. The report titled “Reducing Customer Struggle 2013″ covers a lot of ground. Too much in fact for one post so I cherry picked one piece of data that might be either reassuring (as in “Phew, we are not alone!”) or upsetting (as in “I want that problem to go away now!”) to those concerned with the mobile aspect of your company or brand. Apparently, some of the biggest issues of the mobile space are regarding navigation and screen size with an increasing level of concern around filling out forms on a mobile device (which usually sucks for me at least). Not a surprise but it is something that needs to be brought to the forefront so that it can be handled by the industry. Personally, I can’t tell you how many times poor mobile navigation or improper sizing has hurt my experience with a brand. Here are the most serious issues the companies see facing their customers in the mobile space according to the findings. Do you agree or do you see it otherwise? Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!