First and foremost, read this from Facebook. It’s a great description of the changes.

Or if you learn by doing, log-in to Facebook, go to Insights and use the question mark roll-overs as your guide.

The highlights as we see them:

- A heavy shift to engagement: Brands are shifting to quantity and quality on Facebook (vs. just quantity). The new metrics of “People Talking About This” and “Reach” directly coincide with this shift. They hit at what people are doing with your content and give you a sense of the potential reach you could achieve.

- Page posts get prioritized: Which content is working? This will tell you. And it broadens the range of what working means based on your objective. Reach + Engaged Users drive at awareness; Talking About This and Virality drive at conversation.

- Infusion of ad data: Reach is a term media buyers understand and we see the terminology of Stories enter the picture here. With Reach we can now see how people were reached – via Organic, Paid or Viral. Viral may be a lower percent of the whole than expected for some brands. Paid may also bootstrap Organic and Viral.

- The reality of daily Page views: If any brand ever questioned the value of Facebook’s edgerank algorithm this data is here to humble many of us. We at Fluid have been hoping Facebook would add repeat visitor data for a long time, the addition of Page Views and Unique Visitors gets us closer. And I think many brands will be surprised at these daily numbers. Bottom line for the majority of brands: The Wall is where it’s at.

- Who’s talking the talk and walking the walk: Demographics of your fans remain in Insights. What gets interesting is when you compare the demographics of your fans to the demographics of who’s Talking About This. Any discrepancies are a big opportunity.

Bring on more data. We dig it.

Cheers,
Amy

That said, Fluid and our clients have been experimenting with ways to change that. Especially amongst core customers who are likely to be big brand advocates.

First step = edge rank. This is the algorithm Facebook uses to prioritize what makes it to Walls and which friends or Fans see it. This article from econsultancy gives a good overview.

Show and tell: Here are four posts that yielded great response rates as a percentage of their Fan bases in the last week.

1. Sears Footwear Fashion First
Key point: Albums get showcased beautifully in Facebook’s new photo layout. Sassy red shoes and anything affiliated with the Kardashians (Sears has a Kardashian Kollection for shoes) spark interactions.

2. Craftsman
Key point: Mystery makes people want to show off their knowledge – even if 40 people have already posted the same answer. The Monday Mystery Car for Craftsman also fuels conversation amongst the community.

3. Ride NSS
Key point: What Fans talk about in social mirrors what they talk about socially. Skateboarders want to give you their opinion on tricks – just like they would at the skate park. Ask for opinions.

4. Protege
Key point: Keep it simple with either / or options. They’re easy to answer, they fuel the fire behind people taking a side and they encourage voyeurism to see which option wins.

Cheers,
Amy

Fluid got to take the stage at eTail East’s Social Commerce Summit last week. So fun. We share our presentation with you here:

I dragged and dropped colleagues (we digital geeks are in Google+ in full force) and friends into circles. I hung out in Hangouts (my favorite feature) and scrolled through Sparks. I floated like I was in a neighborhood without the grounding of profile houses.

Then I watched logged out and watched my Facebook wall scroll with Google+ opinions.

What is Google+? David Pogue of the New York Times explains it well.

The top seven things that strike me:

1. Exclusive invites: Google excels at invitation-only. Gmail invitees forgot to care that their emails were being used for ad targeting. We still don’t mind. The club with the red rope is enticing. Even if we don’t know what’s inside.

2. The “not yet public” launch: Google has downplayed this launch. The NYT blogger above stated “it’s unfair to mention bugs because the service isn’t even public yet.” Really? Put a product launch behind a invitation wall, say it’s just a part of a bigger whole and people will concede on criticism. Brilliant.

3. Aimed at Facebooks’ achilles: Circles within Google+ strike Facebook where it’s weak – filtering and content distribution to specific friend networks. Within 3 minutes I could see streams of content coming only from my work connections. It’s easy.

Plus drag and drop is fun. Remember when digital driving what happened offline was exciting? Now we’ve moved on to Smart Phone and tablets changing the way people interact with computers. Polyvore caught on early. Now it’s everywhere.

If they want to issue a double blow, Google+ needs to kick in search. Hard. Facebook is notoriously lacking in search. (Does anyone else love that the Google+ name can be rough in search because the + can be a command or a proper noun?)

4. Competition as key publicity: The earliest stories about Google+? Mark Zuckerberg is the most popular person on it. No it’s not surprising he’s on it. But it didn’t hurt Google+ that the media gobbled this up and ran with it. He’s since activated his privacy settings – which has sparked a whole other set of stories.

5. Brands as different entities: Brands and Facebook took a while to get their footing. Google has decided to treat brands differently than regular users. Now brands are chomping at the bit to get in. Ah the intrigue.

6. Sparks to shift traffic: Here I can pick topics sorted by categories of interest. It’s the social network version of the “I’m feeling lucky” button. It’s also a smart way to circulate traffic around to all sorts of destinations. I see it as a twist on search.

7. Alluring hangouts: Video chat across Circles of friends – or however you label your Circles. Up to 10 at a time. Consider it a tame version of Chat Roulette. Or a collaboration tool with colleagues. It’s addicting.

The core issue for me? Definition.

- Facebook is my constantly updating database of everyone I’ve ever known.
- Twitter is my stream of cutting edge digital examples and conversation.
- LinkedIn is my source for new candidates and where, out of intrigue, I sneak a peek at who’s viewed me.

Google+ right now is about what it can do vs. what people are actually doing with it. It’s full of tire kickers. And people thinking hard about the product vs. its purpose.

When the story shifts to what people are doing with Google+ I’ll be logging in more frequently. Google+ needs to become a means to an end or ends.

To me Google+ is like sitting in a theater watching a movie that is getting rave reviews and trying to figure out the big deal. But better. Because this is a make your own adventure movie. And since it’s social no one person can define it alone. It’s going to take the masses – and some time. Which is likely why Google released it “early” anyway.

With this many digeratis in the mix I predict the definition(s) won’t take long.

It’s purpose won’t be to voyeur pictures of old prom dates or to see how life has treated people from grade school. Facebook (thankfully) has that covered.

Plus with Google+ I’m choosing my circles carefully.

What are Sponsored Stories? A great name for ads created from brand relevant content that is produced by Facebook user actions. Important: These ads are only seen within a users friend network.

The included actions: Likes, check-ins, actions within custom applications and Page posts. User postings on brand walls can also be used.

Best case description: Brands are highlighting relevant content that a user may have missed in the steady stream of their Walls.

Worst case description: User actions are unwittingly being turned into brand endorsements without any kick back.

This is not unlike what Gmail does by selling ads based on keywords within emails, although these Facebook ads are more overt with the identification of the user and their action. Twitter Promoted Tweets are also similar – although Twitter’s solution is more closely aligned with search ranking or a Digg model. It is also based on aggregated, anonymous data.

Why are Sponsored Stories important:

- They are a new ad format for Facebook. They dip a toe in the old Beacon pool but don’t dive in fully. I think this is the major reason why they’re launching with lots of non-profit partners – which is smart. Users are going to be a lot more amenable to, and potentially lenient towards, non-profits than to for-profit brands.

- These Stories reveal what many users don’t fully understand when they take Facebook actions. Their actions are public. And so is the data affiliated with each action they take. Other than Etsy’s holiday gift finder, there have been very few uses of this data. Sponsored Stories are at the forefront of what could be a personalization frenzy. We’re all watching for the consumer reaction.

- The success of the responses may override any risks brands see as affiliated with these Stories. Facebook has seen great results. Brands are hungry for great results – especially given the average CPC and click-thru rates they are likely seeing.

- Users cannot opt out of this functionality. Let the PR work and product positioning begin.

Sponsored Stories are currently available for testing via the self-admin platform (which Fluid is doing right now). Strong opinions can be found, as always, in the blogosphere.

Cheers,
Amy

The four examples you need to see:

1. Etsy’s Gift Guide

The best use of Facebook liking data that I’ve seen yet. Pick a friend and Etsy matches their likes (and interests) to Etsy products. It’s a peep show of the possibilities this public data holds.

2. J.Crew’s Very Merry Gift Guide

This stands out for two reasons: 1. Talk about beautiful, curated collections. It tells a story that makes me forget that it’s cross-sell. 2. Of-the-month offering. Subscription selling finally meets style. Why aren’t more brands doing this? Expect them to be doing so in 2011.

3. Victoria’s Secret Gift Cards (on Facebook)

Sharing gets sexy. Not only can you comment on photos from last night’s holiday party, now you can share a gift card – without ever leaving Facebook. Buying just got easier for last-minute Lucys. (Starbucks has Facebook gift cards too).

4. Coach’s Gift List (on Facebook)

The ripple effect of Polyvore permeates this design (as it continues to do throughout fashion). Drag and drop from Coach’s yummy collection to a wish list within Facebook – and affiliate each item with a friend.

Who’s going to top this in 2011? Fluid has some tricks up our sleeve. Exciting.

Happy Holidays,
Amy

The score according to the study? Twitter followers are more likely to recommend the brands they follow to friends (33% vs. 21%) and to buy from them (37% vs. 21%).

My interpretation: This is misapplied competitiveness. I’m the first to egg on arm wrestling, cage matches and ego over ability efforts but these channels serve different purposes. Consumer expectations and interactions vary accordingly. The channels can amplify and augment each other. I will be using this data to make the case for each channel independently.

That said, I’m going to cheer on Forrester’s winner with three of my favorite Twitter examples. Share these with your creative team to spark ideas. After all, both mediums need ideas to survive.

Uniqlo’s Lucky Counter: Every tweet means the price gets cheaper. For a set time in September Uniqlo posted a collection of clothing with the simple call to action – more tweets, lower prices. Flash sales meet GroupOn with a twist of simplicity.

World Cup Cheering: Yay open API. The Guardian in the UK created an interface to visually watch the tweets affiliated with each World Cup game. It brings new excitement to goals. Ghana vs. U.S. is my personal favorite.

Diane von Furstenberg’s Fall Collection: In a convergence of social and shopping Diane von Furstenberg integrated iconic lip rollovers on their imagery to let users Tweet or Like in context. (Click on “Shop the Catalog”)

Reminder: I’ve also posted this entry at ad:techNY. Let me know if you’ll be in town for the event next week!

*Thank you* to the people behind the “people’s choice” Adweek Buzz Award! And special thanks to our great clients at Rachel Roy and the Jones Apparel Group. We’re thrilled to get this recognition for the facebook pop-up store for Rachel Roy!

(more on the facebook fan shop and why it worked here)

I wonder how NBC feels about that? They (and everyone else) better figure something out because timezone delay is doomed.