I was attempting to discuss with my husband last night why I think start-ups who are using NFC [Near Field Communication] technology for marketing will in the long run be more successful than those who used QR codes. The problem was, in explaining the two offerings (in this case Tapit versus QR Codes) they actually sounded identical. So the question arose - what does Tapit provide consumers that QR Codes did not?

The obvious answer is the ease of use - the fact that QR requires the installation of a barcode scanning application of some kind where Tapit does not. But is this really benefit / difference enough?

The light bulb moment was when I went to explain the technology behind Tapit (NFC) in more detail. NFC will eventually be a standard inclusion in all new smartphones and it's the other (non-marketing) functions of this new technology that are going to thoroughly embed the use of it in the everyday lives of mobile users. Examples include contact-less payment systems which will allow mobiles to replace credit cards as a method of payment (Coles & Woolworths have announced they will be rolling out mobile payments this year!). Ticketing is another - no more printed movie / festival / concert tickets or barcodes to be scanned on phones! And just think about the implications for public transport! Identity and security is a third and will quite likely replace i.d. documents and keycards. These are all oustanding consumer benefits which, combined with the simplicity and eventual availability of NFC in all mobiles will lead to habitual use of the technology and greater understanding of how to engage with it when marketed to.

After painting such a rosie picture though it's important to be realistic. The number one hurdle for marketers will be the length of time it will take for penetration. With the first NFC-enabled phone in Australia only having launched in December 2011 (the Samsung Galaxy Nexus android phone) and the average mobile contract length being 24 months - it will be a good 12-18 months before we reach a point in marketers eyes that the reach is worthwhile considering. In the mean-time? Lock in the test & learns!

We were very excited to tune into the live streaming of fMC in the early hours of 29 Feb and finally hear if all the rumours regarding paid ads & brand pages were true. Post-conference we unanimously agreed – the changes would be beneficial to the brands we manage & the opportunities to make use of the new offerings are endless.

The reality of course is that we, like everyone else, have until 30 March to turn everything around. And that’s just for the brand page’s themselves. Premium on Facebook has been made available to Australian media agencies to book & run pre-March 30 which has resulted in fast-tracked research to understand the new placements.

This is what we’ve learnt:

Your page is Mission Control

From 30 March your brand page home base and where it all happens – admin / insights, marketplace & premium placements, story creation, brand i.d, apps, etc.

Premium on Facebook

Our single most important learning about this new & improved placement – it is best used as a storytelling tool (there’s a reason Facebook avoided the word ‘advertising’). Which means as a brand you need to have a story to tell in the first place and ideally one that people are engaging with to get the best value out of it. If you are launching a new page, we think it’s worthwhile considering the use of Facebook Marketplace Ads first to build new fans, combined with a content strategy to get them immediately engaged on your page, closely followed by Premium on Facebook to help build the momentum.

Our second learning about Premium on Facebook is that Facebook has intentionally made it challenging to use this placement to send people directly to your branded applications. No longer can you default your brand page to your apps and there is no offering within Premium that lets you link to the application within the page iFrame. If you try to link to an app from within Premium it will send users to the app on ‘canvas’ which is a poor user experience. Knowing all pages are meant to be mission control, this didn’t make sense to me but after a bit of digging I found that Facebook had alluded to the fact they would prefer Premium to focus on storytelling.

For promotions, sampling & comps this poses a challenge but we discovered that Facebook Marketplace Ads do allow you to link to an application that is tabbed on a Facebook page so similarly to page launches we will be recommending to our media partners the use of a combination of Marketplace Ads for promotions & Premium for generating further engagement.

Profile Pictures

Where previously profile pictures as the sole branding opportunity on a Facebook page were used to tell a brand story (and updated regularly), we will now be using this placement as a consistent brand cue.  It’s important to remember that the majority of the time the profile picture will not necessarily be seen at full size on the brand page itself, but instead as the shrunken version in newsfeed posts and paid placements. The profile picture will also ALWAYS be shown side by side with page name (which should be your brand’s name) and therefore the picture does not necessarily need to include the brand or product name if it is not recognisable when small. For example for some of our brands instead of using the lengthier brand names in the profile picture we are chosing instead to use an image that is synonymous with that brand (such as a product shot or icon).

Application Images

When using something emotive and visual (rather than logo or text based) in the cover image we have discovered that copy-based images in the application bar look better and can act as a compelling call-to-action. This can also address the issue of the page no longer defaulting to applications.

For a lot of the changes we've found the best way to learn is to play - so we've used our own Facebook page as a test case. Feel free to visit & explore!

At this morning's (or evening's depending where on the world you are) fMC the product team announced and detailed some of the more impactful changes to be made to Pages for brands. These include:

Cover (profile pic & header image):

You can see an example of this on the Coca Cola Facebook page below. It's no suprise as this function has been available on personal pages for some time now but things to consider are the difference between the header image and profile pic, how these work together and separately (i.e. in Facebook advertising). The profile picture will function best if it's your company logo however as it's square in shape you may need to create a Facebook-friendly version. The profile picture is the image that will show besides your Facebook ads when you do paid placements and it will be displayed a lot smaller than it is on your page so this needs to be taken into consideration. The header image is your opportunity to give a great first impression of your brand & lets fans get a glimpse of your identity. It's also a great way to highlight the content generated by fans via interactions with your competition, etc (see Verizon example here: https://www.facebook.com/verizon)

Timeline (see Ben & Jerry's example)

All pages will be automatically switched over to the now somewhat familiar timeline layout by 31 March. The functionality is however available as of today if you're ready to make the update! Timeline breaks content into sections including:

- Friend Activity: how people you know are interacting with the page

- Likes: What other pages does the brand like?

- Milestones & Dates: Important dates in a brand's history such as when it started, product launches, technology discoveries, etc.

- Offers: unique deals & opportunities made available by a brand exclusively to it's fans.

Pinned Posts

A brand will now have the opportunity to 'pin' brand stories that are more important that others to the top of their brand page. This will prevent it from disappearing down the newfeed and will allow brands to select posts they believe will generate higher engagement to be featured first. Examples of this would include polls, call outs for competitions & other engaging content.

Highlights

Brands will now be able to select posts made by consumers on the page that they feel is important, engaging or relevant and 'star' it so it's featured. In addition to this, the highlighted section of a brand page will be different depending on who arrives it and will highlight the activity done by their friends on the page which provides additional context and relevance and has been demonstrated to lead to greater engagement.

Respond (new & improved admin tools - personally my favourite updates!)

Facebok have aptly defined a brand page & it's admin view as 'Mission Control'. Functions that are availble in here in addition to the insights are:

- notifications: reporting of consumer stories about your brand

- new likes: breakdown of a brand's most recent 500 likes to determine what kind of people are engaging with the brand

- page tips: suggestions from Facebook to better utlise the page

- messages: a tool to view and respond to direct & private consumer enquiries

- insights: the new reporting that was launched last year but is now real time.

- admins: there will be five different levels of admin permissions addressing the point that 'not all admins are created equal'.

Our next blog will cover Using Facebook Insights to Generate Better Engagement.

6:35AM

Wade, Hamilton, ChrisP and myself arrived here at TheFARM bright and early at 5am this morning to tune into fMC (the first ever Facebook Marketing Conference) as it was streamed lived from New York. Here are some updates from the keynote:

- Timeline is now available for testing for admins of brand pages & will launch officially in 30 days (31 March)

- Pages will be the launch pad / starting point for ALL Facebook activity including ads

- Timeline will allow consumers to directly contact brands (rather than posting to the wall) and for brands to directly respond to the consumer

- Deals which is no longer available has now become 'Offers' and will allow brand pages to make great deals, couponing, etc available exclusively to their fans

- Facebook has pointed out that the same principles that apply to people & personal connections now apply to brands - in particular the importance of listening as well as telling and sharing / developing your identity.

- Currently your brand's Facebook status updates (now called 'stories') reach 16% of fans but their new product (called the 'Reach Generator') will make sure users see brand stories - potentially 75% of them.

- The new Facebook Premium placements will allow brand ads to be included in newfeeds (as paid placements) which in turn will allow brand ads for the first time to be seen on the Facebook mobile app.

More news to follow!

Parklife (an Australian music festival) announced to its 50,000+ Facebook fans on Friday its launch of the Ridiculously Expensive Ticket. Coming complete with a slip n slide entrance to the Festival, your own personal drinks caddie, a cocktail named after you to be sold to be sold at the festival all day, your own portable VIP area and lots lots more - the super exclusive, one of a kind ticket will set you back at whopping $7,000. Parklife crowd sourced the inclusions via a series of this vs that questions on their Facebook page pitching crazy options such as 'what would you prefer: your own private drinks caddie or a publicist for your entourage?' against each other. Each question averaged 25,000 impressions with over 1,500 votes overall and was considered so successful that Parklife turned the most popular responses into the Ridiculously Expensive ticket upon whose sale all profits will go to Heaps Decent (a charity dedicated to brining creativity to underprivileged and Indigenous young Australians). Kudos to the event organisers (Fuzzy)!