Facebook friendship advertising

A good read and some well-done Facebook commercials from earlier this year

Why did it take Facebook 11 years to advertise 'Friendship?' on Digiday

Facebook phone search

Online tip of the day!

Did you know that if you type in a cellphone number into the Facebook search bar, the person's profile will come up?

At first, we thought this was only possible if you had your cellphone number publicly posted on your profile, but the profile comes up regardless. It worked for all of my friends' numbers who I typed in, and when someone I am not Facebook friends with was searched, they came up along with our mutual friends. Creepy! No guarantees that it will work for everyone, but definitely something to test.

We can't prove this, but my coworker and I think that this is because of the Messenger app. Guess there IS a reason everyone needs to have the app to be able to read your messages...data collection. Looks like Facebook might become the new phone book. Give it a shot!

Facebook photos

Putting up Facebook photos as a post-grad adult seems to be a big deal!

I warned Twitter that photos would be going up before my friends texted about getting notifications. 

Funny text from a friend in Chicago 

Within an hour, my ~200 photos solicited nearly 94 notifications.  Geez! 

What I've learned from taking a break from the book

Sitting in the back seat on Facebook these past few weeks, here are a few things I have learned:

1. People give themselves a lot more credit for what they post than they deserve.
I've been in multiple conversations lately where someone is describing a weekend outing or situation, and they have actually said, "You probably saw the picture on Facebook." With complete confidence. Maybe I am biased as I have a large Facebook community, but I would never assume that someone sees each of my posts on Facebook, especially with how targeted the news feed is these days. Staying off of it shows me how much people rely on posting as a means to share their whereabouts, rather than actually sharing news aloud. 

2. Facebook is integral for learning about others' relationship statuses.
While Facebook's status updates are a key way to hear relationship news, clearly it can't be that important to your day-to-day life because if you were really close with someone, you'd hear about their "official" boyfriend/girlfriend status or engagement from them. That being said, I've missed plenty of relationship news shying away from Facebook, and heard about engagements through friends telling me the news or through ring photos on social platforms with more intimate communities, like Instagram. Because this is a "status update" that isn't an option on other platforms, it's most prevalent and frequently updated on Facebook. 

3. We have plenty of other outlets to communicate.
Not logging onto Facebook every few hours has taught me how many other communication outlets are accessible to reach others. If I want to reach out to someone in the digital space or send them an article, I can text, email or tweet at them instantly. All of those options exist to share photos too. Facebook only dominates if you let it. 

Facebook's birthday

Earlier this week on February 4, Facebook turned 10 years old. Publications and articles everywhere were reporting on the anniversary, and Facebook even provided each user with a 1-minute "look back" video of his/her time on Facebook. There are 1.23 billion monthly active Facebook users, and while 81 percent of these users are from the US & Canada, India is its second biggest market (with 84.9 million users) - so its prevalence as Americans goes undoubted.

One interesting fact that stood out to me on Pew's six facts about Facebook was what users dislike about Facebook. Because it's such an engrained habit in our everyday lives, we are bound to dislike something - but I would not expect things to fall in this order.

More than 1/3 of Facebook users dislike over-sharing, and equally as many are apparently anxious when people share posts or photos without your permission. On the instant gratification note, only 12 percent of users hate pressure to post content that will be popular. The biggest surprise is that only 5 percent of users reported disliking seeing posts about not being included in social activities, the FOMO (fear of missing out) phenomenon. It's important to note that questions like this are asked on a 5-box scale, and these responses are only STRONGLY dislike, not any dislike. That shows the strength in these opinions.

Some might say survey respondents are not an accurate portrayal of the US, but these numbers are typically statistically significant, meaning enough people responded that it can be generalized to the larger population. It's good to know that people aren't pressured to see posts as popular or upset to see themselves missing out on social events, because it signifies to me that there is a more mature Facebook user base. Since teens and younger kids are present on Snapchat, Instagram and other apps and spending less time on Facebook, Facebook's usage habits have primarily grown up with our generation. Although it's less than half of my age, Facebook will carry on with Millennials and so will facts like these. 

Facebook advertising knows best

Facebook and keyword ad targeting are on top of it this week! They know I was at the SEC Championship game and have been researching bowl games, so even though Mizzou unfortunately did not win, I'm receiving ads for hotels in Pasadena.

After the outcome of this weekend's college football games, Mizzou fans WISH we could go to the BCS Championship - but looks like Auburn got it this time. Sorry, Westin and Starwood - go target someone else! 

Want instant gratification? Upload Facebook photos

We live in a world where we seek affirmation. As verbal compliments become rare and less genuine, and optimism, positivity and "thank yous" are at a low, the internet becomes the place we look for to seek this instant gratification.

There is no better way to get this immediate reassurance that what you are doing is cool than by posting photos on Facebook. As the unofficial designated photographer of my friends and family, I've dissected the art & science of uploading Facebook photos and found the following:

1. It's all about the time of day. 
Although it might be easy for you to upload Facebook pictures a time that's convenient to you (ex: 1 a.m. instead of studying for your test the next day), if you really want gratification, post them at a time when everyone is online. I quickly figured this out when I was posting my Argentina photos as I studied abroad. Your photos, if cool enough, can disrupt someone's daily routine by being so good-looking that they make someone want to click on them in your news feed or on the ticker bar. Plus, your pictures will naturally show up on news feeds right after being uploaded so posting them at a time when everyone's signed on puts your pictures right in their face. Some of these "prime times" are Sunday evenings during the school year, and weekday evenings around 8 p.m. If you're in the work force and your friends work on computers daily, that time can shift to an 11 a.m. break from work. Plan accordingly!

2. If you post pictures too much, no one will like them. Or, "Like" them. 
If you are posting often, it's too regular for everyone to see your posts and they no longer become exciting. Same thing with statuses in this category--when you post a lot, people start to not care because you're a source of information overload. But if you only post photos and statuses when something awesome is happening, everyone from hiding seems to "like" what you're doing. Your high school math teacher, mom's best friend and that kid who sat next to you in an elective class freshman year. So space out your uploads!

3. Tag people and places.
While a main function of tagging is to share these posts with the friends who want them, tagging also is a way to target your post to get to the audience you want. Even if it takes time to tag the big group photo from dinner, each of their friends are going to see the picture. If you tag a location, others see where you are and look at the rest of the album for interest in that regard. In addition to over-informing, tagging definitely calls more attention to your album.

Following these simple tips will not only get you a temporary self-confidence boost, but also provide reassurance when posting your photos. Enjoy!

Facebook timeline

As a Facebook user who has not yet switched over to timeline, I have been observing my Facebook friends' usage of the feature. Not the most common thought of going back in time to see what people were like in 2007 when Facebook became popular with our generation, but more so: what they select to be their "cover photo" with the new display. With the size of cover photos being about 10 times greater than the size of profile pictures, I'm curious to see how if and how these images replaces the notion of a profile picture.

This phenomenon interests me because people choose profile pictures where they look good. Eye tracking studies (ironically enough, funded and conducted by Facebook) show that the top left corner of the page, where the profile picture is placed, is where eyes are programmed to look on someone's profile. So now that the profile picture is so minimal on the page, which will be more dominant?

It's easy to analyze someone based on his or her choice of cover photos on timeline. Do these photos display a pretty image? A meaningful one to the person, such as the place they have a lake house or their favorite city? A strong memory with friends? The university they attend? A photo that makes them look popular? Is more than one uploaded? Are they the same as their profile pictures? Will people keep changing their profile pictures....or their cover photos? 

All of these questions have arose, and provide a basis for judgment. I'm interested in seeing the direction they go. What do you think? 

An example from the Web of the new Facebook timeline layout, with the cover photo being a beautiful view

Facebook irony

This morning, I came across this Mashable article titled: "Facebook's secret to high emotional engagement? Faces."

In a study Facebook commissioned to "display its emotional connection with consumers to advertisers," researchers found that participants responded better to Facebook than both The New York Times and Yahoo websites on a scale of attention, emotional engagement and memory retention. Why? Because of the presence of human faces. The New York Times and Yahoo sites don't have a reason to portray these, because they only really publish newsworthy photos rather than images of each reporter or contributor, nonetheless profiles. 

A.K. Pradeep, CEO of NeuroFocus, says in the article that "The face is a window to the human emotions. Since childhood, we are trained to read people's faces to discern emotion, and that such information is key to survival: Thus the stimulation we experience when scanning our newsfeeds." 

So here's the irony with today's young adults and teens. Faces are the key to emotions. We want that stimulation and emotional engagement, but we don't want it from a face IN PERSON. We want that from an image of someone using impression management on the internet. No one puts up a profile picture of him or herself looking mediocre or depressed. They post nice, happy photos where they feel they look attractive. So why get together in person for emotional engagement in a conversation when you can look through your newsfeed with faux images of people's faces?

It's great that we can have so much engagement online, especially in maintaining relationships with friends and family members across the world. But there are plenty of people like my own sister who sit on Facebook chat for hours at a time instead of calling friends up and inviting them over for the night. Today's youth can have just as much fun sitting on Facebook chat having racy conversations on a Friday night rather than getting together and hearing about the others' lives. They are adjusted to learning about acquaintances' thoughts, feelings and doings from statuses and pictures, instead of the art of asking them about it.

We are losing our value of conversation. As much as Facebook can be emotionally engaging and capitalize on this idea with advertisers, we as individuals should take note of the fact that human contact is a value that will always produce more emotional engagement than a phone or computer screen. 

Facebook redesign

A letter of aggravation regarding the new Facebook redesign

Dear Facebook,

Sorry I already had a close friends list and that you won't let me see it because your targeting didn't make it. I was in the 5 percent of people using your lists, and you just lost my business because you deleted it and archived all of my old groups! I really appreciate you accommodating college student needs by finally letting us get adjusted to your website, and then forcing us to figure out something else. You're already at the top of the market share. PEOPLE DON'T NEED TO SPEND ANY MORE TIME ON YOUR WEBSITE.

You don't need to be like Twitter or Google +. I don't need to see my picture at the top of the screen, that's your competitor's thing. It's too late to do that. I don't want to see my Facebook friends' statuses in "real time," that's why I have Twitter. Please just take advantage of the billionaire platform you already have and stop trying to be the all-encompassing social media that nobody wants. That's why Tweet Deck's out there. You already have money, advertising and business; the more you change, the more you...get this...lose.

Thanks Zuckerberg!