Facebook Linking to "Find More Pages" As Part of Sponsored Like Stories

Interesting move by Facebook here. Basic Feed post about a user liking a fan page... in this example, Labatt Blue US. It is a "Sponsored" post (as you can tell in the bottom right after the timestamp).

But there is also now a "Find More Pages" link. When clicked, it takes users to a page full of other brands / pages that can be liked with a single click. Think of it has Pinterest for fanpages.

Obviously the implication here is: can Facebook drive secondary likes beyond the ad unit? Can they charge for that? And does this Find More Pages concept (which launched a year and half ago) be a more meaningful finding / search experience?

Facebook Anchoring Social Ads Atop the Ticker

In January I noted that Facebook was experimenting with ad placements above the ticker. This is obviously prime real estate for the ad - and inversely devalues the ticker's prominence. Over the last week, I have been seeing more and more of this treatment. A couple things to note:

1. Yes, the ad unit is above the ticker.

2. As I have written before - this is much more than an ad - it's a mini Facebook page: friends, likes, comments, shares, etc.

3. When you scroll down the page, something new and interesting happens: the ad drops off the page and the ticker anchors to the top op the browser. It's a slick animation (shown in screenshot two). Ultimately, this could also anchor for the ad unit - which would make the ad unmissable.

Dream Lites & Promo Codes

Watching the Sprout channel with our son, a mini commercial aired for Pillow Pet's new product: Dream Lites. They announced a special Promo Code ("PROMO") that would save 25% off an order. This is a common way of driving purchases and tracking efficacy / sources.

The great consumer I am, I pulled up DreamLites.com on my iPhone to find the following screenshot... which entirely negates the point of a promo code. It's a huge text promotion that says "Enter promo code DREAM to save 25%". What's the point?? If you are going to do this - might as well just say: regularly priced at $X. But now 25% off!

Strange.

Worse yet, when tax and shipping are added up - the purchase price is actually more than the 25% off. Might as well promote free shipping with full price. Even at the same total price - and with a generous refund policy - that's more compelling because I get frustrated paying S&H (thanks to Amazon and others).

Flipboard: In the River Promotion, From iPad to iPhone?

I write a lot about targeted marketing - which means effecting messaging your users at the right moment and in the right place. I use the term "in the river marketing" to describe it. Here is a great example by Flipboard - a master at mobile design. Flipboard - which has huge distribution as an iPad app - is trying to promote their new iPhone app (which generally is a different experience and design). To do that, Flipboard gets as "in the river" as possible. The welcome screen generally displays a story from your network. In this case, it is a note directly from Flipboard's CEO Mike McCue and describes their new iPhone app. This ensures that all Flipboard users see the message and, at the very least, recognize that Flipboard now exists for iPhone. That's aggressive. But it's targeted: these are Flipboard users and iPad owners (so they likely have iPhones as well).

The major question that mobile publishers / developers struggle with: how do you then drive conversion? What next after this message? Driving downloads across device is difficult. Driving downloads from the web is even harder. Then layer on tracking to understand the efficacy of the campaign and it's unfortunately very difficult...

Google Takes to ESPN to Promote Google Plus, Group / Event Followings

If you've been watching any television recently, you've surely seen the barrage of ad spots for Google Chrome, Google Plus, and Internet Explorer 9. I understand Google's effort but am generally confused by advertising specifically for IE9... which can't be as effective / meaningful as focusing on Windows Mobile. Anyhow... the point is that Google took to ESPN.com yesterday to cleverly promote Google Plus alongside the NCAA Tournament. It's well done because it's relevant, good looking and ties into the product very well (circles!). Most interesting is how it ties directly into the product - each NCAA team is "followable" on Google+ and there are scheduled Hangouts with analysts, teams, etc.

Really well done and an interesting twist as they try to differentiate from Facebook and Twitter... and the two areas where they can stand out:

Hangouts (the star of the product) and Media / Lists (something Twitter hasn't nailed yet)

Sparrow, Mobile: In the River Promotion

I frequently write about two ongoing themes: 1. the importance of "in the river marketing" (reaching targeted users at relevant points in the product / experience) 2. the difficult of driving mobile downloads from web, advertisement, other devices, etc

Here is a good example from Sparrow. They want to promote their popular Mac mail application to iPhone users. Within the initial product walk-through (now very popular within applications), Sparrow highlights their Mac app (Got a Mac?) and, to drive conversions, offers to send a download link. That's simple but effective (it's actionable), intelligent (captures some data / funnel measuring) and relevant (iPhone users are more likely to be Mac users than Android users).

Of course - if Sparrow were promoting their mobile product, SMS is more effective than mail. Groupon and Redbox do great work here.

Sparrow Mail + Facebook Connect

I love these two screenshots from Sparrow's new iPhone app because they confirm a few threads that I routinely discuss / think about. The screenshots appear after app download and after your mail account is connected - you are prompted of course to connect the mail account with Facebook ("mail is much nicer with your friends' profile pictures!"): 1. First and foremost, Facebook should be considered an identity platform as much as it is a considered a social network. I firmly believe this.

2. Outsource to Facebook (and other major platforms) in areas where they do things better (ie identity, sharing) or where you gain advantage elsewhere (ie Facebook Connect + mail account = superior data / future functionalities).

3. Mail still needs to be rethought and Sparrow gives it an interesting twist.

4. Facebook should play a bigger role in email 2.0.

Yet Another Reminder of Amazon & Kindle's Importance: Proliferation

Reminder yet again that Amazon and Kindle are important parts of the mobile, cloud, content and application universe... these are the registered Kindle devices to my family: it's a combination of devices, platforms, formats, etc. More and more I am using Kindle like Evernote (one of my daily, most-used applications): I forward important documents to my personal Kindle emails. It's great. And for some use cases, its the equivalent of Evernote or iCloud.

And like Evernote - the content is accessible anywhere, nearly instantly. I love the email component of it and think that personalized emails as a content direction / entry mechanism are underutilized - Evernote and Tripit are examples of products that (for me) are most useful through email.