Tag Archives: Facebook

A Look at the New Facebook

6th December 2010

Tonight on 60 Minutes, Facebook unveiled the new look to profile pages. The look takes on much of what we have seen with friendship pages, so it doesn’t come as a total surprise as some past iterations may have done.

If you are ready to make the switch, go ahead and do so here. The pages will go live to everyone tomorrow, with the option to switch back until the change is permanent in a few weeks. Below is a quick look at some of the features that caught my eye.

The current profile page:

New Profile page: Highlights your “story.” Notice how it is easy to see where a friend works, where they went to school, what they studied, etc. as if you are reading their social bio. This isn’t not quite 140 characters, but pretty close to it!

Old Photos:

New photos: Tagged photos are easily scrolled rather than on separate pages. For some reason they don’t seem to be in chronological order, on my personal page, but this could be a bug.

Sports: This is pretty cool, not only can you add your favorite sports but you can also tag teammates or friends you participate in these sports with.

Overall, the process is definitely streamlined and really does help to tell a story without really taking away any functionality. What are your thoughts? Have you made the switch?

Getting fit on Facebook

15th November 2010

It’s clear Facebook has allowed brands to interact and respond to consumers on an entirely new level in recent months. While many brands are sticking to the basics, some are trying out new and exciting apps, contests and tabs.

Here’s why Nike Women is my newest “like.”

I came across the page through a Facebook ad. I really love it when this happens, looks like my  interest in running listed on my profile paid off for the target.

Nike’s Get Fit app. The app is fairly simple: ask a fitness question, and Nike will respond with tips from trainers.The questions and answers are easy to find and nearly almost always tailored to women.

Rather than search across the web through forums for this type of information, Nike makes it easy to ask in one place, associates it with a brand I love and helps to build a community. I may not return to the page to find out when running shoes will go on sale, but the community base this app builds will make me return, and when a post of those sneakers on sale does show up, I may order a pair.

This is the secret formula missing to many social campaigns, take the time to discover your brand’s voice in a space and figure out what content your fans will value. These details will bring fans back in the long run and create the brand advocates you were looking for .

The Gaps in Facebook Places

11th November 2010

Last weekend, Facebook launched the ever hyped Facebook places deals and in true Facebook fashion, they had some of the best deals available with their launch partners. Naturally, I set out to explore and try my hand at a few to see how it all worked, here are my reactions:

1. Ease of use: 8 out of 10. Finding the deals was fairly simple, just login to Facebook places and similar to Foursquare if you are near a deal location, it pops up before you even check in.

2. Claiming the deal: 6 out of 10. Here’s where things got tricky, it was easy to check in and get the deal, but it looks like Facebook may have rushed on getting this out (surprised aren’t you?). The verbiage for “claiming” a deal is pretty much the same from place to place, so there is no way of knowing if the deal has run out.

For example, I checked into Gap around 7 pm expecting the deal for the first 10,000 customers to be sold out, however, when I checked in, I was shown a screen saying I had in fact gotten the deal and there were “over 100 remaining.” when I showed this to the cashier, he explained the deal had run out in a matter of minutes that morning, was no longer valid and despite what my phone said, he couldn’t take it.

I wasn’t too upset to not receive the jeans, I wasn’t expecting them, but since Gap had set up the promotion to end at a specific time rather than after a specific number of checkins, it left many customers out in the cold, and VERY upset.

However, at a visit to H&M where the deal was 20% off a purchase, a deal that also ended on a specific date but had no limit, it worked perfectly.

3. Sharing: 6 out of 10. Upon checking in, the deal is shared on your Facebook profile. As Facebook places has higher priority in a person’s newsfeed, this is excellent for the variability of a brand. However, when it backfires, as Gap did for me, it gives false information to friends.

4. Expectations: 7 out of 10. If Facebook can fix bugs like deal availability when brands create them, Facebook places has the potential to be a game changer. But, if Facebook continues to keep Places as a top priority in the news feed and continues to automatically publish to a users wall, the spam nature a Facebook deal diva may turn some people away from the tool all together.

What are your thoughts on Facebook Places deals? Have you used them or are you sticking to Foursquare for your location based sharing? And if you did score a pair of these elusive jeans, let me know in the comments 😉