As you can see, Simply Measured’s data reflected in this chart from eMarketer shows that average engagement with brand pages (defined by comments and likes) rose from an average of 672 points of engagement per post to 2,441 or 46 percent over the course of the three weeks following the move to Timeline. That said, Simply Measured also reported that when looking at individual brands such as Old Spice, Target, AT&T and Ford, it saw a decline in engagement with brand posts. Despite the increase in people liking pages, however, Simply Measured found that interaction with specific content is declining. Hmm…

Sure, numbers don’t lie, but I question the analysis that Timeline is affecting engagement this significantly. As my colleague Lars Basche noted, it’s a known fact that engagement primarily happens in Facebook users’ news feeds, not on the page itself. And Timeline does not impact content within the news feed, so why would it have such a considerable correlation with engagement? Timeline is a change to the format of the page, not to a page’s EdgeRank or exposure within Facebook. And while it naturally may take people time to get used to the new look of Timeline, I don’t see how it would change the way people experience brands on Facebook, given that most of this interaction takes place in their news feeds.

Although the data dates back to earlier this month, EdgeRank – who I consider credible, given the algorithm was actually developed by Facebook – conducted an analysis of the very same topic as Simply Measured. However instead of the sample size of 15 brands that Simply Measured used, EdgeRank examined more than 3,500 Facebook brand pages, and found that Timeline had no direct impact on content within the news feed. Not to mention Simply Measured’s sample size seemed to noticeably lack B2B brands, and given our Text 100 clients are a combination of B2B and B2C companies, we care about both. As stated on the EdgeRank blog, “It appears that a majority of Pages experiencing abnormal changes in Engagement/Fan is due to the publicity that has occurred since the implementation of Timeline. Many high profile blogs are discussing the changes, how to use it, and which brands are using Timeline best.”

If you want to increase engagement, the answer has not changed with the rollout of Timeline: get more likes and comments so that EdgeRank shows your posts to more of your fans, and run sponsored story ads. How do you get more likes and comments? Craft engaging content, think visually and identify the best times to post, and you can check out these posts for further recommendations:

Exploring Facebook Timeline for Brands – 7 Tips for Success

How to Increase Feedback on Your Brand’s Facebook Page – Take a Hint From Journalists

Best Practices: Determining the Value of Facebook Ads

Using Data to Increase Engagement: The Science of Timing

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then surely an app full of them is worth a billion dollars?

In his bid to make the world a ‘more social place’, Mark Zuckerberg announced last week that Facebook has acquired social start-up Instagram for $1 billion. Put simply, Instagram allows you to take a photo on your iPhone (and more recently on Android), add a retro filter and then share it across a range of social media platforms.

It’s hard to argue with the logic here; one can’t ignore that photo sharing has quickly becoming the trend du jour. With the likes of Pinterest garnering more users by the day, capitalising on this growing trend makes sense. Some industry experts have slated the move as a means to eliminate the competition… if you can’t beat them, buy them? Although there is no financial gain to be made here for Facebook (at least not in the traditional sense) the real value is in growth potential the acquisition presents.

Some techsperts are also speculating that the move is going to strengthen Facebook’s underwhelming mobile apps offering. Probably best summed up by James Pearce, Facebook’s head of mobile developer relations, who said that if Facebook was built today, it would probably be on mobile.

But what about the issue of IP ownership? Is it safe to assume that Facebook now has control of all Instagram photos (pre-acquisition as well) and if so how will this get used? The thought alone is enough for many users to delete their current profiles and look for alternatives.

However way we choose to look at it; Instagram has grown immensely in popularity over the last few months cementing its position in the social media chain. And it is already starting to show its influence on media consumption – journalists and bloggers the world over are using apps like Instagram as a means of endorsement. Brands (big and small) have successfully leveraged the platform to their advantage, Starbucks for example has over 400,000 followers, while Red Bull uses it to enhance the brand’s energetic personality.

Are you utilizing Instagram for your work? If so, how – and does this change the way you’ll use the platform?

Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on the Text 100 Sydney blog, Digital Comms Down Under.

For your business
According to Simply Measured, the new Facebook Pages drive higher engagement rates (46%) with brands. But there are rules! Here is a simple visual explanation of what you can and cannot include in the cover photo for your brand page:

Another useful tip: Try not to include important information on the very top of your cover picture. By default, this part appears cut off and users have to click to see the full photo.

Here are some additional resources for creating a great cover photo for your brand:

• Tips, tricks and apps for an awesome Facebook cover photo
• Facebook Cover Image Tips: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Comments
• 15 Must Know Tips to Rock Your New Facebook Timeline Business Page
• Facebook Page Covers – Tips on size and design
• The Ultimate Facebook Timeline Q&A

Feeling uninspired in the creativity department?

If you just simply don’t know what to use as your Facebook Timeline cover or don’t want to make the effort to surf through your bank of images, there is an almost infinite list of sites that can help you choose a good cover picture. Here some of my favorites:

• Premium covers
• Facebook Timeline Banner
• Cover Photo Finder
• Facebook profile covers
• Free timeline covers

For the graphic design-oriented

You can also edit your Facebook timeline cover in Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. For example, the Austrian design agency Ausgetrock has provided a template you can use in Photoshop. Here’s a video on how to edit it:

And here’s another free template from Hongkiat.com

If Photoshop is not your cup of tea, you can also use free resources to create a collage or a mosaic for your timeline cover.

In need of some inspiration?

Since the new timeline became available for users, there are a few that have gone completely viral in just weeks. Check out some of the most creative timeline covers from personal and business pages around the world:

Fabio Maravilla

Richard Kårström

The New York Times

Adobe Solution Partner Program

Here are some more corporate and small business cover examples.

Dimensions

Here is a great infographic detailing the dimensions for pictures and other materials you can use on your personal or professional timeline.

If you’re dependent on your smartphone for everything…

The Apple Store offers some apps you can use to create your Facebook timeline cover. Some examples here:

• Facebook cover Designer
• Facebook timeline covers

You can also transfer your photos over from Instagram.

And for the Android users: First covers or Facebook Timeline Covers.

For information on how Text 100 can help you design a Facebook cover that sparkles, check out our Design Hub!

What other resources have you found helpful in getting your Timeline ready?

First, let’s look at some of the major changes affecting how your brand page will look and how interactions with fans will differ with the new format. And one thing to keep in mind as you go through – don’t abandon your Facebook strategy just yet! Most fan interaction still happens within the newsfeed, so all of the time you’ve spent crafting engaging content, thinking visually and identifying the best times to post should still hold true.

Cover Photo and Profile Picture
Each page features a large cover photo (851×315 pixels) at the top, with a square (125x125px) profile picture. Facebook’s guidelines state that the cover photo can not include:

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”.
• Contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section.
• References to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features.
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

Tip #1: The cover photo offers for the biggest, more customizable branding opportunity. Think about how you can use your cover photo to draw attention to big events, announcements or holidays. Or, show some love to your fans by featuring their photos (like a fan of the month).

Page Structure
Besides the cover photo and profile image, the top of each brand page shows the page description and four images for the apps on the page. Brands have the option to select which four apps are displayed on the main page, and the icons and descriptions of most apps can be customized (icons should now be 111x74px). The biggest change here is that brands no longer can have a specific landing tab set for visitors. Tabs are also visible in their own separate page, which brands can select to display narrow (520px) or wide (810px).

Tip #2: The four app photos provide additional branding opportunities for pages. Since page owners can choose what photos to feature, consider what type of images will be most appealing to your visitors or choose four photos that illustrate a story about your brand.

Tip #3: Even though page owners cannot specify a landing page, apps now provide a “link to this app” feature for brands to use externally that will direct users back to that specific app page.

The way posts are displayed is also changing a bit. Posts from the brand are shown on the left column; posts from fans are in the right column. However, brands can choose to highlight specific posts by selecting the star button, which will make their posts appear across both columns.

Tip #4: Use Facebook’s new “pin post” feature to draw attention to specific updates that deserve more attention. Updates selected to be featured will be displayed for seven days at the top of the brand’s timeline.

Tip #5: Timeline for Pages is optimized for visual appeal. Fans will appreciate and respond more to posts that include a photo or video, rather than text only. In fact, research shows that visually engaging posts generate twice the engagement of basic text posts.

Messaging
Also brand new to pages is the ability for fans and brands to send private messages between each other. Brands can only react to private messages where a fan has initiated the conversation – but this is certainly a great customer service opportunity.

Timeline
Obviously the biggest change is the rollout of the timeline feature – which presents a brand new way for businesses to showcase significant dates in their histories. Similar to the individual profiles, brands now have the opportunity to add new posts and date back. For example, the Olympic Games Facebook Page starts 1894.

Tip #6: Use this feature to show off your brand’s milestones. When was your company founded? When did you file for an IPO? When did you sign your major clients? When were you recognized for industry awards? Think about these bits of your history as ways to bring human elements to your brand’s personality.

Admin Changes
On the admin side of page management, there are a few updates page owners will find useful. The admin panel now appears as an overview featuring the most “important” admin options (new likes, notifications, snapshots of total reach and “people talking about this” data). Page owners can also designate different levels of admin rights if the page is managed by more than one person.

Also new to page managers is the option to preview content before it appears on your brand page. That is, brands can enable the ability to review fan posts and choose whether to feature them on their page. While this may seem to be an opportunity to for page owners to choose to display only positive content on your page, keep transparency in mind – filtering out the negative posts will only make the brand appear like it has something to hide. Tip #7: We would recommend most brands leave this feature alone, but if your page is often plagued by trolls or harassment, this might be a way to get a handle on it, as long as you’re clear with your fans on what you’re doing.

For more details on the specific changes to pages check out these additional resources: Facebook Pages Product Guide; Example pages; Video overview of new features;General Facebook FAQ section.

It’s hard to believe SXSW is just less than two months away, but sure enough, today schedules for SXSW 2012 went live. At first glance, the online schedule functionality seems easier to use than in years past, which is important when you’re sorting your agenda  and weeding through 5,000+ events for Interactive alone! You can use the schedule to browse events and add events to your customized SXSW schedule using your SXsocial username and password. This ain’t Text 100’s first rodeo at the annual show!

We’re getting excited for the trip to Austin, to join clients speaking at SXSW such as Food Network, Gartner, Macheen, MTV, Nokia, NXP, Xerox, attend insightful sessions, and of course network as much as possible!

So update your Facebook status, queue up your tweets with #SXSWi, ensure you have your Instagram and/or Path apps, and get ready to check in on Foursquare. And be sure to leave us a comment here if you’ll be attending, so we can add you to our list of friends on SXsocial. See you there!

Photos came in from around the world and regardless of location or time, there were two pervading themes: Friendship and Fun.

The photos which can all be viewed here demonstrate the uniting force of our people culture that has been the foundation of Text 100 since 1981. Over the years people have come, gone and stayed, but each individual has played a vital part in building the fabric of this company by supporting their peers, being passionate about delivering great client results and having fun during the process. This competition is just one way in which we remember and appreciate these contributions.

There were five winners chosen from more than 150 entries. The photo which garnered the strongest emotional response from online voters and our company judges was ‘Inspirational Lisa’ submitted by Shari Roberts. Lisa Altobelli was the managing consultant of our NY office until she lost her battle with lung cancer in March 2010. Lisa was dearly loved by those who worked with her at Text 100 and we remember her passion, commitment and sense of fun fondly. Shari has generously offered to donate her prize money to the Lisa Altobelli Foundation to continue helping other cancer patients find comfort in their time of need.

The other winning photos were all chosen for not only their online popularity, but for their reflection of our history, culture and creativity. The winners are, in no particular order:

-          Letitia Zwart’s photos of the first Christmas party held in the Text 100 Australian office. These photos demonstrated that size doesn’t matter when it comes to having fun. At the time of these photos, the Aussie business and APAC HQ consisted of five people. Today there are now more than 30 people sitting in Sydney and more than 230 across the APAC region.

-          Brian Churchard’s photo titled “Headcorn or headcase?” was one of the oldest photos posted on the site and was loved by all for its sense of nostalgia. It was also popular as proof that Tim Dyson has indeed aged over the last 30 years :)

-          The craziness of Kumi Mochizuki’s photos from Japan were highly popular. Everyone loves the horse which has become a regular feature from this office and well, how can you not recognise a horse in a Santa suit ordering sushi?!

-        Angela Denly’s photos of the APAC GM offsite were a popular representation of Text 100’s strong APAC presence and another good representation of how the company loves to dress up and party. Catching all the leaders of our Asian businesses at a Mardi Gras inspired event was an opportunity relished by employees and our alumni alike.

We congratulate all the winners of this competition and offer special thanks to all participants. On behalf of all employees past and present, we thank you for reminding us of good times passed.

Facebook timeline – key features

How is it different? Essentially your profile is now much more visually impactful – almost taking cues from the about.me platform using large graphics and simple sections. The biggest changes are the addition of a cover image on the top of the page to complement your profile picture, and the fact that all information you have ever shared since you joined Facebook is now scrollable (mine goes back to 2007, however one can actually add in information prior to this date including your own birth date – completely digitising your life story).

You and your friends can now find out about all of the major and minor moments of your life journey. Instead of just broadcasting a status update you can now broadcast a ‘life event’ such as your wedding or new job etc. Imagine when Gen Y and Z pass on – their grandchildren if curious will be able to look up the kinds of things they were up to when they themselves were born or what shenanigans you were up to in your twenties!

Additional new features include the ability to tag locations to your images and the ability to see all of your recent location check-ins from a Facebook maps perspective.

In summary we are excited about the new platform and are interested in seeing the kind of reaction it gets when it ever does finally fully role out. Is this a new and thought provoking way of recording and preserving the human experience or just another example of the internet eroding our privacy even further?

Facebook timeline – according to Facebook

Your cover: Fill this wide, open space with a unique image that represents you best. It’s the first thing people see when they visit your timeline.

Your stories: Share and highlight your most memorable posts, photos and life events on your timeline. This is where you can tell your story from beginning, to middle, to now.

Your apps: The movies you quote. The songs you have on repeat. The activities you love. Now there’s a new class of social apps that let you express who you are through all the things you do.

Text 100 Sydney’s perspective –

Rachel Vidaic: “I don’t like it. It looks messy and there’s like way too much going on. I don’t like too much change”.

Bec Badcock: “I like it. It’s easy to see everything all at once!”

Simon Clark: “I love being able to discover things from the past that I’d forgotten about. I agree with Lisa Hope King quoted in a recent article on USA today regarding timeline that it will create further focus on digital grooming”.

Simon Fitz: “It’s like a virtual project/artifact which graphically and chronologically tells your Facebook life story…Lifebook perhaps?”

Messenger

As well as the timeline platform, Facebook also recently release their stand alone ‘Messenger’ app for Android, Blackberry and iPhone. The app builds on the success of similar tools such as ‘Whatsapp’ to send instant messages over the internet. The benefit of being linked to Facebook is that most people have a far greater wealth of personal contacts on Facebook than even their phonebook, making it extremely easy to contact almost anyone.

We recommend giving it a try!

Dear Facebook,
Seriously, stop changing. We had a great relationship going, and now you’re rocking the boat way too often. If you don’t stop, I may be forced to go through the break-up and see what Google+ is all about. Do you really want that? I think not.
Love, Lauren

Interestingly enough, Lauren’s status update could be a direct supporting quote for a pre-F8 announcement Mashable post written by Ben Parr who discusses a hard truth for many of us to face -   our relationship with Facebook has gone stale over the years and more of us are simply continuing to log in because it’s the service where we can find all of our friends. In his post, Ben points out that while Facebook boasts high levels of users and engagement, the platform has lost its emotional resonance with users over the years – hence our ho-hum attitude and likelihood to explore new platforms, like Google+.  As you can probably imagine, this is not the best model to continue to grow your business – thus today’s news out of the Facebook F8 conference.

For those that may not be familiar with F8, it is Facebook’s annual conference that brings together developers and entrepreneurs to build a more social web and collaborate on the future of personalized and social technologies. The conference has also historically been the place where Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, introduces new features and major announcements to the public for the first time.

Today was no exception.

The conference kicked off with a rather hilarious impression of Zuckerberg by SNL actor Andy Samberg, who announced some fictional, but rather on-point changes to the site – including the “I’m not really friends with these people” friend list, and the “slow poke” button, which provides a 24-hour delay on the poke button, just in case you want to retract one from the night before.

Giving Samberg the boot, the real Zuckerberg reclaimed the spotlight, and over the next hour, talked about the evolution of Facebook over the next five years, which will bring a litany of changes to the interface – including the ability for users to update news feed with information about what media they’re consuming – which if embraced by users, is anticipated to bring about a major shift in the next generation of social media, and its business value.

Here, at a glance, are the most significant changes announced during the conference today:

Based upon this logic, and with the Singapore General Elections right around the corner, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his team ran a live Q&A session on the PAP Singapore Facebook Page to engage the citizens of Singapore in an online debate about the issues surrounding the General Election, in a similar concept to what we’ve done before for clients like Nokia in a Twitter Cafe.

The event was well-hyped in the build up to the live Q&A session as this was the first time that any political party had exercised the use of social networks in such a fashion. However, looking back at how it went, the general feeling was that it was not well-executed as the PAP’s social media team were simply swamped with questions. Here are some of the takeaways:

• Using Facebook comments on a page limits the conversation to only individuals who are fans of the Facebook Page, and this prevents the conversation from gaining traction with a wider base of people online, compared to Twitter where conversations are public. However, that being said, using Twitter forces you to relinquish control over people who are interacting with you, thus having to contend with spammers and trolls in addition to real people. Facebook at least asks the user for an email and real name, and providing an identity, respondents can’t just simply troll the thread.
• Lee Hsien Loong and his team were unable to address most of the questions posted by the voters as the Facebook interface is more cumbersome compared to Twitter. This is due to the way Facebook loads the comments and additionally, once multiple threads were started, it got really difficult to keep track of conversations going on in all those threads at once.
• Going back to read the entire conversation again is also quite a pain as the huge number of comments are making load times take forever. Having it on Twitter with a hashtag makes referring back to the conversations much easier

However, kudos to the PAP team for trying to reach out to the voting populace via social media. It’s really heartening to see political parties from both sides strongly using social media as an engagement tool to win the hearts and minds of the people.

Making an advertising investment isn’t a decision that should be taken lightly. However, for brands just getting set up on Facebook and looking to do a quick promotion of their page, advertising within the medium is a great option. But before jumping head first, consider the following about your audience and their reactions:

1. What type of action are you hoping to incite – do you want people to know the page exists and follow it, or do you want users to like the page and participate in an activity or contest? The latter action – though harder to encourage with just advertising – will yield better engagement in the long-term.
2. How will you sustain users’ interest after they’ve clicked the ad and started following your page?

Once you’ve evaluated your audience and considered the type of outcome your ad is helping to achieve, there are a number of ways to evaluate the budget and time investment needed to maintain the project:

Ad campaign costs per day

Facebook ads offer the opportunity to control how much you spend on a daily basis. Once your budget has been met for the day, your ads stop appearing until the following day. To get an idea of what type of budget you should set, create a dummy Facebook ad to receive an estimate of the cost per click price based on the content of your ad and targeted demographics (you can segment audience by gender, geography, interests, etc.). Then, multiply this number by the number of clicks you’re aiming to receive throughout the life of the campaign and divide by the amount of days or weeks you have to achieve this goal.

Cost per click vs. Cost per Thousand Impressions

• If you aren’t sure whether to choose to pay per click or pay per impressions: Cost per click (CPC) works best when you want the ad viewer to take a specific action (register on a website, ‘Like’ a Facebook page, download a certain file etc.), whereas cost per impressions (CPM) works best when you’d like to simply inform the user of a specific activity (similar to a roadside billboard). In terms of cost, CPC allows you to specify how much you are willing to pay each time a user clicks on your ad; CPM allows you to identify how much you will pay for 1,000 views of your ad. In general, the CPC model is favored by most Web advertisers because the goal is to incite the ad viewer to commit to a certain action.

Time investment

• It’s best to experiment with Facebook Ads using the easy step-by-step process to get a hold of as much information about your projected results before you enter into a formal engagement. While the set-up process is simple to start and run, Text 100 clients report needing approximately two hours of time per day to monitor the performance and improve ad content, targeting, etc.

Projected Results

The chart below shows the advertising results for a pilot campaign run in India. The brand ran advertising on both Facebook and Google with a budget of about 780 Euros (approximate $1,125) for one month. The client opted to invest slightly more in Facebook’s variations because the target demographic was shown to spend more time there and Google ads run at a higher expense in the market, which made the Facebook investment more cost-effective. This project provided valuable insights about how each platform delivered so the client could make a more educated budget estimate.

While these results are positive in the short-term, navigating the waters of Facebook Ads is tricky and needs a solid integrated strategy to yield truly beneficial results for a brand. Getting people to click on an ad is just step one. If your goal is real engagement with your audience, couple your ad campaign with a number of communications and outreach tactics to further your message and keep users coming back for more.