According to an Internet Retailer report by Zak Stambor, Palo Alto, California-based social networking site, Facebook has rolled out what it calls “the new expanded Premium unit” which essentially combines a brand’s Page posts with its social context. The article explains that in this new system, ads appear on the right side of a consumer’s home page where the user reads the news feed. At the top of the ad is the label “Sponsored” with a message saying that a friend likes a particular piece of content or a specific brand. This strategic placement of the ad is vital because, according to a Facebook spokesperson, that is where most of the interaction happens. Web measurement firm, comScore Inc., supports this statement by saying that Facebook users are 40 to 150 times more likely to consume branded content via news feed than by actually visiting a brand’s Facebook page.
The senior analyst further notes that this new Facebook format puts premium on the quality and relevance of posts which is much like search engine optimization these days. Social media marketers now have the challenge to find ways to get users to interact with their content. Of course, Facebook is not leaving its customers clueless so it also rolled out a new Page Insights tool which “enables marketers to see how many consumers view their posts, which pieces of their content consumers share and how many friends their fans have.” This upgraded tool also comes with an API or an application programming interface that allows third party vendors to develop customized insights tools.
