Facebook shares down 31 percent since IPO 1 year ago

Facebook’s company and CEO rating up since IPO – Facebook has earned a 4.7 out of 5 rating on Glassdoor, a social jobs and careers community where employees can anonymously share information and reviews about their companies. That average is a slight increase from its 4.6 rating during the 12 months prior to its IPO. Approval of CEO Mark Zuckerberg is also up. He received a 99 percent approval rating among employees, a four percentage point increase from his 95 percent approval rating during the 12 months before the IPO. Facebook saw a small decline in its senior management rating, but still holds a 4.0 (very satisfied) rating over the past 12 months, compared to the 4.3 rating it held pre-IPO. In the last year, the average base salary for Facebook software engineers increased to $119,262, up from $112,193 the previous 12-month period.

HTC slashes ‘Facebook phone’ price to $0.99, may discontinue product – HTC has cut the price of the First — the phone it launched with Facebook Home preloaded — from $99 to $0.99. According to BGR sources, HTC will actually be discontinuing the line soon, likely after in-store display contracts expire. The price cut is meant to move as much inventory as possible before being returned to HTC. The Facebook Home software, however, will still be available for select Android devices through Google Play.

Facebook launches site for academic publications – Facebook this week launched “Research Publications at Facebook,” a site for research papers published by the social network’s employees. The site is open to the public and includes a number of papers on engineering and sociology topics, such as “Self-censorship on Facebook” and “Storage and Performance Optimization of Long Tail Key Access in a Social Network“

In February, the social network began testing the new layout on desktop with an option to shop immediately or get a reminder before the promotion ends. The interface also lets users decide if and when to share the offer with friends. We started seeing this on iOS in early April, and the company officially announced it a few weeks later. Now, the product is uniform across desktop and mobile, including Android.

Overall, the new design is likely to increase conversions on Offers posts because of the cleaner design and more prominent buttons to “Get offer” or “Shop now.” The “Remind Me” button available for some retailers working with Facebook directly allows companies to prompt users to redeem their offer at a later date through a notification on Facebook.

The new Offers also provide users with a better experience since they can now claim an offer without publicizing it to friends. After users select “Get Offer” or “Remind me,” they will have an option to “Tell Friends.” Their activity won’t be shared unless they click this button. Previously, whenever a user clicked “Get Offer,” it generated a story in friends’ feeds and in the recent activity section of their Timeline.

An additional benefit is the My Offers section accessible from a bookmark in the sidebar menu. This feature lets users access all of the offers they’ve claimed.

To learn more about this topic, join us at Inside Social Apps in San Francisco June 6-7. Inside Facebook Lead Writer Brittany Darwell will moderate a “Trends in Social and Mobile Advertising” panel in which advertisers will discuss the types of ads that fare best on which platforms and what we can expect in the future.

Some users are now receiving notifications when one of their page posts performs better than average. The notification encourages page owners to advertise the post to get “even better results.” Whether or not they take the recommendation, page owners might appreciate the notice about how well their post is doing. This is similar to another recent test of a homepage module that identifies a well-performing post and links to a page where users could buy additional reach through Promoted Posts. This new test uses Facebook notifications instead.

Another test some users are seeing lately is an additional button to promote their posts. The button in the top right corner of an existing post next to the “highlight” and “edit” options features a megaphone icon, which Facebook uses to denote advertising. The story also includes a “boost post” button in the bottom right corner. Other page owners are seeing different language, including “promote” “get more reach” or “advertise post” instead of “boost post.”

Promoted Posts are page posts that get additional paid reach in News Feed among fans and friends of fans as a result of using a button on the page. Part of their appeal is that they don’t require page owners to create campaigns through the more complex ads create tool or Power Editor. However, as Facebook gets more aggressive in pushing these paid features, some page owners might be turned off.

First screenshot from Jay Baer via Social Marketers, a private industry group for social marketing professionals.

New listings added to Facebook’s careers page:

• Software Engineer (London)
• Construction Project Manager (Contract) (Singapore)
• Executive Assistant, Public Policy (Washington)
• Communications Manager (Sydney)
• Manager, Public Policy, EMEA (Brussels)
• Localization Project Manager (Contract) (Menlo Park)
• IT Infrastructure Manager (Menlo Park)
• Technology Partner (Contract) (Dublin)
• eCrime Investigator (Austin – Menlo Park)
• Manager, Global Compensation (Menlo Park)
• People Operations (HR) Partner Lead (Menlo Park)
• Technical Lead Recruiter (London)
• Training and Development Program Manager (Menlo Park)
• Building Automation Controls Engineer (Altoona)
• Creative Strategist, Global Creative Solutions (Tokyo)
• Event Manager (Menlo Park)
• Ad Operations Coordinator (Contract) (Dublin)
• Strategic Client Services Coordinator (Dublin)
• Team Lead, Ads Integrity (Austin)
• Team Lead, Payment Operations (Austin)
• Analyst, User Operations Intellectual Property (Menlo Park)
• Analyst, User Operations, Turkish (Dublin)
• Intellectual Property Analyst, User Operations (Menlo Park)
• Intellectual Property Associate, User Operations (Menlo Park)
• Account Manager (Hamburg)
• Strategic Partner Development, Mobile Gaming (Menlo Park)
• Executive Assistant (São Paulo)
• SMB Analyst, Hebrew (Dublin)
• Client Partner – Tech, Telco & Entertainment, Global Marketing Solutions (Sydney)

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

Catlin O’Neill, chief of staff to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, will join Facebook’s lobbying efforts in Washington, The Hill reports. She will join Greg Maurer, a former aide to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), and Chris Herndon, a former Republican House and Senate aide, on Facebook’s House lobbying team. O’Neill had worked for Pelosi since 2002.

Facebook Director of Communications Larry Yu this week announced that he would be leaving the company to work with friends on building The Pramana Collective, a new communications consultancy for startups. Yu had been with Facebook since August 2008.

Facebook also removed 28 positions from its careers page this week, likely after making hires in the areas of user operations, account management, global marketing, measurement and others. The company appears to have hired commercial and patent counsel, heads of agency and CPG relationships in Sydney, and a public content partnerships analyst, among others.

Prior listings removed from Facebook’s careers page:

• Executive Administrative Assistant to COO (Menlo Park)
• Commercial Counsel (Menlo Park)
• Patent Counsel (Menlo Park)
• Associate Manager, Public Policy (New York – Washington – Menlo Park)
• Manager, Technology Communications (Mobile) (Menlo Park)
• Merchant Operations Analyst (Menlo Park)
• HR Specialist (Contract) (Dublin)
• HR Specialist (Austin)
• Leadership Sourcer – Contractor (Menlo Park)
• Critical Facility Technician (Forest City)
• Measurement Partnership Manager (Menlo Park)
• Analyst, User Operations, Brazilian Portuguese (Dublin)
• Analyst, User Operations, Russian (Dublin)
• Team Lead, User Operations (Austin)
• Public Content Partnerships Analyst (Menlo Park)
• Account Manager, Polish (Dublin)
• Account Specialist, Strategic Client Services (Dublin)
• Agency Partner, Sub Saharan Africa (Dubai)
• Partner Manager, Preferred Marketing Developer, CEEMEA (Dublin)
• Agency Relationship Manager, Global Marketing Solutions (Sydney)
• Head of Agency (Sydney)
• Head of CPG (Sydney)
• Client Partner, Games & Mobile (Menlo Park)
• Client Partner, Mobile (Chicago)
• Client Partner, Technology/Telecommunications (Menlo Park)
• Manager, Global Marketing Solutions – CPG (Austin)
• Data Engineer, Data Warehouse (Menlo Park)
• Measurement Partnership Researcher (London)

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

Facebook Exchange retargeting partner Triggit today announced that it has secured $6 million in additional funding led by North Atlantic Capital along with existing investors Spark Capital and Foundry Group. Triggit says it will put the investment toward engineering and other talent as it focuses on improving products for advertisers retargeting users on the social network, particularly as Facebook evolves the exchange to include News Feed inventory.

Moontoast
Rich media advertising platform Moontoast today announced a partnership with user-generated video platform VideoGenie to give advertisers a new type of video ad unit within the Facebook News Feed. Brands will be able to post a call for user-generated video through their page, and directly from that post in News Feed, users will be able to record and submit their videos.

Mass Relevance

Social curation and engagement platform Mass Relevance today announced that it has integrated more than 25 billion pieces of content into dynamic visualizations on digital displays ranging from TV and second screens through billboards, stadium displays, websites, mobile apps, conference centers and in-store displays. Mass Relevance is the first Certified Twitter partner licensed to re-syndicate Twitter content for display. It can also aggregate, filter and display posts from Facebook. In the past year, Mass Relevance has powered social experiences for the the 2012 elections with CNN and Facebook; the Olympic Games with NBC and Twitter; as well as campaigns for brands like Pepsi and Doritos.

awe.sm
Social performance tracking platform awe.sm today announced a new CEO: Fred McIntyre, who has held senior leadership roles at AOL, Last.fm and CBS, and most recently has served as an advisor to Univision, SoundHound and other media companies and startups. awe.sm measures the business results of social marketing, such as signups and purchase. awe.sm co-founder and founding CEO Jonathan Strauss will now be Head of Product Development.

Facebook developed its own app Facebook for Glass, which will allow users to post photos from Google Glass to their Facebook Timeline and friends’ News Feeds. Users can share photos they’ve just taken or upload past photos. To include a caption, users can speak their description aloud. The app includes options to share with the public, friends only or privately with the “only me” setting.

For now, the app enables photo sharing but not other types of status updates or posts. If Google Glass eventually comes into wide use, Facebook is likely to develop other ways for people to share, browse content or connect with friends through the device. The social network aims to let people access Facebook from any platform, whether it’s web, mobile, smart TVs or emerging categories like wearable computers. Generally, though, it focuses its own development on the top platforms like web, Android and iOS, whereas apps for less popular platforms like Windows Phone and Blackberry are done by those companies themselves.

“We look forward to exploring Facebook experiences across new types of mobile devices; this is only a first step,” Facebook Mobile Product Manager Erick Tseng wrote in a post on Facebook.

More information about Facebook for Glass is available from the social network’s Help Center. Other partners with apps for Glass announced today are Twitter, Tumblr, Path, Evernote, CNN, New York Times and Elle.

Marqeta had agreed with Facebook not to disclose this until now. The announcement came as part of news about Marqeta’s latest round of funding: a $14 million Series B from Greylock IL, Granite Ventures, Commerce Ventures and a number of new angel and strategic investors.

The company’s +M Platform connects online and offline commerce through prepaid loyalty programs, similar to the Starbucks Card. It also allows prepaid amounts from multiple merchants, which is what Facebook is taking advantage of for its card. Facebook Card is a resusable gift card that can be loaded with balances for different businesses when a user’s friends buy them gifts through the social network.

When Facebook Card launched in January, Target, Jamba Juice, Olive Garden and Sephora were the only partners, making it not very compelling. It has since added Walgreens, Burger King, Outback Steakhouse and Staples — still quite limited and user awareness still seems to be very low. We haven’t seen Facebook make any efforts to advertise this offering, though it has been promoting Gifts overall across the platform.

In general, Gifts have been slow to take off, in part because of confusion about what Gifts are. Some users, remembering Facebook’s virtual gift shop from a few years ago, don’t realize the new Gifts are actual physical and digital goods. Others are skeptical because they think Gifts are a third-party app, not something from Facebook. Still others might not be using the product because they feel Facebook is not personal enough to send friends and loved ones presents through, or they’re concerned about providing their credit card information to the social network.

Until Facebook can better address users’ concerns and convey the benefits of Gifts — users don’t need to know a friend’s address, they can share the Gift on a friend’s wall or keep it private, payment information is secure — the product is unlikely to come into widespread use. If it can position it as a convenient but intimate way to show someone they care, then Gifts and Facebook Card might start to fulfill their potential as new stream of revenue for the company and shape commerce like Marqeta and Facebook seem to intend.

Previously, users could rate places from the Local Search section of the mobile app, and only if they had previously checked into the location or been tagged there. Facebook would also use the desktop sidebar to randomly prompt users to rate places they had been. There wasn’t a way for users to rate any place at any time they wanted until this past few weeks.

This enables users to go back and rate the places they might not have checked into on Facebook, but it also opens the door to rating manipulation. For instance, a business could ask friends or incentivize fans to give them five-star ratings. This became a problem at one point with app ratings. Facebook eliminated app reviews and ratings when manipulation made them no longer useful, but it later brought them back with more ways to keep them legitimate, such as random sampling. Facebook says it will continue to track engagement on place ratings to find ways to improve them over time.

This lates test on desktop place pages also gives users an easy way to change their rating. Before, the only way we could find to change a place rating was to do so through the activity log, but it could be difficult to find the rating among all of a user’s other actions. Changing a rating is not possible to do from the mobile app.

We also noticed that unadministrated pages now include a way for users to rate and recommend the place. Unadministrated places are often cities, public parks or local businesses that haven’t claimed their page on Facebook.

Although Facebook has had a “recommend this place” feature since 2011, it has only recently begun to emphasize ways for users to share more feedback about the locations and businesses they visit. The social network is also developing the same for content, with users now able to rate books, movies and TV shows as of this week. All of this is building Facebook’s potential as a local search and entertainment discovery platform, and has implications for the businesses and organizations that manage their presence there. More user generated reviews and ratings gives page owners a bit less control over what is displayed on their page and the sentiments revealed there. These ratings could also begin to influence Graph Search and News Feed distribution, introducing another factor for marketers to consider and optimize for.

This list of top gaining actor/director pages is compiled with PageData, which tracks page growth and engagement across Facebook.

#	Name	People Talking About	Weekly Growth
1	Vin Diesel	1,631,816	+545,769
2	Sanaa Lathan	433,058	+383,159
3	Corbin Bernsen	540,030	+304,178
4	Emma Watson	428,435	+236,397
5	Alia Bhatt	244,203	+194,985
6	George Takei	3,354,142	+141,652
7	Channing Tatum	321,030	+138,236
8	成龍 Jackie Chan	1,104,711	+124,138
9	Jason Statham	200,577	+121,254
10	Kirk Cameron	198,777	+116,564

Last week, “Fast and Furious” lead all movie pages in PTAT. The summer blockbuster and its star have generated a large buzz via social media. However, the most engaged post on the actor’s page was a cover photo update and not clearly associated to the film. With over 41 million total Likes, Vin Diesel’s fan page has ample organic reach which contributes to large PTAT.

The second fastest growing actor page this week belongs to Sanaa Lathan, best known for “Love and Basketball.” The actress takes a personal approach to her profile page, using the first person and sharing pictures taken by herself. Her most engaging post for the week took place on Mother’s Day where she shared a photo with her mother. These types of holiday themed posts can provide increased engagement due to increased relevance to the audience.

Visit PageData to see more about the top talked about actor and director pages as well as other categories. Now only $19.95 a month.