S2EO

Google Launches Groupon Rival

2011-04-26T09:13:00.001-05:00

Back in December, S2EO reported on Groupon's decision to reject an offer by Google to acquire the start-up for an estimated $5 to $6 billion.

Well, it looks like Google is fighting back by launching its own daily deals service, Google Offers. Much like Groupon and other competitors like LivingSocial, Google Offers will send daily alerts to consumers about deals at local businesses such as restaurants, fitness centers, and stores. People can begin signing up for the alerts this Thursday on the Google homepage.

Meanwhile, Groupon apparently has plans to make its shares open to the public, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) for Groupon is expected to be between $15 and $20 billion.

Do you plan to sign up for Google Offers? What do you think of Groupon's plans to go public? Let us know below.

Want to Get the Most Traction on Your Social Media Efforts? Try Fridays

2011-04-11T09:57:00.002-05:00

Maybe it's because it's the end of the work week and people are already slipping into weekend mode or maybe it's the fact that there are fewer posts for users to comment on overall at the end of the week, but two independent studies confirm: Engagement on social networks is higher on Thursdays and Fridays than other days of the week.

In fact, engagement on Facebook pages is 18 percent higher on Thursdays and Fridays than the rest of the week, with Thursdays being the slightly better day to post. Conversely, Fridays seem to be the best day to engage users on Twitter, according to Twitter Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain.

Although there are likely many factors at work, one reason for the spike in engagement at the end of the week seems to be that fewer people are posting during this time—which means that there are fewer posts to compete for users' attention.

Regardless, the research is certainly important for marketers to keep in mind as they try to get the most out of their social media campaigns.

What do you think of the research? What days of the week do you see the most response for your posts? Do you tend to engage more on social media networks at the end of the week? Let us know below.

Facebook Lets Users Convert Profiles to Pages—Finally

2011-03-31T14:58:00.000-05:00

For all the businesses out there that created a Facebook profile to publicize your brand before there was such a thing as a Facebook "page," your day of reckoning is finally here.

Facebook recently launched a tool that enables users to convert their Facebook profiles into pages. People who opt to make the switch will find that their profile pictures and friends (now categorized as "likes") will move from their personal profile to a business page.

Unfortunately, this is the only content that will transfer over, and the "migration," as Facebook is calling it, is not reversible. So, users should make sure to download and save any other content that they do not want to be lost, including their photos, messages, or other personal information from their profiles.

Of course, for many businesses, the move may not even be an option anymore. In fact, we at S2EO cannot help but to be a little bit bitter at Facebook over the new feature. As some of you might remember, S2EO's parent company, Shakespeare Squared, had their Facebook account disabled a few months back because it was discovered that we had created a profile for the business rather than a page.

Still, the feature does hold a lot of perks, especially for executives or other public figures that have muddled the line on Facebook between their personal connections and brand followers. The tool allows an easy transition for many users to create a page for their business that is separate from their personal profile.

What do you think of the tool? Do you plan to use it? Let us know below.

New Subscription Plan for Apple Apps

2011-03-02T08:57:00.001-06:00

Apple recently announced its plans for a new subscription service for apps delivering content, including newspapers, magazines, videos, and music. Under the plan, publishers will be able to keep 100 percent of the revenue from app subscriptions sold on their own site; however, Apple will get 30 percent of the revenue from any subscriptions purchased from them directly.

Steve Jobs commented on the new service, saying:

"Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing. All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app. We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers."

While it remains to be seen how publishers will react to the plan, Apple has also made it clear that it will allow publishers to control privacy features.

What do you think of Apple's subscription plan? Let us know below.

Why Every Company Needs to be a Media Company

2011-01-20T11:04:00.004-06:00

This morning, I read an interesting blog post by Joe Pulizzi, author, speaker, and content marketing strategist and the founder of Junta42. The post, "Starting a News Service for Your Industry," asserts the notion that every company must be a media company, and I have to say, I could not agree with him more.

Here at S2EO, we spurt the importance of content all the time. Not just any content, but quality content. Content that engages your customers, makes them smarter, and helps them to lead better lives. Why is this so important?

In the first wave of web development, experts touted the importance of having a website. People likened it to having an address—if a company did not have a website, they might as well not exist, at least as far as their potential customers were concerned. Well, today, it is not just about having a website. With the endless amount of information available on the Internet via various websites, social networks, blogs, and other online publications, businesses need a way to engage their customers to distinguish their message from the messages of others and to separate their brand from their competitors.

By becoming a media company, businesses essentially become a news source for their customers, offering them the latest industry news, information, and advice. Take, for example, a company that sells cars. While the company’s website might be a good resource for people interested in buying a car, customers are unlikely to revisit the website once they have made their purchase. But if the website offers other resources—articles on car safety, a video about what to look for in a used car, and blogs on the latest car regulations—customers will begin to value the company as a trusted industry expert and come back to the site over and over again.

Developing a content marketing strategy does not mean throwing all of your other marketing initiatives out the window. However, it does mean that companies should consider their content as a reflection of their brand and as an important part of their overall business and marketing goals.

To read Joe Pulizzi's full post, click here. You can also check out S2EO's own Resource Center for more information on content, social media, and marketing here.

What do you think? Join the discussion below.

Real-Time Social Media Use on the Rise

2011-01-14T09:43:00.001-06:00

Participation in real-time social media networks is on the rise, according to the Global Web Index, a new study by social media consultancy Trendstream. While participation in static online conversations like blogs and forums decreased in 2010, real-time social networks and microblogging sites like Twitter and Facebook have increased by 20 percent in the last year.

Interestingly, the study also revealed that social media has become more about sharing professional content than personal content. The sharing of news stories links, videos, and other informational content went up 10 percent in 2010, while posts about personal photos went down 5 percent.

In fact, this new data can be seen in the site design changes of the big social media players—Twitter asks users, "What's happening?" instead of "How are you doing?" Similarly, Facebook removed the "Username is…" from status updates, encouraging users to post a wide variety of information.

The study is big news for businesses who utilize social media as part of their overall marketing strategy. Companies that focus on creating engaging, meaningful content for their customers and that distribute it through various social media channels have the potential to connect with a huge userbase of customers and potential customers who can then share that content with others.

What do you think of the findings? What social media networks does your company use? What type of content do you share? Let us know in the comments below.

New Facebook Newsfeed Options

2010-12-23T11:18:00.002-06:00

A couple of days ago, Facebook began rolling out some additional filtering options for users' newsfeeds. Previously, users were given only two sorting options—Top News and Most Recent. While Top News was an algorithmic assortment of users' most interesting stories, Most Recent was simply a list of the most current updates from friends.

However, now users have a wide variety of options for sorting through their newsfeeds. They can choose to view stories involving Status Updates, Games, Pages, or Photos, as well as select to see posts from just one of their Groups.

Another new option allows users to control the number of posts they see from a specific user in their newsfeed.

Not everyone has access to the new filtering options yet, but they seem to be another attempt by Facebook to synthesize information for users and to make the site as user-friendly as possible.

Are you seeing the changes? What do you think?

Twitter Usage Jumps in 2010

2010-12-17T09:39:00.008-06:00

A whopping 100 million people joined Twitter in 2010, according to a new study by Sysomos. The study, which analyzed Twitter usage over the last year, also uncovered some other interesting facts:

16% of Twitter users have over 100 followers, while 21% of users follow more than 100 people (an increase of 7% from 2009).
Current users are more likely to include more information on their profile, such as a location (82%), a website (44%), and a bio (69%).
80.6% of users have made less than 500 tweets, with 22.5% of users accounting for nearly 90% of all tweets on the network.

With Twitter's usage only continuing to grow, it doesn't look like the social media giant is going anywhere fast.

You can see more of the findings and charts from the report here, courtesy of Mashable.

What do you think of the report? Do you use Twitter? How much information do you share? Let us know in the comments below.

Groupon Rejects Google Offer

2010-12-10T09:32:00.001-06:00

Well, apparently we spoke too soon. Last week, S2EO broke news of a potential deal between Groupon and Google. According to rumors, Google had acquired the start-up for $2.5 billion. However, new reports indicate that Groupon rejected the offer, which was actually somewhere between $5 billion to $6 billion.

As of yet, neither party has commented on the deal, but there is much speculation as to why Groupon would reject such an offer at this time. For one thing, Groupon, at least for now, can certainly afford to wait. The start-up is one of the fastest growing companies ever. In fact, the company stands to bring in a whopping $2 billion in sales this year, according to the All Things Digital blog.

Another huge factor is company culture. Many of the Groupon writers and sales staff have backgrounds in improv comedy, and the company in general is known for its off-beat sense of humor. It is quite possible that the company just did not want to be absorbed by a larger corporation so early on.

Of course, a big question with Groupon is whether the business is sustainable. Start-ups tend to face pressure from investors to either go public or get acquired, so it will be interesting to see what the company does moving forward.

What do you think? Should Groupon have accepted the offer? Let us know in the comments below.

Facebook Rolls Out New Profile Pages

2010-12-06T11:27:00.005-06:00

Just prior to Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance on 60 Minutes last night, Facebook began rolling out its new profile pages to users.

While not all users have the new profile yet, you can choose to activate yours simply by clicking on the announcement in your newsfeed.

The new profile page provides a more streamlined format of users’ personal information in order to help them connect with friends. At the top of each user’s page is a summary that includes basic information such as where they’re from, where they live now, and where they work. Below this summary appears a series of recently tagged pictures. Interests now appear as a series of images as well, which users can drag-and-drop to rearrange in whatever order they want.

Users can also highlight important relationships on their profile by sorting friends into groups like “Best Friends” or “Coworkers.” Another feature is that when you click on a friend’s profile, a link appears on the top right-hand side of the page that allows you to see a summary of your relationship with that person, including mutual friends, wall posts, and photos.

You can see screenshots of the new profile page, courtesy of Mashable here.

Do you have the new profile page? What do you think? Let us know below.

Google Acquires Groupon for $2.5 Billion

2010-11-29T10:40:00.000-06:00

While it still has yet to be confirmed, Vatornews is reporting that it has word from a “reliable source” that Google bought Groupon for a whopping $2.5 billion. Groupon, which e-mails users local daily deals on everything from restaurants to yoga classes, has grown exponentially since its November 2008 launch. The company is currently valued at $1 billion, with monthly revenues of over $50 million.

Rumors regarding the acquisition have been circulating for awhile, as Google has apparently been interested in the deal since Yahoo failed to make the acquisition earlier this year.

The deal is a good move for both parties. Google can now incorporate Groupon deals into Google Places, while Groupon gains more security against competitors like LivingSocial.

Do you use Groupon? What do you think of the acquisition? Let us know below.

Facebook Censorship: What Does it Mean for Email?

2010-11-24T09:00:00.001-06:00

Facebook's recent dust-up with Lamebook has caused quite a stir. Lamebook is a website built on Facebook users' fails -- for example, a typo that accidentally makes a status inappropriate. Screenshots of Facebook statuses and picture captions dominate Lamebook's site, and, in turn, users often post the funniest ones back to Facebook.

That is, until Facebook began censoring and banning anything mentioning Lamebook, even combinations like "lame + book DOT com." What's particularly disturbing is that even if someone were simply trying to start a dialogue about the situation ("Hey guys, what do you think about the Facebook/Lamebook debate?"), they weren't allowed to post their status.

Although with the publicity Facebook has now reversed this policy, it's not the first time Facebook has censored its users. Anecdotal evidence points to statuses that have been removed without warning due to content that Facebook deemed inappropriate, such as a curse word. Their censorship also extends to businesses, particularly those of an adult nature, even if they are entirely appropriate on the Facebook page and require an 18+ confirmation.

Beyond the obvious censorship issues, this is particularly concerning considering Facebook's plan to add email (or not-email as the case may be). Commenters on the TechCrunch post have pointed out, "Could you imagine if Gmail stopped me from sending an email with a link?" Or a curse word?

What do you think about Facebook's censorship? Will it stop you from trying their messaging system? Let us know in the comments below.

MySpace is Sleeping with the Enemy

2010-11-22T09:15:00.000-06:00

MySpace is crossing over into enemy territory with its latest update in an effort to try to keep the sinking ship afloat.

Having long since fallen to the dominant social network, Facebook, MySpace has been hemorrhaging users. In an attempt to staunch the flow, MySpace has turned to the old adage, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." MySpace is now allowing users to carry their likes and interests from Facebook directly over into their MySpace profile. On MySpace, users can connect with Facebook to "mashup your Facebook Likes and public profile info to create a personal entertainment stream in just one step."

This latest update is in addition to August's update, which allowed users to sync MySpace and Facebook together to share MySpace content with Facebook friends.

Will it be enough to save MySpace? Considering that it is widely believed that MySpace has yet to turn a profit, it may just be prolonging the inevitable. Integrating with Facebook is certainly a good move -- people find it very useful on Twitter, for example -- but MySpace needs to offer up value on its own, besides just piggybacking on the features of its frenemy.

What do you think? Do you use MySpace? Let us know in the comments below.

Twitter Launches New Analytics Tool

2010-11-19T09:26:00.003-06:00

Well, it looks like the rumors can finally be put to rest—Twitter has officially started to roll out a new analytics tool to a select group of its users, according to Mashable.

This long-awaited feature will enable users to gather a wide variety of data related to their account, such as which tweets led to a loss of followers, which tweets were the most successful, and which followers have the most influence when they reply or retweet.

The tool is expected to be free, and it should be available to all users by the end of the year. This means, however, that third-party sites currently offering some of these services are likely to be hit hard.

While more information regarding Twitter Analytics has yet to be released, all we at S2EO have to say about the product is, “It’s about time.” Having an inside tool comparable to Facebook Insights for Twitter will make measuring engagement and ROI that much easier.

What do you think about the new Twitter Analytics? What tools are you currently using to measure you Twitter ROI? Let us know in the comments below.

Beware the Angry Internet Mob - The Web Is Not Public Domain

2010-11-17T11:59:00.001-06:00

It all started two weeks ago when college student Monica Gauido found out she had been published in Cooks Source magazine -- which sounds well and good until you discover that Cooks Source used Gauido's recipe without permission.

After inquiring to the magazine, Gauido discovered that it was not an innocent mixup. After asking for a Facebook apology, a printed apology in the magazine and $130 to be donated to the Columbia School of Journalism, Gauido got the following reply from Judith Griggs of Cooks Source:

"But honestly Monica, the web is considered 'public domain' and you should be happy we just didn't 'lift' your whole article and put someone else's name on it!...If you took offence and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than was originally. Now it will work well for your portfolio. For that reason, I have a bit of a difficult time with your requests for monetary gain, albeit for such a fine (and very wealthy!) institution. We put some time into rewrites, you should compensate me!"

The rewrites that were required? Taking Gauido's use of olde English and modernizing it, which was the entire point of her Godecookery website from which the recipe was lifted. As you can imagine, the backlash to Griggs and Cooks Source has been swift on the Internet. Cooks Source's Facebook page was quickly overrun with people bashing the company, particularly as people began to discover other places from which Cooks Source lifted their recipes, tips, and articles, including the Food Network, NPR, WebMD, Martha Stewart, Weight Watchers, Paula Dean, and Southern Living, just to name a few. A Google Documents spreadsheet was started detailing over 160 different places where information was taken from.

Now, Cooks Source has closed their website and Griggs posted a statement saying that the negative publicity will likely be the "final straw" for Cooks Source. TechCrunch says, "Congrats, Self-Righteous Internet Mob. You Killed a Magazine."

Frankly, we at S2EO have to disagree. Griggs and Cooks Source didn't just make one mistake. As TechCrunch says, they made "one series of mistakes," but that series was what their entire magazine was on -- content. And as providers of content ourselves, we don't feel too sorry about the Internet mob justice that was handed out.

In this age of copying and pasting, it's very easy to lift content. Search Google Images for that picture you need. Copy Wikipedia or steal a paragraph here or there -- at S2EO, we see it all the time when we do research: as we look for research articles, we'll see the exact same piece four or five times. But the Internet is not public domain. Are you looking for some free pictures for your website? Check out Wikimedia Commons, media files that anyone can use for free. Of course, they may still come with copyright restrictions -- some are public domain, but others require author credit or other permissions. All are clearly labeled. Are you looking for content? Consider hiring an actual content provider and paying money to get custom content provided for you. It may not be free, but it's certainly a lot better that having to shut down your business as a result of a few costing -- and illegal -- measures.

Thoughts? Do you think Cooks Source got a bad rap, or what they deserved? How does your business get its content? Let us know in the comments below.

"Project Titan" aka Facebook Messages - Not a Gmail Killer

2010-11-15T14:31:00.000-06:00

The tech world was abuzz last week when invitations went out for a Facebook special event to be held today. Sources everywhere talked about Project Titan, dubbing it the "Gmail Killer" (here, here, here, here...you get the idea). Project Titan was revealed today, and a Gmail Killer it ain't. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean it's something to sneeze at.

Project Titan, now known as Facebook Messages, is really just a combination of Facebook messages, chats, and texts all in one place. You can sign up for an @facebook.com email address if you'd like one, but Facebook states, "[Facebook] Messages is not email." It's meant to be more like chats, where there are no subject lines or fields for carbon copies.

We'll definitely be interested to see what it can do, but right now we're taking the announcement with a grain of salt. Facebook's last big foray, Places, has yet to pop, and Facebook Messages sounds suspiciously like Google's ill-fated Wave. Noticeably, we're concerned when some of its big features are, "There are no subject lines, no cc, no bcc, and you can send a message by hitting the Enter key. We modeled it more closely to chat and reduced the number of things you need to do to send a message." How difficult is it, really, to send a message? If you don't want to include a subject line, you don't have to. This isn't exactly rocket science.

However, we're still interested because we want to try out the product and really get a feel for it before we know for sure. Facebook will only be rolling out Messages slowly to those who request an invite. Once we get ours, we'll be sure to post a review. In the meantime, however, get the rest of your Messages questions answered here.

Facebook Rolls Out (Another) New Feature: Mentions

2010-11-12T08:01:00.000-06:00

Facebook has been making a lot of changes lately, mostly in an attempt to make information more easily accessible to users. For instance, users have probably noticed the more consolidated format for birthday wall postings, as well as the new Friendship pages, which include not only wall posts (formerly under “see wall-to-wall”), but also the photos, shared events, and mutual friends of two people on Facebook.

Well, Facebook is rolling out yet another new feature known as “Mentions.” The feature enables users to see which of their friends are talking about a particular topic by combining the posts in their newsfeed. Facebook described Mentions, saying, “This feature looks for certain phrases in the text of feed stories and combines them into one story if it finds matches. It’s currently being tested with a very small percentage of people.”

The feature will also show which Groups and “likes” your friends are most talking about, which could be a big plus for businesses who utilize Facebook pages by drawing more users to their brand.

What do you think of the new features? Have you noticed the changes? Let us know in the comments below.

More Facebook Firings -- But People Are Fighting Back

2010-11-10T08:58:00.002-06:00

Getting fired for behavior on social media is nothing new. However, one person to be fired for her Facebook status is responding with a groundbreaking legal case against her former employer.

Dawnmarie Souza filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board that she was illegally fired from her emergency medical technician job at American Medical Response of Connecticut Inc. after posting negative comments about her supervisor on her Facebook page.

Souza wrote on her Facebook page: "Looks like I'm getting some time off. Love how the company allows a 17 [company code for a psychiatric patient] to be a supervisor."

Lafe Solomon, NLRB's acting general counsel said, "It's the same as talking at the water cooler. The point is that employees have protection under the law to talk to each other about conditions at work." Federal law protects employees against retaliation for negative comments made about jobs, working conditions, or managers to other co-workers on their own time.

American Medical Response's attorney, John Barr, said Souza was fired due to two complaints about her behavior and service within 10 days of each other. However, he also added, "If you're going to make disgusting, slanderous statements about co-workers, that is something that our policy does not allow," referring to the company's social media policy.

It seems, however, that it will come down to cause regarding the firing, as the limits to the law protecting worker speech extend only to things such as threatening speech and disrupting the workplace. Criticizing a supervisor on personal time seems to be protected.

It's an interesting position for employers, especially considering that American Medical Response even had a social media policy. Do you have any social media guidelines in place yet? Although they aren't a catchall to prevent all problems, they can at least help set a precedent and foundation for behavior.

What do you think? Is it really similar to water cooler talk? Should it be protected speech? Let us know in the comments below.

Facebook Hosts 1 in 4 Display Ads -- But Is Anyone Seeing Them?

2010-11-08T11:58:00.000-06:00

Americans on the Internet saw 1.3 trillion display ads in the third quarter alone this year, according to new data released by comScore.

That's a 22 percent increase over the same time in 2009, with Facebook leading the pack. Almost one quarter -- 23.1 percent -- of all display ads were on Facebook, adding up to 297 billion ad impressions in the third quarter alone. Those are big numbers, but what do they really mean for advertisers?

As the average American on the Internet is hit with a whopping 6,000 display ads per quarter, or 65 ads a day, are they still effective?

It's hard to say. On the one hand, display ads such as those on Facebook can be highly targeted to a specific customer base in a way that was only dreamed about previously. On the other hand, of course, you're competing for attention with so many other ads that users begin to display ad blindness. How many ads do you notice on Facebook when you're on there? How many do you click on?

Do you think Facebook is a valuable ad buy? Do you see them as a consumer? Let us know in the comments below.

Google Buzz Reaches Class Action Settlement

2010-11-05T10:58:00.002-05:00

Google Buzz recently sent the following information out to all of its Gmail users earlier this week:

Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we've reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz (http://buzz.google.com), a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year.

Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case.

The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users' concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. We will also do more to educate people about privacy controls specific to Buzz. The more people know about privacy online, the better their online experience will be.

Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. This email is a summary of the settlement, and more detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at http://www.BuzzClassAction.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
This mandatory announcement was sent to all Gmail users in the United States as part of a legal settlement and was authorized by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

We're not surprised -- beyond our initial skepticism of Buzz, we had serious privacy concerns. Since then, we're seeing few people (if any) beyond the tech industry actually actively use Buzz. Even there, the interest is waning. Take Mashable, for example -- previously, Google Buzz was part of the main sharing options for a story. Their main options now, however, are Tweeting, sharing on Facebook, Digging it, or e-mailing it. Buzzing it is still available under the "Share" option, but it's not one of the top main choices on the page.

If even tech companies are distancing themselves from Buzz, we won't be surprised if it lands in the Google Graveyard next to Wave sometime soon.

Have you buzzed? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Want to see a lot of Facebook action? Try Wednesdays at 2 PM …

2010-10-29T15:03:00.000-05:00

People spend a lot of time on Facebook. While over half of all users login at least once a day, 12 percent of users are checking in every couple of hours. In fact, S2EO has been urging businesses to jump on the social media bandwagon for precisely this reason—with over 500 million users on Facebook, companies have the opportunity to connect with a huge network of potential clients and customers.

For many, Facebook offers an easy opportunity to kill some time and mentally check out for a bit. However, we can all attest to the fact that sometimes on Facebook it seems as if a whole lot of nothing is going on. Which begs the question, when are Facebook users the most active? And more importantly, if you’re a business, when should you be posting to attract the most attention to your page?

Vitrue, a social media management company, did a study to find out, analyzing the Facebook posting data of over 1500 brand streams over a two-month period. Here is what the study uncovered:

The three most active times for users are weekdays at 10:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., and 7:00 p.m. CST, with users being the most active at 2:00 p.m.
Overall, Wednesdays at 2:00 p.m. is the busiest time for users.
Brand fans are much less active on Sundays than on any other day of the week.

The study found some other interesting findings as well. While the most amount of activity (posts and comments) tends to occur at 2:00 p.m. on weekdays, posts made in the morning typically fare better than those in the afternoon. In fact, posts made in the morning are 39.7 percent more effective engagement-wise than those made in the afternoon.

Of course, more research on the topic needs to be done, but for businesses, the findings can be extremely helpful. Being aware of the times when your users are most likely to engage on your page can help strengthen your marketing strategy.

What do you think of the findings? Does your company post on Facebook at a certain time of day? Let us know in the comments below.

Dear Facebook: Thanks for Destroying Our Marketing Campaign

2010-10-25T12:01:00.001-05:00

Well, not quite, but it feels a bit like that. No sooner did we write last week about the Facebook dilemma of too many company spaces than Facebook took care of the problem for us: it disabled our parent company Shakespeare Squared's account, deleted our fan page, and kicked us out as the only admin of our group.

Now, it wasn't so nefarious as Facebook seeking retribution on our blog post, but it still leaves us in an unfortunate position. When we at S2EO contacted Facebook trying to claim our business for the "Facebook Places" page, we received the following reply:

Facebook profiles are intended to represent individuals and should not be used to represent other entities. We recognize that this is not the issue you wrote in about, but your account has been disabled because it violates Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

We noticed that the profile held under this email address is being used to maintain a Facebook presence for a brand, business, group, or organization. Facebook profiles are intended to represent individuals only, and it is a violation of Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to use Profiles to represent any other entities. We recognize that this is not the issue you wrote in about, but we will not be able to reactivate this account.

Now, we don't argue that the previous statement isn't true - at Facebook, as a company we had "Shakespeare Squared" as a profile - as a person. Why? Because back when we first created this page, you could not create a business account or page without a personal profile, as you can do now. As a standard of good business practice, we created a corporate page instead of linking to an individual profile because what happens when the person that account is linked up with changes positions, gets fired, etc? Instead of linking it to an individual's e-mail, we linked it to a generic marketing e-mail for the company (which we maintain was a smart idea, due to the fact that people who originally created and maintained these pages are either in very different positions in the company or are no longer with the company).

Now when we create pages for our clients, we use the official business pages, without creating any personal profile, because now you can do that. However, as we said, you couldn't do that three or four years ago when these pages were created. Since then, we've struggled with how to convert the followers for our company over -- the "friends" to the profile are not the same as the "fans" to the page are not the same as the "members" to the group, as we detailed last week. You can force (tag) individuals into new groups, but that seemed a little presumptuous for us, so we were at a crossroads of how to get all of our friends, fans, and followers into one place.

Well, Facebook made it easy. Without any warning or any way of correcting, fighting, or disputing this action ("Unfortunately, we are unable to offer further support for this issue."), Facebook disabled the account, deleting the personal profile, the fan page associated with it, and leaving our group without an admin.

We get it -- we should have had a business account -- but without offering an easy way to convert and/or consolidate the existing pages, we at S2EO were still debating the optimal solution. In addition, we think it's a poor choice on Facebook's part to screw over their oldest small business members (or else we would have used a business account, as we do on all of our new client accounts), and disable the account without any warning or ability to try and make things right.

The fans of our Facebook page? All in limbo. Our Facebook group? Without an admin, and absolutely no way to instill a new admin, which means our information can never be updated -- or deleted to make room for a new group.

Would it have been so hard for Facebook to give us any kind of notice so we could clean things up? A day's notice would have let us add admins so at the very least our group would be usable. I also understand it's a big company with a lot of little issues that they don't have the time, money, or manpower to support, but leaving a company without any kind of option to fight or explain their side (potentially giving us a chance to get our page back) is a bad way to do business.

Although this won't destroy our marketing campaign (we wouldn't be a very good company if this was our only outlet) it certainly puts a big damper on our own social media marketing, and leaves us wondering how best to utilize Facebook in the future.

Suggestions? Thoughts? Leave them in the comments below!

Check in on Foursquare and Save an Endangered Species

2010-10-22T08:11:00.001-05:00

Here at S2EO, we talk about Foursquare a lot. One of our favorite geo-location services, Foursquare enables users to check in to various locations in their city via their smart phone. For most users, Foursquare is simply a game—you can see where your friends are hanging out and find deals and discounts in your area—however, the service holds a number of perks for businesses, too, connecting them with hundreds of potential customers in their local market.

Well, one organization is taking the marketing capabilities of Foursquare to a whole new level. Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm, is now using Foursquare to leverage their other advertising efforts. New ads appearing in San Francisco’s transit stations read: “What does it take to help save the endangered pika? About 20 seconds. Check in now at Foursquare at ‘Earthjustice ad.’ Every time you check in, an Earthjustice donor will donate $10 to protect endangered species.”

While Earthjustice seems to be the first organization urging users to check in using a physical billboard, the strategy is likely to capture the attention of other advertisers. By linking ads with a geo-location service like Foursquare, businesses can see which ads are getting the most responses and engaging their audience.

Ray Wan, the marketing manager of Earthjustice says of the campaign, “A lot of the time people are standing around BART checking their phones as they wait for their train, so it was a no-brainer to use Foursquare as way to get them to engage with the ads and support our work.” In fact, Earthjustice’s donors were quick to jump on board, too. One donor agreed to pay $50,000 towards the new campaign.

What do you think of the strategy? Would you consider a similar strategy for your business? Let us know below.

The Facebook Dilemma: Too Many Company Spaces

2010-10-20T08:47:00.002-05:00

In the few years that Facebook has been used as a real marketing tool for businesses, it has seen many changes. Many of these changes were beneficial and gave small businesses a really great marketing tool, but it's also causing some problems -- namely, how do you manage everything?

Consider this: If you started using Facebook for brands some time ago, you likely have (1) an old company profile (something that was necessary to create a page at the time), (2) an old fan page, (3) a group, (4) a new community page for people who "like" you, (5) a "Places" page, and (6) any unofficial pages that might have sprung up. That's six different avenues to keep up (at least) on one social media media site alone.

Facebook has said that brands will at some point be able to merge these places together, but in the meantime at S2EO we're having difficulty even claiming the automatic pages that have been created, like the Places page. In addition, when Community pages first began, they had an option similar to "claiming" a business in which a company could potentially influence the content. However, it seems that businesses will now have no control over Community pages.

This poses a lot of problems for brands and their customers. If you search for a brand on Facebook and find five different, official-looking pages (not to mention a plethora of unofficial pages), how do you know what to choose? How can businesses mitigate this confusion for their customers? They can shut down old pages, but where will you lead them? And how will you bring all of your followers/friends/fans from one area to another?

This could be a big problem for small businesses -- and potentially Facebook -- if customers can't find what they want.

How have you been managing Facebook? Does your business have a solution? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Geo-location Wars

2010-10-19T11:13:00.000-05:00

When Facebook Places arrived on the scene, some said it held trouble for Foursquare, Gowalla, SCVNGR, and other geo-location services. Based on the sheer number of potential users (the percentage of the 500 million Facebook users that have a Places-enabled smartphone), it had the potential to be big, but, as we at S2EO argued, Places was missing the competitive and/or gaming aspects of other services that keep people coming back.

SCVNGR is set to hit 500,000 users today. What the service lacks in technical GPS technology, it's making up for with big business partnerships for rewards, fun challenges, and (from what we hear anecdotally) a stellar customer service team that tries to work closely with brands.

Foursquare, meanwhile, is set to surpass the 4 million member mark later this week, with an estimated 20,000 people signing up each day.

And Facebook? There's no official data there on user numbers. People throw out the 500 million member user base, but that doesn't really mean much. It only applies to those 500 million who are in the United States, which shrinks the number to about 150 million. Then consider the number of people in the US with smartphones, which shrinks that number to about 45 million. That's closer to the real pool of potential users, but even that isn't totally accurate, considering if you don't have an iPhone or your smartphone isn't equipped with HTML5, you still can't use Places.

Facebook Places then has a potential user base of about 45 million, which is still huge compared to its geo-location rivals. Yet, it's still not translating into real usage. In a completely unscientific review of Facebook updates, it took over 200 entries before finding one that involved places (or 0.4%) - yet, interestingly this wasn't due to a dearth of smartphone usage: 18% of those 200 updates were made from various smartphones.

So where's the breakdown happening? At S2EO, we still feel it's due to the lack of a gaming aspect that other brands have. Some businesses are starting to integrate rewards with checking into Facebook Places, but not nearly at the level of Foursquare or even SCVNGR. Foursquare also offers mayorships and badges. Gowalla offers "Founder"-ships and bonus items. SCVNGR offers challenge to complete for points. And, interestingly, most of these geo-location services have actually seen an up-tick in users and check-ins after the Places launch.

The geo-location wars certainly aren't over, but Places isn't going to be able to put up much of a fight if it doesn't offer something different soon. Where do you see its future going?