Facebook announced this week its partnership with Nielsen to provide ad measurement to advertisers. The product, Nielsen BrandLift, is expected to prove the performance of Facebook display ads. The information will be gathered using surveys that will ask users about their attitudes and purchase intent based on display ads that run throughout Facebook. The surveys will appear on Facebook’s homepage in the same space where sponsored messages currently are. The goal is to have a look and feel that fits within the existing Facebook experience. The frequency of the surveys will be closely monitored. Nielsen BrandLift will launch in the U.S. first with select advertisers and then roll out to all Facebook partners. According to comScore, Facebook pulled a 9.1% share of display ad views in the U.S. in July, landing behind Yahoo but ahead of AOL and Microsoft. I am very interested to see what sort of quantifiable results they report because it will allow me to better evaluate placements on Facebook. Social networking sites accounted for more than 20% of ads viewed online, with MySpace and Facebook accounting for 80% of them. We know there has been a shift in user behavior online and it is only fitting that we begin accurately measuring performance as we do with other leading content sites.

http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/entry/45288/facebook-allies-with-nielsen-to-provide-ad-measurement

Here’s a breakdown of just what makes this campaign so compelling, using Facebook Page management strategies utilized by EDU Interactive and Castle Advertising as a guideline:

Strong Vanity URL

Facebook recently launched the ability to create a unique vanity URL for Facebook profiles and company pages. In the Gap: Born to Fit campaign, Gap capitalized on this opportunity and opted to use the campaign tagline as the URL. The result: A short, memorable URL that simultaneously creates brand reinforcement, authentically represents the company and enhances SEO. 

Specific Landing Page for Non-Fans

Currently, Facebook Pages are set up so that the “Wall” tab is the point of entry for all fans when visiting the page. However, Facebook allows company pages to choose which tab to use as a point of entry for all non-fans. In the case of Gap, the “Born to Fit” tab is set as the landing page for all non-fans, thus exposing all new visitors to the latest Gap promotion. 

Fan Interaction

You’ve heard the phrase– “Social marketing is about building relationships.” In the “Born to Fit” campaign, Gap puts this adage into practice by encouraging fan interaction through a variety of methods. Visitors can trade fashion tips in a discussion forum under the “Style Tips” tab. Visitors can create their own “Born to” Gap ads and share their own styles through Polyvore, an online image-mixing app. And visitors can also view videos featuring designer Patrick Robinson and Gap models about what they were “born to do.” By providing value back to the customer, the Gap “Born to Fit” campaign facilitates buzz and awareness, builds consumer loyalty and reinforces branding.

Cross-Promotion

On the main page, the Gap Facebook hub makes excellent use of cross-promotion by featuring the Facebook pages of sister companies Banana Republic, Me&Ro, Piperlime, Old Navy and Athleta in the “Favorite Pages” box. In addition, viewers are invited to further delve into the brand by following Gap on Twitter, checking out the YouTube channel and downloading Gap’s latest iPhone app.

With 332,360 fans and counting, the Gap “Born to Fit” campaign is clearly yielding excellent results for the company. And the website not only produces results, but does so in a fun, engaging manner that creates brand loyal customers. What are some of YOUR favorite company Facebook Pages?

Companies are creating corporate Twitter profiles to monitor what is being said in cyberspace, a time consuming task to say the least, and listening to consumers’ tweets, posts, and blogs to influence company decisions. Along with launching tracking software, companies are also training their employees on how to use Twitter by teaching them how to represent their company online and interact with consumers. In our constantly technologically advancing society, it is going to be crucial for companies to be connected to the information superhighway.

Murphy-Goode, a winery based in Northern California, is seeking to hire an internet-savvy wine-lover to blog and tweet about their experiences in wine country for six months. The pay? $10,000 per month — that’s $60,000 total — plus free lodging in a private home nestled in the picturesque Sonoma County Wine Country. And did I mention tasting hundreds of wines every day for free?

Talk about a buzz. Already, the social media job search has generated a significant amount of promotion for the winery: 2,000 applicants, 900 posted videos, national media attention and a major jump in traffic to the company website. What’s more, these are just the preliminary results– the official launch of the actual campaign begins August 15.

The Murphy-Goode campaign has the potential to become a prime example of a company successfully harnessing the power of social media to promote a brand (although they too have already committed their own social media faux pas: Winery looks for a Sipper Who Twitters) But the Murphy-Goode blogging job also points to a controversial issue that has emerged in the world of social media: sponsored conversations.

Let’s face it– We’re not in social media 1.0 anymore. We’ve entered the days of professional company pages on Facebook and sponsored hash-tags on Twitter tweets. And the payola world of social media isn’t going away anytime soon. With the economy in the midst of a full-blown recession, sponsored blogging is a lucrative practice for both marketers and bloggers. Marketers utilize a cost-effective channel for generating buzz about a brand. Bloggers get paid to do what they do on a day-to-day basis in the first place.

But where does the general public — the readers — fit in?

Many might say that sponsored conversations put the reader in a disadvantaged position. After all, we’re more likely to be influenced by people we “know” than by a one-sided paid advertisement. However, I think the blogging audience also has a great deal of power in their court. They essentially determine the success of the blogger and marketer. What’s more, the blogosphere puts a microphone in everyone’s hands. Jeopardize the readers’ trust, and you’ll be sure to hear about it (and consequently lose your audience as well).

Jeremiah Owyang, an influential blogger and employee at media research giant Forrester Research, offers two basic rules for making sponsored conversations work for all involved parties (marketers, bloggers and readers): 1) Sponsorship transparency and 2) blogger authenticity. He writes:

“Sponsorship transparency means that both the marketer and the blogger must make it absolutely clear to the reader community that they are reading paid content- think of Google Adword’s ‘Sponsored Links.’ Blogger authenticity means that the blogger should have complete freedom to write in their own voice – even if the content that they write about the brand is negative.”

That being said, I still wonder how the art of sponsored conversations will play out over the next couple of years. Will the general public become jaded with the plethora of monetized blogs and turn a deaf ear to the practice? Or will sponsored blogging become a self-regulated marketing tool that still maintains an authentic voice? I think the answer largely depends on bloggers and marketers themselves, and how ethically they approach the practice.

How to Make Sponsored Conversations Work