Facebook has once again quietly made adjustments to its page guidelines and the rules surrounding cover photos.  However this time, the changes actually work in favor of brands as Facebook has loosened the rules a little.

As of March 6th, Facebook page administrators can now include contact information, purchase information and even a call-to-action on their Facebook cover photos.

The current Facebook cover photo rule:  All covers are public. This means that anyone who visits your page will be able to see your cover. Covers can’t be deceptive, misleading, or infringe on anyone else’s copyright. You may not encourage people to upload your cover to their personal timelines. Covers may not include images with more than 20% text.

The one rule that does remain from the original set – much to the dismay of our design team – is the dreaded 20% text rule. Facebook cover photos still can not have more then 20% text. The same 20% rule applies to images used in Facebook ads and promoted posts, which we somewhat agree with. We don’t want to clutter up user feeds with text-heavy ads. But why only 20% on the cover photo and no limitations on “regular” none-promoted photos?  For that, I have no answer. However, I do make sure to follow the guidelines. Do you?

Here is a link that will help you better understand exactly what 20% text looks like:
www.facebook.com/help/468870969814641/

What do you think about the 20% rule when it comes to the cover photo? Tell us below.

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Read more Facebook’s “20% rule” in the latest 360Social Digital Download, a round-up of digital marketing news for brands.

FTC Crack Down on Social Media Advertising - The FTC is heavily monitoring advertisers on Twitter and Facebook to protect consumers from misleading ads. If you suspect that your ad may be misleading, add a disclosure or rephrase the copy. Remember that disclosures need to be clear and visible on all devices and platforms that consumers may use to view the ad.

Facebook Lessens Regulation on 20% Text Rule - Brands are now able to include calls to action, contact info, or references to price or purchase information in the cover photo, but there is still a 20 % limit for text overlay. The new guidelines offer brands more flexibility in the sort of content included in cover photos.

#Facebook to Incorporate Hashtags? 
- Twitter created the hashtag to allow users to collate tweets relating to a single topic or news event, and Instagram quickly followed suit, but is Facebook next? Facebook is testing the hashtag feature, which would allow Facebook users to click on the hashtag (#360PR) to pull up all posts about similar topics or events so it can quickly index conversations around trending topics and build those conversations up, giving users more reason to stay logged in and see more ads.

Brands Start Using 6-Second Video App Vine - 6-second video sharing app Vine was acquired by Twitter in December, making people wonder if it could be this year’s hot new app on the block. Hopeful of its rise in popularity, many brands have jumped in to create their own microvideos to share both on Vine and Twitter. Mashable ranked the 10 Best Brands on Vine. Stop Motion videos are beginning to define the Vine tone between both users and brands. Brands are creative, inspiring, and funny.

Google Reader Out. Feedly In - Since Google announced that they would be killing off Google Reader, many users turned to the app Feedly to get their RSS Feeds. A few performance glitches from Google Alerts have thrown users into a whirl of speculation that Google may terminate of Alerts next. Google has said nothing about ending the service, but everyone is in search of a back up free email alert system.

Filed under: Design, Digital Digest, Digital PR, FaceBook, Internet, Mobile Industry, Social Media, Social Networking by Kyle-Bishop - No Comments →

How important are your tweets? That is for Twitter to decide! One of the articles in our latest Digital Download discusses Twitter’s recent announcement that they are going to begin attaching value ratings to users’ tweets as none, low, medium and high.

According to Twitter, the new metadata will allow developers to sort through millions of tweets in their streaming API to help them find the conversations that are most useful to them.

Although Twitter did not say how they will actually determine each tweet’s value, it is likely the system will work the same way that “Top Tweets” currently appear in a Twitter search result. Basically, you can get your 140-characters-or-less as a ‘Top Tweet’ if you have a large following or if you manage to rack up a lot of retweets.

As we all know, some streams on Twitter have so much content and move so fast that it can be very hard to keep up. This new system may help brands find the most useful information – and the most influential individuals – in the often-overwhelming Twitter conversations. On the flip side, the new system could prevent great content from being seen if the user (or brand) is new to the ever-growing social platform.

What do you think? Do you find ‘value’ in Twitter’s new rating system?

Read more about Twitter’s new rating system in the latest 360Social Digital Download, a round-up of digital marketing news for brands.

• Twitter will now decide the ‘value’ of your tweets

  The value judgments will be assigned to the public metadata of tweeters’ posts, and used by Twitter’s streaming API to help developers more selectively curate massive amounts of status updates. More
• Social Fresh claims Facebook is turning into a mobile company

  According to Mark Zuckerberg, in 2013, Facebook is “going to get really good at building mobile-first experiences.” 680 million users access Facebook via mobile at least once a month. 157 million ONLY access Facebook via mobile (15% of the total user base). More
• Twitter launches Vine app – Facebook blocks its fan page

  Twitter has introduced a new video sharing service, Vine, that allows users to record and share brief looping videos up to six seconds in length. Upon its initial launch, Facebook made Vine’s unsearchable on its platform. Even at current date, it is not easy to get to the app’s fan page – and they only have 48 likes. More
• Mashable reports how in-app searches are taking searches away from Google
  Google accounts for two of every three searches done in the U.S., far and away the most of any core search engine. However, Mashable uncovers that more and more in-app searches are occurring on platforms like Facebook and Amazon. More
• Facebook admits critical bugs caused page reach to be misreported for months

  While trying to speed up its iOS and Android apps, Facebook accidentally stripped out too much data about news feed posts by Pages. This caused Page Insights to be misreported, leading admins to believe their posts reached fewer people than they actually did, in most cases. More

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Digital Digest, Digital PR, FaceBook, Interactive Marketing, Internet, Mobile Industry, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, Uncategorized, YouTube by Kyle-Bishop - No Comments →

Facebook has been very busy rolling out all sorts of updates to the platform (something new almost daily!) – The most significant change for brands is the updates to Facebook EdgeRank, the algorithm that determines whether or not your content will be seen in fans’ news feeds, hammering home the importance of creating engaging content specific to each community.

Here’s the cliff notes version of all the changes:

• People can now promote their own posts. Expect to see your news feed flooded with engagements and baby announcements if it’s not already.
• Facebook is taking a page out of Google’s playbook and allowing auto-optimization for Facebook ads to stay within their suggested bid range.
• Is searching for new pages not high on your priority list? Don’t worry – with Facebook’s new “like pages” they take the work out for you and suggest new brands and pages you may like.
• “Collections” are in beta testing with select brands and appear to be a direct attack on Pinterest. This feature pushes users straight to purchase within the Facebook platform, a key distinguisher from Pinterest so far.
• Like, want, buy, and read buttons are popping up after Facebook gave open graph developers stricter guidelines to follow.
• Expanded post targeting is now available for most brand pages, allowing you to target based on gender, relationships status, educational status, age, location, and language.
• Changes to Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm have several outlets reporting brands have experienced a significant drop off in average weekly reach. Some accuse Facebook of altering their algorithm to force brands to use Facebook ads, sponsored stories, and promoted posts on a regularly basis.
• New study shows brands that post on the weekend and/or during “off hours” (8pm -7am) receive more engagement.
• Rise in “response rate” interest from third-party analytic vendors; starting to measure the time it takes brands to respond to fans. Shockingly, 70% of brands completely ignore fans. Those who do only answer 30% of fans’ questions.

What do you think about all the changes Facebook has made?  Tell us below!

Filed under: Facebook, Social Media, Social Networking by Kyle-Bishop - No Comments →

Digital Digest: July 11th, 2012

Filed under: Social Media, Social Networking by Admin - No Comments →

By Caitlin Melnick

Last week’s BlissDom proved to be the biggest yet for the five-year-old conference. Held in Nashville, Blissdom 2012 was a fantastic opportunity for bloggers and brands to come together to learn from each other and be inspired in some pretty blissful ways!

The golden thread woven through the conference was “Do Good, Feel Good.”  Social good is a predominant theme in the blogosphere right now, and not just because it’s on trend.  It was clear from the bloggers I spoke with that they genuinely care and want to make a difference in their communities and around the globe.

The conference kicked off with a very prolific keynote by Jon Acuff on social good. Jon discussed how he used his blog, along with some encouragement from his five-year-old daughter, to raise $30,000 to build a school in Vietnam.  With the help of his passionate readers, he was able to meet his fundraising goal in less than 24 hours!

Feeling – and looking – good was a BlissDom theme, too.  Some of my colleagues got to hang in the BlissDom beauty suite, where bloggers were treated to blow-outs courtesy of V05 (a 360PR client).  Just like a visit to the salon, there was plenty of time for conversation. BlissDom lived up to its name…leaving everyone blissful!

@gomommacoupons before and after her blow out at V05's BlissDom suite

Welcome to BlissDom!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Blogger Relations, Events and Conferences, Parenting, Social Media, Social Networking by Admin - 2 Comments →