It is not enough to simply aggregate content across various social platforms using social media aggregation or syndication tools, content needs to be tailored towards the audience, and content needs to be shared effectively and independently with fans and followers alike.

Each individual social media network has a different set of rules – with its 140 character limit Twitter lends itself to short comments, the non-invasive nature of ‘following’ means you can open conversations with influencers or customers all over the world. Facebook, by contrast, lends itself to longer messages, and is more centered on sharing content, pictures and video. The audience here is more intimate, and brands should be careful about directing sales messages through the platform. LinkedIn should be limited to offering potential employers and clients alike an online CV, and more details about your individual and your company’s collective work experience. Google+ is an SEO tool and another conversation facilitator, allowing you to share great content with a wider audience; YouTube is all about creating shareable video content and driving people to see it. Of course, this is an over simplified summary of the benefits of each of popular platforms, there are other factors that need to be considered – tone of voice, driving traffic and creating meaningful conversations.

Aggregation tools can help you manage multiple social media accounts, draw content from various news sources and syndicate content across all of your networks. True social media aggregation or syndication should be a process of consolidating inbound and outbound content into a dashboard allowing you to create efficiencies in monitoring, responding to, sharing and creating content; disseminating content through the appropriate platforms. It should be about much more than simultaneously updating your statuses.

Friendfeed, Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and Social Mentions are all popular tools that offer a desktop to help you manage aggregation or syndication of your social networks. Used correctly, and with an effective channel strategy in place, it can help you deliver simple, effective online comms to customers all over the world.
Here are some of the best free services:

Tweetdeck

“TweetDeck is your personal real-time browser, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google Buzz and more…” if you are specifically looking for a desktop app / iPhone app for Twitter, this is one of the most effective tools on the market.

Social Mention

Social Mention is a social search tool that allows you to aggregate searches across hundreds of social networks, blogs, comments, social bookmarking services and more. The service offers email updates of the latest relevant social media results based on your own custom search phrases. Unlike the other services listed here, Social Mention focuses on search, helping you aggregate the topics, people and trends you are looking for.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite helps you manage multiple twitter accounts. You can integrate other social networks like Facebook, Facebook Pages, LinkedIn, Twitter and Foursquare as well as WordPress.com based blogs. The interface is easy to use, allowing you to view as many feeds and Twitter searches as you see fit. It was built for collaboration as well, with the ability to create teams, track analytic information and share other information for campaigns.

With social media channel management dashboards like these, efficiency of cross-channel posting is guaranteed. The hard work lies in ensuring you tailor content specifically for each channel so that you generate the optimal engagement with your brand on each.

Lindsey Reaney

Account Manager and Digital PR Consultant, Golley Engage

A study commissioned by Deloitte, found that Facebook activity supports 35,200 UK jobs and fuels £2.2bn in revenue. This figure includes the direct economic impact of Facebook – such as paying tax, profits and wages – as well as the broader impact it has had in enabling businesses to reach customers, make sales, create and monetise apps and even boost demand for products such as broadband and smartphones. So how can creating apps help to boost your business and what should you watch out for?

Use feedback to build relationships. Using Facebook poll applications and tracking software can help you understand more about how consumers interact with your products. By giving consumers a voice, you are more likely to reap the benefits of a ‘social’ experience.

Geolocate your business. Survey results indicate about four in 10 (39%) smartphone operators use one or more location-based apps. Add your location & display it on your fan page using Google maps. You can show your address, office location, event location etc.

Drive traffic to your site. If used in the right way, and thanks to iFrame implemented through Page tabs, Facebook can act as a prompt for driving traffic to your website.

Word of mouth³. The new Facebook Timeline has given birth to a whole gaggle of new apps. Now, once you’ve given consent to a frictionless app to share stories on your wall, the app will be able to do so whenever you use it afterward, without having to notify you. So as soon as you look up a recipe on Foodily, listen to a song on Spotify or buy tickets on Ticketmaster, Facebook will share this endorsement with your community.

Commerce. Applications such as Facebook Marketplace have made social commerce a real possibility. Many analysts believe that online shopping through social networks is the next logical step forward.

Frictionless sharing could present a risk for small businesses. While it may be too early to accurately assess any additional risks these apps may present, it may be a good idea to inform IT specialists, risk managers and HR managers. It is more important than ever that employees are equipped with best practise guidelines.

Lindsey Reaney

Account Manager, Golley Engage

A company that invests in building the right content on its Facebook Page is more likely to increase Fans and achieve a lift in customer engagement, but it is important that this serves a communications objective.

1. Make specific targets

Whilst most brands are looking to grow the fan base on their Page, that in itself should not be your objective. Companies should look to deliver a key message or to promote a video or campaign through a particular tab; and by doing so will successfully secure fans along the way. By integrating YouTube or your website into a tab, you can seek to improve your customer’s familiarity with your product range or organisation; helping you to deliver against traditional business objectives.

2. Have a clear tab strategy

By implementing a clear strategy around tabs, companies can create a simple consumer journey for its customers. Companies should look to inform and entertain customers, and to separate out these paths. Take advantage of events tabs to publicise calendar hooks, and ensure info tabs are up-to-date.

Tabs should complement one another, it should be clear to a user where the information they are seeking is housed and campaign tabs should not be abandoned or left unpopulated.

If you are looking to hold a dialogue with your customers, do not over complicate things; instead, focus on keeping the wall engaging and fresh.

3. Incentivise

Whilst valuable content and a thriving community are important to the survival of any business in a social environment, it is still important to consider the consumer journey and to offer an incentive to drive consumers to the page from an external source. The more signposts you put in place, and the more you reward customers for engaging with your business through the platform, the more your community will grow.

4. Attract, reward, share

Once you’ve determined your strategy, it’s time to build great content. The best tabs are the ones that encourage repeat use and expose customers to a specific product or service. Try to consider how your customer uses the platform, and the sort of information they might choose to share; according to a recent report for instance, video will soon account for 90% of all online traffic [2].

5. Audience

The most important factor in any social media programme is the audience. Identifying your target consumer and building content that they can enjoy is imperative to the success for the page. Remember, you are talking directly to your consumer, not through the media or a third party, so make it count. Above all, make it relevant.

[1] http://clearslide.com/view/mail?iID=V8YFCRBY2JCCKGKSFMAK
[2] http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/video-soon-to-be-90-of-online-traffic-0117979

Lindsey Reaney
Account Manager, Golley Engage

Customer services on Twitter

More and more consumers are turning to Twitter to complain about poor customer service, particularly when they feel let down by existing channels. However, few companies have the infrastructure in place to manage queries directed via social networking sites. The company will need a specific workflow that feeds complaints made via social media into the traditional customer service process and ensures that queries are resolved efficiently and communicated effectively.

It is important that responsibility for each complaint is communicated internally right from the off, as often the social media manager will not be the person dealing directly with the case, but will need to constructively communicate any developments to the consumer. It seems that at the very least consumers expect a response from businesses when they engage with them through a brand social media channel, regardless of whether that platform is an official customer services outlet. It is therefore imperative that every brand carries out an online reputation audit and highlights any potential hotspots, allowing brand managers to implement processes for responding to consumers.

Mobile enabled site

Just under half of the UK population now owns a Smartphone, and Google’s mobile operating system Android is powering half. Consumers are using mobile internet on the move and so it makes sense for businesses to ensure that at the very least their site and store locator is negotiable via a smart phone device; and that the site or app is compatible with both Android and iPhone technology. Mobile offers brands a real opportunity to be useful to their customers. Using existing technology such as QR codes and near field communication, retailers should look to alleviate consumer bug-bears by helping customers check availability or price compare. Businesses can use advertising as a prompt to launch local store locators, or to fulfil an online order for a consumer who can’t find the right item in store. Businesses are really missing a trick if they do not target customers on the move.

Rewards

Consumers expect rewards for showing their support of a business or service online. A recent survey amongst consumers who are ‘fans’ of businesses online found that 65 percent of respondents are connecting with brands to take advantage of promotions, contests and games. Whether it’s an offer, a voucher code or simply a free prize draw, if you are looking to extend your brand presence online then it is valuable to offer an incentive. Consumers are used to being rewarded for participating in brand related activity online, and therefore are most receptive to companies that offer useful or entertaining apps, fan pages or online services.

A social experience

The growth of social networking has shown that, given the right tools, consumers will participate in conversations and share with friends. In order to be more social, brands should put the user first – responding to how users socialise online.

When shopping for a new dress online, a customer will search for information from a range of sources to decide what to buy. They may browse fashion websites, ask for recommendations from friends, look at celebrity blogs or pictures or look for advice through Facebook/Twitter. It is therefore important that a brand looks to replicate this process through their online marketing activity. This could include signposting customers to product reviews or allowing them to connect with like-minded individuals through a forum or Facebook community.

Making reviews and opinions an integral part of the shopping experience replicates offline behaviour where users will often seek the opinion of a friend before purchase. It is also important that the brand can be contacted with ease and those questions or queries are resolved efficiently. A major part of the social experience is about opening a two-way dialogue.

[1] Practical Ecommerce, January 2012 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3255-Social-Media-Users-Look-for-New-Products-and-Offers-Survey-Finds

Lindsey Reaney
Account Manager, Golley Engage

It is clear that Facebook has made significant changes to the platform over the last few years to create a marketable product that can be sold to businesses interested in communicating to Facebook’s 800 million members. From the very beginning, Facebook has been built on the concept of sharing; if users did not share photos, comments and content with their friends then Facebook as a platform would fail. It is, after all, sharing that leads to dwell time, and dwell time is advertising gold dust. Over half of Facebook’s 800 million users spend anywhere between 30 minutes and 4 hours a day on the site, and this time is spent interacting with the userface. With annual revenue of $1.6 billion in the first half of this year, up $800 million from the previous year, it is clear that Facebook has much to gain from users’ sharing.

It is no great surprise then that Facebook has evolved the platform in favour of improving advertising click-through rates. On Monday, Facebook began posting ads to the ticker, the real-time rolling tally of your Friends’ Facebook activity. Facebook has dubbed them “sponsored stories,” but they are essentially posts that an advertiser has paid to have displayed. While these stories are paid content, they’ll appear as the activity of your Friends or as Pages people have ‘Liked’. TechCrunch noted that Sponsored Stories are particularly attractive to advertisers because they have a 46 percent greater click-through rate than typical ads, which means they could provide these companies with more revenue. So, what of the user experience? Zuckerberg has come under fire for compromising users’ privacy in favour of commercial gain:

“I want to reaffirm the commitment I made when I first launched Facebook. We will serve you as best we can and work every day to provide you with the best tools for you to share with each other and the world. We will continue to improve the service, build new ways for you to share and offer new ways to protect you and your information better than any other company in the world.”

So, are consumers likely to turn off in droves as Facebook becomes more and more accessible to brands? Well whilst Zuckerberg’s view, that introducing brands to Facebook creates a more realistic ‘real-world’ experience, is a little self-serving, it is certainly true that we’re more accustomed to advertising than ever. Advertising is part of the world that we live in, even if it is not a part of our world; we are no more likely to log off Facebook than to turn off our televisions. There is a school of thought that argues that the way we use Facebook is intrinsically personal, quite different from the way we consume other media, and therefore any branded presence is invasive and unwelcome. Given the impulsive and whimsical manner in which we use Facebook, this seems a little severe; users are quite happy to while away the minutes on Farmville, so why shouldn’t much-loved brands offer up equally engaging content?

Last night’s documentary could encourage consumers to think twice before engaging with brands on Facebook, it might even make users question their privacy settings, but as social media marketers our challenge remains the same. Engaging consumers on Facebook requires a strong idea, something creative and engaging that will encourage users to trade their ‘Likes’ for a piece of the pie. So to echo Maitlis’ summary, ask not what Facebook can do for your brand, but what you can offer your customers.

Lindsey Reaney
Account Manager, Golley Engage

There is no question that the functionality of the platform has been well considered.  Google+ offers a much more professional interface, and applications have been designed to aid businesses.  This is a major advantage of Google being late to market when compared with platforms such as MySpace or Facebook. The result is that your page looks a lot more ‘grown-up’ and the user experience less cluttered. A number of big brands including Volkswagen, Motorola and Android have joined Google+ and clearly made an impression. VW USA has over 800 followers so far, and Google+ itself has over 7,500 followers; and it’s easy to see why.  The clean interface allows users to hero images, video and brand updates.

Here are our five favourite features of the site:

1. Professional – The clean and simple user interface looks and feels powerful and professional, which makes it an attractive environment in which to promote your business, and is something which Facebook will struggle to compete with.
2. Integrated – The option to ‘+’ all sorts of things across the web, and the ever-present Google+ notification bar makes the whole thing feel like a very inclusive system. The real win though is that when you search + in front of a brand or product their Google+ page will automatically be the top search result, making SEO for SMEs a walk in the park.
3. Inclusive – ‘Huddles’ is Google’s answer to messenger. It allows users of its Android app (as well as a forthcoming iOS version) to chat and share media with their Circles, whilst on the move. This offers a targeted option for making announcements or issuing discount codes/coupons.
4. Functional – ‘Hangouts’ provide an opportunity to video chat with up to ten people at a time.  They appear in news streams giving friends/acquaintances the option to join or leave at any time, allowing face-to-face chat and YouTube video sharing. A simple video presentation is a very real possibility with this feature, and two-way dialogue is made quite simple.
5. Available – As part of the Google suite, it will be difficult for businesses to restrict access to Google+ in the same manner that Facebook and Twitter use is limited in many offices.

There are, however, some serious questions about levels of engagement on Google+ site. Despite attracting over 25 million users to the platform, traffic appears to have dropped off.  The Mail on Sunday reported a 60% decline in traffic to the site in October. The real test of Google’s social network is what people do after they join. Traffic-analysis firms have consistently reported Google+’s traffic to be declining from its early peak, and sharing amongst users is certainly not making headlines when compared to the 60 million status updates on Facebook every day.

So, with user engagement significantly lower than on Facebook, and many consumers signed up but not active, is it worth building a presence on a network that users seem a little non-plussed about? Well yes, actually.

It’s still early days for the search engine and leading industry authorities remain confident that consumer adoption will pick up. Yet more importantly still, if nothing else, the cross-platform integration offered by the whole Google package ensures that at the very least Google+ is a really effective SEO solution, particularly for SMEs.

Lindsey Reaney
Account Manager, Golley Engage

The study found that 47% of employers check social networking sites immediately, with Facebook proving the most popular network for stalking potential applicants. Of the 69% who vetoed a candidate based on their social media activity, the most common reason was that they had lied about their qualifications, but inappropriate posts, photos and comments alongside poor communication skills were also cited.

So with unemployment currently standing at 2.57 million in the UK, should we all be abandoning social media in favour of appearing more professional? Perhaps not when you consider Reppler also found that 68% of businesses questioned had employed someone because of something they’d seen on a social networking site; with personality and organisational fit coming top of the table of positives at 39%.

It is no great secret that social enterprise platforms such as LinkedIn are instrumental in connecting individuals with recruiters and local businesses interested in placing candidates. So how should businesses be using these tools to recruit, and how far is too far in the quest for the perfect candidate?

In September of this year, ACAS, the body which helps organisations improve relationships with their workers, issued guidelines designed to help employers to use social media efficiently and professionally.

ACAS warns employers against acting rashly based on information found using sites like Facebook. The organisation insists online behaviour should be judged within specific contexts, as you would offline behaviour. Employers should be clear on what is being monitored, and how employees are being assessed.

The guidelines are also clear about bosses using information gleaned from social networks when making recruitment decisions. In short: if you are going to judge people while recruiting on personal information shared on social networks– declare it.

ACAS is also quick to stress the benefits of social networking sites from a marketing and communications perspective. Blanket bans of specific platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are shortsighted – after all, is time spent on Facebook really any different to making a cup of tea or taking a cigarette break? Facebook and Twitter can be really effective marketing tools, and LinkedIn offers individuals the chance to build business connections and reconnect with old clients, an activity that should be encouraged considering the current industry landscape.

Social Media Guidelines for Business:

1. Employers should issue social media guidelines to make absolutely sure staff are aware of what is considered acceptable by the business. Ask employees to sign and return a usage policy.

2. Equally employees have a duty to ensure that any information they publish online is not confidential, and is already available in the public domain.

3. If you intend to use social networks to screen applicants, ensure you are crystal clear about your intentions. Failing to do so could lead to charges of discrimination under the equal opportunities act.

4. Training and encouraging employees to use social media productively can lead to a positive perception of your business within industry circles, and help to drive positive online buzz about your company.

5. What happens on tour stays on tour, if you wouldn’t discuss it over the watercooler at work, don’t post it on Facebook.

Lindsey Reaney
Account Manager, Golley Engage

Facebook serves up a ready-made, highly engaged audience on a plate – one that is willing to interact with a brand and tell their friends about it too – so it’s hardly surprising that brands want to tap into this potentially huge supply of customers.

Giving Facebook users immediate access to the final product, in the place they spend 16% of their online time, should make the buying experience convenient, tempting and most importantly, exploit the fact that users are likely to make an impulse purchase – the obvious advantage of setting up shop within Facebook. But is it that easy? Or does reminding users of the commercial message put them off completely?

ASOS, the online fashion retailer, is just one example of a brand that is successfully using f-commerce to bring in extra revenue through its fully transactional Facebook store. But is f-commerce right for every brand? And do consumers want to buy through social media?

In our opinion, whilst it’s a very good idea for some brands, it’s definitely not right for all. If a brand doesn’t sit comfortably on Facebook, it shouldn’t be trying to sell goods through it either. As an online retailer, ASOS works on Facebook. Users are likely to want to boast to friends that they have purchased from ASOS, and it feels like a natural step to combine the online shopping experience with the social experience.

When an f-store doesn’t work though, is when it jars with the brand, its target market and the type of product on sale. The shopping experience through an f-store should offer users a unique experience that they can’t get from shopping in the traditional online store. For instance, Magners recently announced the opening of an f-store to sell a special edition cider. In short, a brand must be able to justify the benefit of an f-store.

F-commerce doesn’t begin and end with f-stores either. The umbrella term can also cover the multitude of ways companies are using the platform to drive sales in their existing sales outlets. ‘Deals on Facebook’, launched in April this year to rival the likes of Groupon and Living Social, offers consumers the chance to pay for deals inside Facebook, using PayPal or Facebook credits. Then there are Facebook ‘Check-in deals’ and Facebook ‘In-store retail’, both of which integrate the offline shopping experience with Facebook, to provide a social angle to bricks and mortar shopping as an added incentive to buy. These are certainly appropriate for a greater majority of companies, and though they’re not always used effectively by brands, certainly have huge potential to boost sales.

So with predictions that social commerce will top $30 billion globally by 2015 with Facebook-generated sales as one of the primary drivers, is it set to stay? Will it continue to increase its share of a business’ marketing mix? Hundreds of companies have bought into f-commerce, including such commercial giants as Coca Cola, Disney and GAP, and they’re using Facebook in a multitude of intelligent ways to entice users to spend*, so it would certainly seem so. Of course the whole ‘f-economy’ is reliant on Facebook, and the continued growth of its user numbers – a pretty safe bet – but most would agree that using the platform to convert a brand’s Facebook audience into a throng of customers is a watertight business decision. Companies have to tread carefully though and be wary of trampling over users’ social experience with their brand message. Users, and the way they want to use Facebook, must always be the starting point for any f-commerce idea.

*http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/7540-101-f-commerce-examples

Phillippa Holmes
Junior Account Exec, Golley Engage

Launched back in 2005, Google Analytics was the first by-product of Google’s acquisition of analytics software maker Urchin, offering users the opportunity to understand how people search. These days, Google Analytics is capable of measuring website traffic, analysing search terms that are effectively driving click-through, tracking data drawn from social media buttons and even highlighting the specific ads or prompts that drive purchase. And whilst Google doesn’t release its user figures, analysts estimate that the free tool has tens of millions of users. The new Real-Time offering is set to be bigger and better, it’s been in beta for the past year but already boasts a host of clients including Travelocity, Gucci, and Papa Johns as paid-up members.

There are additional services available offering tools that work in conjunction with Google Analytics. For example phone call data, AdWords and even your CRM can be integrated with Google Analytics to effectively track website activity and phone call leads from entry to sale completion. So what does all this data tell us? Well, when used correctly it should offer deeper insight into how best to optimise paid search activity, how to target bloggers based on what they are really interested in and which display ads deliver the most traffic through to website or even purchase. However, with so much data to analyse and so many tools to master, many brands only make it so far as evaluating their activity and don’t take learnings forward to deliver real value in future.

It’s not just Google Analytics that recognise the value of such data to consumer brands, Facebook Pages offers a range of Insights designed to better equip marketers in tailoring their Page activity. This week Facebook launched ‘People Talking About’ an application that will measure user-initiated activity related to a Page, including posting to a Page’s Wall, “liking,” commenting, sharing a Page post or content on the Page, answering a Question posed to fans, mentioning a Page, “liking” or sharing a deal or checking in at your Place.

The other metrics, which are designed for administrators of brand and media Pages, include “Likes,” “Friends of Fans” and “Weekly Total Reach.” While “Likes” is self-explanatory, Friends of Fans is the actual number of friends your fans have, and weekly total reach is designed to be an accurate assessment of how many total people have posted something about your Page, how many news organisations (within Facebook) have referenced it and how much viral distribution elements of your Page have received. This should help brands better understand the virility of their activity and caveat the problems experienced in the past in terms of tracking Page content through personal profiles.

Analytics really is big money, and brands are paying out through the nose to track and measure social media activity, in a business environment where many marketers are reluctant to see the value delivered by online community based campaigns. With so much pressure on Social Media Managers to deliver data to support spend, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the real value in measuring your social media activity is not in justifying last year’s activity but in optimising and delivering great campaigns over the coming years.

Lindsey Reaney
Social Media Consultant, Golley Engage

Last week Facebook made three key changes to the site functionality; it revamped Friend lists and introduced the news ticker and Subscribe button. These changes are designed to increase the dwell time spent on the page by creating more connections between you and your friends. For example, the news ticker is designed to allow you to track what your friends are commenting on right now, which encourages comment to become discussion. This really is just the beginning though, the landmark changes will come this Thursday when Facebook will overhaul user profiles with the Timeline feature, and launch a plethora of apps letting you listen to music, watch movies and monitor news through your profile. Facebook hopes users will create profiles that are a visual history of their lives, right through from birth.

The key changes to the service are listed below:

1. Timeline – This plots your Facebook updates, photos, apps and well, everything really, against the time and date, creating a stream of activity that is trackable. The idea is that users will be given a place to post more stuff about their past, such as baby pictures, creating a virtual scrapbook. Timeline is in beta now, and will be opt-in to start. In the long run, it will become the new default profile page.

2. Where previously you could only ‘like’ a comment or post, there will now be a whole host of verbs to choose from. You can tell your friends what you’re listening, watching or reading. Overshare? Maybe. Marketable? Definitely.

3. Changes to Facebook apps mean that branded apps will only have to ask at the point of authorization for permission to publish information through your profile. This is perhaps the most contentious of the new batch of changes.

4. Information that is deemed less important to you will be relegated to the news ticker, and you can control what will be filtered through into your newsfeed. Hopefully helping to make updates more relevant to you.

5. Thanks to an unprecedented number of partnerships, you will now be able to do so much more than just Facebook on Facebook. You can watch a show on Hulu, listen to a song on Spotify, or check out a story on Guardian news. The ticker will tell you what your friends are watching, listening to or reading too.

And what of the usual questions about privacy? Well, once again, Facebook stands accused of gathering and sharing more of your information than ever before. The latest accusations, from self-confessed hacker Nik Cubrilovic, have highlighted that Facebook can track your browser activity long after you leave the site. In fact, unless you delete all your Facebook cookies, they can pretty much follow your every move.
Facebook has hit back at critics claiming that any tracking they do is purely to improve user experience, and more notably, security. Facebook engineer Arturo Bejar said:

“We don’t use our cookies to track you on social plugins to target ads or sell your information to third parties. I’ve heard from so many that what we do is to share or sell your data, and that is just not true. We use your logged in cookies to personalize (show you what your friends liked), to help maintain and improve what we do, or for safety and protection.”

So all that said, where do users of the social network stand? Well users will be sharing more of their lives than ever before, and will be spending more time on the site as they view news sources, listen to music and watch films through Facebook. Brands will have more freedom to create content for the site, and Facebook is more receptive than ever to partnerships, but ultimately companies are still heavily restricted in the data that they can collect. Unless users give specific permission for brands to use data outside of the platform, the information stays on Facebook, to be added to the reams of information that the company already holds on each of their 800 million registered users. Brands are sacrificing the rights to this information, by requesting that consumers engage with them through the networking site and not through their websites.

Facebook dwell times will soar, helping to build convincing advertising models, and Facebook will be able to continue to track users’ activity and hold their information, making them more valuable to marketeers than ever before. So, what of the changes that Facebook has made this week? Well, they certainly benefit one party – Facebook.

Lindsey Reaney
Social Media Consultant, Golley Engage