I have to start this post off with a disclaimer. I used to work at Applebee’s in the corporate communications department. And I need to add a second disclaimer — managing a restaurant chain in a social media world is hard. Very hard. You’re at the mercy of thousands of employees in thousands of different restaurants.

I’m not a designer, but if I was I would have illustrated a visual for this post. It would have been a group of people representing different chain restaurants like Applebee’s running from a Facebook icon. Or Mark Zuckerberg. Either way, you get my drift.

So now that we’ve established being a chain restaurant in a social media world is hard, let’s talk about what makes it harder. The answer: Forgetting that your brand is what your customers say it is.

I don’t know exactly what happened internally when the Applebee’s receipt was posted on Reddit last week. But I can guess. A group of smart C-level execs and communicators got together with Legal and analyzed the situation. And eventually, amongst other things, they established the following:

Legal counsel — either the franchisees’ or Applebee’s — told the franchisee and C-level execs that the employee had to be fired for violating a guest’s privacy and that doing so was necessary to avoid a lawsuit or a proliferation of the issue; basically other employees doing the same thing.

And herein lies the lesson:

Companies across the board are too quick to do whatever Legal says instead of listening to Legal counsel’s advice and then making a risk/reward decision. This submissiveness is becoming more dangerous to a brand’s perception in today’s online world because many (not all) of the lawyers providing this counsel do not have a solid understanding of social media. They don’t comprehend the impact their counsel can have on the brand’s reputation.

So how did this manifest itself in the Applebee’s situation? Well, let’s consider the following factor:

Applebee’s core customer when I was there in 2007 was a family that makes $30K-$50K a year and sees going to their neighborhood Applebee’s as a big night out. Guess who I’m guessing fits right into that demographic? Chelsea Welch, the employee Applebee’s fired.

There are a lot of other factors involved in this situation, but this is the one that ultimately cannot be ignored. And ultimately was ignored. And this is the tipping point where the conversation implosion that followed could have been avoided.

So what should a company do if it ends up in a similar situation? Well, it’s hard to say exactly because each issues that sparks like this via social media is so unique. But here’s where I’d start — Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Ask yourself what you’d be saying to friends and family if you were watching the story unfold as a customer. And really think about how you’d respond to any proactive statement that your brand is about to post on your Facebook page.

This too will pass. Applebee’s will take a reputation and sales hit, but in the end, will be ok. We all get in an uproar over an issue and then sooner or later, another issue comes along.

But one issue that will not go away is just how poisonous a “proper, legal” approach and or statement can be for a brand, restaurant or otherwise, if it doesn’t take the customers’ natural inclinations into account. Someone in those initial meetings should have thanked the lawyers for their advice and then brought up the risks that went along with that advice.

Then the collective brainpower sitting at the table should have decided to penalize Chelsea, but let her keep her job after considering how customers — especially Applebee’s core demographic — would react if she was fired. And they should have taken the story and added it to Applebee’s new restaurant employee orientation.

Then lastly — and this can still happen — the key players should have made an agreement that while Legal always needs to have a seat at the table when issues like these arise, they shouldn’t have the only seat anyone to which anyone pays attention.

We’re not used to doing that in corporate America. Questioning authority. But then again, isn’t that one of the tenants of social media?

You know when people complain about something over and over again, but never really do anything about it. They just want to complain. Professional sports is a good example. Fans complain about their team but they keep going to the games. Happens all the time. Cable TV is another. It costs too much, but how many people are really willing to live without it?

Facebook is the new cable TV. Every day, people complain about Facebook. Most of the time, on Facebook. It’s a black fly in your chardonnay.

Here are some of the complaints I’ve heard recently:

1. Can you believe Facebook is using all our personal information to sell ads?

2. Facebook is making it look as if I liked brands I’ve never even head of. Or brands I can’t stand.

3. These promoted posts in my news feed are annoying.

4. Why even have a brand page? Facebook is forcing brands to pay in order for any of the company’s fans to see its content.

5. Facebook better watch out because Google+ is gaining steam and those that get fat and happy end up just fat after a while.

Let’s take these one by one…

1. Can you believe Facebook is using all our personal information to sell ads? Uh yeah, I can. We don’t pay anything to use the platform. And we are the ones giving Facebook all that information. It’s called opt-in.

2. Facebook is making it look as if I liked brands I’ve never even head of. Or brands I can’t stand. Yeah, that’s weird. But I don’t really care that much. Unless Facebook says I like the New York Yankees. Then we’re fighting. Either way, I’ll be on Facebook tomorrow morning.

3. These promoted posts in my news feed are annoying. Really? I think half of my friend’s posts in my news feed are annoying too. And some of the sponsored posts I’ve seen are actually pretty cool, useful content. Some do suck, but if you just continue scrolling or hit that magic “down arrow” then presto-chango, the sponsored posts are gone.

4. Why even have a brand page? Facebook is forcing brands to pay in order for any of the company’s fans to see its content. True to an extent. But Facebook is kind of becoming like Twitter in that right. In order for your posts to be seen, you need a lot of engagement or you pay to promote them. Thus is the evolution of social media. This native advertising trend is not going away. Facebook did go public. Per Sean Parker in The Social Network, ads may not be cool but they pay the bills.

5. Facebook better watch out because Google+ is gaining steam and those that get fat and happy end up just fat after a while. Google+ does indeed appear to be gaining steam. More active users and I’m seeing more friends sing its praises these days. That said, we’re talking a tug boat vs a cruise liner. Let’s play out a scenario. Kansas loses a tight basketball game to Mizzou by one  point because Jeff Withey misses a wide open dunk with two seconds left. Jayhawk fans will be up in arms…until the next game. And there’s no way in hell they’ll leave KU to cheer for the Tigers. KU is Facebook. Mizzou is Google+. You get my drift. Aren’t analogies fun?

95 percent of people are too invested in Facebook to leave. At least 95 percent. The complaining will continue. But until something major happens, only a very few will actually return their cable box and only watch Netflix or Hulu.

Hello. My name is Justin. And I’m a MacAholic. I’m not a fanboy. And I still use a PC for work. But I’m convinced at this point that Apple makes superior products. I have an iPhone and I won’t go back. If I could use a Mac for my work computer, I would. And on and on. I know, not unique. But I feel so much better now getting that off my chest.

Why do I bring my semi-addiction up? Because now that I’ve pronounced my Mac fandom, I want to spend the rest of the post talking about something smart that Microsoft did to promote its holiday offerings. Note: I refuse to use the term Black Friday because I think the people who camp out or get up at 3 a.m. to hit Target are crazy. I’m sorry if this is you. Moving on…

Ever heard of a Look Book. It’s a fashion industry term really. A way to show a designers new looks. But Microsoft is proving this year that it doesn’t have to be just for fashion. And whatever industry your in, it can be a great way to serve up exclusive content to your social media fans and followers.

That’s what Microsoft has done here — thanks to Deanna Ferrari for the share. So many Facebook apps these days have little value. But Microsoft’s holiday Look Book has a lot to offer:

- A sneak preview at some of it’s coolest holiday offerings.

- It’s incredibly visual, and we all know how important that is in today’s world.

- It’s interactive. So you can hover over each of the items on display and learn something more about them.

- And it’s easy to share the entire book or a certain “scene” within it about a certain product.

So the question is…How could your brand share exclusive content with customers via a Look Book? How easy or difficult would it be for you to pull off something like this for your company/clients?

In most cased, funding a Facebook tab is like flushing your money down the toilet…except not as fun, or hard, to watch (Image credit: Current.com).

Facebook tabs are a waste of money. 99 times out of 100. And this isn’t new news. It’s been the case for a while. But now there’s even more evidence that shows why tabs don’t make sense for brands trying to reach their customers on Facebook.

Last week, CNN reported that according to PageLever, a firm specializing in Facebook analytics, user engagement with tabs on Facebook Pages is down a staggering 53% since Timeline launched. Why such a significant decrease? Well, here are a few reasons:

1. Timeline is now the default for all Facebook brand pages. A company can’t build a custom tab and set it as the brand’s default Facebook homepage anymore.

2. Tabs are super-hard to find in Timeline. Even if you were looking for one, it won’t jump out at you.

3. Companies don’t put enough promotion muscle behind the Facebook tabs they create. They build them, activate them and pray for visitors.

4. Agencies are looking to make a sale. To build a tab you need a developer who knows FBML and some fancy creative work. They aren’t cheap and usually look pretty cool when completed. So agencies want to sell them in to clients because they yield a higher pricetag than just managing a Facebook presence.

5. Facebook users don’t go to brand pages! Sponsored story ads make it easier than ever before to like a brand without ever visiting its actual Facebook page. And if you don’t go to the page, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever see the tab.

The interesting part about the reasons above is that only numbers one and two are Timeline-specific. The other three have been true on Facebook long before Timeline ever came around. Now I’ll never say never, because doing so will get you in trouble. But 999 times out of 1,000, there is going to be a better way to spend your $10K, $25K, $50K, $100K  — or whatever budget you’re working with — than to build a Facebook tab.

But if your brand does decide to build a tab, or if you have one or more already, don’t forget that you have to promote them just like you have to promote a website or any other online content.

This isn’t Iowa and you aren’t Kevin Costner.

I'd bet anyone my 1985 World Series poster that Mark Zuckerberg will be just fine staying quiet...and that almost any other CEO wouldn't be.

Mark Zuckerberg is not following the rules. At least, he’s not following the PR rules when it comes to how a CEO should handle a company issue that makes as much news — as much negative news — as Facebook’s recent IPO. The rules say speak up, address the public, stand as a sign of strength for your company. The question is, do the same “PR rules” that apply to other CEOs apply to Zuckerberg and Facebook?

If you took a survey asking who the most successful CEO of the last 50 years was, I am willing to bet my Royals 1985 World Series poster that the winner would be Steve Jobs…in a landslide. I bring that up because I agree with this piece from Forbes that says Zuckerberg is simply handling the situation exactly like Jobs would have. And since Jobs was a different kind of CEO who used to say things like, “We don’t invest in market research. We invest in people who know how to make products people want and need,” that comparison really does seem to hold a lot of water.

Both Jobs, and now Zuckerberg, seem to lead to the beat of their own drum. As Forbes points out, Jobs was famous for keeping his public appearances limited and creating some secrecy around himself so that when he did speak, people really listened and everything he said came off as profound. That approach worked for Jobs as CEO of Apple. And now Zuckerberg seems content to copy it and say nothing about the disaster Facebook’s IPO has been since the day NASDAQ messed up the initial market availability.

Is Zuckerberg making a smart move? Hell no. If he were CEO of almost any other public company in the U.S. But I do think he can make the CEO mystique thing work for him as it worked for Jobs for one main reason — because of how much the public has emotionally invested in the Facebook platform.

Have you ever thought about why customers choose the brands they choose? It usually revolves around one of three reasons: 1) product performance, 2) price, 3) customer service/brand reputation. Reasons two and three don’t mean a whole lot if the product doesn’t perform. And the product’s performance can be so elite that, in the words of Metallica, nothing else matters.

In those cases, the sort of cockiness and mysteriousness that Jobs brought to Apple only add to the brand’s story. And details that could be seen as weird for other CEOs — always wearing a black turtleneck for example — become cool because people love the company and its product so much. This is true with other passion areas like music too. Think about the Grateful Dead bears, for example. Definitely could have been seen as weird. But weird became cool to deadheads.

Both Apple and Facebook have not only changed technology, they have changed the way we literally interact with friends and family on a daily basis. We use their “product” to connect with people in ways we never could before. They’ve changed our lives and there’s no going back. So to be honest with you, it’s going to take a lot for Zuckerberg to majorly screw up. Everything he does can be spun as smart because the product he’s created is something people want to be a part of.

So to answer the question we started with, it’s ok for Zuckerberg to break the PR rules when it comes to the IPO or most other negative news stories that come out about Facebook. His silence and secrecy can be spun as positive. But 99 percent of CEOs would be endangering their company, their shareholders and their reputation by staying quiet amidst this type of chaos, especially such a public issue that impacts their investors pocketbooks.

99 percent of CEOs would need to say something, but Zuck ain’t one.

Zuckerberg's chart isn't showing increased user engagement with Facebook photos. But it could be (Image credit: news.cnet.com).

Sooner than you think, anyone who has $500,000 lying around will be able to take a commercial trip to Mars. Can you imagine that? As my friend Eric Morgensten hinted at…I wonder what the in-flight drinks will cost.

No, this is not a post about space travel. But yes, you would had to have been living on Mars over the past six months to have missed the talk about 2012 as the year of visual storytelling. See what I did there? Still, sometimes it helps to have some numbers to back up the hype.

I was thinking just that the other day while working on a presentation. So I went in search of some numbers. And I started with Facebook, since that’s where the visual trend began — last summer at F8 to be exact. Because that’s where the decision to make images bigger on Facebook was first announced. And Facebook really does set the tone for the Internet these days…whether we like it or not.

Back to the numbers. There are a couple of studies I want to share with you. The first is from Web Liquid, a study of 16 brands with 3.5 million fans. They compared four types of Facebook content to see which one drew the most interactions. The result: Photos received the most engagement. And photos and videos both drew more than double the interaction that links did. The chart below provides more detail.

The second study is from Momentus Media and also tracked Facebook engagement and interaction — analyzed 20,000 Facebook business/brand pages and analyzed tens/hundreds of thousands of Facebook posts. The results here might sound familiar: Photos received almost two times the interaction videos did. And links received the least amount of engagement. The only difference in this study was that text status posts saw more engagement than video. See the graph below.

After reading these two studies, I did one of my own on my personal status updates. I posted a series of photos, links and text updates over a week and then checked the levels of engagement. Seven photo posts and seven link, video or text posts. The final results were about as close as the tortoise’s and hare’s race would have been if the hare hadn’t been such a smartass.

Eighty-four interactions with the photo posts. Thirty-nine interactions with the other posts. More than two times the amount of interactions on the images.

Nuff said. I’d say this “year of visual storytelling” thing has some legs. Quite a bit more legs than any of us heading to Mars on a commercial flight anytime soon.

Timeline opens up a whole new way for brands to tell their story. Burberry obviously put some thought into this cover image (Image credit: Fashionindiemedia.s3.amazonaws.com).

When Facebook speaks, people listen. So when Zuckerberg and team announced Timeline for brands last week, everyone tuned in…and then quickly went and wrote a post or tweeted about the most important takeaways. Everybody is looking to break the story first. And I thought I had left my journalism days behind in college.

There’s been a lot written and this post is probably a few days late. But I like to let the dust settle and then see what rises to the top. I’ve already shared my POV on what Timeline for brands means — that 2012 is the year of visual storytelling. But here are 3 additional Timeline posts that are worth…well…your time. Thank you. I’m here all week.

1. PR Breakfast Club: Facebook launches Timeline for pages (Shelly Kramer)

Shelly is very smart and shares more information via Facebook and Twitter than anyone I know…maybe except for Gini Dietrich. But I like Shelly’s post because a) she validates my point on visual storytelling. And b) she provides both sides of the story and advises brands not to rush into Timeline.

“Like the personal timelines that many of us have been using since they rolled out, brands can now choose a cover photo that offers a lot more visual real estate. The interface looks cleaner and infinitely more compelling, and creates an opportunity for brands to tell their stories in a way that’s heretofore not been afforded. And when you think about it, isn’t that the goal of a site like Facebook or any social media channel—brand storytelling? If that’s not your goal, it should be.”

2.Duct Tape Marketing: 5 tips every marketer needs to know to exploit the new Facebook page design (John Jantsch)

A decision like what cover image a company decides to upload on its Timeline may seem trivial. But John explains the importance of this image toward making a first impression. He also highlights the pin and star feature, neither of which I was aware of before reading his post.

“Another way to bring focus to something you are marketing is to pin a story or item to the top of the page. As the admin you can pin a story for up to 7 days and will appear as your top story. To pin an item you simply click on the edit button to the top right of a story and hit Pin to Top.”

3. Social Studies Blog: How Facebook Timeline for pages will revolutionize crisis PR

There are a lot of interesting points in this piece. And I think it highlights some of the mistakes brands could intentionally, or unintentionally, make when it comes to managing customer complaints in a Timeline world. For example, the star and pin features John blogged about will allow page admins to have more control of what content stays at the top and is prominent on the page. On the one hand, this will make it very hard for customers to hijack a page with complaints. On the other hand, it could really get brands in hot water if it looks like they are using these news features to silence negative feedback. And then there’s this:

“There’s one major problem for brands in the new Timeline format. They won’t know the whole story about what is being shown to visitors of their page. Ever. (Or at least, not in the current set-up). This is because each time you or I visit a brand page, we will see a post related to that organization from one of our friends. That comment does not have to come from a fan of the page, nor does it have to tag the page name. It simply has to include a reference to that brand name or company.”

This is by no means a comprehensive list. But consider it a starting point. What Timeline posts do you think are worth our time?

When it comes to telling their story, companies must remember that a picture says 1,000 words (Image credit: Jens Goeman http://www.flickr.com/photos/goesman/6767398821/)

You have to feel bad for mobile. 2010 was supposed to be it’s year, but it wasn’t ready for primetime yet. Kind of like Peyton Manning in his first season with the Indianapolis Colts when the team went 3-13 before going 13-3 and winning the division the next year. Then 2011 was supposed to be the year. We all heard the stats about 50 percent of the U.S. population having smartphones by year’s end. But the reality didn’t quite live up to the hype — kind of like the TV series Pan Am — so we were left with a “wait til next year” taste in our mouth.

Enter 2012, which I really do believe would finally be the year of mobile if it weren’t also already the year of Pinterest, Facebook Timeline for brands and Instagram. I mean, Ray probably would have won best picture at the Oscars almost any other year than 2004, when no one was going to take the stage away from Clint Eastwood and Million Dollar Baby. The same could be said for mobile, which is set to make a bigger splash than in any previous year, but likely won’t be able to outsplash the best “picture” for 2012 — visual storytelling.

Facebook’s role

Back in college, I had a journalism professor who said we weren’t just writers. We had to be storytellers. Talk about someone being ahead of their time. What’s interesting is that visual storytelling isn’t something that we heard about a lot in the past from the pundits before it emerged on the scene like gangbusters this year. If you think about it, Facebook actually started this trend last year around F8 by increasing the size of the photos we regularly upload to the platform and making them four times larger than they were before.

Have you noticed a difference in the type of content friends and brands are uploading to Facebook since then? And the type of content you are drawn to when looking at your news feed? I have. Images stand above and beyond the text and link posts now more than they ever have before. And research backs it up. Last November, eMarketer noted two different studies that show Facebook posts with images earn higher engagement rates than video, text only and link updates.

Like Zuckerberg or not…the dude is wicked smart. And this evolution of photo prominence in Facebook is just one of the latest examples. Zuck and team increased the size of photos in personal status updates last summer. Then they brought that feature to brand pages a month or two later. Toward the end of 2011, they increased the size of pictures in the Facebook viewer. And just last week they launched Timeline for brands and began to show how it’s going to change the way companies tell their story to consumers. The biggest change — you guessed it — is through visual storytelling. This great post by Shelly Kramer highlights it. And check out how AT&T and Ford are already doing it. Guess that Zuckerberg guy kind of knows what he’s doing.

Instagram and Pinterest effect

All is not lost for mobile in 2012. In fact, the mobile app Instagram has been right there with Facebook in leading the charge toward the “your story isn’t good enough without visuals” mindset I believe customers are starting to, and will continue to, adopt. You’ve likely heard the Instagram story or the eye-popping number of users — 25 million, adding up to 3,000 per hour.

But if you’re looking for factors that show the impact Instagram has had on how we consume visual content, consider these three: 1) Facebook recently made an update that allows Instagram photos to appear the same size as photos uploaded directly to the platform — If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. 2) Celebrities like Justin Bieber have adopted the platform as way to connect with fans and made it cool. 3) Brands like GE and Levi’s have deemed it worth their time and investment. Plus they see it as a way to show customers what goes on behind the scenes and give them a chance to be a part of that — and access is something we know people like to get from their social media use.

We can’t finish out the visual storytelling conversation without mentioning Pinterest. Let me start by asking this question…What’s the difference between Pinterest and Diigo or Delicious? Answer: Visuals. That’s it. Otherwise, all three platforms are used for content curation. Yet Diigo and Delicious never blew up like Pinterest has in the last six months.

Maggie and I were at brunch with a friend the other day. He isn’t the biggest fan of social media. But he starts telling us this story about his daughter. She’s home for the holidays and they’re sitting in the living room chatting — his daughter, his wife and him. A few years back, he says, this conversation might have been accompanied by a holiday movie on the TV. Maybe a little Jimmy Stewart and Clarence. But this year, his daughter is leading the conversation based on different pin boards she’s looking at. “Dad, look at this.” Have you seen this before, mom?”

He laughs as he recalls the conversation. But he quickly follows it up by noting at least they were spending some family time together. When you think about it, this story isn’t surprising either. I can’t tell you how many holidays my family spent at my grandparents’ houses huddled in front of the TV watching movies.

So what does this mean for brands?

Society responds more to visual stimuli and storytelling than any story we read in magazine or on a website. We always have. But now the visual stimulation is coming from all devices. And the same goes for status updates and content curation. It’s not enough anymore to live tweet from a conference or corporate event. Customers are now saying: “Don’t just tell me. Show me.” And brands better listen. Or 2012 will be the year they got left behind.

See this clone trooper? He'll be coming out of your keyboard next if you don't get these 3 Facebook principles down. No really. He will. (Image credit: myfbcovers.com)

EdgeRank. Leads. News feed. EdgeRank. Leads. News feed. Say it with me. Edge Rank. Leads. News feed.

Facebook is growing and evolving like crazy, so these three principles will undoubtedly grow and evolve along with it. But for now, these are three areas every communicator working in Facebook – and that should be every one of you – must have a handle on when it comes to explaining the value the leading social network can provide to your brand. Here is a bit more on each of these principles and a supporting blog post that provides a deeper dive.

EdgeRank

AllFacebook.com ran a story earlier this month that noted the average Facebook page only reaches 17 percent of a brands’ fans. 17 percent! That means more than 80 percent of the fans who like your page never see any of the content you’re posting. Scary huh? Makes those likes seem, well, kind of worthless.

If you didn’t already know, EdgeRank is basically Facebook’s algorithm that decides what posts you see when you go to your news feed. Remember, one of the main results of the changes Facebook announced at F8 is that we were going to see fewer, more customized posts in our Facebook news feeds. Part of the way EdgeRank is selecting those posts is based on overall interaction with updates from the brand – likes and comments. Brian Carter digs into the EdgeRank effect more here.

Key takeaway: Likes of your brand on Facebook mean very little if your fans never see your posts. The more engagement – likes and comments – with your posts, the better chance they show up in your fans’ news feeds. And people are more likely to interact with content from brands/people who post consistently and share content that invites interaction, such as questions, pictures, video, etc.

Leads

One of the toughest parts about all social media, even Facebook, is convincing leadership it can be connected to business objectives. To make the connection, don’t look at Facebook in a box, where the key metrics become likes and interactions. Instead, see it as one piece of your overall communications approach, all of which should be working together to get the customer to do what you want him/her to do – e.g. buy stuff, have a second offline conversation (lead generation) or provide feedback.

The comic in Adam Singer’s post here really sums the issue up nicely. It addition, he provides smart insights like this one: “So all we can do is continue to say what most digital marketers ignore: that the web is more than Facebook and Twitter, and that the reasons to self-publish continue to significantly outweigh the losses of yielding your presence to the stream.”

Key takeaway: Many see Facebook as the more social and personal of the social networks. But it can absolutely be used to generate leads. Think about how you can convert the fans you meet on Facebook to customers performing the calls to action we mentioned above. Or can you start a relationship with fans on Facebook that leads to them signing up for your email newsletter or blog, which leads to an offline conversation and then potentially a sale?

News feed

This is an oldie but a goodie, especially with the supporting information coming from Brian’s and Adam’s posts along with what we heard from Buddy Media’s Facebook study last week. Most Facebook users spend the majority of their Facebook time in the news feed. Not on brand pages, custom tabs or apps. In fact, with status updates, ads and sponsored stories, it’s super-easy for me to like your brand without ever going to its Facebook page.

One of my all-time go-to blog posts is this one by Jay Baer. There’s a lot of goodness about Facebook use here, but this part continually stands out to me: “The fact is that in almost every case, the one and only time your fans visit your Facebook page is when they initially “like” the page. After that, all touch points between the brand and the fan are conducted in the Facebook News Feed.”

Key takeaway: Developing a consistent approach to Facebook content and engagement is not sexy. An editorial calendar doesn’t have the flash of a custom tab or the sizzle of an app. But consistent content shared as status updates is what keeps your brand top of mind with consumers. Not flash and sizzle.

How do you use Facebook? How does your time spent on the site break down? For me, it’s easy. I spend 90 percent of my time in the newsfeed. At least. With the remaining time spent on profiles and maybe brand pages.

According to a study Buddy Media released Monday, my newsfeed affinity isn’t shared by the average Facebook user. Buddy’s study (yes, had that one in the works for a while) says Facebook users only spend 27 percent of their time in the newsfeed. Jason Keath at Social Fresh did a great analysis of this part of the study and what it means for marketers. I highly recommend you check it out. But in this post, I want to talk about some of the ambivalence of the numbers and another piece of the study that I found as, if not more, important.

Part 1

Image credit: Buddy Media

You can see the study breakdown above:

– We covered the 27 percent block of time spent in the newsfeed, which is the highest amount of time.

– 17 percent is spent with photos, which last time I checked, most people interact with via the newsfeed. So not sure why that’s separated.

– Then 25 percent is a category called All Other. Jason said he thinks that might include Facebook groups. But couldn’t it also include videos, notes and links — all of which we usually interact with via the newsfeed.

– And then there are Apps/Tools at 10 percent, which users often engage in based on a newsfeed recommendation.

– Profiles, at 21 percent, are the only piece of the pie I really think fits outside the newsfeed.

All that to say, this research shows me that the newsfeed is still where most engagement originates on Facebook. So if you are spending a lot of dollars and time in other areas of the social network, you might want to reassess.

Part 2

Image credit: Buddy Media

Another part of Buddy’s study (there it is again) covers the “three basic levers” that lead to social media marketing success. You can see said levers in the diagram above. What I like about this infographic is it reminds us Facebook is more than just acquiring fans. Don’t laugh. Still SO many brands that only care about fans. “Talking about this” is my new fave Facebook metric.

The part I don’t like about this infographic is it ignores the most important question you have to ask to determine if your Facebook efforts are successful — What actions did customers take as a result of your Facebook marketing? The actions you should care about depend on what your brand wants its customers to do. For example, if clickthroughs to a certain website page where transactions happen is important, then Facebook better be driving its fair share.

I could give examples like the one above all day. But the fact of the matter is that if you are only counting fans and the three levers, Facebook will continue to be a nice-to-have from your executive team’s POV.