Tag: Facebook Questions

Facebook Is Getting Rid Of Over Half Of Its Ad Units

Facebook announced today that it is cutting the number of ad units it offers to marketers in half. Actually, they have 27 different ad units right now, and when all is said and done, it will be less than half of that (the exact number was unspecified). The company says that many of its offerings accomplish the same goals, so they’re eliminating some redundancies.

The reduction will not happen all at once, but over the course of the next six months.

For one, they’ll be getting rid of the Questions product for Pages with the reasoning that marketers can just ask questions in posts and get answers in the comments. The company canned Facebook Questions for users back in October.

They’re also getting rid of the online Offer product, saying that marketers have found that a Page post link ad is more effective for driving people to deals on their own sites. These particular changes will occur in July.

Facebook says it wants to include the best of sponsored stories in all ads.

“Previously, to get the best social context available, advertisers had to purchase sponsored stories in addition to ads,” says Facebook’s Fidji Simo. “In the future, for example, when you create a Page post photo ad, we will automatically add social context to boost performance and eliminate the extra step of creating sponsored stories. We know social enhances ad resonance; people are influenced by this type of word-of-mouth marketing. Research from Nielsen, comScore, and Datalogix shows that social context can drive awareness and return on ad spend, so we want to make it easier to add it to our ads.”

These changes will take place this fall. More immediately, Facebook is looking to make its ad units more consistent.

“We want to have a more consistent visual display of our ads across all marketer objectives and Facebook placements,” says Simo. “This will reduce the number of ad formats and make the ad creation process much simpler for advertisers who run multiple campaigns or want to test which ad creative performs the best. We think this will ultimately help advertisers optimize their campaigns across desktop and mobile. A consistent look and feel to our ads will also be a better overall experience for people on Facebook.”

These changes will start later this month.

June 6, 2013
Facebook Releases SDK Updates For Android And iOS

Facebook has recently updated its Android and iOS updates to include a number of useful features for users. To compliment those releases, Facebook is also updating its Android and iOS SDKs to make developers’ lives easier.

The Facebook SDK for iOS has been updated to version 3.2.1. As the version number suggests, the latest updates is mostly about bug fixes. The update does bring a new feature, however, in the form of support for frictionless requests using the SDK’s FBWebDialogs class. The feature will let your app “use frictionless requests without importing the deprecated headers.” You can download the latest Facebook SDK for iOS here.

Much like its iOS brother, the Facebook SDK for Android has received a small update pushing its version number to 3.0.1. The update includes a number of enhancements based upon feedback received by developers, as well as the usual bug fixes and improvements. You can grab the latest Facebook SDK for Android here.

Aside from new Facebook SDKs, the social network is also introducing changes to mobile app bookmarks. On June 5, the company will only display mobile bookmarks for games that can be played across both desktop and mobile. It’s part of an initiative to better support cross-platform Facebook games. Those who relied on mobile app bookmarks will want to “consider alternative ways to reengage users,” like App Center or mobile app install ads. The good news is that this isn’t a breaking change as it requires no code change on the part of developers.

As for breaking changes, there’s only one that developers should be aware of. Starting April 3, Facebook will be removing the ability to ask questions from the Graph API after removing the same functionality from users late last year.

Finally, the weekly bug report reveals that Facebook squashed 31 bugs this week. You can check out the full list of fixes at the blog post.

March 21, 2013
Facebook Questions Get the Hook

So long, Facebook Questions. We barely knew ye, nor ever really cared to.

Facebook Questions debuted in the summer of 2010 and gave users the ability to post public queries to their friends. Who’s the best Backstreet Boy? What’s the best pizza place in town? Whatever. The product saw some buzz at the very beginning but soon became a mostly forgotten feature.

And then Facebook did the big revamp in the Spring of 2011. They said the new Questions was all about your friends and finding useful information via polls. The new product allowed users to designate multiple choice answers or allow for long-form responses. When that happened, I saw a decent amount of questions in my news feed for a little while. And then, just like before, crickets.

Now, Facebook is shutting it down – for the most part. Facebook told TechCrunch that they are yanking the Questions option from the top of users’ news feeds (next to update status and add photo/video). It’s already happening:

Questions will still be available for Groups and on Pages – which is really where they belong anyways (if anywhere). As a page owner, I can still select “Question” from the “Offer, Event +” tab in the update box.

Users can also get to all their old Questions in the Activity Feed.

Are you sad to see Questions go? Did you even notice that Questions were still on option in your update box?

October 19, 2012
Using the New Facebook Questions for Fan Pages

After a year of “beta testing”, a new version of Facebook questions rolled out yesterday. Naturally, I had a ton of questions on how questions works and how brands may use questions on fan pages, which I’ll uncover below.

How to Post a Question on Facebook?

Now fan pages have “Question” added for potential status updates. From here, the fan page can create a question and up to 10 poll options.

Before asking the question, fan page admins should take a moment to consider the small understated box that says “Allow anyone to add options”. Leaving this default box checked will allow anybody to add options to the question after the question is asked, which could be a moderation nightmare.

If this is left checked, the admin will have the ability to monitor and delete any offensive or off-topic options by selecting “edit options” on the poll itself (see screenshot below). However, the question cannot be changed to restrict users from adding options after it is published with that setting. Currently, the only way I see to reverse this default is to delete the question. So think before you ask the question.

What about Newsfeed Inclusions?

When a brand posts a question, it will show up on the fan page wall and fan newsfeeds like the following:

When a fan answers that question, this activity can show up in their friend’s newsfeed in one of two ways (likely because Facebook is still testing). The first way it can appear is as an expanded poll:

The other way it is showing up within newsfeeds is a more concise version like the following:

How Else are Questions Promoted?

After a user has answered a question, a small notification will be updated within the “Recent Activity” portion of that user’s wall.

If a user uses the “Ask Friends” call out to invite other friends to weigh in on the question, those friends will see a notification of the question in the following way:

And, if I am that friend that asks my friend a question, I am reminded with yet another notification when they answer.

Why Should Brands Care?

The virality of questions and the prominence Facebook is placing within newsfeeds and notifications should capture the attention of brands with fan pages. Questions are a utility specifically built not just to facilitate a fan page to ask a question to a base of their fans, but for that question to go a network beyond, and further if possible. This is an exciting engagement opportunity for branded pages to utilize.

This said, brands should approach questions with some degree of caution. Before developing a question, the brand must consider if the message is appropriate not just for their fans, but more importantly their fans friends. In my opinion, this makes Questions more fitting for light hearted engagement opportunities than for more serious brand questions like “What could we improve about our product?”.

What do you think of the new and improved Questions?

Originally published on Ignite Social Media

March 25, 2011
Facebook Questions Debuts In Beta

Inquisitive people, rejoice. Facebook, with its enormous user base and familiar layout, entered the question and answer space this afternoon by launching Facebook Questions. The product’s still in beta right now, meaning not everyone can use it, but it’s already looking well-integrated and rather interesting.

Blake Ross, a director of product management, explained on the Facebook Blog, "To ask a question to the community, just click the ‘Ask Question’ button at the top of the homepage. You can also ask questions about your friends from their profiles, similarly to how you would post on their Walls."

Then Ross delved into the pair of features that set Facebook Questions apart from some older Q&A services. First, he noted, "After you ask a question, you have the option of adding a photo or a poll."

Next, Ross wrote, "To help us show your question to the most relevant people and ensure the best answers, you can tag it with a specific topic."

These features should put Facebook Questions ahead of many dedicated Q&A sites, and even sites that offer more extras will have trouble standing up to the accessibility of Facebook’s 500 million users.

Just know that all of the questions and answers contributed to Facebook Questions will be made public, so some competitors might continue to do all right due to privacy concerns.

July 28, 2010