A recent update to Pages Manager for iOS has returned detailed post insights to the product after a version earlier this month was released without them.

Facebook released version 2.0 of its Pages Manager app for iOS in early May to make the app faster and include new features like photo filters. However, it did not include the same level of per-post analytics as previous versions. Page owners could see how many people they reached but when they tapped the area that used to lead to more information, they were instead directed to a screen where they could buy Promoted Posts. Now, the additional metrics have been brought back.

Users can tap the “reach” metric to be taken to a new screen with an additional breakdown of how much of that reach was organic, paid or viral. They can swipe left to see details about engaged users, post clicks, link clicks and stories created. Another swipe will present People Talking About This, likes, comments and shares for the given post.

Page owners can still promote their posts from the app by tapping the “promote” button. Another feature that Facebook removed from Pages Manager a few weeks ago, but hasn’t brought back yet is the option to create an Offer post. Admins have to create those from Facebook.com.

Facebook also made some bug fixes and performance updates in the latest version of Pages Manager released this week.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Facebook is testing a new way for page owners to create “unpublished posts” — those that intentionally do not appear to all fans of their page – directly from the composer on their page.

Unpublished posts do not appear on a page’s Timeline or in fans’ News Feeds, but they can be promoted with ads. This allows page owners to make posts that are tailored to a specific audience and ensure that they are only seen by that audience, not distributed to anyone who Likes the page. It also creates a way for advertisers to test different creative options for their page post ads without overwhelming their fans with multiple posts.

Now page owners can make these kinds of posts directly from their page by clicking the clock icon used to schedule posts. After users select a year, a “hide from News Feed” option will appear. Checking that box will prevent the post from being distributed to fans’ feeds, though it will still appear on the page’s Timeline. Then a page could promote the post or use it as part of a page post ad in the mobile or desktop News Feed.

Although this feature is hard to discover and not particularly intuitive for most page owners, it is useful to have the “hide from News Feed” option in the composer. Previously, users could only create unpublished posts via the self-serve ad tool, Power Editor or API. The image below is from the ads tool, after selecting “Promote Page Posts” and “Create New Page Post.”

Facebook first added the option for pages to make unpublished posts through the Pages API in July 2012, but these posts were only eligible for promotion in the right hand sidebar of the site. In March of this year, however, Facebook opened up its News Feed inventory to ads created from unpublished posts.

Facebook offers some page post targeting by age, gender, location and other demographic information, there is no organic way to target posts by interests or factors like Custom Audiences. But with unpublished posts that run as page post ads in News Feed, businesses can show users more relevant content. For example, service could show longtime users one version of an ad, new users another, and leads yet another. Or an app page could make an unpublished post to promote to iPhone users and another aimed at Android users. Other brands are using unpublished posts simply to test different ad creative and optimize their campaigns.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Facebook has begun to roll out its new mobile page layout to Android, a spokesperson from the company tells us.

Two weeks ago the social network debuted a redesign for business and fan pages on iOS, putting more actionable information about a business, brand or personality near the top of the screen. Now the design in reflected in the mobile web version of Facebook and eventually the Android app.

The redesign, with a top row of buttons and a prominent map and recommendations module, better optimizes pages for the mobile use case, for instance, looking up a store’s location or hours, viewing a restaurant’s photos or checking reviews. Options to Like, call, share or check into a place are easy to access. Instead of having to click to view a map, users can see the map, address and hours immediately. Place ratings are now visible on mobile location pages and a few recommendations can be read without having to click and load a new screen. A photos section allows users to quickly swipe through images, as they can in the mobile News Feed.

Page owners can now easily switch between the admin view and public view, which is a useful new feature. They can also pin one post to appear near the top of the screen, but they have to take this action from desktop. Facebook has eliminated the standalone sections for events, videos and photo albums. However, these will continue to show in the Timeline stream when they are posted, and one can be pinned to the top if desired.

Page owners should also keep in mind how the new design affects their cover photo since it will be darkened and the page name, description and profile photo will appear on top of it.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Facebook has brought its Promoted Posts feature for pages to its mobile apps for iOS and Android, as well as m.facebook.com. At the same time, the company has begun testing different targeting options for page owners using the desktop version, in some ways limiting the control people have over their ads.

Previously, Promoted Posts could be created through the Pages Manager mobile app, but not from the main application or mobile site. Now, however a user accesses their page, they’ll have a way to easily increase the reach of their posts.

On desktop, some page owners are finding that Facebook has changed who they can target Promoted Posts to. Earlier this month some page owners lost the ability to promote their posts only to current fans. The post has to reach both fans and friends of fans. Some page owners might be frustrated by this since they may want to ensure their message is only being seen by the most relevant audience. However, these page owners can still use the main self-serve ads tool to create more targeted ads to fans only if they want.

Other page owners recently gained a new option to reach anyone on Facebook, even if they aren’t connected to the page directly or through a friend. This is helpful for smaller pages that want to extend their message to new potential fans they weren’t previously able to reach with Promoted Posts. Page owners who do not yet have this option with Promoted Posts can instead use the main self-serve ad tool to run page post ads to a broader audience.

Both of these still seem to be in testing, as Facebook’s Help Center still says that page owners can run Promoted Posts to fans or fans and their friends.

Desktop Promoted Post screenshots from Jon Loomer and Facebook’s Help Center.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Facebook will further roll out a commenting system that it has been testing, which includes threaded conversations and a ranking algorithm meant to put the most relevant and high quality comments first, a spokesperson tells us.

The new comments for pages and users who have enabled “follow,” have been in testing since November, and starting next week will be available on an opt-in basis for all accounts with more than 10,000 fans or followers.

Key features of the new comments are the option to reply to a specific comment and a ranking system that takes into account positive signals, such as likes and comments; negative signals, such as not getting much engagement; and connections, meaning the ranking is personalized for each user so that, for example, comments from people they might know appear first.

These changes make comments on page posts more similar to Facebook’s comments plugin for third-party sites, which have had threaded conversations and a ranking algorithm since March 2011. On posts by pages and public figures, there can be dozens or even thousands of comments, and users cannot tag and mention other fans they aren’t friends with. The new system could improve engagement on these posts since high-quality comments will be surfaced up top and users will be notified when someone replies to their comment. Admins can also down-rank posts without deleting them.

“We think this update will allow for easier management of conversations around posts, which is a better experience for people interacting with pages and public figure profiles,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

The new comments are not yet available for mobile or via the API

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Facebook today revealed that bugs in its page insights product led reach and impressions to be misreported for months. Fixes are being rolled out today and over the weekend, the company says.

Facebook says the bugs only affected reporting, not delivery, so page reach wasn’t actually reduced, it may have just appeared that way from insights data. This was limited to page insights and did not have an impact on ad insights.

The social network says pages will be affected differently depending on their fan based and when and how frequently they post, but overall it expects most pages to see an increase in reach or no change. Pages that ran News Feed ads are likely to see an increase in paid reach. It’s possible some pages could see an increase or decrease in organic reach.

TechCrunch, which got details about the bugs, says one issue was the result of Facebook’s new mobile apps. In speeding up its native apps, the social network accidentally stopped counting how many people saw a page’s posts. A separate bug caused desktop News Feed ads to be counted as both organic and paid impressions.

Engagement rate and virality, which are metrics that are computed from reach and impressions, could also be affected.

Facebook says it will not be able to backfill page insights with accurate historical data. Instead, pages will have to look at their performance moving forward to estimate the impact, if any, on their pages previously. Facebook advises page owners to track their organic, paid and viral reach, as well as impressions for their page and posts over the next few weeks, beginning Monday.

Facebook discovered the bugs as part of an engineering audit of page insights. The company says it has put “a number of additional quality and verification measures” in place to avoid issues like this in the future.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Two social marketing platform companies announced new funding today. Spredfast has raised $18 million in a venture capital round led by OpenView Venture Partners, and Sprinklr has raised $15 million in series B funding from Intel Capital and Battery Ventures.

Spredfast offers social media management software for the enterprise, including tools for publishing, monitoring, engagement and reporting across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and more. It allows teams to create a workflow and permissions model for different projects, maintain a centralized content calendar and share assets in a content library. The company has badges for apps and pages in Facebook’s Preferred Marketing Developer Program.

In the past year, Spredfast has signed on AT&T, Caterpillar, Rackspace and Starbucks, and expanded relationships with AAA, T. Rowe Price, Whole Foods Market and Warner Brothers. The company reports 400 percent revenue growth and a doubling in employee headcount in 2012.

This is the third venture capital round for the Austin-based company. This latest round was led by OpenView Venture Partners, with additional investment from existing investors Austin Ventures and InterWest Partners. Spredfast has now raised a total of $31.6 million since 2010, according to Crunchbase.

Sprinklr is another PMD with apps and pages badges. Its platform allows marketers and other stakeholders to collaborate across a number of channels. It offers governance tools to help brands manage different divisions of their business, keeping them organized and compliant but also free to manage day-to-day interactions with their audience and customers.

Sprinklr says it works with more than 200 household brands, including  1-800-Flowers, Intel, Dell, Virgin America, Cisco Systems, Samsung, Hearst, Newell Rubbermaid, Sears and Toys “R” Us. The company also reports 400 percent year over year growth.

Battery Ventures was also behind the New York company’s $5 million venture round last year.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Facebook released an Android version of its standalone page management application on Thursday for users in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, according to a company spokesperson.

Pages Manager gives page owners access to page notifications and insights on the go, and allows them to make posts, respond to comments and reply to direct messages. Although the app may be visible in the Google Play store, it is not available for U.S. or U.K. users yet. Facebook  tells us this is coming soon.

This week’s release comes nearly eight months after the app debuted on iOS. Facebook first launched Pages Manager for iOS devices in May. Facebook continued to add features to the app throughout the year, but Android users had to continue to rely on the desktop version of Facebook to manage their pages. With the m.facebook.com and the main Facebook for Android app, page admins can access their pages and write on their Timelines, but there was no ideal way to get notifications or analytics without a third-party service. Direct messages to a page were also exclusive to desktop until now.

We haven’t gotten a hands-on with the Android app yet, but based on screenshots in Google Play, it seems mostly similar to the iOS version. However, the Timeline page is more similar to how it appears in the main app with photos and activity log accessible below the cover photo. The iOS Pages Manager doesn’t use this view and doesn’t seem to include activity log, though it came to the main app in September.

Last month, Facebook announced that more than 3 million page owners were using the mobile admin app each month on iOS.

Thanks to Aidis Dalikas for the tip.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

For years brands have spent most of their time and money collecting fans and developing one-time campaigns that live in a Facebook tab or connect with the social network in some other nominal way. Gradually companies have begun to realize that News Feed is the most critical channel for Facebook marketing and are putting more thought — and ad dollars — into sharing quality content via page posts.

To help top brands and agencies better understand the value of publishing on Facebook and address how a business can best tell their story in the feed, the social network began an internal program called Publishing Garage.

Fusible first wrote about Publishing Garage after Facebook registered a number of domains including the words, but the blog and some other news outlets reported that Publishing Garage could be a new feature or platform about to launch. Turns out it’s not a product, but a process, and it’s been around for a few months, a Facebook spokesperson says.

Publishing Garage is a clever title for what’s essentially a workshop where representatives from Facebook get together with brand executives, agency members and other stakeholders to talk about the Facebook platform, goals and ultimately strategy. Unlike other meetings about ad campaigns or apps, Publishing Garage is focused on helping brands with the daily posts they make to their fans. Typically this happens over three days.

Facebook Creative Strategist Addie Marino, who designed a logo for Publishing Garage, explained on her portfolio site that Publishing Garage is “a program geared at building world-class social publishing systems that enable brands to create the most meaningful connections with their connections and their friends through News Feed stories.”

Because Publishing Garage is time- and resource-intensive, it is limited to larger brands who are also making significant use of Facebook’s paid media products. Facebook has other programs for top advertisers. Facebook Studio is a community for agencies to share their work and learn about new features. Facebook’s Client Council is a group of advertisers and marketers that meet quarterly to discuss how Facebook could better address industry needs. The Creative Council is similar, but focuses on helping Facebook identify priorities for agency creatives.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Facebook today let developers know that it will be removing attribution from page posts that are made through third-party applications like HootSuite.

Previously, these page posts would appear in the feed and on pages’ Timelines with a “via [app name]” link. Facebook told developers in its PMD group that starting today this type of attribution will be eliminated for page posts. User posts will still include the “via” links.

There have been ongoing doubts among marketers whether posting to Facebook via third-party apps has an effect on News Feed distribution and engagement. Studies have found conflicting results. Facebook says it does not penalize pages that make posts from third-party publishing tools, but it’s unclear whether the subtle note about where a post is coming from has an effect on how users respond to it.

Either way, some page owners have chosen not to use these tools as a result. With Facebook now eliminating the language completely, developers may see more adoption of their page publishing solutions. Others, however, might have liked getting the attribution since it included links to their app and might have contributed to brand recognition.

Thanks to Wisemetrics for the tip.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook