It's a Game Changer.

We are very excited to announce that the book is available now on Amazon, iBookstore and Google Play! Join us in making 2014 the year of PLAY.

Nothing is certain but death and Facebook algorithm changes

Yes that’s right – the algorithm has changed again. But unlike the changes made in September 2012 this round of changes has flown under the radar – perhaps overshadowed by the way more exciting (and easy to understand) announcement that pages can now run competitions without requiring a third party app.

That’s not to say that there isn’t still a place for the good ol’ app – which this infographic from allfacebook outlines really clearly. And of course there is still the minor issue of the law and the need to provide terms, conditions and privacy statements.

But I digress. The algorithm changes have flown under the radar because they are largely beneficial for most brand pages.

Previously Edgerank was based on three factors – affinity, weight and time decay – that determined whether any one status update would be seen by any one person. That’s now changed and there are reportedly a myriad of factors that are now taken into consideration. Two of the main ones being talked about are Last Actor and Story Bumping.

Last Actor looks at the last 50 interactions you’ve had on Facebook, then gives new posts from those people or brand pages priority on your newsfeed. Pages who post frequently will be rewarded – and those that are targeting the most active demographics need to post more frequently to stay visible.

But it’s not just about quantity. Facebook will also assess the quality of your post and demote content that is ‘engagement baiting’ just to get likes. Brands will need to come up with something better than ‘like this if you like fluffy kittens’ and the world will be a better place for it. Facebook haven’t quite said how they will do this, but brands that thrive on this type of content can expect to see engagement rates drop away.

The second factor – Story Bumping – works like this. If a page you regularly interact with posts some content and it’s getting good interaction, but you’ve found something more interesting to do than log onto Facebook every couple of hours causing that post to slip down your newsfeed – then don’t despair! Facebook will bump that post back up your newsfeed, givi

ng you a second chance to see content that it thinks you want to engage with. This is good news for brands – particularly those that still insist on posting status updates during business hours when only half of their fanbase is actually online.

There are many other factors that matter now. Anyone noticed Facebook prompting you to update sections on your info page? Yep, that’s taken into account too.

So how will these changes impact on brand page performance? We’ll probably never know because Facebook coincidentally rolled out their new insights platform just before the algorithm change. Virality no longer exists and has instead been replaced with the more all-encompassing ‘Engagement Rate’.

“What’s the difference?” I hear you ask. Quite a lot.

Virality took only the highest quality interactions – those that resulted in a story being created which shared your content with their friends – as being worth counting. All other interactions – usually called ‘other clicks’ in the exportable report – weren’t deemed valuable enough to include. Hence the rise of all those ‘like this if’ posts – unless people engaged in a certain way, they weren’t counted.

Image courtesy of Inside Facebook

The new Engagement Rate – defined as “the percentage of people who liked, comments, shared or clicked on your post after having seen it” is broader, but more worthwhile. If someone clicks on a link through to your competition app (oh, except we don’t need them anymore) or another piece of content you wanted to share – that wouldn’t have been included in virality, but is included in the engagement rate. Someone clicking on an image you have shared because they want to see it in more detail is counted as engagement, but wouldn’t have been included in the old virality metric.

The sound of page admins around the world patting themselves on the backs for a job well done last month was deafening (I wonder how many truthfully explained the reasons for the better results in their reports). But with all the changes Facebook are rolling out, they’ll still need to work hard to make sure Facebook continues to deliver results for their clients.

Graduate Job Opportunity - Junior Campaign Manager

PHDIQ is the digital media agency of the phd network in New Zealand. We work with some of New Zealand’s leading advertisers, developing innovative and engaging media opportunities online, on mobile and in other emerging media.

We are looking for a Junior Campaign Manager to join one of our planning teams. You will be responsible for the correct buying and implementation of campaigns across all digital media, including mobile, social and online display.

The ideal candidate will be a recent graduate with a strong interest in digital media.  They will have a good head for numbers, be able to quickly pick up and understand new technology, and have strong communication skills.  They will also be a great team player.

Please send your CV to Christophe.spencer@phdiq.co.nz as soon as possible if you are interested in the role.

Full training will be provided to the right candidate. 

News Pooper

This week the Advertising Standards Authority released their numbers for ad spend across all media channels for 2012.  In not so surprising news digital continues its steady growth, while that staple of the 20^th century the newspaper continues its decline.  I’m still baffled when I see those rolls of newsprint laying outside people’s houses in the morning, like some old news dog has pooped out it’s latest slightly out of date offering on the footpath for us to step in.  Weird. 

Greedy old television keeps gobbling up ad spend to remain relatively stable.  I know, boring isn’t it.  Like Coronation St it just keeps fearlessly rolling on – for now.  OnDemand and Digital continues to nibble away at TV budgets, they will eventually succumb as they have in the U.S and U.K.  

Anyway, enough of this over opinionated babble, some key numbers;

• Digital spend in 2012 – $366m, representing 11.6% YoY growth
• Digital now no.3 media by ad spend
• TV no.1 - $614m, flat
• Newspapers no.2 - $540m, decline of 7.2% YoY
• Digital increased YoY by $38m, to represent 16.9% of all ad spend
• Mobile contributed $2.83m to digital spend, representing 176% increase from 2011
• On line video contributing $12.69m

Google Trademark Policy Change

Google have just announced a change to their Adwords trademark policy which will take effect from 24 April 2013.

Google will no longer monitor or restrict keywords in response to trademark complaints for ads served to New Zealand users which aligns with their global policy.  Google will continue to investigate and take appropriate action regarding use of trademark terms in ad text.

What this means: Despite your company holding a trademark, Google will allow competitors to bid on your trademarked terms - for example company and product names.

What we think: The standard Google rules regarding quality score still apply, so unless your landing page and ad copy are relevant to a competitor’s search term you will be penalised  and your cost effectiveness compromised. However, savvy advertisers who embark on an integrated comparative advertising strategy may well reap rewards.  There are other scenarios where bidding on competitors keywords will work depending on the key objectives.

To learn more about this trademark policy revision, visit https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=177578

The Screens of Our Lives

Google’s Think Insights recently released a report on the changing connected consumer, with an in depth look at Internet connections, device usage and subsequent behavior drivers.

Most of the findings are not unexpected, of which a few key takeouts are below:

Worldwide, 2012 was another big year for the tablet with a 60% YOY increase. Smartphones aren’t slouching either, notching a 33% jump. This trajectory isn’t anticipated to change much, with intent to use tablets in the next 12 months higher than that of smartphones in all but one of the six global regions.

That sole region is the African continent, where the importance of a mobile data connection and the fixed-connection ‘leapfrog’ is clearly shaping these device trends. This leads to another outtake on the correlation between national GDP and device usage. Unsurprisingly, among those nations with lower national GDP’s, there is less impact on overall Smartphone usage by comparison to the Tablet.

On average, across the globe households use 1.5 connected devices. New Zealand and Australia were near the top of those studied at 2.1 per household.

Lastly, there is less decline than some may expect among PC and Laptop usage within developed countries, the majority of those studied showing only fractional dips in usage and some such as Sweden and USA still displaying growth. Taiwan stands out with the biggest change - a decrease of around 10%.

The report, along with some other recent studies, can be found here.

Lipton Ice Tea Summer Festival

We're proud to announce that we've got a great new campaign which has just launched - Lipton Ice Tea Summer Festival project. This Facebook application integrates with Spotify to enable participants to build their own dream summer festival and market it to their friends. PHDiQ led this campaign with support from the awesome team at Fracture who built the Facebook application including the Spotify integration, unique design, look and feel of the game, and custom illustrations.

Play the Lipton Ice Tea Summer Festival Project  at https://www.facebook.com/liptoniceteaAU/app_298562060263010