Karissa Bell says, “Facebook’s big plans for Messenger may also include publishers. The company plans to open up its messaging platform to developers later this year during its F8 developer conference, according to a new report in Marketing Land. The feature will allow publishers to share content through Messenger via chat bots, with short descriptions linking back to articles on their website, the report says. Facebook is already rumored to be working on a software development kit that would allow developers to build chatbots that run inside of Messenger. Among the developers testing... [...]

Michael Guta says, “The use of emoticons or emoji quickly lets you express yourself without having to type what you are feeling about a particular conversation, image or other content; and until now that was the end of it. But the type of emoticons people use can now be used to generate another data point that lets businesses know what users are feeling about the products and services they offer. The launch of Facebook’s Reactions extends the expressive range of the Like button with five additional animated emoji: Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry. This development was in part a reaction (no... [...]

Kia Kokalitcheva says, “They may not be as sexy as the celebrities Facebook is reportedly trying to woo, but small and medium businesses are still an important group of customers for the social network. On Wednesday, the Menlo Park, Calif., company unveiled a new tool that lets businesses make a short introductory video about their company. Dubbed “Your Business Story,” the video tool lets businesses create essentially a photo slide show to which they can add some music from a library and a short text description of “what they are in the business of” doing. With video’s meteoric... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Facebook recently released its second annual State of Connectivity report on global internet access. The tech giant has long pushed for increased global internet connectivity and this report is designed to increase the sharing of data around this issue. You can see all the data by downloading the report, but here are a few of the stats that spoke to me. 1. Availability 3.2bn online 3.2bn people had internet access at the end of 2015, with 4.1bn people not yet connected. The chart below shows how internet penetration has increased fairly steadily since 2006”. Key stats... [...]

Andrew Weber says, “Back in September, I conducted an examination of e-commerce advertising and purchase activity run through Nanigans software, which was developed by the company that employs me. I noted some clear behavioral patterns, such as consumers generating the greatest share of purchases on Wednesday or Thursday of a given week. In this column, the focus turns to lead generation advertisers who, as a whole, seek to drive more complex conversions, like contacting a mortgage lender or requesting a car insurance quote. Facebook advertising data shows how advertisers in this ecosystem... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “What makes a clickbait article headline effective? Does it include a number? The mention of an animal? Some topic currently in the news? To find out, Venngage examined the top performing articles posted over a three-month span on 24 high-traffic sites known for producing content with engaging titles. The publishers examined included Buzzfeed, Upworthy, Cracked, The Huffington Post, Vox, and Clickhole. The researchers identified seven key clickbait headline factors: lists, personal stories, animal references, pop culture/food topics, news topics, unknown ideas/new stories,... [...]

Mike Murphy says, “With 1.7 billion people on Facebook as of November 2015, it’s pretty safe to say that a lot of your target audience, clients and customers are active on the world’s largest social-media platform. It should also come as no surprise that Facebook’s ads platform is the most advanced and powerful method of paid traffic advertising any of us currently have access to. That said, Big Blue (the hipsters’ name for Facebook) makes constant changes to its ads platform, causing a lot of would-be advertisers to get frustrated and quit before seeing any real... [...]

Zak Stambor says, “Facebook rolls out Canvas, an ad format that, when clicked, opens a full-screen, immersive ad. Facebook Inc. has rolled out a new mobile ad format that gives retailers broad leeway to tell stories and showcase products. When a consumer clicks on one of these news feed ads, which Facebook calls Canvas, it quickly opens up a full-screen mobile ad. The ad format is markedly different from Facebook’s other mobile ad units that typically have tight constraints over what they can look like and how consumers can interact with them. The name Canvas reflects that the ads are fully... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Do shorter or longer Facebook posts get more Likes, comments, and shares? Is it better to embed videos directly on the social network or use YouTube links? What days and times see the highest engagement rates? To find out, Buzzsumo analyzed more than 1 billion posts published in January 2016 by 3 million brands located all over the world, including small businesses and giant corporations, such as Nike. Image posts and those that ask questions get the most engagement (shares, Likes, comments) overall, the analysis found”. Which Types of Facebook Brand Posts Get the... [...]

Tamar Weinberg says, “Today, Facebook announced the international launch of Canvas, an immersive full-screen ad player that lives and breathes on Facebook’s mobile interface. In a partnership with multiple brands and agencies, Facebook wanted to give users the ability to build a brand story on a “canvas,” which likely was the rationale behind its name. Canvas loads directly in a user’s mobile news feed up to 10 times faster than the standard mobile web. This native ad experience is fully customizable for advertisers and creative teams and is available internationally. Facebook began... [...]