Facebook Home and Local Intent

Facebook turned a clever trick this week with the release of Facebook Home, which places an all-Facebook skin on top of the Android smartphone operating system. Supporters of the move highlighted that Facebook have released the essential equivalent of a “Facebook Phone” while piggybacking on Google’s software and their partners’ hardware.

If you live in a Facebook world, the user benefits are immediately obvious. As usual, I will not spend too much space on a per-feature description. If you need to get up to speed, Facebook themselves can give you a good overview.

Facebook Home has some useful new features, but its real purpose is to give Facebook a platform that will help them to monetize mobile. Home will support this goal in two ways:

1. A homescreen presence will give Facebook the opportunity to drive greater geo-related activity, specifically check-ins.  This will give Facebook greater visibility into user behavior and provide yet another set of data points that can be leveraged for effective marketing.
2.  The homescreen presence will also create a much larger canvas for serving ads. Combined with more specific geo-data, the opportunity enabled by Facebook Home is to serve big, attractive ads that are relevant in real time. Capitalizing on this opportunity will open the door to the Walk-in Economy for Facebook-- much like Google Offers and Google Now is doing for their competitor.

Google currently holds the pole position for what is
sure to be mobile's grand race:
Enabling monetization of the Walk-in Economy

I’ve described before that even a small percentage of America’s Walk-in Economy would be a crown jewel for any of the major consumer tech players. Facebook is under pressure to monetize its mobile presence, and these changes could be paving the road to get there. There are notable challenges to overcome, however.

1. Users will have to accept ads on their home screens.

I assume that one strategy at Facebook will be to fully subsidize phones in exchange for home screen ads. The precedents are there: broadcast radio and TV, for example. In order to drive that acceptance, however, Facebook's Home ads will have to achieve either Apple-like perfection in design OR Google-like perfection in utility.  Facebook is a remarkable team with many smart people, but these are high marks to hit. 

2. Facebook will have to fight an uphill battle to maintain active users of Home

Be on the lookout for impressive numbers regarding the quantity of downloads of Facebook Home. These numbers will be true, but the rubber will hit the road three months later when we attempt to learn the quantity of active users of Home. I predict a significant decline as users realize that their other favorite apps don’t function as desired in Home. Such apps might include book-readers, cab-hailers, diet-trackers, and more. If they cannot send notifications or set up “Home” widgets, Facebook Home might not go the distance.

3. Facebook will have to stay ahead in the “useful features” game

Home definitely has some great features. Those features will almost certainly be co-opted by Google and perhaps even Samsung (perhaps in the same way that Home seems to have been influenced by the Windows Phone home screen). As that happens, Facebook will have to continue to out innovate in the smartphone experience if this strategy is to pay off. While Home is a great outside-the-box concept, Facebook has not had a great track record so far in terms of smartphone app design. If they can turn that trend around, it will increase their likelihood of success.

Facebook Home has a different look, 
but clearly took some tips from Windows Phone

4. “People Ahead of Apps.” Legitimate Strategy?

Zuckerberg had that great tag line for the release of Home, but I challenge the concept that all smartphone users want people ahead of apps and data. In many scenarios, our friend networks are simply not robust enough to respond to our questions and needs. Overall, I still don’t think the case has been made for the utility of friend-sourced data. My proof is the weak performance of Facebook Ads (driven by the data in Facebook profiles) vs. Facebook Ad exchange, which is based on placing cookies from outside-Facebook browsing and then retargeting inside of Facebook.

Facebook Home: A Means to an End? 

Whether Facebook wins or loses with Home, it is clear that they now understand the need to prioritize mobile ahead of desktop. If they really want Home to stick, they need to bring Graph Search to the forefront and really get into the Intent Search game. In a worst-case scenario, Facebook Home will be remain a clever hack that supports lukewarm marketing opportunities to teenagers (until they abandon the social giant for the next big thing). 

The good news for Facebook, however, is that Home has bought them time. Occupation of such prime real estate in the Android ecosystem will help them collect new data that should, in time, help inform their next move. However they achieve it, that next move will be aimed at an optimized ad experience and monetization of the Walk-in Economy. Both efforts will rely on a next-gen Graph Search service and heavy use of geo data.

If Facebook get it right, users will accept the presence
of beautiful ads on their phones' home screens

Summary Thoughts for Agencies and Brands

In the next six months, expect the concept of "Graph Search Rank" to enter the lexicon of digital marketers. The best choice for hotels right now is to prepare for that change by "feeding the graph". There are two simple actions that hotels can take right now. Both are inexpensive calls to action and will have your hotel primed for a higher ranking as Graph Search gains a full head of steam at Facebook.

1. We predict that the value of a Like will be increasing as Graph Search goes mainstream. Contrary to advice we have given in the past, the size of your Facebook fan-base may soon matter as much as the quality of it. Take actions now to acquire more Likes (capital "L", previously known as fans).
2. Create simple marketing efforts designed to get guests to check-in to and rate your hotel via Facebook. As Facebook shifts its weight to mobile, it will give higher value to checkins and related geo-activities like, perhaps, venue ratings and reviews.

Combined, the above two actions are a simple but effective response to Facebook Home. As always, keep focused on best practices that apply across all platforms (including the ascendant Google+ platform), including user generated content and employee generated content. Such best practices will always serve the social networks, search engines, and your guests equally well.

By Aaron Zwas -- Director of Emerging Technologies at Digital Marketing Works

Facebook Graph Search and Local Intent

It seems that Facebook’s new Graph Search could be poised to be a true threat to Google, Yelp, and Foursquare. By providing search functionality that will let you find friends who have been to (and enjoyed) relevant restaurants, hotels, and other destinations, it is likely that many consumers will prefer to rely on Social Graph information instead of the more anonymous user generated content that comes from other platforms like Google+ Local. 

A typical interaction with the new Graph Search will go something like this: I will be travelling to San Francisco and will want restaurant recommendations. Facebook will provide search results for restaurants that friends (and friends of friends) have been to. The results will include standard details (like hours), plus basic review and map functions. I might see a few photos of friends at the restaurants and read quick bits of feedback like "Love the lasagna here!". If you're looking for specifics on Graph Search (with an angle on hospitality) here's a good summary.

A key takeaway is that Facebook's new search functionality will enable intent-based searches. It is intent-based search that has made Google its fortunes, and I expect that Facebook will see significant revenues from this new feature, too. Intent-based search is especially important for Facebook because it gives them a revenue-generating path for mobile, which until now has been a notable weakness of the social giant. Graph Search data could also enable an opportunity for Facebook (and digital marketers) where advertisers would be allowed to add Graph Search data to their own cookie data to hyper-retarget users and achieve (presumably) great returns.

While the intent-based searches that Graph Search will enable are vitally important to Facebook, I think it is only half of the equation. The other half of the equation is "Actionable Data". Actionable Data includes...

• Structured search results that can be filtered
• Formal ratings (eg: four out of five stars)
• Immediate link to map locations and supporting functions like navigation from current location. 
• A What's Near Me functionality (related to maps)
• Commerce and Coupon solutions

My immediate concern is that the results from Facebook's Graph Search will be fun and engaging, but still too mushy to help complete a given task or directly inform a decision. Not all interactions have a specific task, of course. Simply browsing and connecting with friends and brands is a valid user activity. But, Google (especially via Google Now) is now increasingly focused on "task completion" and therefore making itself increasingly (almost intuitively) useful.  Foursquare has made big strides in this area, too, and Yelp has always done very well in this category.

Until Facebook figures out the second half of this equation, I believe that the potential of Graph Search to serve dining and hospitality verticals (along with most of the rest of the Walk-in Economy) will not be realized. Specifically, Facebook must compliment their Graph Search with robust map, review, and commerce functionality -- all of which is (in my opinion) in its infancy at this point. More challenging still, Facebook will have to provide these services with a user experience that is so good that users will prefer to load the Facebook app instead of using similar functionality that is native to mobile operating systems (ie: Apple Maps and Android Maps and Search functions). In my mind, that's a high bar.

I'm also interested in how/if Facebook will pursue anything related to professional or formal reviews. I think Google has been savvy on this front, by balancing their growing UGC with formal content from Zagat and Frommers. Not only is that content sticky (and good for seeding further good UG content), it can also offer a potential “grownup voice” in a space where lots of UGC can sometimes seem chaotic.

As a final point, we should remember that our social graphs are not necessarily a straight shot for representing our own consumer preferences. This is especially true in Facebook, I think, because it is hard to categorize various friends and tell Facebook that the "family" group does not represent my tastes as well as the "tight friends" group. Google, again, seems to be countering this by enabling a new "people like you" feature that recently started showing up on the Android platform.

What This Means for Brands

Until the service is out in the wild, details will remain fuzzy. We can be sure of at least this much, however:

• Graph Search will absolutely improve the potential for Facebook to drive awareness and traffic to your digital assets
• Brands will want to further leverage strategies that we have outlined here for driving User Generated Content and Employee Generated Content. These strategies will "feed the graph" and improve your exposure through Graph Search
• Brands should continue to define best practices for measuring assisted conversions and other actionable metrics for social channels
• Agencies should be recommending greater experimentation within the Facebook Exchange and native Facebook ads

To sum up my initial thoughts on Graph Search, I believe it is an important step forward for Facebook and its huge user base. Graph Search will enable Facebook to become a superb resource of photos, video, and other content. Whether access to this content can be conveyed and leveraged into actionable data remains to be seen. Facebook has the basics covered and certainly has the ability (and resources) to improve, but let's not confuse yesterday's announcement with a fully realized platform that might still be a few years in the making.

By Aaron Zwas -- Director of Emerging Technologies at Digital Marketing Works

Google Maps iOS App Heightens Need For "Google Optimization" Strategies

When Apple replaced the aging Google Maps app with its own Maps app (and massive supporting geo-data platform) this October, it was big news indeed. Some of the big questions focused on how many users Google would lose, what Apple would stand to gain, and how Google would counter. At the time, I suggested that Apple's move was really about positioning for dominance in what I call "The Walk-in Economy", estimated at $7 trillion dollars annually in the United States.

Google announced that it would counter quickly with a new Maps app for iOS, and I predicted that it would be another blockbuster, just like their YouTube app was a few months earlier. Well, the new app came out yesterday and guess what?  It turns out to be pretty great. There are many great posts that talk about the new functionality, so I'll be brief on such points and then move on to what this means to brands...

"Design" vs "Utility"

The latest iOS Maps apps from Apple and Google are a perfect crystallization of the current strengths and weaknesses of these companies. Google has traditionally been much weaker than Apple (and others) in the "design" and "experience" departments. They are, after all, engineers and not designers. But I am finding that Google are closing this design gap and have arrived at a point that is a notch above "good enough". Google will never design beautiful things in the same way that Apple does, but I think that's ok. Where they seem to be substantially ahead is in the Utility department.

My experience has been that Google does a much better job in supporting your daily life. Apple, I would contend, currently does a better job in entertaining users, but I think that's a much lower bar from a technical and utility point of view. A phone can entertain, but it is also a tool that should support and enhance our daily lives. Google's network of services is much better connected and, to take a phrase from Apple, "just work" when you have an underlying Google (aka "gmail") account. Although they are not mutually exclusive factors, Google's new Maps app is a perfect example of how their utility can trump Apple's design.

Google Maps and the Need for "Google Optimization"

At the time, The New York Times had estimated that about 25% of all Google Maps users were on iOS. Although that enormous user base was at risk back in October, Google is about to reclaim a healthy quantity of them with an app that is better than ever: Google Maps is sitting at the top of the Free Downloads list in Apple's App Store. Given this warm reception by iPhone users, it's time to again consider how much effort your brand will put into Google Optimization this year. 

Notice that I didn't mention "organic search optimization" or "search engine optimization". Although the tactics are changing (see here too), optimization for organic search still matters significantly. The challenge is that organic search now represents just one branch of what a brand needs to do in order to maintain visibility in the digital realm. 2013 will be the year of broad "Google Optimization" for brands, especially hotels, restaurants, and other walk-in businesses. 

Consider the local search functionality of Google Maps. Also known as "search nearby" and "what's around me" functionality, local search works exceptionally well in the new iOS app from Google. Auto fill is great, for example. If it works well enough to really delight iPhone users, they will begin to prefer to open Google Maps and conduct searches from there, vs. asking Siri. Because Google Maps is monetized via local search, they will see significant return. Brands who participate have the opportunity to see significant return, too. It's yet another area that is ripe for testing and learning. 

If you're not pursuing this already, your brand must pursue a Review Optimization Strategy that drives the quantity and quality of reviews in Google+ Local. Your brand must be sure that it has 100% accurate listings and keyword-rich descriptions, there too. Consider testing the turnkey Google Offers program -- all of these activities will influence your rank in the Google Maps world.

What's Next?

In addition to what I mention above, here are additional quick predictions on how this game will evolve...

1. Apple Maps will continue to improve
2. Apple will work very hard to integrate their Maps features to the core iOS functionality in an effort to box out Google from daily interactions
3. I cannot predict a timeline yet, but Apple will eventually produce an "Offers" app of some sort that ties into maps functionality so that they can get a foothold in the enormous Walk-in Economy. Again, this is the big opportunity being chased here.

As always, please share your thoughts (and experiences with the new app) in the comments below!

By Aaron Zwas -- Director of Emerging Technologies at Digital Marketing Works