Facebook Fan Page 2.0, Socially Friendly

Last Friday - 11 Feb 2011, Facebook announced new fan page upgrades that has started to roll-out, as usual Facebook has been really busy rolling our more new services, from live commenting, photo browser, etc.

Here are just some of the new FB Fan Page 2.0 features on the surface:
  • First thing, the business page now looks more social friendly, instead of looking like a business now it looks like a friend. So you might as well be friend with the product/service/brand you like. When you navigate as a fan page in Facebook world, the notification bar will pull latest posts, messages and new fans.
  • You can navigate the brave Facebook world and see the news feed from a company perspective.
  • Photos uploaded by you or fans will be displayed now on the top head bar, like your personal profile.
  • Profile picture is now reduced to 180×540 pixels.
  • Tab is now gone and moved to the left side, again like personal profile.
  • You can feature the business owner or page admin profile on the left side, so people will know who is representing the business.
  • Static FBML will also be going away, developers are encouraged to move to iFrame module.
  • You can now comment as a person or a company YAY!
On the back end side of things:
  • Stronger spam fighting going on here, see my last post.
  • Notification send via email when people post on your page, kind of the same thing Hyper Alerts was doing. Although I wish there is a setting for frequency.
  • Add feature like pages, so you can show your partner or separate business from your company that is connected.
  • Finally you can now fix your category if you've previously entered the wrong category.
Here are some of the news and blog posts in regards to Facebook page changes:
Now whether you like it or not, Facebook will be upgrading the Fan Page by March, so marketers get ready, stop complaining and get used to it.

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SMWHK Day 2: Navigating China Social Media Space

I just came back from Hong Kong, attending 1 day of Social Media Week which originated in the US and being brought down to Asia for the first time. One of the event I co-organize is China Social Media which I have to say generated a lot of interest. Aside from highlight of growth potential, people were also asking if any of China major player of SNS like Renren or Sina would go International, so far their reply is that they still have a lot of ground and room to cover within China.  People were also asking in regards to censorship issue, upcoming trends and also Weibo as a mass communication tool in China.

Dr. Gang Lu the moderator posted one overview of the presentation from Meg Lee - General Manager of Sina Hong Kong on "Weibo Is the Mass Communication Platform Beyond the Media". One of the media partner - Smoothweb did a live broadcast via Facebook, I'm hoping it will be available at a later date for offline viewing (will keep you posted on this one when I have the link).

All and all Social Media Week Hong Kong is a groundbreaking success in getting people more involved whether it is for marketer or for community.

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the new MySpace

I've decided to try the new MySpace just to get the hang of it, I never really liked the old version as I found the layout a bit too messy and all over the place.
But the new MySpace does arrange the space nicely

First instead of just registering new account I decided to just let it pull my profiles from Facebook, from there MySpace cross reference what I liked artists, music and movies, as well as celebrity (I got Gaga as a friend on MySpace yay!) anyway as I was saying it really saves me time rather then inputting my profile all over again it was quite fast.

I do find the overall experience a bit too much, there is just so much things and buttons to visit
The blog for example, you can subscribe to watch your friends or celebrities blog and put them into groups, but for your own blog it doesn't allow you to import from your other blogs (which sucks, seeing that I use Posterous that doesn't allow posting to MySpace channels yet).

It has also just recently launched a mobile version of MySpace, will you use it on the go?

I haven't been able to configure my unique vanity url yet, as it is still not available at the moment, hopefully it will be soon.

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Renren Location Check-in

Just downloaded Renren latest iPhone app update, it includes recently mentioned new service - location base check-in.

An overview:
- The icon looks familiar (see marked in orange).
- It lists out the location nearby your area, I have not been able to see how you can add new location.
- Currently the check-in only feature simple check-in with message, share with your friend and who has been there.

They are also planning to combine this service with deals and Groupon type of promotion in the near future.

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Renren Merge with Kaixin

In an effort to gain more followers, Renren (120 million users) has recently announced full feature integrations between its competitors Kaixin (75 million users).

You can see their latest announcement here. I'm wondering if there is something in the future for Renren to fully purchase Kaixin.
Here is one interesting fact, if you want to establish a business page or public page it is free in Kaixin, however their contract stipulates that it is only exclusive to them and that no similar page can appear in other SNS namely their competition Renren.

The new integration features:
- More games.
- Easily switch between Kaixin and Renren personal account.
- Integrated IM chat app.
- Friends watch list, so you can easily see their latest updates.
- Last but not least, is their love matching space.

@Facebook, food for thought, integration with both Kaixin and Renren?

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Social Media: Apple's latest Music Social Networking Ping and How China will Not See It

Looks like the Engineers team from Apple has been quite busy, launching new products - revamped iPod Nano, Shuffle, iPod Touch and their latest software. You can find out all the details of the events here by CNET.com.

I was particularly interested on the Ping, unfortunately China will never see the light of this (not anytime soon anyway, but fear not with the giant photocopy-cat machine shouldn't take long for someone to launch something, any takers?).

Here was the response from Apple "I understand Ping does not appear in your iTunes 10. I know how confusing this can be and am glad to provide you the necessary information.  Ping feature of iTunes is available for the countries which have iTunes music store. In China only App store is available so Ping feature is not included in your iTunes."

Even more interesting was that this particular feature was introduced by iPod rivalry ZUNE on their Wireless feature of social network, sadly Apple will take this feature on leverage more with Facebook and their million of loyal minions. Plus they have the capability to take it further by having a real artist or celebrity populate contents that people will follow, it is just genius to leverage what they have at hand and there is no better platform than this to promote their latest album, concert, tour and backstage feed. I look forward from a distance (literally) on the success of Apple's latest music social networking.

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Peace out and have a great weekend from China!

China Social Media: Top 10 SNS website

4. Kaixin001.com 
User Stats: 3.5 million

5. Myspace.cn
User Stats: 2 million

7. Wangyou.com
User Stats: 1 million

9. 360quan.com
User Stats: 900k

10. Cyworld.com.cn
User Stats: 800k

Typically the major player of SNS where they have large and broad base audience charge up to half  million CNY to setup a fan or business page (now this is only the fee for a year hosting, not including hiring a Social Media agency to setup the details).

International companies, FMCG, large brands can definitely benefit from these Social Networking Sites, as the sheer number, breakdown in age, demographic, by geography, etc is just a large base for them to pick from. Of course people wants to jump in to get a piece of the cake or action sort to speak, but new International comers will need to do adjustment to the market. Some companies didn't realize that engaging a campaign on these sites are not the only thing they need to do, a backbone team to engage back is required, monitoring, data analysis, plus their websites, language are probably not customized towards the market. Language in this region has always been a challenge to new International companies, as they tend to assume translation will do the magic (majority would engage translation.com) which most of the time 50-70% reach, but still a gap to deliver brand message to the market. In short, there is no shortcut, content must be grass-root and originated from this country for the Chinese market.

For example McDonald China once launched a campaign "Let's meet at M" to Ren Ren, I believe they set the goal to if 200k-300k of people updated their status to their campaign slogan. McD will provide 50% discount at all of their fast food restaurants in China. In less than a week, over half a million people in RenRen changed their status (imagine the spread power it carries through each person's network, the impression is a lot bigger) and of course not only uplift the brand buzz of McD, but also provide a customer experience of meeting at McDonald is trendy as part of their branding message and additional traffic to their restaurants. It tells us the power or WOM in China is huge and news travel a lot faster on Internet, remembering Chinese habits to read blog and engagement on BBS. Now imagine if they didn't understand how the youth market works, how they think or what can entice them, would the campaign work?

Marketing through Social Media in China is not a walk in the park, if companies don't appreciate the Chinese culture, their views, what they look at and how they look at, brand reputation can be affected.

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