Since Facebook pages went to Timeline a year ago, and as soon as they began to dial back the actual ‘reach’ of page posts from their estimated 16% in February to roughly 8% in September, the News Feed has been a focal point for driving engagement on Facebook. Additionally, ‘tab apps’ on Facebook – when not optimized for mobile users – haven’t been so easily accessible via mobile, and with 61% of users accessing social networks via mobile, it has become more critical for brands to create rich, holistic social experiences where rich News Feed engagement is a mechanic.
For this reason, we have designed mobile-optimized Rich News Feed Experiences on a program-by-program basis for our clients and partners over the last 12-18 months. One such successful example was the People’s Choice Awards of 2012 and 2013. Consumers had an immersive social voting experience on the People’s Choice Awards Facebook page, and the page itself had the ability to push out a Rich News Feed Experience that allowed the consumer to easily vote for and explore the nominees right from their news feed. The results of these two programs speak for themselves:
- 2011: 1.5 million social engagements
- 2012: 56 million social engagements (Stuzo design + development)
- 2013: 118 million social engagements (Stuzo design + development)
The possibilities for Rich News Feed Experiences are really limitless, but there are certain key best practices. Understanding behavior within the platform is important; users are perusing their feed looking for interesting content. The heaviest actions they’re likely expecting to take are to watch a video or click a link that takes them out of Facebook to read an article; therefore, keeping engagement light is important. Registration fields should be kept to a minimum, and game experiences should be quick and provide immediate feedback loops with calls-to-action to continue or explore a larger experience. When designing for the feed, always think mobile-first.
Facebook has made it abundantly clear that the future for consumer/brand engagement is focused around mobile. We design all of our social experiences (remember, social=mobile) with the specific purpose of generating rich, branded, engaging stories that permeate through the News Feed and larger social graph. Our Rich News Feed Experiences are another method for creating engagement in the feed where your consumers are already engaging. Don’t get left behind; over 102 million people access Facebook solely through their mobile device. What are you doing to ensure that your clients or your brand is engaging effectively in the New Feed?
Contact us for a one-on-one conversation on Rich News Feed Experiences with a Solutions Architect and find out how they could work for your brand, product, or client.
