DOUG SCHUMACHER

experience designer + writer

tool

What Subjects engage on Facebook? Find out with Zuum’s new Subject Analysis reports

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We just launched a couple of great new reports on Zuum. These should give unparalleled views on what subjects perform best on Facebook. Our Subject Explorer and Subject Analyzer are two reports that work together to give you the most accurate view ever of what content makes the biggest impact on Facebook.

Zuum users will find these reports on the left side navigation when they’re logged into the Zuum tool.

Subject Explorer or: What topics should I be posting about?

Subject Explorer goes well beyond just showing you which keywords drive the best engagement. It gives you multiple parameters for filtering those subjects, based on critical engagement criteria. So the subjects it presents are subjects that work the way you want them to work.

Zuum's new Facebook engagement tool subject explorer

Minimum Average Engagement Rate: Slider let’s you view only words  above a certain engagement level. For example, you may want to only view subjects generating 20% above the average engagement.

Minimum Number of Posts Containing the Term: A subject that works in one post is very different from one that works again and again. The more times a high engaging subject is used, the more consistently it’s performing, and the more likely it will be to drive engagement for future posts. You may want to view at least 2-3 months of data to ensure there’s a broad range of subjects to analyze.

Minimum Number of Pages the Term is Used On: Brand and product terms usually are among the most engaging terms. By selecting more than one page, you’ll quickly eliminate most terms specific to a certain page, and get a better sense of what subjects are working across the entire industry.
You can rollover any term to get a quick view of its engagement rate, posting volume, and pages used by.

Subject Analyzer or: How are the most engaging subjects being used by marketers?

A detailed breakout of how a given subject is being used across all the pages you’ve selected. When you click on any term in the Subject Explorer, you’ll go straight to this view.

Zuum's new facebook engagement analysis too subject analyzer

Across the top is data on the posting volume, average engagement rate for posts with that term, what types of engagements is pulled, and the media type that term was used with.

Top Related Terms: Shows the most common terms used in all posts on this subject.
Posting Calendar: Which brands posted about that subject on which days.
Top Brand Post: The most engaging page post on that subject.
Top Fan Post: The most engaging fan post on that subject.
More Brand Posts: Click to view a listing of all brand posts on that subject, ranked by engagement.
More Fan Posts: Click to view a listing of all fan posts on that subject, ranked by engagement.

Launch of Zuum: Facebook Page Engagement Analysis

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We’ve just launched our new tool for analyzing Facebook data, Zuum (ZuumSocial.com).

My biz partner, Alex Gonzalez, and I are very excited about the insights that can be gathered using Zuum. Things like what terms are most powerful for driving engagement, which days are fans most active, which media type drives the best engagement.

All things that anyone wanting to optimize their Facebook Page should find very helpful.

If you haven’t, please register for free access to our public reports. Any thoughts you have to share on the tool would be welcome.

Here’s a sample image of the media type chart, one of thirteen charts in Zuum.

facebook_marketing_tool_chart_mediatype

Creativing :: Remarkable iPhone story from Haiti, Put yourself in a music video, and the future of mobile and social networks

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What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Man Buried in Haiti Rubble Uses iPhone to Treat Wounds, Survive | Wired.com

Remarkable story about a documentary filmmaker caught in the Haiti earthquake and survived, in part due to a first aid app on his iPhone. Of course, this is as much about being prepared (he had previously downloaded the iPhone app, after all) and being resourceful (using your SLR camera as a flashlight), but it does show how technology makes it easier to have the right information and tools when you need them.

New NBC Logo Combines Fail Whale and Peacock [PIC]

Funny (unless you’re Conan) mashup of the Twitter fail whale and the NBC logo. Certainly fits based on what I’ve been reading about NBC lately

oneframeoffame

An interesting idea that reminds me of the $1,000,000 home page idea, in which they broke down a home page screen into something like 10000 small squares, and charged $100 to advertise in each square. This is a sort of user generated version of that, but instead of getting your logo on the page, you get your image, and maybe 1 second of fame, in the video. It looks like a Dutch group is behind this, and they have some other interesting projects on their site.

Create Your Own iPhone or Android App in Minutes With iSites

Count on me to be trying this out asap. Create your own iPhone app, for as little as $25. With nothing more than an RSS feed required. Sure, this will invite a wave of drivel, but in that pile will also be a couple of apps that might really stick. And that’s the multiple that emerging tech lives on.

Five Mobile Trends for 2010 – Advertising Age

Mobile’s making more sense by the day. iPhone apps keep getting cheaper, i.e., more abundant. Android takes off. Talk of a Facebook mobile phone. So prepare for change in this space. This is a good projection of what to expect from the mobile industry in 2010. If not the peak trends, these will all be areas to watch.

Bing to Become the iPhone’s Default Search Engine?

While this news doesn’t really shake any iPhone user’s tree very hard, it does underscore a new stage in the tech world battle of the super brands. The battle raging between Apple and Google. Two of my favorite companies. And in many ways, two of the most divergent businesses out there, philosophically. The end of the article speculates on Apple developing their own search engine … something I’ve not heard of before. The last line of the article is the best, though: “Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy . . . Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle.”

CONFIRMED: New York Times to Start Charging for Website in 2011

Mashable has some good extended thinking on the issue. I generally agree that the value of gained subs will likely not outweigh the loss in readership. At least not for the long term. And while their announcement doesn’t seem like much, that’s clearly their strategy. Give their user base plenty of time to adjust — they can always retract — while they work out the details of something they feel is pretty inevitable.

With the NY Times subscription story hot, their announcement to drop the subscriber model in 2007 is a particularly relevant read. They state $10m in revenues from about 227k subs. I don’t know their revenues, but the NY Times company and it’s 24 papers made $2.9b in 2008. Whatever the NY Times portion was, it would seem to make $10 look pretty thin.

Opticana – the 500$ Campaign

This is a fun video on a campaign tactic from Israel that’s been employed here in the states for a while. I’m sure almost all alternate spellings of our top 10 web sites have been purchased years ago (many of them by the brands themselves). Still, this is a great reminder that the ever changing digital marketing landscape always contains unique surprises and workarounds for those coming at the problem from a slightly different direction.

The Future Of Social Networks

This is a nice read, partly because it’s very graphically easy to absorb. My favorite part is at the very end, where the writer reminds us that social media is an ongoing process, and that even large brands like Wal-Mart can fail numerous times before succeeding. Another interesting note on that is that Wal-Mart isn’t exactly a beloved American brand, but that didn’t stop them from using social media.

The Pros and Cons of Hiring Contract Workers

An article on outsourcing that I was interviewed for, with some good reference sites if you’re interested in outsourcing. I think this is unquestionably going to be a growing trend for agencies, both large and small. Every day, new developments in communications, from file sharing to video communications, are minimizing the border between remote and in-person.

Creativing :: A breakup test from Bjorn Borg, the problem with Web reputation systems, and iPhone app development gets easier

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My weekly update of what’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Break Up Test

One of the funniest things I’ve seen all year. And from Bjorn Borg (he of the frozen tundra demeanor). In truth, this doesn’t really come from Bjorn. Actually, it’s from his underwear.

Building Web Reputation Systems: The Blog: The Dollhouse Mafia, or “Don’t Display Negative Karma”

If you spend any time on sites where the reputation system is a key part of decision-making (ebay, elance), this is a good read. It’s also an interesting look inside community behavior. The theory is, Reputation or Rating systems are flawed, because of what the writer calls “karma bankruptcy”. Once someone’s reputation drops to a low level, they either head to a different community, or start a new account. Sometimes you can’t beat picking up the phone and calling an old friend for a reference. There’s also an interesting example of how people were being shaken down for loot in the game Sims, by a group appropriately calling themselves the Sims Mafia.

PhotoSketch: Photoshop Image Recognition = Awesome

Remarkable. You sketch a scene, label what the primary images are, and it scans the web for like images that also work well together, and automatically composites them into a single image. The results are pretty crazy.

MediaVest Diverts Broadcast Budget to Hulu

I’ve long been surprised that more advertisers aren’t jumping onto Hulu, as reports were going around that their inventory wasn’t even close to sold out. Being a big fan of Hulu, I can vouch for the memorability of the placements. Of course these days, content publishers never meet an ad they don’t like. So we’ll see if we end up with the same overly-saturated ad marketplace that network TV has become.

Will the FTC’s Blogging Rules Slow Endorsements?

This is probably no big surprise, but starting Dec 1, marketers will be responsible for accurate compensation disclosure in product reviews on blogs. It seems they’re primarily holding the marketer responsible, which may sound diverted, but I think makes sense, since it involves the decision to provide compensation. That should also help keep this can of worms from opening too wide, although I can’t imagine there won’t be a slew of lawsuits ensuing from this.

Knowledge Genie – Making Publishing Web Content For Profit Easier

Ecommerce model that makes it easy to sell your digital-based work online. You can enable content purchases or subscriptions across a range of media types. It’s a pretty slick model, once you have the content to sell. Setup is fast, although the store itself is a little bland looking. They need to build this out into a much more customizable widget that could be embedded anywhere. But the core idea is great, and the UX is simple.

twtapps :: simple and useful business twitter applications

If you’re marketing on Twitter to any degree, you’ll likely want to know how to do things via Twitter, such as conduct polls, exchange business cards, give out coupons, create contests, or send gifts.

Agencies Need to Think Like Software Companies

As branding and marketing venture into product development, about the only common denominator among companies in terms of product development is online technology. Thus agencies that want to play in that sandbox are going to have to solve problems from a technological point of view as a key part of their service offering.

Adobe Labs – Adobe Flash Professional CS5: Applications for iPhone

Soon you’ll be able to crunch out iPhone apps from Flash. Feeling like there just aren’t enough iPhone apps out there for you? Get ready for a new wave of them.

Flexible Love

Amazing bit of product design ingenuity in Japan. Makes sense that this furniture idea would come from a places with serious space challenges.

Reqall – A way to increase campaign conversion rates?

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das_reqall_logo

I’m a fan of clipping tools and other quick, time savers and reminders. I have computers and phones littered with these to prove it 😐

This is an interesting mobile solution for setting up reminders. It reminds me of adding calendar events in Google’s iPhone mobile, where you just type in a string like ‘tomorrow 10am dr appointment’ and it takes that info and places it in the correct spot. Reqall sounds similar, except it’s voice activated. But it will take that appointment and set up either a text, phone, or calendar reminder. Pretty smart.

This tech would seem to have a lot of campaign applications. At least the idea of quick reminders, whether or not Reqall is actually set up to work that way right now. People are busy. Anything that lets them grab, note, bookmark, or file something away for later retrieval could certainly help conversion rates. And if they’re posting to a social tool, then there’s a community benefit on top of that.