The Facebook changes announced in September 2011 at the F8 developer's conference significantly impacted fan pages and the way fan page content is received in the newsfeed. Colleges who relied solely on the fan page as their foothold in social media are finding that newsfeed impressions and reach have declined due to changes in the EdgeRank algorithm. Greater user control within Facebook allows even "fans" to filter out content. This presentation will show how leading institutions, like Clemson, Wake Forest and RIT, are promoting brand awareness in Facebook beyond the fan page. They are equipping students and stakeholders with personalized, shareable content they can share in their *own* newsfeeds. Since EdgeRank places more value on content from friends than from fans, these colleges are essentially deputizing their students to spread institutional branding, messaging and content into their social graphs. The presentation will show extensive data on how the sharing and engagement rates of personalized content on Facebook is much higher than generic content. It will also share how these institutions are combining this strategy with their "regular" Facebook fan page strategy and creating overall reports and results to share internally and showcase social engagement. Additionally, the new Facebook Timeline feature will be discussed (pending rollout) along with ways for institutions to seed their brand identity onto Facebook user's timeline. Experience Level: Intermediate - Assumes basic knowledge of topic and some experience. Prerequisite Knowledge:
Basic understanding Facebook content sharing, newsfeed and EdgeRank algorithm, understanding of the "social graph" concept and the network effect
Skills/Knowledge Gained: Strategies for creating Facebook engagement that do *not* rely on fan pages; Understanding and research/data that shows how to create web content that is more likely to be shared on Facebook and other social networks; Differences in sharing rates between generic content and personalized content; Incorporating content sharing metrics into overall marketing dashboards; optimizing to increase those numbers