Posts

Facebook lets you evict your fans!

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Sexy fans

Are your fans enthusiastic or crazy spammers?

Facebook has added a great new feature for Fan Pages, the ability to unlike a page or person.  Are spammers plaguing your Fan Page? Do you have fans who post inappropriate content? Now you can do something about it besides just deleting the post.

In February, Facebook made some big changes. One of them was allowing Fan Pages the ability to like other Fan Pages.

Well, some pages started Liking pages and then posting inappropriate content on their wall. The page could remove the content, but they could not do anything about the page that Liked them. So they were being left open to more spam, plus they were also getting associated with these pages by being listed on their Likes. So, for example, if a hate group Liked your page, you would be listed on their page among the pages they Liked. With the Fan Page’s ability to set their featured page, you might even be a featured Like, displayed prominently on their sidebar.

Facebook now allows Fan Pages to remove a Like from their page. You can “unlike” them, even ban someone so they will not be able to post or otherwise interact with your page.

This new feature doesn’t just let you kick people off your page, it will also help you engage better. You can now sort your fans by people and pages, so you can see everyone who Liked your page. This gives you more opportunity to interact with other pages and deepen your Facebook relationships.

Keep in mind, if you are posting content on other people’s pages, you can now be removed. If you get banned by pages, you might also risk catching the attention of Facebook and getting deleted from Facebook for spam. So when you post on another Fan Page wall, make sure it is quality engagement and not spam.

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How Adult Compares in Social Marketing

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The old spice man

Old Spice was one of the most successful social media campaigns ever. It had sex, nudity and humor and was everywhere.

Social media integrates traditional marketing strategy with the social component.  It has become the powerhouse for marketing campaigns.

The Social Media Examiner recently released their Social Media Marketing Industry Report. The top findings show that social media is growing in its influence. Most marketers are increasing their social media efforts across the board. Though the report did not feature an adult section, most of the findings are reflected in the Adult Industry.

Here is a list of the top findings:

• Marketers place high value on social media: A significant 90% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business.
• Marketers want to know how to monitor and measure ROI and integrate those results into their strategy.
• Social media marketing takes a lot of time: Most marketers are spending a minimum of 6 hours a week.
• Video marketing is on the rise: 77% of marketers plan to increase YouTube and video integration into their social marketing plans.
• Facebook and Blogging are the two social media platforms marketers want to learn more about.
• The top benefits of social media marketing: Social media marketing is generating more business exposure (72%) and improved SEO (62%).
• The top social media tools: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs are the top social media tools used by marketers, in that order.
• Social media outsourcing is underutilized: Only 28% of businesses are outsourcing some portion of their social media marketing.

The adult industry is no stranger to the power of social media marketing.  Twitter is the playground for porn stars. It is an excellent way to grow networks, keep up with industry happenings and promote content.  But adult has not turned its back on any of the social media networks. Despite ongoing issues with Facebook, many stars continue to rock the Fan Page.

An interesting finding in the report was that video content is generally dominated by large companies.  The time commitment and tech requirements of video are often prohibitive to a lot of small businesses and solopreneurs. Video is one of the best forms of marketable content; it is far more likely to go viral and be shared across Internet platforms (ie. retweeted, posted in blogs, on Facebook, shared via email, etc.). Adult is actually ahead of the curve on the use of video in social marketing. This is not surprising since video is a cornerstone of the industry, but even un-produced content, like video blogs and behind the scenes shots from camera phones, are being actively used in marketing strategy.

Blogs have come in as the number one growth area for social marketing. 75% of marketers say they want to increase their blogging efforts.  Adult blogs are starting to emerge but finding good content has been a struggle.  Most adult sites do not know what to blog about, and the blogs end up focusing on product or site promotion. However, blogging is a great tool for driving traffic to your site. It will even allow adult sites to post content on Facebook, or other sites that frown upon adult content, as long as you keep your blog free of adult images and video.

The biggest inhibitor is the time factor.  When most people get into social media they worry about the time commitment.  Though there is a high percentage of people in Adult who invest their primary marketing efforts in social marketing and spend a lot of time with it, this concern is reflected in the Adult Industry. The Social Media Marketing Industry Report shows that marketers who invest more time into their social marketing found more success.  The great thing, though, was that even people who spent 6 hours a week still gained significant business results:

6 hours per week

  • 58% use social media for a minimum of 6 hours per week. 
  • 65% showed an improvement in their SEO
  • 78% showed an increase in their web traffic.
  • 81% said that social media helped increase their exposure

Less than a Year

  • 45% reported new partnerships
  • 52% had new sales lead generation

More than a Year

  • 73% reported improvement in their SEO

More than 3 years

  • 47% spent 16 hours or more per week on social media
  • 72% reported that social media helps close sales
  • 72% strongly agree that social media increases business exposure
  • 91% report increased traffic to websites

Facebook leads the pack, followed closely by Twitter. If this report were done specifically for Adult, I believe the result would have been reversed.  Twitter is still the social powerhouse.

Social media has become the most effective long-term marketing strategy. It drives traffic, creates business partnerships, facilitates alliances, increases exposure, generates sales leads and improves brand reputation.

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Adult Social Media: Rallying for Japan

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Stand for Japan

Friday Feature Photo: Ela Darling

Friday Feature Photo: The beautiful Ela Darling, a talented, sexy model and adult actress.

Today is the start for Stand for Japan an effort spearheaded by Sabrina from Deepsabrina.com. Sabrina is encouraging all models, webmasters, affiliates, producers, distributors, media and everyone in the adult industry to encourage their web traffic to go to the Stand for Japan Red Cross site and make a donation.

Sabrina added, “I would simply like to thank all those who adhered to Stand for Japan, showing an unselfish and unprecedented sensibility in this industry. It’s really refreshing to see that there are still people choosing solidarity over traffic and personal gain. Again, thank you very much!”

The devastation in Japan is beyond comprehension. While electricity and phone service have been hugely affected, leaving many survivors without either, the Internet has remained virtually unaffected. This makes social media not just an effective means of communication, but one of the only means.

The wreckage in the aftermath of this tragedy is horrendous – and the use of social media has been incredible. It is becoming the go-to technology for emergency and disaster relief, management, communication and recovery.

One of the most amazing features of social media is the ability for swift response. Whether it is communication about real-time events, sharing news or raising disaster relief funds, social media has immediate and worldwide impact on all aspects of emergency and disaster management.

Japanese porn stars Maria Ozawa, Sola Aoi, and Ai Sayama have been using their social media and their influence to drum up support for Japan and sharing how the devastation has effected them personally.

The social media effort is not limited to individuals and non-profits.  There have been a lot of tweets, updates and encouragement by adult industry folks to go and donate, spread awareness and build community. The adult industry has a lot of influence, and this tragic situation enables it to use that influence for a greater good.

Twitter

Twitter was the number 1 social network used for anything about the earthquake and tsunami. The Tweet-o-Meter, a website that tracks twitter usage per minute, has pretty much remained pegged at 1200 tweets per minute for usage in Tokyo since the disaster began.

Hashtags

Hashtags are a way to keyword-identify a tweet, so people who are following a topic can use that keyword to track the topic. According to Mashable, the most popular hashtags are #Japan, #JPQuake, #JapanQuake, #PrayForJapan, #Tsunami and #TsunamiCharity; real-time Tweet map; Save Japan (updates in Japanese); and the UN’s Must-Follow Twitterers

Twitter posted a blog, in Japanese and English, that details how you can help by using Twitter.

Facebook

Relief and resources pages popped up almost immediately on Facebook. Nearly every major relief non-profit is using their Facebook Fan Page to help raise money for Japan.

Japan Earthquake reports news and information about the disaster.

Solidarity with the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan 2011 is a Belgian page created to show support and communicate news about Japan.

Dog Bless You is a non-profit that assists with rescue operations. They are sending a team to Japan to use dogs in the human rescue effort. Explore.org is donating $1 for every Like the Dog Bless You page receives.

American Red-Cross has a page on Causes, a Facebook app that lets people donate to charities on Facebook.

Save the Children also has a page on Causes.

FarmVille, CityVille and FrontierVille, games on Facebook created by the company Zynga, have partnered with Save the Children’s Japan Earthquake Tsunami Emergency Fund to get their users to purchase virtual goods for the games as a way to donate to the fund. 100% of the proceeds from the purchase of sweet potatoes in CityVille, radishes in FarmVille or Kobe cows in FrontierVille will go towards Save the Children’s efforts to provide relief in the Pacific.

YouTube

Some of the most poignant imagery from Japan has come from videos posted on YouTube. Personal video accounts of the disaster are giving all of us an experience that communicates the immense impact of what has happened.

If you search YouTube for Japan Tsunami the video results will be overwhelming, from news to personal videos from around the world.

Maps

Tweet Map

Map enthusiast Virender Ajmani (@mibazaar) created a tweet map. This is a map that displays a new tweet every 5 seconds from Japan. The tweets are from within a 600 km radius of Tokyo, Japan and are tagged with either earthquake or japan or tsunami.

YouTube Map

Virender Ajmani also created a YouTube map that shows Geotagged videos from within an 800 km radius of Tokyo, Japan that are tagged “Earthquake/Tsunami”. Geotagged videos means that the video has been tagged, or identified, as being from a certain location.

Seismic Activity

Maplarge.com created a map that shows you the seismic activity and the size of the earthquakes that hit Japan.

Flickr

Photos from journalists and photographers to camera phones are streaming into Flickr tagged with Japan Earthquake, Japan Tsunami

Live Video

Live video has streamed from myriad sources around the world. Here are a few:

Google

Google has created Crisis Response and Japan Person Finder to help with the disaster. Crisis Response gives emergency information, including numbers for missing persons, and information for relief donations.

The Japan Person Finder is a page that lets you put in a report for a missing person or share information you might have on a missing person.

Text

The American Red Cross is taking text donations, like they did with Haiti. If you would like to donate to their Japan Earthquake Relief, just text REDCROSS to 90999. Each text provides $10 towards the Red Cross’ humanitarian efforts.

Other Resources

  • Blog RSS feed: Japan Earthquake is a blog feed that is streaming blog posts from major news sources, reporters and bloggers.
  • Internet Browser Toolbar: Tsunami news in your toolbar is a tool bar that normally streams internet radio, but now has a feature allowing your to stream news about the disaster in the toolbar of your internet browser.
  • Hellobar: The hello bar is a tool that allows you to add a bar to the top of your web page that displays a message. Look at the top of this page and you will see my Hellobar. The company is allowing people to sign-up (which has been previously limited) in order to have a support Japan Hellobar.
  • iTunes: Created a donation page making it easy to use your iTunes account to donate to the Red Cross.

There are resources and networks all over the Internet sharing information, connecting people, streaming news and images and bringing all of us closer to the realities of what happened in Japan. The ones I listed are just examples of what is available. The call to action from the social media community has been tremendous. Where we were just starting to get an idea of the effects of the earthquakes and tsunami, we were also just starting to get an idea of the effects of social media in relation to the disaster. It makes me proud to be a part of the community that is mobilizing rescue, communication, fundraising, information and a worldwide community effort to help our international neighbors.

Make sure you are getting out there and spreading the word, and please click the banner at the top of this post to make a donation to the Red Cross and give Japan some much-needed help.

Friday Feature Photo: Ela Darling This week’s Friday Feature Photo is the beautiful Ela Darling.  We met at the Adult Expo, and I was immediately captivated. Not only is she beautiful, but she is a lot of fun to talk to. We immediately started to tweet and I have been a fan ever since. Her website is great. She has an amazing photo gallery ranging from classic sexy, to period pieces, fetish and bondage. Her photos are creative and captivating. On her blog she shares pics, videos and radio interviews.

Make sure you visit her website: darlingela.com

and talk to her on Twitter @eladarling

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Facebook’s New Fan Page for Everyone!

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Facebook GirlsYesterday the new Fan Page dropped for all Facebook users. Many of us converted our Fan Pages in February when we were first given the option, and because of this we experienced the plusses and minuses of what the new page was about. In fact, we even started an online rally against some of the negatives of the Fan Page wall. Our cry to bring back chronological posts was a success. So the early adopters helped pave the way for the rollout.

Many people in the Adult Industry are leery of Facebook pages, and for good reason.  However, the new layout and functionality will actually make it easier for the Adult Industry to interact with people in a way that does not violate the Terms of Service. If you are using the new features of the Fan Page to interact with other pages and engage in discussions, you won’t be flagged – unless you are spamming. These new engagement opportunities are paving the way for Adult Industry sites to start using Facebook in ways that are actually beneficial.

  • Your Fan Page is visually more like a profile now. This will make it easier for people to
    Feature Photo Friday: PornoBobbie

    PornoBobbie is this week's Feature Friday Photo. He is an adult star, writer (and blogger) and connoisseur of life. This photo just inspires me to be naughty...and naked.

    engage with you, because familiarity breeds comfort.

  • You also have the ability to use Facebook as your Fan Page identity or brand. Now you can interact with other pages, post on their walls and comment on their posts. This will dramatically help with engagement and networking. Previously, you could only interact with people as your business or brand if you were on your own Fan Page.
  • The best part of the new functionality is notification. When someone comments on a post, you will receive an email (if your settings are set to do so) and you will see a notification alert just like you would if you were normally using Facebook. This is a great way to know when people are interacting, so you can respond. The notifications will also let you know when you have new fans. Now you can see your number of Likes increasing and you’ll know who recently Liked you. This is great for demographics and networking.

No doubt there will a lot of discussion about the new Fan Page as it is released for everyone. Stay tuned!

PornobobbiePornoBobbie is this week’s Feature Friday Photo.  Not only is Bobbie a sexy porn star but he is also a talented writer.  He posts frequently to his blog, The Life and Times in Pornolandia, which chronicles his adventures in the San Fernando Valley as a porn star and writer, and the general craziness of life.  Bobbie is another example of a porn star who can write!  He is funny, witty, provocative and alluring. He is also a great Twitter tweep.  Always good for an interesting tweet, I recommend you give him a shout. I also love this picture, he looks academic and devious. My favorite combination.

Read Bobbie’s blog at The Life and Times in Pornolandia

Follow PornoBobbie on Twitter @PornoBobbie

Talk to PornoBobbie on Black Book Buddies!

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Like my Porn and Share it on Facebook

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Brooklyn Decker with a facebook like button

Wouldn't you want to Like this and share it with your friends?

Facebook has worked on social share for a long time now. Facebook Connect has been the most successful venture within this effort.  Facebook Connect is essentially the Like button on your website – it is what allows someone to “like” one of your website pages.  This has been an entirely underused feature in websites in general; in porn it is a tool that is being completely wasted.

There was an issue with the Like button: when you clicked, it would show you liked it on that page and technically would get posted on your wall.  It was not showing up on the news feed at all, so generally it was not being seen. It is no surprise that most people did not see value in adding it to their sites, or only added it to their home page.

Facebook is seeing the flaw in their strategy. The are now making the like button more like a share button.  Now when you click it you have the option of adding a comment. So now you can share your thoughts on a page rather than being just a voiceless Like.  This means that comments will have a greater chance of appearing on the newsfeed, because this share is a more dynamic interaction, and has a higher chance of being seen by people’s friends.

Where porn is missing out on this is the general lack of Like buttons on porn sites.  Yes, Facebook discriminates against porn. But when someone Likes a page on your site, Facebook cannot prevent that from being posted in the newsfeed. You are not violating their terms of service because it is not you posting it.  Now with the changes in the Like button, the tool is becoming more powerful. Now your viewers can say something and share your adult content on Facebook.

You can even track your Likes by adding Insights to your website. Here is a great post that will tell you how to add Insights to your website.

When someone clicks the Like button and comments, that comment and a link to the website goes on their wall and the news feed.  If you have a Like button for every page of your site, think of the potential exposure. If you do not, you may be missing out. Plus, it is exposure that Facebook can’t stop.

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Facebook: censoring your wall, not your porn

Woman with her breasts covered by a bandeau top that says censored

This photo was taken at the 2004 Adult Expo, and featured in Life Magazine!

Since the release of the new Facebook Fan Page updates the glamour of the cool changes are wearing off and some of the problems are starting to come to light.  The biggest problem is the wall, which is no longer showing all your posts.  Facebook has added an algorithm to the wall that prioritizes posts by popularity.  Beyond that, it chooses which ones to show and which ones to hide.  Interestingly enough, this has nothing to do with content.  Porn on your wall? Sure, it is a problem for Facebook but not for the algorithm.

Page owners and fans are noticing that not all posts are showing up on the wall. Unfortunately there is not much that can be done about it.

There are 2 setting for viewing posts on your wall:

1. Everyone

Posts by everyone means that posts by you and by your fans will be displayed on the wall.

2. Fan Page

Post by Fan Page means that only posts made by the Fan Page admins will appear on the wall.  If your settings allow comments, fans will still be able to comment on your posts, they just won’t be able to make their own posts on your wall.

I generally encourage pages to show posts by everyone. Allowing your fans to participate on your page gives you more chances for engagement.  I’m not changing this recommendation. Although the new algorithm is affecting the effectiveness of this setting, it is not negating its effectiveness entirely.

The other problem with the algorithm is that your most recent posts may not be showing up on the wall. This means that timely updates are not as successful.  When you make a post it will still show up in the newsfeed as usual, but its presence on the wall is up to the algorithm.  This is a big source of frustration for pages that specialize in time sensitive updates.

The good news for the adult industry is that the algorithm does not seem to discriminate based on content.  So if your posts are not appearing on your wall, it is not because of the content.  Essentially you can post as much adult content as you want and the algorithm won’t care. Of course if your content is rated higher than PG-13 you are at risk of violating Facebook’s terms of service and having your account deleted.

So Facebook still has its own forms censorship, but they are not related to the shift in its algorithm.

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New Fan Page; Good for the Adult Industry!

The Facebook logo on top of a diamond engagement ring

Facebook is getting engaged. Now you can interact as your brand! Will the adult fan page become useful?

Facebook is getting engaged! On Friday the new Fan Page design was released. The biggest news from the announcement is the ability to use Facebook as your Fan Page. For the adult industry, getting the full benefit out of the Fan Page has been a challenge.  However, things just got a little easier.

Adult industry Facebook sites have been relegated to posting only on their Fan Pages, and even then they tend to get deleted because of these posts.  Often times, people’s admin profiles get deleted as well, if they have used their admin profiles to network on Facebook on behalf of their Fan Page.

The rule of thumb for having an adult site on Facebook is: keep it rated PG. Other people are posting PG-13 and R rated content, but if you are in the adult industry you are going to be scrutinized more heavily. So tread lightly and you will be fine.  The real purpose of your Fan Page is to get people off Facebook and onto your site, so use it to transition platforms and as a way to engage with your fans.

The new engagement ability makes this last part much easier to do. You no longer have to network with your personal profile; you can focus all your engagement efforts onto your Fan Page.

What this means

When you go to your Fan Page, in the right hand menu bar, at the very top, there is a line that says “Admins”. This shows you who the administrators are for your site, and is only visible to them. Fans do not see this. Directly under that line is a list of Fan Page operating options:

The menu to help you use Facebook as your Fan PageThe first line says “Use Facebook as…”. This allows you to operate Facebook as your Fan Page. You can post comments on people’s posts, “Like” other pages and post on walls as your Fan Page name. You can do nearly everything you would do as a profile.

This means you can use Facebook as your business or brand, while keeping all your brand activity tied to your Fan Page.

Previously, if you wanted to comment on pages or posts as your brand you couldn’t do it. Many people would create additional profiles for their businesses just so they could talk to people on Facebook in a location other than their Fan Page. There are many businesses who opted to only have a profile instead of a Fan Page because of this limitation. However, this limited them to a fixed number of friends. They also risked being deleted, because you are not supposed to use personal profiles for business purposes. That is why Fan Pages were created .

How it affects engagement

The simple Facebook rule for business is this:

If you want to have an effective Fan Page, you need to talk to your fans.

If you talk to your fans you will increase your reach. You will be passively networking through your interactions with people. This was easy to do with a profile and hard to accomplish with a Fan Page. Now you can post everywhere! You can put your business page in front of as many folks as you are willing to talk to! You just increased your capacity to network infinitely.

Where Adult has to be careful

The new engagement puts you at a higher risk for being flagged for spam.  Just because you can now post anywhere, it does not necessarily mean you should. You can still be marked as spam if you are not using your new communication channels with care.

Remember, engagement is about talking to people, not about putting your link out there as much as you can. If you join conversations, and have something interesting to say, you will get people to your page and your website.

Adult Fan Pages cannot have profile images that are too provocative or sexy.  Make sure your comments are not just limited to posting links or photos – in fact I would avoid this. Join conversations and try to encourage people to visit your Fan Page, then make it easy for them to find your website.

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Does the New Facebook Fan Page Help Porn?

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Woman in red dress holding her head and screaming

Most of the changes are good. One change is bad. You'd better know which one!

Most of us have just gotten use to the last batch of changes on the profile. Now Facebook has just done a major overhaul on the Fan Page. Last Friday, Facebook announced they have made changes – not just to the layout, but to the functions of the Fan Pages as well.  Many people in the adult world have had a lot of challenges using Fan Pages, but many of us still use them.  This new functionality might help get the word out about your page without having to rely on advertising (which is basically impossible) or posts, which are not necessarily shared because of content.

  • Profile style layout

    The layouts now share the same style as the redesigned profile. This streamlines pages and profiles, making them easier for people to use, because they share similar features.

  • Posting as a Page

    You now have the option to post comments on other people’s pages and profiles as your professional page name. This is a big benefit for increasing engagement for your page.  As an adult page, you can now comment as your “brand” name on others’ posts or walls. This allows for increased visibility for your page while you interact more with your fan base. But you still have to be careful of being flagged for spam!

  • Photo Strip

    The photo strip we have become accustomed to seeing on our profiles is now on your page. Instead of the photos being the most recently tagged images of you, they are the five most recently uploaded photos. This can only be done by the admin, but if you post your pics carefully you can create a really nice photo strip that helps your branding.

  • Change your Category

    You can now change the category of your fan page. It used to be that once you picked a category for your page you were stuck with it. Maybe you set yourself up as entertainment, but now you want to switch to personality or to a brand. Now you can!

  • Featured Likes

    A page can now Like another page. These Likes are featured on the left side panel of your page. Beyond that, you can assign “Featured Likes”, meaning you can designate special pages you want to focus on. This is a fun way  to show favor to another page by giving them what amounts to prime passive advertising real estate on your page.

  • Featured Page Owner

    Just like Featured Likes, you can feature a page owner. This will also appear on the left side panel of your page. This is a great way to draw attention to a specific person.

  • Filtered Wall

    This is the big bad! Facebook is now filtering your wall posts. You have 2 choices. One is to only display the posts from your page, which will show chronologically. The other is to display all posts. Facebook is filtering the “everybody” setting by popularity. So, not all posts, tags or mentions will be displayed on your wall. Plus, to be even more frustrating, they are not being shown chronologically either. Posts from today might be directly above a post from last week, or a post from three weeks ago might be at the top of your wall!

That’s the overview of the latest changes. I will explore these a bit further and give some tips on how these can work to the advantage of your adult fan page! Stay tuned!

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Create your own Banner Ad on Facebook

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Facebook has a new profile layout.  It is designed to make your experience more YOU-centric.  An interesting discovery has been made with regard to the photo strip at the top of your profile.  It can be made into a make-shift banner ad.  Oh yes, it’s true!

The top of your profile now has a photo strip that shows the images you have most recently been tagged in.  Seems pretty innocuous, however clever internet advertising people have figured out a way to capitalize on this space.

If you create images and tag yourself in the proper order you will be able to create what appears to be a banner ad.

Regular Profile

This is what a regular profile film strip looks like:

Facebook Film Strip

This is what most Facebook profile film strips look like.

Pretty simple. A series of 5 photos that you or your friends have tagged you in, meant to give people an idea of your recent photographic activity.

“Banner Ad” Profile

This is what a film strip tagged to look like a banner ad looks like.

The photo strip on facebook profiles creating what looks like a banner ad for Justin Bieber

It can't be linked. It can't be searched. But it can be seen when people land on your profile. Of course, these sections would contain images of Trevor... How would you turn your photo-strip into an ad?

*Image courtesy of Inside Facebook

Essentially images were tagged so they would appear sequentially in the film strip to look like a banner ad. Instead of having pictures that show tagged images of your life, you create a mini-mosaic creating a singular image out of 5.

If you click on the image it will take you to that photo, or segment of the banner ad. The caption could potentially have information about a website, product or promotional message.  But the picture itself would not link to any outside website.

Benefits of Tagging a Banner Ad

  • Another location online for putting your business message forward
  • Additional branding
  • Free
  • Tag your own profile
  • Tag and put a banner ad on another person’s profile*

*Read the disadvantages to see what can happen if you do this…

Disadvantages of Tagging a Banner Ad

  • It does not link to an outside site
  • CTR – No tracking of click-through rate – without a link there is no click-through
  • No metrics to analyze its effectiveness
  • Spam – you could get flagged for spam. If you tag someone else in your photos, to create a banner ad on another person’s profile page, you could get flagged for inappropriate activity and have your account deactivated. This is definitely a violation of the Facebook Terms of Service.
  • Spam? – if you tag your own profile you may still be at risk for being flagged for spam.  Even doing this to your own profile could be considered an abuse of the feature.  However, the likelihood that you will be noticed is much lower, because it is not like you are going to flag yourself(!)

How to do it

It is not as easy as it looks. Facebook does not put your full image in the tagged boxes. It takes a skewed thumbnail, most likely as a way to try to prevent this. However with a little perseverance you can figure out how to create a series of images that will line up.

If you are thinking of doing this, I would not suggest adding urls, business names or brand message. Basically anything that could be blatantly categorized as an ad should be avoided. Stick to an image, maybe even a name. Have something like “Welcome to…” “Your name here…with picture”

The question that remains is: will Facebook change this feature to prevent homemade banner ads? The spam possibilities are endless, but the potential for passive promotion on a personal page is huge.

photo of Lauren MacEwenLauren MacEwen is the senior strategist at 7 Veils Media, Inc., a premier social media firm for the adult entertainment industry.  She is a speaker at the upcoming AEE on the Selling through Social Networks panel and blogs regularly at www.7veils.com.  You can follow Lauren on Twitter: @7_veils

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