Facebook Tweaks It's Edgerank - More Engaged Brands Appear More Often

Facebook released some tweaks to the EdgeRank formula last week which makes it more likely that posts from brands with high engagement get priority placement in feeds over posts with little engagement. Samuel Junghenn founder of Digital Marketing Agency Think Big Online says this change should not affect Facebook Pages with a good social media strategy.

Facebook released some tweaks to the EdgeRank formula last week which makes it more likely that posts from brands with high engagement get priority placement in feeds over posts with little engagement. Samuel Junghenn founder of Digital Marketing Agency Think Big Online says this change should not affect Facebook Pages with a good social media strategy.

“Essentially a good social media strategy will have users liking and engaging with a Page which would make their posts more prominent in users Feeds. While some people are crying out over this, it’s those people who need to start analyzing why their posts aren’t getting any engagement.” Said Mr Junghenn.

The change in the EdgeRank formula by Facebook is trying to direct users to posts and pages, which have more engagement. This is a logical change by Facebook, it’s like ranking a page in Google with more links. More engagement is a measure of a posts or pages success and as such it should achieve higher rankings.

“While some page owners are protesting the latest changes I see this as a positive step forward for Facebook in improving their user experience. The down side will be that brands who can afford to promote posts will be able to artificially inflate their engagement and get better positions. But this has to be expected, Facebook is a for profit company so they need to help their advertisers.” Said Mr Junghenn.

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How Greggs Won 2 Digital Awards For Superstar Doughnuts

Greggs has won two digital awards for a social media campaign, which helped to sell more than one million doughnuts nationwide.

The ‘Greggs Superstar Doughnut Awards’ campaign, created by digital marketing agency STEEL London, won a gold and silver award at this year’s Digita Impact Awards.

The campaign aimed to raise awareness and drive sales of a new range of doughnuts launched by the high street bakery firm, by turning the products into superstar characters on social media websites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The doughnut superstars led ‘real’ lives, with jobs, friends, back stories and they competed to be crowned the Greggs Superstar Doughnut of the Year, which Greggs’ online users had to vote on.

Moray Twaddle, marketing manager for Greggs, said: “Our Superstar Doughnut campaign provided us with an innovative and effective campaign that created record levels of engagement across our digital audiences and complemented our in-store campaign activity.

“We wanted to do something different to generate awareness of our new range of doughnuts and position them as fun and relevant products, so that people would reappraise Greggs’ sweet offer. We certainly achieved these aims – and had a lot of fun as well.”

As a result of the campaign, Greggs sold 1.5 million doughnuts from its new range, as well as selling thousands more through doughnut vouchers claimed by consumers on Twitter through a hashtag topic called #DoughnutDay.

In addition, it generated 150,000 online visits to the Greggs website and helped to significantly increase follower and page ‘like’ numbers on Twitter and Facebook.

Andy Hinder, chief executive at STEEL London, said: "The success of our campaign is stark evidence that, when done right, social media has the power to have a direct and positive impact on sales and improve financial results without breaking the bank.”

Greggs and STEEL London picked up gold in the Best use of digital in the food and beverages sector category, alongside a silver for Best use of digital in the retail sector.

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Facebook Employees Have Lost $2 Million On Average Since IPO

Facebook‘s declining stock value hasn’t just been bad for investors — it has also had a significant impact on the fortunes of Facebook employees.

Facebook employees have lost an average of $2 million each since the company went public in May, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited new data from the compensation research firm Equilar. As of Friday, the average employee’s stocks in the company were worth $2.5 million.

This average doesn’t factor in executives at the company, some of whom lost much more. Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s COO, has lost more than $700 million since the IPO. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and CEO, has lost an astounding $10.5 billion.

Facebook went public at $38 per share, but the stock quickly declined and went as low as $17.55 in early September. The stock has since rebounded slightly and closed Friday at just under $21, but it’s still well below the IPO price.

To be sure, the average Facebook employee — like the company’s executives — still has a handsome amount of money in Facebook stocks, but the larger problem is what this decline does to employee morale and talent retention. Many employees likely had dreams of selling the stock above the IPO price when the employee lockup periods expire at the end of this month. Instead, employees must either delay selling off their stock in the hopes that it rebounds, or else take a significantly lower payout — either of which may impact their personal plans.

Zuckerberg and other executives have begun to acknowledge the employee morale problem in public and in private, reportedly holding all-hands meetings to address employee concerns about the company’s falling stock price. Facebook certainly isn’t the only tech company whose stock price has fallen since the IPO — Groupon and Zynga have both seen their stocks collapse — but if Facebook’s stock continues to sag, it could distract employees, make it harder to defend against poaching and more difficult for Facebook to acquire other companies.

What’s more, there is still the question of whether and when the company’s stock price will return to IPO levels. Barron’s recently argued that the stock is overvalued even now and should be priced at $15 a share. Last month, Facebook’s own underwriters Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan cut their 12-month price targets for the stock to well below the $38 IPO price. Doug Anmuth, an analyst with JP Morgan, now has a price target of $28 for the stock.

If that proves correct, it will be a long time before Facebook employees really see their fortunes improve.

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