Nick Cifuentes

Running contests or promotions on Facebook have become one of the most effective ways in building high-level engagement with your brand. Numerous companies have come up with a variety of strategies to link external social networks into their contest campaigns, and a large target in that funnel - FACEBOOK.

The new rules that Facebook released ealier this month have now set specific guidelines for any company or individual looking to run any kind of promotion or contest within Facebook. These new guidelines now require anyone to request permission from Facebook before being allowed to launch any Facebook related contest or sweepstakes. All promotions that run on Facebook must be fully located on either the canvas page of an application, or in an application box or tab on a Facebook Page.

Section 3. Administering a Promotion through the Facebook Platform

You may not administer any promotion through Facebook, except that you may administer a promotion through the Facebook Platform with our prior written approval. Such written approval may be obtained only through an account representative at Facebook. If you are already working with an account representative, please contact that representative to begin the approval process. If you do not work with an account representative, you can use this contact form to inquire about working with an account representative. If we provide you such approval, you agree to the following:

3.1 You will only administer the promotion through an application on the Facebook Platform, as directed by us.

3.2 You will only allow users to enter the promotion in the following locations on Facebook:

3.2.1 On the canvas Page of an application on the Facebook Platform.

3.2.2 On an application box in a tab on a Facebook Page.

3.3 You will include the following language in a clear and conspicuous manner adjacent to any promotion entry field: “This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to [recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for [disclose any way that you plan to use the user's information].”

3.4 You will not mention “Facebook” in the promotion’s rules except in the following ways: (i) “You can enter the Promotion through the [application name] application on the Facebook Platform. You can also find the application on the [tab name] tab on the [Page name] Page on Facebook.”; (ii) to fulfill your obligations under Section 3.7.

3.5 You will designate an individual to act as a primary contact to address any communications from us with respect to the promotion.

3.6 You must submit materials for any promotion you plan on administering through the Facebook Platform to your account representative for our review and approval at least 7 days prior to the start date of such promotion. Promotions not approved in writing within such time period will be deemed unapproved.

3.7 You will include the following provisions within your official rules for the promotion:

3.7.1 Acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

3.7.2 Complete release for us from each entrant or participant.

3.7.3 Any questions, comments or complaints regarding the promotion will be directed to you, not us.

Basically, these new rules will now clear out the ’spam’ like contest entries that you see float through your friend’s newsfeeds, often in status updates through Facebook.

To clear up any confusion, Facebook has given users a few examples of how to apply Section 3 of the Promotion Guidelines to actual situations:

You cannot: Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as making a post on a profile or Page, status comment or photo upload.

You can: Use a third party application to condition entry to the promotion upon a user providing content. For example, you may administer a photo contest whereby a user uploads a photo through a third-party application to enter the contest.

You cannot: Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.

You can: Only allow fans of your Page to access the tab that contains the third-party application for the promotion.

You cannot: Notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages.

You can: Collect an address or email through the third-party application for the promotion in order to contact the winner by email or standard mail.

You cannot: Instruct people (in the rules or elsewhere) to sign up for a Facebook account before they enter the promotion.

You can: Instruct users to visit the third-party application to enter the promotion (as described in Section 3.4(i)). Since users must have a Facebook account in order to access an application on the Facebook Platform, if you give this instruction, they will be prompted to sign up for a Facebook account if they do not already have one.

(This post is also published on http://ovrdrv.com/blog)

It’s official, Twitter is set to introduce premium accounts for brands and businesses by end of the year, this according to co-founder and CEO Biz Stone. While speaking at an event in London, Stone said Twitter plans to charge for corporate accounts, and in exchange, would offer enhanced features and analytics in return.

It is important to note, however, that if you are a current brand or business, you will not be forced to pay, but this will more be added on as a value to your account, which will tie in the rich features & analytics, in addition to some other kind of targeting, is my guess, when plans are unveiled in a few weeks.

At the event, according to ClickZ, celebrity Tweeter, Stephen Fry criticized the move, saying it would be “anti-commercial” and there was a “sense of being guided by a big corporate brother.”

Fry also pointed out that this could now be the beginning of banner ads on the site, and Stone quickly dismissed that saying “the plan has always been to create a [revenue] model that would be native to Twitter.”

(Blog post is also published on http://ovrdrv.com/blog)

When it comes to online video, Facebook always seemed to be one step behind the usual online video giants…not anymore! According to Nielsen’s latest VideoCensus numbers, Facebook has rose to No. 3 behind online video giants Hulu and YouTube in terms of total streams.

Facebook jumped from No. 10 last month - leap-frogging the likes of MSN, ABC Television, Fox Interactive Media, and Yahoo! The report said Facebook generated more than 217 million streams in October to more than 31.5 million unique viewers - this is up from 110 million streams to 23 million viewers in September.

As fast as Facebook has grown in the past year, the online video viewing aspect was never something brands, nor advertisers really drove too much interest to. However, this could open up a door to change. Facebook actually had more than double the number of unique viewers Hulu had for October - but do remember, Facebook caters to the shorter and more personal videos, as compared to TV show length videos that flood Hulu.

Facebook began their venture into large-scale video streaming when they partnered with CNN to present the President Inauguration in January, then opened up another live streaming event with the NBA All-Star Game in February - both events drew a high level of engagement across Facebook.

More recently, the Foo Fighters in October, held a live concert that was streamed across Facebook, Livestream and the iPhone, and delivered 2 hours and 45 minutes of their greatest hits to more than 150,000 viewers around the world. The video drew 440,000 total live streams, with a max of 20,000 at any one time.

Clearly Facebook is making their platform more friendly from a video streaming perspective, think what could of been from an advertisers’ standpoint if the Foo Fighters’ record label was to try and monetize that almost 3 hour long show…exactly. On top of that, the concert trended on Twitter at #2, (#1 was Halloween) and it was also #1 on Digg.

Music has not been the only source of featured video for Facebook, the early premier of the NBC (and Hulu owner) show Community was debuted through Facebook on the NBC Fan Page.

Overall, the number of total U.S. video watchers dipped to 138.6 million unique viewers from 139.3 million in September. However, the number of total streams rose to 11.2 billion in October vs. 11.02 billion in September. And the number of streams per person was up to 81 in October, compared to 79.1 in September, and the time spent per viewer was up to 212.5 minutes in October, compared to 195.2 in September.

(Also published on http://ovrdrv.com/blog)

They always said games would be more fun when you play them with friends, which is why the Xbox 360 just finalized their Xbox Live software to sync with your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Users will now be able to wrap themselves entirely in a “social-enabled” game experience and connect and play with their friends on Facebook & Twitter.

With the integration, you can now use your Facebook account through your Xbox 360, and update your status, browse updates from your friends and view photos on the big screen. You will also be able to link your Xbox Gamertag to find your Facebook friends who also play on Xbox Live and connect with them directly within your gaming experience. Facebook goes one step further and utilizes the fairly new interface of the Xbox 360 dashboard, and allows a variety of sorting and slick panel movement, all with the touch of your controller.

Your photo albums will also load pretty quickly and look impressive on a high-definition TV - much better looking then on your computer screen.

Twitter also will now sync with your account, and you will be able to tweet through your Xbox 360 anytime during your Xbox Live experience, as well as view profiles, trends and conversations - even search to see who is tweeting about your favorite game. Although it is not much different than tweeting from a computer or your phone, the Xbox 360 interface takes tweeting to an entirely new level with just the design of it alone.

And for you PS3 fans, I know you are asking - where is our update? It is coming! The company just announced on its official PlayStation blog that upcoming firmware update v3.10 will add Facebook and Twitter functionality to the PS3 interface.

And for music fans, Last.fm, a streaming music application that allows you to set a channel and listen for as long as you’d like, also will now sync with the Xbox 360. As does the new Microsoft Zune player, Microsoft’s version of the iPod, where users can now watch videos in 1080p and 5.1 channel surround sound - all through their game system.

In addition to all the new social features, Xbox Live also will be debuting the “News and More” section, transforming Xbox Live into a full-on media portal that will regularly update streaming content from MSNBC, The New Yorker, and Dilbert, just to name a few.

Happy Gaming!

(This blog post is also posted on http://ovrdrv.com/blog)

Drum roll please…

Oxford Dictionary has announced its “word of the year” winner, and to no one’s surprise, they came through with a social media related term…”unfriend“, your new 2009 award winner.

The definition reads as followed “To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.”

Over the past few years, dictionary makers have seemed to jump at announcing social media related terms as the new words that deserve the recognition treatment. “Twitter” was announced by the Collins English Dictionary earlier this year as a new entrant, and “Facebook” was the word of the year back in the end of 2007.

And according to the dictionary’s blog, other terms that were under consideration this year included hashtag, sexting, funemployed, tramp stamp, intexticated and birther….hmm?

(Photo courtesy of SocialSignal.com)

Originally posted on http://ovrdrv.com/blog