EQUTE — A new roadmap for Facebook updates will hopefully take the surprise out of future updates that have been a hassle for developers (and users) in the past.

This is quite a change from the typical way Facebook has done things — namely in the middle of the night in secret.

For the first time in this level of detail, we will provide a roadmap to help you anticipate future changes and opportunities. Like all roadmaps, it may shift slightly, but we will share insight into what is happening as these details are available. We’ll keep you posted about the progress of these changes and what they mean for you over the next two quarters.

According to the roadmap, Facebook will continue to shake things up in the coming months. The ability for applications to communicate directly to a user inbox will be going away, but developers will soon have the ability to contact users at their primary e-mail address (after opting in of course).

Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow attended the announcement and spoke with members of the platform team, called this aspect “enormous.”

“[We] will be able to create strategies around giving Facebook users ways to opt-in to share their primary email addresses with the brands,” he told Adotas. “E-mail is still the number one digital marketing technology and bridging e-mail marketing and social media is a huge opportunity.”

Another big update will give developers the ability to turn any Web site the ability to tap into the Facebook API, letting users use apps, share links and communicate from nearly anywhere on the Web.

Advertisers should bookmark the roadmap so they know what is going on in the dominant social media getaway. And advertisers with apps should be squealing with delight at the new transparency and the peace of mind that their apps aren’t dying during the secret midnight machinations of Facebook.

EQUTE — There is an interesting post over at WebProNews that shows just how popular Facebook has become.

Data showing that 1 in 7 UK page views went to Facebook prompted marketing researcher Perry Drake to take a look at the US numbers, and it was pretty interesting, Facebook has actually outpaced Google in page views — by quite a large margin.

Drake’s research showed that 1 in 4 pages accessed in the US were Facebook, while only 1 in 12 were Google.

It shouldn’t really be a surprise, people like to socialize, but it’s amazing just how much we like to socialize.

So what does this mean? Well, it means that more advertisers are likely to gamble on Facebook ads and possibly cut their Google ad budgets. While it might lead to more visibility, advertisers should be wary about reallocating their money. Google (and Bing) is still the place people turn to most when they are looking to buy something, research something and click on ads.

Drake postulates that Facebook could become a big information player, but notes that it’s not there yet.

Facebook has the potential to become a major search portal and source of relevant and timely information. Of course this is assuming that Facebook has the appropriate tools and people in place to mine that data and make it useful. But of course that is a topic for a future discussion.

They are certainly interesting numbers, and maybe a little more, but it’s more a topic for the water cooler, not one that should drastically change advertising budgets or strategies.

EQUTE — Everyone is chomping at the bit to dominate the social networks, but in reality, it shouldn’t be the number one priority for online advertisers.

The number one thing marketers should know about social media users is that they are fickle. The more time and work you put into social media doesn’t mean results. While a new Nielson report shows that people are finding more and more content from social networks, it may not work for you or your client.

Search engine optimization, however, always means results. It’s more work, it takes longer and there are a lot of factors involved in ranking number one, but it’s work ten times any re-Tweet or Facebook fan.

Well duh, right?

Yeah, this is no secret, but marketers aren’t the only people hearing about social media 500 times a day. Your clients are going to ask about and ask for social media help. But marketers need to know when to say “no.” Sure, you can show them a big page of all their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn profiles and say “look what I can do!” And they will look at it for a little while then figure out that it hasn’t helped them make a sale.

Don’t be afraid to say, “why don’t you spend an hour and do it yourself while I make you some money.” OK, maybe not in those words, but you have to help them realize that that is not where the priority lies.

Tell them making the best of their online ad dollars means time, have a case study ready and show them how SEO helps over social media. Demonstrable results are the marketer’s friend, your site will thank you, your clients will thank you and your time (and their money) will be well spent.

EQUTE — A new survey shows that 54 percent of employers completely prohibit the use of social networking sites completely.

CIOs were asked in the survey: Which of the following most closely describes your company’s policy on visiting social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, while at work?” Here is how they responded:

“Using social networking sites may divert employees’ attention away from more pressing priorities, so it’s understandable that some companies limit access,” said Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology. “For some professions, however, these sites can be leveraged as effective business tools, which may be why about one in five companies allows their use for work-related purposes.”

So what does this mean for marketers? If you’re targeting a big company with your Facebook ads, make sure employees can see them. Perhaps turn them off until after the work day ends to get the most efficient use of your money.

An now some information on the study from Robert Half Technology:

The national survey was developed by Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of IT professionals on a project and full-time basis, and conducted by an independent research firm. The survey is based on more than 1,400 telephone interviews with CIOs from a random sample of U.S. companies with 100 or more employees. In order for the survey to be statistically representative, the sample was stratified by geographic region, industry and number of employees. The results were then weighted to reflect the proper proportions of the number of employees within each region. The margin of error for this study is +/- 2.6 percent at the 95 percent level of confidence.

EQUTE — In its continuing efforts to become an advertising powerhouse, Facebook announced a partnership with Nielson to further examine how social media marketing works.

“Nielsen is the leader in measurement and is an excellent partner for us as we look to provide marketers with richer ad effectiveness data,” said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. “The combination of our unique ability to quickly and effectively poll a sample of our more than 300 million users and Nielsen’s expertise in data analysis will give marketers access to powerful data they can use to understand and improve current and future campaigns.”

Powerful data indeed, tapping into a 300 million internet-savvy users in a real time environment could give radically new insight into what people want and are willing to do.

The partnership is manifested as Nielson Brandlift, a straightforward poll on users’ Facebook homepage in place of advertisements. Nielson hopes that the tool will be a better measure of internet users than typical means of research.

“Facebook is an increasingly vital link between consumers and brands,” said John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen’s online division. “We will now be able to add deep knowledge of this important social network to our unmatched media measurement and consumer insight across all three screens. Together we will be able to provide the missing elements to clients seeking better understanding of how Web content and online advertising affect consumer behavior.”

Whether or not the majority of Facebook users will participate in the surveys remains to be seen. But as BrandLift rolls out in the next few months, advertisers should keep a close eye on Nielson for new announcements and data.

EQUTE — The experiment that sought to connect Facebook user’s daily activities directly to marketing failed in spectacular fashion — forcing the social network to cough up $9.5 million to promote Internet privacy.

When Facebook first unveiled Beacon, it looked like a harmless way to turn friends into “trusted referrals” — linking them to their purchases, reviews, etc. Almost immediately, there was a slew of privacy complaints with some users even complaining that the service allowed people to see their gifts in the friend feed long before the holidays.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly apologized for it, and now the service is offline.

A 2008 lawsuit on behalf of 19 users against Facebook, as well as Blockbuster Inc., Fandango, Overstock.com Inc. and other companies that used Beacon, led to the settlement. The suit claimed the defendants disclosed users’ personal information for advertising purposes, without their consent.

But the expensive experiment was not without merit, according to Facebook.

“We learned a great deal from the Beacon experience,” Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said in a statement. “For one, it was underscored how critical it is to provide extensive user control over how information is shared. We also learned how to effectively communicate changes that we make to the user experience.”

Out of the experience grew Facebook Connect, which lets Facebook users access other sites using their Facebook log-ins and share with Facebook information on activities elsewhere.

Unlike Beacon, however, Facebook Connect gives users, rather than Facebook and advertisers, control over the information they share.

EQUTE — Well it may sound like a sad story about an unpopular rich kid, businesses are actually buying friends on Facebook.

Australian company uSocial is selling several different packages for Facebook. You can pick up 1,000 buddies for a little under $200 and up to 10,000 for about 1,170. There is some skepticism about their tactics — and Facebook isn’t happy.

“All we do is send them a welcome message or friend request from the client. If they decide to go ahead and add that person as a friend or a fan then they will; if not, then they won’t,” Leon Hill, uSocial CEO said.

While his tactics might be questionable, Hill is right about Facebook.

“Facebook is an extremely effective marketing tool,” said Hill. “The simple fact is that with a large following on Facebook, you have an instant and targeted group of people you can contact and promote whatever it is you want to promote.”

And he says he’s right there to save your workday from Facebook.

“The only problem is that it can be extremely difficult to achieve such a following, which is where we come in,” said Hill.

It’s an interesting idea, and it might work at some level, but the key to Facebook (and any social network) marketing is building repair with customers. Those friends you buy for a couple hundred dollars don’t care what they are clicking on, and in a few days they will notice you in their friend feed and say farewell.

It’s a long road, but you’re probably spending a good chunk of the day on Facebook anyway, may as well spend it helping your company build its brand.

EQUTE — Despite the fact that they are much more active than men, a new survey shows that women are not too keen on social media advertising on sites such as Facebook.

The folks at WebProNews had a good write up of the study that showed some pretty interesting numbers.

Some findings from the study:
- 75% of women are “more active” in social networking than last year

- More than half (54%) visit social networking sites at least once per day

- 75% share that social networking sites “not really” or “not at all” influence what they buy

- 52% of women surveyed have “befriended” or “become a fan of” at least one brand

- 83% feel “neutral” or “negative” when they see a brand on a social networking site

- 10% of women engage in product / brand-related activities (”get product information, including coupons and savings” and “writing reviews about products”) most on social networking sites - above common activities like “send private messages to friends” and “share photos”

The fact that over half of women surveyed befriended a brand does say a lot about what women are prepared to do. The study suggests that women who are active in social media don’t want to be talked at by the run-of-the-mill Facebook ads, they want to talk with the brand like they would any other friend. Keeping up to snuff on their Facebook page could be a great — and cheap — way for a company to break through to women.

While the study only included 1,000 women, it gives the basic idea about how women use social media and how brands should interact with them.