What’s working for you? What can you share about publishing from your page? How your pages work together? Something about custom tabs? Have you been A/B testing using Facebook’s publishing tools? Does interactive content perform better for you in the stream? Feel free to share your insights in the comments of this post, or just shoot us a note at marketing@sproutinc.com. If we use something from your comments, you’ll be credited in the guide!

This guide will be published in the next month or so, in the mean time, here’s some interesting articles on creating successful Facebook fanpages that you might like:

• Facebook: tips and best practices
• TechCrunch: building engagement on Facebook
• Mashable: 5 tips to optimize your fanpage
• Mashable: 5 insightful case studies
• All Facebook: 13 strategies for building successful applications on Facebook

Thanks!

Are you an Account Executive or Creative Director at a brand or agency? If so, this event is the perfect opportunity to learn what it takes to successfully build your brand and drive sales by combining the next generation of display advertising with applications that plug into social networking platforms. The event is produced by Sprout, one of only fourteen Facebook Preferred Developers.

Presentations will focus on unveiling the next generation of rich, interactive, and social display advertising, how social network platforms are evolving, what new opportunities are available, and how to work with creative agencies and technology providers to capitalize on these opportunities. Social media case studies will highlight campaign best practices and a panel discussion will address key topics such as moderation, metrics and reporting, social media strategy, and corporate policy around social media.

Lunch will be served after the presentations and participants will have an opportunity to network and socialize.

Join us for an exceptional event packed with valuable insight for your brand.

Agenda

8:30 – 8:45 Welcome & Breakfast
8:45 – 9:20 The Engagement Cycle – Roland Smart, Sprout
9:20 – 9:40 Past to Present: Custom Apps to Engagement Apps: Julie Nielsen, appssavvy
9:40 – 10:00 The next generation of online display ads, Carnet William, Sprout
10:00 – 10:10 Break
10:10 – 10:45 The Next Year In Social Platforms: 10 Things Every Marketer Should Be Tracking – Nick O’Neil, Founder All Facebook
10:45 – 11:15 Trials and Tribulations of launching an Integrated Social Branding Program – John WIlliams, Mud Worldwide
11:15 – 12:00 Building Brands on Social Networks Panel Discussion
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch

SPEAKER SELECTION

Nick O’Neil,

Founder, Social Times & All Facebook

The Next Year In Social Platforms: 10 Things Every Marketer Should Be Tracking

Nick O’Neill is the Founder of Social Times, Inc., a digital media company focused on covering the growing social web economy. He is the
the social media industry expert, providing no holds bar commentary and insightful analysis on social networking and social media. Nick also speaks at conferences nationwide and has been written about in multiple national publications. With the opening of the Facebook platform, Nick saw a huge opportunity and has become fully dedicated to covering the social networking phenomenon via AllFacebook.com eventually expanding beyond with SocialTimes.com.

In 2009, Nick successfully led
Social Times Inc. to an acquisition by WebMediaBrands. Nick continues
to serve as the Director of Social Times and oversees daily content production as well as hosting events around the country. Nick graduated
Cum Laude from American University in 2005 with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance. While Nick spends a lot of time writing content for sites, he
is a passionate coder, building tools to help readers track the rapid growth of the social networking space. Nick was also recently named one of the top 100 D.C. Tech Titans by Washingtonian Magazine.

Carnet Williams,
CEO, Sprout

The next generation of online display ads

Prior to Sprout, Carnet built and sold several Facebook applications, founded ChipIn (a widget-based fundraising service), was a professional snowboarder, and ran International Trade Policy for The Nature Conservancy. Carnet has over a decade of experience in the high-tech and Internet industries, having been the Director of Business Development at TurboLinux, a Linux OS and enterprise solutions startup, and the co-founder of NetCorps, a nonprofit technology assistance organization in Oregon. Carnet graduated from the University of Berkeley and has a law degree from the University of Oregon School of Law.

Julie Nielsen,

Director of Product, appssavvy

Past to Present: Custom Apps to Engagement Apps

Julie Nielsen is director of product at appssavvy, a direct sales team for the social media space. She drives product strategies and integrated sponsorship programs between social media application developer and publisher partners, and the rapidly growing number of brands and agencies engaged in tackling the emerging opportunities involving social media applications.

Julie was the first employee outside of appssavvy’s two founders. Since joining the company, she has been instrumental in the more than 200 socially-based campaigns appssavvy has delivered for brands, including Kimberly-Clark, Sony Pictures, Oakley, Coca-Cola, Target and Purina, among others.

Previously, Julie was part of leading Freewebs’ widget initiative. She began her career at Unit 7, a DM agency under the Omnicom umbrella of marketing companies. At Unit 7, Julie was active in developing campaigns for Pfizer, Wyeth, AstraZeneca and P&G. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa.

John Williams,
President, Mud Worldwide
Trials and Tribulations of launching an Integrated Social Branding Program

As President of Mud Worldwide, a Social Branding and Marketing Agency based in Sausalito, California, John draws from a solid background in consumer packaged goods in addition to experience in a broad range of B2B product and services marketing. On the Agency side he has worked with Ted Bates Worldwide, Ketchum Communications and his earlier company The Sausalito group serving clients such as Colgate Palmolive, Warner Lambert, Bristol Meyers, Bank of America, E*Trade, McKesson, Chevron, Palm Computing and Motorola. On the client side he has held senior management positions at Manhattan Marine and Electric Company
and Semphonic a leading web analytics practice. From his native Australia he has worked in Asia, Europe, Canada and the US and brings new perspectives to issues surrounding best practices from strategic planning to execution of communications programs.

Roland Smart,

Sr. Marketing Mgr., Sprout

Presenting on the social network engagement cycle, and Moderating the Building Brands on Social Networks Panel Discussion

Smart describes himself as “a marketer on a mission to evolve marketing away from the mess that traditional marketers have made. It’s time to stop broadcasting messages with megaphones and to start engaging the communities that form around brands. While companies understand what it takes to build products and services, it’s the community that understands how they actually work in the wild. Following this, I embrace the mission of Marketing 2.0, which recognizes that brands are built by communities, not just by companies. My work focuses on leveraging the fact that communities want to grow the brands that improve their lives. Thus, I’m interested in new social media tools, like Sprout, that empower communities to spread the word about the products and services they love. You can learn more about me and how I approach marketing on my blog at www.rolandsmart.com.”

A Half Day Summit on Leveraging Social Networks for Your Brand

Are you an account executive, creative director at a brand or agency? If so, this event is the perfect opportunity to learn what it takes to be successful building your brand and driving sales on social networking platforms.

Presentations will focus on how social network platforms are evolving, what new opportunities are becoming available, and how to work with creative agencies and technology providers. Social media case studies will highlight campaign best practices and a panel discussion will address key topics such as moderation, metrics and reporting, social media strategy, and corporate policy around social media.

Lunch will be served after the presentations and participants will have an opportunity to network and socialize. Join us for an exceptional event packed with valuable insight for your brand.

Event Dates and Locations

Thursday. February 4th, 2010: San Francisco - REGISTER NOW $49

Thursday. February 18th, 2010: Silicon Valley - REGISTER NOW $49

Thursday. March 9th, 2010: Los Angeles – REGISTER NOW

(Sprout CEO will be presenting at this event as part of Digiday Social)

Wednesday. March 31st, 2010: Chicago – registration coming soon
Thursday. April 1st, 2010: New York – registration coming soon

Speakers (additional speakers TBA, lineup varies by event location)

Richard Jalichandra,
Technorati, CEO
Speaking about how brands can build buzz using Technorati and the evolving online display ad space.

Nick O’Neill,
All Facebook, Founder
Market trends from the author of the most popular blog about the most popular social networking platform.

Jeremiah Owyang,
Partner Customer Strategy, The Altimeter Group
Develop a Social Strategy Based on Business Objectives.

What exactly is Ustream and how does it work on Sprout?

Ustream allows anyone with a camera and an internet connection to broadcast live video to a global audience.  Using the Ustream technology, you can setup a channel and engage your audience within a matter of minutes. Ustream has been used to live broadcast events such as political debates, talk shows, sporting events and more.  While Ustream offers basic embedding functionality, many of our clients asked us for the ability to embed a live broadcast directly into the Sprout Platform so that they can completely customize the look and feel of their broadcast. This is now possible with the integration of Ustream in the Sprout Platform.

We are proud to announce the launch partner for the newly released Ustream component, Dick Clark Productions for the Golden Globe Awards.  Here is the fully functional Ustream live broadcast within a Sprout social experience:

Let us know what you think and if you’d like to run your own Sprout campaign with live stream functionality.

Before partnering with Sprout on their Facebook Fan Page, REI felt like they didn’t have a solid way to grab new Fan Page visitors’ attention. Sprout used the assets provided by REI to create a bold-looking page that grabs users’ attention and encourages them to interact. To attract new fans, REI hoped to use their Fan Page to make a statement as more than a retailer. With that goal in mind, Sprout included expert advice, contests that gave fans a chance to get involved, and content from REI’s Twitter feed, YouTube videos, and Flickr photo streams on the page. REI wanted their fan page to help them achieve their retail goals, too, so Sprout implemented an REI Outlet deal of the day feature as well. The expert advice and deal of the day features have proved most popular on Facebook, helping REI to achieve two important objectives: educating new and old fans alike about the unique facets of REI that make them more than just a retailer, and boosting retail sales.

REI keeps the content on the page updated constantly, with new posts, a new deal every day, and other cutting edge images, advice, and videos. REI knows it’s important to show visitors they’re putting in the effort so that visitors feel it’s worth their time and effort to contribute and fan the company. Since the Sprout-designed Facebook Fan Page launched on October 16^th, REI has added 5,000 fans to their page, putting their total at 30,000 fans, a number they are extremely happy with. REI includes links to their Fan Page on their website, newsletters, Twitter page, and YouTube page, but they have not paid for any traditional advertising to drive users to the new page. 5,000 new fans in one and a half months represents a significant increase in the rate of organic, viral Facebook fan growth since the launch of the Sprout-designed page.

REI has plans for the future, too. Next up they hope to make the deal of the day section truly shareable so that users can add the section to their home page or site. REI understands that it’s critical to keep refining the page to keep content fresh, relevant, and shareable, so that fans understand what differentiates them from the competition. We at Sprout are thrilled when we have the chance to partner with a client who so fully embraces the power of Facebook and social advertising.

Two of the changes in particular that will affect your Facebook Fan Pages is the removal of boxes and narrowing of application tabs from 760px to 520px.   This will result in Fan Page administrators only being able to customize content in application tabs and those tabs being narrower.  The narrowing of the application width is a result of changes to the upcoming design of profiles and pages.   If you read the posts on Facebook’s developer wiki, you’ll see more explanation as to why they are making these changes and what’s in store for the future.  There are two posts on this topic: Facebook – Tabbed Profile and Roadmap Profile. According to the roadmap, these changes will take effect in late 2009/early 2010.

What does this mean if you have already customized your fan page and created a custom tab?  Chances are your content will be cut-off or appear distorted. If you used Sprout to create the custom content on your fan page, you can make the appropriate size edits to your sprout and then republish it.  The FBML code has a height and width attribute which will also need to be changed.  We will create a video tutorial for this when the time comes.

If you are developing on the Facebook Platform, as we are, I highly encourage that you keep a close eye on the Facebook developer’s roadmap.

The rush to create engaging Facebook fan pages is on, and we’re thrilled to leverage our platform to bring great brands to Facebook. Moving forward we’ll be showcasing some of the best fan page examples through our blog to get you inspired. For example, the band 311 just launched a new fan page to showcase their new album entitled Uplifter. Check it out and take a moment to listen to the entire album through the Sprout. We’re also happy to see REI’s page that features the latest deals from the REI outlet.

And, you can always see our latest examples in our Facebook fan page gallery.

Here’s an overview of how the Sprout Publisher system works within Facebook:

Because of viral features built into the Facebook platform, content shared in fans’ feeds and can also be sent from friend to friend. Interaction between the fan and the content takes place right in the feed, so the fan doesn’t have to click off the page to participate, which makes for a convenient and intuitive user experience. And, publisher comes with a variety of customizable templates to choose from so you can get up and running quickly. Or, if you’ve got something special planned we can produce a custom template for you on a project basis.

If you’re interested in hearing some of what other people are saying about publisher, check out this post from Inside Facebook. Also, here’s a video tutorial of how to create a custom coupon using Publisher.

Add the Sprout Publisher application to your profile or fan page.

We’re proud to launch this new product with Disney, whose ‘Gift an Alien’ campaign is live and populating Facebook. Here’s where you can find the Gift an Alien on campaign Facebook.

A free, Sprout-branded version of Sprout Publisher is available with templates for common branded content such as coupons, frames, event notifications and news flashes simply by adding the Sprout Builder application to your account. Sprout also offers completely customized creations like ‘Gift an Alien’ on a fee basis. Contact us for more information about how we can work together.

Here’s a demo of how the Gift an Alien campaign works:

If you’d like more information about the product launch and how you can start using publisher, check out the Sprout below. This Sprout also includes an addition demo that shows how Publisher works with Facebook fan pages.