As one of the first examples of what is possible with the new Hook Mobile API , Thought Labs has released Pic2Phone. Users can now receive their friend's latest photos and comments delivered as a daily MMS sent right to their phone.

According to this article at MobHappy, with applications like this that incorporate the technology into users’ daily lives, MMS may finally come of age and start to generate real revenue for the mobile ecosystem.

Overview and Objectives

Fitness Together Middleton (FT Middleton) launched a dynamic Facebook page created by Thought Labs to help increase their membership and their member's usage of facilities and offerings. FT Middleton, located in Middleton, MA, is a franchise of Fitness Together. Their business is to provide one-on-one training and fitness coaching to their members, which tends to be middle-aged women. All existing advertising has been done by direct mail, and they do not currently have an external website.

FT Middleton had two objectives for their Facebook efforts:

1. Attract new members to their gym that weren't being reached by direct mail
2. Enhance retention of existing members by providing a community of support beyond their time at the gym

The result was a Facebook Page with several interactive applications designed to give their members useful tools, a forum for community discussions, and the visual appeal to attract new members. The launch was successful, leading into a round of advertising using Facebook's Social Ads.

Actions

Thought Labs created and released the Facebook Page for FT Middleton on February 28^th, 2008. It contained both graphical design elements and interactive elements.

Visual design

The page's visual design included colorful graphical elements such as a large main picture, a quote about their philosophy, and a Flash video showing their formula for success.

Custom Applications

Two custom interactive applications were built - a health quiz and an interactive food journal.

The quiz was designed to let non-members learn something and become attracted to the Page as a source of useful information. The food journal allowed members to enter their daily food content and exercise results and produced weekly reports for the trainers to go over with the clients.

Facebook Built-in Applications

The page had the community forum application, set up with an Ask the Trainer topic and a Healthy Eating Options in Middleton topic. The goal for this forum was to help clients interact with the trainers, get tips, and to show new potential clients that FT Middleton was more than just a gym.

The reviews section provided satisfied users with an opportunity to express their appreciation of the service. One member posted a 5-star review within the first few weeks. This provides another opportunity to entice new clients.

The testimonials application showcased a single user's great experience at FT Middleton. These testimonials would be rotated over time.

Challenges

Seeding the Page with Fans

To get the Page started, it was decided to get a large Fan base right away. This served three purposes - to start to build an active user community, to generate the viral news stories from each user becoming a Fan, and to make the page look active for any new viewers. Friends and family were initially recruited. In-gym signs were put up giving away a free session to existing members who became fans. These actions resulted in 16 Fans for the page.

Current members weren't on Facebook

Only a few of the existing members were currently Facebook members. The rest had heard of Facebook, but didn't understand its new older demographic growth or how it could help them. Education about Facebook in general and the new Pages features was provided in the form of a newsletter, describing how to create a new Facebook account and use each application.

Getting new, Facebook-savvy users and Fans

Since the existing FT Middleton membership was not yet active on Facebook, new well-connected Facebook users were needed. Facebook Social Ads were determined to be the best vehicle to achieve this; however, there were unexpected limitations on which towns could be targeted. For example, the towns of Boxford and Topsfield, Massachusetts, while having hundreds of Facebook users, did not even show up in the Social Ads location targeting list. Thought Labs is currently trying to work with Facebook to fix this situation. In the meantime, a new Social Ads campaign is being worked on to target all towns in the surrounding area.

Page Management time

Right after the release of the Page, there was an unexpected loss of a trainer by FT Middleton. This unfortunately prevented FT Middleton from being able to actively participate on the site with new discussion topics and tips and tricks. With the hiring of a new trainer, these activities should start to take place in the near future.

Results and Future Actions

Facebook Social Ads will be used to increase the Fan base

Seeding is critical and there were not enough active seeds in the first set of fans. The existing membership was not active online or on Facebook. The first set of fans was made up of friends and family, many of whom already attended the gym. The number of active seeds could be increased by using in-Facebook advertising. Responders to these ads would be most likely to use and appreciate the interactive page. Once a critical mass of Fans or users is reached, the Page could become self-sustaining.

FT Middleton will become more involved in the Page

Company involvement is essential in the early stages to cultivate the Community. Due to the loss of the trainer, cultivation of the community by FT Middleton was not sufficient to capitalize fully. This can be rectified through some of the following actions:

1. Encourage existing members to switch from their current paper-based journal to the online food journal. Regular use of this application would establish regular viewing of the page.
2. Offering on-Page only content and tips either as Notes. By telling members about this new source of information, more members would be likely to visit the page.
3. Create or participate in forum topics, such as Ask the Trainer or local healthy eating. By getting members to interact with the page, and having them help each other, it would the increase the value of the services, and also provide an enticing site for new users.

Thought Labs continues to work with Fitness Together Middleton on their Social Ads program, as well as providing support for developing the Page's community. We expect an increase in Page participation within the near future, and will provide updates as the new data becomes available.

About Thought Labs

Thought Labs provides custom software development and consulting services with a specialization in Social Network technologies. We build branded Facebook Pages for your company or multiple Pages for your various products. In addition, we create rich interactive applications on your Page to help users find your products and services. Thought Labs can also create custom Facebook, Bebo or OpenSocial applications carrying your message and your brand with them.

We pride ourselves on the quality of our work. We employ top application developers who are creative, highly skilled, up-to-date on Facebook's constantly changing API, and excellent at project management. We set high standards for ourselves and we meet them. In this new world of social marketing, Thought Labs delivers extremely innovative, high-quality work on time and on budget. Find out more at http://www.thoughtlabs.com.

To download this case study in PDF format, click on the link below:
Case Study : A Facebook Page for Fitness Together Middleton

Finding pages on Facebook has always been difficult - if you knew the exact term, you could find a business, but there was no listing anywhere. As of last night, Facebook published an alphabetical listing of pages at http://www.facebook.com/directory/pages/.

We have made several Pages for clients, so I tried to look on up. I started with our Fitness Together - Middleton Page. The Directory is laid out somewhat like a dictionary - alphabet at the top, descending into begin-end ranges. So, the Fitness Together Page was under F -> Fitz Gardens - Five O's. Yes, that makes no sense, but there seems to be a few kinks in the system.

The ranges you click on are not the ranges you get. The Page should have been under Fitness Franchise - FitYummyLifestyle, but clicking on that actually yielded Fistfunk - Fitness Audio Vault. Fitz Gardens - Five O's went to Fitness By Andrew - Fito Kahn.

Assuming that they get that fixed, this directory is a great enhancement to Facebook's utility as a business platform. It should make Pages much easier to find and therefore increase usage.

Update: Facebook support says that they are aware of this problem and are continuing to work on the directory.

Introduction

I have been answering a lot of email requests for how to get started with a Bebo application. Since applications can be written in any language that supports interaction with the Bebo REST API, developers have a lot of choices in how they build their application. The focus of this article will be on the "officially supported language" - PHP. I saw officially supported, because the Bebo Platform Team has released a simple PHP wrapper that makes using the REST API very simple, and they update this from time to time.

Before creating an application, you need to understand the parts of an application and how they interact with Bebo. I will go over each part below, and then show an example of a very simple application that uses each part.

The parts of a Bebo Application

The Bebo URL - this is the URL that users go to on Bebo. It is in the format "http://apps.bebo.com/yourapp/"

The Callback URL - this is the URL on your server that Bebo redirects to. It is where the actual application lives.

The Canvas Page - this is the main page of a Bebo application. It takes up the entire web page, except for the Bebo top header and footer. User's going to your canvas page are using your server directly via the callback URL. Canvas pages can either be written in SNML, a markup language that is standardized across Facebook and Bebo and is fast to load, or in an iFrame. Javascript is only allowed in iFrame based applications, but they cannot use SNML.

The Profile Box - each application can create a presence on the installing user's Profile page. This contents of this box are set by the application, but when the user is seeing this Profile box, it is running a cached version on Bebo's servers. The user can click links or interact with Flash to go to the canvas page or call back to your server using simple AJAX. Since browsing other people's Profiles is one of the main activities on Bebo, creating a compelling Profile Box is a very important part of helping your application to spread.

Invitations - each application can provide a way for users to recommend it to their friends. Bebo provides a common dialog for selecting friends, and limits the total number of invitations that can be send per person per day. You can control some of the text that the inviter sees when selecting their friends, and some of the text in the actual invitation. Your application must give the user a reason to want to send an invitation, either by being innately good, or by some type of reward system for invited friends.

News Stories - applications can produce news stories based on how the users interact with the application. These stories appear on the user's Profile page in the news section. Bebo will also show the most interesting stories from a user's friends on their home page. News stories should be interesting and actionable in order to help your application spread and provide value to the user.

Building a Bebo Application

1. Get a Server - As I said above, we will focus on building an application using PHP. The first thing you need is a server to host your application files. Some likely candidates might be your home pc to start, Joyent or another hosting company, or the Amazon EC2 web server platform. As your application grows, your server needs will probably grow as well, so it good to think about how you will handle thousands of users early on. RightScale.com provides some automatic scaling services on top of the Amazon EC2 platform, that let you spin up and shut down servers to meet your demand, so that you only pay for what you use. You will need the information about this server to set up and deploy your application.
2. Install the Bebo Developer Application - go to http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=5036051566 and install this application. It is written by Bebo, and is required to let you set up your application with Bebo. Once you have it installed, you can go to create a new application.
   1. Click the Create New Application link at the top right
   2. Enter the Application Name - this is the name you want people to see. Example: "Favorite Birds".
   3. Enter the Application URL - this is the Bebo URL that users will go to. This name doesn't have to match the Application Name, and in some cases cannot, because the name you pick might already be in use. Example: "favoritebirds".
   4. Pick a canvas style - If you want to use the Bebo SNML markup language, choose SNML. If you want to host an external site in an iframe or use javascript frameworks, then choose iFrame. For this example, we will choose SNML.
   5. Enter a description - Type something, but don't worry too much about this now, you can fill this out later.
   6. Enable on a profile - Check this box if you want to let users have your application on their profile. In almost every case, you will leave this checked.
   7. Callback URL - the location on your server that holds your files. I like to have the directory match the application url I set above, and I end it in a slash. Example: http://myserver.com/favoritebirds/
   8. Post Add URL - Leave this blank for now. I will go over how to handle this later.
   9. Remove Callback URL -Leave this blank for now. I will go over how to handle this later.
   10. Default SNML - this is a way to initially set the contents of all new user's profile boxes.
   11. Categories - pick one that fits your application. You can change it later.
   12. Icons - you can update this later, so leave it for now.
   13. Leave the Manage Test Group checkbox checked and set to Only Developers.
   14. Check the I have read the terms checkbox.
   15. Click Create Application.
   16. It should take you to the My Applications page and you should see your new application along with a bunch of other information. We will use this later, so leave the page up.
3. Get the Bebo library - the Bebo platform team provides an updated wrapper library here http://developer.bebo.com/downloads/example-libs-php.php.
   1. Create a new source directory - c:\src\favoritebirds.
   2. Download this file and save it in your source directory. Call it something simple, like bebo.php.
4. Set up your web host
   1. In Apache, edit your http.conf or create an .htaccess file so that your new callback url http://myserver.com/favoritebirds/ points to your source directory.
   2. In IIS, use the IISAdmin tool to create a new Virtual Directory so that your new callback url http://myserver.com/favoritebirds/ points to your source directory.
5. Create your index.php file
   1. For this example, we will do all the work in this file. In a real application, you would want to split up your work into classes or modules or include files that make sense for your project.
   2. Include the bebo php library.

          require_once "bebo.php";

   3. Your file needs to have some globals that define the project.

          $appVisibleName = "Example App";
          $appApiKey = 'copy API Key from the developer application page';
          $appSecret = 'copy API Secret from the developer application page';
          $appCallback = 'put in your callback url. Ex - http://myserver.com/favoritebirds/ ';
          $appBeboURL = 'put in the Application URL above - http://apps.bebo.com/favoritebirds/';

   4. The easiest way to handle users is to force everyone to add right away. If they haven't Bebo will take then to the add page and then send them back. If they have already added your application, then you will just get their userid.

          $bebo = new Bebo( $appApiKey, $appSecret );
          $userID = $bebo->require_add();

   5. Now you can display the page to them using some SNML.

       displayPage($bebo);
       function displayPage($bebo) {
           $userID = $bebo->user;
           $output = "Welcome back, <sn:name uid='$userID' useyou='false' />.<br/>
               You have a nice picture:<sn:profile-pic uid='$userID' linked='false'/>";
           echo $output;
       }

   You now have a fully functional Bebo application. But, let's add some more features.

6. Updating the user's profile
   1. It is simple to update a user's Profile Box each time they access your application. Just create a new updateProfile function and call it after your displayPage function.

          updateProfile($bebo);
          function updateProfile($bebo) {
              global $appVisibleName;
       
              $userID = $bebo->user;
              $snml = "This is the $appVisibleName profile box of <sn:name uid='$userID' useyou='false' />
      			<br/><sn:profile-pic uid='$userID' size='square' linked='false'/>";
              $bebo->api_client->profile_setSNML($snml);
          }

7. Creating a News Story when the user accesses your page
   1. News stories are a great way to let a user's friends know about the great things the user is doing with your application. Just add a new publishStory function and call it when the user does something meaningful.

          publishStory($bebo);
          function publishStory($bebo) {
              global $appVisibleName;
              global $appBeboURL;
       
              $actor = $bebo->user;
              $title_template = "{actor} used <a href='$appBeboURL'>$appVisibleName</a>";
              $title_data = null;
              $body_template = null;
              $body_data = null;
              $body_general = "Everyone should try $appVisibleName. <a href='$appBeboURL'>
      			Install $appVisibleName today.</a>";
              $image1 = null;
              $image1Link = null;
       
              try {
                  $result = $bebo->api_client->feed_publishTemplatizedAction( $actor, $title_template,
      			$title_data, $body_template, $body_data, $body_general,
                  $image1, $image1Link,
                  NULL, NULL,
                  NULL, NULL,
                  NULL, NULL,
                  "");
              } catch( Exception $ex) {
              }
          }

8. Allow users to share your application with Invites
   1. If your application is worthwhile, users will want to let their friends know about it. Use the standard Bebo Invite control to let them invite up to 20 friends/day. Just add a new getInvitePageURL function, and add a link somewhere on your page to that url.

          $invitePageURL = getInvitePageURL($bebo);
          echo "<a href='$invitePageURL'>Would you like to invite some friends?</a>";
       
          function getInvitePageURL($bebo) {
              global $appApiKey;
              global $appBeboURL;
              global $appVisibleName;
       
              $beboInvitePage = "http://www.bebo.com/multi_friend_selector.php";
              // What the inviter sees
              $actionText = urlencode("Which friends do you want to invite?");
              $action = $appBeboURL;
              $type = urlencode("Invite");
       
              // What the recipient sees
              $acceptInviteButtonURL = $bebo->get_add_url($appBeboURL);
              $acceptInviteButtonLabel = "Add $appVisibleName";
              $acceptInviteButton = "<sn:req-choice url='$acceptInviteButtonURL' label='$acceptInviteButtonLabel' />";
              $content = urlencode("Hey, try out $appVisibleName. $acceptInviteButton");
       
              $sig = 0; // update with the signature tool. This is a two step process. Generate the url for the invite page
              // Then go to http://www.bebo.com/AppToolSig.jsp and paste it in. At the bottom, you will get a signature. Update the value above.
              // If you change the invite text, you will have to regenerate the sig above
              $invitePageURL = "$beboInvitePage?sig=$sig&api_key=$appApiKey&content=$content&type=$type
      			&action=$action&actiontext=$actionText&invite=true";
       
              return $invitePageURL;
          }

Here is the completed sample:

    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
    <?php
    date_default_timezone_set("America/New_York");
 
    require_once "bebo.php";
 
    // Global definitions for your app
    $appVisibleName = "Favorite Birds";
    $appApiKey = "copy API Key from the developer application page";
    $appSecret = "copy API Secret from the developer application page";
    $appCallback = "http://myserver.com/favoritebirds ";
    $appBeboURL = "http://apps.bebo.com/favoritebirds/";
 
    ///Main Entry Point ///
    // Force everyone to add the application.
    // If they have already added it, then display the page
    $bebo = new Bebo( $appApiKey, $appSecret );
    $userID = $bebo->require_add();
    displayPage($bebo);
 
    // Update the user's profile
    updateProfile($bebo);
 
    // Publish a news story
    publishStory($bebo);
    ///End Main Entry Point ///
 
    function displayPage($bebo) {
        $userID = $bebo->user;
        $output = "Welcome back, <sn:name uid='$userID' useyou='false' />.<br/>
            You have a nice picture:<sn:profile-pic uid='$userID' linked='false'/>";
 
        // Add the link to the invite page
        $invitePageURL = getInvitePageURL($bebo);
        $output .= "<br/><a href='$invitePageURL'>Would you like to invite some friends?</a>";
        echo $output;
    }
 
    // returns the url for the Bebo standard invite page
    function getInvitePageURL($bebo) {
        global $appApiKey;
        global $appBeboURL;
        global $appVisibleName;
 
        $beboInvitePage = "http://www.bebo.com/multi_friend_selector.php";
        // What the inviter sees
        $actionText = urlencode("Which friends do you want to invite?");
        $action = $appBeboURL;
        $type = urlencode("Invite");
 
        // What the recipient sees
        $acceptInviteButtonURL = $bebo->get_add_url($appBeboURL);
        $acceptInviteButtonLabel = "Add $appVisibleName";
        $acceptInviteButton = "<sn:req-choice url='$acceptInviteButtonURL' label='$acceptInviteButtonLabel' />";
        $content = urlencode("Hey, try out $appVisibleName. $acceptInviteButton");
 
        $sig = 0; // update with the signature tool. This is a two step process. Generate the url for the invite page
        // Then go to http://www.bebo.com/AppToolSig.jsp and paste it in. At the bottom, you will get a signature. Update the value above.
        // If you change the invite text, you will have to regenerate the sig above
        $invitePageURL = "$beboInvitePage?sig=$sig&api_key=$appApiKey&content=$content&type=$type&action=$action&actiontext=$actionText&invite=true";
 
        return $invitePageURL;
    }	
 
    function updateProfile($bebo) {
        global $appVisibleName;
 
        $userID = $bebo->user;
        $snml = "This is the $appVisibleName profile box of <sn:name uid='$userID' useyou='false' />
			<br/><sn:profile-pic uid='$userID' size='square' linked='false'/>";
        $bebo->api_client->profile_setSNML($snml);
    }
 
    function publishStory($bebo) {
        global $appVisibleName;
        global $appBeboURL;
 
        $actor = $bebo->user;
        $title_template = "{actor} used <a href='$appBeboURL'>$appVisibleName</a>";
        $title_data = null;
        $body_template = null;
        $body_data = null;
        $body_general = "Everyone should try $appVisibleName. <a href='$appBeboURL'>Install $appVisibleName today.</a>";
        $image1 = null;
        $image1Link = null;
 
        try {
            $result = $bebo->api_client->feed_publishTemplatizedAction( $actor, $title_template,
			$title_data, $body_template, $body_data, $body_general,
            $image1, $image1Link,
            NULL, NULL,
            NULL, NULL,
            NULL, NULL,
            "");
        } catch( Exception $ex) {
        }
    }
    ?>

Advanced user state management

The example above just forces everyone to add, but isn't able to specially handle new installs or removals. You can handle those by looking at the $_REQUEST parameters that Bebo passes your application. These parameters show that users come to your application in 1 of 3 states:

1. Just installed the application
2. A normal user of the application
3. Just removed the application

By changing the block marked ///Main Entry Point /// above to one that detects the state, you can handle each one differently. You will need to add new functions to handle new user installs and uninstalls

    ///Main Entry Point ///
    // An existing user will have the fb_sig_in_canvas variable set, unless they are removing
    if (isSet($_POST) && isSet($_POST['fb_sig_in_canvas'])) {    
 
        //  Bebo will pass their user id and that they have added the application
        if ( isSet($_POST['fb_sig_user']) && $_POST['fb_sig_added'] == 1 ) {
            $userID = $_POST['fb_sig_user'];
 
            // If the user has just installed, Bebo will pass installed as a GET parameter
            if ( isSet($_GET) && isSet($_GET['installed']) ) {
                newInstall($userID);
            }
 
            // Normal users will go through here, so display the page
            $bebo = new Bebo( $appApiKey, $appSecret );
            displayPage($bebo);
 
            // Update the user's profile
            updateProfile($bebo);
 
            // Publish a news story
            publishStory($bebo);
        }
    }
 
    // If you set up your own post add handler, then you must handle the add request the way you want,
    // and then redirect back to your Bebo URL. If you don't specify a post add handler, Bebo does this for you.
    else if ( isSet($_GET) && isSet($_GET['installed']) ) {
          $bebo = new Bebo( $appApiKey, $appSecret );
          newInstall($bebo );
          $bebo->redirect($appBeboURL);
    }
    // If you specify a post remove URL, then Bebo will call it with this POST variable.
    // After this call, you won't get anything else from this user unless they re-add your application
     else if ( isSet($_POST) && isSet($_POST['fb_sig_uninstall']) ) {
        $userID = $_POST['fb_sig_user'];
        uninstallUser( $userID);
    }
 
    // If the user goes to your callback URL directly, they didn't come in from Bebo, and you will have no information about the user
    // In most cases, you will just want to force the user to add the application by using require_add. This will force them back through
    // the existing user path above
    else {
        $bebo = new Bebo( $appApiKey, $appSecret );
        $bebo->require_add();
    }
 
    // Handle a new user installation
    function newInstall($userID) {
        // We can use the SNML to say hello to the user
        $output = "Hello, <sn:name uid='$userID' useyou='false' />. Thanks for adding the application!";
        echo $output;
    }
    function uninstallUser($userID) {
        // You can't actually display anything to the user, or redirect them.
        // All you can do is clean up inside your application.
 
    }	
 
    ///End Main Entry Point ///

About Thought Labs

Thought Labs provides custom software development and consulting services with a specialization in Social Network technologies. We build branded Facebook Pages for your company or multiple Pages for your various products. In addition, we create rich interactive applications on your Page to help users find your products and services. Thought Labs can also create custom Facebook, Bebo or OpenSocial applications carrying your message and your brand with them.

We pride ourselves on the quality of our work. We employ top application developers who are creative, highly skilled, up-to-date on the Social Networks' constantly changing APIs, and excellent at project management. We set high standards for ourselves and we meet them. In this new world of social marketing, Thought Labs delivers extremely innovative, high-quality work on time and on budget. Find out more at http://www.thoughtlabs.com.

fb:ref is a way to set a placeholder on a bunch of user profiles, and then update it across all those profiles with a single call. It makes sense to use when you have data or images that would need to be updated occasionally, but are not specific to the current viewing user. Some examples would be banner, application news updates, or perhaps an entire theme for a profile box.

You can have multiple fb:ref's - they are keyed off the one of two things:

1. A callback url. In this case, you use the <fb:ref> to place the block, and the fbml_refreshRefUrl() to update it.
2. A handle name. In this case, you use <fb:ref> to place the block, and fbml_setRefHandle() to update it.

Below, I will show steps for implementing the callback method:

1. Set users' profiles with code like this:

     $fbml = "<fb:ref url='http://yourserver.com/callbackurl' />";
     $facebook->api_client->profile_setFBML("", NULL, $fbml, "", "");
   

   on Bebo it would be:

     $snml = "<sn:ref url='http://yourserver.com/callbackurl' />";
     $bebo->api_client->profile_setSNML($snml , $userid);
   

   For the callback url, you can either use a unique page or just pass a GET parameter that you can check for later like this:

     <fb:ref url='http://yourserver.com/yourapp/callbackurl/?refcallback=1' />
   

2. In the callback page, add some code the detects that it is the refresh, and updates the ref block:

     if ( isset($_GET['refcallback']) ) {
       $text = "
         <div>
           <img src='http://yourserver.com/yourapp/someimage.jpg'/>
         </div>
       ";
       echo $text;
     }
   

3. When you want to update the ref in all the profiles, call:

     $refreshURL = "whatever you used for the sn:ref above";
     $facebook->api_client->fbml_refreshRefUrl("$refreshURL");
    

   on Bebo it would be:

      $refreshURL = "whatever you used for the sn:ref above";
      $bebo->api_client->snml_refreshRefUrl("$refreshURL");
    

One of the first questions we usually are asked by potential clients of Thought Labs involves ROI (return on investment.) It is a valid  and critical question, no matter the size of  the company or its marketing budget. It's the yardstick used when evaluating the success of a traditional media campaign, so why not expect the same rules to hold true for social media? How can one be sure in the changing world of the web and online marketing that their dollar will have an impact on their bottom line? Will their investment increase brand recognition, generate leads, or increase their market penetration? Unfortunately there is currently no 'silver bullet' of measurement that can demonstrably prove ROI for a social media investment. There are startups working feverishly on the problem, to be sure, but the state of affairs today requires a different approach and restatement of the problem.

This approach is based on setting and meeting a set of clearly defined objectives rather than using measurements in the traditional sense, though some of them may still be valid. Companies have to ask themselves a very simple question: "Why are we investing in social media, and what would we consider a successful result?" It seems trite, in a way, but it is critical to understanding the new meaning of ROI. It's not about return on investment anymore. It's all about gaining influence or leverage for your investment and measuring the return on that influence. Influence is the key concept at the core of social media. Peer/friend opinions and reviews hold more sway than any other. Brands can be created in an instant and just as quickly destroyed when you are dealing with the economies of scale and the numbers of users involved on social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. But social media encompasses so much more. Myriad online communities exist and all are potentially valid social media outlets. Companies need to understand that by focusing only on the immediate effect on their bottom lines they may be missing the point.

One other area that companies need to understand is the new concept of 'engagement' as it applies to their social and new media strategies. What is 'engagement?' That's the million- or perhaps billion-dollar question. There is no metric for it that means the same thing to everyone. One interesting equation of sorts has been proposed by socialmedia:

E = mc^2

...which means:

Engagement = media buy * (creative ^ 2)

I agree in a sense. Creativity is STILL KING. You can spend millions on your media buy to get your social media prodcut noticed. But, if it's not creative (or for you math geeks as creativity approaches 0) your engagement tanks. It's simple, but critical to understand this. True, this all depends upon your objectives. You have to put your social media assets in context: if you are looking for tons of repeat users (i.e. page views, visits, etc.) and engagement is near zero, FAIL.There are enough single-use social media apps and widgets out there that support this hypothesis that it's not worth expanding upon. If you want your clients to come back, you need to interact with them. You have to engage them to make them come back.This is critical for both growing brands and generating leads. The traditional marketing funnel is still relevant - but the rules that govern the journey from one end of it (eyeballs on your content) to the other (the buy) have changed.

Another thing companies need to Think of it as an extension of the 80/20 rule. In the past when content was put on the web you could expect about 80% of your audience to see that content within a short period of time. If your spend was X at some specific or measured CPM you could expect some specific results based on traditional measurements. This is no longer the case with social media. Now, you can expect about 20% of your media to be viewed (if you're lucky) and over time, if you're influence and engagement are high enough, you can expect that 80% to come trickling - or ideally virally pouring - in after it's available for some time. It's not a linear graph anymore. You hope it's exponential. But it's not guaranteed.

It's about creating a social media campaign that is relevant to YOUR business and your needs. No one can do it for you if you don't understand why your business is playing in the social media space in the first place.

So:

• Develop a social media plan: 'Why are we doing this? What would we consider a social success?'
• Make sure that plan is realistic: viral spread of apps and widgets is much harder on ALL the networks these days. Do NOT assume that it will spread just because it's there!
• Define your own ROI: it's about meeting your objectives. Seriously. Tell your CEO/CFO. Make them understand this.
• Make someone OWN your problem on YOUR end: you cannot expect someone to do everything for you and guarantee excellent results; you need to understand and manage your end of the social media strategy. It's not easy (anymore) - you are going to need to work at it and understand that you are going to need to work at it.
• Develop metrics that matter to YOU: since there are no global ones in the current sense you need your own based on what your plan deems a successful result
• ITERATE, ITERATE, ITERATE: set a timed goal for reviewing your strategy; if it's not on target at the end of that time then review why, refactor, retest, and relaunch until you get it right. It's NOT ABOUT being the best, smartest, or brightest anymore. It's all about being the fastest and getting the most relevant results based on your plan and the metrics that matter to you. And do it fast. Very, very fast.
• Understand the social media lifecycle: how long do you expect your strategy to live in the wild? Lifetimes are shorter these days. You cannot expect a drop-in solultion to be relevant in a year from now. See the last point. See the fact that the top 25 Facebook applications have changed drastically in the last year. And will again.
• Cast a net that matters to you: there are a ton of social media outlets out there now. Find out where your demographic lives. If they are 50-year-old financial executives then MySpace is probably not worth investing in.

It's all about the conversation now. Be a part of it. Don't fight it or you will lose.

Tags: social media, facebook, myspace, opensocial, marketing, ROI