comScore and Facebook have produced an excellent explanation of branded content that they call “Social Media Brand Impressions” their full report can be found at here. There are four primary methods for delivering a social media brand impression: Page Publishing, Stories about Friends, Sponsored Stories and Ads with Social.

Page Publishing

Page Publishing impressions are unpaid and appear on the Facebook Fan Page wall and may also appear in the Newsfeed of a Fan or Friend of a Fan.  100% of the Ad Age Top 100 Advertisers have a Facebook Fan Page.  See Kizata posts on Social Media for Retail featuring McDonald’s and Subway.

Stories about Friends

Another unpaid impression is a Story about a Friend.  This occurs when a Friend actively engages a Facebook Page and that engagement becomes visible in a Friend’s wall or in the Newsfeed.  These impressions may appear to Fans and Friends of Fans.  By adjusting their subscriptions to Friends, Facebook users can control how much they see from each of their friends and what types of stories appear in the user’s News Feed. 

Sponsored Stories

Sponsored Stories are similar to Stories about Friends but are paid.  These are distributed more broadly that the Newsfeed and appear in the right-hand column to Fans and Friends of Fans.  In Matt Lawson’s article “How Facebook Sponsored Stories Can Boost Engagement” published on Mashable, he describes the four options to consider: 

• Domain Story: Allow you to direct users from Facebook to your website. When A visitor comes to your site while logged into Facebook and Likes your site, a story is generated in the Newsfeed such as “Jane likes X site.” Sponsoring such stories increases the visibility for these kinds of posts, either in the News Feed or on the sidebar.  Jane’s friends probably belong to the same target market as Jane, and ideally find Jane credible. 
• Page Like Story: Page Like stories promote when a user Likes your Facebook page.  These stories are useful for growing Facebook Fan Page Likes. 
• Page Post Story: If a user visits your Facebook page and leaves a glowing review, Page Post Stories allow you to turn this endorsement into an ad.
• Check-In Story: Checkin-Stories allow advertisers to turn a users check-in to a store location into an ad.  

Ads with Social

Facebook Ads are messages that come directly from advertisers that appears to Friends of Fans.  These ads are powerful tools that can be highly effective.  Research in 2011 conducted by Merchant Circle found that 65% of small businesses that used Facebook Ads would use them again – yet only 22% surveyed had used such ads.   

Related articles

• McDonald’s Model for Social Media for Retail (kizata.com)
• Subway Leads the Way in Social Media | Social Media For Retail (kizata.com)
• 3 Strategies to Boost Your Business With Social Media (socialmediatoday.com)