Adriana Lee says, “WhatsApp doesn’t want to be a platform. Co-founder Brian Acton, on a panel Wednesday at Facebook’s F8 developer conference, made that very clear. Unlike its sibling service Messenger, which has started courting outside developers and businesses, all that matters to WhatsApp is that the service remain stable, simple and unfettered for its worldwide audience of 100 million monthly active users.That matters to parent company Facebook too, but likely for different reasons.WhatsApp—which sold to the social network last year for $19 billion dollars—offers an interesting... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Today at Facebook’s developer conference F8 the company announced, among other things, Messenger Platform, which opens up the app to third party publisher and developers. As one feature of Messenger Platform, Facebook also introduced what it’s calling “Messenger for Business.”The objective is to “reinvent the way people communicate and interact with businesses.” Initial integrations include e-commerce sites Everlane and Zulily. Customer service software provider Zendesk is also supporting the platform.Facebook isn’t limiting the program to e-commerce;... [...]

Signe Brewster says, “If you are interested in sharing a video across the Web, you probably start by uploading it to YouTube or Vimeo. Facebook wants in on that action, and as of today allows videos uploaded to the site to be embedded elsewhere.During an F8 keynote address Wednesday, product marketing manager Deborah Liu announced anyone can now grab the embed code from their Facebook videos. “This dramatically increases the potential reach of your content,” she said.But not anyone’s ability to make money from video. Upload a clip to YouTube and you can get paid based on... [...]

David Shiffman says, “In today’s e-commerce climate, it is not uncommon to find that browsing the ever-increasing number of companies, products and services can be daunting when trying to find just the right thing. But fear no more, because Facebook has recently made a milestone announcement that could mean huge changes for consumers and businesses alike.Introducing ‘topic data’ to select partners in the US and UK, Facebook will loosen its hold on its user data information to provide marketers with a broader look and deeper understanding of how their online presence is faring... [...]

Lisa Furgison says, “Your Facebook audience has a craving. They’re craving video. According to recent statistics, the number of videos showing up in Facebook News Feeds has shot up by 360% this year compared to last.The king of social media sites is also allowing most page administrators to make videos more prominent by selecting a featured video. This featured video sits on the left side of your main page and appears like this on your video page”.5 Unconventional Ways to Create Videos That Engage Facebook FansVerticalResponse Blog [...]

Patricio Robles says, “According to reports, Facebook is set to announce at its F8 developer conference that it will be giving third parties the ability to integrate their content into the Messenger experience.Facebook can be a great friend to publishers and brands. For many, the world’s largest social network has been and is a significant source of referral traffic.But Facebook’s friendship with content producers is a complicated one. Changes to the algorithm (previously known as EdgeRank) which Facebook uses to determine what appears in their users’ news feeds, can make... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Facebook has long struggled to get an e-commerce hook to work on the platform. Users spend hours a day on Facebook, but the contention has been that users aren’t in the right mindset to shop while spending time on the social network. Just as Facebook’s attempts at making search a relevant piece of the user experience have failed to have any impact on Google’s search business, its e-commerce and product advertising efforts haven’t given Google or Amazon reason to pause. Until now.Facebook is getting poised to make real headway as a viable advertising competitor... [...]

Martin Beck says, “One of the knocks against Facebook video as a marketing tool is that because of autoplay it’s difficult to measure how your message is being received by the audience.Sure the audience is enormous — Facebook says videos get more than 3 billion views daily — but the social network counts as a view a person’s pause on a video for at least three seconds.How much of your marketing message can get through in three seconds?Plenty, according to a Facebook-commissioned study by Nielsen. The study found lift in ad recall, brand awareness and purchase consideration even... [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “Facebook added a very handy feature in December 2014: the option to place a simple call-to-action button at the top of your Facebook Page. While only available to select businesses at first, Facebook has recently started to roll it out to the U.S. and the rest of the world.The CTA’s functionality is pretty simple: You choose from seven pre-made button options (“Sign Up,” “Shop Now,” “Contact Us,” “Book Now,” “Use App,” Watch Video,” and “Play Game”) and link it to any website... [...]

Allison Howen says, “It is rare to find a business without a Facebook presence nowadays, as the social network has cemented itself as a necessary communication channel across industries.With businesses typically leveraging Facebook multiple times a day to share updates with their audiences, however, it can be easy for social media managers to get comfortable with their posting routines and overlook many of the social network’s less-talked-about features”.10 Facebook Business Page Features You Should Be UsingWebsite Magazine [...]