Stop The Presses! Sex, Celebs, And Sociability Sell Well On Facebook

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Take a fleeting glance at some of the most successful magazine brands on Facebook and it is clear that being popular in the biggest virtual high school of them all is not exactly rocket science. In our first rundown of how min’s digital boxscores members fare on the social network, it is not surprising to find that the brands that genuinely engage FB as a real publishing platform (not just a traffic driver) are dominant. Cosmopolitan’s 1.7 million “Likes” come simply from doing well in this space what it has delivered well for years in print, online and even in apps: sex and surveys. The “sex position of the day” posts are among the most widely “liked,” and you don’t need to click through the illustration to get the point. But we also enjoy the flash polls that populate the “Timeline” format. Readers are asked frequently for their responses to posts and even surveyson what helps to form Cosmo’s sex blogger.

People (1.5 million-plus Likes) has always used its key franchises well on Facebook. For last November’s Sexiest Man Alive issue, comedians provided FB-exclusive videos. But People Digital managing editor Janice Morris says that a careful understanding of usage patterns has proven important, too. “We’ve even researched and identified optimal posting times for interacting with them throughout each day of the week,” and she finds that popularity of stories also can vary among the social nets. Her argument is that a hot FB post will not necessarily work on Twitter.

The new Timeline format on Facebook is giving publishers a much bigger canvas that is also appealing to advertisers. Now, sponsor messages and images can flow naturally into the feed, with lush and engaging images that almost feel like magazine placements rather than Web banner ads. At the popular Parents magazine FB page (660,000+ Likes) a recent sponsored post for Hostess’ new Chocolate Crème Twinkies commemorated National Twinkie Day (we didn’t even get them a card) attracted about 600 user likes. In the new format, clicking into an image like this from the photo gallery pops up a full-screen window with attached user comments. Suddenly a photo post looks and feels like a full page user-initiated interstitial ad.

But with bigger views comes bigger responsibility. “Our metrics clearly show that less is definitely more on Facebook,” says Us Weekly Digital executive producer Romina Rosado. Us keeps its 675,000-plus fans happy by not overwhelming their feeds (just five to six times per day), especially now that the Timeline structure has made the canvas larger. “Users are more selective about not having their Timeline clogged up,” she says.

For the Oscars this year, Us decided to reverse the usual polarity and use its Facebook publishing as a source for the main site. Images from the Red Carpet were posted directly to the FB page, where users competed to provide the best caption. “The best captions were used for a gallery on our Web site the next day, and those images were some of the most shared, liked and commented ever,” says Rosado.

Rosado drives the main point about Facebook home when she points out the folly of treating this important new channel as merely a link feed. “The most important thing is to look at Facebook as another platform,” she says. The point is not to link and lure them back to some mother site. The point is to engage them where we already know they are at their most, well, engaged.

Steve Smith (popeyesmith@comcast.net) is digital media editor for min / min's b2b /minonline.com. He posts regularly on minonline and directs the min Webinars. Smith is also chairing min’s June 5 Digital Media Summit.

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