The powerful visual and graphic elements of timeline give politicians and candidates the chance to present a more complete image — even humanize them.

Don Seymour, director of digital communications for the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner, believes that timeline will provide lawmakers with a powerful communications tool:

I think timeline will open new opportunities for lawmakers to really tell a story, whether it’s about the Speaker’s background as a small businessman or the work being done in the House to create a better environment for private-sector job growth.

Seymour adds that the House has passed nearly 30 bipartisan jobs bills in the last year that are stalled in the Senate, and timeline would give him a way to graphically highlight when each bill was passed, what they do, where they stand, and more.

There are times when a campaign or lawmakers’ office may want to emphasize their support for a bill, but that view might change over time. Consider votes to go to war or regarding the budget.

That dynamic will make the role of a Facebook page administrator more important especially during a transition to timeline, when an administrator can adjust privacy settings and remove posts from the page history.

Will Robinson, a partner in The New Media Firm, which integrates traditional and social media for issue campaigns and political causes, describes timeline this way:

Timeline is like visiting your childhood home, taking out all the drawers in your old room and throwing the contents on the bed. Some politicians have been on Facebook since 2006, so the transition to timeline will allow them to edit as well as reintroduce a lot of concepts and affirm their commitment to a cause.

A politico should want their timeline to be representative of who they are. Posts that seemed normal in the heat of a partisan battle, might not be so artfully expressed in hindsight.

Facebook is like C-SPAN. There’s a lot of long-form content that requires context.

Members of Congress have an additional dynamic to consider. Under current House rules, members have an official page and a separate page for their campaign (they are up for re-election every two years.) That means maintaining and editing two distinct but related timelines while maintaining a consistent brand and message for both.

Timeline Cover And Open Graph Apps

The large cover image on timeline profiles will be the most exciting addition for pages, Robinson believes. He says:

It will be really interesting to see what people include and how regional differences across the country are represented. The normal branding for campaigns is a photo of the candidate with a little logo.

We’ll see whether people go with traditional political branding or use something that’s more connecting. I would encourage people to view the cover as something other than a billboard.

The 2012 presidential campaigns have already started incorporating custom Facebook applications and tabs for fundraising, purchases or photo sharing on pages.

When timeline is available for pages, a campaign or advocacy initiative could add open graph actions such as “donate,” or “buy,” which would appear more prominently in timeline.

Robinson believes that people in the political field are going to use more apps with timeline. He said:

For one issue campaign page we ran, a post to Facebook would get 50,000 views.  An app would allow us to share the content and capture other people’s information, like why they support the issue, which would increase the persuasiveness of the post.

The key for politicos is creating apps that are seamless and intuitive, added Robinson.

Campaigns and elected officials will eventually embrace timeline, possibly with some trepidation at first, which is common whenever Facebook makes a change.

The cover and open graph apps are elements that political types should embrace because of the branding potential.

Page administrators should think carefully before implementing timeline, however, spending some time to think strategically about their boss’s image before making the transition.

How do you think political types will curate timeline on their pages?

The Wall Street Journal reported that the fbStart program has signed up early stage business-investment groups including Seedcamp, sFund, 500 Startups, TechStars, and Y Combinator.

In its initial public offering filing earlier this month, details were included on Facebook-centric developers including Zynga, BranchOut, and Color Labs.

TechStars Founder and Chief Executive David Cohen (no relatiton to yours truly) told the Journal that about one-half of the fund’s 80 active developers will take advantage of fbStart to various degrees, adding:

We’ve been asking Facebook for ways to get better access and advance information for our companies, and this is their way of doing that.

And Christine Tsai, a partner in 500 Startups, told the newspaper most of the 70 companies under its umbrella use Facebook to some extent, adding that fbStart benefits Facebook by allowing it to see how developers are using its new tools, and saying:

They’re putting a lot more manpower behind working with us in a more formal way.

The Journal cited a September study by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, which found that U.S.-based developers of Facebook applications accounted for 182,744 full-time jobs in 2011

The author of the study, Associate Professor of Information Systems Siva Visawanathan, told the newspaper:

Traditionally, the model has been to keep your platform closed from competitors, but people are realizing that opening it up can be a big advantage, because more apps and services attracts more users.

Right now, retail marketing executives are still learning how advertising on Facebook offers a return on investment in a way that’s different from other types of promotions — as this understanding grows, so will social ad spending.

Based on our client data, 40 to 60 percent of all transactions that start on a Facebook ad end in a different channel. That can make the return on investment in Facebook ads look poorer than it really is.

However, online interaction on Facebook seems to lead to more monetization offline; consumers who interact with brands on Facebook tend to buy their products more frequently and at higher values.

New ad formats will also inspire advertisers to spend more. Sponsored stories is just the beginning, as there’s huge potential in making ads and apps even more inherently social while tapping more of the user data Facebook already has.

Shift In Media Mix

Money for social media ads will continue to come from budgets for ads on TV and print rather than search and display.

Consumers’ behavior when they see ads on Facebook is a lot like when they see ads on TV. They initially respond well and strongly but when they see the same ads again the response rates drop significantly.

Thus, the best-executed marketing strategies on both TV and Facebook have:

Many people use Facebook while they’re watching TV and engage with shows’ brands most while they’re on the air. So, if a brand wants to reach out to an audience of a particular show it should advertise on Facebook, too.

So, we expect to see more coordinated TV and Facebook campaigns as well as a shift of media dollars away from TV and print to Facebook.

Guest writer Sid Shah is director of business analytics at Adobe.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Angry Birds for Facebook will include social features, allowing players to compete against their friends, boast about their scores, and earn gold, silver, or bronze crowns for achieving the top three scores at any of the game’s levels.

The Facebook version of the game will also feature the following power-ups:

• Sling Scope, which gives players access to laser targeting for precise aim;

• King Sling, an upgrade that provides maximum power and velocity;

• Super Seeds, which “turn any bird into a pig-popping giant”; and

• Birdquake, which helps players take out the pigs’ defenses.

There will be a launch event on Facebook, as well as local activities in Jakarta, Bangkok, and Mumbai, Rovio said.

Create Your Deliciousness, running through February 17, allows Facebook users who like the Seattle’s Best page to concoct their own caffeinated concoctions by choosing their favorite blend, cream, sugar, and toppings including birthday cake, salted toffee, peanut butter puffs, candy canes, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, and cotton candy.

Seattle’s Best will choose 100 Create Your Deliciousness participants each day through February 17, who will each receive a free 12-ounce bag of coffee.

Create Your Deliciousness is similar in concept to Virtual Coca-Cola Freestyle, which encouraged Facebook users who like the Coca-Cola page to create virtual soft drinks by combining the available carbonated and non-carbonated offerings.

Seattle’s Best Chief Marketing Officer Chris Bruzzo said:

We’ve always known how much people love their coffee, and what an important part of their day it is. What surprised us was that most consumers are really thinking outside of the mug when it comes to what they are coupling with their coffee to make it delicious. More than 80 percent of those surveyed have gone to interesting lengths playing barista themselves, adding items like cayenne pepper, balsamic vinegar, grape soda, and even gummy bears to their coffee.

Readers, what do you think of this particular branding exercise?

Martin Huml, managing partner and founder of Runway Capital, joins Socialbakers and president and chief operating officer in the U.S. Huml also has experience in private equity at Credit Suisse First Boston in London and New York.

The vice president of marketing at the new division is Katrina Wong, who led corporate marketing for subscription billing company Zuora.

Socialbakers also has offices in London and Prague, and it claims more than 750 customers and 275,000 registered marketing users, as well as more than 60 brands in the U.S. already using its analytics technology. Clients include Lufthansa, L’Oreal, Danone, Vodafone, Samsung, GE Money, Ogilvy, Kraft, and Peugeot.

Facebook has been hiring rather briskly over the past year, but we haven’t seen a surge in new job openings that some companies tend to do immediately after registering for an initial public offer.

The number of new job openings Facebook has listed over the past week is the same as what previous weeks have seen.
Between the company’s own careers page and listings on LinkedIn, nearly 60 positions were posted in the seven days since the company registered with the SEC.

In addition to listings in Menlo Park, Calif., and Washington, D.C., jobs based in Dublin, Ireland, and Austin, Texas, appeared.

About a third of the newly listed jobs are outside the U.S., from the Arabian peninsula to western Europe, all areas in which the company’s seeking faster growth.

However, the fact that Facebook doesn’t appear to be going on a hiring spree yet  is significant in itself. During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s to 2001, start-up companies would often staff their ranks right after registering for an IPO, in anticipations of an influx of cash, attention and sales once the firm went public.

Given the country’s shaky recovery, it makes sense that Facebook would err on the conservative side, and that’s something the investment banks would approve of.

In fact, George Anders of Forbes.com laid out three scenarios of what Facebook might do with an expected $10 billion in IPO cash. The first option, don’t change anything, seems to describe the social network’s hiring so far.

Anders’ second option is to grow organically, meaning ”more engineers, open more offices around the world and build infrastructure.”
But Facebook’s business model isn’t capital intensive, he points out, and the company prides itself on a lean operation. Facebook’s booming advertising revenue could easily cover this type of expansion.

Which leads us to option number three:  Acquisitions that would bring in personnel. Anders notes that Facebook has already bought up many small-cap Internet firms, such as Chai Labs and HotPotato. But with deepening pockets from the IPO, larger companies could become acquisition targets.

Anders concludes that Facebook might just go the Linkedin route: Sit tight on the new pile of cash and wait.

Readers, what do you think Facebook will do with its IPO money?

The $103.4 billion figure is based on the company still having 2.35 billion outstanding shares; assume that the actual number is 2.5 billion — like some have — then the implied valuation  becomes $110 billion.

Both figures surpass the top end of the $75 billion to $100 billion range in value that people have been discussing in reference to Facebook’s forthcoming initial public offer.

This auction has occurred one week after the last one, the shortest time gap between Facebook stock sales that we’re aware of. No wonder the shares surged 10 percent between auctions, the biggest increase between auctions.

And the email about the share auction also went out about a day earlier than is normally the case. We wonder whether the hasty mailing means another auction is coming very soon.

This is technically second auction that has closed after Facebook filed for an initial public offer, although the previous one finished at end of the same day that the social network registered with the Securities Exchange Commission.

It’s still news to us that a company could sell shares privately after registering for an IPO, but the SEC may have something to say about this if it’s not cool.

That said, here’s a copy of the email that SharesPost sent out about the latest auction. What do you think about all of this, readers?

Hello Jackie,

We are writing SharesPost members like you who indicated they would like to occasionally receive news from SharesPost.

SharesPost Financial Corporation completed its auction of 150,000 shares of the Class B Common Stock of Facebook, Inc. on February 8, 2012. A clearing price of $44.00 per share was established at the auction.

Members submitting qualifying bids at or above the clearing price will be contacted shortly with instructions on next steps for completing this transaction. Successful auction bidders will hold an indirect interest in the shares of Facebook, Inc. through their ownership of units of an investment vehicle designated to hold the shares. The administrator of the investment vehicle, SP Investments Management, LLC, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SharesPost, Inc.

SharesPost members who wish to be informed of and be eligible to participate in future auctions of private company securities must first be qualified by our affiliated broker-dealer as an accredited investor under the U.S. securities laws and regulations by SharesPost Financial Corporation, Member FINRA and SIPC. To get qualified, please click on the green button below. We look forward to serving you at SharesPost in the future.

Sister blog Inside Social Games reported that developers had been hoping for a high conversion rate to paid users in order to offset the 30 percent of revenue they must hand over to Facebook, but it hasn’t worked out that way, with conversion rates coming in lower than expected.

Kabam Chief Executive Kevin Chou said at the conference, as reported by Inside Social Games:

We thought that conversions would go up and be around 15 percent or 20 percent, but it turned out to be around 5 percent to 10 percent, meaning that we’re taking a 20 percent net tax.

And Anil Dharni, co-founder of Crime City developer Funzio, added:

Facebook Credits is a wash for us. It increased the conversion rate, but we actually saw a gradual decrease in average revenue per paying user. It’s hard to know why.

As a result, Funzio has shifted its focus to Apple’s iOS, and Facebook runs the risk of other developers following suit, and also turning to the Android platform.

After all, games may be fun for Facebook users, but they’re serious business for developers.

Disney has seen success on the Apple front, with Senior Vice President of Social Games John Spinale saying:

Mobile users are more engaged and they produce higher revenue than our tethered titles on PCs. We’re also seeing incredible revenue growth on Android. Android is a little bit unwieldy, but the revenue is meaningful enough that it’s worth the pain of doing.

Wooga, the number two Facebook game developer behind powerhouse Zynga in terms of daily active users, had a more upbeat outlook, with Chief Executive Jens Begemann saying:

We have been on Facebook Credits since day one. So for us, we don’t see really negative trends. I’ve also not heard anyone complain about Apple for their 30 percent revenue share.

The gang at Inside Social Games has done a great job covering Inside Social Apps 2012, and here are links to other stories about today’s conference:

• The opening panel, featuring Begemann, Chou, Dharni, and Spinale;
• The Trends in Social Gaming panel;
• The issue of cloning games;
• What’s going on with Facebook’s platform, according to the social network’s Director of Product Management Carl Sjogreen;
• Monetizing social games; and
• Branding and engagement in social apps.