Go Sportn

Facebook's new Ticker: What's a publisher to do?

So Facebook holds a giant developer conference called F8 and announces a slew of major changes to Facebook. These introduce a lot of new options for publishers, like us at GoFIShn and GoHUNTn. One of the most pressing and (maybe) promising is activating our sites so that all your activity when you visit GoFISHn and GoHUNTn is automatically captured in your Ticker -- which is a new feature on the right side of your profile page. 

That's a big change from the past, when visitors had to "like" a piece or "comment" on one in order pass along anything to Facebook. 

Don't worry though. Sites can't automatically pass all your activity to Facebook without asking permission first. You might start to see some pop-ups on sites asking you to do just that. There's nothing wrong with asking, but would you accept? For me, it depends on the site. I think my friends would get a kick out of knowing what I read in the morning, especially on GoFISHn, but maybe it's too munch information.

But here at GoFISHn and GoHUNTN, our fans rule, and we would never do anything to cross them. So we asked in a poll on the GoFISHn Facebook page if they would like their friends to see in their Ticker feed on Facebook all the pages they visited on GoFISHns and GoHUNTn. The outcome was pretty one-sided, as you can see below...

 

 

So 66 said "no"; 13, said "yes", and 15 had no idea what the question meant. I take that to mean we will not spend any of our very scarce engineering dollars to fully integrate with Ticker just yet. The new F8 world of Facebook will take time to sink in. Facebook users always rebel at change and then frequently embrace it. We shall revisit this topic! 

 

Facebook Page Posts: What Works Best for Click Through, Post Views, Comments and Likes

    Our little start-up social media start-up GoFISHn is pretty busy on its large Facebook Page (171,000 fans, 87,000 monthly actives, 11 million monthly post views). Throughout the day we re-post the best of new posts on GoFISHn to our Facebook page and let her rip -- we often see hundreds of likes and dozens of comments on that GoFISHn post in a matter of an hour or two. That simple cross-posting routine drives about 30% of the visits to GoFISHn in a given month.

    Given that, you would think we know a lot about the art of posting to Facebook to get the best possible response. And you'd be right, sort of. We *think* we know, and of course we have strong opinions! But the truth is that until recently we never did a careful, data-driven study. This summer we dug in with the help of two talented students, a Fordham economics undergraduate, Chelsey Mitchell, and a high school student, Joseph Desmond, to pull a month's worth of data to see what works.

    What we wanted to know were the answers to some basic questions. For example, what is the optimal number of page posts per day? What's the best day of the week and time of day to post?  What types of post and subject matter do best? And what approach to the lead-in text for the post works best?

    All this is important because it's hard to reach Fans, given way timing and Facebook Edge Rank come into play. A recent comScore and Facebook joint report that if a major brand posts once a day for a week on its Facebook Page, the brand is likely to reach only 22% of its fans over the week.

    Clearly what you post and how you post are critical. At GoFISHn and its sister site, GoHUNTn, we are looking for one three possible outcomes from a given post -- either traffic to our sites, Edge Rank boost, or a combination of the two. In short, strong Edge Rank means more fans see you post in their news feed, and that increases the chance of a click through to our site.

    The analysis we did this summer tried to find some simple correlations between either clicks through to our sites or enagement within Facebook -- post views, comments, likes. There are still lots of research to be done on what makes a strong Facebook post, but we came up with a few strong outcomes.

    Our study looked at the 300+ posts we made on our Facebook Page in the month of June 2011. In our data set, we collected data on the the following attributes:

• Facebook Posts per day
• Day of the week 
• Hour of day
• Post subject matter
• Post media type (images, video, etc.)
• Post lead-in (Text in Facebook composer to introduce a link.)

We attempted to find correlations between these factors and 

• Click-thru and pageviews on GoFISHn
• Postviews within Facebook
• Likes
• Comments

Here is what we found.

What's the optimal number of posts per day?

We looked at this one from the standpoint click-thru to GoFISHn. Was there a point of diminishing returns, or irritating fans? Our gut told us that we could get away with as many posts as we wanted, as long as they were really great posts.

The data showed that we posted between an average of ten times a day in June, and the progression of click-thrus to GoFISHn, likes and comments was a pretty linear progression up to ten.

After ten, the results became erratic. Resultant traffic to GoFISHn per post bounced around a lot, as did likes and comments. More posts brought more of everything, but the average performance definitely suffered, as rule.

Our interpretation: Fans started to skip past our posts a certain point. We did not see a spike in fans dropping the page on those days, just a decline in average click-thrus per post. Gut vs. Numbers: Our gut-driven was pretty well informed. Ten posts per day is pretty much the optimal number for GoFISHn fans. 

What are the best days to post?

In this analysis, we wanted to find out which day of the week was best to post, which we assessed based on the number of post views, likes and comments per post. Our gut told us Monday was tops and it was downhill from there. We were wrong. For likes and post views, Monday is good, numbers dip a bit on Tuesday and Wednesday, and post views and likes steadily increase starting Thursday (back to Monday's level), Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Comments barely change throughout the week. 

We guess this pattern reflects the work week. Monday is a big day to get caught up, and Tuesday Wednesday are serious work days. Kick back starts Thursday and Friday (more time on Facebook!!) and then the weekend arrives. We now try to post more torward the end of the week and on weekends, assuming we're not out fishing.

What is the best time of day to post?

To answer this question we looked at post views per post. Our experience was that evenings were best, and were at least partly correct. What found one surprise. Monday morning, and only Monday morning, is really good between 7 and 9 a.m. Is it that frantic check-in at the computer before rushing off for a new work week? 

Weekdays between 9 am and 1 pm are flat but start to climb steadily from the afternoon through the evening, smoothly up and to the right in a gentle slope.

Again, our guess is that this pattern reflects the work day. Fans are busiest in the morning and start to tune back into their personal lives after lunch and once they get home.

 What type of post content works best?

Facebook allows you to post links, photos, video, status updates and polls. Is there one type that draws better than the others? We know that photos work best, especially if the photo is uploaded to Facebook and only slightly less effective if Facebook picks up a thumbnail from a GoFIShn link post. We based this one on impressions, likes, and comments. 

Our expectations were confirmed: GoFISHn photo galleries outperformed on post views and comments, but not likes. GoFIShn stories were a close second, but they usually have a thumbnail image as well, so they are indistinguishable for a photo gallery to the Facebook user. Videos and polls were significantly lower in impressions, though not comments or likes. Just guessing, but that may reflect the time it takes to engage -- videos in particular are not as quick a glancing at a photo gallery or a post.

What type of lead-in to a post works best?

This may be the most subjective assessment of all, but it's important: what sort of language in a post triggers the most impressions, likes and comments? We categorized the June posts into four categories:

• Compliment ("Awesome fish...")
• Directive ("Watch this..Pray for these people, Tell us what you think...")
• Question ("Would you like to catch this lunker?")
• Statement ("That's a trip we want to take..")

We looked at how the post views, likes and comments sorted out. On post views, the question lead-in barely nosed out the compliment and the statement, and also generated the most likes and comments. Questions, obviously, elicit responses.  The directive was the weakest on almost every count, perhaps because people don't like to be told what to do. Curiously the compliment did well on all counts except Likes, where it lagged badly. I guess if the lead-in text offers a compliment, then there's not much point in liking the post.

What type of fishing content works best?  

 This may not be of much help to non-fishing sites, but we broke down the types of posts we do into the follow categories:

• Big fish catches
• Fishing ingeneral
• Weird stuff
• Gear
• Nature - Biology
• Funny
• Crime
• Fishing competitions
• GoFISHn product news
• Famous People
• Conservation
• Injuries/Death
• TV shows

 There are some posts that just defy description, like the Russian woman scientist and yoga enthusiast who swims in the buff with beluga whales in the arctic (honest!), but for the most part our posts fall into these categories.

On post views, it was pretty much a tie among all the categories except TV shows, which lagged a bit. In terms of likes, however, the clear-cut winner was nothing new to us: "big fish" which you can see on GoFISHn, really do rack up the "likes."  Big fish, especially records, are what anglers are all about. The Facebook "like" becomes a "high-five" for the happy angler.

On the comments front, however, there was a lot of variability among subject but two stood out for especially high comments:  "crime" and "famous people." Celebrities need no introduction, and we blog about them anytime we can just to catch the Google traffic. Crime is not a surprise because we've long seen a powerful response to anything involving bad actors. Our fans love to hoot at folks who've been arrested, whether it's poaching, driving a boat under the influence, assault, theft or whatever the fishing blotter has to report.

That's what we learned, and to the extent possible we've this knowledge to work. -Ned Desmond

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 2011 Record Visits for GoFISHn and 3.5x Growth over June 2010

Summer is usually the peak season for traffic to fishing websites, and GoFISHn is no exception. In June, GoFISHn saw almost 234,000 visits from 177,000 unique visitors, according to Google Analytics. Those numbers are a 3.5x improvement over the same month last year. GoFISHn's best day last in June saw 12,900 visits, which is more than 4x our best day in June 2010.

Where did all that traffic come from? Google was our top referrer, and Facebook second, which is no surprise. GoFISHn was built with Google in mind, and our 170,000 fan Facebook page drives lots of traffic. But the third biggest source of traffic is direct -- folks who type in the GoFISHn url or bookmark the site. That number reached 27,000 in June and marks a 5x increase over last year. Clearly the GoFISHn brand is taking hold. All told, GoFISHn saw traffic from 1,371 "all sources and mediums" last month. Here's the breakdown for the top seven sources (m.facebook.com is Facebook on a mobile device.)

GoFISHn also reached some additional important milestones. The GoFISHn blog on GoFISHn crossed the 100,000 "likes" threshold, and the GoFISHn Score program had its first big winner, Captain Paul Peluso, whose great profile on GoFISHn reached 5,000 likes, and he won a free trip with his choice of GoFISHn's big list of guides. (That's Paul in picture at the top of the post. No wonder he is smiling!)

What does GoFISHn's success to date tell us? First off, our big bet on user-generated content is on the money. Every day members post pictures, video and fishing reports -- sometimes their own pictures and reports and sometimes content they found online.

To date, we've had nearly 11,000 posts. The content is fantastically varied and unpredictable, which is what readers clearly love. To get an idea of the all-time most popular posts on GoFISHn, click here. An everyday fishing report from a Florida skipper, an Alaska guide, or a Wyoming fly guide with a talent for video, can see hundreds of pageviews and dozens of "likes" in hours, and stories and pictures about amazing fish, like a record blue cat, can explode with thousands of pageviews in hours. 

The variety only starts there. Who knew that crime stories, like abalone poaching, would be such big hits? Humor is another category where GoFISHn has found a deep well of great material, like this crazy Asia carp stunt, and readers are also eager to take in anything from the natural science perspective, like the latest on cookie cutter sharks or the gender-bending behavior of wrasse, or spectacular nature photography and video, like this BBC video of a bald eagle taking a salmon. The sensational, which often seems to come from Australia for some reason, is always a sure bet,  like this amazing picture of a saltwater croc in Australia grappling with a sea turtle or another croc taking a bite out of a tough Aussie dentist angler. 

In other words, there is a huge abundance of highly entertaining, original fishing content published on the Web every day, and GoFISHn members do a great job of finding it for everyone to enjoy. Fishing magazines and cable channels are great fun, but their professional content model does not compete with the true-life experiences and digitally captured imagery that countless anglers post everyday. GoFISHn is well on the way to becoming the destination of choice for all that fishing media.

I will be at ICAST in Las Vegas along with Brian McClintock. Drop me a note (Ned@gosportn.com) if you'd like to learn more. -Ned Desmond

 

 

 

Who's Who in the Fishing Industry on Facebook

We asked one of our interns, Chelsey Mitchell (Econ, Fordham '13), to look at the Facebook pages of the major brands in the fishing world and record their total fans as of just about now June 2011. (If we missed your company, let us know and we'll add you to the list. info@gosportn.com)

We created this list in part because GoFISHn is #3 and we're not above a little self-promotion. The results are pretty interesting, which you can see for yourself below. There were a surprising number of no-shows (you know who you are) and of course there are powerhouses Basspro and Cabela's. Lots of important product brands have practically no presence on Facebook while media and retail brands do well. 

Maybe we could summarize this way: Retailers want buyers. Media want readers. They know what they want, and they are clearly paying attention to Facebook as a source for both. Tackle makers, on their other hand, appear less sure about Facebook, with a few exceptions, like Costa and Plano. That's probably because they aren't so sure about the value of a Facebook fan or how to go after them. The idea of an ongoing, direct conversation with fans though the medium of Facebook is still a pretty radical idea for many brands. But it's coming on fast, and smart brand managers will soon figure out that Facebook page fans are a stunningly cost-effective way to stay in touch with customers and get feedback.

At GoFISHn, we're ready to help any company that wants to crack the code on Facebook or any other digital project. Click here to see the results of our latest project, Bassmaster.com, which was the re-launch of old ESPN Bassmaste site for the new owners of B.A.S.S. The new site includes a complete Facebook integration, which lead to a doubling of traffic from Facebook in the first month after launch. Give us a call if you'd like to know more... -Ned Desmond 

Here's the list: 

Company Name	Fans	As of…
Bass Pro Shops	1,161,023	6/8/11
Cabela's	1,153,836	6/8/11
GoFishn	169,197	6/8/11
Costa Del Mar Sunglasses	160,412	6/9/11
Plano	126,376	6/9/11
Patagonia	106,426	6/9/11
Panther Martin	65,687	6/9/11
L.L.Bean	62,232	6/9/11
The Sportsman Channel	42,395	6/10/11
Abu Garcia	40,753	6/8/11
Bassmaster	35,572	6/8/11
Garden & Gun Magazine	34,192	6/8/11
North American Fishing Club	33,504	6/8/11
Field & Stream	30,515	6/8/11
Sport Fishing Magazine	28,418	6/10/11
Outdoor Channel	24,005	6/10/11
Rapala	23,490	6/10/11
World Fishing Network	19,092	6/8/11
Orvis	16,283	6/8/11
Strike King Lure Company	15,901	6/8/11
Simms	12,773	6/10/11
Flambeau Outdoors	12,611	6/9/11
Quantum Fishing	12,547	6/10/11
Trout Unlimited	12,255	6/10/11
Take Me Fishing	11,367	6/8/11
Outdoor Life Magazine	9,786	6/10/11
Stren	9,400	6/10/11
In-Fisherman	8,825	6/10/11
GAFF Magazine	7,678	6/8/11
Lowrance	6,939	6/9/11
Frabill	6,883	6/9/11
Catch Magazine	6,697	6/8/11
Florida Sportsman Magazine	5,961	6/10/11
Ross Reels	5,639	6/10/11
Northland Fishing Tackle	5,618	6/8/11
The Drake Magazine	5,395	6/10/11
Old Town Canoes & Kayaks	5,045	6/9/11
Nautilus Reels	4,999	6/9/11
Salt Water Sportsman Magazine	4,675	6/10/11
Marlin Magazine	4,191	6/8/11
On The Water Magazine	4,184	6/8/11
Vicious Fishing	3,903	6/10/11
Loon Outdoors	3,733	6/9/11
United States Catfish Association	3,627	6/8/11
Fly Fisherman Magazine	3,552	6/8/11
Rio Products	3,429	6/10/11
Fishpond	3,426	6/9/11
Pinnacle Fishing	3,281	6/9/11
Cortland Line	3,215	6/9/11
Sage	3,183	6/10/11
The Flyfish Journal	3,027	6/8/11
Federation of Fly Fishers	2,999	6/10/11
Whaling City	2,726	6/8/11
American Rodsmiths	2,678	6/8/11
Lindy Legendary Fishing Tackle	2,654	6/9/11
DOA Lures	2,646	6/10/11
Scott Fly Rod Company	2,634	6/10/11
Kaenon Polarized	2,494	6/9/11
Fly Fishing in Salt Waters Magazine	2,453	6/10/11
Scientific Anglers	2,452	6/10/11
Redington	2,396	6/10/11
Sturgeon Slayers	2,386	6/8/11
Albright Fly Fishing	2,306	6/8/11
Coastal Conservation Association: Florida	2,306	6/10/11
Recreational Fishing Alliance	2,300	6/10/11
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership	2,272	6/10/11
Zebco	2,268	6/10/11
Shimano	2,266	6/10/11
The Fiberglass Manifesto	2,163	6/8/11
William Joseph Fly Fishing	2,133	6/10/11
Optimum Baits	2,091	6/9/11
Ardent	2,020	6/8/11
Professional Fishing Instructors & Guides Association	1,964	6/8/11
Cajun Line	1,957	6/9/11
Fetha Styx	1,930	6/9/11
Pure Fishing	1,851	6/10/11
Umpqua Feather Merchants	1,843	6/8/11
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services	1,784	6/8/11
Midcurrent	1,729	6/8/11
Delaware River Fly Fishing	1,704	6/8/11
Recycled Fish	1,634	6/10/11
Deneki Outdoors	1,619	6/8/11
Wright & McGill	1,578	6/10/11
Lurenet	1,574	6/8/11
Owner Hooks	1,483	6/9/11
ICAST	1,424	6/8/11
Culprit Riptide	1,374	6/9/11
The American Fisheries Society	1,358	6/10/11
Loop Tackle	1,350	6/9/11
Leland Fly Fishing Outfitters	1,319	6/8/11
Lamiglas	1,230	6/9/11
This Is Fly Magazine	1,195	6/10/11
The Saltwater Edge	1,109	6/8/11
Seaguar Fluorocarbon	1,024	6/10/11
Van Staal	1,006	6/8/11
Shakespeare	919	6/10/11
Skate The Fly	895	6/8/11
Tarbone	875	6/10/11
Galvan Fly Reels	845	6/9/11
Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby	843	6/8/11
Yakima Bait Company	840	6/10/11
Fin-Nor	803	6/9/11
Winston Fly Rods	802	6/10/11
Tenkara USA	780	6/10/11
U.S. Carp Pro Magazine	763	6/8/11
Sea Striker	707	6/10/11
Montana Fishing Outfitters	693	6/8/11
Gamakatsu Fishing Club	607	6/9/11
Potomac Conservancy	555	6/8/11
Falcon Rods	527	6/9/11
Penn Fishing	518	6/9/11
US Youth Fly Fishing Team	505	6/8/11
Buckeye Lures	488	6/9/11
The Billfish Foundation	487	6/10/11
International Fly Tackle Dealer Show	475	6/8/11
Tibor Reels	471	6/10/11
Humminbird	457	6/9/11
American Fly Fishing Trade Association	455	6/8/11
Game & Fish Magazine	447	6/10/11
Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation	445	6/8/11
Spiderwire Braid	437	6/10/11
Abel Reels	422	6/8/11
Coastal Conservation Association of Georgia	418	6/10/11
Online Fishermen	399	6/8/11
St. Croix Rods	390	6/10/11
Bass Fishing Hall of Fame	389	6/8/11
Chota Outdoor Gear	351	6/9/11
Mann's Bait Company	329	6/9/11
Great Bay Rod Company	310	6/10/11
Gray's Sporting Journal	284	6/10/11
Jack Dennis Fishing Trips	277	6/8/11
Eagle Claw Fishing	272	6/9/11
Discover Fly Fishing	260	6/8/11
National Fish Habitat Action Plan	246	6/8/11
Fly Rod & Reel Magazine	234	6/8/11
Tony's Salmon Country Guide Service	226	6/8/11
The Waterworks Lamson	211	6/10/11
Berkley Fishing	209	6/9/11
Family and Youth Casting Call	193	6/8/11
Daiwa	167	6/9/11
Journal of a Minnesota Angler	145	6/8/11
Booyah Baits	124	6/9/11
Water Gremlin	106	6/10/11
Hall Em In Lures	105	6/10/11
Betts Tackle	93	6/9/11
WaveSpin Reel	78	6/10/11
Fish Finder Charters	72	6/8/11
Bass Assassin Lures	68	6/9/11
The Creek Company	65	6/10/11
Coastal Conservation Association Maryland	63	6/10/11
Thill	23	6/10/11

 

Bassmaster.com has launched!

One of my all-time favorite figures in the media world is Don Logan, who ran Time Inc. for ten stellar years and did a no less outstanding turn as the co-COO of Time-Warner. He retired a few years back to Birmingham, Alabama and began investing in local businesses, including the Barons baseball team, and spending more time on his favorite occupation, largemouth bass fishing.

I talked to him from time to time about the GoFISHn project, and tried to get him involved as an advisor. He seemed interested but not quite ready to take the bait, and last year I found out why.

Don long had his eye on a much bigger project: the acquisition of B.A.S.S. and Bassmaster from ESPN. That deal went through last fall, and Don and his partners Jerry McKinnis and Jim Copeland got started on the tough business of extracting the extensive B.A.S.S. businesses (Bassmaster magazine and website, Classic, Elite and Open tournaments) from ESPN.

That led to a call from Don asking if I'd take on the effort to re-build the Bassmaster.com site. In my former life at Time Inc., that was my line of work. The project was clearly a terrific challenge for an iconic brand. The 500,00-member B.A.S.S. organization is by far the biggest and more powerful media and membership entity in the fishing world. And it had some obvious resonance with GoFISHn. I said "yes."

That commenced a very hectic six-month project that examined questions like this: How can a small B.A.S.S. staff and run a very high-powered website without the deep pockets and very deep technical expertise of ESPN? At the same time we had to move quickly into the relentless planning and execution to design and build a much-improved website on a tight budget and a short timeline. 

The result of all that is the new Bassmaster.com, which launched on schedule, May 1, and on budget. Here's a link to our press release about the project. Don, as you can read, is pleased with the outcome.

The new Bassmaster is a significant improvement over the old one in several respects:

Design. The former site was shoe-horned into an ESPN-page template designed to showcase video. That makes sense for ESPN.com, which is centerered on lucrative game highlight video, but was not quite right for Bassmaster, which prides itself on great writing and photography, as well as strong tournament video coverage. To re-balance that design equation, we created deep editorial wells on the home page and main channel pages to better showcase every piece of content equally -- articles, photos, and video. 

Recirculation. Every Web editor knows that it's all about keeping the visitor clicking, and the former site had far too many dead-ends, especially on stories and photo galleries. The new site has multiple options on every page to get reader clicking to the next story.

Organization. Bassmaster is about a few clear subjects: tournament bass fishing, professional anglers, bass records, bass fishing gear, bass fishing tips, and the Federation Nation organization. The former site did not make that clear in the top navigation, which probably confused visitors. We streamlined and focused the navigation as well as the organization of the content.

Social. To take full advantage of all that Facebook is doing for publishers, we incorporated Facebook "likes" and comments on all content pages, as well as a Tweet link.

Search. The former site search was unhelpful because results incorporated everything on ESPN. The new site is built in Drupal, which means content is easy to "tag" content with subjects and the site search is SOLR, which is designed to use tags to organize search results. It works really well, and Bassmaster fans now can find what they're looking for.

Professional Angler Stats. Bassmaster has a treasure trove of stats for tournaments and pro anglers, and ESPN did a good job making the data interactive. We improved the page-layouts for the pro anglers, added more data, added more ways to sort the data, and tucked in a news feed of stories for each angler. It's stats heaven for pro angler fans. See rockstar pro bass angler Kevin VanDam, for example.

Tournament coverage. The Bassmaster team works extremely hard to cover a demanding tournament schedule and produces everything from live video to articles to photo galleries to real-time live leaderboards and more. On the former site, that impressive media line-up was not easy to find or follow. We created persistent homepages for each tournament to capture all the content, and we placed a navigation module for that tournament above every relevant article, gallery, video post etc. The first tournament since launch, the Bassmaster Elite Pride of Georgia, launched today, and so far the new set-up is working well. 

Publishing. It's a shame when online publishing systems are so cumbersome that editors are reluctant to use them. Bassmaster's new Drupal Open Publish system (designed by Phase2 Technology) makes publishing online what it should be -- fast and easy. Now the editorial teams can publish more and publish faster, which is a key ingredient for success in online media.

We made many additional improvements in the realms of performance, SEO, video, analytics and more. 

As a veteran of many projects like this, I have to say Bassmaster.com has been one of the smoothest and most enjoyable. The Bassmaster crew are both both good teachers and good students. The ESPN technical team was unstintingly helpful and resourceful. Phase2 Technology team did a great job, and taught me a lot about Drupal. And my friends and colleagues Dmitry Paperny, Matt Kaufman, Brian McClintock and Clarence Kwei were as ever invaluable sources of experience and insight.

What's next? as I mentioned in the press release, the next big step is the launch of Bassnation, which will come in a few weeks. Stay tuned. -Ned Desmond

 

 

The big shift: GoFISHn and GoHUNTn go all free in search of more Butch Brown moments

 It's a truim in start--ups that if you stick with your original business model you simply aren't paying attention. So true. 

This week we announced a big change for our sites, our customers and our business model. We made all our pro accounts "free" and ended the $24.95/month fee.

Why? Ask Butch. That's him in the video.

 

Butch Brown is a fanatical fisherman in California who catches largemouth bass like folks have never seen before. When we posted this video, it was only a few hours until this video had 800+ Facebook likes on GoFISHn. Audiences are all about what's mind-blowing, and Butch is that.

We're going all free because we want Butch Brown moments every day. We want people to join GoFISHn and GoHUNTn and post amazing media -- whether it's their own or something they've come across in YouTube. Legions of anglers and hunters carry digital cameras and video recorders (increasingly one-in-the-same), and they are waiting -- and so is the public at large -- for that extraordinary moment. We already see them regularly, and there are more each week. We are becoming the "crowd-sourced" answer to conventional enthusiast media. The value we provide is curation and distribution: we pick the best posts and launch them on our Facebook pages for GoHUNTn and GoFISHn, where we now have nearly 200,000 fans combined. 

In other words, it no longer made sense to limit our access to the best hunter and angler-generated media by asking pros to pay to post, espeically considering they create some of the coolest media. And to be honest we were never comfortable charging these guys anyway. They love what they do, and they are a national treasure. But it's a tough living. 

Our new strategy is to focus harder on big brand advertiser revenues. We're already having a lot of luck doing partnerships that involve posts on our 160,000 fan GoFISHn Facebook Page, and soon we'll start doing the same with GoHUNTn. We're also making changes to our site pages to ensure there is always a nice, fat 300x250 running above the fold in the right rail. You can see the mock-up in the illustration on the right of all pages. Look for this new design in the coming days.

We also pulled above the fold and made smaller the "social" box that keeps count of member fans on Facebook and GoFISHn. This new version counts of how many times fans liked a profile and all the posts associated with the profile. We're going to make that part of an incentive system that will encourage even more posting. Stay-tuned for that and much, much more exciting news to come. -Ned Desmond

What's a Facebook impression worth? A lot more than most forms of advertising.

From GoFISHn's standpoint, a Facebook impression is worth a lot. I explained why in a post yesterday marking our 100,000th fan on Facebook and the start of our first major sponsorship. 

How much is an impression really worth? To answer that question, it's important to grasp that "impressions" are not the same as "fans" or even "posts." Anyone can build fans on Facebook, but fans don't necessarily see page posts. A post becomes an impression only when it actually appears in front of a Facebook user, typically in the Top News feed in their profile. And the post only gets there is Facebook's Edge Rank algorithm (more on Edge Rank here) decides the post is worthy of that Facebook member.

To get on the right side of Edge Rank takes careful programming. According to Facebook stats, GoFISHN's Facebook page gets 300,000+ impressions in front of Facebook users most days.  And each day hundreds, sometimes thousands, of Facebook members "like", comment or click on the GoFISHn posts contained in those impressions. That's trust and engagement, and that's what Edge Rank looks for.

So how do you value a connection to consumers that's so carefully programmed by a media company, on the one hand, and Facebook's Edge Rank on the other? Consider these comparisons: Facebook impressions versus...

v. Print advertising. Magazines are great, and they will be with us for a long time. They are a good venue of grand, visual branding statements. A page of advertising in a sportsman's magazine that reaches more than a million paid subscribers is priced at more than $100,000! The audience is big and targeted, but at the end of the day the advertiser will not learn much about how many readers actually saw the ad, or what they thought. Never mind the long lead times associated with monthly magazines. Compare that to the immediacy of Facebook programming, the quality of impressions (guaranteed by Edge Rank), and the almost instantaneous metrics to gauge response. Decision: Print has a place, but when it comes to reaching consumers in a timely, selective and accountable way, Facebook impressions are in another galaxy.

v. Online display advertising. The most valuable display advertising is smart in the sense that the ad network tries to place the ad in front of certain types of users and certain contexts where it is more likely to get clicked. But the reader has not opted to see the ads, nor is there an agent like Facebook filtering ads on the consumer's behalf. It's about the advertiser trying his luck with a cold call based on your zipcode, or maybe a shred of a tip because someone who used your computer a week ago showed an interest in golf clubs, and the ad network is hoping that was you. Facebook knows who you are and know what you like, in a lot more detail. Decision: the Facebook impression beats online display.

v. E-mail advertising and sponsored email. Once marketers have a consumer's email, they can bombard the consumer with messages until the subscriber decides to click on the unsubscribe notice hidden in 4-point type. At best, email is roughly equivalent to a Facebook fan. You've got access but that doesn't mean you've got attention. Facebook is paying attention on members' behalf: when there is no evidence that the member cares about your post, even if they "liked" your profile or page, then the post will not become an impression. Facebook members won't see it. It's as if Facebook pre-reads your in-box to decide what's important. That sort of filtering doesn't happen with email (though Google is trying with it's new Priority inbox.) For that reason, it's no contest: the Facebook impression crushes marketer email.

v. Sponsored text links. The most successful advertising innovation ever. Google determines the context of a sponsored link by either the terms in your search query or by the content of the page you're reading. Relevance is almost guaranteed for that instant. And for that reason sponsored link advertising is hugely powerful and profitable. But Google knows much less if anything about who you are or what your friends think. Facebook knows a lot about all that, which is why Facebook advertising is growing fast and will become the second great, endemic online advertising success story. It's also why Facebook  impressions are so valuable. Let's call this one a draw. (More on a click versus an impression below. Clicks win).

So back to the original question: What is the value of a Facebook impression? Consider pricing today for products like email and online advertising.

Email newsletters in niche categories like sport fishing can command $100+ cpms. If we valued Facebook impressions at that rate, then a 100,000 impressions on Facebook would be worth $10,000. But it's clear that Facebook impressions are worth more.

A click on a typical sponsored link or display banner priced on a cost-per-click basis can cost anywhere from pennies to several dollars, but a conservative number is $.50 in the fishing category.  If we thought of an impression as the equivalent of a click, then 100,000 impressions would be valued at $50,0000, which doesn't sound reasonable. That's because clicks are a deliberate act by the consumer, whereas impressions are informed programming suggestions by Facebook. The click does beat the impression.

What's more like a click, when it comes to a Facebook impression, is interaction with impressions -- likes, comments, click-thru. But if you see 2% interaction rate with 100,000 Facebook impressions, and you price those like clicks at $.50, you come out at $1,000, which values the impression well below what we argue is an inferior product, the marketing email. 

In the end (finally, a stake in the ground), we think a sound way to view the value of a Facebook impression is the impression itself + the interaction with the impression. The impression is inherently valuable because it reaches consumers due to the programming smarts and accumulated trust that get the post through Edge Rank to become an impression for any given Facebook member. That's much harder to do than delivering email or blanketing the Web with sponsored links. But interaction is also key because marketers want to know what consumers think, not just what Facebook's Edge Rank thinks.

In the end, price is not objective. It's what the market will bear. GoFISHn is in experimental territory, and we are pricing so that marketers feel comfortable trying out our ideas and theirs in the programming and promotion framework we've created. We deliver many times those 100,000 impressions within Facebook for our clients, not to mention we also have email lists, banner ads, and all that. We think the Facebook impressions and interactions are worth more than email cpms and less than clicks in a sponsored link. That's a big spread, and there is plenty of room to build a great business there.

Drop me a line if you'd like to discuss a promotion on GoFISHn. -Ned Desmond (ned@gofishn.com)

GoFISHn reaches 100,000 Facebook fans. The revolution in enthusiast media is underway...

At our first launch property, GoFISHn, we've gotten really good at taking the best fishing posts from our members on GoFISHn and using them to program the GoFISHn Facebook page. As of today that GoFISHn Facebook page has 100,000+ fans. 

That number makes a great headline, and it underscores GoFISHn's emerging leadership in enthusiast media. Our success in less than a year is proof that our fundamental ideas are working, and working well.

First, our cost-free, high quality programming strategy is a hit. Just ask those Facebook fans. What our member contributors get in exchange for their great pictures and fishing reports is promotion for their guiding or tackle business or a soap box for bragging rights, in the case for everyday anglers.

Second, our use of Google and Facebook to develop audience and distribute our member content is an audience-creating machine. Thousands of visitors from Google and Facebook reach GoFISHn most days. And our programming appears hundreds of thousands of times a day in Facebook member profiles. (More on that below.)

And third, GoFISHn is on the verge of revolutionizing the business of enthusiast media by escaping the limitations of site traffic, ad inventory and the other frustrating revenue limitations in online as well as print media.

The public evidence of all that starts today, as GoFISHn rolls out a major partnership. As part of GoFISHn's Catfish Week, line and lure maker Berkley is sponsoring product promotions built around simple contest questions like, "What's the craziest thing you ever used to catch a catfish?" Winners will receive packs of Berkley's new catfish bait chunks. And in the course of the week Berkley's new baits will get exposure to a vast yet select audience of anglers.

How will that happen?  The answer centers on the 100,000 GoFISHn Facebook fans. GoFISHn will post links to those contest promotions on our Facebook Page, and good things will flow from there. Over a couple of days many tens of thousands of people will learn about the promotions on Facebook. Hundreds of people will like and comment on those posts. Hundreds more will also jump to GoFISHn and enter the contests. And the best part? Every user interaction (comment, like, contest entry) on Facebook and on GoFISHn will send a notification to that Facebook member's network of friends. And 100,000 Facebook fans represents, conservatively, a network of 15 million people.

The Berkley and GoFISHn promotion won't reach all 15 million, but over the course of the week the promotions will appear hundreds of thousands of times in the feeds of Facebook members, some fans of GoFISHn, some new to GoFISHn. That huge exposure is partly a function of GoFISHN's big following on Facebook, and more importantly, the result of GoFISHn's excellent connection to its fans.

Here's they key point: Most GoFISHn Facebook fans see most GoFISHn posts in their "Top News" feed, which is where Facebook members have their eyes glued. That's a bigger accomplishment than 100,000 fans, truth be told, because far more Facebook posts don't make a member's Top News. They are consigned to the 'Most Recent" feed, which is the wasteland no one reads.

Why is that? Facebook doesn't want a member's Top News feed clogged up like an email in-box. So Facebook filters all posts headed to a member with something called called Edge Rank, an algorithm that considers how often the member and his friends have interacted with posts from that source (a member profile or page), how closely the members interests align with the subject matter of the post, and how long ago the post was made. If the post passes muster for a particular member, it lands in that member's Top News. If not, it's consigned to the member's Most Recent feed. As preeminent Silicon Valley blog Techcrunch summed this up: "...an object (post) is more likely to show up in your News Feed if people you know have been interacting with it recently."

GoFISHn's Facebook posts score Top News for a major portion of GoFISHn fans most of the time. We know that because Facebook provides the data. Each day our posts usually turn up more than 300,000 times across Facebook, mainly in Top New feeds of our fans as well as friends of our fans. It's not unusual for a single GoFISHNn post on Facebook to see 50,000 or more (sometimes more than 100,000) impressions.

In addition, hundreds of Facebook members will click on the links in our posts to see pictures and read fishing reports at GoFISHn. Facebook doesn't tell us that, but we can see those numbers in Google Analytics. Facebook members are very careful about clicking on what's in the feed. They have to trust that the results will be worth the detour from Facebook. GoFISHn has that trust.

Based on earlier experimental efforts with small tackle companies TGT Tackle and ABT Lures, we know that the Berkley promotions for the GoFISHn Catfish Week are likely to see numbers like this: 100,000 impressions on Facebook for each of five Berkley promotions, and hundreds of "likes," comments, and contest entries. By any standard, that's powerful engagement. And it comes at a price that crushes most other forms of media, whether in print, television or online.

But more on that in another post: What is a Facebook impression worth?

-Ned Desmond

iCast, GoFISHn, and the Tell Your Story campaign

Last year, I attended The wonderful American Sportfishing Association's annual show, iCast, in Orlando, and this year I'll be there in Las Vegas, along with Brian McClintock, July 14-16.

The big difference this year is that we'll have a booth (#1834 -- please come by and visit) and we'll have a story to tell. or more specifically, a story to tell about how YOU can Tell Your Story on GoFISHn. 

In the year since the show last July, GoFISHn launched (Decemeber), shook out the bugs, added a lot of features, and started growing fast. In June, we had nearly 60,000 visitors on GoFISHn, and over 60,000 fans on our GoFISHn Facebook page. When you ad up the daily interactions on GoFISHn and Facebook, there are over 18,000 anglers a day interacting with GoFISHn directly.  And those numbers have been growing on average over 50% month to month since February.

So how do we help you Tell Your Story? It comes down to this: GoFISHn is a publishing platform that sits between the two most important forces on the Internet: Google and Facebook. Anyone who publishes on GoFISHn is positioned really well to get found in Google search results and get referred around inside Facebook (or Twitter). 

The small business owners who publish won GoFISHn have already discovered the power of the GoFISHn platform. All they have to do is tell their story in a few sentences and a great picture, and they get found on Facebook and in Google, as well as on GoFISHn. And as you know, most guides and skippers don't mind telling a story...

At the ASA's iCast show, we're introducing that same magic to the brands and gear makers of the sporting fishing world. 

There is a revolution happening right now in the marketing world, and it's all about winning trust and awareness. According to Nielsen, 90% of consumer trust peer recommendations, and other studies put trust in advertisements as low as 14%. To connect with consumers in that world, you have to find the right ones, engage them at a personal level, and show why your product is so important.  That's what GoFISHn does. Tell Your Story with GoFISHn and you'll create a permanent (unlike conventional advertising) and compelling story line of consumer engagement with your products, your brand and your happy customers. Come by our booth (or call any time (650) 395-7512) and we'll explain more.

BTW, here's the banner for our humble booth at iCast. Many thanks to Kenneth Andrew at ASA, who has been a great help to the GoFISHn first-time exhibitors.

GoFISHn: The Press

GoFISHn is new online, but it has already received a lot of attention in the press. Here are some of our favorites:

"GoFISHn casts off as a fishing site for the Facebook age" (December 7, 2009)

"Ned Desmond has gone fishin’ and he wants you to GoFISHn too Today, Desmond launched a fishing site for the Facebook age. You can sign in with your Facebook ID, share fishing stories and photos with your friends, ask questions to fishing pros and the community, and review all the gear in your tackle box.

Go FISHn is an enthusiast site for people who love to fish—and there’s an estimated 30 million recreational anglers in the U.S. alone who spend about $45 billion a year on gear, supplies, and trips. “Nobody has done a good job in enthusiast sites,” says Desmond, who is the former president of Time Interactive." Read the rest...

On March 19, Ned Desmond appeared live on Fox Business news for an interview with David Asman and Liz Claman. To watch the interview, click here. 

"A Place on the Web for Outdoor Hobbyists" (January 11, 2010)

 "A new Web site called GoFishn gives anglers a place to show off their catches and small fishing businesses a way to find customers.

GoFISHn was started by Ned Desmond, a former magazine reporter and publisher. Most recently, he ran the new media group at Time Inc., where he was assigned with revamping Web sites for magazines including People and Entertainment Weekly. Now he is trying to do for niche sporting publications what he did for big magazines at Time..." Read the rest...

Ned Desmond wrote, "How Can You Get More from the Internet?" for the March edition of Angling Trade,  the must-read magazine of the flyfishing industry.

Read the piece(see page 24)

"Steve Smith's Eye on Digital Media: Ned Desmond's Enthusiast Fishin' Hole." (April 5, 2010)

"After doing (his) job well enough to obsolete the (Time Inc. Interactive)  group, Ned left in 2008 and went fishing...literally and figuratively. "I wanted to address the problem in the small business world of making effective use of the Internet for marketing purposes," he says.

He was looking for a model that would help these SMBs get a presence online with little muss, fuss, and cost while also creating the kinds of content that their customers are passionate about. Read more..