Facebook (FB) Updates App For Faster Reading, Offline Posting On Slow Connections

Facebook wants to move faster, at slower speeds. The social network is releasing several new features to allow the app to work more efficiently on smartphones in areas where connection speeds are slow or nonexistent.

The update, which launches Wednesday, is part of a wider push at Facebook to improve the user experience on the mobile app in bandwidth-constrained areas. These initiatives do not solely cater to users in the United States and Canada, who can face slow speeds when commuting underground or in congested football stadiums. They extend to Facebook’s largest-growing markets — India and Africa — where fast connections are often absent. 

The new bandwidth-saving elements include showing content that was previously downloaded but not viewed. Facebook has had a similar setting, but it did not reshuffle the posts, so users could be looking at the same content every time they open their phone in the subway. Now, anything already viewed does not appear at the top of the News Feed. Another update allows Facebook users to write comments and replies on posts without an internet connection. Prior to Wednesday, Facebook users could post and “like” while offline but could not comment.

Facebook has been investing deeply in the large, fast-growing markets in Asia and Africa. The American-led tech company, staffed with nearly 12,000 employees, has been building up offices in countries like Indonesia, India and Kenya, which are all considered emerging markets. In October, Facebook launched an initiative called “2G Tuesdays,” where all employees were encouraged to experience how the social network works within slower speeds.

“One particular focus for our team right now is emerging markets [in Asia and Africa]. People are very rapidly coming online. We need to make sure people in those markets can access Facebook in the same way,” said Chris Marra, a product manager at Facebook who focuses on emerging markets.

Online, On Mobile

Offline functionality has become central for web giants looking to expand in the developing world, as well as retain users who expect the app to work regardless of bandwidth. For instance, Google introduced more offline features to Google Maps in November so users can view and maps and directions without a mobile connection. In August, Snapchat added a “travel mode,” which lets users decide whether the app can pre-download content.

For the last two years, Facebook has been building more offline experiences. In 2013, Facebook added offline posting to the mobile app. In 2014, Facebook users could “like” posts without an Internet connection. Each of those updates let people open the app and take actions that will load after a connection is found.

Currently, if Facebook users open the app when they are without internet or on a slow connection, the Facebook News Feed will first show previously downloaded content the user did not see. Previously, the app did not take into account content that had already been viewed, whether the user hovered over the post, just scrolled past or interacted with it. Additionally, Facebook users can now not only post and “like” while offline but also comment and reply.

Marra and his team of engineers and researchers have been working on the update from Facebook’s India headquarters. Facebook has offices in Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi. About 50 employees there work on the product and research new developments. Facebook has 437.1 million active users in the Asia-Pacific region and 181.4 million users in the Middle East and Africa. That includes only about 12.8 percent of the population in the Middle East and Africa and 10.9 percent of the Asia-Pacific region while nearly half of the United States population has signed on to Facebook.

“I think speed is the main thing that we’re trying to deliver here. That’s what we’ve heard from people as their top complaint,” said Marra. With Wednesday’s update, Facebook “can get you from the homescreen of your phone to fresh stories” no matter what the quality of connection may be.

Beyond showing the most relevant content, some smartphone users, especially those in emerging markets, are concerned about data prices. A 500MB data plan in India costs about 17 hours of minimum wage work in the country, according to a report from Jana, a company that offers phone data through mobile rewards and provides global research insights.

Back at headquarters in Menlo Park, California, Facebook has also prioritized building the service with connectivity in mind. One example is the launch of “2G Tuesdays” that lets any employee set his or her internet connection as slower. Marra’s team led a “2G Bug Bash” in the India office earlier this week, where about 20 employees worked to identify and fix app errors.

New Connections

An emphasis on speed and connectivity has spread across several departments of Facebook. Last month, Facebook extended Instant Articles to publishers in India and is reportedly building a team in Asia, though Marra says his team does not work on that feature. Facebook says that the Instant Articles feature, launched in May, allows content to load up to 10 times faster. 

“We don’t see too many differences in terms of how people are using Facebook. Facebook is a product that lets you communicate with your friends and your family. We’re trying to make the product more reliable,” Marra said.

Yet, aside from connecting with friends on social media, current and potential Facebook users in India actively shop online, especially with mobile devices. Facebook has been betting on that habit in the U.S. market, as it has released a shopping tab on the mobile app and partnered with a few U.S. retailers for e-commerce options. 

Facebook has added a “Shopping” tab to the mobile app. Photo: Facebook

Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s revenue chief, described e-commerce in India as having “skipped 10 to 15 years” compared to the Western world, having leapfrogged computer-based commerce entirely.

Everson and Facebook’s marketing and advertising teams have also been investing in Asia, specifically in India and many countries in Africa. Facebook recently released a new ad product called “Slideshow” where advertisers can build three to seven photos into a looping ad and have referred to it as a “lightweight video product.”

“We take care that [an ad] renders beautifully no matter what device you’re on,” said Nikila Srinivasan, a product manager for emerging markets.

Facebook (FB) Updates App For Faster Reading, Offline Posting On Slow Connections

Infor Updates Email Marketing Product; Allows Social Media Integration

Infor, a business cloud company, today unveiled Infor Omni-Channel Campaign Management, a new suite of marketing solutions for data-driven email marketers.

The new solution is an updated and rebranded version of the former Infor Epiphany Outbound Marketing product, which stemmed from Infor’s acquisition of SSA Global Technologies in 2006.

Infor Omni-Channel Campaign Management helps marketers plan, execute and monitor marketing campaigns across multiple channels, including social media, SMS and email. It’s omnichannel and integrated approach allows marketers flexibility in how they reach out to customers, and through what channels.

The case for email and social media integration “is a strong one,” states Luke Brynley-Jones, CEO of Our Social Times and author of Constant Contact’s 2014 white paper, Integrating Social Media and Email Marketing. “Social media creates awareness, deepens relationships and builds trust while email converts prospects into buyers and increases customer retention.”

Yet, only 56% of marketers currently integrate social media with their email marketing programs, according to a recent study by ReachMail.

Less than 10% of email marketers plan to focus on social media integration in 2015, via Econsultancy.

Besides social-media integration, Infor’s new release contains several substantial product updates for traditional email marketers that include real-time analytics and segmentation capabilities. Version 10.1 includes new automated campaign workflows, one-click segmentation filters based on demographic and transactional data, and A/B testing and inbox previews.

Infor says its email marketing campaigns are permission-based and therefore compliant with anti-spam rules and regulations. It has also updated its campaign management solution with real-time statistics to track a marketing campaign’s success.

“Marketers are overwhelmed with data,” states Jason Rushforth, vice president, Infor Customer Experience. Infor helps marketers “streamline tasks to keep their campaigns as robust and direct as possible in the marketplace

The company suggests the updated analytics tool adds flexibility to a marketing campaign by allowing email marketers to monitor changing market dynamics and to quickly change strategy to maximize customer engagement with more personalized content.

Infor Updates Email Marketing Product; Allows Social Media Integration

4 email landscape updates you need to know

With the news that Salesforce is being pursued by at least one buyer in yet another possible round of consolidation, marketers looking for a new email services provider are facing more interesting questions than they did in the past. Questions regarding who has the best platform, best service, or the lowest CPM are being replaced by questions regarding who is going to be distracted by a merger or how a particular vendor’s business model is potentially going to change over time.

Understanding the tectonic shifts that have been occurring in the enterprise ESP space over the past couple of years — and are continuing today — is essential before beginning any RFP process. So this month we’ll take a very high-level view of the ESP landscape and how certain types of vendors approach the world of email marketing.

What’s up with all these cloud-based email solutions?

Most of the acquisition action over the past couple of years has occurred with cloud-based technology companies buying ESPs to extend their offerings for customers. Adobe acquired Neolane, Salesforce acquired ExactTarget, IBM acquired Silverpop, and finally Oracle acquired Responsys (and Eloqua). Like so many other terms in the marketing technology space, the words “cloud-based” are basically a new way of saying something is software-as-a-service. But those words are crucial in that they reflect how these companies are going to approach their email clients in the future.

Horizontal alignment of a suite of sales, service, and marketing tools is a core strategy of these companies with a focus on the technology side of the solution. Whatever the individual ESPs were before they were acquired, they are now part of larger companies that more often than not rely on a number of various partners to provide the services side of the equation. Don’t misinterpret me here; I’m not saying they are getting out of the services side of things. But it is not their focus because that’s not how technology companies think. Their partners include systems integrators as well as independent email agencies, so you will always be able to get the support you need — but it just might involve another vendor.

What about the MSP email platforms?

Before the cloud company acquisition spree of the past couple of years, back in 2003 and 2004, we saw the first acquisition spree by what are known as marketing services providers (MSPs). Back then saw Epsilon acquire Bigfoot Interactive, Acxiom purchased Digital Impact, Experian bought CheetahMail, and InfoUSA acquired Yesmail. There were other acquisitions at the time, but these were the big four.

MSPs at the time provided database marketing solutions. Because email marketing was becoming more and more data-driven, it seemed like a good fit for all these companies to add ESPs and have more things to sell to their data clients. By and large it was a good fit, as these companies all remain players in the email ecosystem to one degree or another. What sets these companies apart from the cloud-based solutions is their approach to servicing email clients. As a group, they bring a much broader service mentality to the table, with all of them offering a robust array of agency-type services for their clients. And rather than take the horizontal approach of the cloud companies (everything you need with one vendor), the MSPs continue to deploy a more vertical strategy — the data and the tools you need to deploy and analyze marketing campaigns.

What about point solutions?

One of the great things about email marketing is the constant innovation and rejuvenation in the sector. Many of the companies just acquired by the cloud-based companies rose to prominence as independent point solutions after the last round of acquisitions. And we already see a similar pattern today with a new wave of email point solutions, many with a unique approach to solving problems around greater personalization, lowered costs, cloud-based infrastructure, and much more. We reported on several of these in our 2015 Relevancy Ring Buyer’s Guide — companies like Sailthru, MessageGears, Message Systems (old company, new email solution), PostUp, and WhatCounts. They all can handle enterprise clients and are attracting more and more attention from large email marketers.

Multichannel vs. email only?

This is a bit of a trick question since most email platforms today incorporate at least some degree of multichannel capabilities. With some companies it’s through partnerships and easy integrations. With others, it’s native functionality built into the platform. Or it’s a combination. In any case, while currently the use of these multichannel capabilities by email marketers is in its early stages, the longer-term imperative to deploy will grow.

Marketers looking to use data from one channel to drive communications in another, or looking for more-accurate attribution models or even digital media optimization, will look to their email partners to provide the tools and strategies to drive these efforts. So even if you are email-only today, you’ll need to be thinking about tomorrow when it comes to partner selection. At a minimum, you’ll want to ensure that your email engagement data is easy to integrate into broader reporting and analytic tools you might be using.

Chris Marriott is the vice president of services and principal consultant at The Relevancy Group.

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4 email landscape updates you need to know