On Facebook, I think everyone will agree that likes are good. The more likes, the better the potential to reach people. A goal of reaching a higher number of likes, or percentage growth of likes over a specific period of time, is a decent goal to have. Likes are a requirement on Facebook. If no one is liking you, then all you have is another area to post advertisements and contact information. Everyone agrees, Likes are nice.
People Are Talking About This, on the other hand, is excellent.
Lots of things fall into this catagory. Here’s a list.
- liking a Page
- posting to a Page’s Wall
- liking, commenting on or sharing a Page post (or other content on a page, like photos, videos or albums)
- answering a Question posted
- RSVPing to an event
- mentioning a Page in a post
- phototagging a Page
- checking in at a Place.
To put it more simply, these people are actively engaging with your Facebook page in some way, within the last week. Although this information can be set for different time durations, the portion that loads automatically on your Facebook Timeline or Wall is referencing the last week, so it’s important to note that.
So what is it about Talking About that makes me consider it substantially more important than Likes alone? A Facebook user has the ability to easily hide posts from his or her wall. That means that they can like you, but never see any of your postings. Therefore, Like is a requirement, but not an accurate measuring tool as to how many people are engaging with your brand. Talking About, on the other hand, shows that there is engagement.
Likes is a number. It doesn’t tell a story to you, the admin of a page. Your likes typically don’t go up due to new content, unless it is shared by someone. Your likes don’t change due to a funny picture, unless someone interacts with it, and someone new sees that interaction. It’s harder to recognize trends around Likes. Meanwhile, you can see trends on Talking About. In fact, monitoring these trends can tell you what type of content is more engaging to your audience, and can help you see what you need to post more of, or what to stay away from. You can’t do that with Likes.
For more help decoding all of the insights that Facebook provides you, click the Feedback button.
In case you were overzealous on celebrating Leap Year, and missed the news on the many changes that are happening or have occurred on Facebook, we’re going to give you a brief summary, with some friendly advice. There’s a whole lot going on with the changes to business pages, and some of it can be very confusing.
You have probably noticed Timelines on your personal profile or on friends’ profiles. Timelines have come to pages. Your company is no longer forced to work with the 200 pixel wide image. You now have a small image, and an entire canvas (that is 850 pixels wide) to fill. That means you can focus all of your artistic flair on the cover image, and allow your logo to remain consistent. No longer do you have to try and modify your company logo to fit the seasons. You can maintain your branding, and simply change out the cover image to allow for expression.
The “Info” portion is now front and center. Make sure your store hours, phone numbers, etc. are all completed. You’ll also notice something else front and center: your apps. This causes a very large change for some companies. If your strategy was using a like gate that loaded instantly, and forced your prospective fan to like you before continuing, it’s time to come up with a new strategy. The fact that you can now have graphics that represent your apps, and that they are in what I would consider a more highlighted area means that your app quality needs to be maximized.
Speaking of apps, you will notice that you only have room for 3 “above the fold” apps. Put your very best stuff right on top, as only really loyal fans are going to open the drop-down to see your additional apps. If you have multiple locations tied into one Facebook page, I suggest using the Facebook Map app. It’s a sweet way to have a single page, but still have the ability to easily point out all of your locations, and it uses location based information to lead your fan to the closest location. Lastly, most of your old apps are now out of style. You need to go back, and make them fit to the 810 pixel canvas.
As an admin you have additional control over the postings. You can now star posts, which makes them double wide. This can draw extra attention to wide graphics. You have the ability to back date, so you can fill in information from years ago. Milestones are an excellent tool to use when you want to backdate your past events. Rather than simply putting in posts, and backdating them, use milestones to create important events. Use this for big, important events that happened throughout history.
Post of the Week basically bookmarks a specific post, and keeps it at the top of your timeline. It makes sure that the most important post doesn’t get slipped down the timeline. You can also do this with questions, polls, photo galleries, etc. Therefore, if you have something that specifically asks non-fans to like you, it may be a way to ask for likes. It won’t substitute a like-gate, but it is an option.
Admin panel is completely redone. There’s a real reason they are calling it “Mission Control”. It gives you front and center what is happening on your page. It shows all of the social tools you need right away, such as insights, page tips, new likes, etc. Now that pages can message back and forth privately, instead of just on the wall, it will provide this information right away. There’s going to be new admin permissions. You don’t want everyone to be able to control the whole page? Not a problem. Coming later in March, there will be 5 different admin levels. You can give your customer service level people one type of access, without fear that they are changing permissions or moving apps around.
All in all, the changes are good. For the psychology behind the changes, stay tuned.
Gap, J.C. Penney, Nordstrom, GameStop are all national brands that opened a “Facebook Store” only to close it within a year, as reported by a Bloomberg report. The reason being seems to be that it wasn’t cost effective. The high development costs with low sales has led each of these large companies to determine that Facebook is not an effective place to sell actual goods.
Are they wrong in thinking stores won’t work on Facebook? That’s not a simple yes or no.
First, you need to look at the limitations that a Facebook shop has, versus a traditional website. Chances are, your online catalog is wider than 520 pixels. It probably isn’t loading through an iframe, either, which means that it can render itself, without having to pass through Facebook’s structure, first. In essence, that means it is framed to fit your screen, not a small window, and that it isn’t being restricted in its load speed.
Your own website’s online catalog, without question, is more effective in its presentation of your goods catalog. Anyone who thinks a Facebook store will be more effective than a dedicated site is gravely mistaken.
Does this mean that no commerce can happen in a Facebook App? Can it be a coupon-only model? I don’t think so. The sales model simply needs to be different than an online catalog.
There have been effective fire sales, featuring a single product at a blowout price. Understand that this does not guarantee a lot of return followers. If accurately promoted, you can have a huge influx of fans, that leave after making the purchase, to never visit your page again. If you are using a fire sale as a way of creating permanent excitement to your brand, you may be setting yourself up for failure.
One of the deciding factors that establishes whether it makes sense is price. It can cost a lot of money to develop Facebook Apps. Therefore, if you are spending a lot on creative, without a solid return on your investment, then the store fails. It only makes sense if you have the ability to get a Facebook shop put together without having a large expense.
It all comes down to your goal, and the goal of the potential customer. Most people aren’t on Facebook to buy things. It’s that simple. However, if you can create a deal for potential customers that is good enough for the customer to forgive the fact that the offer is automatically shared to their wall, and that caters to impulsive buyers, it is possible to have an effective sale on Facebook. You can set up a highly effective sales process. It needs to not set you back much to build, or it will be considered ineffective.
A big retailer, like Nordstrom, would actually have a harder time setting up a sale like this, than a small business would. On a local level, Facebook stores may work, and well, but when it comes down to national style pages with huge catalogs, Nordstrom is probably right.
Edison Research and Arbitron found that 80% of US social network users preferred to connect with brands through Facebook. Twitter is tied with "Don't know" for a very distant second place.
We'll revisit this data in a few months when we know more about Google+ and the effect it will have on the customer/brand relationship.
But, for now, it's fairly clear where brands should continue to focus.
According to ExactTarget, 58% of Facebook likers expect both access to exclusive content, events or sales, and discounts or promotions through Facebook. Only 37% do not expect anything to happen.
What does all of this data mean? In short, it means that the "If you build it, they will come" mentality only works in the movies. Just as it is with every other medium, you need to give visitors a reason to engage with you.
What exclusive content are you providing to your likers?
Typically, this blog focuses on solid marketing and advertising advice, as well as technology to do both better. However, this Post Fourth of July, if you need to ease your way back into work a little slower, we understand, and want to offer a suggestion as to how.
Everyone needs a break once in a while. Often times, when we are "on break", we are still at our desks, just doing non-work stuff. Let's face it, the computers on our desks provide us an opportunity for entertainment, as well as work. However, unless you have a neon sign that lights up "On Break" or "On Duty", if you are sitting at your desk, people assume you are busy working. Having your Facebook account loaded up gives the impression that you are goofing off when you are supposed to be working, when in fact you are simply taking a break.
The solution? The coolest little software program I've seen out in a while!
http://www.hardlywork.in/
This site takes your Facebook stream, and turns it into an excel spreadsheet look-alike. The image in the bottom right changes, to be the profile pic of the name you hover over, of the image shared in the wall, etc. It shows the number of likes on each wall post, as well as the comments. Hovering over the comments count shows the comments, in a note-like fashion.
So, to the casual observer, you are still working, and you don't have to worry about looking like you are wasting company time when really, you are on your break.
Enjoy! And remember to use it responsibly!
This box is probably not your friend. You go and spend the time conceptualizing the ultimate page to run on your Facebook page, that will completely captivate your audience. You spent time reading about FBML, and how it differs from HTML. You went and tried to create a static page, that would enable you to actually do business on your Facebook page.
And now you’re stuck with this grey box next to your page. Yuck.
If you are going to build custom pages on Facebook, it’s time to start thinking like a developer. You can’t think, “I’m going to build a page”, but rather, “I’m going to create a Facebook App.” It’s a hard transition, and one that throws people for a loop. Especially if you’ve been in web development for a while, but not in the programming world, you hear the word “App” and cringe. For Facebook, the term is a little more interchangeable.
In order to build a good custom page, you need to bite the bullet and verify your Facebook account with a mobile telephone number. Without doing this, you cannot become an app builder. (For those that think they are tricky, Google Voice numbers don’t work. Sorry, they want the real mobile number, tied to a carrier.) Once you are verified, you can start building Apps.
Before creating your custom page, you need to create your Privacy Policy, and your Terms of Service. I can hear you already, saying, “But I just want to build a simple web page!” It doesn’t matter. You need these two things created. Luckily, there are some decent example ones out there, if you search for them. You’ll also need a server to host these on. Facebook won’t accept your uploads; you need to be able to reference them via url. So, if you’re thinking that Facebook is going to be your only webpage, you are going to need a backup page, to run your app and these files.
Ok, so you’ve built your two text files, and now you want to start building your page. (Yes, please. That’s what this is about, right?) Using whatever building tool you want to, whether it is Dreamweaver, Amaya, or a simple text editor, go ahead, and get your page built, so that it can run on its own. You are going to do NO CODING on the Facebook page. (Very different from the old FBML you spent hours learning.) Your app needs to be able to run completely independent of Facebook.
Don’t worry about coming up with a fancy name for it, since Facebook only wants to see it as an “index.” file. You are going to tell Facebook where to find it on your server, and it will create the an iFrame for it. You log into developer, and create a new app. It’s here where you will assign it a name, give it 2 graphics, (one 16x16, the other 75x75) and enter in the relevant information from your server.
Then, all you have to do is go to the actual app, and click “Add App to Page”. Presto, you’ve got your custom website on your Facebook page. This entire process for someone with experience takes several hours, and for people who have never created a webpage, days of learning, so unless you have the time, it would probably be easier to ask a professional.
We typically don’t use this blog to promote things. It’s bad form. So, please forgive us for it this one time.
On Thursday, June 2nd, there is a Social Media and E- Marketing Summit occurring in Marlboro, MA. We don’t feel bad promoting this one event on our blog, because it goes so hand in hand with what we talk about on here a couple of times a week, and if you are a local reader of our blog, this event will certainly be something worth visiting. It’s happening at the Marriot Courtyard at 75 Felton Street, in Marlboro, MA. Tickets are on sale, and you need to pre-register for this event NOW.
The topics being discussed are Social Media 101, the Power of Video, the Latest in Mobile Marketing, Understanding Website Analytics, Email Marketing, and Leveraging Social Media for your small business.
For those still on the fence, let me help make it even easier: It goes from 7:30 until 11:45, so it won’t take up your entire day. Basically, come in, learn, and go do it on your own.
While you’re there, if you have any additional questions about any of the information covered, our Senior Account Executive Mike Ivas will be available to schedule one-on-one consultant appointments, that will personalize all of this new material and help you custom tailor it to your specific business needs. So be sure to keep an eye out for him!
Thanks for reading while I shamelessly promote this event! We’ll get back to the practical advice for your advertising needs next post.
A local business that I know of has more than 300 employees. They’ve had a Facebook page since around mid February. How many followers do you think they have?
Answer: 41.
I want you to think about that for a minute. Percentage wise, that means around 13% of their employees are fans of their own business. (It’s less than that, because I am one of the 41, so that I could write this article, and they have more than 300 employees, not exactly 300...)
I can guarantee that this company does not allow Facebook pages on their own network. I’m willing to bet that the company policies regarding Facebook are ironclad, and at least a page long. If handed a copy of their policy, I’m sure it has this phrase repeated several times throughout the communication: “Up to and including termination.”
So, you want to have a thriving social media presence, but threaten your employees with draw and quartering if they mention any detail on the page other than “We had great weather today”. The employees must do any commenting from home, since they cannot access the site at work, even during their scheduled break. You want the benefits that having a Facebook page can give, but you hamstring your employee participation with strong warnings and signed manifestos.
Does any of this look familiar to you? Could you be the company I am writing about? Is it time for a change?
Obviously, there are some safety concerns for Facebook. The last thing you need is for an employee to do something harmful to your company, or misrepresent the company in a way that opens you up to possible litigation. I wish it was all just fun and games. It isn’t. You need a policy that protects your company, and that protects your employees. However, the “Doomsday” policy is not going to work. The “Don’t even think about going online to Facebook at work (But please follow us in your personal time)” approach rarely works, either.
Once again, it all comes back to what you want to achieve, and how to get there. Start fresh. Figure out what you want Facebook to do for your company, and then figure out what you are going to need to get there. Throw away the “COMMENTS MAY RESULT IN INSTANT TERMINATION” style company policy, and build a new one that lets employees know what is acceptable and isn’t for your particular company profile.
The most common answer to the question “Why get involved with Facebook?” is simply “To engage our customers.” However, what does this mean? Many cannot explain it. Some will mumble about “Brand messaging” or “Creating personality”. Others may have a stock sentence prepared, something along the lines of “To dynamically create a dialogue between the company and our customers in order to achieve higher penetration and marketability in an attempt to forward our brand identity and provide the upmost in customer service.” Whew! I’m almost scared to ask for that sentence to be broken down…
When we are asked, “Should I use Facebook for my company?” the first question we ask is, “Well, why do you use it yourself?” The answer that we hear all too often, unfortunately, is “I don’t. But I think my company should!”
Ouch.
This means that there is no goal set. Other than the fancy buzzword sentence previously mentioned. That means you don’t know why you should enter into social media, other than someone suggesting it as a way of growing. Chances are, six months from the date this question was asked and answered, the company will say, “Social just doesn’t work for us.” Instead, let’s slow it down, and think about it for a bit. Understanding why people are on Facebook is paramount to creating accurate, achievable, and realistic goals.
• Most people are on Facebook to communicate with people they either know now, or knew in the past. It’s typically not to make new friends, or to try new things. It’s a place to come and find your buddies. If your company is thinking of entering into this world, you must understand this principle first.
• Facebook has lots of ads running on the side of the screen. People don’t want to see ads running on their wall, too. There’s a place for everything.
• As a Facebook user, I don’t want to see too much of anyone. I have lots of Facebook Friends, and I want to be able to see what each of them are doing. So if I have someone who posts about nonsense every 15 minutes, chances are I’m blocking them.
• As a Facebook user, I’ll follow pages that have high interest to me, or that a friend of mine asked me to follow. Since I’m limited to how many pages I can follow, I’m not going to follow everything. Especially since it would cut into my ability to see what each one of my friends is doing.
Based on this information, what is your company’s goal by entering into Facebook? If it is to become friends with your customers, and communicate with them on a personal level, so that you can provide additional service to them, that’s ok. If your goal is to double your sales penetration by engaging the masses, spreading brand awareness by targeted marketing, and presenting additional vehicles to populate advertisements, you may be in the wrong place.
Create your goal before “stepping foot” on Facebook. Understand what it is you hope to accomplish, before spending the time, energy, and resources required to create the site. Otherwise, save yourself six months of pain, and resign yourself now to the “Social just doesn’t work” mentality now.
According to Bloomberg, Facebook will soon be rolling out a new test service that will allow consumers to buy discounted, one-time offers similar to the services offered by Groupon.
Groupon does this via email, which means that it is a one on one conversation between the consumer and Groupon if the customer chooses to take the deal. Bringing this discussion over onto Facebook is completely up to the customer, which means he or she can choose to talk about the wonderful deal that he or she received, but is in no way obligated to do so. The way that Facebook shares information, chances are, the customer that takes Facebook up on a deal is going to automatically share this information with all of his or her friends.
Imagine if there was a 50 inch flat screen on sale for $200. It’s two weeks before the Super Bowl weekend, and a group of friends will be gathering around at John Smith’s house to watch the game. John’s friends could see the sale, and send John a message, saying, “Hey John, look at this deal. Time to replace that 14 inch b&w set before the big game!” General ribbing takes place, and John buys the television. Ads would fly around, some taken as jokes, some as legitimate suggestions, and the consumer and the seller wins.
Here’s another example. A great deal comes along, and you, the customer, take advantage of it. Your Facebook status is automatically sent out to all of your friends with “John Smith just bought a $150 day spa visit for $20.00! You too can take advantage of this!” Since it’s a great deal, six or seven of John’s friends also go and buy it. And five or six of each of their friends also takes advantage of this excellent deal. You can see how this is a great sales model.
Proponents of this service on Facebook will certainly have no issues with this. The answer heard from them regarding the lack of privacy involving the purchase will most certainly be “So what? If I chose to get a great deal on a local business’ service, why wouldn’t I want to share this with all of my friends? Wouldn’t I want to offer this same benefit to everyone that I know, if it’s a great deal!”
Except that maybe, just maybe, you don’t want your wife to know that the spa day you got for her birthday, a $150 value, you bought for $20, on her birthday during your lunch break at work, when Facebook kindly reminded you it was her birthday in the first place.
I’m just guessing.
This is not to say that it is a bad idea. The structure of this form of socialized selling is an excellent idea, one that has the potential to really help small businesses capture more customers through word of mouth. Depending on the pricing requirements, and the commission rates paid to Facebook, this has the potential of replacing services like Groupon.
What other potential pitfalls do you see in completely socializing your purchases?
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There is an overwhelming amount of information floating out there in cyberspace regarding how to grow your Facebook page. A lot of this information is extremely repetitive and mostly common sense. Of course you want to promote your Facebook page via print material displayed at your location and in your printed ads. Obviously, you are going to update your email signature to include the link to your Facebook page. Everyone knows that they are going to send out an email to their email and Ezine subscribers, informing them that you are now on Facebook. Are there any ideas out there that haven’t been mentioned by every marketing company on the planet?
Sure there are, but they require work, which is why they are not commonly mentioned… Let’s look at a couple of the previously listed ideas first, and then we’ll begin to discuss the heavy lifting.
You can post on Twitter one hundred times a day, “Follow me on Facebook!!!” for a month straight and you aren’t going to gain any followers. Email every customer you’ve ever collected, and inform them of your new status, and you may pick up a follower or two. These commonly listed approaches to “Increase Your Facebook Fan base” typically show small results. Why? Because they go against the principles of “Social”.
Stop thinking that if you tell people to do something, or check out something, they are going to do it or check it. Do you know how much money has gone into television marketing where a little lizard tells you that fifteen minutes can save you 15 percent? According to SwiftEconomics, $800 million was spent just last year. According to Geico they have 10 million policy holders. That means I have pretty good odds if I bet you haven’t called yet. Just being told what to do does not create action.
Forget your business page for a moment, and think about your personal Facebook account. What was the last comment you made to another person? It was probably congratulatory, consolatory, or humorous. I would assume there was no call to action or offer for savings. I doubt anyone posted “I’m having car trouble. First one to comment with a solution gets a free $5.00 gift certificate to Dunkin Donuts!” Or, in response to a “I’m having car troubles” posting by a friend, said “Go to Thisdealer.com right now to schedule your maintenance today!”
The point is, it’s a lot of work to treat your business like it is a person, and there are no easy solutions. You can't just “Add a link on your personal profile.”
Want to increase your fans? What types of pages would YOUR business be a fan of? Go, and follow those sites. Comment on their postings. Do not advertise, simply add to the discussions. If your Facebook page starts showing up on other Facebook pages, and is adding meaningful, interesting information, people will start to check you out. That is how you build a following of people. Although it is a lot more work, the concept is easy. Listen to others, then speak, then respond again. Eventually, people will start to talk to you, and follow you. It takes a lot of work to start the avalanche, but once it’s going, it can snowball, as long as you stay involved.
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