5 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Engagement Having trouble engaging your Facebook audience? If your fans are not interacting with your brand and sharing your content, what value are they? In this article, you’ll discover how to get more likes, comments and shares. I’ll reveal five strategies for Facebook posts that get your fans buzzing. #1: Keep Your Updates Short Research repeatedly shows that the longer a post is, the less engagement it will receive. Blame it on Twitter, but people don’t have the time or patience to read anything over 140 characters anymore. Results vary, but research shows that 100 characters or fewer seems to be the sweet spot. Want even more engagement? Posts with fewer than 140 characters combined with bold, beautiful photos get the most response. According to Facebook, posts that include a photo album, picture or video generate about 180%, 120% and 100% more engagement, respectively. Starbucks is a great example of a brand combining short posts with beautiful photos. #2: Don’t Use URL Shorteners Why is this?
5 Tips for Talking About Politics on Social Media Sometimes when we talk about things we're passionate about, conversations can get heated. One topic to tread carefully with is politics, especially when it comes to social media. The third and final U.S. presidential debate is tonight in Boca Raton, Fla. But before you take to Twitter or Facebook to share your opinions about the candidates and what they say, stop and ask yourself this: Would I say this to a client or business partner? It's easy to forget that what's said over social media is visible to everyone, and can turn out to be embarrassing or even disastrous for your brand. If the leadership at your company feels strongly about publicly supporting a candidate over social media, do so with a simple statement such as, "Acme Rocket Company is proud to support Wiley Coyote for president, we look forward to the future." Related: What You Can Learn from Celebrities About Social Media 1. 2. 3. Related: 5 Tips for Using Social Media as a Customer Service Tool 4. 5.
The Facebook & YouTube Love Affair: 7 Simple Facebook Hacks to Get Massive Views & Exposure on YouTube As an avid fan for sharing your message with video, I always recommend YouTube as ideal platform-or virtual stage for distributing your video content and building your community online. But there’s nothing worse than creating a fantastic video, uploading it to YouTube and seeing only seven views. To breathe life into our videos, we need to bring our content to the platforms where our audience is already hanging out. Fortunately for us, YouTube seems to play well with all the other social networking sites. And Facebook is no exception. When it comes to marketing your business on Facebook, Amy is the expert! Let’s begin… 1. To integrate your YouTube Channel and your Facebook account more easily, you can “connect” your Facebook profile to your YouTube Channel. To enable your “Social Sharing,” log in to your YouTube Channel, head on over to “Account Setting” and select the “Sharing” option. Note: If you are looking for even more automated sharing tools, check out IFFT.com 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Facebook rolling out option for fans to receive notifications about page posts Facebook rolling out option for fans to receive notifications about page posts Facebook is rolling out a new feature for users to opt in to receive notifications every time a page makes a post. This seems to be a solution for fans who don’t want to miss any page posts that might not make it into their News Feed because of Facebook’s algorithms. For example, some users might want to be aware of all posts from a news publication, an artist they really like or a small business that doesn’t post very often. The feature is similar to the “close friends” option, which alerts users each time a new update or photo is shared by someone on the list. Facebook confirmed to us in a statement, “We are currently rolling out the ability for people to receive notifications from specific pages, friends or public figures that they are connected to. With users and pages making so many posts and taking so many actions, Facebook uses an algorithm to sort News Feed rather than being a full stream like Twitter.
3 Unconventional Ways to Boost Your Facebook Engagement Do you want more Facebook fans without running contests or advertisements? Are you interested in increasing the engagement on your Facebook Page? If you’re looking for some creative ways to boost your brand’s profile on Facebook, here are three ways to do it that don’t involve giveaways or advertising. #1: Crowdsource Crowdsourcing is a term credited to Jeff Howe, who wrote about the phenomenon for Wired magazine back in 2006. In friendlier language, crowdsourcing is when you ask your community of users to offer their suggestions for how you might solve a problem or address an issue. Crowdsourcing can be a great engagement tactic. In the years since Howe’s story, crowdsourcing has been adopted by many multinational companies and organizations, such as the mining company Goldcorp and NASA. Social networks including Facebook and Instagram have made it easy for businesses to reach out to their community of friends and fans, and recruit new ones. #3: Reveal New Products and Features Nescafé
Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook's Early Days - Mike Isaac - Social Asa Mathat / AllThingsD.com Like any young start-up, the early days of Facebook were thin and scrappy. Its very first server back in 2004 cost $85 to rent. They didn’t spend more than they had in the bank. They were small, tight and still had everything to prove. To do that, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, the company needed to test its mettle against its existing competitors. “We first went to schools that were hardest to succeed at,” Zuckerberg said on Saturday morning, kicking off the Y Combinator Startup School event in Palo Alto, California. Zuckerberg spoke to a packed house in the Stanford Memorial Hall auditorium, with an audience mostly composed of twentysomethings, the veritable next wave of young Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. So if you’ll hearken back to 2004, Facebook’s first days were limited to college students alone, those who had verified university email addresses.
EdgeRank: Doing the Right Things Doesn't Solve the Bigger Issue UPDATE: Hugh Briss of Social Identities has started a petition at change.org asking Facebook to make EdgeRank an option. You can read it (and sign it, if you're so inclined) here. Posts have been flying from Facebook Page owners recently encouraging fans to create interest lists, click 'show in news feed', and interact frequently with posts to ensure that the Page’s posts show in user’s news feeds. While these are options, they don't solve the bigger issue. That bigger issue is EdgeRank and the fact that an algorithm decides what content is important to you - not you. One of the most important determining factors in posts being seen in the news feed is the interaction between users and Page content. For instance, in my own personal news feed, there are Pages that I interact with on a regular basis, yet their posts don’t always show up in my news feed. SEE ALSO: Dear Mark Zuckerberg, Can We Talk? Why these ‘fixes’ don’t always work: So what is the answer? What do you think is the answer?
Understanding Facebook EdgeRank and 5 Tips You Need to Improve It “So, you guys know what edge rank is, right?” 4 hands of 30 go up. This is an “advanced” social media class. “Really, well, how do you know if you’re doing the right things right on Facebook so that your posts are visible to your fans?” “OK, how many of you have seen the post/rumor floating around Facebook that goes something like this:” Facebook is now requiring page owners (us) to pay to have their status updates read by every subscriber. Of course, many of them had seen or heard of that. So, What is EdgeRank? The way that I explain Edge Rank is like this: “Just as Google’s Page Rank is a ‘black box’ of factors that contribute to your website’s visibility in search results, EdgeRank is Facebook’s ‘black box’ that contributes to how well your posts show up in your Fans’ newsfeeds. First, the Facebook news feed is now the most effective way to reach fans. That said, EdgeRank is not actually all that sophisticated, as far as marketing algorithms go. What is an Edge? Affinity: Weight: 1. 2. 3.
8 Ways Your Content Strategy Should Change With the New Facebook News Feed This post is an excerpt from our newest free guide, How the New Facebook News Feed Changes Your Content Strategy. If you aren't up to date on what the new Facebook changes are, download the free guide to get caught up! Yesterday, Facebook announced the biggest change to News Feed in its seven-year history. During the opening of this announcement, CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared how almost 50% of News Feed content today is photos and visual content. Naturally, Facebook took this information and translated it into a new, visually-focused News Feed design. These News Feed improvements, which can be read about in detail here, have serious implications on how fans engage with brands on Facebook, and what content these brands need to be posting for Facebook marketing success. Below you'll find eight marketing takeaways that were immediately clear after the announcement. 8 Marketing Takeaways to Align Your Content Strategy With the New Facebook News Feed 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1. 2.
10 Creative Ways to Use Instagram for Business Nowadays ordinary people usually use Instagram for … photographing their food and cats! And not all businessmen understand that Instagram is not just a “cool” app, but also a unique opportunity for business. Besides today, the visual information better meets our needs. If you take anything away from this article then take this: do not make your pictures boring. In this article, you’ll learn… Why you should use Instagram for business10 creative ideas of how to do it 1 – Show the viewer your products Do not make them adverts. Referring to the experience of the “great”. 155-year-old fashion house Burberry has always moved with the times in terms of social media. 2 – Show the viewer how your products are made If you have a sowing factory, you could show time delay pictures of the product being made. Starbucks company one of the first began to use the service to share photos and today has more than 200,000 followers. 3 – Introduce your viewer to your workplace Don’t be boring about it though.
4 Tips to Evangelize Your Brand on Facebook Are you looking to stand out on Facebook? Christiane Erwin, owner of Crestview Doors of Austin, TX, logged onto Facebook early one morning and was surprised. She saw one of her company’s door designs in a photo post from home superstore Lowe’s. Unfortunately it was as the winner of the Lowe’s Ugly Door Sweepstakes. The winner of the Lowe's Ugly Door Sweepstakes. “They call that ugly?” Crestview is a small door manufacturer specializing in mid-century modern architecture. Due to a savvy Facebook strategy that plays to its strengths, Crestview was perfectly poised to take advantage of the opportunity to play David to Lowe’s Goliath, and increased its reach more than four-fold over the course of the week in the process. Organization: Crestview Doors Social Media Handles & Stats: Website: Crestview DoorsFacebook — 4,795 fansTwitter — 1,021 followersYouTube — 28,788 viewsFlickr Highlights: Evans responded with a succinct post in reply: “Dear Lowe’s Ugly Door Sweepstakes. #1: Get Personal #2: Get Visual
How To Create A Facebook Media Room For Publicity Attracting media attention is a double-edged sword: You want the coverage of television, print, online, and radio journalists, but they are often on deadline and need your information last-minute. How can you give journalists what they need without leaving your business hanging? Create a tab for them on your Facebook page! Media-savvy organizations often have a press room on their website, offering their latest press releases, images of key personnel, logo artwork, articles and interviews journalists can draw from, as well as contact information. However, I’ve seen precious few companies putting up the same resources on Facebook pages, and that’s a huge missed opportunity. Journalists do use social networks to find sources for their stories! After all, they use Facebook just like you do: they share family photos, catch up with college alumni, and while doing so, often search for interesting material for upcoming stories. Make it easy for them to cover you by doing the following:
4 Unique Ways to Use Facebook for Your Business Are you wondering how to best use Facebook for your business? Should you open your personal profile with a Facebook Subscribe button? Would a Facebook Group work well for your business? The simple truth is that Facebook Pages are not being seen as often in the news feed. Facebook reported that on average, brands reach about 16% of their fans in a typical week through posts. Find out how to by answering these simple questions. #1: Have multiple employees? If so, despite the visibility issues. First, Facebook Pages are branded. You can also by commenting on other Pages as your Page to increase visibility. Use a Facebook Page for great branding and added apps. Second, you can . Advertise your Page to get the Like, but the text can also provide an offer. Third, you can that give your Page some bells and whistles. Use Offers to provide a unique way for people to get discounts and offers from you. #2: Want to brand yourself? #3: Are you self-employed? #4: Manage groups of people? Networking groups .
Salesforce.com grows social capabilities with 20 partners Building on its acquisition of Radian6 and Buddy Media, Salesforce.com today announced that its Marketing Cloud has expanded to include 20 of the most current social analytics vendors, with the most additions including Trendspottr, LeadSift, Bitext, Caterva, EpiAnalytics and LingaSys. At Cloudforce 2012, a company event held in New York City, Salesforce.com noted a recent McKinsey Global Institute report that found relying on brand recognition can increase a company’s margins by as much as 60 percent by using social technologies to connect with customers and to generate sharper consumer insights. Michael Lazerow, chief marketing officer of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, said Salesforce.com provided the tools to make that happen. “150 million social conversations are happening every day, and now companies are truly able to take social insight and turn it into action by focusing on the conversations that matter,” he said. Hat tip to ZDNet. Related links: Salesforce – press release