Digital Marketing for business growth. Social Media Marketing, e-commerce, copy writing, design and strategy. Let's connect, engage and create. Thanks for visiting. I update about every other day so please check back soon.
I have the great fortune and honor of working with a wide range of businesses and organizations. This privilege provides me with direct access to the great and not so great uses for social media and Web 2.0. This posting is going to focus on engaging your audience and not wasting the social capital you have cultivated.
What caused me to think about this as subject matter? A non-profit I volunteer with has a Facebook page. They created a secondary page for an event. They are now promoting the secondary page to the audience of the primary page with posts like:
Like our page XXX to stay up to date on RxxxTxxHxxxxx. (RTH is a one-time event).
What??? Why would they do this? I asked... and received no real answer. Why would someone that is already following them be asked to follow a separate page competing for space on their newsfeed? Why would the pull people from their main page to a one-time event page?
It seems they have many people, volunteers and paid employees that have admin access. This creates issues such as posts competing for audience attention, posts that lack consistency and overall planning and posts that simple are not worth posting because they do not follow any best practices or lack relevant information.
Wow.... No wonder their overall page and individual posts appears to engage very little of their audience.
Think about yourself for a moment. You find a product or service you like. You check them out online. Might be a blog, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest page, or maybe Google+. Doesn't so much matter. What does matter is your found something that you identify with and "like", "follow" or "add". Whatever the correct action is for the particular page. You start receiving content and engage with the brand. The odds of you buying that product or service in the future is now sky-high. (much has been written on buying habits of fans so I won't go into that here.)
What if that brand, product or service suddenly changed their messaging, frequency or quite simply started putting out posts that didn't interest / engage you? Would your impression change? Would it change for the better or worse? Overall your feeling for the brand would change in a negative way and with it possibly any future purchasing decisions might not "automatically" be for that brand.
Stay consistent without becoming stale
Don't confusing your fan
Be original
Don't post long rambling posts or posts of irrelevant subject matter
and don't post with several distinctly different "voices"
If you find yourself turning off your fans you run the risk of losing them as customers. Chances are your competitors are more than happy to fill the void both in terms of social content which ultimately could turn into sales revenue and subsequent brand loyalty.
Getting traffic to your website or blog can be tough,especially if you are a small business or an individual blogger. The good news is two of the biggest social media networks have tools to tap allowing instant access to targeted audiences. These tools are called Groups. Groups on Facebook and Linked In are exactly what a “group” sounds like. Like-minded people connected for the purpose of sharing resources, insights, best practices, getting advice, mentoring, etc.
Join Groups to post messages, either by starting a new message (conversation) or by responding to an existing thread. Include a link(s) to your website or blog. Many groups allow polls and have simple tools for creating and monitoring them.
When posting, be aware of the group rules which are usually linked for all to see. Be sensitive to the number of post you create and aware of how group members perceive the nature of your posts. You certainly don’t want to be seen as an intrusive spammer. Some Groups give warnings; some just kick out offending members. Each group has different rules.
Facebook Groups
According to Facebook, Groups are close circles of people that share and keep in touch on Facebook.
Find Groups on Facebook is using the Search tool.
Simply enter your keyword or term and click the search icon. Here’s an
example using the term Blogging. Once the results are returned, click
the link at the bottom that says see more results. You will then see
“All Results”. From here you are able to filter. Simply select “Groups”.
Hover over the name of the group to get a short description of the group. Clicking on the group name will take you into the group page where you have read access. Join and you’ll be able to post and spread your messages to the group members.
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 120 million members and growing rapidly. LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals.
There are Groups useful for engaging your audience with practically any professional interest. In fact at the time of writing this article there are 1,294,632 Groups on Linked In. Narrow down and target relevant Groups by subject using the search tool.
Linked In also provides a valuable summary of each group:
Once you know the best time to post you can zero in and get the best results and most traction from your post. Armed with the day and time of when your fans most engage with your brand you are now able to post that awesome special or promotion that drives in business and rings the cash register. We previously covered this subject with study results and testing methods at Best Time to Post.
Summary
Groups are a great way to reach and engage a targeted group of people that have an interest in your product or service. Join a group today and drive traffic to your website or blog.
In what signals another step forward for the Facebook mobile platform, Facebook today announced that for the over 900 million people that use Facebook, the App Center will become the new, central place to find great apps like Draw Something, Pinterest, Spotify, Battle Pirates, Viddy, and Bubble Witch Saga.
App Center
A new place for people to find social apps. The App Center gives
developers an additional way to grow their apps and creates
opportunities for more types of apps to be successful
In the coming weeks, people will be able to access the App Center on
the web and in the iOS and Android Facebook apps. All canvas, mobile
and web apps that follow the guidelines can be listed. All developers should start preparing today to make sure their app is included for the launch.
Drive Mobile Apps
The App Center is designed to grow mobile apps that use Facebook –
whether they’re on iOS, Android or the mobile web.
From the mobile App Center, users can browse apps that are compatible
with their device, and if a mobile app requires installation, they will
be sent to download the app from the App Store or Google Play.
To grow your mobile app through the App Center, your app needs to use Facebook Login.
Quality Ratings
Based upon feedback ratings from users, apps will have a rating applied. Higher quality apps will receive prominent display while those receiving poor rating or don't meet quality guidelines will not be displayed.
Developers
You can create an app detail page in the App Center section of the Developer App. There you can upload images, provide additional details, and configure the permissions your app requires. Learn more about setting up your app.
Before creating your app detail page, read the guidelines
to ensure your page does not get removed. App detail pages that are
eligible for the App Center will be reviewed prior to being listed and
priority will be given to those apps that submit before May 18.
Foursquare has just introduced a new instant verification
for merchants. In just 90 seconds the merchant will be able to use all of Foursquare's tools:
A discount with purchase
Something for free
Special treatment offers
Reward your best customers with check in specials
Mayor special offers
and more
Foursquare says that as of today, over 750,000 business have signed up
to reach the company’s 20 million users via the free merchant tools
provided. The new verification feature is U.S.-only for now.
To get started go to Foursquare
https://foursquare.com/
Click on Business Attract and Retain Customers or just click the button right here.
To your success!
More ideas including how to Launch Facebook Offers, How to Super Charge your Facebook site and engage customers and more is at http://netprofitsmedia.blogspot.com/
In Facebook Brand Building we detailed what gets the most impressions on Facebook, and impressions drive results. Get more results from your Facebook fan page. What kind of results?
Start with more engagement which leads to more growth. Facebook sites can be so much more than just a few boring, do nothing tabs and posts. Without any technical mumbo-jumbo you can create an engaging experience to delight your customers, generate Likes and create lifelong fans.
Today we are going to show you how to super charge your
Facebook Page and engage your Fans.
Custom Pages / Tabs
“Like Us” incentives (Welcome Page). Create a Like Us / Welcome Page In the Value of a Fan we learned how valuable Likes are. A Like Us / Welcome page is great for offering an incentive for well, Liking. You may also use your custom Like Us / Welcome page as a Landing Page. Landing Pages, in conjunction with Facebook Ads generate a huge amount of new fans when running a “Like Us” promotion. I’ll cover “Like Us” promotions in a later post.
Instant Coupons Page. Nothing gets feet in the door better than a coupon. Create and post online coupons right on Facebook. Use tracking codes, expiration dates, all the good stuff.
Newsletter Sign Up Form (Page). Integrate with another awesome free email tool that I will cover in a later post. You do publish a Newsletter don't you?
Events Page. Not the wimpy do nothing version Facebook gives you. This one is actually great. Promote events with video, a countdown calendar, text, a Friend Invite tool and more!
Contests Page. With no limits what could you do with a Contest Page?
Videos (Watch Tab/Page) What is better to show off your business, location, venue, product or service than video. With smart phones that outpu HD video you can for practically nothing. How cool is that?
Mobile Text Sign Up Page. Offer your Facebook fans a way to sign up for mobile coupons. I recommend to clients to start Mobile Text Marketing this way to create a database of prospects BEFORE they even spend a penny on a mobile text service. This really allows them to maximize their Text Marketing ROI.
Menu Page - that's a no-brainer
Daily Specials Page - again it's so simple. Give your fans a reason to check your page daily.
Reviews - these are your fans not some random folks off the street stopping in for the first time. Your fans are your fans because they love what you do. Encourage them to give reviews - then use the reviews to get new customers.
Help Wanted - Making a Help Wanted page takes the same time as calling an ad into the local paper but you don't have to pay to run the ad. It's ultimately cheaper and probably more effective than the local paper.
These are just a few quick examples of what you can do. I’m sure you can come up with your own list of awesome ideas of how you could promote your business better on Facebook.
So, Go Beyond Plain
The plain and boring you see to the below is what you get and what you probably have on your page right now. Go way beyond the standard Photos, Likes and Map that Facebook gave you to start out with. It’s easy to customize and arrange.
Standard, plain and boring tabs
In fact, you may have noticed in an earlier image, I spell out the word WIN on my Net Profits Media Facebook page with the row of 4 visible tabs (and 11 more using the drop down arrow) from the home page tabs. Facebook does not allow the Photos image and tab to be moved. These images can be anything you want them to be. You just need an easy to use tool to create the pages.
Engaging Tabs on a Facebook Site
These are all 15 tabs (pages) at Net Profits Media's Facebook site. So you can see, you can really do whatever you want to connect with your fans and get them in your door or on your e-commerce site.
Here is the FREE Tool to Transform Your Facebook Site
Customize your site and your customers will thank you. Short Stack is an awesome, FREE tool that allows the DIY, non-techy person a simple and quick way to really maximize and leverage the fan experience on Facebook. Short Stack’s free plan is for pages up to 2,000 Likes.
Short Stack has awesome help pages, help videos, and even a Short Stack University for those that really want to go head first and create more elaborate pages so go ahead and check it out.
