Tag: Facebook

Facebook Becomes Friends with Wall Street, and Other Hot Topics

Well, it finally happened.

This week, after months and months of breathless anticipation, Facebook filed its S-1 paperwork, one of the first steps as it prepares for its initial public offering. Shares are expected to be available this spring — which means that right now, there are a lot of stock market investors out there salivating.

It was also revealed that Pinterest drives more referral traffic than sites like YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+. And it seems that many companies in the Inc. 500 are slowing down their blogging efforts. Is this an opportunity for small businesses to pick up some ground?

We discuss these and other stories in our weekly news roundup. [Read more...]

How to Regularly Post to Your Facebook Page (Without Annoying the $#!* Out of Your Fans)

Post to your Facebook Page without being annoyingHave you ever been to a party with that guy?

You know the one. Blah, blah, blah. On and on about stuff no one cares about.

And all you really want to say is, “Would you just stop yapping and go away!”

Eventually, people just start to tune this person out. (Or at least head to the other side of the room.)

The same kind of thing happens with Facebook Pages.

If you’re continually posting about stuff and your fans aren’t engaging with the content, you run the risk of getting tuned out.

The kicker is that Facebook takes care of the dirty work by removing you from the news feeds of people it thinks would rather not be bothered by you — even though they’ve “Liked” your Page!

So to get the most from your Facebook Page you need to walk the very fine line of posting regularly AND not annoying anyone.

So what’s the ideal posting frequency? And how can you make sure your Page isn’t treated like that guy?

Avoiding Facebook’s annoyance algorithm

Facebook ranks the things you post along with how people respond to them. So, if you post something and your fans are “Liking” it, commenting on it, and sharing it, Facebook says, “Hey, that’s cool stuff, let’s make sure people see it.”

By the same token, if you post something and no one “Likes” it, comments on it, or shares it, Facebook puts that in the annoying, loser bucket, and says, “Let’s not annoy people with that stuff.”

Eventually, if the annoying stuff outweighs the cool stuff, you slowly start to disappear from your fans’ news feed altogether.

Now, I’m no math genius, but by my calculations, that means you don’t want to post something just to post something. But you also don’t want to post nothing, as that doesn’t help your situation either.

Making sure every post counts in the non-annoying way

I’m sure you’re probably hoping that I give you a steadfast rule for the number of times to post per day. Well, I am. Kinda. :-)

You see, the truth is that there are no hard rules, only guidelines. This is because the answer varies based on who your audience is.

Start with the guidelines below and then make adjustments based on what you’re hearing from your fans. (Be sure to check your Page Insights to see what content people are engaging with.) Don’t listen to me or anyone else who tries to give you end-all-be-all advice.

Here are the guidelines

At the very least, post once a day.

Ideally, try to post three times a day.

Think breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Post once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening. This way you can make it part of your daily routine.

This should give you a nice base from which to make adjustments.

Again, just make sure you’re posting the less annoying content at these times. (Look here for ideas on how to keep the conversation going.)

Yes, Facebook actually does find some things less annoying than others

Luckily, we do know that Facebook weighs certain types of content a bit higher than others. Mainly, this is because the format of the content is more engaging by nature.

So think about using a photo for one of your posts, a video for the other, and a link that encourages people to comment.

Quilting store Calico House shares photos of its latest fabrics that fans regularly "Like" and comment on.

In fact, always encourage a specific action

Get your fans to Like, comment on, or share your content. When you do this and people take that action your content moves to the cool side of the room. And that’s exactly where you want to be. Not on the loser side like that guy!

That’s how to post regularly without being annoying

Time your posts — three a day should work fine. Gauge the response and let that help you decide to post more or less. Do give engaging updates to your fans regularly. Don’t bother your fans with content that doesn’t engage, or else you run the risk of falling off the radar.

Watch the short video below. Then share this post!

Facebook Page vs. Profile: The Heavyweight Championship Bout

Ladies and gentlemen!

In the red corner, your home base on Facebook for you as an individual, not as a business — the ever popular Facebook Profile.

In the blue corner, the king of “Likes,” the master of Insights, and basically the profile for your business or organization — the Facebook Page.

Which will reign as the undisputed champion of social media marketing for your business or organization?

Grab yourself a ringside seat for … Facebook Page vs. Profile.

Let’s get ready to rumble! [Read more...]

A Map to Help You Find Social Campaigns Resources

If having a survivalist for a brother has taught me anything, it’s that knowing where to find the right information (and help, if need be!) is key when starting out on a journey.

So, for those of you who have already started out on the journey of creating and publishing your first social campaign, or are planning to real soon, here is your own personal map — a list of resources that you’re sure to love: [Read more...]

Get Real: How to Set Goals for Your Facebook Page (or Social Campaign)

At the time of this writing, Coca Cola’s Facebook Page has more than 38 million fans. Disney’s Page has nearly 32 million.

I’ll bet you’re painfully aware of gargantuan numbers like these, especially if it’s been hard to attract fans to your own Page. Remember: While Coke and Disney’s Pages offer valuable insights about how to market on Facebook, their number of fans certainly isn’t typical.

Setting a goal for a social campaign shouldn’t be focused on competition with other Facebook Pages. If you’re hoping to increase the number of people who Like your Page, seeking Disney-caliber numbers probably isn’t feasible. Having a realistic goal will lead you to success. Having an unrealistic goal will lead you to panic.

Here are the five questions small businesses and organizations should ask while planning a social campaign:

[Read more...]

Facebook Wants to Pay You to Place Ads, and Other Hot Topics

Ever wonder if you should try Facebook ads? Looks like now would be a great time.

Experts agree that it’s time to start thinking long-term and move beyond just “Likes” and followers.

Could your online reputation hurt your business? A new report says yes!

All this and more in this week’s hot topics. [Read more...]

[Results] What’s Your Top Social Media Marketing Tool?

New tools to help with social media marketing are popping up everywhere.

But many small businesses and nonprofits just don’t have the time to keep up and research all the options.

Don’t you wish you had someone to tell you about the tools that are proven to be really easy and useful? We get it! That’s why last week we asked our Facebook fans, “What tool(s) do you use to help with your social media marketing on Facebook, Twitter, etc.?” Now, the results are in. [Read more...]

A Wiki-less Wednesday, Facebook’s Post-Like World, and Other Hot Topics

Ever get tired of just “Liking” something on Facebook?

You may be in luck — the social network is developing “Actions,” buttons that let users do all sorts of things other than Like, from clicking “Own” on a product page to “Read” on a book’s Facebook Page.

As Facebook unrolled these new features, anyone looking to brush up on an obscure fact, learn a history lesson, or read a biography on Wednesday suddenly found that Wikipedia greeted them with a foreboding black screen.

Fortunately, food was unaffected. Foursquare users who wanted to know the location and cost of all nearby tacos — or any other kind of food — discovered they could now use the “Explore” feature of the popular mobile service.

Read on to find out more about these topics and more in this week’s news roundup. [Read more...]

You Don’t Have to Be Everybody’s Friend: How to Balance Public, Private, and Social Media

Personal Professional Social MediaA few weeks ago, I got a friend request on Facebook.

I recognized the name and clicked on the person’s profile to check out his information. He was pretty well-connected in his career and we had a few friends in common. I had a problem though: I had spoken with him only once on the phone — for a project I was putting together at a place I haven’t worked at for three years. I’ve never met him in real life and really know nothing about him.

I declined the request. But that’s just me. Someone else might have accepted it. Our interpretations of what’s personal, what’s professional, what we share, and who we let into our worlds have gotten fuzzy because of social media. Millennial Branding found that Generation Y is happy to blur those lines — they use Facebook as an extension of their professional life. For some people, that can cause problems when you’re sharing information about your personal life and forget that the colleague in the next cubicle is watching every social move you make.

I present Constant Contact’s social media webinars and frequently get questions from attendees on how to separate the personal from the professional in this public space. One solution is to create a personal social media policy for each of your profiles. Look at your social networks and decide: What do you use this space for? Who do you want to let in? Think about the things you talk about on each social network — do you really want your potential new friends or followers to know those details? Do you want to know theirs? Here’s my personal social media policy: [Read more...]

Google and Twitter Get in a Catfight, and This Week’s Other Hot Stories

What a week. Just as everyone was finally settled back from their holiday time off, Google went and woke people up when it announced it’d be integrating its struggling social network, Google+, more actively into its search engine. Not surprisingly, this sent a ripple through the social media world. Suffice it to say, some folks (particularly those at Twitter) were less than pleased, and a war of words began.

But not everyone was fighting. (Phew!) Love was in the air elsewhere as more proof was revealed that social media and mobile go together, and two big players in the email space came together.

Read on to learn about these stories and more in our weekly news roundup. [Read more...]