Facebook has entered the daily deal online market with its recent launch of “Social Deals” to compete against daily deal sites like Groupon and Living Social. In the past, Facebook originally rolled-out “Facebook Deals” to offer deals to its users when they “checked-in” to places. “Check-in deals” has replaced Facebook Deals and is directed toward both national and local businesses, whereas the new “Social Deals” focuses on bringing the online social experience into the real-world by focusing more on local businesses. The goal is to keep deals more social with events and classes in users’ local areas than traditional daily deals like tanning or massages.

Facebook Social Deals are different than other daily deal competitor sites because they must be purchased up front using Facebook Credits. What are Facebook Credits, you ask? According to Facebook, they are a virtual currency you can use to buy virtual goods in many games and apps on Facebook.

One major difference between Facebook’s Social Deals and other daily deal sites is that deals will not always involve a discount.  Daily deal sites like Groupon and Living Social have become leaders in the industry by advertising their 50 to 90 percent discounts. Unlike most traditional daily deal competitors, the merchants will also be permitted to set caps on the maximum number of deal vouchers that can be purchased.

Also, merchants will be required to have a Facebook Page before they are allowed to participate in the deals program. By requiring merchants to have a Facebook Page before engaging in Social Deals, the network is pushing businesses to be able to reach out to Social Deals buyers for repeat business after the first social interaction.

Social Deals is currently only open to five cities: Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco.

See below for a snapshot of Facebook Social Deals:

First there was the “Share” button, which was then replaced by the “Like” button, now Facebook has added the “Send” button. The Send button is a new feature Facebook is hoping will be the next trend in sharing and a counter-part to the Like button.

The idea behind this Send button feature is to allow users the ability to share content with selected friends, and not spill the beans with the entire network.

As opposed to the extremely trendy Like button, Facebook’s new Send button gives users a level of privacy and convenience. Users will find that when they use the Send button there will be fewer required steps. Also, users will not need to look up email addresses of those they are sending too; instead, the feature will offer “auto-suggesting” for friends and Groups. Thus, as a user, you can kick-back and send content with only members you have approved to see.

Adding the Send Button to Your Website:

You can easily add the Send button to any existing Like buttons on your website, or you can add it as a standalone feature.

- If you are currently using the XFBML Like button, just include the send=”true” attribute in the code and you will create the combined Like and Send button.

- If you are using the iFrame version of the Like button will need to upgrade to XFBML to display a Send button.

You can generate the <a href= “http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/“> Like and Send button here</a>, or you can use the following code to create the combined

Send button:

<div id=”fb-root”></div>
<script src=”http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1″></script>
<fb:like href=”example.com” show_faces=”true” width=”450″ send=”true”>
</fb:like>

Developers can add a standalone Send button with the following code:

<div id=”fb-root”></div>
<script src=”http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1″></script>
<fb:send href=”example.com”></fb:send>

If you are one of those people who (mistakenly) thinks Social Media is just a fad that will soon start to lose its luster, you are in for a (BIG) surprise. Social Media continues to play an integral role in our everyday lives, both from a personal and professional standpoint. 

According to a recent poll from Effie Worldwide and Mashable, 70% of marketers plan to increase their social media budget by more than 10% in 2011. So what does that mean for businesses? In my opinion, you better get on the fast track if you haven’t already factored social media into your marketing budget this year.

Just a few key components to consider when it comes to social media:

• You first need a strategy in place in order to achieve (and maintain) an effective online presence. This will take time and effort and should be the foundation of your social media plan.
• Once you have a solid strategy, you should create pages in the main channels: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Note: If you already have pages, I encourage you to revamp and customize them to look as clean, updated and professional as possible. There are many new and exciting options available today that were not available a year ago. You will want to research and understand your options (i.e. custom tabs in Facebook, LinkedIn Company pages, etc.)
• Consider who will be managing your channels, how often that individual will be posting and how negative feedback will be handled or addressed.
• How will you gain more “Likes on Facebook”, “Followers on Twitter” and “Connections on LinkedIn”?  Part of your overall strategy ought to be focused on what you will do to stand out in the crowd of social media competition.

Remember, many of your competitors will increase social media spending in 2011. Will you?

One of the world’s biggest video game stores with over 6,500 stores is Gamestop. It launched a Facebook site last week in hopes to provide “social business” to millions of  Facebook fans.  Gamestop will rely on reviews, product videos, store finders, ratings, as well as “likes “and” shares.” This might be a beginning of a new age that will take advantage of Facebook’s social presence.  Gamestop fans will now be able to purchase products directly through Facebook.    A lot of people do not view Facebook as a business objective, but it is likely that this will change in the future.  Social media could have a a huge impact on dot-coms and traditional brick and mortar stores.    Gamestop will also let fans earn and redeem points when making purchases on Facebook with its Powerup Rewards loyalty program.  They will allow fans to chat about upcoming games and new releases, with the option to buy directly from the Mcafee secured storefront.   Video Games are a billion dollar business, and by Gamestop joining forces with Facebook, that number is likely to increase.   If this trend continues, imagine how many companies can incorporate Facebook integration and grow their business.  This just shows that Facebook continues to be a dominant force, and is not going away anytime soon.

As companies evolve in their ability to analyze web traffic, it is becoming increasingly important to branch out to as many areas as possible to reach customers.  Understanding how different sources of traffic interact with your website is equally significant in where you allocate your time and resources.  Simply looking at bottom line traffic volume from various sources of traffic in Google Analytics (GA) is not enough.  Numbers don’t lie, but they don’t always paint the most accurate picture either.  Just because someone visited your site from an organic search, doesn’t rule out that they were influenced to visit your site from another channel.

A perfect example of this scenario lies in how social media impacts direct web traffic.  In a recent study conducted by ForeSee, http://www.foreseeresults.com/news-events/press-releases/social-media-low-impact-on-web-traffic-2011-foresee.shtml it was concluded that “Less than 1% of website visits, on average, come directly from a social media URL. This finding suggests that the direct impact of social media is minimal, but also that the true value of social media cannot be quantified only by examining the traffic coming directly from a social media URL.”  In simple terms, if you have a presence in social media, you probably do not see much traffic in your GA data related to social media traffic sources.  Does this mean you should abandon your efforts to build your social media presence?  Absolutely not, considering that 18% of website visitors acknowledge being influenced by social media to visit the site, according to the ForeSee report findings.  That is a significant gap in the numbers, but does not indicate any sort of disconnect with visitors.  In fact, it is closely in line with how people use social media – they are there for social interaction but can still be influenced by companies with solid social media marketing strategies.  When it is time for those visitors to find a company, their previous exposure to your company in social media influences their decision to visit your site.  They may do a search on Google to find you, and in the raw GA data Google organic gets credit for the site visit, but it was your social media presence that truly drove that visitor to your site.

Where it gets real interesting is how visitors influenced by social media interact with a website.  According to the ForeSee report, visitors to websites influenced by social media are more loyal and satisfied customers, and they spend more than visitors who were not influenced by social media.  When you factor this knowledge into the 1% statistic mentioned in the research, 1% becomes a more meaningful number.

The value of website visitors varies between sources of traffic.  Establishing a presence across all aspects of the web provides companies the ability to reach out to all types of visitors.  It is important to understand the symbiotic relationship between the different sources of traffic to your website.  Keep that in mind the next time you are reviewing traffic sources and matching that up to your external web presence.  Overall visits from your social media channels are most likely lower than other sources of traffic, but can be greater in terms of value to your bottom line.

There are many companies that view social media as a huge mountain to conquer. However, social media doesn’t have to be a daunting task, if your company has a strategy and follows it. Setting a plan in place, alone or with an agency can help a business be successful in the arena of social media.

The first step of the plan is to recognize that it is subject to change. Social media is constantly evolving; therefore it is important to be aware of those changes and willing to make adjustments. Think about Facebook. There was a time where businesses couldn’t do apps, but now they have the capability to create and run many different types of apps on Facebook.  Another example is that not too long ago, every social media site had to be logged into individually. Now, HootSuite and other tools make it easy to access and monitor multiple social accounts across different social media channels.

Another key to being successful with social media is to define the boundaries before you start. What is your tone? How do you want to come across to your fans, followers and viewers? The CEO from Zappos has his own Twitter account and he tweets about his day and things taking place in the office. He has no problem saying, “Getting on a plane, need rest” one day, and the next saying, “here’s a live company meeting with our employees, see video.” The tone of his Twitter account is very engaging. On the flip side, other companies may take a more formal approach, making their tweets a little less personal. Either way, the strategy should be determined from the outset. By setting the tone beforehand, your company can keep out of harm’s way. Make sure that whoever is managing your social accounts (whether internally or externally) is clearly aware of the correct way to “talk” through your company’s social voice. There are many stories about companies who entered the social media world and had it backfire because they didn’t define the boundaries of their social account.

In defining a social media strategy, the base plan doesn’t have to take forever, but it should be carefully thought out. Once your company establishes some basic foundations for your social media account, go ahead and be increasingly creative. Do promotions, contests, free giveaways and more. Social media is a great way to reach out to your target audience; just make sure your business adjusts to changes and clearly defines its social boundaries.

It used to be that you had to have a Facebook Company page, you must have a Twitter Company page and you really ought to have a LinkedIn Company page, too.

Fast forward to April 2011 where you should consider the mere presence on those main channels, as just the very first step in your social media initiatives. While maintaining your social media channels with ongoing dialog, updates, responses, etc. is certainly mission critical to long term success, it is no longer about just being “active”.

Consumers are savvier than ever before and Janet Jackson’s “What Have You Done for Me Lately” is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. It is now about who is offering the best coupons, promotions, discounts, incentives and also how often. If you are not constantly promoting a special offer or giving your fans, followers and connections a reason to “like” you, “follow” you or “connect” with you, then they are onto the next.

So are your channels living up to consumer expectations? I encourage you to reevaluate your efforts and strategy, perhaps even snoop a little on some of your competitors to see if you are up to snuff.  Below are some ideas to ponder…

For Facebook - what (if anything) are you offering as an incentive for people to like your page? Some examples could include, Like Our Page and…

Receive Free Shipping
Receive This Month’s Special Promotion
Receive an Exclusive Facebook Discount
Receive a Free Product Sampling
Be Entered into Our Monthly Contest

The same goes for Twitter. What are you offering as an incentive for people to follow your page? A few examples could include, Follow us and…

The 1000th Follower will receive a special fill in the blank (promotion, prize or gift)
Every time we gain fill in a number new followers, all of our followers will be automatically entered into a drawing to win a special fill in the blank (promotion, prize or gift)

For LinkedIn, the more you can beef up your company page, the more people will want to follow your company to see what you’re up to. LinkedIn now has some really cool options & features. One is the ability to add products/services to your page. Another is the ability to add recommendations of companies you’ve worked with. Take a look at a screenshot of our page:

Take the time to make your channels enticing. You won’t be sorry!

Advertising on Facebook has become one of the most successful and popular online advertising options for marketers.  According to eMarketer.com, Facebook ad revenues are expected to reach over 4 billion dollars in 2011 (with 2.2 billion in the United States).  Emarketer.com states, “The company will receive 68% of all social network ad spending worldwide. In the US, it will garner 71% of social network spending and 7.7% of total US online ad spending.” It isn’t a surprise that Facebook has become the apple of the marketer’s eye.

So what are you waiting for?  Although Facebook ads shouldn’t be the entire focus of your marketing plan, you should consider allocating a portion of your budget in this direction.

One of the major reasons to consider investing in Facebook ads is your ability to target specific audiences.  Let’s be honest, most people put their lives on Facebook.  People list (freely) their demographic information, jobs, residence, and interests within their profiles.  As Facebook continues to expand its advertising options, it will allow marketers to get more creative in their marketing strategies and messages. 

One of the newer services available is Facebook’s “Likes & Interests” targeting option.  What exactly does this mean? Simply stated, you are now able to display your ad in front of individuals that have some sort of vested interest in your competitors (or people that have “Liked” a competitor’s company page).  This also means that you are able to advertise to people that identify an interest that may be affiliated with your target audience.

Let’s take a look at the example below to better illustrate how this targeting option is utilized.  Pretend for a moment that you are working for a University in Florida.  Your goal is to advertise your college to the majority looking to go to college in Florida (in this case, we will focus on targeting the U.S, ages 17-25).  Within this target, you’d like to advertise to individuals who have displayed interest in other Florida Universities. 

With the “Likes & Interests” option, you can reach these people by placing names of other higher education institutions in Florida.  This granulates your search and gives you the ability to get in front of a group of people that wasn’t necessarily guaranteed previously.  Most likely, this ad will display to people looking for a Florida college as well as to people who are currently attending a University but may be looking to transfer or continue their education after graduating. 

The “Likes & Interests” option may not be applicable to all industries.  Perhaps you don’t want to advertise to people affiliated with your competitors.  Remember though that you can be creative with identifying your specific targeting keywords.  Your approach may be more indirect (as opposed to such a direct approach in the University example).  Instead of trying to reach individuals who have shown interest in other Florida schools, perhaps you are trying to reach the same age group who have mentioned interest in a sport or geographic interest (such as the beach).  If you are a college in South Florida located near the beach (Florida Atlantic University for example), placing “beach” as a targeting interest may be an interesting way to grab the attention of your target audience.  In this case, you may wish to tailor your ad copy to speak to this audience.  As an example:  “How would you like to spend your study breaks on the beach? Apply to FAU today”.
Facebook has undoubtedly become the front runner in social media paid advertising.  If you know your target audience and are looking for a creative way to reach them, Facebook advertising may be the marketing route for you!