So, you have a great company website.  After reading all the hoopla about social media you realize that quality engagement begins with listening to your target audience, so, you decide to set up a company Facebook page.  You’re off to the right “social” start, and now you’re ready to engage!

But just having a Facebook company page is the tip of the social iceberg in relation to obtaining a quality audience to speak with.  If your Facebook company page seems to be having trouble gathering that target audience, consider “plugging-in” your website to Facebook for some super direct, high speed help.

Facebook is all about helping people share their experiences with one another.  When people are looking directly at your website, what better opportunity do you have to ask them to engage with you further, and ultimately share what they found interesting on your site with their entire social network? Without a Facebook social plug-in, people would have to go through a laborious procedure to copy the link of your page and paste it into an email, and send that email to all of their friends.  Facebook offers people an easier way with their social plug-ins which are helpful little graphic tools you get right from the Facebook website that you insert onto your website to provide people on your site a more personalized and social experience, while also giving them a very easy way to see you have a Facebook page and voluntarily connect themselves with it.  Here is an example of the Facebook “like” button plug-in you might see on a website:

But the best social “magic” that happens when people click that “like” button within the social plug-in you’ve inserted onto your site, is that their “like” action will automatically post to their personal Facebook page, which is seen by all of their Facebook friends, thus advertising your page exponentially by word of mouth marketing at no cost to you.  This increases the likelihood that because one potential customer liked your page, their friends will too, increasing your chances of getting more traffic to your site and your Facebook company page.

There are many types of plug-ins offered that serve different social functions such as the “Comments” plug-in which allows people to comment on any piece of your site, the “Recommendations Box” which gives people personalized suggestions for pages on your site they find interesting, or my favorite, the “Facepile” plug-in that displays the Facebook profile pictures of people who have liked your page or have signed up for your site.  This plug-in shows people which of their friends already like your page, as well as how many people all together like your page, thus prompting them to also like your page because it gives them that “I want to be a part of that group too” feeling.

If you want to try some free word of mouth marketing on Facebook and reach way beyond your own sphere of influence, try inserting one of the Facebook social plug-ins onto your website’s homepage to gain more targeted fans at the speed of light.

Recently Facebook upped the ante on local search with its release of an updated iOS and Android app with a beefed-up Facebook Nearby.

Previously, Facebook’s Nearby function let users see where their friends had checked in. With this most recent update, users can now search local businesses by name or category. But landing on the result pages is more complicated than simply being “nearby.”

Because the algorithm that determines what shows up on the Nearby results page is largely dependent upon Facebook data, user check-ins and interactions, which now include star ratings, have a lot to do with the results. Facebook says results will get even more personalized when users check into and rate businesses.

In order to ensure you don’t get lost in the proverbial shuffle, it’s important to optimize your Facebook page for this new stage in local search.

First and foremost, if you don’t have a Facebook page, get one. Facebook is vying to become its own ecosystem. Companies that don’t exist within the ecosystem simply won’t exist for a key demographic of users who turn to Facebook for everything from finding a restaurant to viewing friend’s vacation photos.

Next, optimize the content on your About section. Include descriptive, keyword-optimized language, as well as all of your pertinent business information, including your location, services and hours of operation. While you’re at it, make sure your business is being listed under the correct category. If you’re not, you’ll have a much harder time showing up in relevant search results.

Finally, and most importantly, encourage Facebook fans to interact with your page by checking in and rating your page. The more popular your business appears, the better chance you’ll have showing up in these newest of search results.

Facebook continues to attract businesses that desire a better understanding of the effectiveness and potential influence social commerce has upon their consumers.   Some larger brands, like JC Penny, have tried e-commerce within Facebook and claimed to have not realized expected results from e-commerce efforts.  There are new brands, like Fab.com, that adhere to a business model dependant upon the integration with social networks, and have been very successful with marketing on Facebook.   So how can small and larger brands differ in their success rate?  Strategies that drive F-commerce have to be different from normal e-commerce methods in order to provide a return on investment.  F-commerce focuses on utilizing the data from customer’s interests, enhancing fan activity, and social sharing with friends on Facebook, in order to improve online sales.

F-Commerce Referrals. The strategy that has been effective for larger brands, uses Facebook to drive traffic to their online store.  These brands have found it more successful to offer links to e-commerce sites via posts, advertising, and custom tabs because their websites are proven to be better at converting the sale.

F-Commerce Stores. The smaller businesses have seen promising results by building their store directly within Facebook.  This type of store is successful in integrating the sharing aspect into all segments of a Facebook fan’s shopping experience.  This strategy allows fans of the company’s Facebook Page to share items they are interested in buying with friends as well as sharing items they have purchased from the store.  The social commerce is paramount in exposure of the company’s product selections and existence of the store on Facebook.  This type of store can also be driving traffic to an e-commerce website to complete the sale.

F-Commerce Focus Groups. There are some companies who utilize the social aspect of the network by conducting exclusive product launches to their Facebook Page’s fans.  This strategy gives fans the opportunity to request free samples of the new product, share the product announcement with friends, and participate in the campaign by uploading a photo or video using the product.  The company benefits by requiring fans to first “like” the Facebook Page and submit information, like an e-mail address, before they may request a sample.  This also builds up a demand for the new product pre-launch and gives the company the ability to monitor feedback about the product while supplying the consumer with links to purchase that item from an online store.

The Apps designed to help businesses market themselves are what drive this f-commerce strategy.  Facebook released Timeline to business Pages along with the social graph API in order to better develop the relationship from socializing about a product to purchasing it.  When companies begin to leverage their use of the “like” button, activity feed, integrated registrations, and sharing they will benefit from the success that lies in social media marketing.

In this Infographic we ask the question “What measures up for a recipe for success?”.  In response, we have visually highlighted some social statistics from a recent blog post by the socialskinny.com, that provides insight into the more popular marketing tools being used and the social response to them:

• The most popular social networking tool for marketing is Facebook – being used by 92%(of businesses), followed by Twitter (84%), LinkedIn (71%) and blogs (68%).

• 23% of Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing corporate blog.

• 58% of Fortune 500 companies have an active corporate Facebook account, 62% have an active corporate Twitter account.

• 43% of marketers have noticed an improvement in sales due to social campaigns.

• 47% of customers are somewhat likely to purchase from a brand that they follow or like.

It seems that everyone is on Facebook these days.  News about using the platform for business pepper broadcasts and print media alongside updates about the upcoming IPO.  If you have been waiting to create a Facebook page for your business or if you have one that you haven’t touched since creation, the following promotion tips are written for you.  Even if you are managing your business’s Facebook page, the following top ten tip list may give you a few ideas to help promote your page and your business on this constantly evolving social platform.

1.  Create Your Page
The first promotion tip is more of a step one – create your page.  Without a page, you will have nothing to promote and no one will have anything to talk about.  Create your page and make sure to include content.  Nobody will want to share a page that is blank or that looks abandoned.

2.  Manage Your Page
Create a schedule and begin adding interesting and informative content to your Facebook page, even if you don’t have a single follower.  When you start promoting your page, visitors will hopefully be curious what they can expect from you in regard to future communication.

3.  Invitations – Soft Launch
Your business’s social network can be divided into different groupings (such as employees, business partners, philanthropic partners, customers, friends, and family).  Each of these groups can be alerted to the creation of your Facebook page and invited to engage with you as you actively manage your page.  Initially, start with your friends, family, and employees.  Ask for feedback.  Make changes as needed.

4.  Invitations – Hard Launch
Now that you have a presence on Facebook, a number of friends/followers, and a calendar with which to guide your posts, you can invite your business partners, philanthropic partners, and customers to join you.  Since you are adding customers to the mix, make sure that there is someone monitoring your Facebook page for questions, feedback, and complaints and you have a plan in place to respond to each in a timely manner.

5.  Cross-Promote Your Social Media Channels
If you are active on other social channels, such as YouTube, Twitter, or others, consider adding content from these channels to Facebook or promoting Facebook within these channels.

6.  Link to Your Facebook Page From Your Website
Consider adding a Facebook icon and link to your Facebook page from your website. Consider embedding a Facebook module in your website or blog if applicable, to show what your customers and you are saying.

7.  Social Sharing Buttons
Consider adding the Facebook Like button to your website (or other social sharing buttons such as ShareThis or AddThis) to help visitors promote your content on Facebook.

8.  Consider Contests
Not only do contests give you a reason to promote your Facebook page on your website and in your other channels, but customers and potential customers tend to love a contest by a brand they like.  There are a variety of different contest set-ups available for Facebook, but they all must abide by Facebook’s guidelines.

9.  Don’t Forget Print
Just because Facebook and your website are digital, does not mean that you can not promote them in printed media related to your business.  Companies are posting icons or links to their Facebook pages on business cards, billboards, clothing, and even shopping bags.

10.  Paid Ads
Research the possible benefit of creating a Facebook ad to promote your business and Facebook page to be displayed on Facebook.  One big benefit of using paid Facebook ads is that the targeting is very precise and you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Any or all of these promotional tips can help you build a Facebook page that becomes an important part of your marketing mix, but you can’t start without tip #1: Create Your Page.  If you would like additional tips, a social media strategy, or customized design for your Facebook page, please contact MoreVisibility.

Mobile Check-Ins have proven a very popular tool for social interaction.  By utilizing an API that combines a smart phone’s GPS cordinance with the social media channel CTA Check-In,  many users document where they shop, eat, entertain, and even work.  This ability to Check-In to a physical location can be easily rewarded, therefore adding a marketing element to a local address.  Business have already begun to reward members of Foursquare with discounts, free items, and exclusive specials by becoming Merchants and setting up marketing campaigns.   Foursquare is the primary source for Check-In marketing activity for local establishments, but does not have the largest audience in comparision to other social platforms. Let’s explore the larger social networks that include the Check-In API, to reveal marketing opportunities for local businesses using this location based functionality.

Facebook – Topping the charts for the largest social network with the most engaged users, Facebook Places is a fully integrated mobile and desktop feature the offers the ability to provide a location within any post.  These locations are also recorded on a user’s Timeline via a map that shows everywhere they have Checked-In.  If your business location has a Facebook Page, the Timeline keeps stats on the number of Check-ins for your business address just under the page name.  Increase activity with your Facebook Page by asking fans via posts to Check-In regularly. Offer a special discount to visitors who Check-In while checking out at the register.  You might even advertise the deal inside the business location or near the counter, to encourage new followers to your Page.

Twitter – This is the second largest network, and one of the most active audiences on mobile devices,  Twitter users have access to a feature that tweets their location when they post an update from their account.  Although the location services on Twitter will not associate your business name with the address, you can encourage fans to @mention your Twitter business profile - along with the Check-In location - for a prize.  This is great for businesses with multiple locations under the same brand name.  Each store can include a fun hash tag that is unique to their physical location to differentiate the tweets and make it a contest amoungst the locations. For example:  The promotional could be advertised for a month and include Tweet locations with @mentions/hash tags from all of the business locations, but the store with the most activity will get to host a discount day exclusive to their local patrons who participated in the contest and earned them the winning location.

Google Plus - Last, but far from least this social network is smaller that the other two, but the Check-In API is integrated into multiple Google products -like Places and Lattitude- that make it a powerful tool and could effect your organic search results.  Even if your business does not have a Google Plus Page, your physical address can be entered or recommended for Check-Ins and a post will be shared on the users profile with a map from Google Places.   Try taking a different marketing approach if you have a larger location with over 50 employees. Market this feature amoung your employees to gain access to a wider network of people and online activity by requesting that they each Check-In daily with their personal Google Plus accounts for one week to enter to win a reward.  Monitor the response to this increased activity, check to see if your website and business location had an increase of natural traffic due to the additional exposure.

Continued from the article Facebook Timeline Guide for Business Pages, these recommendations are for preparing your brand for the new Facebook Page design.   Making sure you understand the new ways fans will experience your brand, and what steps to take to optimize your Timeline for release will ensure you are confident when rolling out the new Timeline to the public.  Spending time checking privacy settings, getting familiar with the new admin tools, and deciding how to leverage new features aid in building a successful strategy for your new Facebook Page.

Different User Experience - Spend some time becoming familiar with the new user experience with Timeline.  A default landing page will no longer be available for customized tabs or apps, all users will first experience the Timeline for a brand.  Four main images below the header will be how the tabs/apps are accessed.  There are static containers/boxes in the right column of the Page - below the header - with content based on the friends of fan’s unique interaction with your brand (likes, comments, check-ins).  The first box tells the user how many and who of their friends have been active on the Page and the second box is a collection posts from everyone that has interacted with your brand in Facebook (i.e. comments and tags).  This third container can be hidden from view via the management options. Once disabled, the posts will be distributed chronologically through the timeline instead of in that static box.  When a user is logged out of Facebook, the first static box on the right changes to show “Also On: [company website link]”.   This is great for when the Facebook page is found via search results, by offering anyone that isn’t a Facebook user a path to your main website.

Cover Image is a Must – You will need to design a banner image that is unique to your brand and will be something recognizable that fans will respond to.  Facebook wants to stress the importance of the experience, not being sales focused, but authentic and has provided guidelines for what the images can contain.  According to Facebook, the image you upload must be at least 399 pixels wide and the cover image may not contain:

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”

• Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section

• References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features

• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

Take note that the image header disappears once a user scrolls past it and a small navigation bar becomes available and includes the profile thumbnail and links to different features on the page like apps and highlighted posts.  This affects the visual brand presence when diving deeper into the Timeline, so highlighting image/video focused posts and adding company milestones should be considered to enhance exposure.

Review Post History – Use the activity log to review old posts from your timeline to determine what to hide, highlight, star, or pin.   You will want to make sure any posts that might have been a negative community experience are repressed when publishing so as not to incite a new conflict once the post is re-revealed in the page.  You can hide or delete a post, but by deleting the post you are removing it permanently form the page.  To hide a post, you hover over the right corner of the post to view the pencil icon and select the option to hide it. You can always unhide posts from the activity log.

Develop a Company Story - Determine what milestones to add to your brand’s timeline to create a unique company story.  This story should be similar to your existing brand voice and include images for each important event highlighted.  Adding these milestones helps to humanize your brand and shape the initial experience, so spend time organizing and building posts to reflect your company in a way that is intriguing to the user by including fun facts and photos about the company’s history.  Also, you can no longer automatically direct a user to a welcome tab with your company information; however, you will be able to link directly to the tab’s unique URL in posts and campaigns.  You can arrange which three tabs are viewed in the header area with the dropdown arrow.  The photos tab is static and will always populate in the first tab location.

New Page Management Tools – Admin panel is the new hub for most of the page management features and links.  From the panel you can see the most recent fan activity, likes on the page, and private messages.  Access to the page settings and privacy settings are within the dropdown navigation in the upper right corner of the panel.  You will also notice a message area where private messages from any visitor to your Page will appear.  Private messages can be an excellent customer service tool. However if you aren’t going to utilize the feature it can be deactivated in the manage permissions menu.  Another new feature Page managers should use is the Likes Insights tab, where upon clicking it on any Pages tab you can view basic insights for the audience activity.  Consider reviewing competitor Pages to better understand what they are doing to entice fan activity.

Facebook Pages will adapt how a consumer learns about your brand.  Take time to understand the new feature’s so you can build campaign strategies around them.  Audit what you have shared in the past, and discover what historical data can be created to enhance your brand awareness.  Utilize the management tools to connect with your audience, and decide if private messaging will be activated.  Focus on getting your images designed before the page is converted.  Using the preview function you will be able to identify which images will require the most attention.

If you need help developing your page or determining what strategy to implement going forward, then give us a call at 561-620-9682 or e-mail us.

Facebook Timeline is changing the way Business Pages look, how they are managed, and how they interact with fans.  The new Facebook Pages are being pushed out to all existing Business Pages on March 30th, 2012.  Before your company’s Timeline is released to the public, make sure you have optimized what you are sharing with your fans.  This blog reviews the features of the existing Facebook Timeline and the new Facebook Page features for businesses.  Check back next week for tips to guide you through the pre-launch of the new page before the end of this month.

All Facebook Pages will look different, act different, and the tools have changed.
Many people have been getting used to the new Timeline layout within their own pages since the release in September 2011.  It boasts a much more visual experience organizing all status updates chronologically in a bi-column format with larger image areas.  Timeline includes integrating check-ins and photos onto a geographical map, and a new header design for highlighting a main image along with your profile thumbnail.  There is also a new navigation layout - below the header - with about info and image boxes that link to photos, friends, likes, apps, and more.  With this layout a new type of content is being highlighted in your newsfeed - based on a social plugin (Open Graph API) - that shares your activities, like what you are listening to, depending on the app. Going back over time, a user has more control over who can view posts by hiding them or staring them, and can add Life Events throughout the timeline at any point to note important status updates that might have been missed.

The Facebook Pages are similar in appearance/features to the individual Timeline.  The new page will allow you to interact more freely with your fans, includes enhanced graphics, the ability to feature posts, and engage in private messages with fans.  Social Media marketing strategies can leverage the large banner/header, the ability to pin a post for up to seven days to the upper left area of the page, star a post (making it appear larger in the Timeline), and also highlight the company “milestones” by adding posts to dates in the past to promote the history of the brand.

To learn more about how to leverage these new features, and what to focus on before publishing your company’s new page, look for the second part of this article in the coming week, or give us a call, 561-620-9682.

Facebook’s paperwork for its Initial Public Offering filled this month, has created some media buzz and speculation as to what the company will be doing next.  The IPO included stats like, “Facebook  had 845 million active users as of Dec. 31, with slightly more than half of those people, 425 million, using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to visit Facebook. An average day on Facebook sees about 483 million people logging into the world’s largest social network, an increase of 48 percent over the previous year.”, and other tid-bits that sparked a lot of ideas as to what to expect this year from the company.  In just the beginning of this year, Timeline was released for user profiles and will soon be made available for businesses too. If you haven’t been following all the media, here is a review of a few anticipated Facebook Updates in 2012 we think are important for businesses watch for.

Mobile App with Ads
The IPO alluded to mobile as a potential revenue source, and cautioned that the lack of mobile revenue could harm it, since nearly half of the users access the site on a mobile device.  According to Zoe Fox at Mashable, “Users of Facebook‘s apps — for Android, iPad and iPhone — may begin seeing ads as soon as early March, as the company looks to gain an addition revenue source before it goes public.”    Also, a new advertising method to expose ads to mobile users called, Sponsored Stories, was released in December of 2011, and embeds the advertised posts directly into the newsfeed of an individual’s profile.

Facebook Timeline for Businesses
On Feburary 29th, Facebook will be sponsoring an event for marketers where it is expected to announce the release of Timeline for Business Pages.  Timeline was recently released to profiles for all users and although it is getting mixed reviews, it offers a new experience for the site.  Timeline aggregates every Wall post in a profile into a chronological view that can be adapted, added to, and hidden away from view, changing the way information is accessed. Also, the new enhanced options for sharing with media partner applications directly in the Timeline.  Facebook VP-Marketing and Business Partnerships David Fischer said Timeline for brands would be “consistent” with the Timeline look-and-feel, but not a carbon copy.

What does that mean for businesses?
Marketers can use those mentions from user interaction, and give their brand wider distribution through sponsored stories. “Marketers want to promote stories about the things they’re affiliated with but don’t always own the apps,” said Gokul Rajaram, Facebook Ads director of product management, referring to apps from services such as Spotify, Netflix or Pintrest that allow users to share what content they’re consuming. “Now you can promote stories from any app about objects you own, not just from the page owned by the marketer.”  This will open a whole new way to target ads as well, based on what a user is listening to, reading, or watching when the ad is served.

Brands will have the ability to promote the history of their business by adding historical facts to the Timeline.  A large customized design in the profile banner can be adapted more often to promote the brand, campaigns and contests, or other relevant marketing to drive traffic to.  Unfortunately it’s rumored that Page Tabs,  which were once visible under the profile image, will now be condensed and hidden in a box at the top of the page.  Kunur Patel of Ad Age Digital suspects that the format change is to promote the use of the “Open Graph” apps and could put pressure on brands to develop their own apps using custom verbs other than “like,” in the same vein as Pinterest, which has a Facebook app that tracks when its users have “pinned” something.

As Facebook continues to expand, and gain the billions of revenue expected from the public offering, there will be new internal initiatives being added frequently to ensure that the revenue generated by the company will meet stockholder’s expectations.  That being said, we expect the advertising element within Facebook to continue to expand and add options for businesses to increase exposure and engagement with their fans.

What updates will you need to make in your own Social Media Strategy for the Facebook of 2012?

There are a lot of articles circulating about the benefits of mobile advertising. In fact, many companies and brands are embracing mobile advertising and seeing impressive results. However, the mobile advertising market hasn’t been cornered by one particular vendor and some are wondering if Facebook is going to join the mobile scene.

Facebook is recognized as one of the top social media sites. Plus, numerous businesses appreciate the advance targeting features that are available in Facebook such as demographics, interests, connections, etc. Some would like to use these advanced settings to reach the mobile market. This means businesses would already be prepared to pay Facebook to reach their respective audience. Another plus is that people use their cell phones to check on their Facebook accounts already, so it’s not like Facebook would have to entice anyone to go on their site via a mobile device. They also, have loads of mobile user data at their fingertips. According to an article on CNET, “Facebook already has access to data of a large mobile user base”… Facebook says nearly half of its nearly 800 million users already log in via mobile devices, giving the network momentum in a market estimated to be worth $630 million.” 

Facebook seems to be in a great position to join the mobile market, and despite rumors that they will be offering mobile advertising soon, Facebook has declined to speak about the matter.  Many businesses will benefit if Facebook gives them the ability to run mobile ads.  The ball is in their court to enable mobile ads and only time will tell how they’ll proceed.