Courtesy of new.en.softonic.com

The Two Platforms in a Head-On Collision

Officially, this is just a rumor – but as we have all learned, when Facebook provisionally leaks something, it’s all but bound to happen. So, Instagram – the image editing and sharing service that Facebook bought for a cool $715 mil last year, may risk their excellent image capabilities to allow for new video functionality. It’s a risk Facebook is willing to take.

But WHY? Why ruin a formula that works, when the end result could be a disaster?

• Vine stats have proven to Facebook that millions of people love using the 6 second gif-based video network.
• Gifs are like images, except they move a little…for about 6 seconds. This means users can browse gifs like images – a powerful business tool in the making.
• Facebook is not about to hand the gif market to Twitter. Initially Vine was called Instagram for video, now Instagram will actually have video…so technically Facebook has the right to reclaim the idea.
• Moving pictures attract the eye and deliver strong messages, quickly. Facebook is looking for a way to increase their ad revenue. This is an ideal opportunity.
• People don’t see Vine as a ‘video-app’ they see it as a moving image app. Imagine the marketing power of images, but with more room to make a good impression!

Courtesy of androidspin.com

So you can see why Facebook is moving into the gif field. Instagram photos are still the most popular thing since sliced bread. While only 13 million people use Vine, some 100 million people use Instagram – a built-in user base ready to destroy Vine at a moment’s notice.

Now imagine if these 100 million people readily adopted Instagram video! Facebook would hardly have to bat an eyelash to guarantee its success. Best of all, nearly overnight, Instagram video would be the big name on the block, not Vine.

But what about the innovative Vine, you might say? Well, technically they turned the humble nineties gif into a video app. The person really losing out here is gif creator, Steve Wilhite – who created these moving images in 1987.

Looking To The Gif Future

Instagram already has users uploading 40 million images a day. If Facebook can add 6 second videos to that, it will help everyone using the Facebook platform. Business pages will be able to harness the power of Instagram video for marketing, and their fans will love it. Personally, I think the more creative the better.

Engagement is what we want, and Facebook is giving it to us. Another excellent move, Facebook team. Now we just have to wait and see if they’ve stuck to the Vine formula, or if they’ve outdone Vine completely. In a few short days, we’ll know for sure!

Will you take the time to use Instagram video, along with your usual photos?

The Hashtag Rules To Live By

Courtesy of myadelaide.com.au

Rule #1: Hashtags Are NOT Word Substitutes

#If #you #hashtag #every #word #your #fans #will #hate #you.

Courtesy of facebook.com

• Words that are not KEYWORDS are not hashtags (eg: a, and, the, other, with etc)
• You should at any time, only use 1-3 hashtags in your post. This is because search should not dominate your post tone or style, or it will make you a spammer.

Rule #2: Hashtags Are Better At The End

Truly, using the odd #hashtag in your Facebook post is fine. It’s when you start using a few in your post where things get #confusing. The human eye is drawn to color, so many of your #Facebookfans will only see your hashtags, and not your message.

Courtesy of facebook.com

If you use too many #hashtags in your Facebook updates, they will be all your fans will see. And therein lies the danger. People on #Facebook don’t really like hashtags. If you overuse them, you will lose lots and lots of fans. #Hashtagfail

Instead stick to one or two max in your update, and the rest can go below your post, as stand-alone search-indexing tools.

Rule #3: Facebook Hashtags Are Not Twitter Hashtags

Whereas Twitter users use hashtags to explain a mood, or an afterthought – this will take time to work on Facebook, if it ever works at all. For now, using these are nonsensical, and they defeat the entire purpose of using hashtags in the first place. #Uselesshashtags4thewin!

Courtesy of facebook.com

Make sure that your hashtags are always simple, basic, and never contain more than 2 words or concepts. #Facebook is great, #Facebookmarketing is also awesome, but #Facebookmarketingisalldarageyo is dumb, confusing and no-one will use it.

Rule #4: Hashtags Need To Be Somewhat Personalized!

It’s nice to always use 3 major hashtags to get people to visit your pages, but ultimately one of these hashtags should be one of your content marketing assets that you use in most of your posts. That way, a fan can click on this hashtag at any time, and see posts that are uniquely yours, which makes browsing them easier for super-fans and researchers.

Courtesy of facebook.com

If you sell cars for example, #BobsCarLot could be your asset hashtag. Then you are at perfectly at liberty to use 3 other hashtags for descriptive purposes in search. But for the fans that want to see only your posts, the hashtag is waiting to be clicked!

Rule #5: Pick a Hashtag and Stick With It

I’m not the only one that finds hashtag ‘synonym’ users a total #irritation #annoyance #frustration #nuisance #bane #bother. If it doesn’t fit into normal language, then you’re doing it WRONG. Pick the most applicable and widely used hashtag, and use it. Don’t think that covering your post with 10 versions of the same word is going to help you gain fans.

Courtesy of facebook.com

Anyone that knows anything about Facebook marketing will tell you that if it doesn’t read well, then it doesn’t belong on your post. Research is key to finding and adopting the most suitable hashtags for use. People that don’t research, use synonyms.

Avoid these terrible hashtag mistakes and your fans will appreciate HOW you have introduced them to using hashtags. Flood them with poor practices, and you can say goodbye to a large percentage of your following. The hate is great with lots of users right now, and they don’t have the patience for any more hashtag shenanigans.

Have you made any of these Facebook hashtag mistakes yet?

Courtesy of sproutsocial.com

The Hashtag Privacy Rules So Far

By their nature, hashtags are a public offering, meant to get your post or update more views from a wider audience. But Facebook has been around the block a few times, and they know how important privacy is to their users. That’s why they’ve outlined these basic rules.

• You can USE hashtags on personal and business pages, in groups and even in comment sections. So you can use them anywhere, really.

• If you use your personal profile, the settings that you have right now will apply to your hashtags. Click on your privacy shortcuts button, next to ‘home’ in your top toolbar. There, you’ll see ‘who can see my stuff.’ The setting you have there, will apply to your hashtags. If you have ‘friends only’ then only your friends will be able to see your personal hashtag.

• Your hashtags however will ALWAYS be clickable, which means that anyone can click on it to find other posts that are similar or in line with yours. They can use the hashtag link, but this doesn’t mean anyone outside of your friends can see your post – your settings prevent that.

Courtesy of theundercoverrecruiter.com

• What happens if a wild friend appears and uses hashtags in the comment section of your post? Will the world be able to see it then? NO! Even if your friends use dozens of hashtags in the comment section, they don’t control the privacy settings on your post. That means once you’ve set your profile to ‘friends’ only friends can see it.

• In group scenarios if your private members use hashtags, even though those hashtags will be clickable, only the members in your group will be able to see your post, because it’s private.

• Business posts that use hashtags will be indexed, because they are not private – they are public, just like all business pages are. This means you’ll be able to get more fans and interactions by including 1-3 specific hashtags in each post.

Hashtag Etiquette on Facebook

Right now, leading sites have established 2 methods of using hashtags appropriately on Facebook. The first is to use the #hashtags in the sentence like this (if they are simple, and fit into the sentence). Using #hashtagsforawesomeppl that are long and don’t make sense in a sentence are best left to the second acceptable method.

At the very end of your post, underneath your update – it’s acceptable to use 1-3 Facebook hashtags consecutively to index your post. You should NEVER use more than 3 (ever) and they need to be highly specific so the right people can find your posts. It’s time to integrate a hashtag strategy into your daily social posting.

Are there any privacy concerns you aren’t clear on yet? Ask about them here!

Courtesy of digitaltrends.com

How Will Facebook Hashtags Differ From Twitter Hashtags?

The hashtag (#) has been around for quite some time, on Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest. Now it’s come to Facebook! The basic functionality of the Facebook hashtag will be the same – to accurately index and group specific crowd-sourced content.

But it will also be used to gain access to conversions from strangers that have used the same hashtag to ‘categorize’ their update or post. Just clicking on the blue hashtag link will bring up a list of posts and people using the hashtag. Then you’ll be able to write content based on what your specific hashtag category is talking about.

It’s a new and exciting way for business pages to gain FANS and interactions on the platform. Personally, I’m really excited at the marketing potential as well!

The Coming Hashtag Invasion

Like ‘em or hate ‘em, hashtags are fast becoming one of the dominant content strategies for social media managers. People are split down the middle on this – they either LOVE hashtags or they absolutely hate them. I think hating them is a byproduct of not understanding their business value.

As a business owner, there are things you’ll be able to DO on Facebook that you just couldn’t do before, all thanks to the humble hashtag. It will rapidly improve Facebook’s search functionality and allow your brand to gain more fans in less time, per post.

Facebook is convinced that the hashtag will help users bring ‘public events, people and topics’ to the forefront, as users share and engage in unique conversations. I can’t help but fully support them in this – I was already calling for the introduction of the hashtag on Facebook as far back as a year ago.

Courtesy of blog.hubspot.com

The Wildcard Privacy Concerns

As always, whenever Facebook rolls out a new feature, the world wants to know – how private will it be? Privacy concerns have plagued Facebook, with their not-so-simple settings solutions that many users just don’t know how to use. The question on everyone’s mind right now is – if I add a hashtag, who will be able to see it?

Well, the logical answer is, everyone. That’s the point of a hashtag – to help organize searchable content into categories so that it can be found by MORE people, who can then respond, engage or like your business page. But due to general complaints, Facebook has instead chosen to link hashtags with existing settings, further complicating people’s lives.

It will work in the same way Graph Search works, and you’ll only see hashtags from people that you are allowed to see. A hashtag in a friends-only post for example, will only be seen by your friends. So, while private users gain this benefit, businesses need to remember to have their settings in order, so that maximum exposure is achieved.

The Hidden Extra Bits of Hashtagging

Hashtags from other networks will also be clickable – which is Facebook’s attempt to make a hashtag more valuable when used across different networks, a wise move. Simply find your awesome Twitter hashtag on Facebook and create a post right there in that feed.

For businesses, this means greater promotional power in a hashtag. For Facebook, this opens up new and interesting ways to advertise in the future, based on categorized content – much like Twitter does now.

You can see the appeal – when a popular show comes on television, tens of millions of people chat about it on Facebook in real time. Imagine if Facebook could simultaneously advertise to these people? Good move Facebook.

It’s all part of a real time marketing strategy that many huge companies like Facebook are implementing now. They need more people to publish public content, so that sharing escalates and ad reach is extended.

Courtesy of blog.laptopbag.com

Facebook Marketers: How To Properly Use Hashtags!

Oh boy, we’ve spent years trying to get people to use hashtags properly on other social networks, and now this concern has come to Facebook. The main issue with hashtagging is that private individuals and marketers MISUSE the search symbol.

Here is a list of how you should, and shouldn’t use hashtags on Facebook:

• The strategic hashtag: Use no more than 2, maximum 3 hashtags to index your updates and posts. These hashtags need to exist for a reason, and that reason is to attract more people to your post and page for engagement. This means your hashtags need to be simple, clean and 100% relevant. #hashtagrules
• Where should you use hashtags? Either in your #content like this, or at the very end of your content, if it doesn’t make any sense in the copy itself. #hashtagrules
• Create your own brand hashtags: If you own a #juicyhashtag on Twitter, and use it on other networks like Instagram and Pinterest, then use it on Facebook. The potential for fans, engagement and revenue goes up when you extend your hashtag reach to the world’s largest social network.
• If you’re not sure which hashtag to use, search for one: You’ll see how many people have been using the different variations of hashtag, so that you can select the largest and most commonly used stream.
• All hashtags on Facebook have their own URL! This means that you can use this URL to drive traffic to your Facebook page, from your other online properties.
• You can find hashtags by using Facebook’s main search box. Hashtags can also help you find potential fans and pages, when you use specific search terms.
• Do NOT ever use random hashtags that don’t make sense, use weird slang, or capitalize on sad events for marketing purposes. And for goodness sake, don’t jam your Facebook posts with them, your fans will get annoyed and will unlike your page.

Where To Go From Here

Right now, your fans don’t know that Facebook has rolled out these new features. While only a small amount of people have hashtagging on Facebook now, soon it will spread to the entire network. If you’ve used hashtags before, then great. If you haven’t – announce this change to your fans and tell them HOW to use these new links.

It will speed up the sharing process, and get them used to seeing these strange symbols in your posts. Remember, not everyone uses Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram – but billions use Facebook. Clarification may be needed on your part. Good luck!

Do you think the introduction of hashtags on Facebook will improve their service, or make it worse? Let the opinions flow!

Courtesy of singlegrain.com

The Facebook Fan Folly

Once your page has a new fan – great! You’re doing something right. But getting new fans is EASY compared with getting those fans to engage. I’m talking about likes, comments and shares – those 3 eternal interactions that control your Edgerank score. Here are 5 interesting ways to improve your interactions with new fans.

• Link Your Niche With Something Popular: To promote discussion on your page, link your niche with something everyone loves talking about – like their favorite television show, or a star that’s in the news right now. You can see how we did it here, linking social media with Game of Thrones.

• Link To Other Facebook Pages: When you’re talking about a hot topic, or even an average one – don’t forget to link to other relevant Facebook pages. Far from leading your fans off your page, they will appreciate the extra information. You can see how we’ve done it here with Vincent Van Gogh and Batman.

• Curate Content From Other Pages: It can be time consuming to continually create new posts for your Facebook page. Instead, follow other great niche Facebook pages, and share their excellent content with your fan base. It makes your news delivery more balanced, and you get different voices on your page. Check out how we curated this Lego ad from the Social Media Training Center.

• Make Your Content Relevant To REAL People: I always chuckle a little when I see these formal Facebook posts, sitting all alone on a business page – no hope of anyone ever connecting to them emotionally. And that’s what you have to do to get interactions – be a real, emotional person. Who doesn’t love Fridays? See how we used everyone’s favorite day to connect with our fans.

• Give Your Fans a Choice of Interactions: Sometimes the strongest prompts are delivered when you offer unique like or share posts. We shared an animated video by Richard Swarbrick and ESPN, and asked our fans to like if they were Miami Heat fans, or share if they were San Antonio Spurs fans.

Use these 5 awesome Facebook tips to connect with your FB fans, and improve your Edgerank scores across the board! Remember, when your score improves, the fans that have engaged with your brand the most will see MORE of your updates and promotions. Ideally, you want them to love interacting with you!

That’s why it’s essential to keep the conversation going, once they have commented. Validate the effort by responding as soon as you can, and you’ll see how each fan is gradually converted into someone that loves to talk to you, like and share your posts!

Which of these Facebook techniques do you think has the most value?

Courtesy of springintosales.com

The New Facebook Rules

There has been a lot of confusion since the new rules came out regarding text, promos and direct sales on your Facebook cover page. For the most part, brands have ignored the update – and have stuck with their old ‘image-only’ cover. You are losing out on a very high percentage of potential sales.

The new rules are as follows:

• You may use 20% text or less in your cover.
• This text can be price or purchasing info, contact info or calls to action.

Tip! If you don’t know what 20% text on a cover page looks like, you can always test yours using this neat tool courtesy of Mari Smith.

Otherwise you can use the 5 column grid trick. Divide your cover page into five columns. Only one of the columns can be filled with text!

Courtesy of suvonni.com

Here’s what you can place in that 20% space:

• Coupons, QR codes, discounts – 50% discount on all items!
• Calls to action – Download, share, like, click and buy!
• Your website address, your email address, your sales page URL, your Amazon URL, or general information about your business.
• Any references to Facebook actions or features. Yes! You can now tell your customers to like your page, from your cover image.

Why You Should Change Your Image

These new changes to your Facebook cover page mean that your image should be more in line with direct sales, or with your marketing goal. If your goal is to get more fans – your cover image should be focused on that. If you’re going to use it as a way to share coupon codes or discounts, then your image should support these actions.

This makes creating a Facebook cover page far more difficult – and far more effective. As a business owner you’ll have to beware of the ‘spam trap’ that your cover presents. Don’t try and squeeze entire paragraphs onto your cover image – that won’t work.

• Short, punchy sales text
• Easy-to-read at a glance
• Beneficial to the customer directly
• Make it easy to follow the call to action!

Think of your Facebook cover page as prime advertising space. It can do a lot for your business, including the conversions that you get from your Facebook ad campaigns. Plus it will ensure that all traffic driven to your page is converted properly, and that you don’t lose any leads. If you haven’t changed your image yet, do it now!

It’s difficult enough getting interactions from your fan base, but when you only have a few hundred fans, you can use the extra help. Use all functions at your disposal!

Any questions on the new Facebook cover photo rules? Leave them here.

Courtesy of socialnicole.com

The Old Facebook Cover Policy

You might remember how strict the rules once were that detailed what you can and can’t design into a Facebook cover photo. You couldn’t write any calls to action on it for example, or Facebook would ask you to take it down, or just remove your page. The new Facebook changes have done away with every single one of those rules, except one.

The Rule That Still Counts

The only remaining rule that Facebook will still enforce is this one: “your cover photo may not be more than 20% text.” That means 80% of your photo has to be an image, and only 20% can be words of any kind.

This still restricts what you can say – or rather how you can say it – but as Facebook changes go, it’s a big one. They offer a lot more flexibility to business pages that are only on Facebook to sell their products. I never quite understood why Facebook had so many rules for the cover photo, but I’m glad to see them gone.

Try improving your impressions, clicks and sales without any calls to action in this prime real estate! It was very hard. Rumor has it that the Facebook changes happened because Facebook realized that they had very little hope regulating the billion accounts. What do you do exactly when someone violates a silly rule like that?

The Rules That Don’t Count Anymore

Courtesy of marismith.com

Facebook changes like this don’t come very often, but you can bet your boots that businesses all over the world will be redesigning their cover photos. Here’s what is now 100% legal to do on your cover photo:

• You CAN put price or purchasing information on your cover photo now. That means you can have a product image with a great big “only $14.99” right on your page. You can also tell your fans where they can go to buy, “download at jimmysburgers.com.

• You CAN put your contact information directly on your cover photo. This Facebook change will drive a lot of extra leads to your websites. Put your web address there, your email address, your postal address and telephone number – go nuts!

• You CAN tell your visitors to click, like or share your page with their friends. The Facebook changes make it possible for you to even have an arrow pointing down to the like button, like the old days! This will definitely increase your fan base.

• You CAN create calls to action and publish them on your cover photo. Phrases like ‘buy it now,’ ‘download here,’ and ‘share with your friends’ are perfectly acceptable. This opens up a lot of new marketing opportunities for page owners.

The real reason why these Facebook changes have occurred, is because Facebook needed to make their image policies for ads and cover photos the same. Cover photos are appearing in more and more ad campaigns, and without calls to action, pricing info and the other previously banned phrases – the ads were not living up to their highest potential.

If Facebook is going to capitalize on their new advertising systems, then they need to make marketing a standard and desirable part of using the platform. It has to be completely business friendly. You can’t sell a product to someone and then insist that ‘because of the rules’ they can’t have effective images in their ads.

Though the ad system has a long way to go before it’s perfect. Some Facebook ads are full of words, and they are approved – while others barely have any words, and they are rejected. This is definitely the teething phase for the platform. These Facebook changes are not going to stop coming.

Until Facebook can make their business users as active as their social users, it will continue to improve conditions for page owners. I read recently that they’ve got their heads in the books, and are working through tons of data to make educated decisions about their services. Facebook changes like removing the ‘unlike page’ option in the newsfeed is one of the tactical moves.

The data obviously showed that too many people were unliking business pages when given the chance. Facebook doesn’t want that to happen. For every unlike – there are businesses reaching less people. If you can’t reach people, why bother taking out an advert? It’s all part of their master strategy to become a hugely business-friendly platform.

The Cover Photo Potential

Courtesy of dreamgrow.com

My advice is to go and change your cover photo immediately. All covers are public and they are highly likely to show up on Google page one for a direct search. Launching a product? Use your cover photo. Appearing at an event? Use your cover photo. These Facebook changes will make it a lot easier to scale small business pages in the coming days.

• Put amazing discounts on your cover photo
• Put incredible specials on your cover photo
• Add a ‘like our page here’ arrow and graphic
• Add in some timeless calls to action to drive traffic!

Remember that the governing rule is still to publish way more image than text. But sales tools are back in, and that’s more than enough for now. We can all start using our Facebook pages a little more realistically because of this change. I expect that more Facebook changes are on the way, and we’ll be smiling about them all year.

Are you going to change your Facebook cover photo? What do you think about these new changes that are sweeping through the social network?

Join our Facebook page here!

Courtesy of smstrat.com

The Science of The Facebook Like System

I was browsing Facebook the other day, when a friend of mine posted a peculiar, but rather tempting, (and ingenious) update. I couldn’t help but ‘like’ the post, along with many other people in my network. Likes on Facebook are easy when you can depend on your friends to do them – but for businesses – it takes extra effort.

The update said, “I love the new sound that Facebook makes when you click on the ‘like’ button!”

Immediately this update intrigued me, because it got me to click ‘like’ for a reason other than I genuinely liked the post. Of course, no sound happened. But the principle was clear – there is more than one way to get likes for your updates. So began the grand ‘like’ discovery. Here’s what I learned about likes on Facebook.

The 10 Easiest Ways To Get Likes For Business Updates

Courtesy of brandignity.com

#1: People Are More Likely To Like Strange, Peculiar or Out-of-the-Box Images

Have you ever posted a strange image, just to see what will happen? It helps if your image is somewhat related to your business, but getting likes on Facebook is easier if you combine ‘unusual’ with imagery. Don’t forget to include a thought provoking caption.

#2: People Like Food More Than Ideas and Concepts

Take a close look at Pinterest – the entire social platform is built on how much people enjoy liking, sharing and talking about good looking food. Use food analogies on your business page, and snag more likes on Facebook with accompanying yummy food images.

#3: Use a Gimmick or a Play on Words For Likes

Have you ever tried the old ‘like if you support team x’ or don’t like if you hate them, gimmick. If someone believes strongly enough in the idea, team, concept or quote that you’re supporting, they would rather like your update than ignore it.

#4: Be Blunt About The Things You Really Like

Yes, you want people to like your updates, but are you giving them people or ideas to like? Try posting an image of a personality in your industry, along with a quote. Then ask your fans if they like this person. This is directly asking to get likes on Facebook – it works.

Courtesy of teaminternetmarketing,com

#5: It’s a FACT, Links and Teasers Get Lots of Likes

Images aren’t working, updates aren’t working – what is left? Links! Focus on finding some high quality, engaging content and post an awesome link to it on Facebook. Then craft an equally as amazing hook, some insight or a question. Get likes on Facebook with links!

#6: Put Like Boxes Above All of Your Blog Posts

It’s nice that you’re publishing your blog links on Facebook, but are people liking them? If not, add a like box to your blog. Your readers will be able to like your post immediately after reading it, without even logging in. That’s how you get more likes on Facebook!

#7: Be Engaging and Innovative As Best You Can

“Only our most valued and successful fans will be able to see and like this update.” What you have here is a compliment, followed by an innovative method of getting more fans to like you on Facebook. Get loads of likes on Facebook when you tempt people into clicking. Another interesting one is ‘Click like for good luck in business all year round.”

Warning! Be careful of creating mass ‘chain’ updates though – you can be clever about it, but very infrequently.

#8: Be a Compulsive Liker Yourself

If you like a lot of your fans posts, they will start to value your input, and will like yours in return. In fact, this is such an effective method, often your fans will just see your brand name and like you, without even reading your post. Likes on Facebook can work like this.

#9: The ‘Click Like If’ Formula That Works Like a Bomb

Even experts over at allfacebook.com recommend that you use the ‘click like if’ method. Create your normal, daily update – then integrate a ‘click like if’ into it. Click like if you agree with X. Click like if you don’t want to see orphans starve. That kind of thing. You’ll be surprised how many likes on Facebook you can get, just by asking for them.

Courtesy of latimes.com

#10: Focus on What Your Fans Care About

Use surveys, polls and marketing materials to determine what it is your fans care about the most. In other words, why did they like your page to begin with? The answer might be ‘to learn how to make more money’ or ‘to find out how to grow herbs.’ Whatever the answer, if you continually answer their core question, they will like it.

Getting likes on Facebook is a real science, but it also requires a lot of creativity. Good and bad posts can get likes, if you know how to prompt your fans to click that little thumbs-up button. Remember, when you get more likes it improves your impressions and more fans will be able to see your posts.

Try focusing on getting more likes on Facebook for a while, and see how it impacts your edgerank score. You’ll know you’re doing something right when people start talking to you on your brand page without any direct invitation to do so. A simple like campaign can make this happen, if you craft intelligent, convincing and tempting updates for your fans.

Why not integrate an interesting like prompt into one of your updates and tell me how it went? I’d love to know how much engagement you get by focusing on your like system.

In the meantime, tell me how you get loads of likes for your updates!

Courtesy of myphonedaily.com

Goodbye Single Newsfeed Options

The Facebook changes that will affect you and your business the most, are the ones happening to your newsfeed. There are new ways to filter your newsfeed that include viewing streams according to certain categories like music or photos. Instead of having to scroll down a million times only to run out of new content – Facebook proposes this.

Each newsfeed steam will be just as long, only you’ll be able to see and engage with more content – much more content. This will inevitably improve the time people spend on Facebook, and on finding content from YOUR business. It’s a win-win for Facebook and Facebook users alike.

The Information Junkies We Are All Becoming

Personally, I think this improvement by Facebook is the best thing they could have done right now. Facebook changes like this improve the user experience, instead of making it less tolerable, like all of their recent advertising changes. I bet a smart executive said – ‘but how can we keep people using Facebook for longer?’ That was the million dollar question.

The answer was also simple – these new Facebook changes. Increasing the amount of clean friend-based information that a single Facebook user can consume quickly, is key to maintaining their current business model. And with the ad increases this doesn’t come soon enough. If there are going to be more ads, there must be more content.

We are all becoming information junkies, and there is an increasing need for sites like Facebook to make more information available to us. The only problem is – we want it to be simple, super-fast and convenient. That’s no simple task. In order for the Facebook changes to meet this need, they also need to make the navigation of Facebook a little more complex.

Courtesy of techcrunch.com

The New Facebook Look

Along with the massive newsfeed changes, you can also expect updates to the photos and ad systems. Photos on Facebook will appear larger –which is great for marketers, and actually marks the beginning of a more friendly way to market to your customers. Text is great, but let’s be honest – images and moving images are becoming more important online.

Since Pinterest and Twitter Vine, the internet and your potential customers only seem interested in sharing the best images and Vines – text is left alone. But even as these numbers climb, more Facebook changes are on the way. There are rumors that a radical mobile redesign is on the cards for Facebook as well.

The mobile feed makes advertising look really bad, because it’s so noticeable and unwelcome. I wonder how they’ll improve this! Also on the way is a camera app, or some kind of app that will compete with Twitter Vine. At least that’s the news on the wire right now. With all of these additions and changes, Facebook as we know it will be gone.

The Changing Faces of Facebook

There is a desperate need for Facebook to improve their cluttered appearance. Experts like Techcrunch suggest that they will achieve this by giving things like ‘newsfeeds’ and ‘tickers’ the ability to be hidden. This would definitely leave room for the larger images and whatever new apps they want to promote. Facebook changes like these are needed.

• The newsfeed is getting an overhaul – you can switch between different content feeds
• Facebook is punting Instagram by dedicating an entire newsfeed to photos
• Facebook may introduce an independent music feed to make Facebook users engage more often with Spotify and the music shared on the site
• Facebook changes could include a new ‘news’ section dedicated to business page updates and general news
• Link and image posts will be much larger to get more responses from people. This is great for advertisers who can expect better click through rates
• Luxury brands will be attracted to the larger ad formats, and Facebook will get the extra investment it’s been looking for all this time

These Facebook changes tell me a few things. First of all, Facebook is STILL a people-centered platform, they want you to be happy. By keeping you happy, they can make money for their advertisers and business page owners. This is also good news for small businesses that want better returns from their Facebook ad investments.

All in all, the site isn’t just getting swamped by adverts – it’s also getting overhauled for the users that want more, and want it from Facebook. It seems that Facebook as a company is moving in the right direction. I had my doubts at first, but they are making every effort to balance out the business side, with the user side.

Courtesy of digitaltrends.com

The Facelift and The Pace of Change

This new Facebook facelift will no doubt have the internet divided again, as some people love the new feeds, and others hate them. People don’t like change, but it’s so crucial for a giant like Facebook to continue to change to stay relevant.

Just when they bought an image sharing app for a billion bucks, Twitter goes and buys Vine – which becomes the hot new thing.

These Facebook changes will continue because all of the social sites are in competition. A moment spent on Twitter is one not spent on Facebook. I would safely assume that more innovations – especially app-wise – will come from Facebook in the coming year.

You’ll notice that the Facebook trailblazers are being mimicked by just about every other social platform out there. They need to change constantly to stay in front! Hopefully this update will reduce clutter and increase time spent on Facebook, as the developers intend. If it doesn’t, Facebook will be left with a flawed design and a lot of ads bothering their users.

Join our Facebook page here, and stay updated on the latest Facebook changes!

Have you seen the new Facebook changes? What do you think of them – better or worse?

Courtesy of venturebeat.com

Ads Here, Ads There, Ads Everywhere

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Facebook advertising has rapidly increased. My private newsfeed now consists of strange promoted upcoming events, ‘most shared’ posts from the businesses I do follow, and endless business page suggestions from companies I’ve never even heard of – something has happened, and people are noticing.

These days when a friend likes a business, it shows up as a full on post ‘Jane Doe likes Business Page x’ sprawled across your page. These adverts are getting to people, there are too many of them. Yet businesses love the new Facebook advertising options, don’t they? Otherwise why would Facebook be doing all of these intrusive changes?

The Truth About Facebook Advertising Campaigns

In his latest post on Facebook advertising, Jason Falls takes a look at how useful the current Facebook ad campaigns really are to small business owners. For a $5000.00 investment, the return was 1.5 million impressions and 40,000 claims. That means 40K people clicked on the offer that was shown. That’s a lot of people taking interest in adverts.

Are businesses making money? Well, if that small business invested $5000.00, giving away a redeemable coupon, then according to the numbers – a heck of a lot of money was made from that ad campaign. This may be different from gathering likes and using sponsored stories to gain fans – but the proof is there – it works.

Courtesy of pagetrafficbuzz.com

It’s clear then that BECAUSE these Facebook advertising options are working, Facebook wants to make more of them. They want a diverse range of ads to suit all people, all budgets, across the world. That’s how they will increase their revenue. As ads become more social, they are also becoming more interactive and engaging.

Fans WANT the offers from their favorite businesses that are giving away coupons and free stuff, because it adds value to being their fan. As for the other ads – the cold ‘suggested business’ ads, these may work intermittently, but they are more of an irritation than anything else. It’s Facebook’s attempt at building stronger business pages. Why?

The more fans a business page has, the more Facebook advertising power is has. You can only show ads to your fans and their friends – right? Those are the rules. So Facebook has gone on a twisted ‘like ALL of these businesses’ rampage, suggesting 5-10 businesses to you per day if you’re unlucky. It’s devalued the experience for me a little.

Courtesy of thehighlow.com

Speaking About Advertising, What’s Facebook Up To?

There is a very clear increase in the frequency of Facebook advertising, offers and sponsored stories. Facebook, as Jason Falls so eloquently writes, must become a revenue engine. I fear however that this new model may lead to a breakdown in trust between user and platform. No-one likes useless adverts. They like repeated spammy adverts even less.

All you can do as a Facebook user or Facebook advertising user is to use their ‘spam’ options. If you see a spammy ad, report it as spam, hide posts you don’t like – give Facebook the knowledge it needs to keep your page free of irritations. Remember Facebook or any social media site, is not a passive service. It takes user and owner input to grow!

How do you feel about the increase in Facebook adverts?