Courtesy of netprofitmantra.com

Facebook Marketing Mistakes Revealed

We’ve all read about those Facebook marketing mistakes that you can make. ‘Don’t speak at your fans, speak to them.’ ‘Post lots of images to get interaction.’ These are broad, common sense mistakes that you shouldn’t be making. What about those harder, hidden blunders that YOU don’t even know about? They could be losing you droves of fans!

Marketing Blunder #1: No More Buying Fans!

You might have noticed your numbers dropping recently, and that’s because the Facebook marketing team is tightening up their ability to find and delete fake accounts. When you use services that offer you Facebook fans for a fee, these companies will insist that they are offering you real people. This is just not true.

In fact, Facebook is cracking down on all pages that bought fans – leaving you without anyone to talk too. In the past, you could buy fans just to get started on Facebook. Now, you really shouldn’t waste your money.

Courtesy of likeable.com

Marketing Blunder #2: Ruining Your Contests

It’s SO easy to break the rules regarding contests on Facebook. As a Facebook marketing expert, I’ve dealt with clients that simply can’t understand why their contests were pulled down or banned. Here are some rules to clarify what you can and can’t do.

You may not ask people to like other Facebook UI functions in your competitions, and you have to use an APP to do it. Your competition should state that it has nothing to do with Facebook, and winners can’t be notified on Facebook, ever.

Marketing Blunder #3: The Facebook Market

Not understanding the Facebook market can cost you fans. For example – if you behave like you’re on Twitter when you’re on Facebook, this can be great, or terrible for you. Great – because people love short, call to action posts with images, and terrible because using hashtags on Facebook makes sensitive fans crazy.

Have you ever actually tested which posts get you the most responses before? Facebook marketing is actually about doing your own testing and analysis.

Courtesy of ontopinternetmarketing.com

Marketing Blunder #4: Not Pushing Your Products Enough!

Let’s be honest, whether your fans are using Facebook mobile or desktop, you want the same thing – leads and sales. But are you doing enough to get them? We are warned so often that Facebook marketing is about people, that we forget to SELL stuff to them, or our pitches or efforts are too weak to get noticed.

If you can’t sell something blatantly, post it on Pinterest – then repost the pic on Facebook and let the sales funnel work. Facebook marketing in small businesses can be a little more aggressive at times.

These four massive Facebook marketing blunders will send your fans packing, and you can’t afford to lose any more of them. Do yourself a favor and start selling properly, no short cuts, no tricks – just daily work.

Join our Facebook page here! It’s so shiny!

What is the worst Facebook blunder you’ve made to date? Any great stories? Share them here.

Courtesy of facebook.com

The Basics of Facebook Graph Search

The Facebook Graph Search beta has hit the net, and people are scrambling to find out what all of fuss was about. Critics are calling it a ‘big step for Facebook’ as they try to capitalize on their traffic by adding a search function to their network.

This isn’t any old search process however, it’s a NEW kind of search and it adds a lot of additional functionality to the site. The Facebook Graph Search function allows users to search for people on Facebook that share similar interests, places, people or photos.

Sounds a bit date-site like? It is, kinda. In fact, using this kind of new functionality will allow people to better source relevant friends for things like book clubs, yoga meetings, gym sessions or clubs. Bing gets a massive boost from this Facebook decision, as Facebook displays Bing results if they don’t know who you’re trying to find.

As I was saying, Facebook Graph Search concentrates on 4 areas. The graph will allow you to find other television programs for example, that are similar to ones that you’ve already liked. Or you can use it to find photos of cats with bread on their faces in your area. Facebook is connected in weird and wonderful ways, and it’s trying to make us see and use these connections we have with people on the site more often.

The Down Side of Facebook Graph Search

The only down side to the new Facebook Graph Search is that it sure makes it easy for strangers to find and harass you. This is mildly reminiscent of a bad dating site, that allows creepy people to type in exact descriptions and get results. If you’re looking to marry a brown haired, secretary with 3 cats that lives in Ohio – you can find them on Facebook.

Courtesy of techcruch.com

For businesses, you might be able to use this search to find ideal clients, potential fans and competition entrants. If you couple it with the recent ‘mail for a dollar’ expansion, people can now find you and email you – anything. Hello spam!

Aside from the blatant stalker world that Facebook has just unleashed on all of us, I do admit that this step is beneficial for Facebook users. For one it allows people to better sort through Facebook, which never stops expanding. Facebook Graph Search will work concurrently with open graph, and Facebook has mentioned that the two will grow together over time.

The Proof is in The Privacy

I’ve given up trying to find a reasonable privacy balance on Facebook. With the introduction of new advertising processes and now Facebook Graph Search – you’re lucky to have ANY privacy left on the site. Even though Graph Search will become one of the 3 pillars – alongside Newsfeed and Timeline, you have to wonder – is my personal information safe?

The quick answer is no. I would encourage you to limit what you say on your Facebook profile just in case. These days the privacy policies change so often, it’s hard to keep up. And now that strangers can find you and talk to you – no information is safe. Many strangers will be spammers, marketers and phishing fraudsters.

Facebook’s official statement about privacy went as follows: “No one can see anything that they wouldn’t have otherwise been able to see,” said Facebook public policy manager Nicky Jackson Colaco in an interview with VentureBeat. “We don’t want people to be surprised. It’s really bad for them … and it’s bad for us.”

So Facebook is insisting that enabling people to find you, based on where you live, what you like and who you are is not another privacy violation, it’s simply an advancement.

How To Prevent The Privacy Onslaught?

Go and check out which groups and interests you’ve liked, in your entire Facebook history. Then delete the groups you may find uncomfortable. If for example you once liked a group called, ‘I’m a T&A man’ because an image was funny, you may want to unlike that.

Otherwise Facebook Graph Search could be telling people you’re this sort of man when they search for you. Your normal privacy settings are fine for now, but keep an eye out – they could change!

Check out this awesome video from Business Insider on how to use Facebook Graph Search.

Benefits To Small Businesses on Facebook

There are some superb benefits of the new Facebook Graph Search system. People can find businesses like yours, just by asking Facebook which ‘dentists’ their friends use in your area. That means the power and value of one fan just went up! Search amplifies how many people can find and like your company. Score!

Will this negatively impact Google? I don’t think so. If there’s one thing Google can’t get wrong, it’s search. They will remain the kings of online web browsing. But Facebook may steal some time spent per person, away from Google. People will be interested to see how Facebook Graph Search works, but they won’t use it every day like they use Google Search.

Courtesy of ibtimes.com

What The Twittersphere Thinks of Facebook Graph Search

• @MariSmith says, “@Markettennant Facebook Graph Search on mobile is coming – as an API. A whole new sub-industry, methinks cc #smexaminer
• @WSJ says, “Can Facebook’s Graph Search get you a date?”
• @RWW says, “Facebook Graph Search is Boring: Wake Me When We Get A Single Search Al by @ablaze rww.to/XBHviU”
• @Mashsocialmedia says, “Analysts are unimpressed with Facebook Graph Search.”
• @SocialMedia411 says, “Yelp stock tanks 8% after Facebook announces Graph Search.”

It’s interesting to me that recently Facebook removed the ability to opt out of search results, and now Facebook Graph Search is up and running. All I’m seeing is another attempt to open up new revenue streams by Facebook. Soon, marketers, corporations and companies will be clamoring to get a piece of you on Facebook.

How do you think Facebook Graph Search will affect you?

Courtesy of articles.nydailynews.com

The Black Friday Rush

Black Friday is traditionally the day after Thanksgiving, when the Christmas season officially begins. It marks the first day of the ‘shopping’ season when online shops and shopping malls are able to sell more products because of Christmas time. You’ve probably employed some basic Christmas Facebook strategies before.

But how do you prepare for the busiest shopping day of the year?

Shop.org has reported that they believe online shopping sales will balloon this year by 12%, to about $92-96 billion dollars in the US alone. It’s definitely time for some strategy!

Facebook Strategies: Page Design

Black Friday is coming, and you need to have all of your businesses best deals out there for your Facebook public to see. This is how to do it.

• Change your cover page to promote Christmas sales
• Change your description URL to specific sales pages
• Make your brand profile image fit your new Christmas design

Include the words ‘Black Friday’ in your Facebook strategies – it motivates people to check out your deal and specials – because there are often a LOT of good ones this time of year. If you really want attention, use a ‘buy X and get Y free offer.’

Courtesy of modbodblog.wordpress.com

Facebook Photo Strategy

As Facebook strategies go, you can’t go wrong with a bit of image advertising. It takes a few minutes to mock up an ad in Photoshop, or you can commission an affordable designer to create several images for you that you can use as advertising.

You’ll need to include a great sales pitch, loud red sales prices, and one or two special products per image. Then create a very alluring update to publish with the picture. If you get some great feedback on these specials leading up to Black Friday – spend
a little more and make your best image ad a REAL promoted ad on Facebook.

Facebook strategies like this will work, especially if your goal is to get people to your sales pages. “Get a free 25% discount coupon instantly when you click this ad.” That works!

Facebook Strategies: Post Updates

Get into the habit of creating posts that tug on the heart strings. Christmas is about giving right? So create some great Facebook strategies that use the family unit, Christmas morning and smiling kids as an incentive to get your buying public to buy more.

Super Power Your Black Friday

If there was ever a time to leverage viral marketing, it’s now. You can improve your Black Friday sales a whole lot if you can get a video to go viral in the days leading up to Black Friday or Christmas.

Facebook strategies like viral video can be the difference between a few thousand dollars, and hundreds of thousands of dollars that you could potentially make on that day. Use your Facebook page to promote a brand –orientated viral video that is entertaining, funny and that is worth sharing. It can make a big difference to your bottom line!

Educate Yourself!

Speaking of Facebook strategies and bottom lines – if you want to learn more about how to increase leads, revenue and brand awareness, I have something for you today.

Sign up before Nov 20th!

Sign up to my free webinar now, where you’ll get to experience a live discussion on 9 Facebook Strategies that you’ll need for this time of year, or any time of year!

Facebook has changed so much in the past few months, you’ve probably missed some really important stuff. Enroll in this free webinar, and you’ll get to take part in our live Q&A sessions afterwards, with our awesome experts.

Just register here.

The webinar begins on Tuesday November 20th 3PM EST. It’s just in time for Black Friday!

Otherwise, what Facebook strategies do you use to leverage Black Friday?

Courtesy of lighthouseinsights.in

Why Milestones Matter

In life, a milestone is defined as a significant event or stage that happens in the overall development of a particular person, place or thing. On Facebook, your milestone area is exactly that – a space for you to share the special events and moments of your businesses life, with your fans.

To get it right, you have to be creative, honest and willing to dig deep into your past to pull out some priceless gems. These will matter most to your fans.

Using Milestones Like a Pro

The first step is scroll down to the very bottom of your Facebook page – where it all began. You’ll want to add in your founders date. Don’t forget to upload an image that communicates the emotion of the occasion to your fans. Some businesses have even gone in and created milestones before the founding date.

How did the name of their business come into being? How did the two main business partners meet? These extras really help personalize the process.

Once your founders date is set, grab a piece of paper and create a bit of a mindmap of the best events that have happened over the last few years. They can be personal, or strictly business orientated – like the day you bought your first office, or a photo of your first customer. Fans love to see the evolution of your brand this way.

Facts and Figures Enhance Your Identity

Fans want to know how your business grew and became what it is today. The easiest way to communicate this is to use facts and figures. These can be laid out in flashy graphs, charts and diagrams – or they can be stated as a quote, or a great image that relates to the stat in one way or another.

One milestone for example, would be your fan page reaching 1000 users. Striking images are important on milestone posts, as the update stretches across your entire Facebook page. The brighter and better your image, the more fans will like and share them.

Key Elements To Remember When Creating Milestones

• Milestones should follow a sequential storyline, so that they orientate your fans in the history and success of your brand and business.
• Don’t be afraid to get personal – if the birth of your first son affected the direction of your business, create a milestone for it.
• Milestones don’t necessarily have to be true. Many fun brands use them as an amusing tool to capture the attention of their fans. These milestones aren’t strictly true, but they’re a lot of fun to read.

So – get to it! Your Facebook page just isn’t complete without a few great milestones to let your fans really know who you are. Take advantage of this space, you’ll be surprised how popular these posts can become.

Do you have an interesting idea for a Facebook milestone? Leave it here!

Courtesy of www.mashable.com

That’s 800 pages of personal information about your life, available for use. Social media and the pursuit of a fully customized online user experience, requires some sacrifices in the privacy department. It’s only when they’ve learned everything about you, that they can start selling you stuff you really want. It’s customer profiling, and it’s the future of sales on the internet.

Intimidating or Progressive?

It’s never nice when strange people can predict your behavior, or influence it – based on some document you’ve never seen before. In Europe, there’s a law that let’s you see any stored info about yourself. That’s how this 800 page debacle was exposed. In this document there are 57 subsections, each detailing a part of your Facebook behavior, preferences or movements on the site.

Here are a few things Facebook notices about your behavior:

• All personal information, naturally – including name, address, phone numbers, gender, relationships, email addresses, credit cards, and all transactions performed on the site.
• It records all of your chat messages, even the ones you delete.
• It tracks how you use Facebook, which PC’s, phones or alternative devices you use and what their details are.
• It records who has poked you, and who you’ve poked since you signed up.
• It lists which events you’ve been to, when you’ve been invited and your choices in whether to go or not.
• Facebook tracks who you ‘friend’ and who you ‘de-friend,’ on your profile.
• It lists details about the apps you use, and even tracks your behavior through cookies when you’re NOT logged into Facebook.

Granted, Facebook is collecting this information to form a profile on you. It’s not doing it for any nefarious reasons, as certain alarmists would have you believe. Facebook is simply moving towards open sharing – which has no room for privacy. If you don’t want it to be online, don’t put it there. In the future, you’ll surf the net and will only have to look at ads and messages that are relevant to your tastes.

Courtesy of forbes.com

It’s a grand data mining expedition, and it can only end up helping you, the consumer, buy more of the things you like. It’s not so bad when you put it that way now is it? At the end of the day it still boils down to choice. If you don’t want to buy a new vacuum cleaner, you don’t have to. No matter how many sneaky messages are inserted into your daily surf time, prompting you to do it.

Yes, Facebook has 800 pages of information about each and every one of us. And there will always be those that are terrified by this prospect. But the social internet is not about privacy. It’s about sharing, connecting and consuming. If Facebook can improve the user experience for us, we say go ahead!

Do you think Facebook is crossing the privacy line? Tell us your opinion about these 800 page profiles!

Courtesy of blogtipswriter.com

The Not So Shocking Truth

You already know that social presence is fast becoming the centre for all exposure and sales on the internet. People are pulling away from the traditional website, and instead replacing them with social profiles. One business will have a real presence on several large social sites. People interact with them and in turn they sell things to the people. Not so complicated, except for the inherent value we’re missing here.

Because of social trends, it is far more valuable to be prolific on Facebook (i.e. have a great Facebook page) than ever before. Some emarketers would even say it’s necessary. Sales on the internet is changing rapidly. A business once had to try and attract customers – but not any more. Instead, with a shiny social profile, all of their clients will find them. The better the profile, the more money they make.

So you see, it stands to reason that businesses are in a flurry to try and build their social profiles. What has this got to do with Facebook ads? Facebook is the mother of all social network sites. No Facebook business page can function without a decent community to chat with and market to. This community must grow all the time. And it’s a FACT that 75% of brand ‘likes’ on Facebook come from Facebook ads.

The moral of the story is that the success of your Facebook ads are directly proportionate to the success of your marketing strategies on your fan page. Google PPC campaigns might drive more traffic to your website – but are they really making those sales you need? For every person that clicks on your Facebook ad and decides to ‘like’ your page – well, that’s a real investment.

Creating Social Currency

Introducing a new fan to your Facebook page exposes them to your marketing methods, your attempts at social engagement, your community. You are introducing a new person into your social sphere, and increasing your social currency. Social currency is the information shared on your page that encourages further interaction. There are a few other definitions as well, but this one is most relevant to this context.

When you pay for a Facebook advert, what are you getting?

1) More exposure for your Facebook page.
2) More likes, and a larger community.
3) A new fan that will promote – identity, affiliation, conversation, utility, advocacy and information. In other words increase your social currency.
4) Direct sales from your Facebook ad.
5) An increase in repeat business from that individual fan.
6) A boost to your overall social profile.
7) As a result, greater sales in the short and long term.

Can Google Adwords give you all of these? Nope. So to answer the question – are Facebook ads worth paying for? It’s a resounding yes, now more than ever. Facebook adverts are for everyone looking to increase their Facebook community and enhance their overall social profile. Use them like the pros do!

Do you use Facebook adverts to promote your fan page? We’d like to hear about your experiences with the ad platform. Leave a comment for us below!

Courtesy of sleengroup.com

The Friend Connection

Right now you’re personally connected to a number of people on Facebook. According to Facebook’s own stats, it’s probably around 130 or more. If each of your 130 friends is connected to another 130 people – your actual network reach is about 16,900 people. Looking a bit larger now, isn’t it?

Assuming many of these are the same person across familiar networks, we can conservatively say that you have the potential to reach about thirteen thousand people from your personal Facebook page. But why would your reach be more realistic here than on – say your fan page?

• A face and a name
• Real connections, with real people
• Acts of human kindness

You’ve only allowed people on your personal network that you know or have met before. This means you are instantly socially connected with them. You aren’t a nameless, faceless random in other words. This gives you the power of persuasion. It means, that if you really wanted to – you could send a personal Facebook message to everyone you know, and ask them to post something great about your fan page.

Appealing to people you know gets results. When you appeal to them personally, and ask a favor – people are 90% more likely to help you, if they know you. Everyone on your private network knows you. Secretly, you have access to over 10,000 people on Facebook…and you’ve only JUST realized it.

Let’s say you’re desperate to get 100 new likes for your fan page. What should you do? Use your network of course! The more someone knows you, the harder they’ll promote for you. Pick 30 of your closest, best friends and family. Ask each of them personally to get 4 new people to like your business page. Result? One hundred and forty likes, for free and for nearly no effort at all.

Your Personal Facebook Page Power

We often forget as marketers that we’re trying to create a business Facebook page that feels as connected as our personal pages. If only you could get those instant reactions your real friends give you! Well business is business. It’s no secret that the more likes you have, the more likes you’re likely to get. They show authority, credibility and activity. You’d sooner join a page with 1000 fans than 100 – right?

So start channeling your efforts into utilizing your personal page to build your fan base on your business page. Sending invites out to the same people is not going to grow your fan base. You need to use the people you know and trust to get ahead. That’s social networking in its purest form!

How do you use your personal page to get likes for your fan page? We’d love to hear your great tips!

Courtesy of masternewmedia.org

So let’s take a look at some of the changes that have happened, and how they’re going to affect your Facebook fan page.

1. Leaving Messages As Your Business

One of the most promising changes is that now you can log into your business page and comment on other pages as your business, instead of as yourself. This is great for promotion and marketing – though there will surely be many businesses that abuse this new change.

Keep your page promotion relevant and don’t spam people – ever! Now your business name is directly related to everything you say on Facebook, so keep it clean and professional.

2. The New Layout

The most obvious changes have been to the old layout. You’ll notice that your photo features have changed for the better – and are now easily viewable in thumbnail form on a friend’s (or your own) photo page.

They are also available at the top of your profile now, and will refresh with new photos every time one is uploaded and your business page is tagged. Fans are not allowed to tag photos as businesses to prevent spam and constant abuse of the feature.

The tabs have been removed from the top of your fan page as well, and instead slotted in below your profile picture. This makes room for the new image feature, and perhaps future changes that Facebook plans on implementing. Only time will tell what the true reasons are for the tab reassignment – as far as we can tell, it’s purely aesthetic.

3. New Owners Box Added on Pages

Another great change that will help B2B, or person to person interaction – is the new ‘page owner box’ on every fan page. This clarifies who exactly is running the page, and makes it easier for other businesses or ‘fans’ to get hold of the page admin.

Before this change, tracking down the owner was a huge hassle. The box lies on the left hand side, in the same column as the profile picture – and holds the names of all the administrators of the page, with their profile photos.

4. Changes To The ‘Likes’ on Facebook

A minor change has been made to the ‘likes’ boxes on your fan page. Basically your overall ‘likes’ box doesn’t show any profile images anymore, while your ‘friends who like this page’ box has been redesigned with some slight, subtle changes.

Your favorites pages have also been transformed into ‘likes’ boxes. This feature still allows you to choose which pages are your favorite, only now they appear in a box with ‘likes’ as the title. A little confusing, but in the grand scheme of things – nothing to worry about. It won’t affect your marketing goals at all.

Finally, Facebook has changed their markup language (FBML) to iframes, to make it easier for web developers to design outside of Facebook – and when they’re done, add it to the iframes platform. More changes are set to happen fairly soon, so keep an eye on our pages and we’ll let you know when!

Do you find the new Facebook changes useful?
If not, why don’t you like them?

Photo

Leaving your photo blank is the first mistake made on social networking profiles.  A photo, or company logo, can keep you from automatically being dismissed as a spammer.  If you choose to go with a personal photo, make sure it’s a clear shot of your face (smiling is always good), with minimal background distractions.

Profile Information

People are curious by nature.  They want to know more about you, about your work, your company, and so on.  Filling in your profile information is great no only for sharing information, but for using those keywords you want to be found under.  Are you a Marketing Director?  Use that keyword and other similar ones (in a natural way), in you profile description to increase your chances of showing up on the first page of a search.

Conversations

People will stick around, and come back again and again, if there are conversations and other things going on in your profile.  Ask questions, and respond when people take the time to comment.  Include links to other relevant blogs, videos, etc, to give your followers something to come back and look at.  But don’t just stop at business – include a little personal.  Customers are more likely to do business with people they feel a bit of a connection to, and sharing an amusing story about (insert whatever comes to your mind) will make you more memorable to prospects.

Groups

Lastly, join groups, fan pages, Q&A sessions, etc, in order to get your name out there.  Add value to the discussions taking place, and when appropriate, link back to your website or blog, or speak of your services.  Most people will tune you out if you go for the hard sell, but if you engage others and provide a call-to-action at the right time, you’ll increase your chances of gaining customers.

Have any optimization tips you’d like to pass along? Leave us a comment!