Last week I ran a little social media experiment… non-scientific of course. I tweeted and posted on Facebook that for every twitter Retweet (RT) or Facebook Like/Share I got on a specific post I would donate $1.00 to my Movember campaign.
I didn’t really have any goals besides donating some money “humblebrag” and seeing if I could get 100 RTs & 100 Facebook “Likes” in a day, and seeing if it in fact worked.
Surprisingly, it was much harder to get Facebook “Likes” than to get RTs on twitter
Going into this, I thought I would easily get to 100 Facebook “Likes” but that was not the case at all. With the new Facebook feed, there is so much more news being spread and posts get lost in the clutter much quicker if people are not actually sharing the post. It is important for something to be shared and not just “liked” if you don’t want the post to be lost in the clutter
For any brand to show up consistently on Facebook they will need to either be constantly posting status updates, (spammy and annoying) or pay for advertisements on Facebook
There is also the option of asking your friends to repost/share your status updates, not just like them, but again, that can come off as spammy
twitter RTs were much easier to come by. I only have 370 followers (don’t judge) but most people were more than willing to give a RT for a good cause
Two weeks ago, I was lucky to attend a great social media conference at Windy City Social in Chicago. In fact, I was so overwhelmed with good information, it took me two weeks to write this post. I want to share some of the most useful information that I took away, that would be of value to you, our blog readers. As an organization, you may or may not have a social media strategy in place. A couple tweets here and there, a Facebook photo album after your company holiday party, etc., and now you are tasked with putting together a real social media plan! Here are some tips for how to get started and what you should include in your plan.
Tips for getting started:
First off, take a good look at what you are trying to solve with social media.
Next, identify your goals – Is it to build your brand’s online presence? Is it to protect your brand? Your goals must align with what you are trying to solve.
Then, take a look at the activity that is occurring right now – where and when the conversations are happening, and if that sentiment is negative or positive.
If you haven’t already done so at this point, you should put together a Social Media Council, made up of stakeholders that can serve as advisors and ambassadors to the program. These individuals should be well-versed in the plan you are about to put together, and can act as representatives of your company, whether externally or internally.
Now it’s time to create your social media plan! Here are 4 main components that each plan should have: read the full story...
Social Buzz Analysis – here, you need to focus on the trends in your industry, what people are thinking and their interests today. Identify threads that are already present, and keywords that resonate with your audience.
What have I learned by advertising on Facebook? It’s really easy to place an ad in front of the demographic that you want to target…But if you don’t have the right image, with the right message, with the right product, that user is more than likely not going to click on that ad.
Learning 1) I can target your mom on Facebook
No really, I can…Facebook allows advertisers to target pretty much anything you have shared with Facebook. For example: I can target a 27 year old male that lives in Bozeman, Montana, is engaged to be married, has a college degree in marketing, likes to snowboard, listens to deadmau5, and likes Cadbury eggs. Advertisers can target their exact demographic down to a T, but that still doesn’t mean that person wants to click and buy something while they are on Facebook.
Learning 2) Ads should act on a users’ impulses
If someone is on Facebook, they are not on Facebook to buy an expensive item (anything that involves research into the item is a no-go). A Facebook user’s attention is not on the ads, but on what Stacie is doing on Saturday night, so the ad needs to really catch their attention. Facebook ads are almost like the check-out aisle in a candy store, the ads need to be impulsive so the Facebook user clicks on them. Remember that unlike Google Adwords, where the searcher is actively seeking information on a specific product, on Facebook, we are assuming that because of their demographic, they will be interested in our product.
Learning 3) Use eye catching images
Duh…I know it sounds like I am beating a dead horse with this one, but the images really need to draw the user’s attention from whomever’s status they are looking at. Bright images, with unique color schemes, that catch the eye more than usual will generate more clicks for your ads. read the full story...
Last week we shared news of the upcoming release of Facebook Timeline—a major update to the site that promises to summarize your entire life since birth. Instead of the old layout that stacks your profile updates, burying old but important news, the redesign staggers your Facebook activity in more of a scrapbook style, encouraging users to explore and share momentous occasions of their life. It’s a major change and one that has caused much uproar on Facebook–as all Facebook changes tend to do. Many users are threatening to close their Facebook accounts or–worse, yet (sarcasm noted?)–to defect to Google+.
Being marketers, our immediate questions here at envisionit media had more to do with the impact on business and brand pages (the specifics of which are yet to be released by Facebook). But before we can thoroughly explore those possibilities, I thought it best to experience Facebook Timeline for myself and figure out just how many Facebook users we might be losing.
The pure aesthetic changes are enough to draw you right in–you can now choose a strong main image that appears at the top of the page, behind your profile picture. This is called the “cover” and I already see myself swapping that out a lot based on my mood, recent events or trips I’m excited about, important occasions, or just to add some humor to my page. I think I’ll now also keep my profile picture pretty consistent–that is my personal brand, after all. read the full story...
If you aren’t familiar with F8, its Facebook’s annual developer conference where they announce any big changes they’ve scheduled for release this year. Well, they just held F8 today, and they announced some MAJOR changes rolling out in the next couple weeks that will surely change the Facebook experience as we know it.
Over the past week Facebook has released some changes you’ve probably already noticed, like the ability to sort friends into groups, a real time ticker, and the subscribe button. If you thought those were big changes you’re in for a treat when we tell you about the new “Timeline” feature they are rolling out.
The new “Timeline” is a revamped version of your Facebook profile that provides everything you’ve done since your “birth” into the Facebook universe. The timeline is a real-time stream that showcases all of your events, posts, and pictures all with a stylish new redesign. It will also connect to any apps you may have on Facebook like Netflix, Spotify, and Nike +.
Take a look at this video to learn a little more about the new Timeline:
You can find even more info about the new Facebook timeline here.
As of right now we can’t be too sure of what this holds for Marketing efforts in the future, but stay tuned for more info on how to best utilize the new changes to Facebook once these features get rolled out to the masses!
If you’re an active Facebook user, you’ve probably already noticed yourself being asked by Facebook to “recommend” a Place page or even vote between two of the Places you like. A recommendation is essentially a review of that restaurant or bar or store (the most common types of “Place” pages), though the “recommendation” title naturally gives it a more positive spin than a typical “reviews” section.
This was a relatively quiet rollout for Facebook over the last week or two, but a sweet addition for any business looking to expand their loyal following.
Here’s how Recommendations work:
When on a specific Place page, a user will see a “Recommend This Place” request on the right side above the ads
The user can choose to display the recommendation to “friends only” or “everyone”
The recommendations shows up on the user’s own wall, thus in friends’ feeds
If “everyone” was chosen, the recommendation/review is also visible on that Place page (the request on the right becomes a “View Recommendations/Recommend this place” combo)
Page Admins have the option to hide a recommendation from view
Any smart business owner knows the power of reviews and the impact of friend referrals, and Facebook has now provided another outlet for this. So jump on it, businesses! We’ll see how they evolve the feature over time, and even if there will be any impact on organic search from this.
In the meantime, tip #1: Simply post a status to your wall thanking your fans for their support and asking them to share a recommendation.
You can now migrate your personal profile into a page. Although it is hardly revolutionary, it was an interesting step for Facebook. This means that you will have to trade all of your friends for likes if you opt for the change.
But be careful before you decide to change your personal profile into a page, because you can never go back. Well at least not for now. The move is in response to popular people on Facebook who have reached the 5,000 Facebook friend limit. But it’s an interesting move because many popular people have already created pages for themselves. Why create the formal ability to make the shift and openly publicize it?
Is Facebook becoming more about promoting yourself as a brand than connecting with friends? The world’s largest social network was built on creating connections between people. Your friends were the people you knew or the ones you had at least met in person. But it seems Facebook is starting to strategy from its roots. Now that the world of business had embraced Facebook as a core-marketing vehicle, Facebook seems to be shifting towards them. If people start abandoning their profiles for pages, all that will be left are a bunch of people who like you.
It makes you wonder if you want to be connected to a bunch of your friends or people who like you. Although it’s merely semantics, it is definitely something to think about as social networks continue to grow and evolve. Important questions to consider are: What is the purpose of your Facebook page? and What does a “Like” mean to you?
Oreo came up with a brilliant social media campaign on Feb 15th 2011 to rally up their 16 million plus fans to set the Guinness record for the most Facebook ‘likes’ in a 24-hour period, and ultimately make Oreo the world’s most “liked” cookie. They set the bar at 50,000 ‘likes’, and were able to accomplish that feat with a staggering 114,619 likes in a 24-hour period. Guinness World Records then confirmed today at 9am EST that Oreo now holds the record for the for the most ‘likes’ on a Facebook post in 24 hours- But for how long?
It seems that Lil Wayne caught wind of Oreo’s social media push, and decided to make an attempt at the record as well (4 hours later). Within an hour he accumulated a whopping 194,092 ‘likes’, and eventually ended the 24-hour period at an astonishing 588,905 ‘likes’ to ultimately stomp Oreo’s existing record into proverbial cookie crumbs.
So why’d Lil Wayne do this to Oreo? According to Mashable.com, Mazy Kazerooni, Lil Wayne’s digital manager, says that the idea was to show the star’s social media prowess. “I want people to think ‘Bieber, Gaga and Lil Wayne.’ The traffic we do is ridiculous and no one really knows,” Kazerooni says.
Although, Lil Wayne consumed Oreo’s world record like an after dinner snack (with a dip in milk first, of course ), this battle for the record has turned to drive a huge amount of publicity for both Lil Wayne and Oreo, more than both parties could have possibly imagined. It just goes to show the power that Facebook and other social media outlets hold these days, and the opportunity for a small campaign such as this to go viral and grow into a beast of it’s own. read the full story...
Some may say that 2010 was the year for Facebook, and honestly, who are we to say otherwise? Facebook has grown into something that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself couldn’t have even imagined, and after an aggressive year in 2010 is one of the top dogs (and probably making some other companies a little nervous, Ahem…Google). Lets take a look at some of the accomplishments Facebook has undertaken this year, and the reason why it seems like we all have the Facebook fever.
When looking at growth for Facebook in 2010 they not only reached the 500 million user mark (yes, 500 million), are worth an approximated $7.6 billion, but (according to comScore) also achieved an increase of 55% in U.S. unique visitors compared to 2009 (topping Twitters 30%), which makes it the second most visited site world wide (only trailing Google). Wow, those are some good numbers, not to mention that the average Facebook user spends about 55 minutes on the site daily. It used to be a Facebook vs. Twitter battle, but now it seems that Facebook has jumped that hurdle and is now on the way to give Google a run for their money. On top of that about 83% of businesses use Facebook, and there are 700,000+ active local business pages on the site.
Oh yea, did I forget to mention that The Social Network is nominated for 6 Golden Globe awards, and to top it all off Mark Zuckerberg was dubbed the 2010 Man Of The Year by Time Magazine (the second youngest to ever win the award). No big deal right?
Nowadays everyone is starting to realize (if you didn’t already know) that social media is an excellent way to captivate your audience, and with the 500 million strong on Facebook and 200 million more on Twitter you can reach ANY demographic (my grandmother just friended me a couple days ago). Not only is everyone using it (including my grandma, and probably yours too), but the spaces themselves encourage action and interaction, which can be extremely valuable. Instead of someone talking to their friends in their living room while your 100 thousand dollar commercial spot is running that they aren’t paying attention to, you can reach the same amount of people, get an instant action/reaction from them, and its all for free.
Ok, with that said, its hard enough to create awareness and get people to become a fan of your Facebook page as it is, but the hardest thing of all is keeping them engaged AFTER they become a fan. Do you know how to keep them engaged? Do you want to learn how to keep them engaged? (See what I did there ) Just be conversational with them! Use open-ended questions that relate to your product, relate to your fan base, and drive consumer action. People see plain old’ boring promotions all day long (and trust me they know how to tune them out), but if you tailor your updates and promos to something that not only promotes your product and brand, but also gets the user involved and thinking about your product you will create much more retention amongst consumers.
Oreo is a great example of how to structure that perfect balance of conversation and promotion and utilizing it in the social media space.
Here are some examples of Oreo’s promoting on Facebook that Ad Age so kindly provided for us. read the full story...
I want to share some of the most useful information that I took away, that would be of value to you, our blog readers. As an organization, you may or may not have a social media strategy in place. A couple tweets here and there, a Facebook photo album after your company holiday party, etc., and now you are tasked with putting together a real social media plan! Here are some tips for how to get started and what you should include in your plan.
