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Facebook, Social Media Marketing |

May 20, 2016

| by richardhale

How to Get an Edge When Promoting Your Web Development Facebook Page

It seems like it took marketers forever to finally get the gist of EdgeRank, Facebook’s old algorithm. EdgeRank decided what each individual Facebook user saw or didn’t see in her/his timeline. Then, EdgeRank was suddenly gone and marketers were once again scrambling to try to understand the Facebook algorithms. And, with the latest changes being aimed towards businesses, you need to have an edge when promoting your web development Facebook page.

Facebook went to great lengths to recreate its algorithms in order to create better experiences for its users. Unfortunately for businesses, this had a negative impact on organic traffic immediately following the new algorithm rollout. According to Facebook’s November 2014 announcement:

“As part of an ongoing survey, we asked hundreds of thousands of people how they feel about the content in their News Feeds. People told us they wanted to see more stories from friends and Pages they care about, and less promotional content.”

So, with all these changes to the Facebook algorithm and the ways it handles business page posts, how can you get ahead? Are there ways to promote your web development firm’s Facebook page without breaking the marketing budget’s bank? Yes, there are.

How are Your Facebook Page’s Posts Ranked?

Many social media marketers are upset about the drastic decline in Facebook newsfeed activity for Pages. Some believe it’s all a ploy to get entrepreneurs and small business to dish out cash for those paid ads or promoted posts. It’s widely believed that promoted content is the only business content actually getting exposure in users’ Facebook news feeds.

Whether all of that is true or not, one thing is fact: You must be willing to put in extra work promoting your company Facebook page, or your posts will never be seen by users. So, how do you get an edge up on Facebook’s algorithms to ensure that your Page posts are actually seen in timelines… ORGANICALLY?

Does EdgeRank Still Matter?

Although EdgeRank is now a thing of the past for Facebook, it’s almost certain that the site’s new algorithms include its basic concepts. There were three key elements that EdgeRank used to decide what hit the timelines of users, all three of which you should consider when promoting your web development company’s Facebook page:

  1. Affinity Score – Measurement of how strong your brand’s relationship is with a specific user based on the user’s engagement with your Page on Facebook. In other words, those who liked, shared or commented on your Page’s posts had higher affinity scores. The higher the score, the more likely it was they’d see your posts in their newsfeeds.
  2. Weight – Each interaction had a specific weight. For example, likes carried less weight than shares or comments. So, theoretically, posts with a lot of shares and/or comments will be shown in more timelines.
  3. Time – The older the post became, the less relevant it was… that simple. So, it would show up in newsfeeds less and less over time.

Promoting Your Facebook Page

5 Tips for Promoting Your Web Development Facebook Page

Ready to start marketing your web development business online? Already have a Facebook Page, but it’s just not getting the results you’d like? Well, here are five tips to help you be more effective when promoting your web development Facebook page.

1. Use Eye-Catching Images and Videos in Your Posts

Facebook news feeds are filled with text updates from friends and family members. It’s no wonder the social media site doesn’t want to clutter newsfeeds with text posts from businesses, which may end up being spammy or salesy in nature. Posting visually appealing, relevant videos and images increases the chances of user engagement, which Facebook likes, increasing visibility.

2. Target Your Posts on Your Web Development Company’s Facebook Page

Since the decline in reach for Facebook pages, some marketers have reported seeing positive results come from targeted posts. This just may be one of the best ways to get your page’s posts in front of your target audience, without spending on ads. You can target your Facebook ads by:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Educational Status
  • Relationship
  • Language
  • Location
  • Demographics

3. Combine Text with Images Properly

You must use the right combination of what Facebook calls “images and alluring copy” when posting visuals. The social network penalizes images posted on page that contain too much text copy. Keep your sentences instructional and short to grab users’ attention immediately. And, stay clear of those salesy “shop now” and “buy now” phrases.

4. Request Feedback from Your Audience

When promoting your web development company’s Facebook Page, engagement is extremely important. Questions promote engagement. It can be anything from a simple web design question like “Do you use WordPress for your DIY site?” Or, it can be a more focused web development question like “What is your strongest Full Stack JavaScript skill?”

Two things to remember when posting questions for promoting your web development company’s Facebook Page:

  • Theoretically, the more users interact with you on your Page, the more they’ll see your posts. Requesting feedback can help to increase engagement drastically, if you ask the right questions.
  • Theoretically, comments weight more than likes. Feedback requests increase the chances of getting more comments on your posts.

5. Sponsor “Fill in the Blank” or “Help Us Name It” Contests

Lays pulled off one of the greatest Facebook Page promotions ever with its “Do Us a Flavor” contests. During the contests, fans were asked to submit their own ideas for location-inspired Lay’s potato chip flavors. The amount of new Likes gained and increased Facebook user engagement was astronomical with each contest.

Your web development firm can sponsor something very similar. Just make sure that both the contest and the prizes are relevant to your industry, niche or brand when promoting your web development company’s Facebook page. And, litter every post with catchy hashtags.

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Facebook |

February 4, 2016

| by richardhale

New Facebook Features For 2016 And The Company’s Climb To World Leader

While other top tier social platforms try to compete with Facebook, the company continues to pull away and the distance from first to second isn’t even close. Facebook has been releasing new features left and right for 2016 and you can’t help but feel impressed by the executives leading the charge.

If other social media icons are going to ever close the gaps, they better get to creative thinking and quick. Facebook is again leading the charge and after a quick glance looking back, the rear mirror is virtually clear.

Facebook Users 2016

Image Source: TechCrunch

According to TechCrunch, Facebook has climbed to 1.59 billion users and killed it in 4th quarter earnings with $5.4B in revenue. That equaled earnings of $0.79 a share and the company shows no signs of slowing down in 2016.

It’s no secret that Facebook is the “KING” of social media. But it’s ability to stay relevant in a lighting fast changing world is what’s truly impressive. Utility is a powerful tool when used right and no other company does it better than Facebook. What does Facebook have in store for 2016?

Live Video

The world is quickly changing, technology can keep up, it’s humans that find it tough to keep pace. While live streaming apps like Periscope has gained fire, Facebook’s live streaming is for all to enjoy and you don’t even need an app to stream away. Live streaming on Facebook was introduced back in August of 2015, but only to a select few “public figures.” If you have a verified business page, you should be seeing this option. However, Facebook has already been rolling this out in 2016 and U.S. users now have access.

It’s already well known that videos often outperform textual content and other content forms. Studies have proven that video engagement on Facebook is the highest than any other available platform. And comparing it to YouTube, that’s saying something.

Better Search Results

One of the few downfalls we’ve ever heard about Facebook was due to their poor search results. Over the past few years, Facebook has made big impact changes that have greatly improved in-house search results. They took this a step further in October of 2015 by releasing improved search functions that benefit public post. We knew Facebook was serious about search results when they dropped Bing off the map. And as the company looks geared to battle with search engine giant Google, we have to expect more improvements with Facebook search in the near future.

Facebook At Work

Facebook At Work

Facebook At Work is still in Beta but looks to be a powerful utility for enterprises. For some time now, Yammer has been one of the top tier enterprise solutions, but it’s apparent that Facebook is taking serious steps to being a solution for enterprise business. It seems likely that you’ll soon have the opportunity to communicate with others in private sectors on Facebook. It’s a trend we see Facebook setting in 2016 as they aim for more business solutions and tools.

Facebook Professional Services

Facebook Professional Services

We know that Facebook is taking aim to be more involved with business reviews and personal experiences. Regular Facebook users likely know about the review prompts and the new “check in” feature. When you think of other review based companies like Yelp, we know Facebook’s reviews are likely to be trusted more. From studies, we know that users are more likely to trust reviews from their peers than any other source.

So why not? Facebook is dipping their fingers into the reviews and experience marketplace. However, this Facebook feature is very thought out. You can search for anything local and the results will bring back reviews from your contact list. Again, consumers trust their peers more.

Facebook Events Feature

Facebook Events

Although Facebook events have been around for some time now, the company’s recent changes to the feature really created a stir. Even so, data tells us that this is one of the most underutilized features Facebook has to offer. The company is hoping to change that trend with the new features package.

Facebook events allows users to;

  • Browse invitations
  • Accept/decline invitations (public and private)
  • Bookmarks
  • RSVPs
  • Schedules
  • Calendar entries
  • Ticket buying
  • Check-ins
  • Photos
  • Add url

I don’t know that we’ll see more changes in the near future, but it’s obvious that Facebook cares a great deal about it since it has kept the feature around this long with minimal usage.

Facebook's Music Stories

Facebook Music Stories

Facebook recently rolled out their “Music Stories” feature, which allows users the access to preview 30-second snippets of music from different sources, including Spotify, Deezer, NPR. Apple Music and other sources. At the moment, it’s only available on iOS but will be available for desktop use soon.

If the rumors are true about Facebook wanting to develop a streaming music product, this could be a big hit with users. At this time, music features are limited on Facebook. And with huge audiences on a number of different music platforms keeping away from Facebook, this would be a great way to lure them back to the platform.

 

 

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Facebook |

June 14, 2015

| by richardhale

Marketing On Facebook And How You Can Make It Work

Facebook Marketing Insights

Some of the most common questions we get are tied in to marketing on Facebook. Should I be using Facebook to promote my business? Why isn’t Facebook working for me? I’ve never seen results on Facebook, what am I doing wrong?” Sound familiar? Facebook has changed as of lately, wondering where all your organic traffic is in 2015? Facebook updates killed organic traffic. It wiped out promotional post from being posted in news feeds and many have yet to recover. And a number of other changes that hurt those of us on very small budgets. Here we’re mid 2015, how are you doing on Facebook? If you’re continuing to struggle with Facebook marketing or you’re wondering if the investment is worth it, I advise you to read on and learn a few things that can help.

Facebook In 2016

There’s a lot of new features on Facebook for 2016. Make sure you’re aware of them because some of these are going to be awesome new features to help you grow and monitor your business on Facebook.

Marketing On Facebook And The Opportunity

I still see and read recent articles saying that Facebook marketing is a waste of time. It will never work for your business and here’s why… as they list a bunch of nonsense that is exactly that, it makes no sense. Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, not to mention the unbelievable amount of users spending at least 30 minutes or more on the platform. Facebook has over 1 billion users and growing, sounds like opportunity to me. But how do you make headway on Facebook in a crowded niche? A tough market? Is it even possible?

Plenty Of Market Space On Facebook For All

Should I have a Facebook page for my business? Absolutely! Not just a page, but everyone should be using Facebook to market their business. Facebook has a billion plus users, there’s plenty of market space for everyone. Sure, there’s a lot of different factors that I could mention in regards to the type of business you have, the type of services you offer or the types of products you sale. And yes, some businesses are going to have an easier time building their Facebook page because there’s more traffic reach in specific niches. But all of that aside for the moment, there’s still a lot of opportunity to build, grow and develop on Facebook.

Even if you you’re not planning marketing on Facebook, it gives you direct access to your customers, potential customers, it’s great for customer service. Promoting the business is not the only perk. Facebook can be used to build brand awareness also. There’s a ton of great things about being on Facebook and you can take advantage of that very fact. Every little bit of positive exposure you can get is going to be a benefit. Having an established Facebook platform will be key as your business grows.

Paid Ads On Facebook Are Crucial To Development

Free things are always great, but if you’re serious about growing your business on Facebook, you’re going to need a paid budget for Facebook. The great thing about paid ads on Facebook is the fact that you can customize them and target your customer profiles and market. Facebook has hundreds of custom options that allow you to market precise targets. And on top of all of those options, Facebook is much better with their analytics and data.

How much should you be spending on Facebook marketing? Of course, its going to depend on your budget, but I feel the investment always pays for itself. We’ve helped several businesses promote on Facebook. In those case studies, and keep in mind they do vary, but we always saw a positive return on investment for the client. Your ROI is going to be based on what you value. How much do you value a lead? A new subscriber? A sale? You’re going to have to determine that in order to figure out your own ROI.

Back to your Facebook marketing budget, even if you’re on the tightest of budgets, you should spend a few dollars a week to get started. No, you’re not going to see great results with this type of budget but you will see results. And take it from me, I’ve seen dollar budgets pay off big, especially when you know the exact customer profile you need to target. Case and point, we had a client that was on a $5 budget a day for Facebook ads. The company was a big winner because they invested the time, money and effort to build a customer profile. All of the hard work was done, we just made a few custom changes and we ended up selling over 46 software packages at $69.99 a piece in the first month. The second month, we sold over 90. All of this on $25 a week, we didn’t run ads on the weekends.

Can you achieve the same success marketing on Facebook? Absolutely, but you have to find what works, you need to know exactly who will buy your service or product. How does it help them? Why would they buy this? All of these are important questions to ask and you need to know the answers.

How Can I Be Successful Marketing On Facebook

I’ve spent years marketing on Facebook and I’ve spent just as long learning Facebook. I’ve learned what I know today by our own case studies but by also learning from the experts. My passion is search engine optimization, I love a challenge, perhaps some of you do also. But to be the best, you have to learn from the best and there’s plenty of big companies out there making millions from Facebook alone. You can learn a lot watching your competition, so do it!

Have you ever heard of the CMO Council? If not, you have to check them out. They give some awesome marketing insights that are really helpful. Here’s what CMO Council had to say about marketing ads in social media.

“Worldwide social network ad spending reached $16.10 billion in 2014, a 45.3% increase from 2013 that pushed social’s share of overall digital ad investment to 11.5%. Combined social network ad dollars from North America, Western Europe and Asia-Pacific represented 93.7% of global expenditure. January 2015”

Who do companies spend $16 billion dollars on social media ads? Simple, because it works! 

Coca Cola On Facebook

Coca-Cola is one of the most successful companies on Facebook with over 90 million likes and high engagement.

Keys To Facebook Marketing Success

There’s a number of important keys to have success marketing on Facebook. Please keep in mind, there’s no way we can write for every niche or market, so we do our best to write for everyone. Every business is going to have unique circumstances they must deal with. Before I get to your keys to success, the best thing you can do is A/B testing. We use this in development, optimization and marketing. Test and test again. Small changes can make the biggest difference.

Your Content Needs To Be Great

When it come to your Facebook post, your content means everything. In order to gain likes, share and grow your Facebook page for your business, your post has to be great. Not just good, they need to be great and carefully planned. Most of the Facebook consulting that I’ve done over the years boils down to the same common mistake, “promotional content.” This is a huge mistake. Developed Facebook pages can promote more, new Facebook pages don’t have that luxury.

You need to think of useful content that others will find interesting. For example, if you’re a web designer, you could share blog articles or videos building websites. Offering your help to others. People on Facebook are usually not looking to buy things, so remember that. While this is true, it doesn’t mean that you can’t profit, you just have to know how to build your community.

Facebook Engagement And Comments

Engaging Content And Action

Publishing content that impacts your reader, makes them feel, or to cause an action, this is what you need. Have the content be engaging with the goal in mind to create an interaction. Engagement is key, a like is great, but a comment is better. Always focus on what value you can bring to your audience. This goes for Facebook and any other type of social platform you market on.

If the reader is engaged with your content, they are likely to become a regular to your Facebook page. This interaction will lead to more Facebook likes, comments and post shares. It’s important to remember to keep your content in tune with your business, keep it related.

Visual Content On Facebook Scores The Best

Visual content such as infographics, images and videos are among the best performing content for Facebook marketing. While I still suggest a good mix of post of all types, visual content often gets the best results. I see this true with conversions also, most of us connect with visual content compared to text content. If you’re promoting on YouTube, you can share your videos on Facebook, that’s a win-win. Images are more likely to be shared. If you’re a photographer, you’re going to want to share your work. Facebook is the perfect platform for all walks.

Create Groups Related To Your Niche

Creating groups related to your niche is a very effective strategy to help you grow your Facebook page and business. You can also take the time to join other groups. Be sincere about the relationships you make ladies and gentlemen. You never know who you can meet, it could be the one that takes you to the next level. Building these relationships are not only important for social media marketing, but for your business in general also.

Hashtags Are Still Important For Success

Just like on most social media platforms, hashtags on your post help your content be found. It’s important to make sure all your hashtags are related to your content. Hashtags will help users find your page and post. There’s no right or wrong amount of hashtags to use on your post. My suggestion, test them. Learn which hashtags are the best to bring in potential leads and buyers to your page. Again, record your data, use A/B testing to learn what works best for your audience.

Encourage Your Audience To Like, Share And Engage

There’s nothing wrong with asking your audience to like, share and comment, as long as you don’t overdo it. Now, Facebook does have rules when it comes to openly asking for likes. However, from what I’ve seen, I don’t think this is enforced as much as others think. Another key is being helpful. And if you helped someone solve a problem, be sure to ask them to like your page.

Be Sure Your Personal Profile Is Up And Being Used

Counting on your family and friends to help you share content is an effective strategy. Especially true when you first start your business page. Ask friends and family to like your page, ask them to share and comment. Make sure your profile page is complete also. Be detailed as possible.

Closing Remarks On Facebook Marketing

We’ve discussed a variety of different techniques and strategies in this article to help you succeed on Facebook. It’s your job to find what works best for your business. Some people feel that you have to be on Facebook seven days a week but that’s not the case. You can have success on Facebook with just a few post a week. More post doesn’t always mean more engagement and reach.

I hope this article on Facebook marketing has helped you. If anyone has any questions, suggestions or you want to add your own techniques used for marketing on Facebook, please feel free to comment. We appreciate your comments and feedback.

 

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Facebook |

December 14, 2014

| by richardhale

No More Promotional Content On Facebook; Brand Content To Be Penalized

Facebook Marketing In 2015

Facebook Marketing Landscape Changing; Focus On Promotional Content

No more promotional content on Facebook? What? This could never be true, right? Well, a few weeks ago Facebook came out with it all. Here’s what Facebook had to say about their promotional content;

“As part of an ongoing survey we asked hundreds of thousands of people how they feel about the content in their News Feeds. People told us they wanted to see more stories from friends and Pages they care about, and less promotional content.”

Many of you may know that any given user on any given day can see as much as 1,500 of these post. Facebook filters this down to a few hundred promotional post that they feel you might find interest in. And of course, you find this in your Facebook news feed.

Facebook’s promotional content has been trending for a few weeks and we all have our opinions. I follow a lot of experts in my field, I respect them all. I learn from them. Many of them are calling this the “End of Facebook.” Well, not exactly. I feel that Facebook executives have always did a great job dealing with change, I don’t think this move would be any different.

Facebook News Feed Marketing

What Does Limited Promotional Post On Facebook Mean For You?

Here’s the kicker, this ONLY applies to organic content. Ahh, Facebook would never end their paid promotional content or limit it. Do you know how much money Facebook makes with promotional marketing? It’s a lot, Facebook will never do that. The changes are all about Facebook’s organic content, more less those of us that are posting content for free.

So, what does Facebook consider being promotional? Here’s what Facebook says about content that is promotional.

  • Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app
  • Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context
  • Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads

On November 14th, Facebook gave us some examples of promotional content. Here’s what Facebook shared with us;

Examples of these types of Page posts:

Take a moment to look at the Tiger post. In my opinion, the first paragraph was fine. If they had kept the content there, it would have likely been published without any complications. It’s the second paragraph where the promotional content comes in I believe. This is promotional content, the post urges you to buy.

In the second Facebook example, you get an overly promotional post. Straight out of the gate, you’re asked to get their app. These are to great examples because you can clearly see which part of the content is promotional.

On January 1st of 2015, Facebook will show far less promotional content in your news feed. Those of you that asked for it, you’re going to get it. Those of you relying on organic traffic, you will see a fall in traffic, likely engagement and all the other Facebook metrics. If your main source of traffic and revenue on Facebook is organic, you better start planning now. Feel free to contact us to learn how we can help. You don’t have much time and I feel there’s still a lot of people that don’t know this.

Facebook Marketing Engagement

Facebook Marketing In 2015

Facebook marketing is certainly changing in 2015, but it’s still unclear what impacts this will have for the large percentage of businesses that rely on organic traffic. All of us are trying to make something happen on Facebook, selling a product or offering a service. So I imagine that this is going to hit a large percentage of people. This is the type of change that can hurt your business without question, so it should be a concern. You need to start working on an alternative and new Facebook marketing strategies.

You do have an alternative, paid Facebook advertising. What else are you going to do? I know companies that have put millions of dollars into their Facebook advertising campaigns, including building the page to what it’s today. That’s too big of a loss to take, you have to rely on paid advertising. We all have budgets. Some companies don’t have the marketing budget to continuously pay for Facebook advertising. We’re less then 3 weeks away, start your planning now.

Facebook has clearly stated what will happen to brands that continue to publish promotional content. 

“All of this means that Pages that post promotional creative should expect their organic distribution to fall significantly over time.”

Facebook also took the time to discuss the importance of your business page. Here’s what they said.

“What many businesses may not realize is that Pages are an important destination for their current and potential customers. In October, for instance, nearly a billion people visited Facebook Pages. Of those visits, more than 750 million happened on mobile devices. Many businesses also use Pages as a customer service channel. Businesses should think about their Page as a cornerstone of their online identity, not simply as a publishing service. The businesses that are doing this well understand the discovery and communication that happens when people come to their Page.”

For those of you that continue to promote promotional content, you should expect your organic traffic to fall. Even so, this is tough to cost. Why? Because Facebook business pages promote promotional content. A high percentage of them do. Does this mean that your brand and Facebook will have a hit and miss relationship? Perhaps. Facebook did state that “most pages will see no impact.” REALLY?

Challenges Of Facebook Marketing 2015

Facebook Marketers Will Be Challenged

We’ve already saw changes with Facebook’s new feed. And due to these new changes coming in January, Facebook marketers will be challenged. How are you going to create the same success without being overly promotional? I’m sure the strategy tanks are full by now as this news is a month old today. But it still changes Facebook marketing forever.

We hear the phrase “human approach” in marketing a lot, probably none more then Facebook marketing. With your Facebook business post in the middle of post from friends and family, you have to get the human element in your content. People have to be able to relate to your post, now more then ever.

Think About Your User

And here’s where many Facebook marketers fail, where businesses fail. Your customer is the most important element in any type of marketing, not just Facebook. Every piece of content that you publish should have the user in mind. You have to connect with the user to be successful, to have successful marketing campaigns. It has to have a human approach, I can’t stress it enough.

I believe a lot of companies and small business don’t consider the full potential that Facebook can offer their business. They believe they can throw something up and it will work as they imagined. This is not the case. There’s so many elements that play into Facebook marketing and it’s all about the return of investment.

They may not have the budget or expertise to know what type of audience is flowing into their landing pages, how long these users are staying on their website or how many people entering the website from Facebook are leaving in under 10 seconds. Likely the very reason most fail on Facebook. All of these factors are important and if you’re not tracking them, how could you ever advertise on Facebook effectively.

Facebook User Growth 2014

Image Source: Ben Foster

Facebook Is Still The Leading Social Giant

Facebook has over 1 billion users and is still growing at good rates. It still has HUGE potential for your business. At this current time, there’s no other market platform that compares. Although we’re seeing all these changes in the Facebook news feed, there’s still the same opportunity. Facebook marketers will have to change their strategy but not all of them. Some brands have been taking the human approach for years and killing Facebook. You have to adapt to these changes.

If you’re struggling as a business on Facebook, rethink your approach. Think about the user, it has always been about the users. Some people tend to forget about that, it happens. You still can drive organic traffic to your website. If you need help with your social media marketing, give us a call and get a free consult. We’re always here for you.

Facebook will begin rolling out this change in January. For more resources on Pages, Insights and Ads, visit Facebook.com/business for call center support or talk to your Facebook account representative.

Source: Facebook

 

 

http://www.jonloomer.com/2014/11/16/facebook-promotional-posts/

facebook changes, facebook marketing, facebook marketing for businesses, facebook news, facebook news feed, marketing on facebook
Facebook, Marketing, Social Media Marketing |

June 25, 2014

| by richardhale

Facebook Marketing Statistics You Need To Know

 

Important Facebook Statistics 2014If you’re not marketing on Facebook, you’re missing out on a lot. Quit leaving money on the table, you have to get your Facebook marketing efforts planned, organized and optimized. This should be your plan in all social media marketing strategies. It’s no secret that Facebook is the social marketing platform of the world. Facebook has over 1 billion active users, no other social network comes close. Doesn’t mean that you can’t make money elsewhere, just the fact that Facebook is where the opportunity is.

Proven Facebook Marketing Techniques

Over the years, I’ve met a lot of great people that do great things. Today, I’m going to introduce two awesome resources that you may or may not know. Either way, after today, you’ll know them and they will help your Facebook marketing across the board. Powerful resources. Now, I want to give a special shout out to Mari Smith. Mari is an expert Facebook marketer, we all stand to learn something from her when it comes to Facebook marketing. Mari doesn’t know me but I had the opportunity to watch one of her old webinars on YouTube. You can view her YouTube channel here.

Mari has done many webinars on Facebook, she has written books and spoke publically. If you set down and watch one of her webinars, you’ll walk away with a lifetime of knowledge. Be sure to check out Mari’s YouTube channel. Now, Mari introduced me to an awesome website called Social Bakers. Click here to look at Facebook statistics. Social Bakers collects a ton of useful, informative Facebook stats that are crucial to your Facebook marketing efforts. Be sure to check them out and a big shout out to their founder.

Social Bakers collects information on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn. Social Baker has a ton of free tools and resources. They also have premium resources that I would suggest that you invest in if your a social media marketer.

Our statistic is 171,754,610  This is the sum of fans in “Retail Food.” Interesting, huh. Who would have thought retail food would have the highest number of fans. “Retail” was in a close second with 168,143,366 followed by FMCG Food with 130,530,377. What about 4th? “Beverage” is fourth on the list at 96,918,093 and fashion at 96,663,785 rounds out the top 5. What does this tell you in terms of Facebook marketing? If you’re in these niches, you have plenty of marketing fans and similar interest. Perhaps a few post on food, retail or fashion if you can mix your marketing efforts within your niche. Be creative and test it out, trial and error my friend.

Our second stat is American users male vs. female. This is important to know, right? Especially if you’re in a gender specific niche. Female users on Facebook in America as of 5/14, 53.9 percent. Males are 46.1 percent. Not a huge margin but a statistic that matters. If you market to women, you have an advantage. It’s important to know who your marketing too. If you move to India, the rate is 75 percent male and only 25 percent for females.  Women are also more social then men. Nearly 50 percent of all women on social media platforms visit their social accounts multiple times a day. As for men, you’re looking at around 34 percent.

A decent percentage of all Facebook users check their Facebook account 5 times or more a day. The total, 23 percent. Surprising to me, nearly 48 percent of marketers believe that Facebook is overrated as a legit marketing platform. I’ve seen great success on Facebook, I’ve seen both sides of the street. I know for a fact that this 48 percent, probably over half of them didn’t run their Facebook marketing campaigns correctly. It is also possible that they didn’t run one paid ad.

78 percent of users log in from a mobile phone. This is a huge stat to take notice too. 78 percent of all Facebook users are logging in from a mobile device. If your website is not mobile friendly, your leaving dollars on the table. If your business is not running mobile ads, your missing out on getting your ads to a large audience. Mobile usage is still growing, this can easily surpass 80 percent and beyond. In fact, it is expected to. Make the changes needed and make sure your website is responsive.

Facebook now has 1.28 billion active users. User growth is up 15 percent year to year. This is great growth and even more opportunity for you to cash in on your Facebook marketing efforts. On average, 1 million links are shared on Facebook every 20 minutes. This is a huge amount of links. That is also a lot of competition to deal with. This is why every marketing technique you use on Facebook needs to be properly planned and optimized. I can’t say it enough, trial and error. Test to see what works for your business, keep what works and move on from Facebook marketing techniques that don’t work.

Facebook averages 809 million visits per month. Again, this is a big opportunity for your business to capitalize on the traffic. Surprising to some, this monthly amount is only second on the list. First, no surprise to me is Google+. Google+ leads the social community with 1.2 billion monthly visitors per month on average.

These are just a few of the many Facebook statistics out there that can influence Facebook marketing. The more in tune you are to such measurements, the better results you’re going to likely see. Trends are trends for a reason, stay on top of all the major Facebook statistics as well as all your other social media profiles. Be sure to watch some of Mari’s webinars and check out Social Bakers. Good luck.

Social Media Marketing On Pinterest

Social Media Marketing On Twitter

 

 

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Facebook, Marketing, Social Media Marketing |

June 22, 2014

| by richardhale

Marketing On Facebook-Proven Facebook Marketing Techniques

 

Marketing On FacebookFacebook is still the social giant and no other website comes close to comparing. Marketing on Facebook gives you a variety of different benefits to help your business grow online. The largest social platform has several advertising features to help you reach your targeted audience. Both paid and free advertising campaigns on Facebook work if you know how to successfully run a campaign.

Nearly every big corporation and business has a Facebook page. Over a billion people has a Facebook account and Facebook has over 700 million regular uses. No other social platform compares. The key to marketing on Facebook is audience targeting. Face it, the key to marketing in general is finding the right audience. As you’re going to learn, there’s several ways that you can do this, both free and paid. These proven marketing techniques have worked time and time again.

Connecting And Interaction With Your Fans

No other Facebook marketing technique may be more powerful then interacting with your followers and fans. This proven marketing technique has worked time and time again. Studies have shown the success of connecting with fans on a personal level. Your Facebook page should be diverse, one way of doing this is through personal Facebook post. Post pictures of your new born child, a company party or your family vacation. Successful companies on Facebook are those that have a diverse profile and page.

Many experts believe in the 80/20 rule when it comes to Facebook marketing. For 80 percent of the time, you should concentrate on your business. For 20 percent of the time, you should share your personal side. This shows your fans that you’re a real person. You won’t believe the difference that this can make in your marketing efforts on Facebook.

Engage With Your Audience

This corresponds with our first Facebook marketing technique but this specific strategy has to be mentioned. Two-way dialogue as it is called is a great way to engage your audience. Remember, you want a diverse Facebook page. You want it to be useful, interactive and educational. You also want it to be fun and engaging, this brings fans back to your page. So, why not start the conversation?

Here’s what you can do if you come out with a new product or new service. You can create a post with pictures of you and the new product. Ask your following if they have tried your new product yet. If so, ask them if they liked it. You can try a poll, asking questions or any other technique you can use to engage your audience. Do this through a diversity of post, such as text, pictures, text and pictures or videos.

New Daily Content

Having fresh updated content gives your audience plenty to read, increases engagement and also brings fans back. Some companies try to keep their content at a limit, some even skip days in between. We say you can’t never have enough content. Your audience comes back to your page because they find it useful, helpful and fun. If you’re not keeping your page updated daily, why would they come back to your page? You have to be active daily if you want your Facebook marketing techniques to work.

Make sure you’re using your content right, keeping it diverse and useful. This is especially true with your call-of-action post. We know that a mix of pictures, text, audio and videos perform much better together then alone. Don’t forget to draw attention to your page with free giveaways, contest or specials. Make sure it is part of your marketing on Facebook.

Encourage Conversation And Engagement

There’s big benefits to having your audience talking about your brand. Of course, you want it to be positive rather then negative but it can have huge impacts on your marketing efforts on Facebook. Studies have shown that fans trust their friends more then brands. You want to build trust and you want to become an authority in your respected niche. If you’re getting your audience to mention your brand positively, it can have a huge impact on your success with Facebook.

One of the best ways to create conversations is through a community page. Make sure you build a community page for your business. You also want to make sure you’re active on your community page also. You can offer recognition to the most vocal fans in your community to encourage others to begin the conversation. Give them a free prize or a shout out to show them that their voice is appreciated. This is a great way to get other fans involved and talking about your company.

Smart Branding

There’s a number of different ways that you can brand your company on Facebook. If you already have your logo, you probably can’t go back and have it changed. If you don’t have a logo, you want to bring brand awareness with your logo. Your logo should be unique and remembered. Branding is always important. More then likely, you already have a website. You want to bring your brand to Facebook. Familiarity is important in branding. It doesn’t do your brand any good if your website looks completely different then your Facebook page. Remember to take elements of your website and brand to build into your Facebook page.

You can use your tabs on Facebook to promote your products and services. This is a great area for short videos promoting your business. If you have a new product or service, be sure to at it to your tabs. Having familiar logos and themes will help your audience remember your brand easier.

Have A Purpose And Goal

You should set purposes, goals and milestones for your Facebook page. You can have fun with your Facebook page but you need to remember the goals of your page. More then likely, it is brand awareness, networking or selling products and services. What is the purpose of your Facebook page? What is the mission or goals? What can fans expect by becoming a fan of your business?

Tracking the success of your Facebook marketing techniques is the most important element of Facebook marketing. You have to monitor what works and what doesn’t. See which types of post get the most views or get the highest conversions. All of these Facebook marketing techniques can be done for free, we haven’t even discussed paid advertising on Facebook. You have to have a record of what works and what doesn’t. If you don’t, how can you improve? Always track your marketing efforts and the results so you have a roadmap for future marketing on Facebook.

Paid Facebook Advertising

Paid Facebook advertising can be extremely beneficial to your marketing efforts. This type of Facebook marketing does increase viral reach and organic reach but at a cost. Studies have shown that we see small click-through-rates with paid advertising on Facebook. Paid advertising on Facebook will increase impressions and exposure but less people click on the ads.

Negative feedback increases with paid ads. We all know that negative feedback can hurt business too. The only exception we see is paid links. If you’re looking for brand awareness, paid Facebook ads would be the way to go. If you’re looking for CTR, you need to consider which type of ads to use. According to Salesforce, sponsored check-in stories have the highest CTR at 3.2 percent.

What about hashtags? Many experts believe that hashtags don’t work and there is evidence of this fact being true. However, we believe it depends on a number of elements, including keywords chosen, post type and niche sector. My advice, trial and error. I’ve seen hashtags bring in a big audience and I’ve seen post with no hashtags do the same.

Just like with any type of marketing technique, what works for one may not work for another. Keep records of this, I mentioned this earlier. Try different Facebook marketing techniques and see which work best, which don’t and make the appropriate changes.

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