Entries Tagged 'facebook' ↓

Facebook is a great marketing tool through which you can engage with your customers, but it’s important to make sure your presence is as eye-catching as possible.

Coming up with fresh ideas can be a challenge.

As social media users become more savvy, the expect more. It’s no longer OK just to have a static page with a few posts, polls and videos. Now your fans demand more engagement, they want to get something out of the relationship they are building with you; they want innovation.

And that can leave you with one hell of a headache.

Thankfully, those guys over at Social Media Examiner have come up trumps again.

They take a look at a few fun Facebook page examples to help spark your creativity. Each of the Facebook pages they review has a novel way of engaging with their fans – perhaps having a look through will help you come up with some great ideas for your page.

Follow the link above and see if it can get your creative juices flowing.

Despite the bad press Facebook has been enduring recently after admitting 8.7% of its 955 million active users might not be real and General Motors pulling $10m from its Facebook advertising because of its dissatisfaction with ROI, many businesses are using it as a marketing outlet.

But getting the best from it calls for a bit of creative thinking.

A post on Social Media Examiner caught me eye because it talks about just that.

They spoke with top Facebook experts to find out the hottest marketing tips that businesses today need to know.

Here is a summary of what they said:

1. Leverage videos more effectively

If you sell products or services on your website and have Like buttons attached to them, share videos rather than still images.

2. Experiment with the timings of your postings

You’re probably putting out most of your posts during working hours, but it might be worth experimenting and sending them either early morning, in the evening or at weekends.

Compare results over a period of time and work out when is the best engagement time for you.

3. Be creative with your photos

People love to share photos, so try and come up with new ways of promoting your business through images.

4. Sponsored posts

These will help your content reach more fans. Normally, anything you put out is competing against other businesses to be seen, but using sponsored posts will help boost your reach.

5. Involve your fans

Ask your fans for their input when you’re about to launch a new product.

6. Schedule

Facebook now offer page admins the ability to schedule posts, so you can plan out your messaging and make sure its posted at optimum times.

7. Run contests

A contest will help you engage your fans in a conversation, encourage their friends to join in and collect information from them.

8. Get active

You have to use Facebook personally to understand how it works and what motivates users to interact.

9. Be honest with your resources

Take a look at your business and think about whether you can generate the type of content people will want to share.
You can read the full post and insightful tips from the experts here – 9 Facebook Marketing Tips From Top Experts.

Did you know about the Facebook for WordPress plugin?

Well, in June it became available to help self-hosted WordPress users to easily integrate Facebook features (e.g. social publishing and mentions) through their WordPress platform.

Basically, it allows you to cross-post content published to WordPress to your Facebook timeline and the Facebook Pages you manage.

To find out more about how to instal and use this plugin, pop over to SocialMediaExaminer who take you through a step by step guide.

Here’s the link: How to Use the New Facebook WordPress Plugin: A Complete Guide

A facebook Business Page is great for your business.

Once indexed by the search engines, it gives your business greater visibility, you can tell your fans about special offers and events really quickly and you can engage with them. Plus, as there are 500 million users (and growing) on Facebook you can drive an awful lot of traffic back to your website.

And that’s just for starters.

But how can you maximise your chances of your Facebook Business Page being found in the search results?

Well, Facebook have posted a video on their website, created by Distilled.net, to teach you the basics of SEO along with a few suggestions on how to improve the ranking of your Facebook Page in the search engines. You can view it my clicking on the image below:

The video lasts about 7 minutes, but is well worth watching.

Distilled.net have also put together a PDF on SEO for Facebook Pages, which you can find here.

Thanks guys.

Freedom of speech has long been embraced by society, but are we really free to say exactly what we think without fear of repercussions?

A short while ago, I wrote a post called Social Media – Why You Should Watch What You Say, in which I talked about how employers use social media to screen job applicants.

But it’s not just your potential working life that could be affected by your tweets and Facebook status updates (or those unfortunate photos taken of you on a big night out), you could also jeopardise your career.

The Drum recently reported on such a case where a council press officer was forced to quit his job after an ill-judged tweet.

Working for Lambeth Council, the press officer in question tweeted, from his own personal account, that “Having spent a considerable amount of time in Streatham, my solutions for supporting the High Road mostly involve napalm.”

Needless to say, his tweet was met with several complaints and, despite an apology, he quit his job.

But was that right? Should he have had to quit his job over tongue-in-cheek comments made on his personal social media account?

And there lies the very murky grey area. Had that comment been made through his official work account, no one would question the outcome. But as it came from a personal account, does that make it any less offensive?

Understanding the power of social media

The news is full of instances where people use social media in naïve ways. Whether it’s something like the case above, or the more serious and malicious practice of ‘trolling’ (the posting of inflammatory messages online with the main aim of provoking readers into an emotional response or otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion – Wikipedia), the use of social media can land people in hot water.

A recent case of trolling was highlighted following a landmark High Court ruling. When a lady from Brighton posted a supportive comment for X Factor contestant Frankie Cocozza, trolls ‘left comments falsely accusing [her] of being a paedophile and drug dealer for supporting the singer…’ (The Drum).

The High Court ruled that Facebook had to reveal the identities of the cyberbullies (their names and IP addresses) so civil actions could be pursued again the ‘trolls’.

Do your employees understand your social media policy?

With social media becoming a powerful business tool as well as a social communication tool, it is essential your employees fully understand your social media policy to prevent these types of instances happening.

Your businesses social media usage should concentrate fully on engaging with your customers and adding value to your relationships with them, therefore it is essential your employees fully understand what is expected of them.

• Make sure you list what they can do.
• Ensure they fully appreciate that they are responsible for what they write (whether it’s on behalf of your company or on their private accounts).
• Encourage them to engage with customers using their name and title so the customer knows who they are talking to.
• Make sure they think carefully before posting – it’s Ok to offer opinions, but they must consider how their comments will be viewed by others. After all, what they say (whether using social media during work hours or in their personal time) will reflect not only on them personally, but also as an employee and on the company.
• Ensure they understand what information is confidential and that should not be shared at any time.
• They should bring value to your company through their engagement.

Over to you

What are your thoughts on social media usage?

Do you agree that the council press officer should have lost his job?

What policies do you have in place to ensure your employees don’t overstep the mark?

Leave a comment below and share your thoughts and opinions.

Sally Ormond – Copywriter