Introducing Friends Activity to Facebook Pages

It might appear a tad bit irresistible with all the recent changes that have occurred on Facebook and there is still more to come. Most recently, Facebook has enabled friends to see other “friend’s activities” on Facebook FanPages. This means that community on Facebook can have a clearer view of what is said about facebook fan pages they have both “liked”, filtering out the noise from other people.

What does this mean for Facebook Page Owners/Admins?

As you know, peer recommendation is at an ultimate high and many people search for reviews from other people, even having businesses setting up shop on other sites to retrieve reviews regarding their business. Now with Facebook’s latest change to Facebook fan pages, friends can see anything and everything said by other friends that share the commonality that is your page, simply by going to your page and on the left hand side, clicking on “Friend’s Activity”.

Although access to each “friend’s activity” regarding a page is located on pages, it will differ from page to page. It is dependent on shared “likes” among friends. Pages cannot view these interactions; the feature disappears as soon as you use Facebook as your page.

What does this mean for Facebook Users?

This means that you will now be able to see what your friends think of a page i.e. business, interests etc. without having to see it come through your newsfeed, asking them or by viewing their profile. Any friend’s that have “liked” the same page(s) as you and have interacted on that page via “likes”, comments etc. are now viewable to you by visiting that page(s) “friend’s activity” located on the left hand side of the page.

This can help pages with peer recommendation and for users to see peer recommendation. All owners and admins must be watchful of what interactions are happening and as always responsive to any negative sentiment. This may even encourage you to become more vigilant regarding your Facebook page. In return, this feature makes a page more valuable to its users, for now they can see what their friends think, many which who most likely target your local area.

What 100 Million Active Twitter Users Revenue to Business

Everyone has known that Twitter has been vast for a while. Today, we got to look into somehard numbers showing just how concerned it has become with 9-digits worth of active Twitter users online. Over partially of them log in daily.

What does it mean for business?

Twitter has been both the easiest and hardest nugget to crack unlock as a business and marketing tool. It’s been simple for some who have been clever to use its real-time conversation part to reach current and future customers. More highly, it’s been a huge tool to allow current and future customers to reach them.

For other businesses, the challenge has been in leveraging the broadcast strength of Twitter. With news, it has become an invaluable tool for journalists wanting to get the news and everyone else wanting to read the news. For business, getting traffic to content is more of a challenge. Even with a good following, the ability to blast out links with marketing messages has not demonstrated a strong return unless the news is breaking or controversial.

Businesses who do not break news and who do not want to get controversial must use Twitter to get the messages out without the links. The sheer size now of Twitter makes for concise messages to have a chance if they’re funny, insightful, or interesting in some other way. That’s what 100 million active users means. Unlike before, when we had to get people to click on links to make Twitter useful, today’s bulk allows us to be more effective in business if we are putting out more messages that fit into 140 characters than by posting links that few will actually click on.

I will tweet out the link to this article and it will get retweeted by dozens of people. Even with 90k+ followers, I will likely not see more than 1000 visitors as a result of the Tweet. That alone should tell businesses the real key to all this:

Increasing Likes to Your Facebook Page

Still though Facebook is not for every business out there, it is for very many which is why so many are all over it. If you play it right, developing a Facebook fan page can take you a never ending stream of business leads. Facebook, like therefore much also on the net, is about contact and branding your business as much as possible. So the big issue for so many is figuring out a way to gather as many ‘likes’ to your fan page as possible. Regardless of whether your company is about finial or any other subject, you must attempt to leverage the Facebook fan pages as a lot as achievable.

If you’re already receiving targeted traffic to your website, then it makes perfect sense to get your visitors to Like your Facebook fan Page. Your visitors can vote with a ‘like’ right on your site and stay there, too. There are many ways to put a ‘like’ script on your site, and some are somewhat automated such as the Like Box Builder Tool. When it comes to applications and tools for business, Facebook seems trying hard to be accommodating. But there is further because you can also add a like function that places your content in the feed for the person who did the like. Apparently this is all meant to be good for you so you can boost your fan base, etc.

If you’re an avid Facebook user, you’ll know that there are forever ads showing up for Facebook fan pages by different companies and persons. This is the paid route to getting more Fans to your fan Page. Everything is worth at least a test, and if you have a burly marketing funnel in place then it should be to your benefit. You will find a strong set of resources that will allow you to be very exact with your Facebook ads. You can target Facebook ads based on age, interest and location, which gives you the platform to grab the right type of fans for your fan page. You can use the fact that your page will serve to resell people which is serious to success at Facebook. Always keep people coming into your marketing funnel, and that includes sending out emails to your subscribers and past clients. The only way this will work though is if you have a good association with them. For example, if your fan page is about house number then you are talented to generate a related app.

If you want to go a step forward of the others in promoting your Facebook Fan Page and increasing your Likes, then use business cards to do so. Always take benefit of anything you can to advance, and getting your own exclusive business cards made does not cost much at all. One trendy online site for cards is Vista Print, and you can get them very fast, too. If you want to look expert, then give this plan a try and see the difference.

Also, there are a lot more ideas for Facebook Fan Page Likes and you just need to do a little research. Of course all of this takes time and a little effort, but nothing about this stuff is hard to do. 

How To Advantage From The New Facebook Groups

Better or Worse, I shared my reservations about the new Facebook groups and their potential to annoy Facebook users.

However, after plenty testing and watching, I’m no longer worried about negative effects and have come to view the new Facebook groups as a viable business networking and content syndication tool.

The  on-site and email notifications generated by the new Facebook groups can develop into exasperating, but it’s from these in-your-face notifications that the new groups derive their power. They lean to stimulate member activity. On the other hand, the notifications from the old groups had come to be viewed as total spam and were no longer the least bit effective.

 

Modify Your New Facebook  Group Notifications

The customizable settings of the new Facebook groups help control the volume of notifications, add once you learn how to run them, the new Facebook groups become beneficial and enjoyable.

New Facebook groups provide four notification settings that you can adjust:

1.     Notify me when - “A member posts or comments” or “a member posts” are good settings for your favorite Facebook groups or groups you moderate. For other groups, you should choose “a friend posts” or “only posts I am subscribed to.” (I myself prefer the latter option, “only posts I am subscribed to.”)

2.     Also send an email to - Unless you’re off Facebook a lot, you probably should uncheck this box.

3.     Show this group in home navigation - This setting isn’t as critical as the others, since it doesn’t affect notifications. I myself set my favorite Facebook groups to “Always” and the rest of the groups to “Never.”  

4.     Send me group chat messages - Unless you enjoy group chatting or you moderate that group, you should uncheck this box.

You Need Not Start Your individual Facebook Groups

Starting your own Facebook groups affords you a few control but less than you might think. True, you make up the group rules, and while you can remove any member you wish, nobody can remove you. Nevertheless, abuse your group by spamming or otherwise, and your members will ignore your group or quit entirely.

For this reason, control of your Facebook group is deceptive. Groups can be led but not controlled, and you don’t need to own or moderate a group in order to lead it. Furthermore, you don’t need to lead a group in order to benefit from it and enjoy it.

Why Start New Facebook Groups of Your Own

Here are a few valid reasons for starting your own Facebook groups:

§  Necessity - You’re powerless to find any new Facebook groups that fit your particular place.

§  Collaboration - You would like to work together on a project with your Facebook friends or associates.

§  Segmentation - Your Facebook friends share varied welfare with you. Segmenting your friends using groups will let you discover particular interests together.

§  Promotion - New Facebook groups can be used sensibly to complement  Facebook fan pages.

When you begin a new Facebook group, keep the best happiness of your membership in brain. Reciprocity makes the networking globe go around. Be equipped to give, not just to get.

Fanpage Tips – things to check

I’m asked an awful lot to check over peoples fanpages and give a few tips on how to improve activity and ‘likers‘ and I’ve found myself repeating a few key points.  So here they are :-

1.     URL – I’m still surprised by how many Fanpages seem to have forgotten, missed or don’t even know about claiming their url.  It’s easy to do and its a really useful tool.  You no longer have to cut and paste the huge link full of numbers, you can clearly add this to your email signature, business cards and promotional flyers etc ….

2.     Photographs – if you sell a service it can be harder to keep up with adding photographs as they aren’t a natural part of your business but people are visual especially with something like Facebook (and blogging too images highlight what your saying and visually make it more appealing than lots of words!).

3.     Twitter – Is your fanpage and twitter linked so when you do anything on your fanpage it automatically tweets??  This is an excellent tool as it allows you to concentrate on one form of social media but still tap into another. It’s great for time management tool.

4.     Networked blogs – this application enables you to syndicate your blog feed, with your  facebook fan page, profile and twitter. Meaning everytime you publish a new blog post it will appear live on those pages automatically.  Great time saving tool

5.     It’s not always about the amount of fans on Fanpages but more the quality of them.  It’s better to have 100 fans who interact with you than 1,000 who don’t.  here’s an old article about fan interaction.

Fanpage Tips – things to check

I’m asked an awful lot to check over peoples fanpages and give a few tips on how to improve activity and ‘likers‘ and I’ve found myself repeating a few key points.  So here they are :-

1.     URL – I’m still surprised by how many Fanpages seem to have forgotten, missed or don’t even know about claiming their url.  It’s easy to do and its a really useful tool.  You no longer have to cut and paste the huge link full of numbers, you can clearly add this to your email signature, business cards and promotional flyers etc ….

2.     Photographs – if you sell a service it can be harder to keep up with adding photographs as they aren’t a natural part of your business but people are visual especially with something like Facebook (and blogging too images highlight what your saying and visually make it more appealing than lots of words!).

3.     Twitter – Is your fanpage and twitter linked so when you do anything on your fanpage it automatically tweets??  This is an excellent tool as it allows you to concentrate on one form of social media but still tap into another. It’s great for time management tool.

4.     Networked blogs – this application enables you to syndicate your blog feed, with your  facebook fan page, profile and twitter. Meaning everytime you publish a new blog post it will appear live on those pages automatically.  Great time saving tool

5.     It’s not always about the amount of fans on Fanpages but more the quality of them.  It’s better to have 100 fans who interact with you than 1,000 who don’t.  here’s an old article about fan interaction.

Social media campaigns and creating brand value on mobile devices

Emergence of the social media has changed the contours of marketing, especially in the fast-evolving mobile market, transforming it into a two-way conversation that cannot be controlled by brand managers alone. However, not realizing the consumer aspiration and the changing market realities, many brand managers still focus on the technology part, ignoring the users.

What they need is a smart of mix of video, audio, search capabilities, social angle, live gaming, commerce, location-based services, payments, etc that make mobile apps more powerful. They also need to analyze the way of scheduling call-to-action around new product releases and related campaigns. We’ve grasped in the previous post that from a pure messaging standpoint, there is immense novelty of a mobile communication tool that companies can look to unlock.

Next important area is to socialize the content (or subject matter) and campaign with two-way conversation. As today’s social media has become quite seamlessly integrated into the daily chores of life, it is not really surprising to witness the gradual saturation of the social network market, if one goes by the figures.

Fine tuning marketing strategy for smartphones

There are no worry signs as yet on this count, but overall growth trajectory is experiencing some fatigue. Just to elaborate, more than 134.5 million people made use of social networks like Twitter or Facebook across any of the available technology platforms each month in 2010. That count is expected to increase by a little over 3%, in 2011, according to research agency eMarketer. However, you have to consider the fact that social networking has become the fastest-growing activity on mobile devices.

Brands must spot the trend and take this noticeable shift into account while devising their strategies. They need to fine tune their offering as consumers get in the mode of checking their Facebook accounts on the move and ignoring those brands and their messages not respecting or responding to the core of the Facebook realm, or very simply, direct interaction.

Get a fair idea of consumer mindset

Facebook is now a highly popular tool for conversing. And in a way, any ad campaign is also a form of conversations. This can present a great opportunity for blending the message and the medium. This coincidence can be contextual for any brand manager who knows how to integrate the oft-chaotic feedback, which comes pouring in from this new segment of smartphone-liberated users, checking their devices in stores, homes and offices.

By combining activity, location and time, the three key mobile data types, marketers can get a fair idea of consumer mindset, one also taking into account their shifting priorities and personas. A woman, for example, is in a different frame of mind early morning when getting the children ready for school, than a couple of hours when she prepares to leave for the office. Can a marketer make the message relevant accordingly? Relevancy presents both the challenge as well as the opportunity of the smartphone’s powerful data-collection capabilities.

Facebook Fast Fan Pages

Facebook  Fan pages- create fan pages in minutes

Facebook has grown over the years and more and more public use this social website to communicate with loved ones or people that might have the same notice as them. Though only a few know about the compensation of using facebook to boost your website traffic, it however, still remains one of the website that many just use it to connecting to many additional facebook users, far and near.

The concept of facebook fan page and facegroups have recently brought changes that many people have used to make substantial amount of money using either fan pages or groups. In this article we are going to look at how you can make money with fan pages, create them in minutes, and use the traffic from these fan pages to increase your website rankings.

Facebook  fan pages tool kit

To cover this steps mentioned in the last paragraph manually is going to be labor intensive and downright boring, however I came across this software that creates fan pages, monitories them and you even have the option to redirect the traffic from these fan pages to your website or affiliate link. The name of this software is facebook fan pages, it creates many fan pages in minutes.

Making money with facebook  fan pages.

The potential of making money from facebook are truly endless. Facebook alone has millions of users logged in at any given time creating a facebook fan page focusing on facebook and getting followers is easy. Once the facebook fan pages are created the facebook fan pages predicts the right moniterising technique that will make it possible to reap more rewards from your work.  The graphic user interface (GUI) of the software makes it even more easy for anyone to get started and make money on facebook.

Facebook Fan Page Tagged Brand Photos: Opportunities and Risks

How much do you think a Facebook user’s photo that a brand is tagged in is worth? While a quantifiable value is not currently measurable, positive photos that fan pages are tagged in are valuable to the brand as they provide a strong word-of-mouth recommendation (without the words, of course).

Brands will see themselves and their products tagged in more and more photos on their Facebook fan page now since Facebook announced last week that users have the ability to tag fan pages in their photos on Facebook in the same way they can tag their friends. This new functionality creates even more of a deeper connection between the user and the brand. It makes the brand more of a friend than just a brand.

If your brand’s fan page allows for it, users can already upload photos. This new feature provides an easier, one-click to tag opportunity for Facebook users. Currently only fan pages within the Brands and Products or People fan page categories can be tagged in photos, but expect this functionality to be expanded over time. The opportunities and risks for brands and user-generated photos were always there, but are now amplified due to the easier tagging process.

Brands should be excited about this new opportunity. As a result, brand fan pages will see more user generated content from their fans. In turn, expect organic Facebook photos to also be used more in brands marketing materials and print advertisements. If the photos and descriptions associated with the tagged photos are positive then a brand letting the photo tab on the facebook fan page become more of a story book for fans when they view the images. This is ideal as the tagged photos help take control away from the brand and puts more power into the hands of fans.

Brand and user authenticity also becomes more prominent. Brands will be able to easily identify their prominent users on Facebook. They then have the ability to take that relationship either offline or amplify it on Facebook by writing on their Facebook wall (if they have a public profile). Photos of people utilizing a product prove who a brand’s true users are as opposed to simple affirmation messages.

While user generated content is key, there are also risks associated for brands with this new feature. More photos will be posted to brand fan pages, but they won’t only be positive photos.

Facebook fan pages run the risk of having negative photos of their product or business posted and should be prepared (like they should be already) in the event this occurs. For example, if you run a doorman service and there are photos posted on your fan page of one of your doorman sleeping on the job, be prepared to respond if necessary to your most loyal brand ambassadors on Facebook.

There will undoubtedly be an increase in spam photos as a result of this change. Page administrators should always make sure they are monitoring their photos section and remove any photos that violate terms of service or are not properly tagged.  These photos won’t appear directly on the wall, just under the photos tab, which means a robust monitoring system (via human or computer) is necessary to make sure not only are the photos appropriate, but photo descriptions as well.

Facebook Releases Greatest Practice Guide For Marketing

Social networking has smooth way to social marketing and Facebook appears to have taken it very seriously. Reportedly, Facebook has published a guide that talks about greatest Practices for Facebook Marketing. This 14 page PDF document introduces five guiding principles and Facebook by point for superior marketing techniques. It introduces users to the Facebook bionetwork which begins with building aFacebook fan page and making your existence felt (you can use Social Plugins and Graph APIs).  Further, to fortify the fan base with Facbook Like ads and then on amplify it with news feed and sponsored stories. The document lists Facebook objectives for superior marketing and also explains a step by step procedure to get the desired results. This guide is basically to help its members perform better marketing strategies using the following objectives:

-          promote product development and innovation

-          Generate responsiveness

-           Drive partiality and differentiation

-          Increase visiters and sales

-          Build constancy and deepen relationships

-          Amplify recommendation and word of mouth

-          Gain insights

Facebook showcases its tools which will help create new product ideas and innovations as well as learn about the target audience. Just creating a page isn’t enough, you’d have to generate awareness and increase your product value. It lays stress on leveraging Facebook’s Ads and Sponsored Stories for a wider reach and enhanced targeting abilities.

The facebook fan page acts as a key touch point as the referrals come through word of mouth.  The document suggests to try and appreciate what others think of your business, and drive preference and separation.

rising sales and traffic is one of the essential factors noted which can be done by creating promotional campaigns, setting sales goals and driving people to the purchase point. The social site reveals the importance on building and strengthening relationships by reminding people that you are around, by asking questions and also accepting feedback.

Facebook is further about word of mouth as when people like something it is shared with their friends and so on. It is significant to encourage people to like your facebook fan page by adding good content which also helps augment recommendations and word and mouth, reveals the guide.

Understanding clients is equally important so Facebook recommends learning from reports of your advertising campaigns and sponsored stories. It also tells its members to study from page insights and use advanced campaign metrics. The last page of the document takes you to helpful Facebook resources related to pages, permissions, publicity and more.

NEWS Flash: The End Is Near For Previous Facebook Groups

Facebook will begin archiving all groups created using the older format, in a push to catch everyone onto the newer story of the feature.

The following message appears at the peak of the group page as seen by the owner of it:

Above the next few months, Facebook will be archiving all groups created using the old groups format. stirring ahead, you can create groups using the new groups format, which makes it simple to share with the important groups in your life.

Facebook offers pretty thorough guidance about the forthcoming archiving and upgrades in the site’s help section, fleshed out in three diverse questions.

The site explains that old groups that get archived will automatically also become accessible in the new group format. Most of the associated content will stay available in the upgraded version, with some notable exceptions.

The things that won’t create it over are:

·         current news

·         Group officer titles

·         The information  box below the old group picture

·         The group system

·         The members of your old group.

Yup, you’ll have to redo your membership list in the new group if you wait for Facebook to do the archive and upgrade for you. The Latest  version will include:

·         Group photos and wall posts

·         Group chat threads, which become wall posts

·         The group explanation, which can be found at the top of the facebook fan page when you click “see all” members in the new group

Facebook recommends that keep backups of their group content before the archiving. Plus, the site wants all businesses using groups to support themselves to switch to pages instead.

At few point, a link saying “upgrade this group” will emerge at the top of the owner’s admin screen — only for old groups, of course. Ones created in the new format won’t go through some of this.

For now, the messages that readers have said they are considering comes as a friendly early alert, which we appreciate. Putting the word out early seems like a wise move, based on how public reacted to fresh upgrades of profiles and pages.

StumbleUpon shoots past the 1 billion mark!

StumbleUpon is one of the internet’s most used bookmarking services and according to their latest figures it has become even more trendy.

Users can bookmark their favourite pages using the websites toolbar and then click the stumble button and find other related pages that they may like. It is a awesome  tool that allows users who are interested in your service or product to find your website and contact details.

StumbleUpon users are currently bookmarking more than 1 billion web pages per month and with increases in visitors to the site, the bookmarking company has become a awesome place for companies to interact. If you would like to advertise your service through online sites such as StumbleUpon, Facebook and Twitter take a look at our social media pages on our website and find out how you could gain customers online.

Upsetting trend: big brands pimping Facebook “Likes”

A upsetting and abhorrent trend has emerged on Facebook, where big brands force visitors to “Like” their page in return for a gift, coupon, or special access to promotions or contests.

“Don’t ‘like’ us yet?” Jockey asked in a current email. “You’ll want to now!” Umm, no, I won’t. “Like our page to unpack prizes!” demands Pepto Bismol. Nah! My liking feels fine. Like us before you can create your own royal wedding commemorative stamp, demandsPeople publication.

What do compulsory likes prove?
They explain that people will click a Like button because they like coupons, discounts and games, but they surely don’t indicate that we plan to buy from the brand again, or come back to the Facebook page. Like so many upsetting marketing practices, forcing Likes is a nothing more than ham-handed bean counters’ idea of how social media works.

Facebook and other social media let retailers connect their online and corporeal properties in ways never before possible. And, asMediaLogic’s recent Retail Marketing Reports note, total visitors to social sites now rival physical retail traffic and, in some cases, are approaching the reach of national paid media. And, the report notes, more than 30% of retailers are forcing visitors to Like their Facebook fan pages to access their promotions.

Sadly, people who are forced to Like brands are also forced to give them entrée to their individual data, unless they jump through Facebook’s notoriously complex privacy jewels.

Will you silent respect me in the morning?
And the long-term appointment, earned media, brand evangelism, and kindness that Facebook and other social media can produce are lost in the process of buying likes. while People Magazine pimped its way past the million (forced) Facebook like mark in January, Forbes cluelessly advised “It’s still early in the game but clearly all publishers need to be paying much closer attention to their Facebook fan pages and how many ‘Likes’ they’re racking up. It’s a real-time indicator of how relevant a brand is to its spectators — and especially to its advertisers.”

Nope, it’s not. Forcing community to like your brand is a lot like getting a kid to promise to be good in exchange for a cookie. Or promising someone you’ll still respect them in the morning. The promise and the like are forgotten as shortly as the goodies are gone.