Why do I need to know about Facebook? Traditional push marketing mediums (such as TV, print, radio, static websites, etc) are drowning in the wake of pull marketing platforms (such as forums, blogs, social networks, etc) - those who cling to push marketing (alone), refusing to integrate social media into their overall marketing plan, will see their businesses sink within the next five years. You can t say it. You have to get other people to say it to each other. James Farley, CMO, Ford Consumers are now immune to push marketing. Social media has overtaken pornography as the number one online activity 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, while only 14% trust advertisements. 25% of search results for the World s top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content (e.g. Facebook posts). Facebook has now overtaken Google for weekly traffic in the US Google now ranks social media content higher than any other type of content. You need to get involved in the online conversation about your brand to avoid the wrong information going viral. Facebook Facts: Over 450 million users. 100 million users access Facebook through a mobile phone. 50% of users log on, on a daily basis. The average user spends over an hour on Facebook, each day. Over 20% of users update their status each day. The average user follows 4 new Facebook pages a month. 61% of users are over 35 years old. The average user has 130 Facebook friends. Most users only friend people they know in real life.
How your target market uses Facebook People create personal profiles on Facebook so that they can post text, images, links and video about their lives and share these with their Facebook friends. Facebook: a trusted network of opinions Because Facebook users share so much about themselves on the social networking site, most users will change their profile privacy settings to allow only their Facebook friends to see their full profile other users cannot see their status updates, photos, etc. Most Facebook users will only friend people they already know and trust in real life, creating an exclusive network of individuals who genuinely trust each other the perfect environment to stimulate positive chatter about your business. Xplore.net Seminar Notes: Facebook Within each personal profile, Facebook users can: Create photo galleries and upload an unlimited number of images to these Populate an Info tab with demographic profiling information, such as: gender, birthday, home town, relationship status, interests, etc Post blog entries to their Notes tab and allow others to subscribe to their own RSS feed Upload and share video Add a wide array of applications, such as social games (Zynga s Farmville game has over 80 million active users). Follow friends on Facebook updates about these friends activities on Facebook will appear in the user s newsfeed. Likewise, any actions they take on Facebook will appear in their friend s newsfeeds. Like business pages on Facebook allowing them to subscribe to automatic updates (which appear in their newsfeed) whenever content is posted to these pages Post status updates (answering this simple question: What s on your mind?) to their wall, including text, images, links and video, for their friends to read and comment on. Show their friends everything they have been up to on Facebook the wall tab records all the activities of each user on Facebook (e.g. comments made to others, pages they liked, etc).... Facebook s power lies in the Newsfeed When a user first log s in to Facebook (either through a computer or mobile device) they are automatically taken to a newsfeed that shows them what has been going on, on Facebook in their absence. Facebook records all the actions/activities of its users on each users wall, this information is then fed to the newsfeed and stimulates a me too response from users (the viral spread of information). For example, if a user sees one of their friends has liked a certain business page, they can easily click a link to view that page and like it too.
How to develop a Facebook presence for your business Do not use personal profiles to try to promote your business (even if your business is you e.g. you re a consultant) this violates Facebook s terms of use. Instead, setup a Facebook Page (see: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php). Note: Please ensure you select a Page, as opposed to a Group. Groups are used by people who share common interests (but who are not friends on Facebook) to interact, while Pages are used by businesses to promote their products/services.... About Facebook Pages: How to setup an effective Page: Public by default, but can be targeted to appear for only specific countries Create a main page image that immediately lets your page visitors or age ranges. know what you do using text and images. Can be viewed by not-logged in Facebook users making them more accessible than groups or Your main page image needs to be no bigger than 200px wide x 600px high. personal profiles. Your main page image should have a 172 x 172px area that can be selected to be your Can be indexed by search engines helping people find your page and boost your corporate website thumbnail image (used on any comments/posts you make to your page). ranking. Use the 250 character editable area on the left of your page for keyword rich text about the Facebook users can choose to like your page this means they subscribe to receive automated benefits of liking your page - include a link to your corporate website. newsfeed updates whenever you updated your page. Before promoting your page, ensure you have made at least 4 posts to your page wall Include a share function that makes it easy for Facebook users to share a link to your page with friends. Keep your page looking interesting by making only every second post a text only post. Break up these posts with images, links and videos. Provide page statistics (called Insights ) that give the page administrator information on page views, media consumption, followers gender, age distribution, country, city, etc Regularly post interesting articles to your notes tab to draw users back to your page, on a Page administrators get an automated weekly email with page activity updates, with performance regular basis. compared with the previous week. Create a custom welcome tab (as opposed to having users land on your wall tab) Can add a wide array of applications to the page to provide additional functionality. this allows you to control the first impression of your business.
How to promote your Facebook page Get users to tag themselves in your photos People rarely search for brands on Facebook they need to be put in front of them, as an option (by friends or by you). The following are just some of the ways you can grow the number of Facebook followers you have. Use Facebook Social Plugins Facebook has released a number of social plugins that you can embed on your corporate website, in order to drive traffic to your Facebook page. Remember, in most industries, a person needs to have 5 interactions with your brand before they feel confident enough to buy from you. By driving your website traffic to subscribe to your Facebook page, you ensure you will be able to capture (and be able to interact with) up to 50% of first time visitors to your website. Tell your newsletter subscribers Once you are ready to promote your new Facebook page, make sure you tell your newsletter subscribers about it. This can be a great way to stimulate renewed interest in your brand. Facebook pages allow for brand engagement that email marketing can t facilitate. Add a link to your page to your email signature This is a subtle and effective way to promote your Facebook page in every email you send (hundreds a week). If you host or participate in events, take plenty of photos and upload these to your Facebook page. You can then encourage your Facebook followers to tag themselves in your photos. This will automatically send all of those user s friends (130, on average) a newsfeed update with a link to your page. This can be a fantastic way to tap into your follower s Facebook network. Comment on more popular pages & autograph your post Actively seek out pages that relate to (but are not in direct competition with) your business and post helpful, credibility building information/advice to these pages and autograph your post (this provides a link to your page). To do this, type the @ symbol followed by (with no spaces) your page name. Provided you are a follower of your own page, you will be able to create a link to your page in your post. This is a great way to leverage the followers on other pages. Place Facebook Ad s If you re serious about using Facebook as a marketing platform, then paying for targeted Facebook advertising is a must. Run a promotion Promotions and competitions are a great way to encourage people to like and follow your page. However, ensure you consult Facebook s promotional guidelines before running any promotions.
How to Advertise on Facebook Facebook makes its money mainly from selling advertising space on user s pages, and creating your own advert can be a great way to boost your follower numbers and extend your reach. Advertisement targeting Using the information Facebook users enter into the Info tab on their Personal Profiles, you can target your advertisements using the following criteria: Location by both country and city. Age range promotion to users under the age of 18 are banned, but all other age ranges can be targeted. Birthday allowing for birthday greetings advertisements Relationship status great for businesses that may offer relationship based services (e.g. wedding photographers). Gender and what gender they are interested in. Language options Listed interests Education and workplace As you go through the setup process, a panel to the right of the page will update to tell you the Estimated Reach of your campaign, based on your criteria.... Advertisement design options Like the rest of Facebook, Advertisement formats are generic creating a level playing field. Your advertisement can include: A title (up to 25 characters) Main content (up to 135 characters) Optional image (100px wide x 80px high) A link to a website or your Facebook page The most successful Facebook advertisements usually link to a custom Facebook Page tab that carries on the theme of the advertisement. This is less jarring for a user than being taken to an external website. What it costs You can set a daily budget Minimum daily budget is AUD$1 All pricing is transacted in Australian Dollars You can Pay Per Click bid the amount per click OR you can Pay Per View (bid amount per 1000 views) For more information or to create your own advertisement, please go to: www.facebook.com/ads/create
Running promotions on Facebook Facebook has strict rules and conditions regarding what promotions/competitions can be run on Facebook Pages. For a full and current copy of these conditions, please go to: http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php Please note: these rules were current at the time of the seminar, but please check the Facebook guidelines before running any promotion. An overview of what you can and can t do: Do not run promotions that users auto-enter through a Facebook action. Do use Facebook to publicise your off Facebook (e.g. on your corporate website) promotions. Do not administer promotions on Facebook, without written consent from Facebook. Do not run promotions that are open to under 18 years olds. Do not offer prizes of: tobacco, dairy, firearms, prescriptions drugs, etc
What content you should post Your Facebook page will only be as successful as the content you post. To entice people to like your page you need to engage them. The following outlines the type of content you should and should not post to your Facebook page. Engage your followers: Make sure you don t turn your page into a hard sell /push marketing channel. End all posts with a question ask their opinion. Quiz your followers fun and educational. Be human give your page a personality that people can relate to. Ensure every post addresses your follower s key concern: What s in it for me? The resource commitment you ll need to make: Designate an employee (or hire a consultant) don t assume someone will just do it. Post new content at least once every 2 business days. Someone must monitor the page and respond to all posts. Commission a developer to create a custom tab for your page. Develop a strategy (more than one) to attract people to your page. If you re a B2B: Post industry related news (with links to your website). Encourage followers to ask you questions and answer them (demonstrate your expertise). Ask existing customers to post their experiences with your business. Share weekly/daily tips, related to your industry. Turn your page into an added value service Dell made $6.5 million doing this. If you re a B2C: New products/services but, ensure your posts aren t a hard sell. Facebook-only links to promotions on your corporate website (to encourage followers). Industry news and trends. Encourage existing customers to post comments/thoughts about your products/services. Ask your users for their ideas/advice on new products/marketing ideas.