Follow Facebook conversations and key trends with #hashtag
Following the introduction of the new Facebook #hashtag this Summer, we have looked at how it's being used for Facebook content marketing. This infographic from Prestige Marketing's also prompts new ideas about using the approach.
It's interesting to see some examples of how marketers have been gaining traction since the beginning, and using it successfully to track trending conversations at different stages of their planning and campaigns.
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6 ideas for growing Facebook fans regardless of company size
Facebook may be the most widely used social network, but that doesn't make it any easier to gain traffic and leads. Competition is high and it's a fragile form of interacting that can make it or break it for brands. Tone of voice, what is said on-record along with your social media numbers will be the basis of first impressions.
This article will show you is how to improve this one aspect of your Facebook marketing recognising that evaluating success on Facebook goes beyond Likes, but that many marketers are judged on this.
Six Tips on improving your Facebook numbers
As I work with Facebook Pages I see six different common shortcuts to gaining fans in a short space of time, some of which are most appropriate to smaller businesses, others that apply to all sizes.
1. Exchanging Likes
Smaller businesses starting on Facebook will find…
Should you run competitions on your Facebook Timeline?
On October 24th, Richard Jones, CEO of EngageSciences, will give a talk at Social Media Marketing 2013 (London) on ‘What's Really Behind Facebook's Competition Rule Changes?’ To explain the opportunity and to get you in the mood, I’m offering my own take on how and when you should make use of Timeline competitions and when you should steer well clear. The change was first alerted to Smart Insights readers in Rhian Simm's post on Facebook's new competition rules on 29th August 2013 - so it's a relatively new issue.
Facebook Rule changes
First of all, let’s be clear on what the Facebook rule changes actually are.
For the past two years it’s been against Facebook rules to run a competition directly on a Facebook Page and all Facebook competitions have needed to be managed through a third party app –…
5 Ways to Utilize Facebook Posts for Content Marketing
Content marketing is all about creating relevant and compelling content in order to change or enhance consumer behavior that’s favorable to you. And where else to better utilize this strategy than in a billion-people social hub that is Facebook? So read carefully and jot down these important tips that will surely help your brand with content marketing.
Tips on using Facebook for your content marketing strategy
1. Content creation through Social Listening.
Probably the greatest thing about Facebook from a marketer’s perspective is that you don’t have to guess what your consumers are thinking since they’re going to post it anyway. So this is the best time to listen.
Tip: Find out how people relate to your brand, how they see it and use it on a daily basis, etc. by searching hashtags:
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Ideya's new report shows the why, what and how of selecting social listening tools
Investment in social media monitoring (SMM) requires careful consideration since it is a long-term and potentially costly commitment. Understanding of the key SMM concepts, benefits and possible applications is of utmost importance. In order to realize the long-term value of SMM, SMM needs to become part of the business strategy and well-integrated with the business processes.
Only by having a clear understanding of how SMM supports your business, you can transition from experimental, tactical to a more strategic use of SMM.
There are many social media monitoring and management tools on the market and making an educated choice about which SMM tools can best address company's needs and justify social media investment, has become a challenging task for organizations as social media technology business has branched out into a diverse set of technologies, data types and countless vendors confusing…
How is Amnesty using social media for campaigning?
To coincide with this week's new Guide on the social media for charities, we thought we would take a look at these examples of how Amnesty International are using social across the main platforms Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest. Of course, Amnesty have been enthusiastic adopters of digital media and social media for campaigning from the outset, and need to manage many presence around the world, so they're an interesting case.
For each network we have pulled out some examples of good practices for positioning a Not-for-profit on its page, status updates and encouraging interaction and action.
As an international organisation, Amnesty also have the challenge of managing a different presence in different countries, so we will use a few different examples although this doesn’t illustrate the integration across channels which they seem to manage well within an individual region.
Facebook
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More reasons for businesses to share on Pinterest
Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Pinterest blog: new article pins for media sites and Ad announcement
Pinterest has recently developed their pins for media sites, so articles on pins can now include the Headline, Author and Story Description including a larger link.
'Article pins can help writers, media and other businesses reach new audiences, get more referral traffic and extend the lifespan of their content'
It appears Pinterest are trying to keep up with business needs this year, as can be seen by their developments including promoted pins and free analytics. Its usage is growing at 48.7m uniques users per month, and they are clearly extending functionality and usage for mobile users, to improve shareabilty and facilitate content sharing.
So what does the new pin look like for Media Sites? The New York Times, Fortune…
Which social media drive online retail sales?
Richrelevance carried out an e-commerce survey in the USA for clients of their personalisation technology evaluating more than 690m browser shopping sessions over a period of a year, to identify the impact of Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter on retail sales.
It's interesting if you are managing an e-commerce site, and seeking to understand which is a driver for conversion to actual online or in store sales, which generates referrals and brand awareness or the social media creating more engagement?
Their Infographic shares some expected results, which are mainly due to a variation in demographics and content sharing features:
Facebook has a greater 'stickiness' and ' higher conversion rates'.Pinterest generates higher order values, though bear in mind the demographics are those who are well educated with high income.Twitter drives traffic into stores and retail sites.
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Which brands are using Instagram effectively?
Instagram and advertising. It seems to be causing quite the stir as the Instagram user-base has already made it clear that they don’t want to see the platform commercialised by Zuckerberg. For example, late 2012 saw Instagram’s terms of service change and then change back when users objected to the possibility that their photos would be used in ads.
Brands just need some imagination
Whereas Zuckerberg may struggle to easily monetise his Billion Dollar investment, the reality for brands is that they don’t need to wait for advertising to gain exposure in Instagram, they need some imagination. There are a number of brands doing this already and surprisingly, Instagram users seem to love them for it.
A number of brands have adapted well to the nature of Instagram and its users, appreciating that ‘exposure’ comes with adding value to the Instagram community, not trying to interrupt it. Companies…
Implications of the changes to Facebook’s promotions rules
Importance to Facebook marketers: [rating=4]
Recommended link: PDF download of new promotion rules
To the surprise of many Facebook marketers, this week saw the release of updated Facebook competition rules, removing the requirement for businesses to run competitions and promotions through a app on their brand's timeline.
"We’ve updated our Pages Terms in order to make it easier for businesses of all sizes to create and administer promotions on Facebook."
Until now, it has been against Facebook regulations to run any promotion outside of a third-party app. For example, running a competition that required users to 'like' or 'share' a post for the chance to win.
This new change, now allows businesses to:
Collect competition entries by users posting on the Page or comment and/or liking a Page post
Collect entries through users…
