Facebook has begun rolling out the new Facebook pages design since last Friday, so these are the Pages for brands and organisations, since the Facebook profile pages were updated a few months ago.
The up-shot is all good - Facebook are empowering brands to be more interactive, responsive and visible, we've summarised the key changes below - hope it helps.
A word of caution first! It appears to be in beta since the comments on Facebooks official update indicates a lot of problems, mostly around Wall post updates no longer being in chronological order thus making interactions between page owners and Fans very difficult to manage. Expect this will be 'fixed' before the forced roll-out early March. Here's an example from Heather Chastain "please help, this is the second day in a row i've been unable to respond to posts made…
Fascinating infographic from Pixable - more mind boggling numbers from Facebook...
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Which marketers running the show do you find useful?
I love Twitter as a way of learning about new developments and approaches in a social way. But if you're looking to learn from others on Twitter, as well as socialise, you need to know who to follow.
To help find good people to learn from, a couple of years ago, I wrote this guide to what I thought were the best marketers to follow on twitter.
What about client marketers?
My post was popular at the time, and I've learned loads from these guys around the world, but its weakness is that almost everyone on there is a consultant or works for an agency. Nothing wrong with that! But where are the client-side marketers?!
I have identified a handful of marketers I follow who are different - they are client-side marketers actually walking the talk and running the show.
I find following their tweets really…
Facebook is today launching Places Deals in the UK and Europe, I posted on Facebook Deals in early November launching the the USA with Gap and Starbucks, amongst others. Well, as of this week it's in the UK. Facebook users will be able to get discounts and targeted deals in shops and eateries by checking in on Facebook Places using their smartphone. European partners include Starbucks, Yo Sushi, O2, Argos, Debenhams, and Alton Towers. All making offers based on Check-Ins.
To remind you, the concept is simple enough "€“ users look for the yellow icon when they Check In using Places. You then click on the deal to claim it, and simply show it to the cashier to cash in. Deals that a user claims will also be shared on your Facebook News Feed, which will allow your friends to reap the same benefits should they want to.…
How do Fans really interact with Facebook and how can/should you interact with them
You already know that, along with everything else on your plate, you need to develop Facebook as a valuable marketing tool in some shape or form, so how will you do it? There are a number of ways to leverage Facebook as marketing technique and you need to have 'a reason'"€¦
A place to interact with your consumers and potential consumers - brand building in its crudest sense
A means to manage customer interactions and feedback
A source of relevant traffic to your commercial web site
A means to build a list of potential consumers interested in permission-based communications
In terms of applying those goals you need a fan page, and a Facebook marketing plan.
The challenge
Though your window is your Facebook Fan page 96% will come not come back to it after first 'Liking' your brand, in fact Brand Glue estimate…
An update on Facebook statistics at the start of 2011
Here's an interesting graphic I thought I'd share, though I know we a probably not needing reminder of the beast that is Facebook - and our obsession with it.
The infographic itself is also a simple example of shareable marketing for onlineschools.org at the same time. Cool!
If you ever need to check out the latest statistics on Facebook for a presentation, then there's Facebook's own statistics page. Three we think are important as a sign of marketing tactics as we go into 11 are:
Community - the average Facebook user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
Mobile - 200 million active Facebook users who are twice as active as non-mobile users
Widgets - 2 million websites have integrated Facebook, growing at 10,000 day and 250 million people per month engage with Facebook through external websites
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To complete our look at trends to review to include within your Internet marketing strategy in 2011, here are my suggestions on key issues to consider when considering your social media strategy in 2011.
1. Content
Social media is nothing without content, your content, partners content and of course customers content. As marketers incorporate social media more to engage visitors in their brand or business, they will wonder how they can make use of the several profiles that have been set-up. It's my belief is that the realisation will be that the answer lies squarely with content. As social guru Chris Brogan commented about a year ago, "it's the firewood around which social campfires form". 2011 will see marketers see the results of content investment (ebooks, video, PowerPoint presentations) and test the waters en masse.
Though great content is born from the unique intersection between your brand and the needs of the…
Is Twitter the canary in the coal mine of customer relations?
Despite the buzz surrounding it, Twitter is not the fastest growing customer service option out there. It"€™s understandable if people have that impression but the numbers don"€™t appear to back it up.
According to a recent post by Diane Clarkson of Forrester data show the number of online consumers to use Twitter for customer support to be under 1%. (Source: North American Technographics Customer Experience Online Survey, Q4 2009 and US Online Omnibus Q4 2010.)
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Trends From Social Tech 2010
Value: [rating=3]
Our commentary: So, you have the website, the blog, Twitter account (with a degree of usage) and maybe even Facebook fan page, you're tooled up - but do you feel like you're just a hamster on a treadmill - we all do, sometimes. The question is - where's the magic? Ann Handley notes in a recent post at the Daily Fixblog, "B2B marketers + social = lots of room for improvement." She's written up her 4 take-aways from 'Social Tech 2010', an event focussed around the B2B marketer, and in particular for the high tech industries.
Marketing implications:
All content is not equal: You know the new mantras - "Content is King" - "We are all publishers"! But, "B2B companies have to produce the right kind of content: Web content that is honestly empathetic, seeded with utility for your customers, and that reflects your business's core values…
