Tag Archives: Facebook Business Pages

Facebook – my quick take on the newer news feed

facebook screenshot

I watched the livestream of the big Facebook announcement today, and I must say, I was really surprised that the last guy that spoke was not wearing a hoodie.

That being said, everything else was very Facebooky.  A relatively informal presentation, but with big hitting information.

I am absolutely not reporting on what changes were discussed.  I leave that to the Mashable and TechCrunch’s of the world.  However, I did want to share some of my very quick takeaways.  These are my initial thoughts before ever actually using the new newsfeed, so take it for what it’s worth.

  • It’s all about evolving, and doing that with stories.   The most prominent way to tell these stories on Facebook?  Photos.  Other media like videos.  Third party shares from sites like Pinterest…and a slew of others excluding Vine.   Facebook recognizes what people are doing on Facebook.  I can tell you with complete confidence that nothing kills it on Facebook (in my industry) like an awesome photo.  Nothing else comes close.   This is good news for those that want more visually pleasing stories from friends, but it’s also good news for brands.  Bigger, richer media is a big positive.   Of course, this means that brands will have to be even more creative to compete for that precious real estate.  As always but possibly even more now than ever – the best/highest virality content wins.
  • That precious real estate… from the sounds of it not a lot will change for brands immediately with the changes.  There will still be a main “Most Recent” newsfeed that includes everything under the sun, with all of the Facebook algorithms we all know and love to hate.  The curve ball here are the new separate newsfeeds that users can “switch” to.   Friends only.  Brands only.  Games only.  Whatever else only.  Will people use them?  If they do, and use them a lot, this will hurt brands and make it even moreso pay to play.  And even your ads will have to be more strategic to end up in the right feeds, correct targeting, you name it.  If people are lazy and still just use their main landing feed, things will probably stay pretty much the same.  That’s my guess.  I could be wrong – we’ll know as we use it, but that’s how it appears right now.  And I do think people will use the friends only feed.  Why not?  It’s very cool and gets rid of terrible brand posts telling you to “like this post if you love cats.”
  • Facebook is really obsessed with newspapers.
  • Ads will continue to play in the convergence arena, meaning that even though you’re paying for the reach, you still have to earn maximum reach with quality content within your ad.  The whole owned, earned, paid world on Facebook comes together and is eventually going to be what brands have to do be seen at all….  Apparently ads will be much bigger within the newsfeed which is great news.  But, while this works in brands’ favor, it also works against them.  People might get annoyed with the huge ads and start using those new feeds more and more, and inadvertently cut out brand content.   Catch 22 for brands in a way.  They’ll be chasing people around from feed to feed.
  • The overall concept with “everything is bigger” is very cool.  As a Facebook user it’s awesome and I’m really looking forward to it.  As a social marketer I’m kind of making the Jim Halpert face.   I think there are some really good things and some new challenges to overcome.  As always, keep feeding your communities real, great content that will keep them coming back.  That’s how you’ll win.   Brands will adapt.  We always do.  It’s how marketing is now.tumblr_mdaldqkTck1qgy27g

enhanced facebook page post targeting is huge

Today Facebook announced that they will be doing something that I’ve wanted for a long time now.  If you guessed that they will now be allowing brand pages to target posts based on fans’ Likes, gender, age and other demographics – then you are correct.  Yes, that is exactly what they are doing.  For now, of course, the new functionality is only available to a few extra-special partners.  In the coming weeks it should apparently roll out to everyone.

This is huge.

Previously we could only geo-target or language-target.  That’s good when you need to talk to one specific geographic location, but then you still run into spewing content about one subject to tons of people who could not care less.  Content is the key nowadays to a successful social presence, especially on Facebook, so the ability to now spew content to people that actually like that content is very powerful stuff.

For example, you have fans that “liked” your Facebook page for multiple reasons.  And these people themselves have other “likes.”  And they are made up of different age groups.  When you post about a wine event involving painting and what not, you realize that the younger crowd that follows you would rather chew glass.  Now, you will be able to target that  content specifically to your older fan base – whatever you deem “older.”   And if you want to get even deeper, you could target folks that specifically are interested in wine, or painting, or both.  The younger crowd that enjoys a trusty Keystone Light doesn’t have to know the post would’ve ever existed.

This should help with engagement on certain topics that otherwise just fell into a black hole.

One question from me would be regarding that engagement piece.  We know that a typical post sent to everyone that follows you gets seen on average by 18% of your fans.  Now, will it still be around that percentage within the interest or age targeted group?  Or will it be better?

This could make Facebook ads’ future quite interesting, since the specific targeting is one element that made ads so powerful.

We can be sure there will be post booster promotions available.  Gotta make money on this somehow.  Gotta make those shareholders happy.  Is that possible right now?

UPDATE as of 8/1: I learned today that apparently you won’t yet be able to target based on LIKES.  Not yet, at least.  Bummer.  However, the new demographic targeting will be huge.

engagement vs fan count, the Facebook brand page dilemma

For the last few years, brands have had the opportunity to showcase themselves on Facebook by way of a page.  The businesses with any amount of foresight jumped aboard, some waited a bit but eventually joined the party, and amazingly enough – there are still some companies that haven’t yet made the social leap.  The brands that have been in the Facebook game for more than two years have seen several different versions of business pages and should be seasoned veterans by now.

Everyone had to start over to some extent when Timeline hit the scene a few months ago, on February 29.  And when I say start over I am referring to the new layout and aesthetics, the new functionality like highlighting and pinning posts, the admin panel, and the ability for brand pages to respond to fans through private messages.  However, the original ole’ concepts and theories remain strong, based on your brand’s Facebook strategy.

There has been the argument that timeline hopes to cause fans to spend more time on the actual brand page, thus, increasing engagement.  But, this original thought has proved to not necessarily be the case.  In many brands’ experiences it has actually been the opposite.  On the flip side, there has been data showing that it has in fact increased page engagement.  So, who the hell knows?  Let’s give it some more time…especially if Mashable is going to put these two conflicting articles out only a month apart.

Anyway, what’s the big dilemma?  If you manage a brand page you know what I’m talking about.  It’s the age old (not really very old at all) argument of engagement with fans versus the number of fans that you have.  What’s the right way to go?

The correct answer: both.  Totally depends on your business, what your strategy is, and why you are doing it.  Maybe you want to build the crap out of your fan base right now so that you can roll out a huge engagement plan in 6 months.  Being completely honest, growing a large fan base organically is hard.  Great content definitely helps, but sometimes you need a boost.  And, like Major League Baseball over the last twenty years, if everyone’s doing it you kind of have to play along, too, if you want to stay in the competition.  That was a steroids joke.  It’s really not that different.  It’s all cheating.  The difference, buying Facebook fans is legal and is now to some extent the norm.  Steroids land you in an empty house hanging out with Jose Canseco.

There was a bomb dropped on Facebook a few weeks ago when General Motors announced they’re pulling $10 Million of Facebook advertising due to ineffectiveness.  That’s a perfect example of Facebook paid products being part of an overall strategy for an end goal as it affects their business.  They weren’t seeing results in that end goal from the Facebook ads; people buying more cars.  They knew what they were doing and didn’t see it working.  Pull the plug.

Some brands get bashed for spending a lot of money on fans, but you know what?  If they’re spending a lot of money then they probably know what they are doing, or at least their agency does.  They more than likely have an “after we buy all the fans” plan.  If they don’t and really are just buying fans strictly for a big number, well, then, that is just kind of silly.  That is not technically a strategy.  That is just doing it to look good.  But you know what else?  Even just looking good with a huge number could be considered a strategy.  Brand awareness.

I am personally not a huge fan of ruthlessly acquiring fans, as I think the actual number should not be the goal.  A big number is great, but it doesn’t matter if those fans don’t engage with your content and connect with your brand.  That is the whole point of being on Facebook, to connect people with your brand, socially; humanizing your brand by way of completely new kinds of interactions and content.  There are brands on Facebook that literally don’t spend any money and have a very solid fan base with very engaging fans.  More power to them.

It should all stem from content, first and foremost.

Using paid acquisition Facebook products to gain new fans is fine and can be part of a very successful social strategy and/or campaign, but it shouldn’t be the strategy.  Disclaimer: unless you fall into the category I mention above and truly are out to just be #1.

To sum it up, engagement is huge and should really be the end goal, and fan acquisition can play a vital role in following through with part of a social strategy or campaign.  So, both sides of the argument can be the correct answer – it depends on your business, and what you are doing with your presence on Facebook (voice, content, strategy and beyond).

Everyone has a different social strategy, and everyone has an argument.  That’s the fun – at this point there really isn’t a “right” or “wrong” answer, only right and wrong ways to go about doing it.   But even those could be argued.  Ah, this is a blast.

****Note: I wrote this in about 15 minutes.  I write what comes to mind and hit “post.”  This could be WAY longer if I wanted to get into TAT scores, engagement rates (depending on which analytics tool you are using), all the other non-acquisition-driving Facebook paid products that are now available, and probably a slew of other things that would be relevant to what I wrote about above.  But, I am tired and don’t want to dive that deep today.  My kid got me up at 5:15 AM.  Done.

some social brands doing it well, in my opinion

Social media as we know it is still very young.  And by “as we know it,” I am referring to the daily connections with our favorite brands, companies and organizations.  Personal use of the socialsphere is also still pretty young, hovering around a decade or so if you are looking at Friendster and Myspace.  And if there was anything “social” before 2002, I’m sorry, I missed it.  Social media as it now sits, has taken over our online worlds.  Sure you can still find out if your younger cousin Toby got his wisdom teeth out, but you can also communicate directly with your favorite beer, sports team, or celebrity.

You might not always get a response, which is unfortunate, but you can feel like you are part of their daily operations or lives.  And, believe it or not there is a human behind the brand’s voice.  (I know from first hand experience as I am one of those humans.)  Hopefully the company or brand you follow knows how to use that voice to their advantage and to connect with fans.  Even the ones that sound like a robot still have a human somewhere in the process, as hard as that  may be to believe.

But I digress.

I follow a ton of brands across the social web.  I want to point out some of my favorites (keeping this list to Facebook and Twitter).  In my mind, these brands are doing a great job of being human, reaching their fans, keeping the content interesting and fresh, and making you want more.  Here’s my current short list, in no particular order….

 

Skittles

  • (Facebook) Hilarious, ridiculous one-liners that you read and immediately just say “WTF?”  But then you laugh, sometimes out loud.  Their voice is consistent and doesn’t waiver much if at all.  Very witty and entertaining.  I love that the vast majority of their content has nothing to do with their product, proving the point that just selling, promoting, and marketing by way of social media is not a winning strategy.  Being interesting wins. (facebook.com/skittles)

 

ESPN

  • (Twitter) An extremely human voice that sounds like your friend you are watching the game with, smashing beers with.  It’s a very witty line-up of tweets that work sports into the heart of the content.  They don’t stray away from their lifeblood, but they do find a way to make that straightforward content interesting, different.  It doesn’t just sound like news. (twtter.com/espn)

 

Keystone Light

  • (Facebook) Keith Stone and his always smoothness has taken to Facebook and it’s fantastic.  This lower budget and/or college beer definitely knows who they are targeting and they do it well.  Their posts are geared towards dude who like to drink a ton of beer.  They’re witty, in the same voice as their TV commercials and on brand.  I love when brands know what they are and go for it. (facebook.com/keystonelight)

 

Foursquare

  • (Facebook) This one is interesting because it is another prominent social platform, with a presence on another prominent social platform.  That in itself isn’t that odd, but to do it well is another thing.  Foursquare doesn’t really go for humor but they talk about their new pins, locations, tips, specials, new partnerships and what not.  It’s interesting.  Lucky for them their business is interesting, so the content follows suit.  They do talk about themselves a lot but it doesn’t come off annoying.  At least not to me. (facebook.com/foursquare)

 

Red Bull

  • (Twitter) Not only is this one of the coolest brands around right now, and they have one of the best overall marketing campaigns in the country, but they are very human on Twitter.  They aren’t necessarily funny or overly interesting, but they are human.  Go look at their Twitter feed – they respond to pretty much everybody who tweets at them.  Not a big deal for a smaller company, but this is impressive for a brand presence like Red Bull who has over 600K followers on Twitter.  (twitter.com/redbull)

 

Cheerios

  • (Facebook) First and foremost, I’ve loved Cheerios since I have been alive.  My son loves Cheerios.  So, with a biased approach I loved this brand already.  But, their Facebook presence isn’t half bad.  They use fans’ photos as part of their cover image which immediately brings the brand to a human level, they have interesting tips for healthy living and speak directly to people like me that just plain love Cheerios.  (facebook.com/cheerios)

 

The Today Show

  • (Facebook) Making news reach beyond news is a strength of social media.  While this concept isn’t earth shattering, I think the Today Show does a good job with their Facebook timeline.  The stories we see every morning become interactive discussions, and they pull in trending topics from Twitter as newsworthy discussions on air.   I know that many other news entities do the same thing.  Fine.  This is my list.  (facebook.com/today)

 

Lowe’s

  • (Twitter) Doing a house project and need help?  Lowe’s on Twitter is there for you.  They even lead their profile description with “Got a complaint, compliment, or question?  Let us know!”  This is customer service done right using a social tool that is so perfect for it.  There responses are very human, and helpful.  A great way to connect with customers. (twitter.com/lowes)

 

Creative Recreation

  • (Facebook) I’ve been rockin’ a pair of hybrid boat shoes from CR for the last 8 years.  Yeah, they definitely don’t look like new, but I still love them.  This is a cool brand that has grown a ton in the last decade and has a cool social presence to go with it.  Good content is the key to any good social channel, and their vivid imagery, sweet products, and conversational posts seem to connect well with their fans.  (facebook.com/creativerecreation)

Facebook timeline for businesses – i’m a big fan

It has now been a week since Facebook launched timeline for business pages.  Many of us have played around with timeline for our personal profiles for a few months now and have been anxiously awaiting the business version.  Or at least I was anxiously awaiting timeline for businesses.  The former news feed wall style was starting to look and feel like sooo 2010.  I have been reading about what might be available for pages for a while now, but some of what was out there has proven to just be guessing.  Whereas some folks thought the cover image could basically be used as a massive, beautiful display ad for your company…it couldn’t actually be further from the truth.

Facebook has put their fist down regarding what can and cannot be done to your cover image, which is the 851 x 315 pixel image that lives at the top of any page (that has converted to timeline).  They came out with their set of guidelines and ruined some of the creative fun.  I definitely cannot blame them, though.  If companies could use the cover image as a huge banner ad, for free no less, it would kill Facebook’s lifeblood – paid advertising.  So basically you cannot sell or advertise anything on your business’s cover image with a call to action, a price, or a promotion.  And, the image you choose to put up there definitely cannot be someone else’s image.  Use good judgement.

In other words, the rules and regulations will force companies to get even more creative to make good use of the awesome space up top.  I am really looking forward to seeing what companies do with this over the next couple of months.  A shameless little plug of my own, I’ve done a few different things thus far with Keystone’s cover image.  I’ve used it to broadcast the snow totals for the day and I’ve also played around with collage-style art showcasing the resort as a whole.  I have many other ideas but I will be keeping those to myself for now ;) …the fun has really just begun.

A huge goal for companies will be to get fans to actually go spend more time on their page.  Pre-timeline, the way the vast majority of fans got their company fix was just in their own news feed, but they didn’t go back to the business page since that initial “like.”  Now, with all of the new beautification, layouts and possibilities for creativity, companies will be looking to engage in different ways.  One great way to do this is to add cool events from the past to the timeline with images and stories.  Check out what the US Army did – it’s amazing.  Keep it interesting. “Highlight” the best photo or video of the week and “pin” the most important or interesting message to the top of the wall for up to seven days.  Use the new tools and advance the way you use Facebook as a business!

The platform is changing and businesses will have to adapt.  The companies that grow with Facebook and look to take advantage of timeline will be the winners in the social marketing stratosphere.  And by winning I am talking about engagement, interactions and connections with the community.  Anyone can spend a ton of money and buy new fans (which also inflates the “people talking about” stats) with acquisition campaigns, but not anyone can actually do a superior job connecting with fans once you have them, and continuously giving them awesome content.  There is nothing wrong with running ads to acquire fans – that’s the game and that’s just how it works now, but you have to be able to engage with those humans.  If you acquire them and post just to post, or don’t respond and interact, you will just as easily lose those fans.  (And I am fully aware there are ads and campaigns that are solely for the purpose of engagement and not fan acquisition, which is awesome).

Timeline comes with some sweet new functionality for business pages and I’m personally stoked about it.  I’m in head first and can’t wait to see what they come up with next.  Change is good.  And with social media, change is one of the only things that’s consistent.

I’m a Facebook timeline fan.