Facebook is notorious for constantly changing and updating their website. Some useful new features were rolled out in 2011 and here are a few tips on how to use these new features to benefit your business:
It's all about the like button
The Like button has become more powerful in 2011 as Facebook has phased out development on the Share button. There are now different styles and options for the Like button, including:
- Standard (with and without faces)
- Button count
- Box count
According to Hubspot’s Facebook Marketing Update 2011, “Facebook users who utilize a Like button visit 5.3x more Web urls to engage with content and on average have 2.4x more Friends. Providing the "Like" button on a website gives content creators access to these more socially engaged consumers and their networks.” Since FB has now linked up with Bing, increased ‘likes’ can also increase a website’s SEO. It also drives FB users to your website and helps your content become viral.
Optimizing FB Search
Facebook search works differently than a Google or Bing search engine. Facebook relies on connections, like how many of your friends like something or know someone. So if you are searching for pizza restaurants, it will give results of pizza restaurants that your friends like first. It also relies on exact matches. You will find different results if you search wine than if you search winery.
Ways to Optimize Your Facebook Page:
- Page name = page title tag so be specific, use your full brand name, and make sure you use spaces in between words
- Your FB page URL (www.facebook.com/yourbusiness) can be customized. This will help users find your FB page when using a traditional search engine. Make sure to keep it short and simple and should clearly identify the artist/business. Create a URL that is close to your brand name as you can.
- Use the FB categories and sub categories. This will make your business more identifiable in FB search.
- Include detailed information about your company or band in the “about us” and “info” tabs of you your FB page. They are more available to search engines.
- Stay active on your page. Make sue you you are frequently posting on your wall as this content will also help boost your searchablitly within Facebook.
- Encourage people to "like" your page by creating content that is fun, informative, and engaging. Your content is what will draw in new fans and keep current fans visiting your page.
Engagement is Key!
An extremely effective way to engage your audiences is through Contests and Competitions.
Facebook has some very specific guideline on how promotions and contest can be conducted, so make sure that you visit this page and familiarize yourself will all of FB's rule before you launch your contest. www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php
Tips for Creating a Contest:
- Establish a broad appeal -- Don't offer something obscure or too specific.
- Be Creative -- You want a promotion that stands out and makes people take notice.
- Keep it simple -- Don't make the rules to involved or overwhelming. Have FB users like your page, enter an email, or tag themselves in a photo for example.
- Go multi-channel -- Promote your Facebook contest in the rest of your advertising. As we like to say "keep the user in YOUR loop."
- Be timely -- Make sure the promotion is relevant to something that is happening NOW, and the contest doesn't go on for too long.
Facebook Connect
You can now have users Connect (or log-in) to your site with Facebook. You can also provide enriched personalized content and provide customer services via Facebook.
Tips for using Facebook Connect:
- Avoid pop-up connect, it's better to use a passive call for action like in the product review sections, community areas and post purchase.
- Make sure you are open and honest about what their information will be shared and make it easy to disconnect if they want to. That way you dispel uncertainty and FB users apprehension over sharing private information.
Facebook Location Based Marketing
With the introduction of GPS enable smart phone, location based social marketing has become very popular and Facebook has also created an app called Facebook Places where people can check-in, tag friends at locations, and look at a list of other people who have checked-in at the same place. Facebook has also introduced incentive to check-in with Facebook Deals.
Facebook Deals Include:
- Individual -- The user simply needs to accept the Deal and show the screen to the merchant to receive their incentive (usually a discount or free merchandise).
- Friend -- Multiple users must combine forces to receive the incentive.
- Loyalty -- Incentives are provided to a single user for recurring behavior.
- Charity -- Donations are made on behalf of the user.
There are tons of business out there that haven't claimed their page in Facebook Places. So make sure that you check to see if your places page already exists before making a new one.
Comment Box Plug-In
In March, Facebook launched a more robust version of their comment platform. According to Facebook's blog here are some of the new features of the comment plug-in:
- Comments are ordered to show users the most relevant comments from friends, friends of friends, and the most liked or active discussion threads, while comments marked as spam are hidden from view.
- Comments in the comment box are posted on the users newsfeed.
- Profile information is shared with your comments to give insight into each user.
This information was gathered from Hubspot’s Facebook’s Marketing Update Spring 2011. The information was compiled by a team of Hubspot bloggers.
By: Caitlin Morris
@COMusicNerd
