Flaws Revealed By Social Media And How To Fix Them

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One of the advantages of your business’s social media profile that almost no one is talking about is that it can reveal the flaws in your business. Whether it’s through negative feedback or a general lack of participation, the problems that arise on social media usually point to problems that need to be fixed at your physical location.

Carrie Kerpen, of Inc., calls social media “a mirror. A reflection of your company and how you’re doing today.” Basically, this means that if you see an abundance of negative comments, it’s because you’re doing something wrong. This is a pretty simple idea. After all, if you were getting an abundance of phone calls from customers complaining about your service, wouldn’t you assume something was wrong with your service? This is simply an example of how some business owners are not translating social media activity correctly, or perhaps simply undervaluing its importance.

After you’ve come up with solutions to your business’s shortcomings, be sure to let those naysayers on social media know about it. Negative comments that are left unanswered are far more damning than those that receive an apologetic, professional response detailing how your business is adapting and dealing with the problem. Sometimes, it can even be a simple reassurance that changes in your business won’t affect the quality product your customer is used to. Or, maybe you can apologize for a perceived shortcoming that can’t be changed while pointing out some advantages your customer has yet to notice.

When used correctly, social media is a way to make your business better and enhance the relationship you have with your customers.

 

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Facebook Page Post Ads Explained [INFOGRAPHIC]

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Facebook ads INFOGRAPHIC

Simply because they are the relative new ad on the block, there seems to be some confusion about how to implement and get the best ROI for Facebook ads. When it comes to Page Post Ads, you’re essentially getting the opportunity to put your message into users’ news feeds, whether they’ve liked your page or not.

To get a better idea of what is possible and how to use Facebook ads, check out the included infographic from Ampush, which comes via Marketing Land.

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Evidence Of Facebook Advertising Success

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As Facebook establishes itself as an option to gain a piece of your advertising budget, you may find yourself wondering if can actually give you a solid ROI. Because it is a fairly new platform, some are still a bit skeptical about the realistic expectations they should have when they dump money into a Facebook ad.

iMediaConnection set out to investigate this matter and returned with an interesting case study about how Facebook advertising has worked for one specific company. Follow the link and watch the included video interviews with a car dealership’s marketing manager to hear about how they found success through Facebook advertising and parlay that into success with your own campaigns.

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Targeting Users With Your Facebook App

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If your company has a Facebook app, and considering the increasing benefits you should strongly consider having one, it can now help to target your audience.

Brittany Darwell reports for Inside Facebook that the way users interact with your app can be used as a part of ‘Custom Audiences’, called App User IDs, to make a group to target. Users don’t even need to register through Facebook, or with an email or phone number.

Currently, App User IDs are only available for iOS developers, but the expansion to Android is expected soon.

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Video Ads Coming To Facebook

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Facebook reportedly began gauging the interest of advertisers in video ad units about 6-months ago and now, as Ginny Marvin reports for Marketing Land, they appear ready to roll out video ads to newsfeeds by July.

The video ads are expected to be available for all platforms, desktop, tablet and smartphones, and at a lower CPM for broadcast television ads. However, detractors have already started wondering aloud how users will react to more ads in their newsfeed. Especially a concern about how autoplay videos will effect the site’s load times, especially for smartphone users.

Advertisers will certainly be clamoring for the ad space in the early going, but we’ll wait and see if it becomes a proven commodity.

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Intro To Social Media Marketing

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If you haven’t launched a social media presence for your business or you’re getting frustrated trying to get your social media page off the ground, Miriam McNabb, a “social marketing professional” has some advice for you, as reported by Anne O’Connor at Nashoba Publishing.

First and foremost, there is very little sunk cost for social media marketing. So, you don’t need to worry that much about how to get started. It’s much more important that you simply start. Make a page on Facebook or Twitter and set aside some time to put out content. All you’ll be losing is some of your own time and effort.

Also, don’t feel guilty for bragging about your company’s achievements. Users like or follow you because they’re interested in your products or services, so tell them what you can do. If you donated something to a cause, be sure to let everyone know. If you have a special, sale or contest, get the word out and encourage your users to share with their friends.

Finally, establish yourself as an expert. I’ve talked about this particular bit of advice quite a bit and I understand it can be a little daunting. You may need to interact with users on more than just your own page, but finding questions pertaining to your business and answering them has a huge impact on how consumers view you. Twitter is an ideal forum for this, but you can accomplish it on Facebook too. So forget about your lack of expertise on social media and showcase your expertise in your field.

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Running A Facebook Competition? Do Your Homework

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Running a competitions through your Facebook page can be an effective way to build your audience and enhance brand recognition. But that’s only if you do it correctly. Neville Luff posted a list of concerns at Business2Community that you need to be aware of to make sure you get the most benefit out of your Facebook contest.

Have you read through Facebook’s terms and policies and page guidelines? Probably not, but not doing so could lead to Facebook shutting down your contest. For example, requiring a like or share to win is frowned upon. And you must use an app for your promotion.

Now, if you follow Facebook’s rules, your contest won’t be embarrassingly shut down, but will you get the most out of it. Be sure you promote it properly. Too many times, a business assumes simply having a contest will attract attention, but if you’re going to go to the effort of a giveaway, go the extra mile to make sure as many people know about it as possible. You need to have a plan in place to promote your contest, as well as on to actually execute it.

Finally, give away something relevant to your company. We all love Microsoft products, but are you really getting more customers because you gave away an Iphone? If your prize gives the winner access to your services, you are building your customer base and those who register will actually be users interested in what you do.

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Don’t Be A Stalker On Social Media

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There’s a legitimate concern when marketing your business through social media that you will overstep your bounds and actually turn off users while you’re trying to attract them. Remember, in today’s climate, people don’t trust and simply don’t like salesmen.

Rachel King reports this was a hot topic at SugarCon 2013 over at ZDnet. Mathew Sweezey, a so-called “marketing evangelist”, had some suggestions to keep you from becoming creepy in your sales pitch to consumers. They could be of value when diagnosing your current social media philosophy. Of note, Sweezey doesn’t believe in connecting with consumers through Facebook because he feels it is more of a private, personal community than Twitter or LinkedIn. There could be some debate on that point, but at the very least you should approach users differently on different social media platforms.

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Facebook Ads Know Your Offline Buying Habits

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Facebook has long struggled with how to monetize the site without alienating its users. Though there have been many outspoken critics at every new ad update, for the most part the number-one social networking platform has done an admirable job. There newest innovation, however, might rub the public the wrong way.

Julianne Pepitone reports for CNN that ‘Partner Categories’, Facebook’s newest feature for advertisers, allows users to be grouped based on purchases made both online and in a physical store. That’s right. If you hold a membership card at your local grocery store and purchase a larger than average supply of one item in particular, Facebook, and its advertisers are going to know about it.

As an advertiser, you’re probably pretty excited about this development. While you won’t be able to see specifically who you are showing ads to, you will be able to see how many people fall into each category and why they were placed there, meaning what buying habits they exhibited to fit in this particular group. In this way, you get a more focused audience and can only show ads to people likely to be interested in your product.

As a typical Facebook user, you may feel that your privacy is being infringed upon. Previously, advertisers could only group you based on the information your volunteered on your profile and your online activity.

So, is Facebook going to far with this new feature? Regardless of your opinion, I’m guessing ‘Partner Categories’ isn’t going anywhere and similar innovations will be popping up for advertisers on other platforms soon.

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Social Media: When To Post? [INFOGRAPHIC]

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Facebook Post Time Infographic

So you’ve got your page’s social media profile built. You have an audience in place and a message you want to get out. The question is: when is the best time to unleash that message?

There are a number of factors to consider in order to maximize not only the number of eyes on your message, but also the number of users who will interact with the message. Assuming that the message itself is worthy of ‘RT’ and ‘Likes’, you have to think about who it is you are trying to reach and what they will likely be doing when you are trying to reach them.

For most industries, your consumers will likely be at home when they are cruising through social media with time to click and interact with anything they find interesting. This means that sending out your message on weekends or evenings could get you the best results. However, the exception here would be if your key demographic is suburban housewives. If you’re trying to reach individuals who spend their day at home, then you’ll probably want to reach them before their families return to make their lives hectic.

You will probably notice that posting more gets your more interaction and probably builds your audience too. There is a limit though. Having a steady, consistent stream can paint you as a reliable, familiar source, but it’s easy to cross over into an annoying nuisance who users dread seeing in their news feed.

Be sure to take a moment to peruse the included infographic, courtesy of JCK, and think about when the best time to reach your audience would be.

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