Tag Archive for: social media

Get The Most Out Of Facebook Ads

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Facebook Paid Ads are a great way to spread the word about your business. They also help drive people to your company’s Facebook page, where you can share content and your messages at no cost. Why wouldn’t you want a captive audience of consumers who actively seek out your message? Well, Mona Elesseily, of Search Engine Land, has five ways to get them by effectively utilizing Facebook Ads.

1. Target your target

Be as specific as possible when using targeting features. Instead of limiting your ads to ‘only men’ or ‘only under 30’, narrow it down further by using education level, specific interests or workplace. The idea is to make a user feel as if your ad is speaking directly to him or her.

2. Use effective goals

While I think using ads to drive users to your fan page is a great idea, you need to set specific goals and track your progress to get the most from your effort. Exactly how many fans do you want to add each month? Exactly what demographic do you want to see improved growth from?

If you’re the type who wants to see their Facebook fans turn into conversions, you can set goals for that too. For every 50 fans on Facebook, how many conversions do you want to see?

Set specific, trackable goals, then be sure to follow up and tweak your strategies to discover what works and what isn’t worth your time and money.

3. Grab users’ attention

Put yourself in a typical Facebook user’s shoes. Your eyes aren’t focused on the sidebar where the ads are located. You are reading your friends status updates and looking at their latest pictures.

In order to steer their eyes away from their timeline, you’ll need bold colors. You can try using a colored border for your ad, but I tend to think this has been done so much, users are starting to tune it out.

Images of celebrities, especially female celebs, still tend to get a few looks, however.

Once you have a user’s attention, be sure to give them a reason to click on your ad. Put an immediacy to your ad with phrases like ‘Act now’ in order to take advantage of a specific, limited-time offer or special.

4. Images plus text

An ideal ad combines a brightly colored, eye-catching image with big, bold font that is easy to read. Again, the message should compell users to act.

5. Don’t get stale

I mentioned users tuneing out, or glossing over ad styles they’ve grown accustomed to, so take that lesson to heart. Change your ads often so users don’t get so used to seeing them that they stop even noticing.

You don’t necessarily have to reinvent your ad on a weekly basis. Instead, change details like color of your logo, font or just a different image.

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Fake Facebook Profiles Affect Hundreds of Facebook Users

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Imagine taking up the cause of a young boy with cancer only to discover that the boy never existed. That’s the reality of hundreds of Facebook users after a recent scam concocted by a Florida restaraunt owner was brought to light.

As Melanie Eversley reports for USA Today, Cindy Choi, 28, created the profile of ‘Kevin San Roman’, a boy living in Spain with leukemia. She also created a profile for his younger brother, ‘Lucas’.

Choi is most likely suffering from a version of Munchausen Syndrome, which makes her motive the attention and sympathy garnered from her false personas.

Though many young girls were “online girlfriends” with the fake profiles, Choi reportedly never met up with any of them. It appears as if playing on the sympathies of others was Choi’s only real wrong doing.

This is certainly not an isolated case. There have been a number of similar stories exposed recently and one would imagine there are currently other scams that continue on Facebook. Hopefully, stories like these make users more wary of who they put their trust in.

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House Crashers Busted Via Facebook

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Last summer, a South Carolina family took a vacation to New York. They returned home to a house that appeared to have been untouched in their absence. The truth, as they would come to find out thanks to Facebook, was that their children’s classmates had broken in and thrown a party while they were away.

The story was reported by The Today Show and you can watch their report here. The family evidently only discovered evidence of the party when pictures surfaced on Facebook. The father says he didn’t recognize the kids, but he did recognize their surroundings.

Though the incident took place months ago, police consider it an open investigation and are using photo tagging to identify suspects.

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Get the Most Out of Twitter and LinkedIn

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Social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn can be overwhelming. There are so many users, all looking for a different experience, that it can be difficult to find who and what you’re searching for. Mallory Woodrow has five ways to network better in her post at Forbes.

1. Connect with those with an opinion you value

Next time you’re reading an article or blog post in your area of expertise, note the author and seek them out on social media. Comment on their articles and tweet at them to build your connection.

2. Write your own content

If you have a business and an are of expertise, you must have something relevant to say and share. Write your own articles. You can share them through social media and connect with others who comment and connect with you.

3.  Use Keywords to sift through Twitter

Twitter is utilized everyday by professionals and non-professionals alike. Even your own timeline may be muddled with a range of personalities. So, to get what you’re looking for, search for keywords. Try to narrow it down as much as possible by getting specific.

Once you’ve found some relevant tweets, get in the conversation with some replies.

4. Join LinkedIn Groups

Similarly, you can search for LinkedIn groups on your specific area of expertise. In some cases, you’ll be able to poke around and make sure a certain group is what you’re looking for before you join.

5. Connect with people interested in you

Be sure to check who is viewing your LinkedIn profile about once per week. If someone who’s shown an interest in you is relevant to you, meaning involved in your field or in a position to help you, reach out to them and build a new professional relationship.

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Facebook Mobile Ads Are a Huge Hit

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Facebook recently gave advertisers the option of where to place their ads. The options, including desktop newsfeed and sidebar, desktop newsfeed only or mobile newsfeed, create many possibilities, but the best value has quickly become evident. For the highest click-through-rate and second highest conversion rate, John Constine, of TechCrunch, reports using those dollars on mobile ads is the way to go.

CEO of BLiNQ Media, Dave Williams, says their numbers suggest “that mobile beats desktop placement by a 3 to 1 ratio.”

The one drawback is a positive for users. Facebook limits the number of ads for mobile users in order to keep their experience enjoyable. This means advertisers won’t be able to overload any group with their ads. So, those advertisers will have to be more clever in how they gameplan.

Also, companies are finding that mobile users that ‘Like’ their page are “worth” less than their desktop counterparts. This is because the mobile users are less likely to view photos and videos and also because desktop users are generally more active on a company’s page since they may have to do more work to seek them out.

Though fans of a business’s page only see about 16-percent of their posts on average, Facebook certainly seems to be worth the effort. Once a company has gained that ‘Like’, they are essentially marketing to interested consumers for free.

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Facebook Introduces ‘Promoted Posts’ to U.S.

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It’s no secret that Facebook is searching for new ways to monetize their site and improve their IPO. In doing so, they are bound to take some missteps. Perhaps, like their latest venture, ‘Promoted Posts’.

As Adi Gaskell reports for Technorati, users now have the opportunity to pay for a better chance for their friends to see their posts. ‘Promoted Posts’ was already available in 20 countries, but it wasn’t until last week that American users were included.

To use the new feature, users simply update their status as usual, then click a button to promote it. That luxury will cost about $7 for now. That post will then appear with a ‘Sponsored’ tag, which allows the user to keep tabs on how helpful promoting has been.

For you next community event, party or insightful political post, maybe ‘Promoted Posts’ will be worth the money.

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Access Public Services Online with Facebook Log-In

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The United Kingdom plans to unveil a method of logging on to government run sites with one’s social media account information. The idea is that by logging on through Facebook, users will authenticate their identity without having to remember multiple usernames and passwords.

John-Paul Ford Rojas, of The Telegraph in London, reports this plan has been met with immediate criticism and concerns over privacy. Afterall, you make life easy on cyber-criminals if you use the same password for every site you join.

Some counter measures will be taken. For example, for those accessing government sites on a mobile phone, there will be verification that the phone being used is also the phone number assigned to the person logging in. There will also be a check of GPS and additional security questions.

The plan would allow users to access services such as applying for licenses, tax credits and presumably signing up for utilities. Though it is expected that users will be able to start the application process for a passport online, physical ID would still be required at another stage of the process.

Still, the security measures are certainly not infallible and critics of the proposed plan have been numerous and vocal. For those of us in other countries, it’s nice to know the UK will beta test this idea for the rest of us.

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Study Finds Students And Phones Joined at the Hip

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A recent study on the way youths around the world use mobile devices found that college students use their phones to text and interact over social media much more than any other use, such as surfing the web or gaming. The study, conducted by Prof. Paul Mihailidis of Emerson College in Boston, tracked 800 students of 52 nationalities attending universities in eight countries across three continents for a 24-hour period.

As Susan Moeller reports for Huffington Post, Mihailidis made five key conclusions:

  1. Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are the dominant form of communication and new sharing.
  2. The content that is most shared is not thought-provoking articles, but rather viral videos and music.
  3. There is an addiction to mobile phones and these phones are tied in to a student’s identitiy.
  4. Connecting with friends online through a mobile device has become “more real than the real world.”
  5. Students demand a large number of options when it comes to apps, but only utilize a select few.

The upside to the study’s findings is that these mobile devices allow students to comment and share content more readily, making them better informed and feel more a part of issues.

The downside, of course, is the issue of privacy. With so much of a student’s life online, there’s a significant risk that somone other than a friend could collect and use their information.

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Facebook Basics For Your Business

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Last week, I gave you my fundamentals for success on social media. Mark Thompson also has some fundamentals specific to your business’s Facebook page at Business2Community.

1. Facebook isn’t for sales

As I’ve discussed in this space before, Facebook doesn’t really translate directly into sales. But, it raises the awareness of your business and helps you build relationships with relevant consumers.

Users don’t log on to Facebook to shop for products, so a sales pitch isn’t going to make your page popular.

2. Build your audience

Instead of sales, focus on gaining ‘Likes’ and fans. There’s no risk involved when a user ‘Likes’ your page and its a one-step, one-button process.

Most of these users ‘Like’ your page in hopes of finding deals and special offers. Give them what they want.

Create an active community that includes you sharing entertaining and useful content and a forum for fans to gather and discuss. Unlike email, you can post multiple times a day to your Facebook page without wearing out yoour welcome with consumers.

3. Make Facebook work for you

With your content and fans in place, you now have to get something for your effort. Without being overbearing, streamline your purchase process so users can take the fewest steps possible to go from Facebook to checking out on your website.

The basic goal of marketing is getting your message seen by as many people as possible. Facebook is a great tool to accomplish just that, as long as you are using it wisely.


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Kids Today: Students Prefer Online Interaction

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The affect of social media and mobile phones on society, especially the nation’s youths, has become discussed at length. The claims being that social interaction online and through texting isn’t the same as real-world interaction. Who better to tackle this issue than a current student? Dakota Castets-Didier, a student at Boise State, published an article for The Arbiter agreeing that “social media is killing intimacy.”

One cannot walk across a college campus without seeing the affect that smartphones have had. However, instead of observing how today’s darn kids don’t know how to interact with each other in a traditional way, observe how interacting with each other has evolved.

For the college aged, it’s no longer socially acceptable to call friends to plan an activity. Texting is viewed as simpler and less invasive. It’s even more acceptable to ask for a first date via text than it is over the phone. Some even argue that breaking up over text is perfectly acceptable.

Students are embracing the relative anonymity of online interaction. So much so, that they’ve become increasingly more nervous when addressing crowds of peers in person. Some studies have even pointed to the immediacy of texting and social media to explain shorter attention spans in today’s youths.

While the ability to interact with friends and family anytime, anywhere, is a powerful and useful tool, it comes with a price. We have sacraficed the intimacy and comfort of face to face interaction.

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