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The Social Media Statistics for 2013 across Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest provide us with an interesting opportunity to review where we may want to spend our social media dollars and time in the coming year. Quicksprout recently published the below infographic outlining the major differences between the three social networks with some key statistics you should be aware of.

With Facebook a clear leader in terms of user base, dwarfing Pinterest (to be fair Pinterest has not been around as long), and doubling the user base of Twitter, you might assume that the largest social network is the best option for your content. However looking a little deeper, Facebook does have a slightly older user base than Twitter and Pinterest which may be of relevance to you if your target audience is between 35 and 54 years of age, however Twitter and Pinterest may be a better fit if your audience is between 18 and 35 of age.

Of course gender is always a key consideration when weighing up social media statistics, and Pinterest is certainly a good option if you’re target audience is women. Boasting the highest female user base, especially if you’re looking to sell online, Pinterest has a strong higher education and high earnings base which is sure to prove valuable in an e-commerce scenario. On the other hand if you’re marketing to men, you may want to look at Twitter or Facebook as the social network of choice in 2013. Both Facebook and Twitter boast similar user base statistics and present an excellent opportunity if your target audience is middle class male workers with University qualifications, so check your selling point.

With the previous target audiences in mind, when it comes to igniting e-commerce spend online, Facebook is king, however recent statistics have shown there is growing value on Pinterest. A driving factor which defines this is the visual nature of both these social networks, and is something Twitter has not fully embraced thus far.

When it comes to time spent online in 2013 across social networks, it’s quite astounding to note that Pinterest users spend over an hour on average which is almost unheard of. When compared with Twitter’s 36 minutes and Facebook’s 12 minutes, this is unusually high, and presents an unparalleled opportunity for those looking to sell, especially in the home and entertainment industries. Although Pinterest’s time on site is very high, it should be noted that both Twitter and Facebook users’ time on site is excellent and not to be discounted.

In summary 2013 is shaping up to be a changing year in the online social media landscape. The Pinterest user base and relationship with online spend is likely to grow, Facebook is likely to roll out more products changing the landscape time and time again, and the Twitter user base is likely to grow, however Twitter needs to counter the issue of visual content quite quickly to compete in the e-commerce space. When considering where to spend your social dollars, be aware of your target audience, and wherever possible take the time to improve the visual nature of your content and you should begin to see some great results.

Source: http://www.jobstock.com/blog/social-media-statistics-2013/

While I was studying this evening I happen to run across this very valuable information in regard to Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. As we all know Facebook is a clear leader in terms of user base but equally relevant like the article states Facebook does have a slightly older user base however, Twitter and Pinterest may be a better fit if your audience is between 18 and 35 of age.

In the automotive industry we can't unfortunately just spend all of our energy on just one media site it's imperative that we have a strong presence on all the aforementioned sites. In some industries your target market may be a certain age however, in the automotive industry our target market is all age groups.

It's imperative for dealers not only to just place emphasis on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. But it's also important to have exposure with the other sites like YouTube, LinkedIn, Craigslist and online classified ads just to name a few. Dealers are really dropping the ball when it comes to building brand awareness which will give a competitive advantage to the dealers that have a strong exposure on all these sites. It's like what Sean Bradley says when teaches about Googleopoly. Your dealership must dominate the first page of natural Google when consumers begin the research and buying process.

Last but not least some very intriguing information that I wasn't aware of was the amount of time that users spend on Pinterest versus Facebook and Twitter. Very compelling when you look at Pinterest users that spend over an hour online versus Facebook 12 minutes and Twitter users at 36 minutes.

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Great follow up to the Dallas event everyone!  Also great to hear the updates from some of our members, and thank you to everyone that helped me learn last month in at the Internet Sales 20 Group.

I got back to the office and my scatter-brain didn't know what to do first.  I have had the advantage of doing this a few times before with a previous job... ;-)  so we are doing a pretty good job of not making mistakes as we build moving forward.  I find myself continually referring back to my IS20G handbook, and the Thirty-something pages of notes I took in 3 days to help me be thorough in anything we work on improving. 

As Karen and Sean Bradley mentioned on the phone, we have to focus on a few goals, then define a way to get there, then have an action plan to accomplish it.  I am taking the next step now on working on the next 3 action plans to grow the department.  I feel that our team has implemented strategies and process to address our first 3 issues that I deemed urgent at IS20G.  Our most important goal was to get rid of our sub-par rating on all customer review websites NOW, and we did some VERY basic things in just one month to see INSTANT improvement:

- Make colorful flyers and put them at all salespeople's desks, as well as the sales tower.  Have them actively put them in customers hands while delivering their new vehicle.

- Send "Thank you" cards for everyone that purchased and visited the previous day. 

- Conduct "how was your experience" surveys while addressing the "Thank you" cards. 

- Send my flyers for reviews in the "Thank you" cards, especially the customers that I speak to and complete the quick survey

- Take pictures of everyone with thier new vehicles! Ask for permission to use the picture on Facebook and other social media websites..and make it FUN!  Ask the customer to tag themselves, like/share the picture, and be active in your dealership's pages.  Who doesn't like to brag and show-off to everyone when they purchase a new vehicle!?? 

- SPIFF our salespeople on getting reviews, and asking customers to mention thier names.  My personal reward that we came up with here: I buy them a drink! (...no alcohol!  Starbucks, Rockstars and Monsters to keep them alert!!! LOL  "Drink of thier choice" is inexpensive and goes a long way with your sales team!)

The key to implementing successful proceedures is to have everyone embrace the new process, show everyone in your dealerships that it is a positive thing that you are implementing, and most importantly, make sure everyone is AWARE and proactive in sharing with customers.

I did a simple "S.W.O.T." (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities to grow, Threats to hinder us) analysis to see where I was when I flew back to California a month ago, as opposed to where I am at month end.  I can see where I have improved, and where we still have room to implement new strategies to continue to sell more cars, more profitably and more often! 

p.s. Let's get on the phone with our Accountabila-buddies!  Synergize to be more successful...and see you all in L.A. in November!

 

Andy Fedo

Director of Intenet Sales, Lithia Nissan Hyundai of Fresno

afedo3@yahoo.com

 

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Lion

This is part 4 of 4 in an ADM series about setting Facebook goals:

  1. Define Your Facebook Goals Before Determining a Strategy
  2. Facebook Marketing Goals: The Safe Approach
  3. Facebook Marketing Goals: The Aggressive Approach
  4. Facebook Marketing Goals: More Aggressive Approaches

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Every strategy needs a goal or else it’s just an aimless plan. We’ve covered the need to set Facebook marketing goals and described both the safe approach as well as some of the more aggressive approaches to these goals. Now it’s time to bring it home (in hopefully less than 1000 words) with a couple more aggressive Facebook goals that you can set for your marketing.

As I said before, it’s extremely important to realize that playing it safe is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s not that I want to encourage businesses to take that approach, but being aggressive means taking a bigger risk that the effort you put in will not yield the appropriate return on investment. I know that it can, but that’s no guaranty that it will even if you do everything right.

Thankfully, there’s always an abort button. If your aggressive techniques don’t seem to be paying off, you can always revert back to the safer goals.

 

Goal: Create a Communication Hub for Your Business

When you ask business owners about the risks of social media, most will latch on to the potential for negative press. I’ve even been told by a very prominent business owner that they don’t have a Facebook page because they don’t want people to have the ability to talk badly about them on Facebook. I was waiting for the punchline. There was none.

As you know, sticking your head in the sand is not the right approach, but sticking it way out there for others to attack is risky. It can, however, be extremely rewarding as companies like Domino’s Pizza have demonstrated. Are there risks of getting bitten by being extra communicative on social media? Sure. You have to know that going in if you want that to be your primary goal.

The benefits can be tremendous. When you turn Facebook into a communication hub that is active with feedback from former, current, and prospective customers, you have the ability to be eloquent, sincere, and transparent, three traits that most would see as admirable. It means that you stand behind your product and your company and you’re willing to accept the good with the bad.

The bad news is that if you’re doing it right, the bad will come. The good news is that the “bad” types of communication where customers and former customers complain can almost always be turned around into an opportunity to impress future customers. Bad reviews aren’t bad unless you let them be bad. By applying empathy, professionalism, and a true desire to improve your business, even the most scathing reviews and communications can be turned into a major win for your business.

Setting this type of goal requires constant attention. You have to set your smartphone to alert you the moment that anyone communicates with you because time is of the essence. It’s not just about not letting things linger without a response. Perhaps more importantly, it lets others see that you’re extremely attentive to your Facebook communication hub; this encourages them to want to talk to you through there as well. The more that people are talking to you on Facebook, the greater the opportunity to shine through the constraints of EdgeRank and let your messages be seen.

This is one of those situations where Facebook sponsored posts might happen well after the post goes live. Let’s say you ask a question like this:

“What should we serve at next Saturday’s big tent sale: hot dogs, hamburgers, barbeque, all of the above, something else? Let us know in the comments, please. We’re planning on making a decisions based on your input by this Wednesday.”

In that scenario, you’ll want to get the word out. It’s not just about giving people the choice on food. It’s about letting as many people as possible know about your sale. Once you have a couple of responses, now is the time to promote the post. Then again, if you’ve had success with previous promoted posts, it’s okay to launch the ads the moment you publish the post.

Be creative. Setting a goal of communication is fruitful when done right and embarrassing when done wrong. Do it right or don’t do it at all.

 

Goal: Drive Foot Traffic to Your Store

This is the big daddy of the goals, particularly for local businesses. It takes an abundance of creativity, a willingness to not give up when something doesn’t work, and the ability to make things happen in the real world as well as on social media.

If you’re an internet manager who has no access to setting specials or running promotions, this is a tough one to pull off. To bring real world traffic, you need real world incentives. If you haven’t the budget or authority to affect the real world aspect of your business, you should not go for this goal. It’s not that you can’t drive foot traffic with intangibles, but it’s infinitely easier when you have “the goods” in the form of reality rather than just virtual.

For example, the Dodge dealer that we used as the example in the previous post could set an event or create an offer that they run through the Facebook system for $14.99 oil changes available to Facebook fans only. They have to claim the offer or announce that they’ll attend the event and this can help you let your fans spread the word for you.

Another Dodge dealer example would be to set an event around a sale. Announcing the sale itself won’t do much, but giving something away such as free sunglasses can help you to get people to like your event on Facebook, again exposing the sale through their channels.

The hardest part about driving foot traffic through Facebook isn’t in getting the traffic. It’s in proving that the traffic came as a result of Facebook. When you’re working with budgets and you have to report to the boss, you’ll need to prove the effects. This is where events and offers come into play, but that’s not enough. You have to give the people who come to the store a reason to let someone know they came because of Facebook. Otherwise, they simply won’t tell you. If you can’t track it, then it didn’t really happen.

* * *

Regardless of which goal you set, remember that Facebook is a marathon of sprints. By that, I mean that it’s not always steady and constant but it’s also not something where you can expect to sustain the sprints of success over and over again. You have to know what you want and then set out to make it happen. Otherwise, you’ll be like everyone else who is flailing around on their Facebook pages trying to find reasons that they can use to demonstrate it’s working.

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Tigers

This is part 3 of 4 in an ADM series about setting Facebook goals:

  1. Define Your Facebook Goals Before Determining a Strategy
  2. Facebook Marketing Goals: The Safe Approach
  3. Facebook Marketing Goals: The Aggressive Approach
  4. Facebook Marketing Goals: More Aggressive Approaches

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We’ve taken a look at the safe approach to setting Facebook goals. Now, it’s time to discuss letting the tiger out. Let’s sharpen our claws, stretch our muscles, and prepare for battle. Getting aggressive on Facebook is about going to social media war.

Keep in mind that the majority of businesses should stay with the safe goals rather than getting aggressive. They can be extremely effective for maintaining a viable Facebook presence without spending too much time on strategy, planning posts, and creating dialogues on Facebook. If you are going to set aggressive goals, your strategies are going to take time and money to make them happen.

It’s not for everyone but it might be for you. Here are some examples of aggressive Facebook goals.

 

Goal: Drive Traffic to the Website

This is one of the first things that come to mind when thinking of goals for Facebook. Most realize that it is known as a good traffic generation tool in general and they believe they’ll be able to do the same for their site.

Unfortunately, the standard practices used to drive traffic “in general” do not apply to most business websites. “In general”, Facebook is good at driving traffic to viral content. People do not go to Facebook to find links to inventory items. They go there to see pictures of little Timmy sliding into third base. They can get swayed into clicking on links with controversial titles or intriguing thumbnails, but again that’s not normally something associated with sites that are designed to generate leads or sales.

The only way to drive traffic to your website is by starting with strong content on the website itself. We’ve discussed using your website as your content hub and why it’s so important to have the type of content on your website for both social and search purposes that resonates with your overall target audience. Now, you’ll have to really apply these principles to make this Facebook goal achievable.

The starting point with a goal like this is to sculpt the appropriate fans. This cannot be stressed enough. If you have too few total fans or too many low-quality fans, you’ll want to fix that first before trying to drive traffic to you website. In many ways, driving traffic to your website from Facebook is about establishing trust within your community by posting only the absolute best content possible. Anything short of amazing simply won’t do.

Once you have that trust established by posting images and text that resonate and generate interactions, you can start posting quality content from your website directly to Facebook. If you’re a Dodge dealer, you could post a story like “The 5 Most Searched Dodge Chargers in History“. Assuming that your fans are strong, this will be the type of content that exceeds their expectations when they liked your page in the first place.

It’s supremely important to remember that this type of content must be promoted through Facebook ads. Even the most prolific Facebook pages by the most loved brands are not getting the type of traffic they could get from Facebook when they don’t advertise. Thankfully, if your fans are high-quality and you have a history of posting high value content on your pages, you won’t have to spend a ton to get a good amount of traffic. It’s not targeted traffic – visitors to the site may or may not be looking for a Dodge Charger at the time – so this strategy is best applied if you have retargeting campaigns working or if you’re using Facebook to help drive traffic for social signals purposes to help with SEO.

This is not, however, a way to generate a ton of leads or sales. We’ll discuss that goal shortly.

 

Goal: Dramatically Improve the Brand Footprint

Facebook may be a challenging venue through which to drive leads and sales via website traffic, but it’s the ultimate venue through which to improve your brand footprint. This goal is arguably the easiest to achieve of the aggressive goals but there’s a very time-consuming set of strategies behind it to make it truly successful.

With this goal, you’re trying to get your name and logo in front of as many prospect eyeballs as possible and as often as possible. To do this, you can employ a handful of different strategies. One strategy that you should never, ever employ is to take other people’s images and slap your logo on top of it. If you do this, you’re risking a brand disaster. I’m not going to dwell on the reasons behind it. I’ll just implore you to stop immediately if you’re doing it.

What you should be doing is taking pictures at your store. Every picture should be interesting and ever picture should include your logo as part of the image, not added after the fact. If you’re a Dodge dealer, you should be taking great pics of amazing Chrysler vehicles with your logo either in the background on a sign or on the license plate clearly visible.

That’s a very small strategy component if your goal is branding. The bigger and more time-consuming component is to go out into the Facebook world and start interacting where your potential customers are. That means getting chatty on the local newspaper Facebook page, offering help and support on local charity Facebook pages, talking about how great the BBQ is at Stan’s Restaurant around the corner, etc.

One thing to keep at the top of your mind when doing this – stay sincere and transparent. It isn’t just about getting your company name on the comment or share list. It’s about making an impact with your comments. It’s about helping others because you want to help others and not just to get your company name listed.

People are smart. They can tell when you’re not being sincere. This is why this goal is one of the most time-consuming. It requires a massive amount of genuine activity. It can’t be faked. You can’t skip a few days. If you go this route and your goal is to make your brand stand out ahead of the competition, you must be willing to commit.* * *I’ve been told to try to limit my 1000-word posts and I only made it through the first two aggressive goals before hitting the mark, so tomorrow I’ll discuss the next two aggressive goals: communication hub and foot traffic. Until then, think about what you really want to do with your Facebook page. Stay focused. Stay diligent. Facebook can be a wonderful marketing tool if used properly.

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Facebook Marketing Goals: The Safe Approach

This is part 2 of 4 in an ADM series about setting Facebook goals:

  1. Define Your Facebook Goals Before Determining a Strategy
  2. Facebook Marketing Goals: The Safe Approach
  3. Facebook Marketing Goals: The Aggressive Approach
  4. Facebook Marketing Goals: More Aggressive Approaches

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Setting goals on Facebook is extremely important. As I wrote last night, it’s the root cause of one of the biggest challenges businesses are facing in Facebook marketing: a lack of a proper strategy. If you don’t know where you want to go, you won’t be able to get there very easily.

There are two primary approaches to setting a Facebook strategy that I’ve put in the boring categories of “safe” and “aggressive”. Here, we’re going to go over some of the safe approaches to Facebook that businesses can employ if they want to be truly successful in their goal-oriented strategy. These aren’t my favorites; I’m an aggressive goal-setter. Still, they may be the best way for your business to operate on Facebook.

 

Goal: PR-Only

Social media has the potential to be an amazing communication tool when done right. It is the best way to have a two-way public relations presence. You can get your messages out and mold the perception of your company’s personality the way you see fit while having an open method through which people can reach you. PR should always be a portion of every Facebook strategy.

There is an option of using it strictly for public relations. This is the easiest way to go. It’s the least productive goal to set, but it’s by far the safest approach and easiest to implement. If your company either does not believe in the value of using Facebook to reach more customers or you don’t have the time to implement an aggressive strategy, the PR-only approach is ideal.

In essence, this goal is to use Facebook sparingly. You aren’t going for visibility. You’re using it for defense only. Growth in the local market isn’t important. You aren’t playing the EdgeRank game nor are you advertising on Facebook at all. With this approach, the only audience that concerns you come from two sources: your website and the search engines.

With the PR-only approach, you play it very safe. You can post sparingly – once or twice a week is plenty (no less than that, though) – and finding content is easy because it doesn’t have to be viral. It technically doesn’t even have to be interesting. It’s an expression of your company’s personality to a limited audience. You can post links to your blog, pictures from the office, industry news, congratulations to employees, customer testimonials, etc.

Because you’re not worried about exposure, you don’t have to worry about getting into your fans’ news feeds. Those who want to get a feel for your company will be able to find it in searches for your name on Google or Bing as well as by clicking on the link that you post on your website and blog. You’re painting a picture with no fears of hurting your affinity and limited worries about getting negative feedback on your posts. Very few people will see it, but those who do have the opportunity to get a good feeling about your company because you’re not taking risks.

Again, and I cannot stress this enough, you will not be reaching people with this strategy. You will have a presence for those who want to find you, but there will be no growth, no additional leads or sales, no engagement, and you won’t be popping up in news feeds. The PR-only approach is a way to hide from all of the potential negatives in social media while still maintaining a presence that isn’t embarrassing. It’s as safe as it gets.

 

Goal: Basic Presence

This is similar to the PR-only approach, but there’s a chance that it can expose the brand to some additional people. Not many. You won’t be saying a lot but you will be interesting enough to get a little love.

If your goal is to have a basic presence, there are several strategies that can work. One of the easiest is to go with the daily industry picture. This strategy is extremely easy and maintains your presence without much effort. You simply schedule an image that’s relevant to your industry once a day, every day. That’s it. A Jeep dealer would post an image of a Jeep once a day. You can’t mess it up.

This goal is not one that will allow for much growth, but the chances of it ever hurting you are limited. Much like the PR-only approach, having a basic presence is designed mostly for those who find you on search or get directed to the Facebook page from you website. Because it’s likely going to be images that are of interest to your visitors, there’s a chance they might like some of them and get you an EdgeRank boost that can push your posts into news feeds.

This is the most common goal for local businesses today. Ironically, it’s the one that many wrongly classify as aggressive since they’re stepping outside of the bounds of pure business needs and trying to entertain their audience. The reason that this classification is wrong is because it’s still much safer than posting messages. Being fun isn’t necessarily aggressive. It can be, but we’ll discuss that type of goal in the next post.

 

Goal: Be the Industry Resource

Of all the safe goals, this is the one that requires the most effort. You’re trying to share your knowledge within your industry to your fans. Using the Jeep dealer example, they would be posting tips to maintain a 4WD when it’s not used very often, for example.

This goal can be ramped up more than other safe goals because you’re trying to bring value to the table. Facebook ads can work and this goal can help with branding and public perception if you stay consistent with it. In fact, you can get very active and appreciative fans as the industry resource. There’s a chance that you can build some decent EdgeRank and get shared amongst your target audience.

It takes work. Those who are conservative with their goals but want to be aggressive with the implementation of the strategy will be constantly researching to find more resources to either create or share from other sources. It’s an excellent approach if you have a matching blog with tips and best practices.

Those setting this as their goal do not have to post every day. In fact, once or twice a week can work just as it can with the PR-only approach, but never let your page go dormant for longer than a week. If you have to repost something with a slightly different spin in the description, that’s better than missing a week of posts.

* * *

There are other safe goals out there, but for local businesses if you want to play defense and maintain a presence without spending too much effort keeping it up, these are the best ways that we’ve found to work. The social media game is all about ROI, so if your investment is low, the expected returns can be low as well. When playing it safe, you don’t have to be loved or even liked that much. You just have to be present.

Tomorrow, I’ll go over the aggressive goals that are (to me) much more fun but that also encompass more risk. Playing with Facebook from an aggressive posture takes time and effort and there’s a risk that the returns won’t justify the expenditures. However, there’s also a tremendous opportunity to move the needle.

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Aim

This is part 1 of 4 in an ADM series about setting Facebook goals:

  1. Define Your Facebook Goals Before Determining a Strategy
  2. Facebook Marketing Goals: The Safe Approach
  3. Facebook Marketing Goals: The Aggressive Approach
  4. Facebook Marketing Goals: More Aggressive Approaches

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About a month ago I was asked when speaking before a group about what I thought the biggest mistake was that businesses were making on Facebook. I replied, “lack of coherent strategy” and went on about how too many business pages seemed like they were posting for the sake of posting, that they didn’t appear to moving in any particular direction, and that they were managing their social media presence on a day to day basis. If I could take back the answer (or better yet, elaborate further), I would.

I was wrong.

The actual biggest mistake that businesses are making starts a step before the strategy phase and would, in most cases, cure the ills that businesses are suffering with their strategy (or lack thereof). It really comes down to goals and the fact that most businesses are not defining their goals from the beginning nor are they adjusting them as their Facebook presence expands. THIS is the actual biggest mistake that they’re making. To those who heard me speak last month about this, I’m sorry to not give the most appropriate answer.

   

Every Facebook page should have a goal or set of goals that they want to achieve. Many will give the quick answer and say that their goal is to reach as many prospective customers and clients as possible, but this isn’t a real goal. Even in reach, it’s important to establish why you want to reach them and what messages you want them to receive. Are you wanting to reach them with your sales and marketing messages? Are you wanting them to see your logo and expand your branding? Are you wanting them to see that you’re involved in the various local and industry-specific conversations that happen on social media?

   

Keep in mind – “all of the above” is not a valid answer. That doesn’t mean that you cannot have a robust and diverse presence on Facebook that tackles multiple opportunities, but from a strategy perspective you’re message will get lost if you aren’t reinforcing it regularly. On average, only 16% of your fans are seeing your message at all and that’s if you’re doing a pretty good job at keeping your EdgeRank strong. While diversifying your message is important, keeping focused on a singular strategy should overrule the desire to be eclectic.

   

Over the next couple of days I will be diving into a wider range of specific strategies that you can employ. In the meantime, do you have any strategies that you’ve considered? Is there a technique that you’ve found to be effective or one that you think would work? I’m classifying the various strategy types into two categories: safe and aggressive. As with setting goals, determining strategies should be focused. Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew. You’ll end up spitting it all out on the table and embarrassing yourself.

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Those who have been in internet marketing for a while realize that search engines are constantly changing. It’s part of the game of staying ahead of the competition to understand these changes and move with them appropriately. Despite this constant state, it’s nothing compared to the changes that happen on Facebook. From a business perspective, the only real winning strategy is to constantly be adjusting the practices, processes, and procedures used to find success.

On Facebook, even the goals are often changed. Unlike search where the goal is almost entirely about driving relevant traffic to a website, social media in general and Facebook in particular often see shifts in the goals for each individual strategy and the overarching strategy as a whole. Between traffic, branding, communications, and messaging, the major components of Facebook marketing remain the same on the surface but digging a little deeper reveals a need to shift with not only the changes that are constantly happening on the platform itself but also those that are happening within the community and the sentiment of the social media world.

One of our biggest focuses on Facebook is helping local car dealers make the most of Facebook. Just in the last month we’ve made adjustments to style, form, and techniques that are in response to the changes. This is an absolute must – a static Facebook strategy is not effective. What worked yesterday may not work today but may work again tomorrow. That’s the nature of the beast.

The most important thing to remember on Facebook is that there are two things to constantly monitor: changes in strategies that are posted on the various blogs (be careful here – more below) and changes in the results of the various campaigns that you run. It’s not just about watching likes and comments. It’s about watching reach (the truly important number in Facebook analytics) and following the sentiment through in a way that can guide future posts.

We must test. We must see what’s working today and make sure it’s still working tomorrow. We have to watch for fatigue; it’s easy to post great images of Mustangs on a Ford dealer’s Facebook page but eventually even the mighty stallion can get old and turn off fans.

We also need a willingness to try new things. Events, Offers, Questions – these can be effective depending on what you’re willing to offer for your business. Landing pages, video styles, advertising styles – all of these play important roles as well.

This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive guide nor is it meant to be a scare tactic. Facebook is not hard and it doesn’t have to be that time consuming, either. It does require attention and a system through which the changes and efforts can be tracked for true ROI.

Now, about those blog posts on strategies – take note but be skeptical. Everyone seems to have an opinion about what to do on social media to be successful and these opinions are often contradictory. There are very few overall strategies that have ever made me think, “Wow, that’s the one!” There are plenty of blog posts that make me think, “Hmmm, let’s give that a try and monitor the results.”

That’s the key. Take advice but don’t set anything in stone until you test it thoroughly yourself. Facebook can be fickle, especially when the organic algorithm itself can punish pages for making the wrong moves, but you shouldn’t be too fearful of making a mistake or taking a step backwards. The benefits of a strong campaign or strategy greatly outweigh the potential negatives associated with mistakes, so by fearless but monitor and adjust accordingly. Anything short of regular monitoring and a willingness to change can result in the wrong results.

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Facebook Content Types

In an environment with a billion users, millions of business pages, and just about every company in every industry trying to play along, it’s hard to post content to Facebook as a local business that can truly resonate within the venue. Local businesses have it harder than most as their goal should be to stay local but the attitude is one that demands mass acceptance.

How can a business be relevant on Facebook within their local demographic when they are fighting for a fraction of attention in a world that is loaded with noise? There are advertising techniques and promotional tools that can help, but first and foremost it begins with having the right content. The bad news is that most pages are not posting the right content. The good news is that businesses who know what they’re doing are able to stand out because most businesses are not posting the right content.

This needs to be stated up front. The old strategy of posting funny pictures of cats ripped off 9gag are behind us. Many businesses are trying so hard to fit into the Facebook subculture when they should be trying their best to stand out. If you’re trying to promote your brand by posting irrelevant content, stop immediately and post things like…

Industry images

If you’re a realtor, your Facebook page should have images of exceptional homes. It’s that simple. It’s a shame that so many try to post exactly what they don’t do in hopes that people will like their “personality”. On the contrary, businesses should focus on their expertise. They should focus on the things that they have access to that other people do not.

Using the realtor example, they get to see kitchens, landscapes, back yards, bathrooms, and other interesting things that most people rarely get to see outside of magazines (yes, there are still people who read magazines). Homes can be amazing and many people enjoy getting a taste of other lifestyles through images of their residences.

Keep it as interesting as possible. Every image should be of something that stands out. Every description should highlight those things that stand out. If the marble on a counter top is exceptional in some way, highlight that fact in the description. Ask for opinions – “Is this something you could see yourself cooking on in your home?”

Staying relevant but putting a spotlight on the most interesting components of your day-to-day professional life gives people a reason to be following you. They aren’t following a local business Facebook page because they want to see how off-topic interesting they can be. They’re following them because of the expertise and experiences they bring to the table.

Local images

It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the heart of Los Angeles or the outskirts of rural Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. If you spent a day with a camera and a car and started shooting images of the local area in the morning, by mid-afternoon you’d have enough content to post on Facebook to last a month or two.

Local businesses must focus on their local area on Facebook. They shouldn’t be looking for global appeal. They should be shining a bright spotlight on the things that make the local area fantastic. The true targets of Facebook marketing, the local people, are much more interested in things with which they have familiarity rather than far off places. They have the whole internet to find new things. On Facebook, they want the familiar.

Visual reviews

Most review sites have Facebook apps that businesses can use to show what their customers think of them. All of these apps with absolutely no exceptions are worthless. They do not spread the word about your reputation. The only people who see it are those visiting your page, which is likely a very low number.

Since most people never visit a Facebook page again after liking it the first time, the only way to expose your reviews is through the news feed. Since the news feed is driven images, visual reviews are best. We went into detail about this content type here.

Customer testimonial videos

There are many businesses that overuse these, but it’s better to use too many than not at all. They aren’t as effective as other types of content for two reasons: videos get less EdgeRank love and people often do not “like” or care about people they don’t know.

Still, they are an excellent way shake the content stream up a bit and get the community involved. Depending on the Facebook popularity of an individual and the size of the community, they can be more effective for some than others. Again, use them sparingly but work them in at least a little.

Sales promos and marketing material

People don’t want to be spammed by a ton of content that they don’t want to see. They don’t come to Facebook to see ads, but just as they’re willing to tolerate them on television, they’ll tolerate them on Facebook as long as it’s not overdone. Think of your Facebook page like a television show. The best shows with engaging content are able to keep people sitting through the ads. The shows without the same interest-driving content often lose people during commercials.

You don’t want to lose people when posting promotional material, but you also don’t want your Facebook page to be ineffective because you’re too worried about not posting anything beneficial to the company. If you’re posting high-quality content the majority of the time, you “earn” the right to post the occasional marketing message.

* * *

Facebook content isn’t difficult. Finding the right mix of content to post at the right times is the real challenge. Play around with it. See what works and what doesn’t work. Most importantly, remember that Facebook is more of a communication tool than a broadcasting tool. What you hear on Facebook is often more important than what you say.

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Buffer

Facebook purists will pan this post. They will say that the best way to post to Facebook is to post whatever you’re doing or thinking right now, that “planning” posts is not only insincere but that it undermines the point of Facebook altogether. Their points are valid and noted. Now, let’s talk about reality.

Busy people who have their own social media and potentially the social media profiles of sites and companies with which they work need tools. It’s true that the best way to post to Facebook is through the native interfaces – Facebook.com itself and their mobile app. However, there are drawbacks. You can schedule posts that go on pages through Facebook.com, but you can’t schedule for profiles. Perhaps more importantly, Facebook has an on again, off again glitch with scheduled posts that often “batches” them into an unintended album for any posts that are not at least 24 hours apart. This holds true for mobile image uploads as well. The problem there is that these batched albums cannot be liked, shared, or commented on in the news feed. If they can’t be interacted with in the news feed, they don’t really exist. Nobody clicks through to interact with them.

These are some of the tools that I’ve used in the past or that I’ve seen others use that have shown to be effective. To be effective, they have to be easy to use, formatted properly, displayed well in the news feed, and “play well” with EdgeRank. Keep in mind, EdgeRank can be adjusted based upon interaction. For example, if your posts from a certain tool tend to get more likes than posts with other tools, those future posts from that tool will appear higher in the news feed. The opposite is true as well. If posts from a certain tool are not as effective, they’ll fall further in the feed and become less visible as a result.

At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference. Which tools work for you? These work for me and people that I know, but that doesn’t mean they’ll demonstrate the same benefits for your posts. Go with what works. This is only a guide of a handful of suggestions.

 

Post Planner

This tool is invaluable to me. It allows me to manage my profile as well as my pages from within the Facebook environment because it’s an actual Facebook app. I pay for it and it’s worth every penny. I am able to control branding and links through it – everything I post has a link to my “app” which is a redirect to my blog. My only complaint is that it only works in 5-minute intervals. It would be nice to post at any time but I understand the constraints of the Facebook environment. Given what they had to work with, the end result was amazing.

 

Buffer

This isn’t just great for Facebook. It works nicely (maybe even better) for Twitter. I often cross post an image to both networks and this is the only tool I’ve found that handles that properly, showing in both networks as an uploaded image rather than a link. You can find the times that work best for you and set it up to post at different times on different days if you choose. It works chronologically so there’s no need to input times. You add something to the feed and it drops into the next available slot. Moving posts up or down is also relatively easy and there’s even a shuffle option if you’re scheduling a lot ahead of time.

 

IFTTT

The social media “recipe builder” is nothing short of brilliant. “If this, then that” allows you to connect your social profiles in ways that are changing the lives of users. It makes it simple to integrate so many different types of content that if I had to pick a favorite based upon pure ingenuity, this would be the hands down winner. For example, you can have a recipe that says if you post to Buzzfeed, the post will appear on Facebook as well and here’s how you want it to look. Takes a little while to master but once you get it, nothing will be the same.

 

Instagram

If you weren’t one of those who abandoned the service once they went rogue with their terms of service, you’ll be happy to know it’s still a very nice way to put interesting personal posts on Facebook. In fact, it’s my app of choice when posting images that I’m taking from my smartphone. Nothing fixes the low quality of smartphone images like a hipster-friendly filter. Don’t overpost – the app has a tendency to batch and appears lower in the news feed as a result.

 

Pinterest

Use sparingly. Pinterest has an interesting way of getting batched. If there have been two pins posted to Facebook recently, they show up side by side or one on top of the other with unique interaction buttons. It’s a nice way to mix it up, but it doesn’t appear as well on the news feed. Still worth the occasional post.

 

What NOT to use to post to Facebook

As with any good list of tips, there needs to be some advice about things to avoid. These are some of the tools that do not work as well on Facebook and should be avoided if the goal is exposure.

  1. Tumblr – For whatever reason, whether it’s just the threat of another addictive social network or a challenge in the coding, Tumblr posts that go on Facebook do not perform well.
  2. Foursquare – The app plays okay with the news feed, but people simply don’t like it as much. Even when images are included, people are less likely to interact with the excellent stalker app as they are when Facebook places integration is used.
  3. Twitter – I’m likely in the minority on this one, but I’m not a fan of any interaction between the two services. I don’t like Tweets that come through on Facebook and I don’t like when Facebook status updates come through as Tweets. Call me what you will but neither path seems to work as well as posting independently of each other, even if it’s the same content being posted.
  4. Hootsuite – I really like Hootsuite for Twitter and as an overall social media management tool. The Google+ integration and automation has been a lifesaver with all of the G+ pages that I manage. As a posting tool to Facebook itself, I had to stop using it a month ago. It just didn’t do as well in the news feed as the other tools available.
  5. Flickr – Just like with Tumblr, Flickr doesn’t do very well. It could be because Facebook spent a billion dollars on a direct competitor with Instagram. That might just be my imagination. However, I love using IFTTT to post from Facebook to Flickr, so not all is lost.
Read more…

Facebook Likes

It’s on thing to have people like your business. It’s another thing to have them “like” your business, as in on Facebook. Your customers may like you, but there’s a good chance that they won’t like you on Facebook. There are two primary reasons for this: (1) some people simply don’t like very many brands at all on Facebook, and/or (2) the first impression they had when they came to your page wasn’t impressive.

There’s something extremely important to keep in mind when trying to understand how Facebook for business works. According to numerous studies, people never return to your page after they’ve liked it. They got to your page from your website, as a recommendation based upon a piece of content that one of their friends liked or shared, or through Facebook advertising. Once they land on your Facebook page, they will decide extremely quickly whether or not to like your page. If they decide against it, the chances of them ever seeing anything that you post in the future will be dramatically diminished other than possibly through Facebook advertising (though that’s not even guaranteed).

Getting people to visit your Facebook is an art unto itself that requires a future blog post, but once you get them there you can do certain things that can help you to get more likes as a result. Keep in mind that it’s not about being likeable. It’s about being Facebook “Like-Worthy”. People are dishing out likes to businesses much less frequently than before. They are more selective now. Get selected! Be like-worthy.

 

Cover and Profile Pic

TK Cover

In Facebook’s ideal world, your business cover photo would be just that – a photo. They discourage the use of words or messages in the cover photo. I totally understand and somewhat agree with the philosophy, but I also understand the importance of the cover photo in establishing an appropriate first impression.

The profile pic is a challenging concept as well. Not all logos fit nicely into a square. By now, most businesses should have learned that they need a square variation of their logo even if only to put on social media profiles, but not everyone has. If you haven’t, make one… now. Your logo or other branding image should be easily discernible as a square. There’s no other way around it. Make it look like it’s supposed to be there, not like something that was poorly shrunk to fit into the space. It’s subtle but important.

Now, back to the cover photo. It should be enticing. It should be visually stunning. It may or may not need to have a message. Whatever you use as a cover photo, it should be something that appeals to your target audience. Don’t forget the placement of your profile picture. The best types of cover photos actually play off of the profile picture, even if only based on placement. In the cover image example above, the message is clear, targeted, and positioned just above the logo. The image itself is something that can be appealing to the target audience – a professional who appears victorious.

 

Like Other Pages’ Posts as Your Page

It’s the activity on Facebook that is done so infrequently but that can be a true differentiator between your Facebook marketing and the marketing of the competitor. When you “use Facebook as” your page, you can then go to the Facebook news feed and see posts of the other pages that your page has liked.

Liking, sharing, and commenting on what others post while logged in as your business page is an easy way to branch out and get the attention of your target audience. Your page should be liking pages that are relevant to yours. Local publications, industry companies and vendors, personalities that share your interests – like them as your page.

Once you do, the fans of those pages will see your support, your name, and understand that you are active on Facebook. Instant like-worthiness, especially if it’s something like a local charity that your company is supporting.

 

Pin the Best Content to the Top

Anything that isn’t time sensitive, that was popular with likes, comments, and shares, and that represents what people will see regularly or semi-regularly on your page should be pinned to the top. It cannot be too old – no more than a couple of weeks at most – because some people may not notice that it’s pinned and think that your page is inactive or posts very rarely. Most will scroll down and see the more recent posts, but you don’t want to risk missing anyone.

When you pin something to the top, that content is the first thing that visitors to your page will see once they scroll below your cover photo. Make absolutely certain that it is representative of what you will be bringing to the table if they like your page. It’s important to get more fans, but it’s more important to get the right fans. That picture of a cat you posted yesterday might have outperformed everything else you’ve posted this week, but if that’s not what you’re going to be serving up regularly, don’t pin it.

* * *

Facebook isn’t hard, but you have to understand some of the things that can separate you from the competitors. This is one of those topics about which I strongly encourage asking any questions if you have them. It’s that important.

Read more…

Carnival Stuffed Animals

Social media icons and signs that say “Like us on Facebook” or “Follow us on Twitter” aren’t nearly as common in brick and mortar stores today as they were a couple of years ago. Many companies who tried to make it work (or are still trying) found that the presence of signs didn’t do much to improve their following.

Today, it can be different. Many people use their mobile devices to stay active on social media, much more than they did a couple of years ago, but even with this the old school follow/like signs still won’t work. They can, but not if you don’t give them a reason. Thankfully, this is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to increase your following. To do it, you have to make it worth their while.

One car dealership I’ve worked with has found strong success by using the concept in their service department. They’ve gone so far as to give three reasons for people to follow them on Facebook (they aren’t as hip on Twitter yet but I’m trying to get them interested). There’s a sign at the pay counter that says, “Get a 5% discount just for liking our Facebook page.”

In the “small print” under the offer, they write, “We post 4 or 5 times a week and we won’t annoy you with bad jokes or links to our blog. Instead, we post Facebook-only service specials and only the best of the best cars for sale from time to time.”

It works like a charm. Their numbers are constantly rising. Then, the take it a step further with the third incentive in even smaller print below the second line. “If you like us already and still want the 5% discount, just post that you’re here and that you ‘like getting my service done at [dealership name] because _______.”

Signage is the least used effective way to get fans, followers, engagement, and endorsements. These are people who are already doing business with you and if they like the way they’re treated, you should encourage them to let their friends know. It doesn’t have to be a discount. It does have to include a reason. I know one non-dealer that has stuffed animals, the small ones you see at the carnival, stacked on the wall with a sign that says, “Get your kid (or yourself) a stuffed elephant or moose by becoming our Facebook fan.”

Be creative. Be fun. Make a promise about how your social media profile brings value to your followers and then deliver on that promise by making your pages and profiles awesome.

People won’t like or follow you without a reason.

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20 Percent Text Rule

Facebook has been trying to crack down on text within images for some time. They made a big deal out of it when they first rolled out Timeline but it was still possible to get by without getting noticed. Today, it's a lot harder.

While I've never been able to fully make sense of the rule, it's their site so we have to play their game. The way the rule works is that text in an image cannot cover more than 20% of the total space or you won't be able to run ads on it. You might be able to run it for a little while but they eventually catch it.

They continue to push the letter of the law further. If you have too much text in your cover photo, all of your ads get rejected automatically. They've now started including thumbnail images from links in the rule. The post above was rejected for this reason. The sad part is that there were other images on the page that I would have preferred to use, but Facebook didn't register them as a thumbnail option.

Be aware of the rule if you're running sponsored posts on Facebook. This isn't the type of rule that you'd ever want to try to break. Even with a direct line to a high level Facebook employee, it still took a couple of days to get a client unblocked who had been breaking the rule before we took over the account. I couldn't image how it is for those who have to try to plea with them if they didn't have a connection.

It might not make much sense, but again I'll stress - their site, their rules.

Read more…
Facebook Burning

There are plenty of articles, blog posts, videos, and testimonials out there demonstrating that businesses are having tremendous success using Facebook and other social media sites to communicate successfully with their customers. Those aren’t the stories that you ever hear about, though. Instead, many are terrified of a major Facebook misstep such as what recently happened to Applebee’s. Those are the stories that are told, the ones that gurus discuss and warn about in blog posts to keep pageviews going to their websites.

Just as the real world news has always had an attitude of, “if it bleeds, it leads”, news in the social media world likes to highlight the negatives. It’s no wonder that many dealers would rather see Facebook burn rather than get on and participate.

The worst part about the Applebee’s story was that they were in the right. It wasn’t a case of a bad customer experience or hidden camera video of animal abuse. It was an idiotic employee who went after Reddit karma by posting a bad tip she received. She posted an image of a credit card receipt with her less-than-sattisfactory tip that contained the customer’s signature. It went viral. She got fired. The ignorant and empowered users of Reddit and other sites came to her defense. It didn’t go well for Applebee’s on Facebook as the situation tumbled out of control.

These things happen. It stings. In a world of smartphone cameras and unprecedented exposure capacity given to anyone willing to take it, there is no way to completely safeguard against negative backlashes on social media. It can happen whether you’re on there or not. Applebee’s didn’t handle the situation properly. What’s worse is knowing that there may not have been a “proper” way of handling it. They could have done nothing which may have been better, but we’ll never know. Hindsight on social media is not 20/20. Had they not replied at all, not fired the employee, rehired the employee, taken a stronger stance, redirected out of Facebook onto their website, or any combination of possible actions, the situation could have turned out better or it could have been worse.

The bottom line is this – wishing that Facebook and social media in general never existed is not an option. Avoiding social media is an option, just not a very good one. Apple can pull it off. 99.997% of the other businesses in the world cannot. It’s best to go in knowing there’s a risk, knowing any action may be a mistake, and realizing that most of the major challenges and landmines that happen on social media are isolated. Don’t get scared by Applebee’s challenges. Be more worried about what would happen if you’re not in the conversation at all. People will be talking about you whether you’re there or not.

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The Real World

In one sentence, the advice that business owners and marketers need to hear is this: “Everything on your Facebook page should be centered around the real world.”

No, I don’t mean the reality TV show that launched it all in 1992. When The Real World launched on MTV 27 seasons ago (yes, it’s still going strong in case you weren’t aware), it set in motion a genre of television that many people claim to hate but that still gets millions of viewers every day. Today, the day to day version of “the real world of marketing on Facebook” should take one concept from the original show intro: “…start getting real.”

There’s a reason why you won’t hear this from people in the social media industries. The gurus and specialists who rely on Facebook management services to make a living don’t want businesses to know that the most successful local business pages are run from the stores themselves. The ability to stay real, organic, and authentic through social media is arguably the most important component in a successful business presence. To gurus, it means that their services cannot be as good as the real thing happening at the physical locations. To businesses, it means that all of the tools are either at your fingertips or scattered across the physical world around you.

As someone whose company offers social media products, one might wonder why I would give this advice. It’s simple – what can be done and what does get done are two different things. I wouldn’t be honest if I said that services offer the best possible results when the reality is that a well-guided and properly-deployed strategy by employees at a local business can be more effective than anything remote. However, the combination of a lack of updated knowledge in this constantly-changing arena mixed with the lack of time of the employees at a local business mean that sometimes it’s best to settle for second best.

Thankfully, when done right, second best isn’t far off from being the best. There are more failures happening from homegrown campaigns and strategies than from agency-run strategies because of both of these points. It takes time. It takes research. These are things that are easier left to those who do it on a regular basis for most businesses. However, if a business has the time to stay on top of the campaigns as well as the changes happening in the platforms, trends, and attitudes in the real world, they can have the greatest level of success.

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The First Car Carried By Facebook Likes?

The new Renault Clio was carried by Facebook Likes in the “Like Challenge”. See the story and video.

A social interactive live stream on Facebook connects the online and offline world in the newest social media campaign of Renault Netherlands.

Online likes measured the passion for the new Renault Clio.

Offline, a heaver construction with the car on one side and a Facebook box on the other, showed the weight of this passion.

In two weeks, the Facebook fans did succeed and showed that there is enough passion in the Netherlands for the new Renault Clio to carry the car.

How much passion do the Dutch people have for the new Renault Clio?

The passion for the new Renault model is measured by means of a heaver construction with on one side the new Renault Clio and on the other side the Facebook box.

Facebook fans show their passion for the car by giving a physical like.

Through a social interactive live stream the fans see how their online like is thrown offline in the Facebook box and how the weight in the Facebook box slowly increases.

Watch the video of the like challenge here:

The first car carried by likes
Renault fans shared their passion for the new Renault Clio. In two weeks more than 16.000 like thumbs were placed in the Facebook box and there was enough passion gathered to carry the new Renault Clio.

For the first time a car was carried by the likes of a Facebook community. At that final moment the live stream had already over 60.000 views and even reached the homepage of Ustream.

During the campaign Renault welcomed more than 12.000 new fans.

My Opinion?
Our frequent readers know that I am not a big fan of buying likes.

But this approach by agency Dorst & Lesser gives a special turn to the course of “buying” likes.

One: the like challenge is more entertaining than buying likes through a Facebook campaign.

Two: One of the fans will win a car that will give extra buzz and shares around the like challenge.

Three: Giving away a car of around 14.000 EURO makes the price per paid-for like more than reasonable.

What About You?
How do you rate this like challenge by Renault Netherlands? I’d love to read your opinion in the comments below.

Source:Viralblog

Also Check Out: 

Facebook to Introduce #Hashtags — And That’s a Double-Edged Sword for Twitter!

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2013 Internet Sales 20 Group March 19th 20th and 21st Dallas TX

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Can Facebook come up with one original idea! OMG, like seriously!

Facebook has always wanted to edge in on Twitter’s Interest Graph.

The idea is, it’s a boon for ad dollars, as Twitter’s real-time stream taps into the immediate sentiment of the crowd. Facebook’s Friend Graph, while powerful, isn’t designed for immediacy.

At least, not yet. As was previously reported by The Wall Street Journal, and as I’ve verified through sources of my own, Facebook plans to launch its own Linkify’d version of the hashtag, allowing users to connect common themes and trending topics around the social network by adding the simple hashtag symbol to a status update. Clicking through sends a reader down a rabbit hole of information, all connected to the hashtag being followed.

“We don’t comment on rumors and speculation,” Facebook told AllThingsD.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Facebook already hinted at something like this at its News Feed redesign event last week. Breaking up the entire feed into separate verticals — like photos, music, and the entiresharing stream instead of only some shares — was the most Twitter-y thing Facebook has done yet. I’m surprised they didn’t introduce the linked hashtags throughout the service at the News Feed event.

But drilling down on the hashtag specifically is a direct affront to Twitter, potentially dipping into Twitter’s valuable ad dollar territory.

Look at it this way: Imagine the power, Twitter would say, of an advertiser sticking an ad in a user’s face at the exact time they want to see it. If a user follows a hashtag about, say, #desserts, a company like Hostess could sell ads against anyone who searches that hashtag, sticking a promoted tweet for their delightful pink Sno-Balls in front of everyone following the hashtag. It’s a practice that’s slowly catching on for the advertisers who can understand it (but not every brand is totally up to speed on how to best advertise on Twitter).

Facebook, on the other hand, can’t tap into that trending sentiment quite as effectively. While the company does attempt to place relevant ads in the News Feed and lower-right-rail to reach its users, it would do better to let people dig deeper into trends across categories. So blatantly ripping off Twitter makes some sense here.

And Facebook has hinted that this could be a reality for the site. In January, the company debuted Graph Search, the nascent way of digging deep into Facebook by making connections through the Friend Graph. Also, Instagram has used hashtags for some time, though that seems to have grown out of the language of Twitter.

Essentially, edging in on Twitter’s advertising territory by offering a better way to connect ads to users could spell trouble for Twitter.

But there’s a glass-half-full way of looking at this.

One of Twitter’s largest issues has been its difficulty translating just how normal people are supposed to use the hashtag in the first place. When on-boarding new users, they’re faced with a litany of “at symbols” and hashtags, a language of Twitter’s own that isn’t immediately clear. Not to mention the difficulty of letting users know how to use hashtags effectively in search and discovery; right now, Twitter’s search and discovery tab has improved, but it has long been terrible.

So Facebook’s widespread adoption of this language could actually bring the lexicon to the masses, essentially introducing a billion newbies to a gnarly language — one which Twitter is still trying to figure out how to introduce to users.

Remember, Twitter: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Just hope that this rip-off is to your advantage.

Source:allthingsd.com


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How Social Media Impacts SEO ~ "Tweeting Cuts Indexation By 50%"

  • Work towards success with other non-competing dealerships
  • Learn what works and what doesn’t work
  • Compare and share information with Internet Sales Professionals and experts
  • Receive guidance on everything and anything Internet Sales related.
  • Learn to sell MORE CARS, MORE OFTEN, MORE PROFITABLY 

Internet Sales 20 Group March 19th 20th and 21st Dallas TX

Need more proof? Don't take our word for it.  Check out our Reviews!

Read more…

Approaching a Customer

This is part 4 in a series about building brand ambassadors at the dealership. I'll be adding more parts later, but here is the series so far:

_______

You’ve made a customer extremely happy with their purchase and exceeded their expectations. They’re smiling, shaking your hand, and thankful that you earned their business. They show all of the signs of being a potential brand ambassador. Now, how do you actually convert them from happy customer to brand ambassador?

We’ve already established that it’s important. Now go for the post. Your goal is to turn this happy customer into someone willing to advocate for you online. It’s not about getting a review. Those are easy. Reputation management on review sites is an important activity, but save those conversations for those who aren’t going to post about your on their social profiles. Getting an endorsement on Facebook is much more useful than getting a review on Yelp (unless your Yelp score is poor, in which case you probably want to get that bumped up first).

To get someone to post about you on social media, there are two effective methods to try.

 

Give Them an Incentive

This is the easiest way. It’s also slightly less fruitful because they must divulge in their post that they received compensation. That’s okay. If done right, even divulging the “payment” can be turned into a positive thing.

First and foremost, don’t go straight for the close. Just like with any sales process, you have to sell them on the idea. This requires a little setup first. Try to catch them when they’re really happy. After they’ve just given your store a compliment is ideal. Then, ask them about their social media presence.

Here’s an example of a conversation:

  • Customer - “This has been the easiest car-buying experience I’ve ever had.”
  • Salesperson – “Thank you for saying so. We do business differently here because we want our customers to come back to us and recommend us to all their friends and family.”
  • Customer – “Yep, I’d definitely recommend you to my friends.”
  • Salesperson – “Are you on Facebook?”
  • Customer – “Of course.”
  • Salesperson – “Because we value our customers’ recommendations, we give them their first oil change for free when they post about their experience on Facebook.”
  • Customer – “That sounds good. I’ll post when I get home.”
  • Salesperson – “If you want to do it from your phone right now I can walk you through it. To give you the oil change, it has to be worded a certain way.”
  • Customer - “Okay. Let’s do it.”

The wording should be something like this: “I just had a great experience buying my new car at ABC Motors. They even gave me my first oil change for free just for posting this.”

That’s it. Of course, it’s not always that smooth of a conversation, but remember that even a handful of people per month can make an impact on future sales.

 

Give Them a Valid Reason

Similar to the incentive, the valid reason approach can be almost as effective. Done well, it can be even more effective because you’re asking for real endorsement without anything attached.

Use the talk track above but replace the oil change dialogue with something like this:

  • Salesperson – “One of the ways I’m judged on whether I’m delivering a great customer experience is by getting mention on Facebook. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d appreciate if you’d write something about us on Facebook through your smartphone while we wait for your car to get cleaned up.”

From there, it doesn’t matter how they post it. They aren’t required to divulge anything and we’ve seen that when customers are given complete freedom to advocate for you how they want, they’ll do a better job at it.

 

But that’s not all…

Getting a Facebook post is amazing. Unlike review sites, it exposes your brand and the experience you deliver to people through a trusted peer. It’s human nature to trust the advice of people we know more than strangers on review sites. These types of public endorsements show “skin in the game” as we’ve mentioned in previous articles. Review sites are made fine, but they aren’t broadcasting the message to the right people the way a Facebook endorsement works.

This is all great, but a true ambassador won’t stop there. This is where we get into the real ways that happy customers become the brand ambassadors that we need. We’ll discuss all of that in the next post in this series.

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Happy Customer

This is part 5 in a series about building brand ambassadors at the dealership. I'll be adding more parts later, but here is the series so far:

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You've gone through all the steps. You knew that we were going to be talking about brand ambassadors. You learned why they're important. We showed you how to identify them, then we discussed how to approach them. Now, it's time to wrap it up with the hardest part of them all. We're going to talk about how to sustain them as true brand ambassadors.

There's a difference between a person who leaves a nice comment on Facebook and someone who actually tells people they know about you. It's important to get that person to tell about their experience at your store on Facebook. It's amazing to make sure that that person is proactive in the future. If they were happy buying a car at your dealership today, we want them mentioning you when they see their friend three months from now saying on Facebook that they need a new car. That's the type of brand ambassadors that we want talking about us on social media.

It isn't easy. It requires a subtle approach, a light touch, but a persistent one. Here are three things you can do to take that happy customer who posted about you on Facebook to the next level.

 

Show Your Appreciation


No, I don't mean going on their Facebook post about you and saying "thanks!" You have to show true appreciation for their effort. You have to stand out above and beyond anything any other company has ever done for them.

There's a fine line between being appreciative and being an annoying stalker. This is why it's important to interact with a purpose. It should never be random. Show your appreciation at times when they least expect it, when you're not at the top of their mind, and in ways that require real effort and/or money.

One way to show appreciation is with a quick gift card sent on a handwritten envelope with a handwritten note inside.

"Hi Bob. I just wanted to check in on you to make sure you're enjoying your car and that you're still getting compliments from your friends. We appreciate that you posted on Facebook last month when you purchased it and we wanted to send you this $10 Starbucks gift card as a small token of our appreciation."

This can get them to post again about the gesture, but more importantly it reminds them of the over-the-top experience they received at the store. When their friends and family are looking, you want them to mention your store by name.

 

Let Them Know it Worked


Here's the thing, and it's arguably the hardest truth to convince businesses of until they see it for themselves. If an average Facebook user promotes your product, their message was seen and heeded by their friends and family. There is a good chance every single time you're mentioned on Facebook as giving someone an exceptional experience that someone amongst their friends and family will see this and act upon it.

When someone comes in and say, "I heard my cousin Bob that you guys took great care of him," you have to let Bob know. If you have a referral program, this is a no-brainer. If you don't have a referral program, refer back up to showing appreciation and reword the note that you send with the gift card.

Don't forget, it's not just about your business. People like helping their friends and family. Bob didn't just help you to make another sale. He helped his cousin Sally have the same great experience he had. Sally may or may not let him know, but either way you definitely want to let him know. Validate that he's an influencer and that he's important to his friends, family, and your business.

 

Highlight Them


This is optional and requires some work, but it's very useful when done right. On your website or through social media, take your brand ambassadors who have posted about you on Facebook and highlight their posts. This is best done in a group setting - individual highlights can be a bit creepy.

At whatever frequency is appropriate, post screenshots of all of your positive mentions. Make certain that there is text with the person's name if their name and posts are public on Facebook. If they aren't public, you don't want to mention their name.

Again, this is optional. In a way, it's a bit risky, but it's also a way to let people know on your website and Facebook page that you have a strong commitment to customer service.

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It's not what you say about yourself on social media that matters. It's what others are saying about you. This is where the value is. This is how to move the needle.

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Facebook Orphan

The image above shows the last four Facebook activities by a major car dealership in a metro area. Over three months ago, they abandoned their page. This could easily be a very long post where I go into details about how this is wrong on so many levels, but I'll keep it short because if you're reading this, chances are very strong that you're a savvy dealership that would never let this happen.

For the sake of education, I'll at least put a partial list together in case you're not absolutely sure why you shouldn't do this:

  • This page appears in the searches for the dealership by name on Google.
  • This is the page presented to people when they search on Facebook, Bing, and other search engines as well.
  • Abandoned pages can be easily spammed. If a spammer were to find this page, they could start posting links to their teeth whitening or adult-content gateway websites and have it appear at the top of the dealers' activity public activity feed. This is becoming a more common technique by spammers because they know that the business is not paying attention so the chances of them being reported to Facebook are slim.
  • A feed could be setup if absolutely necessary (I'll cover this more below).
  • Customers are posting on the page. Huge opportunities are being missed.

Let's cover the bottom two in a little more detail.

 

Last Resort: Feeds

If your dealership has no bandwidth to cover your social media and no budget to hire an automotive social media service, the absolute worst case scenario is to set up a feed to the page. This is something that I don't recommend to anyone who wants to be successful, but it's still better than abandonment.

You can use RSS Graffiti, Hootsuite, or any number of other services to pull in a feed and post on a regular basis to Facebook. This is a very poor strategy, but it's better than nothing.

 

Customers Can Post

This is the most disheartening part about the page above. Happy customers are talking. I've recently written five blog posts about the importance of developing brand ambassadors. This dealership has ambassadors waiting to be contacted. It's such a waste.

Here are those posts:

Happy customers that take the time to promote your dealership through their own Facebook profile should not be ignored. There's no excuse for this.

 

Don't Delete Them

There's a good chance that you'll have a Facebook presence whether you want to or not. Just because you delete your page doesn't mean that someone else can't toss one up for you. "Fan pages" are very common and if you don't have a page of your own that is outranking the fan pages, you risk letting others control what people see when they check you out on Facebook. Bad move.

Social media is about communication, so the ideas of using RSS feeds is not a good option. Every dealership needs to be watching, even if it's in the form of having the Internet Manager, GM, or owner receive an email when someone posts on the page. For most, this isn't a problem. The industry is realizing the importance of social. If you're not one of those, at least do the bare minimum to not completely fail. It takes no time. To turn your presence into an orphan is a big mistake.

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Never Waste a Facebook Post. Ever.

Waste

I’ve started hearing the second worst advice coming from social media “experts” that I’ve ever heard. It’s just a notch above “buy thousands of fans and followers” on the social media advice scale.

If someone tells you to “be sure to post something X-times a day on social media even if you have to throw something up.”

I know it’s bad advice. I used to give it. Thankfully, I learned my lesson before spreading the advice too far. It blows my mind that it’s still being given to unsuspecting clients today, though, because it has become pretty well-known that on many social media sites, Facebook in particular, a poor and wasteful post can actually do more harm than if you skip a post or two.

Quality is everything. EdgeRank (we’ll use the term for lack of a better word even though Facebook says it’s not reflective of the current algorithm yet they don’t give us a name for the new one – /rant) is extremely fickle, particularly for pages. You get limited opportunities to impress your fans and friends of fans. Any time you blow one of those opportunities through a wasted post, you’re actually harming the chance of future posts to perform.

In other words, every single thing that you post on Facebook should serve a very distinct purpose. Every single thing you post on Facebook should be of the highest possible quality. Every single thing that you post to Facebook must be something that does one of three things:

  • It conveys a relevant message that is well crafted, important enough to post to Facebook, and positioned in a way in which fans will not block you or report your post as spam.
  • It is entertaining, educational, or acts as a resource. It brings true value to the table for your fans, whether that value is life-saving information or just a quick, hearty chuckle.
  • It is a business-imperative message or link such as an event, a special (and I mean a true special such as the yearly Toyotathon, not a discount on your services that goes out every couple of weeks), or new product offering such as the opening of a body shop or the first 2014 Corvettes rolling off the truck.

There should be no filler posts. There should be no RSS feeds. There should be no integration of Tweets that land on your Facebook page (or visa versa). The difference between a page that carefully selects and crafts every single post versus one that tries most of the time but gets lazy sometimes is like night and day. Every single wasted post hurts the exposure of future posts. Conversely, every single outstanding post helps future posts see more daylight.

Our strategy is pretty simple in concept though a little complex in how it is applied. Here is a quick breakdown of each of the three types:

 

Relevant Message Posts

Relevant Message

There’s a mentality that goes into relevant message posts. It doesn’t have to be relevant to you. It definitely has to be relevant to your fans. In the example above, the message was extremely relevant for this Dallas car dealer. It was a couple of days before the make or break game for the Dallas Cowboys. One simple image faded in the background. One simple message. It was a message that was important to the fans, the vast majority of whom resided in the Dallas area.

Unfortunately for the fans of both the team and the dealership, the Cowboys lost, but it was still great of the company to show their support for the local team. Relevance is about your fans, your customers. It’s easiest to find relevant things to post about by staying in the local area or state. These messages should never be generic. They cannot be something that everyone else is posting. Put the effort in. In this case, the effort wasn’t a lot – find an image (make sure to credit the original source!) and put the relevant message on top of it. Simple, but effective.

 

Value Posts

Value Message

In the instance above, there are two things at play. The image is of a hot rod smoking the tires, but the message is talking about tire maintenance. There’s an opportunity to get two different kinds of likes as a result because it combines a great image with a useful message. The tip itself isn’t extraordinary, but it’s enough to get it a handful of likes even prior to promoting it on Facebook.

Entertain, educate, or both. That’s the mentality with these types of posts, and for many pages the strategy will dictate that these will be the most prevalent. Stick to your expertise and/or industry with these posts. There is a distinct temptation and even a common practice by many to try to revert to whatever is potentially popular. They’ll post funny images of cats. Avoid this practice. As hard as we may try to blend our pages into the whole Facebook mix by posting content that can be shared, when you go off topic you create a potential of missing the expectations of your fans. They may even feel a bit betrayed; if they’re going to follow a car dealer’s Facebook page, they expect to see cars. There are plenty of cats on Facebook already. No need to contribute unless you’re a veterinarian.

 

Business Message

Business Post

While it doesn’t always have to be a link, most business-imperative messages should either lead people to a destination or convey a message about the business that can be of interest. These are the posts that carry the most risk as people normally do not want to see marketing messages in their streams. It’s not uncommon for businesses to completely avoid these types of messages. That strategy can be valid, but with a little effort you can avoid the spam reports and unlikes by making sure the message is worthwhile to your fans.

In the case above that we just posted, we combine four different components (a lot in such a small post, I know, but that’s why it’s called “effort”). The car, of course, is stunning. It’s an actual dealership inventory piece rather than a generic image like the ones above. It carries a message or relevance as it was posted early Saturday morning right before most of the local fans wake up. The wording of the text portion of the post doesn’t say a ton but it does contain a link without being considered a link post by Facebook. You can accomplish this by adding the image first, then adding the link within the body of the text. The click-thru rates are always going to be low, but the message is pointed enough so that those who do click the link are there for a clear reason.

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Put in the effort. You don’t want to let your Facebook page go stagnant for more than a day or two (unless you’re using an extremely specialized and advanced strategy that I don’t have time to go into here), but you definitely don’t want to put content into your fans’ feeds that is sub-par. Make every post great. Don’t waste them. Playing the Facebook game is definitely not hard, but it does require a willingness to work within the algorithm and understand the expectations of your fans. Don’t just meet those expectations. Exceed them.

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