facebook - Versatile Marketing | Digital Marketing Consultancy

Why Every Facebook Page Owner Should Understand Newsfeed Optimisation…

September 29, 2011 By Sam Cannell

There have been countless posts from business pages since Facebook rolled out the new ‘ticker’ and newsfeed like this:

Facebook now controls what shows up on your newsfeed via their algorithm formula. This means if you post comments or ‘like’ our posts regularly then you will most likely see future posts. However, if you are a silent reader and do not comment or like any of our posts you will no longer see ‘name of page’ and our new product updates in your newsfeed If you want to keep in touch please “Like” this post & also remember to pass this message on to spread the word.

My concern over posts like this is that the algorithm formula Facebook uses is nothing new… in fact it even has a snappy name ‘Edgerank’ and Facebook experts like Mari Smith have been talking about the importance of ‘newsfeed optimisation’ for quite some time. It is too early to say whether Facebook has adjusted the algorithm formula since the recent changes, however the types of interactions that appear in the newsfeed have certainly changed (for example ‘liking’ a page now only appears in the real-time ticker and not the newsfeed like it did previously).

So why is newsfeed optimisation so important??

Approximately 90% of people who visit your fanpage never return again… they keep in touch with your updates only via their newsfeed. So if your updates aren’t ranked well according to Facebook’s algorithm formula then you’ll find your rates of interaction with fans will be very low and you’ll be left wondering whether you are wasting your time with Facebook Marketing.

How does ‘EdgeRank’ work?

Well only Facebook employees truly know the answer to that question but it has been determined by leading Social Media Experts that Facebook are ranking certain elements and there are certainly tips that Page owners can use to help them rank in their fans newsfeeds.

Affinity relates to your interactions with the Page – if you like, comment or share content from a Page Facebook naturally assumes that you are interested in that Page’s content. This is why posting quality content that is relevant for your fans is so important in the long-term. One ‘like’ on a status update may not be enough and it certainly won’t guarantee long term appearance of your Page updates in the newsfeed. Affinity is also influenced by the amount of interaction that an update receives – an update with many comments will appear higher in the newsfeed than one with a couple of ‘likes’.

The weighting or score component relates to the type of update – if your updates contain a photograph or video then it will rank higher than a plain text update. Interestingly many Page owners report that they always have more interaction from fans if they post with a photo or video, it’s a catch-22 situtation – the rich media helps you be seen in the newsfeed and then the popularity of the post by fans interacting with it helps to keep it in the newsfeed for even more fans to see.

The final considerations are recency and relevancy. A recent post is much more likely to appear in the newsfeed however relevancy is also incredibly important. My personal view is that Facebook will continue to grow in sophistication with how it ranks relevancy (and I’m sure that’s already taking place)… which means all of your data, your status updates, comments you make on friends/pages – everything can be considered in delivering you with the most relevant content. This is why Page owners should always be mindful of what interests their fans, what are their likes/dislikes… what do they want to hear about?

But what does this mean for Page owners?

Don’t believe that because you have 1,000 fans that 1,000 people see your status updates… you’ll probably be horrified to discover only very small portion of your fans are seeing your content at the moment. The key point is to make your updates interesting and engaging, update your Page regularly (and at times when your fans will be online) and take the time to learn about how you can get better results by crafting your updates so that fans actually see them in their newsfeed.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: facebook, facebook edgerank, facebook newsfeed optimisation

Social Media and B2B – yes it can work!

June 23, 2011 By Sam Cannell

Recently I read a blog post and I couldn’t believe my eyes… it completely knocked the idea of B2B companies using social media. Well I completely disagree! If you are a B2B entrepreneur have you ever been to a networking event where some attendees seem so desperate to get your sale on the spot and you just want to run out of the room as fast as you can? I have been to events like this and they are just awful, at least online it’s easy to clear out the stuff you don’t want to see rather than make excuses to end an awkward face to face conversation.

Business to business covers many different kinds of businesses from accountants, management consultants, graphic designers, PR consultancies, advertising agencies, solicitors, corporate caterers and much more. If you are a B2B company you shouldn’t discount social media because it seems trendy or it seems better suited to business to consumer companies. Your social media presence should be professional, it should reflect your core brand and it should be used to connect your brand to a wider audience. Social media should be used for engaging with your community, not selling to it and this is where many B2B companies fall down.

Here’s why I believe business to business companies should be embracing social media…

Social media is all about connecting and building relationships… this takes time just like it does in the offline world. Don’t expect to sell on social media – it won’t happen! Social media can increase your brand presence, regardless of who you sell to. Social media will expand your brand’s horizon, reach clients that you may not have the opportunity to connect with offline and increase your bottom line as a result. Again it all takes time…

LinkedIn is not just for recruiters, it was one of the first social networking platforms for business professionals and it continues to evolve to reflect the changing world of social media. As a social media professional I’m a B2B company and three of my largest contracts this year have come from my LinkedIn contacts. Like most other LinkedIn users I don’t use the LinkedIn network to push my services, it is purely my online CV showcasing the experience I have and how I am utilising social media in my own business.

Business owners are time poor, attending networking events and finding useful contacts takes up valuable time. It is much faster to make connections on social media platforms and tweets will often reveal the person behind the brand. Social media will never replace face to face meetings and phone calls but it can certainly help speed up communications. A tweet is limited to 140 characters, it forces people to get to the point unlike email!

These days it’s so easy to research a business online and judgments are made quickly. If social media is well utilised and reflects your brand it should strengthen your opportunities. All businesses need a pipeline or the funnel where opportunities comes in – social media can increase the top of the funnel if it’s done right. Then it’s up to you to manage the funnel successfully by strengthening relationships and differentiating yourself from the competition… social media is perfect for this.

If your B2B company isn’t embracing social media then what does it tell me about your business? Particularly if you are in the creative or IT sector I could actually be worried that you aren’t up with the latest technologies and perhaps aren’t as established as you claim to be on your website. If you’re a business that is going to have a lot of input into the success of my business how do I know from your website that we are on the same wavelength? What if your competitors share more information on social media… will that ultimately effect my purchasing decision? Yes it’s more than likely that it will.

Social media works brilliantly with visuals… Facebook albums allow you to showcase your portfolio, blogs allow you to publish photos and videos along with your written content and Twitter allows links to websites, photos and YouTube for greater engagement. Even accountants and solicitors can come up with interesting and useful videos so you shouldn’t write off social media because you think your business too conservative for social media.

Just because you are selling business to business, doesn’t mean that your client is selling to only businesses… in fact it’s quite likely that they are selling to consumers meaning they should have a presence on social media and hence you’ll be able to connect with them. (note the word ‘connect’ rather than ‘sell’)

Let’s kill the myth ‘social media is a time-killer’ – well yes it can be but smart entrepreneurs will know how to utilise tools like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and set-up links between social media profiles so that they are reviewing all social media platforms with a concise and effective plan. iPhones and Blackberry’s make Tweeting a relatively quick and painless experience. Twitter lists are an awesome tool for effectively managing who you follow, reviewing what others are saying and finding great Tweeters to engage with. An effective social media strategy can be implemented with just 30 minutes a day, just because you have a Facebook page and Twitter account doesn’t mean you spend 24 hours a day in front of your computer wasting time.

If you are a B2B company don’t be scared of social media and certainly don’t think that it isn’t relevant for you because you are B2B. If you are a B2B company we’d love to hear how you are using social media, what’s working – what isn’t and how much time you spend on it.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: facebook, linkedin, social media, twitter

7 Ways to Ramp Up Your Facebook Page

May 30, 2011 By Sam Cannell

Here’s some simple tips to help you take your Facebook page from okay to awesome!

1.Profile image - maximise your Facebook real estate and create profile image which is up to 180 x 540 pixels. You don’t need to be a graphic designer to come up with a great looking image but you do need a graphics program. We use and recommend GIMP as it’s easy to create layers, add text and change colours to match your existing branding.

2. Thumbnail image – make sure it shows your brand in the best light. Your thumbnail image is generated from your profile image and is automatically a square so you may need to make some adjustments to your profile image. The thumbnail image is a crucial part of your Facebook branding but it is often overlooked. Up to 80% of Facebook fans never return to the Page, they view your posts via their newsfeed which is where your thumbnail is represented.

3. Brand your photos that you display in your photostream (ie the 5 photos above the Wall). The ideal size for these photos is 970 x 680 pixels (they will display as 97 x 68 pixels) and if your images are outside of these dimensions this is where graphics software like GIMP can help to proportion the photo and to add logos/branding. Remember if you upload a photo that doesn’t fit or look right you can easily hide it by clicking on the ‘X’ that appears in the right had corner of the image if you hover over it.

4. Create a custom landing page… give a reason for fans to ‘like’ you. Facebook now runs on iFrames rather than the old FMBL language used to create custom pages. If you are proficient in webpage creation you can easily create a Facebook landing page hosted on your own server. The ideal width of the page is 520 pixels. If the thought of creating your own webpage makes you want to run a mile don’t panic… there are plenty of free and paid apps that you can use to create an awesome Facebook landing page. We suggest you take a look at Pagemodo, ThruSocial, Wildfire and North Social.

5. Make your updates interesting with photos and videos.

6. Add a special offer or exclusive deal for your Facebook fans… why should Facebook visitors ‘like’ your page? What’s in it for them? Give your fans a reason to not only ‘like’ your page but to stay loyal to your brand by rewarding them for remaining a fan.

7. Keep the updates flowing… don’t expect to grow your fan base if you only update your page once a month. You need to be updating your page regularly and keep it consistent. If you decide on 2-3 times a day, then you need to do this regularly, not just for the first week of setting up your page then disappearing into cyberspace never to be seen again. Try different times of the day to update your page, if you do three updates a day spread them out and try some after business hours updates.

Creating a vibrant Facebook page isn’t difficult and it’s worth taking the time to implement some of these changes. Let us know what you think of these ideas and see what happens on your page… hopefully more fans and much more interaction from them!

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: facebook, social media