7 suggestions to keep your Facebook Fans happy
Recently eMarkter updated their charts about the top reasons people became fans of brands on Facebook. Ignitesocialmedia.com points out that the results show a shift from the rather opportunistic "to receive discounts and promotions" to "to get the latest news about the brand".
So what does this mean for Facebook Page administrators? Here are some tips from the Fans in the research - in order of importance:
- Advance information and previews of future products, future offers
- Ability to take part in games, competitions
- Access to exclusive information
- Invitations to events related to the brand beyond Facebook
- Involvement in the development of new products, new offers
- Ability to order products online from the page
- Discussions with brand representatives
There are 858.359 LinkedIn users in Belgium
According to socialbakers.com, which recently started monitoring LinkedIn usage, there are currently:
858.359 LinkedIn users in Belgium
which corresponds to 10.58% of online population and 8.23% of overall population.
This makes Belgium the 31st country in the global LinkedIn list.
What is the real cost of social media?
The true cost of a social media campaign depends on the size and reach of the campaign itself.
Some factors to consider, from The Real Cost of Social Media infographic @ focus.com:
- Staff costs, like your marketer's salary
- Advertising, like Facebook Ads
- External fees
- Other, e.g. tracking tools, technical/creative costs
On the bright side, only half of the respondents of an eMarketers survey felt that "low cost" was a benefit of social media:
Identity management online: Zuckerberg vs Poole
In July 1993, cartoonist Peter Steiner published a cartoon of two dogs in front of a computer. Its caption read: ‘On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.’
This is no longer true.
From the infographic The Rules of the Online Road - Transparency vs Anonimity @ namesake.com:
Earlier this year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was quoted as saying that he champions a single identity transparancy - or an online presence that dissolves the walls between our private and public selves. Christopher "Moot" Poole, who leads the well-know image forum 4chan and its growing anonymous user base, positions himself on the opposite end of this debate. He fights instead for the right to maintain undisclosed identities in order to promote unfettered content sharing.
Zuckerberg, on "the Facebook Effect" and having a single identity:
You have one identity... Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.
According to the creator of Facebook, by presenting more than one version of your "complete" self, you are being inauthentic and cowardly in refusing to disclose your identity as the statement-maker.
What's so great about having a single identity?
- Associates the content creator with the content
- Enforces accountability and legitimacy
- Prevents bad internet practices (slander, etc)
Poole, on why a single identity would be negative:
The cost of failure is really high when you're contributing as yourself.
During a recent SXSW keynote speech, the 4chan leader contended that when you contribute with an open identity, you have to be willing to accept failure and criticism in public. This ends up dissuading many from speaking up or establishing controversial viewpoints.
What's so great about anonymity?
- Allows expressions of opinions without repercussions
- Fuels creativity and experimentation
- Encourages authentic content sharing
What do you think?
Word of the day: SoLoMo (social, location, mobile)
From WordSpy, the Word Lover's guide to new words:
SoLoMo
n. Mobile phone apps that combine social networking and location data. [Social + location (or local) + mobile.]
The term caught my eye in Google Defines Social Strategy at InformationWeek.com:
SoLoMo offers a reminder that data sets do not exist in a vacuum. Search expert and Web 2.0 Conference co-chair John Battelle has described several categories of data that are relevant to Google and its kin: There's the social graph (contacts, friends), interest data (likes, tweets, recommendations), search data (queries, history), purchase data (what you buy, credit card numbers), location data (where you are, have been, and are going), and content data (behavior when engaged with content).
An example: I'm in Diegem, and hungry. I use the Google App on my smartphone to give a "pizza" voice command. The app returns search results for pizza deliveries in a 20 km radius of Diegem, who are open right now, with clickable phone numbers to order and sorted by the amounts of "likes" or ratings from people within my social graph.
Below is a chart that shows how different players in the field are looking for their own value proposition within the SoLoMo space. Anyone know who the author/source is?
40% of Belgian marketers not satisfied with results of social media activities
From The House of Marketing's Yearly marketing survey 2011:
[Belgian] marketers really need to bring their knowledge of social media up to speed. Although they’re convinced of the usefulness of social media and they really want to invest in dialogue with the consumer, they lack basic competences to create content, to concretely handle the conversation and to analyze the results. Almost 40% of marketers are not really satisfied with the results of their social media activities, and even more, almost 60%, state that they do not know the Return On Marketing Investment (ROMI) of these activities. Probably, the low satisfaction rate is strongly linked to this lack of knowledge of ROMI.
Further reading:
- Yearly marketing survey 2011 Booklet (pdf 16 MB)
- Yearly marketing survey 2011 Slides (PDF 1 MB)
- Persbericht / Communiqué de presse
Facebook as traffic builder for news sites
In The Conversity Model I don't really recommend a Facebook Page if your only objective is to drive traffic to your website. Things change, however, if you use Like Buttons and other Social Plugins on your website.
A recent study by Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism investigated several traffic drivers online for news sites. Pew’s report also states that finding news is no longer important in this digital age - sharing the news is: “Google and Facebook are increasingly set up as competitors (for) sorting through the material on the Web."
A few other highlights from the report:
- 30% traffic originates from Google organic search
- 3% traffic come from Facebook through Like Buttons and links posted by users
- In comparison to Facebook, Twitter seems to make little or no effect
- 77% percent of the referral traffic comes in the form of casual users , who visit these sites not more than twice a month
Further reading:
- Facebook An Important Source Of Traffic For News Sites: Pew Internet @ watblog.com
- Where people Go, How They Get There and What Lures Them Away @ journalism.org
6 things you probably didn’t know LinkedIn could do
Lately LinkedIn has been adding more and more social features that make sharing news and links with professionals in a specific industry more attractive.
You probably already know about the importance of a complete Profile, and how to use LinkedIn Groups to answer questions from the industry and position yourself as an expert. And you probably also found out how to create a so-called Vanity URL for your LinkedIn Profile - mine is http://www.linkedin.com/in/clowillaerts
But did you know these LinkedIn features?
- LinkedIn Today is a homepage displaying top articles shared on LinkedIn and Twitter by people in your network. It works both way: share links and watch them show up on LinkedIn Today.
- LinkedIn Signal allows you to filter your network's status updates on e.g. industry or location.
- Company Profiles have been around for a while, but the last few months this is definitely the space with the most innovations. For an example of the possibilities, see http://www.linkedin.com/company/linkedin
- Corporate Recruiting Solutions are targeted at Human Resources departments looking to find new hires.
- LinkedIn Resume Builder to export your LinkedIn Profile to a CV you can email and print.
- LinkedIn Apps to spice up your Profile page. My favourite ones are Slideshare (to have your most recent presentation automatically embedded on your profile page), Blog Link (to syndicate your blog's content to your Profile), and Tweets. Tweets is brilliant: it allows you to create a dynamic Twitter List consisting of your LinkedIn contacts that you happen to be following on Twitter. Perfect to filter out the trivial and spammy Twitter messages!
Anything else we've missed?
Good news: Facebook just simplified its Promotion Guidelines
This week Facebook modified its infamous Promotion Guidelines - you know the ones that used to state that [...]You will not communicate about or administer a promotion on Facebook if: [...] The promotion, if a sweepstakes, is open to individuals residing in Belgium, Norway, Sweden, or India; [...], causing some big Belgian brands to get their Pages temporarily disabled.
The current Facebook Promotion Guidelines still govern how companies can run or advertise sweepstakes, contests, and other promotions on the Facebook platform. The exception for Belgian Facebook Pages is fortunately gone, but the key points are still there:
- Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or an app on a Page Tab. You cannot use Facebook features or functionality as an entry mechanism. Examples: you cannot give people entries simply by liking a page.
- You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion. For example, you cannot condition entry upon a person uploading a photo on a Wall, and collecting as many "likes" as possible for that photo post.
- You cannot notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages., such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages.”
Author Wesley March has summed up a few things that she thinks Page owners are still allowed to do in the context of a contest:
- Use Facebook to mention and provide links to contests we are holding elsewhere (unless it’s a Facebook contest; see below).
- Continue to run “Like Me” contests on our author websites. However, we can only use Facebook to monitor the number of people who become a fan. [...] Publicity for “Like Me” contests will have to come through Twitter [...] newsletters, our own websites, etc.
- Announce that you’ll run a contest AFTER you get a certain number of “Likes.” Then run the contest on a separate tab through the third party app or on your own website.
- As far as I know, these rules apply only to pages. Unless it’s hidden somewhere that I haven’t seen, you can still run contests through your individual/personal accounts.
What do you think of these?
And for the Belgians: don't forget that “promotions are subject to many regulations and if you are not certain that your promotion complies with applicable law, please consult with an expert.” - especially when your contest might be an infringement of, among other things, Belgium's strict Wet op de kansspelen / Loi sur les jeux de hasard.