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Facebook Adds Subscription Button to Personal Profiles

September 19, 2011 By 3 Comments

Yes, another Facebook change! How exciting! <—–sarcastic tone. This one mimics Twitter and the new Google+ Circles feature. Looks as if Facebook is trying to be everything every other social network is.

2 Benefits of the Facebook Subscription Button

You may have noticed the “Subscriptions” link under your profile picture. This new feature allows Facebook users to be able to ‘subscribe’ to other’s updates without even having to be their friend. This will help those who have capped out their friend limit at 5,000.

Also, more importantly, the new ‘subscribe’ button allows filtering out some status updates from your activity streams that have become too “noisy” or annoying or just simply not of interest to you without un-friending them.

Editing Subscription Update Preferences

By default, you are subscribed to all your existing friends. You can change this setting by clicking on “Subscriptions” under your profile picture, then you will see ‘Public Subscriptions’ and ‘Friend Subscriptions’.

Click on “Subscribed” next to your friend’s name to edit the updates you will see from them. Below are the options:

How many updates?

  • All updates
  • Most updates
  • Only important updates

What type of updates?

  • Life events
  • Status updates
  • photos and videos
  • games

Unsubscribe

 

Public Subscriptions

‘Public Subscriptions’ are those people whom you aren’t friends with but who provide entertaining or interesting content. I have subscribed to a nationally known social media marketing expert as well as a project manager at Facebook due to the nature of my business.

Hope that helps with understanding the new ‘subscribe’ button on your personal profile!

 

Share the Love!

If you found value in this post, please share with your social networks. Leave a comment below with your questions or personal experience/insight with Facebook subscriptions.

To Your Social Success,
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Filed Under: Facebook, My Blog Tagged With: , ,

Facebook Sponsored Stories

April 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Facebook recently introduced Sponsored Stories. Yeah, I know, ‘Sponsored Stories’ may sound sweet and innocent, but it clearly is another way for Facebook to get yet even more wealthy and another way for brands to advertise on Facebook. Sponsored stories leverages interactions that people have had with your brand and publishes it as an ad on the right-hand side of the news feed. It works remarkably well because essentially it is a word-of -mouth recommendation of your brand, which is the best kind.

 

A 2-Step Process

1) Someone “likes” an app, “likes” a brand, or checks into a location via Facebook Places.

2) If the brand or app they “liked” or the business they checked into is set up in Sponsored Stories in a Facebook Ads campaign, then the friends of the person who “liked” or “checked in” will see the activity in the right column on the feed page.

 

The Value is 2-Fold

1) to users: a trusted recommendation from a trusted friend is the best kind

2) for businesses: it produces word-of-mouth marketing that is scalable and predictable

 

4 Types of Stories

The following 3 options work exceptionally well for larger, more popular brands that are looking to increase their fan count. Someone is more likely to act on a friend’s recommendation of a brand they already like and trust and will prompt them to “like” it too for possible deals and specials and timely updates.

1) Page ‘Likes”

2) Application interactions

3) Place check-ins to a physical location

For 1-3 above, friends of fans will see this content or Sponsored Story. (i.e. Renee Harrison just “liked” Social Media Examiner”). If you think about it, this is very valuable. I have 4,468 friends as of this posting. When I like an app or a fan page that is featured on “Sponsored Stories,” I have just exposed that brand or app to that many people. And I am just one person who “liked” it.

4) Page posts-which is your latest published post on your fan page.  This one is a little different than 1-3 above. It is the only one that will only be seen by people who are already a fan of the page. The benefit of this is that it will re-engage your fans to come back to your page, or simply continue to build brand awareness and exposure and keep your brand top of mind. Even though your fans could see your page posts in their news feed, this isn’t always the case, especially if they have several friends with several updates or if your post wasn’t a popular one, these kind of posts can quickly get buried and never seen again. Sponsored Stories allows the update to be seen for a longer time so the majority of your fans will get a chance to see it.

I feel option #4 is best for smaller or younger brands as it keeps your fans engaged and exposed to your brand which is essential for building a following. Use this with Facebook Ads for optimal results.

 

Incorporate With Facebook Ads

Facebook encourages brands to use Sponsored Stories in conjunction with Facebook Ads for the most effective marketing. This is especially true for brands with smaller fan bases. Sponsored Stories is a message from fans of the page, Facebook Ads are a message from the business. Two different strategies that work for different reasons. Sponsored Ads has the same pricing and structure as Facebook Ads. You can also run both simultaneously and combine to meet your ad budget.

 

Sponsored Story Quick Facts

  • you can’t edit it
  • it populates on it’s own
  • status update text will cut off at a certain point
  • pulls in page image
  • pulls the most recent status update
  • it respects all privacy settings-if people have blocked your content in their news feed, they won’t see the sponsored story either
  • sponsored stories always appear above ads in the right-hand column of the news feed page
  • an auction determines the order of sponsored stories and up to 5 Sponsored Stories/Facebook Ads appear in the right-hand column
  • get started here: Create a Facebook Advert

I would love to hear your feedback on Facebook’s Sponsored Stories, if you have used it and your experience or plan on using it in the near future. If you enjoyed this post, please share it with your social networks by using the links below.

To Your Social Success,
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Queen Bee at Bee Social Biz

P.S. “Like” my fan page and I will “like” you forever!  Bee Social Facebook Page

Filed Under: Facebook, My Blog Tagged With: , , , , ,

Facebook News Feed Optimization: 3 Tips On How To Get Your Updates Into Your Target Users News Feeds

March 24, 2011 By 13 Comments

Every wonder if your status updates are even being seen by others in your network?

That is a topic that I investigated for my own purposes and came up with a wealth of information I felt every business page admin should know about.

Many Facebook users don’t even know that when you view your news feed, you can view it by the default setting which is ‘Top news’ or by switching it to ‘Most recent’. ‘Top news’ is all the updates Facebook deems most important to you, where ‘Most recent’ is all updates by all of your friends and pages you’ve ever liked. So the vast majority of Facebook users are viewing their home feeds in ‘Top news’ because  1) they don’t pay attention to this and don’t know it exists or 2) don’t know or care to know what the differences are.

Which leads us to a bit of a problem…..how can you get on Facebook’s most popular list and get your updates seen in the ‘Top news’ feed?

Facebook has a well-planned algorithm called EdgeRank which determines which updates actually get shown and to whom. It assigns points to your posting (which they refer to as an ‘object’) by how many interactions you are getting (which they refer to as an ‘edge’). The more edges your object has, the more likely you will be featured on the ‘Top news’ feed of your friends who have liked your page.

So to break it down:

  • Increased EdgeRank = Visibility
  • Decreased EdgeRank = Obscurity

News Feed Optimization Tips to Achieve Increased EdgeRank

1. Relevancy/Relationships-how much engagement you are receiving and the frequency of these interactions

2. The Type of Engagement Activity-this will determine how many EdgeRank points your post receives.

Friends that stalk you=good. If you have a friend who is repeatedly seeking out your page and interacting on it (i.e. clicking on links and viewing photos, etc.), this will help you get seen not only more often in the their newsfeed, but others as well.

You stalking a friend=not good. You will not appear more often in their news feed by doing this, so quit being weird like that :roll:

Links to other content on the web trump normal status updates. Facebook values this more as it drives user engagement. When someone clicks that link-you get EdgeRank points.

Photos and Videos trump links. Because both of these deliver more clicks as compared to a regular text update or a link, Facebook loves videos and photos postings and will give extra brownie points when someone clicks on these.

The power of a comment on your post is better yet. This will get you even more points and seen on even more target user’s feeds. Ask your audience an engaging question from time to time to elicit comments.

Here is a bit of advice to keep in mind when adding friends who you will want to suggest your business page to: the more popular they are (i.e. 600+ friends) the less likely your status update will make it to their ‘Top news’ feed as you are then competing with many more updates. So when possible, add friends who have a network of less than 200 friends which will increase the chances that your update will get seen.

3. Timeliness-It is best to receive your comments, likes and clicks the day of or the day after the posting. Facebook values recent activity.


The Game Plan

The Problem: So how does one get people to interact with their postings if they aren’t even getting seen in the first place?

The Solution: Get a posse of friends and employees who will volunteer to help you in your quest to get ranked better and get your content seen. Make sure they all obviously have a Facebook account and that they currently “like” the business page. This should only have to be a temporary period of time. How long it will take will depend on the commitment to quality engagement and the number of volunteers. Just have them start engaging per the above outlined tips and over time, you will start generating some of that natural social buzz that you deserve.  Facebook will start taking notice of your increased popularity and award you with a ‘Top news’ worthy ranking and your post’s exposure will vastly increase to your target market.

If you found value in this post, please share with your social networks or kindly leave a comment below.

President, Bee Social, LLC

Social Media Manager

 


Filed Under: Facebook, My Blog, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , ,

8 Facebook Business Fan Pages Done Right

February 10, 2011 By 20 Comments

Why should your business have a fan page?

Well, first off Facebook is the 2nd most trafficked website in the world according to Alexa and Compete. Facebook has 500 million active users, 150 million of those active users are currently using Facebook via mobile devices and the average American spends 7 hours per week on Facebook according to a recent Neilson report.

That combined with poor ROI on traditional marketing methods is reason enough to consider having a Facebook business fan page.

The advantages of engaging with existing fans and new fans is something that can be easily accomplished on a Facebook fan page, when done right.

Here are 9 examples of business fan pages who have nailed the Facebook fan page concept effectively. They are engaging with their audience and bringing in new business because of it.

1. ChickfilA
Starts off as the menu as their landing page with clickable images and text to their actual website. If you are a brick and mortar business it’s a good idea to have a store locator widget, like ChikfilA does here.

2. Russ Robinson Photography
There is a clear call to action the minute non-fans land on the page, plus the owner has added in a 10% coupon incentive for liking the page. He also has a “Share Us!” tab which easily allows for the user to invite their friends to like your page as well. Also notice the Foursquare tab Place Widget. It shows an actual map and address to his studio. Russ also spotlights his work and creates promotions based on fan feedback.

3. 1- 800- Flowers

The feature I think is great on this site is the tab called “Guy’s Guide To Flowers”. Through Facebook insights you are able to get demographics on visitors to the page, obviously more men were visiting the site and 1- 800 – Flowers had a great idea providing this male specific how-to tab. They also do a great job of encouraging fans to comment, give their thoughts, ideas and feedback. If you are an eCommerce store you can integrate that into your fan page as they did here in their Facebook shoplet via Alvenda.

4. Kampgrounds of America (KOA)

Again, a great call to action landing page is visible to all non-fans of the site. You only have a few seconds to get someone’s attention, you want them to click that like button before they leave and may never find you again. KOA also have an Involver Facebook app that shares all their other location-based fan pages. This fan page also offers a YouTube tab with fan videos of family camping trips. Also they incorporate fan camping photos at area KOA Campgrounds.

5. Intel

Great use of promotions and contest that engage fans and keep them coming back. The Facebook Wildfire app is a great for running contests. Intel will sometimes interview their employees and have them explain the quality of the products they create.

6. Firehouse Subs

Great landing tab for non-fans promoting their birthday subs. They have their other social sites prevalent and share button obvious at the top. Anything you can do to make it easy for someone to share and connect will dramatically increase their chances of doing just that. They do a good job of engaging fans in the Notes tab where they ask their fans opinions and include exclusive offers.

7. Ritz-Carlton

The landing tab for non-fans immerses them into their various amazing resorts and services by using beautiful photography. Another way of engaging their fans is by sharing interesting location-based resort factoids creating stories.

8. Teavana

The non-fan landing tab has the like button visible and obvious as well as the great benefits of their products which in itself will help to immediately engage the user. There are obvious links to their other social sites. They also add some social proof by displaying photos of  famous people that like their page. A great way to engage their fans is by a Tea of The Week tab along with a What’s In Your Cup tab where fans send in their photos and can win a contest.

Hopefully you have gained some great insight and tips on how to create or spruce up your Facebook fan page. Bee Social has Facebook fan page customization services that can help bring out the best in your business and engage your fans. You can learn more on our Services tab.

Just remember these pointers when you create your Facebook fan page:

  • choose a strategy that fits your brand
  • create multiple custom tabs to highlight your products/services
  • ask interesting and fun questions
  • try to create an experience for your audience-spread your passion about your brand
  • make it fun with activities, polls, and contests that will keep your fans coming back
  • use video
  • take risks-you can always go back and change it
  • always, always publish great content that offers value

What are some fan pages that you have found to be particularly engaging? What apps or widgets did they have that made it work better?

If you found value in this post, please share with your social networks and/or comment below.

To Your Social Success,

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