August 6th, 2012

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The Latest in Facebook Insights and Trends

The Latest in Facebook Insights and Trends

At BeeSeen we are a full service E-Marketing agency providing services from Display Advertising to Social Media Marketing.  In keeping up with the trends, we summed up the best insights below from the latest Facebook conference, AllFacebook 2012 in San Francisco.

The “Verb”

Facebook & Social Marketing is now about the “Verb”, as in “Listen to”, “Watch”, “Read”.  If a person listens to a particular band or watches a certain type of video or reads this type of book, then we can serve up a related Ad to them.  Folks we are now getting into the Social Graph, where we can see users actions across web channels and serve up targeted Ads.  With information on demographics, interests, and the social graph tied to verbs, the ROI of FB Advertising is quickly becoming reality.  This is targeted advertising at the next level!

Content is King

Okay nothing new here, but it’s still an extremely important foundation to marketing.  Work on the content that is likeable & sharable, test it, and then create offers.   Consider images or videos as part of your must have content.  Having great content is a must for a successful marketing campaign.

Frequency

Q: How often should I post content to Facebook?

A: The minimum is at least once a day.  For brands such as NBC they post 30 times a day via Facebook because events are constantly happening.  The maximum will depend on what’s relevant to your brand and audience.

Multiple Accounts

Having multiple accounts is frowned upon, except when you truly have multiple business units.  For large organizations such as Franchises, having multiple accounts is the best option to go with.  Each location (or operating company, in the case of large corporations) should have their own account so they can localize their content.  The main company account must be active with posts that are not conflicting for any one location.  For example Fuddruckers will post new menu items in their corporate account with a disclaimer “available at participating locations”.   Localized content with support from the corporate office builds a great synergy where both users and brands both benefit from.

Social Commerce

Social commerce has failed in its initial attempts.  Many brands are seeing very little revenue in their social stores.  We must change our mindset of only the direct sale and treat Facebook and our social commerce initiatives as a doorway to our brand.  A Facebook store is drawing in word of mouth (WOM) from friends that then bring them to your main web properties and then to your main storefront.   Don’t get me wrong people will still buy by social properties, in fact 40 Million have shopped on Facebook, but by neglecting the all other areas, you will not gain any additional synergy.  Your social commerce strategy has to be integrated with your overall E-Commerce & E-Marketing strategy to gain the maximum ROI for your campaigns.

Legal Disclaimer

Be sure to be aware of the legal aspects of what you do online.  For example bloggers must disclaim that they received a product from you if they endorse your product with a post or product review.  Some states have certain restrictions for contests or giveaways for over $500.  Be aware of the rules and regulations for marketing effort you do.

Marketing Campaign Ideas & Going Viral

Only 20% of great ideas go viral on average.  That’s only 2 of your of 10 campaigns, so keep trying and testing new but great ideas.   And it’s ok to ask fans for likes and shares.   Contests and giveaways are great ways to drive social interaction.  However, be sure to give a product that is part of or related to your brand.   The only people that benefit from an iPad giveaway is Apple and possibly places like Best Buy (who sells iPads), but not the flower shop down the street.  The flower shop can give away real flowers to users buying virtual flowers in a game.   Contests and giveaways are great but be sure to do it right!

Other ideas for viral marketing campaigns include:

  • Jokes
    • Typical B2B: 5 mistakes when choosing this product
  • Memes
    • Copy common photo and put your own caption
  • Images
    • People hate reading so show images like Infographics
  • Top Lists
    • Top 7 Social Media Insights for the Fashion Industry
  • There is an app for that
    • Create fun and engaging apps

Gamification

Building your own game is too cost prohibitive for most companies even large companies.  There are a few, but not many success stories here.  On the flip side having tiny Ads in awkward places also doesn’t work.   The future is to build different types of Ads where you can engage the user such as when completing a level or some other action.   Think smart and you will win at this game.

Organic vs. Paid

Just like with Google, you have both a paid and organic placements.  Organic being the regular posts that you put up, versus sponsor posts that you paid for.    This term has been around for a while, but now is much more apparent in Facebook now than it was years ago.   Having both Organic and Paid can give a extra lift to your marketing efforts.

If You Post They May Not See!

Did you know on average only 16% of people might see your post.  It may never reach their news feed.   It gets worse as low as 2% if your brand has a large fan base.  The larger the fan base, the lower percentage of your fans will see it.  Edge rank is the algorithm that Facebook came up with to calculate who and how many people will see your post (of your own fans!).   One of the differences between Facebook vs. Twitter, is that Facebook has implemented noise filters so any one user is not bombarded with too much information.   With that said, you can pay for sponsored posts and other advertising.   In fact there is a synergy between Organic & Paid, because both then can produce many more Organic “Shares” so the net outcome is a greater.

Adios Facebook Credits

Facebook has closed the chapter on Facebook Credits.  Some say too prematurely.  This was used as Facebook currency for Apps within Facebook (such as games).  Facebook will now use regular currency.  Using regular currency now hinders a lot of incentive based campaigns in giving and monetizing points for user interaction.

FB SEO

Did you realize that the Social Networks are also Search Engines.  The future of social changes the paradigm of search, now social search.  So Facebook Campaigns can really use some attention in the areas of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  One of the key areas people miss is the Open Graph Tags.  Include keywords in the meta data, here are some key points:

  • Keep the Title to 63 Characters
  • Keep the Description to 175 Characters
  • Assign an OG Type = Link the object to relevant to your content
  • For more information visit: Developers.facebook.com

What’s the Next Wave?

The next wave is all about user experience, DISCOVER! Facebook and Social Media is different from Google, where Google consumers are searchers.   People do NOT go to Facebook to shop, they go to discover.  Facebook and Social Media is a way for consumers to discover your brand, which in turn may drive search demand or demand to your other properties.  For example finding a new style shoe that a friend just talked about or any product that is worthy of telling your friends and peers.   When launching a new product Facebook would actually be much more effective than Google advertising.

Wow, when did that happen, when Facebook can be more effective than Google.

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