I’m On Facebook — Now What??? 2nd Edition Now Available!
I’ve been busy co-authoring a book on Facebook marketing “I’m on Facebook — Now What??? 2nd Edition” with the authors of the first edition, 
Jason Alba and Jesse Stay.
I’m excited that the book is now available on Amazon and in stores.
Here’s the exerpt:
Facebook took the internet by storm and brought social media to the masses. There are now over 1 billion people using the site monthly, from all around the world. And Facebook, along with other popular social media properties, has revolutionized marketing. Where marketing was once dominated by one way messages to the masses, it is now much more relationship based. And while marketing used to require big budgets and favor large businesses, it can now be done much less expensively, leveling the playing field for organizations of all sizes and geographic regions.
In this updated version of the book we will bring you up to speed on the changes to Facebook since the last version of this book was published, as well as teach you how to get started with a Facebook business Page, how to create engaging content that meets overall objectives, how to manage your Facebook Page and build community, how to create successful Facebook ad buys and promotions, how to measure success, and how to use Facebook applications and plugins.
The book is written in easy to understand language and includes many examples of how successful businesses and organizations are using Facebook, as well as Action Items to help you utilize what you learn.
Contains a foreword by Mari Smith and an afterword by Mike Stelzner (of Social Media Examiner).
Hope you like it!
How To Create a Facebook Reporting Template
My most popular post of all time was on social media reporting templates, so I wanted to share updated information. Here are some tips about what to include in a Facebook reporting template as well as an example. You can add other social media properties to compare high level performance.
First as some background.. There is ALOT of data available. Facebook Insights has great data. And if you are using a social media management tool like HootSuite or Sprout Social, those have great information also. Google Analytics also provides valuable data. And there are other free and paid tools like PageLever, etc.
All this data is great, and can be very useful for understanding and improving your efforts. But it can also be overwhelming. At the end of the day, it’s important to track several key high level metrics. Many set up a simple reporting dashboard to do this.
You’ll want to include Facebook metrics like total Likes, new Likes and unlikes, as well as reach, and engagement rate. You’ll also want to include metrics that track performance against business objectives including traffic to your blog or website, mentions, improved brand sentiment, leads or email opt-ins, reduction in customer service calls, sales, and revenue. Here is a simple reporting dashboard that can be tweaked for your business’ unique objectives and reporting capabilities.
6 Brands Doing Facebook Images Right
Images have become a very important part of Facebook page posts. Facebook gives a higher EdgeRank score to posts with photos so they are more likely to show up in a newsfeed, and posts with photos get increased interaction.
Here are a few examples of brands doing a great job with images. Several are in the food and beverage category as I’ve been paying close attention to the category because of my client in the category, Margaritaville Mixed Drinker. And yes, I did include Margaritaville Cargo, the Facebook page for the Mixed Drink Maker, in the list 
Jamba Juice
Bright, fun images with clever copy make we want to head to my nearest Jamba Juice.
Starbucks
They have a passionate fan base of 31 million coffee lovers. I’m not a coffee lover, but their posts makes me want to become one.
Budweiser
Their close-up images and clever copy make me yearn for a cold one.
Disney
Who doesn’t love classic Disney images and iconic quotes? I’m ready to go to Red Box and get a movie for Friday Night Movie Night.
Jetsetter
I can’t wait to get the Daily Moment of Zen each day. Time to start planning my next vacation.
Margaritaville Cargo
We use enticing images, fun fill-in-the-blanks, and exotic locales that make fans want to mix up a refreshing cocktail.
5 Tips To Increase Facebook Fan Engagement
It is really important to get Facebook page engagement rate up as much as possible to maintain EdgeRank score (Facebook’s algorithm for deciding which posts make it to your fan’s newsfeed), and to meet other objectives like awareness, brand affinity, referrals, and sales. Here are some tips.
1. Get the right people on the page
The more highly interested fans, the easier it is to get interaction on a page. So, first focus on getting anyone who has any interest in your brand to your Facebook page. Make sure to have a Facebook icon front and center on your website. Also send emails to your email list, promote via other social media, and include links everywhere else you can.. signage, email signatures, etc. Next, do targeted ad buys or sweepstakes/contests with highly relevant prizes to increase the number of fans that are interested in the page content.
2. Post stunning images
Facebook has become very visual. Facebook gives preference to images and people are more likely to interact with images that catch their eye. Take advantage of this by posting images as often as possible. See this example from client, Margaritaville Mixed Drink Maker’s Facebook page. Who doesn’t love seeing a picture of Bora Bora?
3. Use clever copy and include calls to action
Make your copy short and appealing to the audience. Not always, but often, include calls to action to comment, Like, share, etc. Here is another example from client Margaritaville Mixed Drink Maker’s Facebook page. This post earned a 9.21% engagement rate (vs. 2-3% industry average).
4. Respond to comments regularly
People want to be heard. So show them you are listening by replying to their questions and comments. If you don’t respond they will stop interacting, and if you do, they are more likely to interact again as well as buy your product.
5. Make it fun with events and offers
A great way to get fans excited and interacting is with a fun sweepstakes or contest. As a bonus (and often primary objective) increase Likes, email opt-ins, and referral traffic.
What are some of your tips for increasing engagement rate?
2012 Social Media Stats
With the year almost half over, here are some recent interesting stats for many the top social media properties.
- Over 845 million active users (Facebook)
- #2 trafficked website in the world behind Google (Alexa)
- 57% log in daily (Facebook)
- 2.7 billion likes and comments/day (Facebook)
- Approx. 26% of referral traffic (Shareaholic)
- 500 million registered users, approx. 200 million active (mediabistro)
- 36% tweet at least 1x/day (mediabistro)
- 175 million tweets/day (mediabistro)
- 8th most trafficked website (Alexa)
- Approx. 3.6% of referral traffic (Shareaholic)
YouTube
- 800 million users/mo (YouTube)
- 60 hours of video uploaded every minute (YouTube)
- 4 billion videos viewed/day (YouTube)
- 500 years of YouTube video are watched every day on Facebook, and over 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute (YouTube)
- #3 most trafficked site (Alexa)
- Approx. 1.05% of referral traffic (Shareaholic)
- 150 million professionals (LinkedIn)
- 74% of LinkedIn users have a college degree or better, with 26% having a graduate degree (LinkedIn)
- 2 million+ companies have company pages (LinkedIn)
- 1 million+ Groups (LinkedIn)
- 12th most trafficked site (Alexa)
- Approx .2% of referral traffic (Shareaholic)
WordPress
- 48% of the top 100 blogs run on WordPress (Technorati)
- 16% of all websites run on WordPress, estimated 20-25% of new websites built on WordPress (WordPress)
- 70 million WordPress blogs worldwide (WordPress)
- 18.7 million unique users (comScore)
- Retaining and engaging users 2-3 times as efficiently as Twitter was at a similar time in history (RJMetrics)
- 98 min average/mo on site (comScore)
- 97% female (AppData)
- Top areas of the country for Pinterest users: East South Central (Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee) and West North Central (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota)
- Approx. 3.6% of referral traffic (Shareaholic)
- 39th most trafficked site (Alexa)
- 100 million active users (Google)
- Ave. 6 minutes on site
- 71% are male
- Approx. .22% of referral traffic (Shareaholic)
- 30 million+ registered app users (Instagram)
- 1 billion+ photos uploaded (Instagram)
- 5 million+ photos uploaded/day (Instagram)
Tumblr
- 1.8 million users (Tumblr)
- Hosts 50 million blogs (Tumblr)
- 160 min ave. on site/mo, second to Facebook (Tumblr)
- Skews heavily 12-24 (Tumblr)
I’m excited by Pinterest opportunities. Were you surprised by any of the numbers above? Let me know in the comments below.
How To Do A Facebook Ad Buy
In my last blog post I shared 10 Ways To Increase Your Facebook Likes. The final suggestion was to do a Facebook ad buy. In this post I will share how to do a basic Facebook ad buy.
First, some things to know:
Creating a Facebook Page is free, but running an ad campaign requires a budget. Grow your Page as much as possible for free first, then consider doing an ad buy to increase your Likes more.
Facebook ad buy costs are going up. Just like Google paid search costs started very low and increased as advertisers jumped on board, Facebook ad buy costs are also increasing. 2010 cost per clicks were about double 2009 cost per clicks. That said, Facebook ad buys can still be very effective and costs are likely lower now than they will be a year from now.
Let’s get started..
1. Go to the Facebook page you want to promote, then click on “Promote with an Ad”
2. Now you are able to “Design Your Ad”
a. Select Destination. You can select an External URL (a website) or a Facebook Page or Event. My instructions are for ads promoting a Facebook page.
b. Select Type of ad. Sponsored Stories are new. There are three options, click to see what each looks like. Facebook Ads are the standard ad. I will share how to create a Facebook Ad.
c. Select Destination tab. You can drive people to your Wall, Welcome tab, or other tabs on your Facebook page. If you have a Welcome tab I recommend sending people there. A well designed Welcome tab can double your conversion to Like. If not, the Wall is generally where you want to send people.
d. Choose a Title. If you are linking to an external website, you can create a title, otherwise, the Facebook page name is the default title.
e. Create your Body copy. I generally recommend copy that clearly explains what type of content a person will find on a Page and a clear call to Like the page.
f. Upload Image. Choose a relevant and appealing image.
You will see a preview of the ad.
3. Next, choose your Targeting
a. Select Location. The default is United States. You can also target by State, City, or Country.
b. Select Demographics. Select the age you wish to target, as well as Sex.
c. Choose Interests. Here you can select interests, like golfing, etc. as well as competitive or similar Facebook pages. Type selections into the box, and you will see Estimated Reach on the right hand side.
d. Select Connections on Facebook. I usually recommend targeting “Only people who are not fans of xx”. And larger Pages can target “friends of fans of xx”.
e. Select Advanced Demographics, if applicable.
f. Select Education & Work. This is where you can target by Education and Workplaces.
4. Lastly, enter Campaigns, Pricing, and Scheduling information.
a. Create a Campaign Name. To do this, click on “Create a new campaign”.
b. Enter the Budget. If you want to enter the entire campaign budget select “Lifetime budget”. Facebook will deliver your budget evenly over the life of the campaign. If you have a very limited budget, you can start small. $50 will get you a nice little test. If the budget allows, increase for a longer campaign and better initial learning.
c. Select Campaign Schedule
Now your first ad is created and you can click “Place Order”. You will be dropped at your campaign page. You can run the campaign with just one ad, but it is recommended to create multiple ads, as Facebook optimizes by ad performance. To create more ads, go to your first ad and click on “Create a Similar Ad”. In order to test the ads, change only one variable in each ad. For example, change the copy and keep the image and target the same, etc. Make sure to name each ad clearly so you can easily differentiate.
Once Facebook approves your ads, your campaign will go live. Good luck! Once live, monitor the campaign and stop it if your cost per Like is unacceptable. And, once you have these new Likes on your Page, make sure to give them valuable content so they stay, and work to convert them to achieve your business goals.
Feel free to ask me any questions!
10 Ways To Increase Your Facebook Likes
If you have a Facebook page for your business and want to increase Likes, here are some suggestions. Some are very basic (but work) and others will take a little more effort. Here goes..
1. Send an email to your friends and family asking them to Like your Facebook page. Maybe they are not your target, but they will get your Likes up to make your page look more legitimate and may be more likely to comment/Like which is helpful to get interaction going on the page, and helps for newsfeed optimization.
2. Send an email to your email list (current clients, partners.. anyone that you think might benefit from your Facebook page). Again, let them know your page exists. Email really is the best way to increase your numbers quickly.
3. Add your Facebook icon/url everywhere. Add icons to your website and blog, add an icon or url to your business cards and email signature, add a link from your LinkedIn profile, add an icon/link to any presentations you do and printed collateral, and put up signage if you have a physical presence.
4. Add a Facebook Like box to your blog. This way people can see others that have Liked your page (including their friends if any have Liked your page) and Like the Facebook page without leaving the blog.
5. Cross promote your Facebook page on your other social media properties. Periodically simply mention your Facebook page on your personal Facebook page, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Or if there is anything exciting happening on your Facebook page, mention that.
6. Take advantage of any opportunities to share your Facebook page. Some Facebook pages periodically let others share their Facebook page on their wall for their audience to see. Facebook guru, Mari Smith, does this periodically. She has 44k Likes so a huge potential audience. The WIC Facebook page also does this periodically, so be on the lookout for this opportunity. Some LinkedIn groups also post Discussions allowing members to share their Facebook pages. And periodically email lists ask members to share. Look for these opportunities.
7. Link to other Facebook pages in your posts. To do this, first Like the other page, then link to the page in your post by typing @ and then the page name. Your post will show up on the other page’s wall and the page owner or others may notice the post and visit your page.
8. Host a Q&A on your Facebook wall. Get an expert to answer questions on a relevant topic. If the expert has a large social media following, many may come to the event and Like your page.
9. Promote your page at live events. Beyond mentioning your page you can get more creative. Let people know they can like your page from their phone by texting the name of the page (for example, womeninconsulting) to FBOOK. Or, if you have a computer, ask them to Like the page on the spot in exchange for something (entering a contest, free product, etc.)
10. Do a Facebook ad buy. If you have a marketing budget, consider a Facebook ad buy. Cost are going up, but advertising may still make sense (and if you want to advertise at some point you may want to do it now, while costs are still reasonable).
Do you have any other suggestions?
*This post was originally published to the Women In Consulting blog
5 Great Summer Facebook Campaigns
Summer is here and the big brands are running fun seasonal Facebook campaigns. Here are several of my favorite current Facebook campaigns, contests, and sweepstakes.
Just in time for Father’s Day.. tell eBay what makes your Dad a Superdad and be entered to win a home entertainment package or gift card.
Why I like: It’s timely and fun for Father’s Day
Enter to win the Grand Prize – round trip tickets to NJ, two tickets to the show, and a meet and greet. Or, be entered to win tickets to a local concert.
Why I like: Who wouldn’t like to win a VIP trip to see Rihanna in concert.
3) Ford Explorer “Go Do Adventure”
Tell Ford the Go Do Adventure that you and your family or friends would like to take in an Explorer for a week in the US and if selected Ford will foot the bill and make it happen.
Why I like: With Summer here, and a tough economy, a week vacation on Ford is appealing.
4) Campaign to save 1 million gallons of water by asking guys to make a pledge to stop shaving for as long as they can.
Why I like: You have to stop and look at this clever and fun campaign. Plus it has a World Environment Day tie-in.
5) Corona Light “Beach Getaway”
Rescue the Corona Beach Bottle from the sand castle to win a trip to Mexico.
Why I like: Another fun vacation giveaway, with an entry twist.
Are there any current Facebook campaigns you like? Share them here.
19 Twitter Tips From Top WIC Twitter Users
If you are a Twitter user or want to get started, here are 19 great tips. The tips are from many of Women in Consulting’s top Twitter users – some are social media experts, and some use Twitter for their business.
Read on… and let me know if you like these tips or have a tip to share in the comments section at the end of the article.
1. Jen Benz – http://twitter.com/jenbenz
Share ideas and resources freely, show your personality and be clear about your point of view.
2. Jen Berkley – http://twitter.com/jenberkley
I use TweetDeck to help me better manage the flow of information. It’s helpful to set up columns for various topics that I’m monitoring which allows me to keep up-to-date on topics and trends in my field.
3. Susan Bernstein – http://twitter.com/WorkFromWithin
Use Twitter for strategic networking by using the Search feature. Type in key words (example: “executive development”). Scan the interesting tweets and find the people behind them. Add interesting people to your targeted lists (like my http://twitter.com/#!/list/WorkFromWithin/working-well list). Scan the posts in that list daily. You’ll notice patterns in who tweets helpful or intriguing tweets. Over time, send a direct message (“DM”) to those people. Ask to talk to them by phone and nurture new professional friendships.
4. Pam Fox Rolllin – http://twitter.com/PamFR
You can create up to 20 Twitter lists, which can be public or private. For example, I created a list of WIC members on Twitter: http://twitter.com/PamFR/womeninconsulting-sfbay Lists contribute to your branding (people can easily see what I care about from my lists), help others find you and your favorite associates, and are gold for making the most of time on Twitter (for example, I have a private list of clients who are on Twitter, so I can easily check their tweets).
5. Nancy Friedman - http://twitter.com/Fritinancy
Be a beat reporter for your followers. I’m a former journalist, so when I heard this piece of advice it immediately clicked. But we’re all beat reporters—your beat is simply what you know best. My own beat is brand names, so you’ll see me tweeting about business and product names, weird names, and verbal branding in general. But I also mix it up. A related bit of advice: Don’t be boring!
6. Karen Goldfarb – http://twitter.com/kareng7
Use a combination of automating the process via tools such as Tweet Spinner and old fashioned hands-on management in order to grow your base. Tweet Spinner will let you follow and find Twitter users by keywords, as well as mimicking the Twitter followers of users who are similar to you. I also highly recommend you still take an active role in reviewing who the tool chooses for you to follow and manually customizing the list. Last but not least, once you’re following those folks, engage with them like a real person. Automation is all well and good but it, like Twitter, is just a means to an end, the end being to grow your network of real contacts who are interested in what you say and do and, heck, may want to hire you.
7. Kathryn Gorges – http://twitter.com/kagorges
One of the best ways to get unexpected visibility for your blog is to set up hashtags when you use Twitterfeed to automatically tweet your blog entries. Your hashtags give people a way to find you when they search in Twitter for topics they’re interested in. Make sure you choose ones that correspond to all your blog posts because they’ll be attached to every tweet from your blog!
8. Avery Horzewski – http://twitter.com/averyh
Use TweetDeck or similar tool to manage your tweets. TweetDeck is easy—no real learning curve, and it’s robust. Schedule Tweets or post immediately. Auto-shorten URLs. Track numerous lists. Use groups to categorize the people you follow. And manage multiple accounts, to name a few. I monitor and manage my own account, WIC’s, and several clients all from within TweetDeck. And it’s accessible from my notebook, iPad, and Droid. TweetDeck is a must.
9. Rachel Melia – http://twitter.com/rachelmelia
Tweet during conferences for additional insight and to build your followers and lists. I like tweeting behind the scenes at conferences (in-person or online) to see what others are saying about the content. And, other attendees will follow you, possibly re-tweet your tweets, and add you to conference or industry related lists.
10. Lucie Newcomb – http://twitter.com/NewCommGlobal
Leverage the potential of a RT. Instead of saying, “thanks for the RT” (even worse as a DM), use it as a springboard for dialogue and appreciation. I usually find one of the RTer’s tweets and lead with RThx (RT + Thx = RThx) to show my appreciation and demonstrate some attention to them and their tweets.
11. Adrian Ott – http://twitter.com/ExponentialEdge
I limit twitter to no more than 15 minutes a day. I use Rescuetime to track how many minutes are spent and it sends a warning if I have exceeded my time limit.
12. Linda Popky – http://twitter.com/popky
Share content that is high value and relevant. This can include observations on current events or your market or industry, as well as re-tweeting (RT) great things you’ve seen others say. Use Twitter to follow people who say interesting things so that you can find good material to pass on. But mix it up: Tweets should be a mix of your observations, others’ thoughts, and useful links with a bit of tasteful and *well thought-out* humor thrown in on occasion.
13. Sherry Prescott – http://twitter.com/MarketThis
I’m starting a new Twitter mini-campaign “90-Days of Marketing Intelligence” around the launch of my book to e-book format. To drive awareness and create momentum, I am leveraging my existing book content! I try to take a bite-size chunk of content from my book and talk about it daily on my blog. Then, as a follow-up, I try to post to Twitter on a daily basis leading back to my blog on my website so people can read about my tip from the book. In addition to this mini-campaign effort, I try to follow at least 10-20 new people weekly and I also try to post articles and interesting news trends that I think my followers would want to read about.
14. Karmen Reed – http://twitter.com/kickofftopic
Create a free Twitterfeed account where you can setup any RSS feed to be tweeted automatically from your Twitter account. You can customize each RSS feed with a specific post prefix or suffix, set keyword filters, set your update frequency and more. I use this to auto-tweet all WIC blog posts and some of my favorite social media blogs.
15. Jan Richards – http://twitter.com/MrsRoadshow
Contribute. Provide resources and ideas that you think others will find useful. Retweet (“RT”) generously.
16. Carla Schlemminger - http://twitter.com/@Socialbrite, http://twitter.com/carlainsf
1. Every employee is now in customer service. Empower them through training on best practices & tools. 2. Aim to address someone’s question about what product to use, etc, by first being helpful <as opposed to pushing your product out of the gate>. 3. Address issues that come in through Twitter initially on that platform, then quickly move to a more private space. 4. Define customer’s influence more broadly than a large number of followers. 5. Measure efforts against business goals.
17. Tracy Sestili – http://twitter.com/tracysestili
Get more fans by establishing thought leadership and showing you are an expert in your area of expertise by posting a daily tip. Be sure to use a hashtag such as #SMTIP (social media tip) or something that is relevant at the end of your tweet. If your daily tip is on your website and you are promoting via a blog post, be sure to not only use the hashtag but use a url shortener so that you can track clicks.
18. Sandi Smith – http://twitter.com/brainhappy
To get the highest match on following prospects in your ideal-client category, find people on Twitter who are serving your ideal client and follow their followers.
19. Melissa Stacey - http://twitter.com/melissastacey
Don’t allow Twitter to be a “time sucker” – Set a time limit to post updates, read your twitter feed and connect with others. Using a timer is a great way to track your time so you don’t go over your limit.
Do you like these tips? If you have a tip of your own, share it here!
*This article was originally posted to the Women In Consulting blog.
