10 Tips for Planning Your Christmas Digital Marketing Campaigns

I know it’s only September but if you are a business hoping to sell to Christmas shoppers this year, then it’s time to start thinking. In fact it’s time to start planning! Yes, online shopping has become extremely popular, but why not remind online customers to buy local and support Irish businesses? Build up that relationship with your customers, get to know them and show them that you care about the products they want to buy this Christmas.

1. Plan ahead

This is number one for a reason; the first step for creating a Christmas digital campaign should be planning. Think of what you would like to include in the content, any special offers and so on. What are your key messages? Plan your website content (and blog posts) as well as a schedule of Facebook/Twitter updates. Of course, it is also very important to integrate your digital and traditional marketing campaign.

 2. Design for Christmas

Update your social media graphics (Facebook cover, Twitter header etc.) to have a Christmas theme.  Consider sending out an email newsletter to your customers this Christmas perhaps including a discount or free gift. Use the Christmas theme throughout all your marketing efforts.

3. Analyse last year’s Christmas Campaign

When planning your Christmas or seasonal marketing programme, start by taking a look at the same time period in previous years. We’re all only human after all, so learn from your previous mistakes, build upon previous successes and make this year’s seasonal period the best one yet for your organisation. Take note of any good points and any bad points from the digital marketing campaign including content, graphics and engagement on social media as well as reviewing the analytics for your website and do a keyword analysis. Look and what you did last year, then modify it to make it even better.

4. What are your competitors doing?

Subscribe to competitor newsletters to see how they are running their Christmas email marketing campaigns. Maybe go on Twitter and search for “newsletter” to get ideas from other companies running email campaigns. A good idea for the retail sector could be to run an email campaign under the theme of “12 Days of Christmas” with a different discounted product every day, or a different prize everyday on Facebook and so on. Look at your competitors blogs from last year, what did they write about? Check them out on social media. Who were they talking to? Listen to your customers. Ask them what they would like. Search for keywords on Twitter or on Hootsuite and see what people are saying. Perhaps be “different” and do an alternative Christmas.

5. Share important information

Don’t forget to let everyone know opening hours over Christmas to make everyone aware of any days that you are not operating. Also include any latest dates on ordering products to make sure they can be delivered in time for Christmas. These are important pieces of information which may have a big impact on purchases made online!

6. Don’t just sell

Make sure you have other content in your digital campaign, like any blog posts that are relevant to your products or service or any helpful content on your website or company news. Ensure that if you are running a competition on your social media that the normal everyday posts continue and don’t just get replaced with Christmas competitions and promotions.

 7. Email your market

In order to increase online sales through Email Marketing this Christmas you need a good schedule, tempting deals and optimise campaigns for mobile and social. Email marketing stills provides excellent ROI compared with other marketing tools.

8. Don’t Forget your Mobile Audience

Don’t forget about mobile users when posting to social networks, blogging and email marketing. Always analyse your web analytics to monitor mobile traffic and which devices are used most often. Remember that with one in three emails being read on a smart phone or tablet it is critical that they are optimised to be read on these devices. Remember that “register”, “sign up” and social media “follow” buttons need to be “thumb-friendly”.

10. Don’t flood your customers with too many updates

Timing is key! Planning your Christmas campaign early is essential. Executing that plan too early may annoy your customers. The first week of November is an acceptable time to start. If your Christmas promotional updates begin too early, you run the risk of a rise in unsubscribes, unfollows and unlikes, so keep your campaign short and sweet! Best thing to do is start working on engaging with your customers and building up that relationship, then when the time comes, you will have plenty of brand advocates to spread the Christmas cheer 😉

When do you start your Christmas campaign?

PS. I can’t believe I have Christmas and Christmas pictures up on my blog in September!!!

Privacy Tips for Social Media

Every day we use our favourite social media channel to communicate, engage, and to maintain our relationships with friends, family, and colleagues.

If you do things in public be aware of social media – most people have a smartphone with good camera and instant access to the internet and social media. Social Media has changed the way people interact. If its not something you would be happy for your parents or employers to see or witness then think twice. In today’s world of social networking, it is hard to strike a balance between staying connected and maintaining a measure of healthy privacy.

How to make your social media more private:

• Be aware and educated. Everyone needs to be more aware of social media – tagging photos or uploading photos is now a part of everyday life.
• Adjust the privacy settings on each social media platform you use. Check which third party apps have access to your social media profile and what information they have access to.
• Change your passwords on a regular basis. Use a combination of symbols, letters and numbers. Also, it’s advisable to use a separate password for each social media network.
• Ask your friends to consider the ramifications too before they post or tag any images of you on the internet. Don’t forget that Facebook uses facial recognition software to offer automated photo tagging now.
• Keep up to date with the Privacy policies which change frequently from site to site so make sure you regularly watch for updates and review your privacy settings.
• Do not post information that would make you vulnerable, including your birth date, physical address or other details that help identity thieves.
• Protect your privacy online and remember that photos are searchable by employers so always think twice before uploading. If you’d rather pictures of you weren’t shared online, then tell your friends.
• Be careful about “checking in” on Facebook and Foursquare. Don’t share travel plans! Some sites will allow other individuals to check you in to geographic locations. Many people don’t mind this option, but remember that when you tell people where you are, you are also telling them where you aren’t – at home.
• Be selective about instant sharing on social media, think before you post!
• Before you click “post” or “share” think about the consequences. Could this embarrass you or damage your career prospects? You need to manage your personal brand, this includes a certain amount of self censorship!
• Use your judgement when it comes to the digital world, just as you would in the real world.
• If something posted about you and you don’t like it or want it there, report it to the social media site immediately.
• Remember, anything you post online can “go viral” and removing a something is not a guarantee it’s gone. People often take screen shots of these “viral posts”.
• Don’t post anything online that you want kept private.
• Don’t put on social media what you wouldn’t put on a billboard!

Think about it — social media has been integrated into our daily lives, and it is now as simple as picking up your smartphone, starting up your favourite social application, and sharing an update to your network. Think carefully about your social media engagement approach.

How to Protect Your Privacy from Facebook’s Graph Search

Graph Search allows users to make structured searches to filter through friends, friends of friends, and strangers. This feature relies on your profile information being made widely or publicly available, yet there are some Likes, photos, or other pieces of information that you might not want out there.

“In a nutshell, Graph Search uses social signals to create a truly social search experience. Focusing on four core areas — people, photos, places, and interests — Graph Search delivers search results based on ultra-specific long-tail search queries, such as “Friends I graduated college with who like to ski.” These results are based on information from users’ profiles — what they like, places they’ve visited, what they’re interested in, photos they’ve taken, etc.” (via Hubspot)

These are some basic tips for controlling who can see your posts and photos at present. Here’s my step by step guide to locking down your Facebook profile:

Posts
You can access your privacy settings by clicking on the padlock icon in the top-right of your page.

Click on “Who can see my stuff?” a drop-down menu will give you several options. One of these is shown below – “Who can see my future posts?” Here you can select a range of options such as friends, only me or custom, which you can use to block specific individuals from seeing your posts.

Note that this will apply only to your future posts. If you want to limit access to posts you have made in the past, go back into the padlock drop-down list and select “See More Settings”.

The following menu appears. Click on “Limit The Audience for Old Posts on Your Timeline”. Click on “Limit Old Posts” to change all previous posts from Public to Friends.

Photos

Photos are a bit more complicated. You have no control over photos of you put on Facebook by a friend. If you don’t want it online, talk to your friend to get it taken down! Also note that your cover photos are always public!

To limit specific photos, you will have to set the audience for each individually. Click on a photo to view it. This menu should be on the right-hand side of the photo.

Click on “Edit”. The following will open up allowing you to add comments, locations, etc to the photo. Click on the little wheel to change the audience for the photo just like before…

To make a whole album private, etc. open the albums page and click on the wheel on the bottom-right of each album. Here you can select the audience for each album just as for posts.

Have you updated the privacy settings on your Facebook profile?

Facebook launch Promoted Page Likes

Facebook today announced the global rollout of “Promoted Page Likes,” a feature similar to Promoted Posts but aimed at helping page owners get new fans without having to use the more complicated ad dashboard.

Facebook said “Promoted Page Likes allow Page owners to create ads aimed at gaining new fans directly from their Page.” You can read their full announcement here: http://www.facebook-studio.com/news/item/promoted-page-likes-now-available-globally

All pages with a location and profile picture will now have the “promote page” option in their admin panel. This was previously in beta for some users in the U.S. From here, Page owners can select a daily budget based on how many people they want to reach. Like Promoted Posts, these ads are bought with a preset price rather than on a cost per click basis.

Page owners can narrow down their audience by country, state or city. The ads are designed with small businesses in mind to help them garner more Likes for their pages without needing large budgets or sophisticated targeting. Be warned however, that unlike with Facebook’s other ad products, these ads will continue to run until an admin manually stops the campaign.

The ads will show in users’ news feed as well as in the right hand side of the desktop version of Facebook.com. After launching a Page ad, the basic stats on the Page ad campaign display in the same area within the admin panel.

Source: AllFacebook http://allfacebook.com/promoted-page-like-ads-global_b116234

Promoted Page ad campaigns don’t require large budgets or sophisticated targeting, though it is possible to set up and customize  both ad messages and targeting from the Ads Manager. To learn more and start your Page Like campaign, visit www.facebook.com/business/promoted-like.

I am yet to try out a Promoted Page campaign, however I intend to give it a go. My main concern about these promoted pages is that you may end up with irrelevant fans or worse still, spam fans. I will report back once I give it a go. For now, you’re up to date on the newest addition to your admin panel! Let me know if you give it a go…

Source: http://b.globe.com/VNUkt2

Simple Guide to Creating a Facebook Page for Your Business

Step 1: Choose a Category

Go to the following URL to create your business page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
Choosing a category will help you rank for more relevant searches and provide relevant information fields on your page.

In most cases, the first one is most relevant for small businesses. Choose the category that most suits your business and fill out your business name. The business option also asks for further location information. Remember that your category and name cannot be changed once your page is created. So choose these very carefully!

Step 2: Complete Basic Information

Follow the steps and add your details – be as accurate as possible.

Step 3: Add Facebook web address

This is a very important step. This cannot be changed once it has set. Choose very carefully!

Step 4: Upload Photo

Facebook will now prompt you to upload the main photo for your page. This photo will appear as your icon every time you comment on a post, appear in news feeds or run ad campaigns. Ideally, it should be your company logo. The actual dimensions of your profile picture is 180X180. This will shrink on your page to appear as 125X125.

Step 5: About Section

Next, you need to write your ‘About’ information. This small bit of information will serve as the main 2-3 sentence description for your company. It will be on your main page, so make it short and sweet. Be sure to include a link to your company website as well. Also ensure that this information differentiates your brand, making your page even more appealing to potential fans.

Step 6: Use Your Admin Panel

Your admin panel is for managing your business page. It’s filled with various features and options to optimize your page and you’re monitoring of that page.

Edit Page
The ‘Edit Page’ option in the upper right provides various options. Update Info does exactly as it says and allows you to update your page information. This will also allow you to edit the about section and add more details.
You can also manage who has admin access to your page. This allows you to give employees from your business access to be administrators on your Facebook page in order to respond to comments or messages, without giving them complete power over your page.

Build Audience
Growing your audience is a huge task. It will not happen overnight and is by no means a simple thing to do. Be sure to have your page filled with content before you start telling people about your page! Give your new fans-to-be something to read. Then, your brand advocates to start engaging with that content. Once your page has some interactions, invite more fans and contacts, and they’ll be more interested to like the page when they see the buzzing hub it is.

Step 7: Optimise your Page
Cover Photo
The best visual space on your business page is called the cover photo. The exact dimensions of this cover photo are 851X315. Be sure to select a creative image with less than 20% text that will appeal to users who land on your page. Also, when people like your page, your cover photo will be shown in the newsfeed of that person. So spend some time getting your cover photo the best it can be!

Posts
When posting on your page, be sure to use a variety of content. Who are you targeting? Who is reading your updates? What is your brand message? What images would your audience like to see? What stats would they like to read? What links would they like to click?

Monitor
While having a beautiful Facebook page is great, ensure you’re monitoring how fans are interacting with it. Use Insights on the admin panel to check what’s happening on your page. Be sure to respond to comments and messages as needed to ensure your fans know you not only care about them and what they have to say.

Step 8: Keep Learning

Facebook changes on a regular basis, as does it’s rules and regulations! Keep up to date with changes – always keep learning. 

 

5 Reasons Why People Unlike a Page on Facebook

Firstly, if someone does unlike your page – don’t panic. Don’t beat yourself up about it. However, it is important to do a quick check and make sure you’re not doing things that could be causing people to turn away from your page! Here are 5 reasons why people might “unlike” your page:

1. Constant Self Promotion and Sales

Posting “sales” posts does not work. This sales promotion type of marketing is referred to as “push” marketing and it no longer works! You’ve probably seen pages that do this. Every single post is a marketing pitch to sign up for their webinar, or buy their product. Even if those webinar & products are great, no one wants to get sold to over & over again, day after day. You now want the customer looking for information and asking questions.In Pull Marketing, you’re still generating leads — but you’re doing it in a generous, informative way. This is essentially “pull” marketing. That’s why I suggest the 80/20 rule: 80% of your posts should be informative updates, blog posts, links, tips, podcast etc. The remaining 20% should be a mixture of promotional posts and sharing other people’s content.

2. Too much activity

How often do you post updates? Is it more than 3 times a day? Is it only once a week? I can’t tell you specifically how often to post, but I can tell you to test out different times and see what works best i.e. what gets the best reaction. Personally, at the VERY least you should be posting to your page once a week. Every page is unique and should decide what’s best for their particular audience.

3.  Irregular/Lack of activity

I know I just said that posting too much will put people off your page, however not posting enough can also cause people to unlike your page. Why? People don’t like to have redundant pages on their Facebook page! If your business is serious about social media then create a posting plan with content ideas which will means you update your page daily. In my opinion (whatever that’s worth!!) I believe pages should be posting at least once a day.

4. Facebook Voice of an Eejit (Eejit: Irish word for jerk)

Think your humour and attitude is funny? Do you constantly give out and vent problems on your page? Are you arrogant or rude when interacting with fans? Great that you are an expert in your industry however that does not excuse the attitude! Perhaps you just get enjoyment out of constantly “calling out” competitors or other businesses who make mistakes, it’s a very negative reflection on your business and your brand. Be careful how you portray your brand, insure your voice is that of the brand and of the message you wish to portray.

5. Unrelated updates and posts

Memes are very popular these days on Facebook. However, sharing memes which have no relevancy whatsoever to your brand will just annoy people. Yes, photos do get a great reaction on Facebook and memes are even better these days however are you willing to dilute your brand message for a few extra likes, comments and shares? This is true for unrelated topics too, not just memes! Now, trust me.. I understand what you are trying to do; engage your fans with humour and show off your personality. Eventually, your fans will think you don’t take your business seriously and will unlike your page.

Have you ever unliked a page? Why? 

Facebook adds ‘Reply’ option to comments

Facebook announced plans to incorporate a “reply” option which will allow users to comment directly on wall posts. This came into action in recent days. In addition to this new option to reply to specific comments, the entire thread will be sorted by an algorithm to put the most engaging comments higher.

It allows users who cannot tag and mention other fans they aren’t friends with, where there can be dozens or even thousands of comments have easy to follow conversations.

What’s the benefit for businesses?

It’s  very possible that pages may see increased engagement on posts since high-quality comments will be surfaced up top and users will be notified when someone replies to their comment. Furthermore, when replying to a comment, users will be able to ‘Like’ your ‘Reply’, and you’ll get a notification when they do so. Facebook will also rank conversation threads based on what’s relevant to individual users by configuring the total number of likes, replies and spam reports a thread receives.

“The most active and engaging conversations among your readers will be surfaced at the top of your posts ensuring that people who visit your Page will see the best conversations.” Vadim Lavrusik, Journalism Program Manager for Facebook, said on the Facebook+Journalists blog.

Facebook introduced the feature after months of testing, I first read about these proposed changes back in November 2012. Facebook said the new feature can improve conversations and be used to start open dialogues with the community.

When I logged into a Page which I am admin of, Facebook prompted me to turn these new features on. Here is the screen shot:

Do you think that this will help increase user’s engagement with brands on Facebook?

Facebook Cover Photo Policy Update

Facebook has updated its policy for pages’ cover photos in recent weeks, eliminating rules against calls to action, contact info or references to price or purchase information, while maintaining the 20 percent limit for text overlay.

In the Facebook Pages Guidelines the updated rule states:

All covers are public. This means that anyone who visits your Page will be able to see your cover. Covers can’t be deceptive, misleading, or infringe on anyone else’s copyright. You may not encourage people to upload your cover to their personal timelines. Covers may not include images with more than 20% text. 

What does this mean for businesses using Facebook pages? 

Well mainly, it means you can now have calls to action, contact information and product information. You’re cover photo can now be an advertisement, if you so wish! The new guidelines give Facebook page owners more flexibility in the type of content they include in their covers.Your cover photo is the largest space on your Facebook page, and this is even more important as the recent changes to users’ newsfeed. Cover photos are beginning to be included in both organic and sponsored page-Like stories. That is, when a user likes a page, a preview of that page is shown in the newsfeed of their friends. This preview is actually the cover photo! So, if your cover photo isn’t quite as effective as it could be.. then perhaps it’s something to think about!

So now that price/purchase information, discounts, calls to action, contact info, web addresses, phone numbers, like or share, arrows to like your page, etc. are allowed on your cover photo… Get creative, folks! However, just keep in mind the 20% text rule still applies!

What does your cover photo look like? Post your facebook page below – I can’t wait to look at the creative covers!

[UPDATE] Here is one of the first cover photos to change, and it just so happens to be from Condescending Corporate Brand Page who often do what we are all thinking! Do you “like” their new cover photo? 😉

Source: http://www.facebook.com/corporatebollocks

Is Facebook dead?

I’ve noticed Facebook is down in the last hour or so. I tried to update my business page but it wouldn’t – it just got stuck on “loading”.

Social media website Hubspot has reported “The nature of the outage, and its effects, appear to be sporadic.”

While I was trying to access the site on my iPad, images were missing or would not load… Hubspot again “suggest a problem with its Content Delivery Network.”

The site was “unavailable” when I tried on my laptop.
For now… It seems everyone from Facebook has migrated to twitter!

I’ll keep updating this blog as I find out and learn more – wonder how long this is going to last?
Is Facebook down for you?

Update: Facebook returned to normal 2 hours later. No problems reported since!

7 Reasons Why Businesses Should be using Facebook Pages

Are you using social media for your business? If so, you really need to consider setting up a Facebook Page.  Facebook says that “Pages are for businesses, organizations and brands to share their stories and connect with people. Like timelines, you can customize Pages by adding apps, posting stories, hosting events and more. Engage and grow your audience by posting regularly. People who like your Page will get updates in their news feeds.” A personal profile on Facebook has a limit of 5,000 friends and many requested a larger “fan” option, and so the “Fan Page” was created.

Regardless of what type of business you have, if you are using Facebook you MUST have a fan page. Too many businesses are using personal profiles – this can cause multiple problems, as well as running the risk of the profile being closed down!

So, why use a Facebook Page?

1. Branding: Fan pages allow you to brand your business, use your logo and customize your cover photo, tabs and content just as you would with a website. With this extremely valuable tool available to you, you can keep your “brand” consistent across the board as it relates to all aspects of your online presence.

   

2. Personal Facebook: Using a Facebook Page for your business allows you to promote your business while having a personal profile to keep in touch with family and friends in private.

   

3. Unlimited Fans: Your personal profile page has a limit of 5000 friends which is imposed by Facebook.  While most of us do not have 5000 personal friends, if you are using a facebook profile for your business contacts or prospects, this number can be turn out to be very limiting. A fan page, on the other hand, will allow you to have an unlimited number of “fans”. Some have thousands and even millions of fans, just  like the Coca Cola Facebook Page who have 56 million and local Cork newspaper the Cork Independent Facebook Page with a huge 19,000 fans.

   

4. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Facebook Fan pages are indexed by Google, which means that anything you post on your fan page can be found by anyone doing a Google search.  Content from your personal profile page does not have this same benefit.  Exposure to your business or service will be expanded because your social media content will now be found by anyone (not just a Facebook user) who searches via Google.  Additionally, Facebook is the 2nd most trafficked site; second only to Google in fact.  Any links from your fan page to your website will increase your chances of achieving higher rankings within Google.
5. Unlimited Access: Your fan page is totally open to anyone who stumbles across it.  If someone is searching for something through Google and your fan page pops up, that person can view the entire fan page without “liking”.  Obviously, it is your hope that they will “like” the page. Often businesses use 3^rd party applications to give exclusive content to fans only and so this increases the chance of people “liking” the page.
6. Build brand advocates: Your Facebook fan page permits you to have a more personal communication with your fans than you can have through your website.  This is why a Facebook fan page is so valuable.  You can share content, videos, photos, run contests, ask questions, etc. This interaction will build relationships with your target market (fans) and builds the relationships. This “fans” quickly become your brand advocates.   Encouraging interaction and building a sense of community will ensure that they keep coming back.
7. Customer Service: The post-sales experience brings retention possibilities as well as a chance to acquire new customers. It is critical to keep current customers happy and show potential customers how much you care about your customers. Facebook gives your business a channel to achieve this. Customer service is key to the success of any business using social media or not!

   

Facebook Changes… What’s going on with business pages?

Have you noticed lots of changes on Facebook in recent weeks? I admin a number of Facebook pages for various businesses and noticed recently that the pages were having issues. Some issues I’ve experienced in recent days include:

• Missing the news feed
• No access to fan posts on the timeline
• Limited access to private messages
• Little or no notifications (even though people were interacting with the various pages)

So, during this frustrating time over the last week or so, I’ve had a closer look at Facebook and look what I found:

I spotted this “Pages feed” about 2 weeks ago, and noticed that my newsfeed had much less posts from business pages. Why? Because they are now only in this new “Pages feed”. This de-clutters the news feed and keeps all the Pages (business) posts together.

Facebook have launched this new feature hoping to satisfy business owners. The social network has been criticised for its News Feed option which was full of promotional posts mixed along with friend’s posts. Now, Facebook has cleared this up by introducing “Pages feed”.

The Pages feed seems to be a business oriented feature which has already been launched and soon all Facebook users will be able to see and use it.

Facebook claim that they have received a large amount of negative feedback from businesses. Facebook has to deal with a huge amount of spam posts from Pages which are considered irrelevant. This is all figured out with an algorithm called “Edgerank” which apparently is still “under construction” . One thing is certain… posts from business pages now reach fewer users.

The Pages Feed is just like your news feed, only it filters out all the other noise and brings you only the updates from the Pages you have liked -whether it’s 10 pages or 340. To access your personal Pages Feed, all you have to do is click on the Pages Feed link on your home screen of Facebook (shown in the image above).

I actually think I like this new feature… It gives me a chance to catch up on the brands and pages I follow while filtering out all the personal stuff at the same time. I can quickly review the latest business news, articles and such in one feed. I love this, it’s a time saver!

Have you noticed these changes? What impact do you think they will have on business pages?

Like And Share: Facebook Competition Rules

Have you seen competitions on Facebook which get you to “Like this Post and Share it with Your Friends?”…A really simple way to get your promotional message out, right?

Wrong. This is against Facebook rules.

Any business that is running this type of “promotion” is running the risk of their page being shut down. Are the random likes/shares and comments, worth the risk of losing contact with the people already liked your page and who are actually interested in your brand?

Here is the list of Facebook Page Guidelines:http://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

In particular this type of promotion/competition of breaks this rule:

“You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.”

 

It is also against Facebook rules to “notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles (timelines) or Pages”.

If you feel a competition is the best for your business right now, why not run it off your website? This allows you to run a promotion without breaking Facebook rules as well as increasing traffic to your website!

 

Facebook Lotto Breaks the Rules!

In recent weeks, but even more so in recent days, I have seen “Facebook Lotto Syndicates” popping up all over Facebook.

Simple idea… Business buys a €6.00 Euro millions Quick Pick, puts business name on top, takes picture and posts it to Facebook. All you have to do is like, share and comment on this picture to be in the Syndicate. Great!

Not so great, however… This is against Facebook rules. Any business that is running this type of “promotion” is running the risk of their page being shut down. Are the 500 or so, (random) likes/shares and comments worth the risk of losing contact with the people already liked your page and who are actually interested in your brand?

Here is the list of Facebook Page Guidelines: http://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

In particular this promotion/competition of Facebook Lotto Syndicates breaks this rule:

“You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.”

It is also against Facebook rules to “notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles (timelines) or Pages”, making Facebook Lotto Syndicates a risky competition!

If you feel this type of competition is the best for your business, why not run it off your website? Post the picture of the Lotto to your blog, and tell people to enter via your website. This allows you to run a promotion without breaking Facebook rules as well as increasing traffic to your website!

 

 

 

Download my Facebook and Google+ Guide Here

The Business and IT Conference (BIT Conf) is a series of information nights for business owners and managers on how to integrate IT into the day-to-day running of a business.

The purpose of the BIT Conf is to educate business owners and managers on how to integrate IT into the day-to-day running of a business. This will allow them to create new advertising and marketing strategies, improve work flow and productivity, and build better channels of communication with their clients and customers.

 The first series of talks is “Social Media for Business” and will focus on the use of social media and the beneficial uses it can have in growing a business. Over 120 Business attended on the night!

The emerging world of social media brings incredible opportunities for businesses to communicate directly with people in ways that were impossible just a few years ago.  Intermediaries are no longer necessary.  Your audience can now have a conversation with you (and your brand).

Here is my presentation from the night – feel free to download it for FREE here!

 

 

 

Running a Competition on Facebook

Are you thinking of running a contest or promotion on Facebook? 

Facebook is a great platform for running a contest because it can expand your audience, raise awareness about a product or service, boost audience engagement and increase your fans.  Facebook has strict rules around running contest so it’s important to understand their contest rules before you run a competition of your own. If you violate the rules, you risk having Facebook disable your Page or account.

Facebook states that if you are running a competition of any sort, then the following rules MUST be adhered to or you run the risk of getting your page removed. Also Facebook clearly state that “We reserve the right to reject or remove Pages for any reason. These terms are subject to change at any time.”

Full details of Facebook Page Rules are here: http://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php#promotionsguidelines

The bottom line is that Facebook does not want to be associated in any way, shape or form with any competition or promotion, and you as a promoter are not allowed to use Facebook, its functions and features as a mechanism through which to run your competition.

In addition, Facebook doesn’t allow promotions to be administered on their platform. “Administration” includes “…collecting entries, conducting a drawing, judging entries, or notifying winners.”

This means that:

• Entrants need to enter the contest within the 3rd party application.
• Entry into the contest cannot require entrants to post content within Facebook (like posting a comment on the Wall, sharing a photo or uploading a photo).
• Entrants cannot be automatically entered when they “Like your Page”. You can require them to like your Page before they can enter but this must be done through your 3rd party app.
• Judging cannot be done within Facebook. For example, you cannot ask fans to vote for their favourite entry on the Wall. Again, this must be done via a 3rd party application.
• Winners cannot be notified via Facebook, either in messages or posts on Pages or profiles. You need to collect an email or mailing address through the 3rd party application and then contact the winner by email or mail.

 While this seems like a lot of rules and regulations, running competitions on Facebook on 3^rd party apps can be quite easy and has a good return on your investment of time (and/or money if you choose to use a paid-for 3^rd party app)

 

Don’t have time to set up a 3rd Party App?

If you are running a competition, why not host the competition on your website or blog then promote/tell your fans on Facebook about this competition?

Thus, killing two birds with the one stone:

1. Offering value to your fans by giving them a chance to win something

2. Increasing traffic to your website.

All done in the comfort of your own website and free from the rules and regulations of Facebook! To be on the safe side, I would also include this disclosure, “This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook” when posting about the competition on Facebook.

Here is a list of the Top 75 Apps for Enhancing Your Facebook Page from Social Media Examiner!

 

 

 

5 Simple Tips to Increase Engagement on Your Facebook Page

Recently I set up my very own facebook page (AR Digital Marketing). It is a Digital Marketing, SEO and Social Media resource for SMEs. I am really enjoying it so far; the page reached 100 likes in less than 2 weeks as well as having great interaction!

This is just quick post with simple tips to encourage engagement on your facebook page. As always, I would love to hear your tips and hints. Feel free to comment below!

1. If no interaction – stop posting!  Facebook use a number of algorithms as part of their system for sharing information. EdgeRank is the algorithm which determines who sees what, basically it determines what social “objects” (i.e. updates, posts, photos, actions etc) you will see in your Facebook news feed. Simply, it takes into account what you like, who’s posts you comment on, what you share and how you interact. It takes this information and uses it to determine not only which of your connections is the most important to you, meaning their content appears most frequently, but also which kinds of content should appear higher than others. This is called Facebook Edge Rank. 

2. Use Pictures with Posts: every small business can use images to grab attention, whether they use product images, photos of their stores and customers, inspirational quotes, etc. Facebook posts with photos are the most likely to engage users. Photos, obviously, grab attention visually and people must click them to get a closer look. So use an intriguing photo to get people’s attention. Be sure to say something about the photo, too.

3. Post fan orientated status updates! Make a statement, and then ask a Question. Ask questions to increase comments. Encourage people to engage with you – and each other – by regularly asking questions. Readers will know you value their opinions, and while not everyone will comment, questions will encourage many more to participate than statements alone. Perhaps you could start a debate on one of your status updates which lots of your followers contribute to. Not only will the number of comments increase the likelihood of that particular item appearing in the newsfeed, but also anyone who has made a contribution will have increased their affinity to you.

4. Keep it Fresh: Update every day or every couple of days. Don’t reuse a popular picture or post. Share trending videos or pictures via “Share” to give credit to the original person and also to increase the interaction between pages.

5. Have fun: Let your personality shine through. Posting only about your latest offers will put people off and comes across as hard sales! Don’t be over bearing – let loose and enjoy engaging with your followers. Be friendly, helpful and give them the support where needed. Encourage them to post on your timeline with pictures of your product! 

How do you get engagement on your facebook page?

I would love to hear your tips and experiences!