Posts Tagged ‘Ken Mueller’
24 More of the Best Facebook Guides, Stats and Rants of 2012
Tuesday, January 15th, 2013As noted in 21 (of the) Best Facebook Guides, Tools and Rants of 2012 So Far a few months back, Facebook remains the 800-pound gorilla of the social networking world. It’s now exceeded one billion users, and as noted below, 80% of all businesses maintain an active Facebook presence.
But its incessant changes, moves to charge brands and celebrities for exposure they’ve become accustomed to getting for free, and possibly even (gasp!) aging demographic may be cause for concern.
Will Facebook lose ground to Google+? Is it becoming uncool? Or if not—how have recent changes in Facebook’s layout changed best practices for marketers? what are the secrets to Facebook advertising success?
Find the answers to these questions and more here in two dozen of the best Facebook guides, tips, stats, facts, raves and rants of 2012.
Facebook Tips and Guides
The Simple Science of Facebook Engagement by MyBeak Social Media
Laura-Lee Walker shares an infographic that reveals the “formula to follow” for greater engagement on Facebook. Among the key findings: “Include images with posts. This increases the likelihood that fans will engage with your fan page (39 percent higher than average).” The infographic also shows the best (and worst) times to post, contest ideas, “winning words” to include in updates and more.
SEO for Facebook – New Video Revealed by Search Engine Journal
Adria Saracino points readers to a video produced by Facebook that provides business owners and marketers with tips on how to optimize their Facebook pages for search engines. She writes that “The video takes users step-by-step through a number of processes for building an optimized Facebook page with a good name and quality, relevant content.”
How to Add A Twitter Tab to Your Facebook Page [Quicktip] by Hongkiat
Mustaza Mustafa presents a richly illustrated, step-by-step process for using the CertifiedSeller app to add a Twitter profile link to your tab on Facebook timeline. Commenters note that Facebook could certainly do something to make this process easier, but the method here does work.
Nine Ways To Improve Your Facebook Engagement and ROI by MENGonline
David Lund details nine tactics for improving marketing effectiveness on Facebook, such as “Use Facebook to communicate your new news and introduce new products. Your followers are more interested than most consumers in news about your products and brand. They will likely be early adopters and advocates that can help build word of mouth BUZZ about your new products.” Though targeted at consumer marketers, many of the tips apply to b2b marketing as well.
Understanding the 6 Facebook Post Types by Practical eCommerce
***** 5 STARS
Paul Chaney explains in detail the six types of posts that can be added to a Facebook page along with “reasons why you would use them and best practices for each post type” and tips for the best use of each post type, for example on video posts, “Don’t put logos in the video. Harvard researchers found that the more prominent or intrusive the logo, the more likely viewers are to stop watching, even if they know and like the brand.”
How to Do a Facebook Personal Profile Security Audit by Seriously Social
Ian Anderson Gray shows how to do an in-depth personal security audit on Facebook, covering everything from password updates and recognized devices to adding a “do not track” plugin and navigating Facebook’s privacy settings. While this process is for personal profiles, Ian notes “if you do manage a Facebook page, make sure all your admins run a security audit on their personal profiles each month. There are serious issues here, because your page could be compromised by the security settings of one of your page’s administrators.”
Social Media Marketing: How I found the Facebook topic that was 371% more effective by MarketingSherpa
Jonathan Greene provides a detailed, illustrated five-step process for using Facebook Insights to identify patterns and trends that can make your social media marketing much more effective, or as he puts it, “Filtering your posts by certain KPIs might reveal very rewarding patterns in engagement and syndication, which could be the push you need to take your social campaigns to the next level.”
13 ways to boost your Facebook Page reach by Socialbrite
Arguing that “Marketers who are whining about (Facebook forcing people to pay to have their page updates reach their Facebook fans) need to put down the tissues and realize that promoted posts are simply one option among many to amplify reach,” John Haydon delves into the inner workings of Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm and offers 13 recommendations for reaching fans without writing a check, including posting awesome content (based on thorough analysis of past performance) and using your blog, events and webinars to increase visibility.
5 Successful Facebook Marketing Campaigns – Case Studies by jeffbullas.com
It’s easy to generate tremendous traffic and buzz on Facebook if you’re a major brand advertiser with buckets of money to spend, but what about small businesses with much more limited means? Jeff Bullas very helpfully here offers small to midsized business marketers some proven tactics for Facebook marketing success and then shares five case studies from small firms that have made a splash on the giant social network with cleverness and creativity, on a budget.
Stop Looking at Facebook’s Insights by Inkling Media
Ken Mueller makes a compelling case for, well, not quite ignoring Facebook’s Insights, but at least putting those numbers in proper perspective. Noting that “I honestly put very little weight in Facebook insights. They change how things are measured on a regular basis, and if you spend any time poring over the numbers, you know they clearly don’t add up. I wish they did, but they don’t,” he outlines five reasons not to obsess over these metrics—and what to focus on instead.
Facebook Changes
Facebook Promoted Posts and Other Recent Updates of 2012 by Vertical Measures
Sarah Schager shares updates on nine post-Timeline Facebook changes, including promoted posts (only for brands with at least 400 fans), changes to how to links are handled within status updates, events, and the inclusion of mobile views in the reach metric (finally).
Facebook Simplifies Ad Creation With Redesigned Self-Serve Tool by Sprout Social
Jennifer Beese explains Facebook’s recent changes to its self-service ad creation tool and notes “Once you’ve chosen what you’d like to advertise and listed your main objective, Facebook will recommend a combination of traditional sidebar ads and Sponsored Stories. Additionally, you’ll receive a preview of how our Sponsored Stories will appear in people’s’ News Feeds.”
12 Latest Facebook Page Features You Might Have Missed by Social @ Blogging Tracker
The delightful Wong Ching Ya details a dozen of Facebook’s relatively new features, including onsite notification (which provides page administrators with “instant page notifications in your profile’s homepage for new posts, fan messages, comments or whenever someone liked your page posts”), target page posts, and Facebook custom audiences (“Brand pages can now target their offline audiences on Facebook through relevant ads by uploading info such as email addresses, phone numbers or Facebook user IDs”).
Facebook Advertising
10 Examples of Facebook Ads That Actually Work (And Why) by HubSpot
You’ve probably read about the dismal click-through rates for Facebook ads, but Dan Slagen here offers guidance on beating the averages through high relevance and a compelling call to action, then presents examples of brands generating strong performance with Facebook advertising.
Facebook Upgrades Small Business Site by MediaPost
Noting that small business advertisers are vital to Facebook (and Facebook is an important marketing platform for many small businesses), Mark Walsh reports on efforts by Facebook to help small businesses create more effective ads and generally use the social network more effectively, including tips like: “Ensure you know people are coming to your business because they found you on Facebook: whisper codes, unique Facebook links to your site, friend referrals, exclusive Facebook discounts. Also, put your Facebook URL on more of your in-store materials—receipts, napkins, brochures, etc., to increase fanning of your Page.”
15 Tips For A Successful Facebook Ads Program by MediaWhiz
Adam Riff shares 15 “secrets” to optimize Facebook advertising, such as rotating ads frequently to combat banner blindness, tracking metrics beyond basic “likes,” testing occupational targeting, and leveraging Facebook data to make smarter media buys through other channels (“The great thing about Facebook data is that it can give you insights about your consumer base that you might not have otherwise known”).
A Simple Breakdown of All Your Facebook Advertising Options by HubSpot
Noting that “Facebook seems to be launching a new form of advertising—or some new feature within the advertising—every day,” Amanda Sibley details the features and usage of Facebook’s five forms of on-page advertising in this thorough and helpfully illustrated post.
Facebook Stats
Facebook 2012 Facts and Figures for Small Business Success by MyBeak Social Media
Laura-Lee Walker (again) shares a huge collection of Facebook facts in this infographic, such as that 58% of Facebook’s one billion+ users visit the site daily; the average Facebook visits lasts 20 minutes; 80% of businesses are active on Facebook; the two most popular apps are the Blackberry Smartphones App and Texas Holdem Poker; and much, much more.
Facebook Focused On Upping Services For Small Businesses by MediaPost
Frequent best-of writer Laurie Sullivan reports on Facebook’s efforts to make it simple for small businesses to connect with their customers on Facebook, noting “About one-third of the 100,000 small businesses that have published Offers are new Facebook advertisers, and about 30% are claimed on mobile devices,” and that “Facebook (now) supports more than 13 million small and local business pages.”
Facebook Rants and Raves
Is Google Unstoppable? by MediaPost
John Capone details advertising statistics and projections that suggest, over the next couple of years, in terms of advertising revenue, “Google will begin to leave Facebook and the rest (of the major ad sellers) in the dust.” He describes Google as The Predator of the online advertising world, while Facebook is more like Barney the purple dinosaur.
5 reasons your brand doesn’t need Facebook by iMedia Connection
Peter Platt sets out to dispel five “myths” of Facebook marketing, among them that Facebook is an engagement platform for brands: “A couple of years back, we wanted to ‘like’ brands so we could see what their offers were. But all too often, brands became that annoying friend who posted too much, and we quickly learned to hide or unfriend those brands. Brands also started building out complex Facebook platforms with lots of functionality and engagement tools, but the reality is that the news feed is the core of Facebook activity. Complex portals garner some interest, but at the end of the day, the news feed is where most of the users are.”
Before You Buy Into The ‘Zuckerberg Put’: 5 Things Facebook’s CEO Won’t Tell You by Seeking Alpha
Kyle Spencer advises investors that although Mark Zuckerberg may have discovered he really does need to listen to the market, there are five things to keep in mind before diving into this stock, such as that the kids are somewhere else: “There was a time when Facebook was cool. Not anymore. 65% of Facebook users are 35 and older, and adults are the fastest growing demographic…Why is it important where teens hang out? Because parents follow their kids around on the Internet. Teens are the first adopters, the fastest social innovators and have more free time to surf the net. Jumping ship keeps teenagers one step ahead of mom and dad. Remember AOL? It’s an old folks home, now.”
Facebook is for Likes Not Leads by Brent Price Carnduff
Writing that “The truth is, most of those 900 million people (actually over a billion now) aren’t there to be marketed to. And frankly, Facebook doesn’t make it that easy for businesses to connect with them,” Brent Carnduff outlines what he believes Facebook can, and can’t, do for marketers and business owners.
Facebook: Are the Good Times Really Over for Good? by WindMill Networking
Chris Treadaway laments recent changes by Facebook that make it more expensive—much more expensive—for brands to reach fans with their content. He cites recent criticism of the social media network by Mark Cuban, George Takei, and a range of Facebook community managers, yet in the end concludes “It’s going to cost us more to do the things that we’ve gotten for low cost so far…but we won’t go anywhere.” Maybe.
What’s So Funny About Social Media and Online Marketing? April 2012
Monday, April 23rd, 2012Let’s face it; lots of people consider spending one’s days with online games, tinkering in PhotoShop, “working” in Facebook, and using words like “viral” and “targeting” in decidedly non-lethal ways a funny way to make a living. Why not laugh with `em?
Find sh*t marketing people say, cross-dressing Linux developers, the stages of Twitter addiction, still more priceless demotivational posters, an online tool for generating business jargon phrases, Russian unicorns, things puppets hate about Facebook, the funniest tweets of last year and more in this collection of amusing, creative and offbeat market and social media stuff.
Sh*t People Say (Various Sources)
Starting early last year, a raft of sh*t various sorts of people say videos hit YouTube, some going viral, some less so. The flood continues, though the more recent additions to the genre are becoming progressively more arcane (e.g., Sh*t No Adult with ADHD Says). Here are a few of the best technology / marketing related creations. Funny even if you’re not seeing them for the first time.
David Pogue: Be There, or Be Cher! | CrossOver Impersonator launching at MacWorld! by CodeWeavers
How do you get the world’s attention if you’re a scrappy little Linux-realm software company with a bit of creativity (and some really smart coders) but no cash? Well, you could try producing an outrageous cross-dressing-themed video, but that’s risky–it could definitely go wrong. Or, it could go spectacularly right, as this effort did from CodeWeavers founders Jeremy White and Jon Parshall.
10 Incredible Interactive YouTube Videos by Mashable Business
“Like a 21st century version of the choose-your-own-adventure books, interactive YouTube videos can up the engagement factor by letting the viewer decide the course of the action, or just play around with the content,” writes Amy-Mae Elliott , who then shares “10 top interactive YouTube experiences, from both businesses and individuals, that incorporate gameplay, quizzes and just plain old fashioned entertainment.”
Social Media Saves Valentine’s Day by Socialnomics
A cute little video from the brilliant Erik Qualman about a guy who uses social media perhaps too well on Valentine’s Day.
The 46 stages of Twitter Usage by Chris Voss Show
Funny and true progression of common Twitter reaction beginning with ridicule and ending in addiction.
De-Motivational Posters for Freelancers by FreelanceSwitch
For those days when you wonder, “Was I crazy to leave to leave the corporate world?,” this priceless collection of demotivational posters will remind you that yes, you were. And are.
Video Case Study Parody by Jack: A Blog About Experience Brands
The pink pony birthday party video case study parody. Parents will get this.
Twitter Gets the Ken Burns Treatment From Funny or Die (Video) by All Things D
Funny or Die goes Ken Burns on the history of Twitter. Hilarious, mostly safe for work (a few cuss words), and it’s endorsed by Perez Hilton.
Clever QR Code Example: The World Park by Firebelly Social Media Marketing Blog
Not funny, but very creative video showing “a clever use of QR codes. The World Park campaign turned New York City’s Central Park into an interactive board game.” As blogger Chad Richard advises, “You have to see it for yourself.”
Business Jargon Generator by Growth Science
Anyone can write clearly. The challenge is to be able to appear profound even when you have no clue. This handly tool will help. For example, “If you’re not sure what to call your next PowerPoint slide deck you might use ‘Experiential Paradigm Convergence.’ Nobody will know what it means – and that’s the point!…Want your boss to think you’re forward-looking? Ask why nobody’s been prioritizing ‘Proactive Competence Alignment.’ If your boss asks what that means, say it’s to ensure ‘Global Impact Integration.’” Try it yourself!
The Lighter Side of SEO: People Search for the Darndest Things by Inkling Media
Ken Mueller shares some of the odder search phrases that visitors have used to find his website, based on Google analytics data. Among the unexpected phrases that have driven search traffic for Ken: “random things Mennonites can’t do,” “shiny comphy shoes” and “wooden pegs for marketing.” Hmm.
Not Google+: The First Antisocial Network [PARODY VIDEO] by Mashable
Do you have too many social networks to manage already? Does the world really need another one? The guys from College Humor provide their answer here.
“Russian Unicorn” — a bad lip reading of Michael Bublé by BadLipReading
Okay, it’s not marketing-related, but this video take-off on “Just Haven’t Met You Yet” is extraordinarily well done. And funny. Not to be missed.
The Best Of “Google+ VS Facebook” Videos by @NewCommBiz
Benjamin Beck pulls together four of the best videos about the battle between Google+ and Facebook. It may be a deadly serious fight for Google and Facebook, but no reason the rest of us can’t laugh about it.
10 Things Puppets Hate About Facebook by Burgers By Phone
People sharing pictures of what they just ate, cartoon cows as gifts, getting tagged in pictures where you look terrible, and seven other reasons that puppets (and many non-puppets) hate Facebook.
The 50 funniest tweets of 2011 by HappyPlace
A fantastic (for the most part, other than the questionable political tweets) collection of some of funniest tweets of the past year, among them, from @Starlett17: “I hate when old people poke me at weddings, point and whisper ‘You’re next!’ So I’ve started doing the same thing to them at funerals.”
The 10 Best Commercials of 2011 by AdWeek
Tim Nudd presents ten of the best, if not the best, TV ads from last season. Fortunately the list was compiled before the Clint Eastwood ad from this year’s Super Bowl, which while interestingly crafted, seemed like it should have been either promoting Ford (Gran Torino) or the Republican party.
Honest Logos by Viktor Hertz
An interesting collection of “honest logos, revealing the actual content of the company, what they really should be called. Some are cheap, some might be a bit funny, some will maybe be brilliant.”
9 campaigns that won with humor by iMedia Connection
Jim Nichols like the use of humor in these campaigns. The quality is uneven, but the collection includes a few clear hits, like the Tom Hanks video in which “Reality TV’s biggest train wreck was beautifully spoofed.”
Best Twitter Guides, Tips and Tools of 2010
Monday, January 31st, 2011Twitter came of age in 2010, growing at a scorching pace—from 75 million users at the beginning of the year to more than 190 million by the end of December. Twitter is used (officially) in 65 of the Fortune 100 companies, 63% of small to midsized businesses, and nearly half of all B2B enterprises.
As adoption skyrockets, marketers are striving to optimize their use of the world’s most popular microblogging platform. And that leads to questions, like: What are the best ways to attract more (relevant) followers? What types of information are worth sharing, beyond blog posts? Which companies are really succeeding on Twitter, and how are they doing it? How can I get more retweets? What’s a Twitter chat, and how do I participate in one? Which are the most helpful third-party tools for Twitter?
Get the answers to these questions and more here in some of the best Twitter guides, tips and tools of the past year.
How to Get More Followers on Twitter
How to grow your Twitter following by iMedia Connection
***** 5 Stars
Based on research, Courtney Wiley reveals what type of content to tweet, when to tweet it, and the ideal frequency of tweeting to use in order to grow a Twitter following.
47 Twitter Power Users’ Secrets To Getting Many Followers by JobMob
A selection of the Twitterati share their advice—ranging from short snippets to fairly detailed guidelines—on how to grow your Twitter following. Robert Scobel, Dan Schawbel, Peter Shankman and many of the others are legit no doubt, though a few of the “power users” here are questionable. Still, lots of good advice.
Get More Twitter Followers by Treating Your Profile Like a Landing Page by Social Times
Darko Johnson shows how to apply the principles of effective landing page design to your Twitter profile in order to increase the likelihood that people who see your profile will choose to follow you.
20 ways to increase the number of your followers on Twitter by Web SEO Analytics
Wisely warning against the use of automated programs or techniques, Vasilis Vryniotis offers 20 “white hat” best practices for increasing your Twitter following naturally, such as promoting your Twitter handle in online and offline locations (your blog, website, email signature and business cards), adding yourself to Twitter directories, and perhaps most important: mentioning and thanking the people who help you.
Why 150 Followers Is All You Really Need by TwiTip
Then again, do you really need more followers? Srinivas Rao uses the theory of Dunbar’s Number to argue that 150 followers is all one needs on Twitter. The author makes an intriguing case, but I’m not sure I buy it (particularly given that he follows over 1,300 people on Twitter).
How to Do Lots of Other Things on Twitter
16 bitchin’ commands and shortcuts for Twitter by eConsultancy
Want to quickly see the last tweet from a particular Twitterer? Or the most recent tweets mentioning that person? How about performing advanced searches on Twitter, like exact match, either/or, hyper-local (with x miles of…), or find questions you can answer? Chris Lake shows you how to do all of this and much more with these helpful Twitter shortcuts.
40 useful things you can share on Twitter besides blog posts by Social Media Today
Frequent best-of contributor Adam Vincenzini contends that “the more unusual and varied your stream is, the better—both for you and your followers.” And with that in mind, he lists more than three dozen types of items you can share on Twitter other that stuff from your RSS stream, such as a new app or tool (with a quick tweet review), an interesting hashtag or discussion, an interesting/relevant YouTube video or a link to a Twitter list you think is worth following.
7 Really Cool Things About the New Twitter by Social Media Today
Tia Peterson praises seven features of the new Twitter interface (such as the “Recently Listed” box, easy DM replies, and ability to send a tweet from any page) but also cites three areas that still need improvement.
How Many Times Do You Tweet Your Blog Post? by Ask Aaron Lee
Most bloggers tweet each of their posts only once. How many times should a post be tweeted? In this post, Aaron Lee and Guy Kawasaki recommend an ideal frequency, backed up with some highly logical reasoning. Spock would approve.
How Twitter increased my blog’s traffic by 300% in one week by MackCollier.com
Ever wonder exactly what impact Twitter can have on blog traffic? Mack Collier details an experiment he ran and shares the nitty gritty numbers and percentages, as well as the process he used, concluding “even if you only have 100 followers, you can still leverage Twitter as a tool to build your blog IF you are active on Twitter. Active interacting with others, engaging in conversations, and linking to valuable content.”
13 Twitter Tips for Increasing Engagement by Sazbean
Sarah Worsham lists helpful tips for increasing engagement and growing your following on Twitter, such as sharing and retweeting, asking questions, attending tweetups and using Twitter directories to find people in your industry.
Twitter success stories: Explaining the ROI of Twitter by {grow}
As Mark Schaefer explains, “There are MANY benefits to Twitter besides direct sales. You might gain information, competitive intelligence, insight, a new supplier or partner, publicity, brand awareness, an idea, customer insights, and yes, even a potential customer. And while all of these are great, most are intangible and difficult to display in an Excel spreadsheet! So why keep trying to do it?…When benefits are difficult to quantify, the best way to explain the value is through a story.”
8 Ways to Not Get ReTweeted by HubSpot Blog
Dan Zarrella uses extensive HubSpot research to show that practices like talking about yourself, dumbing down the readability of your tweets, eschewing links, and repeating the same things everyone else is saying are great ways to avoid being retweeted.
26 Twitter Tips for Enhancing Your Tweets by Social Media Examiner
***** 5 Stars
Debbie Hemley provides a highly creative A-Z list of practical tips for maximizing the business impact of your tweets, from Answers and Behind-the-Scenes info to utilizing YouTube and a Zippy Writing Style.
4 Rules for Marketing on Twitter by Practical eCommerce
Paul Chaney reveals the “unwritten” rules for earning influence on Twitter, for example: “Don’t Follow Just to Pitch. A distasteful trend has developed among newer Twitter users. For example, people are following me and when I respond in kind, their first tweets are frequently to pitch me on a website they want me to visit or a service they provide…If you want a formula for how marketing via Twitter and other social networks should work, it’s this: Connect > Converse > Convert.”
Calculating and Improving Your Twitter Click-through-Rate by SEOmoz
The brilliant but oblivious Rand Fishkin illustrates how to calculate your Twitter click-through rate (CTR) and notes some findings from his own experience: shorter tweets and those that are on-topic (whatever your primary topic is) tend to get retweeted more frequently. Somewhat surprisingly, Klout scores appear to have little correlation with retweet rates.
Twitter Dictionary | 35 Twitter Abbreviations by Bit Rebels
Primarily for Twitter newbies, Diana Adams defines nearly three dozen common Twitter / texting abbreviations such as DM (direct message), IRL (in real life) and Gr8 (self-explanatory).
Typecasting Twitter: 7 Top Uses by iMedia Connection
Noting that “Twenty nine percent, one in every three tweets yields some kind of reaction—comments, re-tweets or clicks. Ten percent prompt a reply to the original tweet. These are direct marketing nirvana numbers,” Daniel Flamberg dissects research to isolate the seven most common uses of Twitter.
How to Participate in a Twitter Chat Session like #BlogChat or #AgChat by ag – a colorful adventure
For those who haven’t participated in a Twitter chat session before, Janice Person provides clear, step-by-step instructions for getting setup, using controls, and keeping up with the stream of conversation.
3 Absolutely Cool Twitter Search Tricks to Help You Save Money! by Sexy Social Media
In this helpful but brief post, Annie Wallace shares three clever Twitter search tricks you may not be aware of.
Best of 2010: 14 Ways Every Business Should Be Using Twitter by Inkling Media
Ken Mueller lists 14 practices businesses can adopt to optimize their benefit from Twitter, such as providing customer service, promoting events and monitoring competitors.
Twitter Tools
20 Top Twitter Monitoring and Analytics Tools by Pamorama
Pam Dyer serves up brief reviews of more useful Twitter tools including Twitscoop (trend-monitoring), TweetBuzzer (identifies popular brands on Twitter), Twitter Analyzer (kind of like Google Analytics for Twitter) and Tweeps (get stats that help you decide who to follow—or not—and find people you’d like to have following you).
How to Add a Tweet Button Anywhere by SitePoint
While there are several easy avenues to placing a Tweet button on a blog, Alyssa Gregory supplies simple instructions for adding Tweet buttons in other venues like emails, PDFs and Facebook pages.
11 Websites to Schedule Your Tweets Online for Free by TwiTip
Young Yang reviews free tools for scheduling tweets, like FutureTweets, HootSuite and SocialOomph. It’s important to remember that Twitter is a social platform, so your followers will expect interaction; if you’re busted relying too heavily on automated or pre-scheduled tweets, you will lose followers. However, these tools can be very helpful if used strategically and sparingly.
Type in any three words or phrases and compare how often each is tweeted about.
5 Best Twitter Tools For Smarter Blogging by Smedio
Sridhar Ramunajam provides quick reviews of five helpful Twitter tools including dlvr.it for auto-publishing blog content to Twitter and TweetStats, which provides stats about your account (e.g., tweets per hour, tweets per month, tweet timeline) in graphical format.
Six Benefits to Using Twitter.com Instead of an App by TwiTip
Shannon Albert makes the case for using Twitter itself rather than a third-party app (e.g., HootSuite or TweetDeck) for interacting on Twitter: it’s faster, has no limits on Tweets per hour and lets you see other users’ custom backgrounds among other advantages.
Twitter Stats
All You Need to Know About Twitter in 2010 [Infographic] by Mediabistro
Lauren Dugan presents an infographic from Flowtown that reviews Twitter highlights of 2010, from Bill Gates setting up a Twitter account in January through celebrity digital death at year end.
Related Post
50 (of the) Best Twitter Guides, Stats, Tips and Tools of 2010 (So Far)
36 (of the) Best Facebook Guides, Stats and Rants of 2010
Monday, January 10th, 2011It’s hard to overstate the impact of Facebook. Having long ago passed MySpace as the most popular social network, Facebook recently replaced Google as the most-visited website in the U.S. It started 2010 with roughly 350 million users and is now on its way to 600 million. Founder Mark Zuckerberg was TIME magazine’s person of the year, was interviewed on 60 Minutes simultaneously with new features being rolled out on the platform, and had a movie made about him and Facebook’s beginnings.
And though a website used primarily by young people to post embarrassing pictures of themselves and by older people to share cute pictures of their progeny would seem an odd venue for selling after-shave or enterprise software, both b2c and b2b marketers have embraced the platform in droves simply due to its incredible scale and reach. So how does a marketer capitalize on this unruly and ever-changing platform to drive business results? How can you stand out from the crowd, grow your fan base, get “likers” to come back to your page, engage your audience, target your prospects, conduct research, and basically prove to the CFO that all of this work isn’t just a colossal waste of time?
Find out here in three dozen of the best Facebook marketing guides of last year—along with some interesting stats and even counterpoints from a few naysayers and holdouts.
Facebook Marketing Tips and Guides
The 12 Best Ways To Customize Your Facebook Pages by TechCrunch
Orli Yakuel reviews a dozen free and fee-based tools for making Facebook page tabs, including Miproapps, TabSite and of course the “pioneer” in this space, Static FBML.
3 reasons your brand doesn’t have more Facebook fans by iMedia Connection
According to Scott Meldrum, “Brands should market their Facebook page in every available channel they can, including their website, landing pages, email communications, and ad creative” among other recommendations for increasing their following and level of engagement on Facebook.
Using Facebook as a Strategic Marketing Channel by Green Buzz Agency
Pointing out that putting up a Facebook page and hoping fans will find you is not a strategy, Erika Jolly Brookes provides a detailed set of tips, considerations and questions to ask yourself when crafting a true Facebook marketing strategy, from developing a creative brief through putting together a “conversational calendar.”
5 Ways for B2B Companies to Engage on Facebook by Social Media B2B
Conceding that Facebook is often viewed as the “red-headed stepchild” of b2b social media marketing and that the world’s largest social network has done a lot of things wrong in from a B2B marketing standpoint, Karlie Justus reminds us that nevertheless, “Facebook has more than 500 million reasons for B2B companies to create and foster an interactive, informative community for employees, partners, customers, retailers and distributors.” She then offers five recommendations for B2B Facebook use including offering a mix of original content and industry news, and asking questions. I’m still not sure that Facebook has more than one effective use for B2B marketing, but Karlie makes an interesting case.
How to target Facebook wall posts to specific fans by Socialbrite
John Haydon provides detailed instructions on how to send Facebook wall posts to specific groups of fans based on location and language. For example, although a significant proportion of the population of Quebec is bilingual, many of those people have a language preference. If you know that and have an upcoming event in that region, you could send separate wall posts in French and English to your Quebec fans based on the language they prefer.
A Blog App for Your Fan Page by Trailblaze Social Media with Josh
Joshua Lyons explains how the Networkedblogs app makes it easy to automatically feed your blog posts through a Facebook fan page tab, and easy for your fans to follow your blog.
How to Design a Kick-Ass Facebook Fanpage by 1stwebdesigner
As more brands jump on the Facebook bandwagon, it’s getting more challenging to stand out from the pack. Piotr Krzyzek recommends using a portrait-size profile picture, creating an opt-in landing page, adding contact information and links everywhere possible, and of course fan interaction and quality content.
Branding & Engagement, pt. 2: My New Favorite Facebook Page by Inkling Media
Ken Mueller uses the example of Dave’s Ace Hardware in Wisconsin to demonstrate how to optimize business engagement on Facebook: be personal, use photos and video, provide great customer service among other things.
Fans are fickle: How to inspire loyalty after the “like” by iMedia Connection
People are busy. They may like your Facebook page, but most won’t come back very often without a reason. Scott Meldrum (again) suggests rewarding loyal fans and customers, targeting your wall posts (see John Haydon’s post above), and responding promptly to questions and comments among other methods to encourage repeat visits.
Facebook SEO by Blind Five Year Old
***** 5 Stars
A.J. Kohn presents a remarkably comprehensive yet understandable guide to taking advantage of the search capabilities within Facebook. As A.J. explains, “This isn’t about optimizing your ‘fan’ page to appear in Google search results, but instead is about optimizing your own site and pages to appear in Facebook search results.”
How To Build Your Facebook Landing Page (If You’re Not A Programmer) by SocialMouths
After explaining why a custom Facebook landing page is important and what can be done with one, Francisco Rosales provides a detailed, richly illustrated 10-step guide for creating a landing page that’s as unique as your business—even if your business isn’t writing code.
7 Simple Tips for Using Facebook to Promote Your Business by Digital Labz
Basic but nevertheless helpful tips for successfully marketing on Facebook, such as adding a Facebook widget to your blog, highlighting your personality, updating your page regularly, and participating on other pages as well.
5 Staggeringly Simple Ways to Create Custom Facebook Landing Tabs by Convince and Convert
“With the exception of baking the ‘like’ button into your website, the best way to generate new fans on Facebook is to create a custom landing tab,” according to Jay Baer, and in this helpful post he reviews five options / apps for creating a custom landing tab on Facebook.
22 Inspiring Examples of Facebook Page Designs by DreamGrow Social Media
Priit Kallas highlights almost two dozen examples of dazzling Facebook design to get your creative juices flowing, like Kit Kat, Victoria’s Secret and Sony, all of which direct new visitors to somewhere other than the brand’s wall page.
26 Tips for Enhancing Your Facebook Page by Social Media Examiner
***** 5 Stars
Need inspiration for new ideas to keep your Facebook page up to date with fresh content? Debbie Hemley offers “26 practical ways to use good content for your Facebook pages, everything from A to Z,” literally–starting with Alltop and business updates and running all the way through YouTube and Zen. Highly creative AND useful!
Facebook Advertising Tricks for B2B Marketers by Buzz Marketing for Technology
Paul Dunay provides three brilliant tips for b2b marketers to optimize their use of Facebook advertising, such as “Put the 20 top companies you want to target into the Workplaces field. Facebook unlike Google works off of the ‘or’ operand not the ‘and’ operand so you can use this to your advantage by placing as many of the companies you want to target into the Workplaces field and thereby target the employees of all of those firms.”
What Happens After the Facebook Like? 20 Tips To Engage Your Audience After the Like by Pam Moore
What happens after someone “likes” your page—will they ever come back? Really? Pam Moore offers 20 tips for making the “like” just the beginning of a Facebook relationship, including developing an editorial calendar for updates (with a mix of different types of content), focusing on value to your audience, and making it fun.
7 Simple Facebook Page Tricks by AboutUs
Kristina Weis supplies helpful instructions for how to do things like target your posts to specific audiences, create a custom URL for your Facebook page and get into your fans’ “top news.”
Top 75 Apps for Enhancing Your Facebook Page by Social Media Examiner
Facebook marketing rock star Mari Smith reviews the top 75 Facebook apps that enable you to “customize your landing tabs, add your blog, add videos and photos, add chat, add polls, contests, geolocation, scheduling, email, ecommerce” and much more.
Facebook Changes and New Features
Facebook Rolls Out New Like Buttons For Publishers by All Facebook
Caitlin Fitzsimmons provides a quick rundown of the features of Facebook’s revised “like” button for publishers and differences from the original version.
8 Recent Updates for Facebook Business Pages by Masterful Marketing
Since Facebook changes it interface the way Lady Gaga changes dresses, Debra Murphy attempts to sort things out here, detailing eight changes made in the latter half of 2010 including the ability to remove the creator admin for business pages(critical in the case of employee turnover), ability to view insights per post, and the end of boxes.
Facebook Overhauls Profile Page by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Speaking of changes, Mark Walsh here details the end-of-year changes Facebook made to the profile page, and the implications for users.
Facebook Groups – a Complete Guide by Jesper Åström
Jesper Astrom explains what the new Facebook Groups is, how to create a Facebook Group, what you can do with it, and the benefits and risks of using Facebook Groups.
Facebook Features, pt. 2: A New Way to Invite Fans to Your Business Page by Inkling Media
Ken Mueller (again) writes about a new tool from Facebook to invite fans to “like” business page: “In addition to using the ‘Suggest to Friends’ and ‘Share’ functions…it is now possible to invite people via email. This is especially helpful if you have any sort of business email database. Facebook now allows you to upload email addresses from a variety of platforms in order to send an email to your contacts to invite them to ‘like’ your page,” and shows how to use this new capability.
Facebook Is Becoming Your Company’s New BFF by MediaPost Search Insider
Derek Gordon reports on Mark Zuckerberg’s 60 Minutes interview and simultaneous release of Facebook’s new profile functionality. He outlines the new functionality and speculates on the motivation behind some of the new features.
Facebook Top 10 Lists
Top 10 Facebook Fixes by lifehacker
Noting that you don’t have to use Facebook exactly the same way everyone else does, Spencer E Holtaway offers “ten tweaks to make Facebook better,” such as accessing it from a different client, backing up your account, getting your privacy settings right, and preventing friends from revealing your location.
10 Top Facebook Pages and Why They’re Successful by Social Media Examiner
Amy Porterfield suggests ways to make your company’s Facebook page more popular, interactive and effective by borrowing ideas from highly successful pages from brands like Red Bull, LiveScribe, Oreo and the Travel Channel.
10 Tips & Tricks For Your Business’s Facebook Fan Page by Hongkiat.com
***** 5 Stars
Ever come across a really cool brand page on Facebook and wonder how they created it? Michael Vreeken provides step-by-step instructions on how to use Static FBML to create a custom landing page, embed videos, create a “fans only” content area, insert Flash content or image rollovers, track your fan page visits with Google Analytics and more.
10 Facebook Tabs to Add by ReadWriteWeb
Richard MacManus explains how to create 10 common types of Facebook tabs, including Flickr, Slideshare, Questions and YouTube tabs.
Facebook Statistics
Facebook Added 5 Million U.S. Users In August by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Mark Walsh reports interesting stats on Facebook’s continued growth in the U.S. and elsewhere. For example, Facebook’s membership (as of August) reached 44% of the U.S. population, 13.2 million users in India (still only 1% of the population there)—a 179% increase in the past year—and 3.2% of the rapidly growing Brazilian social network market.
5 Fascinating Facebook Infographics by Rhino SEO Blog
A handful of cool infographics loaded with Facebook facts, stats and trivia such as the fact that Facebook is now available in over 70 languages, hosts over 1.6 million active pages (700,000 of which are for local businesses) which collectively have 5.3 billion fans, has 3.5 billion pieces of content shared on it each week, requires more than 10,000 servers to run, and has more than half a million applications written for it. Collectively, users waste, er, spend, 8.3 billion hours on Facebook each month.
Facebook Commentary and Observations
I Really Don’t Like Everything I “Like” on Facebook by Inkling Media
Ken Mueller notes several situations where you have no choice but to “like” a page or company on Facebook even if you really feel no affinity toward it, such as when conducting research or even to express displeasure with a company’s product or service on their fan page.
Breathtaking Facebook Fan Pages by DesignsMag
Need some inspiration for creating or revamping your Facebook presence? Check out 40 stunning examples of pages for movies, artists, food & beverage brands, fashion and more.
Facebook Skeptics
The Death of Facebook by Geoff Livingston
Asking “Who in their right mind would predict the death of Facebook given its ever increasing dominance?,” Geoff Livingston proceeds to do just that, arguing that it’s only a matter of time before Facebook’s increasing cluttered interface, confusing privacy settings and other issues allow an as-yet-unknown new competitor to eat the leading social network’s lunch. Not sure I buy this, but I do agree with Geoff’s larger point that it’s best not “to become too entrenched on a mega social network like Facebook (or Twitter)” but rather maintain the nimbleness to “move with our community” to new networks as social media tools continue to evolve.
The Facebook Reckoning by Anil Dash
Anil Dash takes Facebook to task for its privacy policies; not weaknesses but conscious choices made by privileged Ivy League founder Mark Zuckerberg, specifically “impos(ing) an extreme set of values on its users without adequately communicating the consequences of those choices.” Anil holds out hope though that Facebook can become more truly inclusive “by engaging more with its users in an honest way about its radical stance on public sharing.” But as Facebook’s popularity continues to expand globally, it’s not clear that Facebook’s ambiguous and confusing privacy policies matter much to users, or to Zuckerberg. And some of the comments following this post are possibly even more thoughtful enlightening than the post itself.
Is Facebook Forever? by iMedia Connection
Andrew Edwards muses about the fates of brands like AOL and MSN, and delves into several reasons why he believes Facebook will follow their path into obscurity, including the fact that it’s a closed system, the observation that the vast majority of the chatter there is inane, and the insight that despite the fact every company on earth thinks it needs a Facebook page, the platform is in the end a poor fit for business (“Most users of Facebook want to look at stuff like baby pictures and make fun of each other”).
Related Posts
35 (of the) Best Guides to Facebook Marketing, Advertising, Search and More of 2010 (So Far)
Best Facebook Marketing Tips and Guides of 2009
