Five Facebook Tips 12

Here we go again. Five more Facebook tips for you and yours on this Friday.

facebook-friday-tips

So social media is NOT about ME (=you/your brand) or being the media (all the time), the focus is on being social. Having a conversation with someone (online or offline) creates a relationship. And since “people do business with people they know, like, and trust”, building a relationship with your past/current/future consumers is key. Otherwise each sale is just “buy”, or “goodbye”. Selling a product once to one consumer is nice, but wouldn’t it be much better if that consumer stays with you for a long(er) time?

1. Keep your Post By Others wall as open as possible
Seeing big (and small) brands turning the “Post By Others” wall off is something I can not comprehend. Ignoring your past/present/future customer, in public, isn’t good marketing in my eyes.
So open up the “Post By Others” wall and then open it up all the way (see screen shot below). You want your fans to be able to tag their friends in your photos, so your content gets spread whenever possible. Having your current fans telling their friends about you is super valuable. We all trust our friends more then anything, and social media is word of mouth on steroids. Why would you try to stop that?

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2. Add other Facebook Pages to your Page (that you’d recommend)
As a Facebook Page you can “like” other Facebook Pages, which displays in the right colum on the top of your Page. This is basicly a list of other Pages that you think your fans should “like” as well. So you would add brands, retailers, and athletes on this list that you want to align yourself with. So don’t try to make this list endless. Less is more. I think anywhere from 5 to 50 could be a decent size list.
To add another Facebook Page to your list just go to the Facebook Page you want to add, and click on the “wheel” below the cover photo (on the right) and click “Like As Your Page”. If you handle multiple Facebook Pages you get the option to pick the Page you want to add it to.

Poler-FB-page

3. Display 5 other Pages for people to Like (Featured Likes)
So now that you have a list of Pages added to your “Recommend Likes”, the “Likes” box will display up to 5 Pages that your Page likes. This list will change with every refresh, so each one on the list gets displayed at random. If you “like” more then 5 Pages you don’t control which Pages get shown. But you can set certain “Featured Likes”, so those will show up every time. I don’t recommend locking in all of the 5 spots, as then the others Pages will never show up. So maybe lock in the first 2-3 spots makes the most sense.
To set the Featured Likes go to “Edit Page” and “Edit Settings”. On the left click on “Featured” and then click on the box “Add Featured Likes”. Now the list pops up of all the Pages that you like with your page. Select the ones you want to lock in.

Featured-Likes

4. Who to make an admin of your Facebook page
For a while now there a 5 different degrees of admin roles. Only the “Manager” can add and delete others. Best is to have 2 people be an manager, in case something happens to one of the profiles from the admin. (Hacked, banned, etc) If someone has a fake (personal) profile you want to be extra carefull, as Facebook can at any time delete that profile. And if that’s the only admin of the Facebook Page you’re screwed. As far as adding any others admin, once again, less is more. If you add more people to your Facebook Page, to post (in specific territories) make sure they now how to post, respond, and tag right.

*Please note that any manager can hijack the page and kick everyone else out. It all comes down to trust, and maybe adding something in the contract of your social media employees.

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5. Check the comments after you do a Facebook post

I see a lot of people just post stuff, and not interact. They turn their “Post By Others” wall off and just do one-way traffic. Being anti-social on social media, wtf!
When some people constantly question the ROI of social media, it blows my mind that most of them don’t interact. So when you post something, check back after a few minutes, a few hours, and the next day(s). See if people have questions about the product or anything else. And delete spam comments and approve the comments that were flagged as spam (incorrectly).
More then 60% of the time people check Facebook from a mobile device and most people having notifications turned on, they can and will respond quickly. Keep the momentum going and talk back to them, and more importantly, have a conversation with them. In the first 30-60 minutes you can really help increase the reach of your post by doing this. And you might be able to sell some extra product while being at it.
Are you ready for 1-on-1 marketing yet?

Hope this is once again helpfull.

Check out Facebook tips part 11 from last week for more tips and tricks. Questions or comments? Drop ‘em below! You can of course post them on my Facebook Page or shoot me an email at [email protected].

Timeline For Facebook Pages

Always nice waking up to some shocking news. We all knew it was coming sooner or later, as Facebook introduced the timeline for the personal profiles a few months ago, but as of today the timeline is also available for Facebook (fan) pages. Without a warning in the last few days.

You don’t have to change it right away, as it won’t be final until March 30th 2012. So that gives you 4 weeks to get you shit together. I think you should do it today or tomorrow, as you want to show your fans that you lead the way, not follow like a sheep.

How does it work?
If you’re admin just go the fan page that you have access too. You will see this message on the top of the page.

If you have played around with the timeline on your personal profile, and you know how easy it is to upgrade, I suggest clicking “preview” right away.

You then get to this page.


Example: Epidemic skateshop Facebook page

Your fans won’t see your new timeline unless you click “publish”. Your profile picture is already set, but if you want you can change that. Just hoover your mouse over the photo and click “edit”. The specs for the profile image are 180px by 180px. The profile picture will also be the thumbnail that people will see of you in their newsfeed. (image will then be 32px by 32px).

The most important (and best) thing about the timeline is the cover photo. Click on “add a cover” on the right to upload a photo or image, or pick an image you already uploaded. If you pick an existing image make sure it’s big enough! The cover photo should be AT LEAST 851px by 315px. Bigger is not too much of a problem, since you can move the image around. But to prevent things from being cut out of the frame it’s best to size you cover photo correctly before uploading it.

Facebook has guidelines for the cover photo, make sure you read them first before uploading an image. Here are the key points you can’t have in the cover image:
– Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
– Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your page’s about section
– References to user interface elements, such as “Like” or “Share”, or any other Facebook site features
– Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

Once you have uploaded your timeline image click on “publish now” and your page will now show up to everyone. Yes, your cover photo is public, so anyone visiting your page will be able to see the image you choose.


Example: Garrett Hill Facebook page

Since you can now also “star” (and pin) certain photos and videos make sure the images are at least 851px wide, otherwise they could be blurry.

Specs Timeline:
Cover image: 851px by 315px
Profile image: 180px by 180px
Thumbnail of profile image: 32px by 32px

More on the timeline for pages this coming Friday.
Questions or comments? Drop ‘em below!
Or shoot me an email at [email protected].

Also check out “Five Facebook Tips #7” from last week.

You can educate yourself right now by watching some interactive tutorial videos on the Facebook About Pages site. Very useful!