Tag Archives: facebook

Facebook News Feed & Other Changes: Good For Brands

Posted on September 22, 2011 by | 4 Comments

Facebook News Feed changes include a real-time News Ticker.

Today Facebook’s f8 Developer Conference kicks off and expectations are high.  Major changes to Facebook are set to be announced, on the heels of the recently deployed and significant adjustments to the News Feed and Friends Lists, and the addition of the Subscribe button.

To give you some perspective, take a look at how Mashable’s Ben Parr described the upcoming announcements in a recent column, titled Prepare Yourselves: Facebook To Be Profoundly Changed:

“I have seen what Facebook is launching on Thursday, and it’s going to change the world of social media. And while I won’t talk about the mind-boggling things Facebook will be launching, I will say this: The Facebook you know and (don’t) love will be forever transformed. The news that will come out of Facebook during the next few weeks will be the biggest things to come out of the company since the launch of the Facebook Platform.”

All-righty then.  Big things are coming. I’ll do my best to synthesize key aspects for communicators here.

The News Feed changes in and of themselves are pretty significant, and (I think) will be helpful to brands using Facebook to communicate with their audiences. In a nutshell, Facebook has removed the “Top News” and “Recent News” views.  Instead, the news feed you see when you log into Facebook is adjusted automatically according to the last time you accessed your Facebook page.   Ostensibly, these changes make it much less likely that you’ll miss items from friends (and brands you follow).   If you’ve not checked your Facebook account for a while, the news you see will the “top news” (I’m assuming “top” is still a function of interactions) from your network.  If you check Facebook more frequently, you’ll see more timely news.  “Top” news items are designated with a little blue flag.

Facebook has also instituted a scrolling news ticker, displaying status updates from your friends and the brands you follow in real-time.   So, even if it’s been a while since you checked in, and Facebook is showing you top stories that are a little less timely, the News Ticker will display current network activity.

I think Facebook’s approach is a pretty slick way to handle the status-update/time conundrum, and I like the way content from brands receives equal footing.  Simply put, I want to hear from the brands I follow on Facebook, and I appreciate the fact Facebook respects that.  All in all, I think these changes will benefit brands that are using Facebook effectively.

Brief summary of the other recent changes:

Friends Lists:  The Friends Lists debuted years ago but have seen little use.  The current deployment added a lot of new functionality for Facebook users, and has automated the task of organizing Friends.  Best of all, you can now share content exclusively with a specific group of people – Facebook allows you to select which list(s) you want to share posts with right in the Status Update box.

You can now share status updates with specific lists.

Other changes include:

-         Smart Lists: Facebook is creating lists automatically, based upon criteria in your profile (e.g. your alma mater, or where you live) and then creates friends lists automatically from those criteria.  As a user, I think this is a great feature – I can easily see activity from my high school or college friends, for example.   You can also edit these lists, enabling you to fine tune them.

-         Close Friends: If you don’t want to miss a single post from a person, add them to the “Close Friends” list.  Their posts will jump to the top of your News Feed.

-         Acquaintances: Adding people to the Acquaintances list means you’ll see fewer posts from them. Only important news, which Facebook currently describes as things like marriages or moves, will be added to your news feed.

Subscribe: Enables you follow the public updates of others, whether or not you’re “friends.”  It’s kind of like following people on Twitter.

Photos:  Photos gain more prominence in the News Feed, with larger thumbnails and a more visually engaging display of images in the news feed.  Images are popular fodder on Facebook – people love to share and see pictures of people, pets, weird stuff and cool products.  Facebook has recognized this.

More updates from Facebook are coming, and I’ll be doing my best over the next few days to synthesize and summarize what those changes mean for PR pros and marketers right here.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

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The best things I read this week

Posted on July 1, 2011 by | Leave a comment

This week’s favorite reads are a mixed bag of PR philosophy, social tactics and search updates.

Why isn’t making money a PR objective?

Craig Pearce (@commaim) is never one to hold back, and he tackles many tough questions on his blog.  This post of his was actually published earlier in June, but I read it this week, and it made the cut for this post.   Craig delves into the KPIs we use to measure public relations and specifically challenges us to think about why generating profit is (generally speaking) not on PR’s radar screen.

The Fallacy of Round the Clock Social Media

Like New York City, social networks never sleep.  Many argue that your brand presence on social channels shouldn’t sleep, either.  In this post, author Chris Hall begs to differ, discussing when timeliness of responses matters, and when it is less important, noting, “…the only way to seem human is to be like one.”

Hangout is the Breakout Feature of Google+

Google+ debuted this week, in a closed beta that left many unable to sign up for the long-awaited social network from the search giant.   SearchEngineLand concluded that the breakout feature of Google+ is “Hangout,” the video chat feature that enables up to 10 people connect live.   Bradley Horotwitz, Google’s VP of product development for apps, was on the Hangout session, and suggested that we need to be thinking of Hangout as a platform, inviting multiple use cases far beyond small meet-ups and potentially third party developer involvement.

Is Google+ Going to Kill Facebook?

Forrester analyst Nate Elliott doesn’t think so, but does note that Google+ could make things more difficult for marketers, as the “Circles” feature enables users to be very selective, and to narrowly define their groups of friends.  Will they include brands?  Doesn’t seem terribly likely ….

Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

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How the Company You Keep Determines the Search Results You See

Posted on June 23, 2011 by | 9 Comments

A blog post titled “Social Annotations in Search: Now your Social Network = Rankings” on SEOMoz yesterday stopped me in my tracks.  The post, authored by SEOMoz chief Rand Fishkin, described in detail how Google uses the activities of the people in our personal social networks to influence the search results we see.

“The socialization of search is more than just Tweeted URLs or Facebook Likes or LinkedIn Shares having a positive first/second-order impact on generic rankings,” Fishkin notes in his post. “It’s about influencing your social graph to see the content you share in their search results.”

Here’s an example.  The first image is my Google SERP, produced when I’m logged into my Google account (click on each to see a larger, clearer version):

Personalized search results from Google for the term "content marketing strategies"

The second image is my SERP for the same search term, produced when I’m logged out:

Results from Google for the same search term, but with personalized results turned off.

As you can see, the results are different.  Content from some colleagues of mine is featured prominently in the first result.   In this case, my friends Vicky and Sean are exerting direct influence over what content I see.

Simply put, search engines are making the assumption that internet searchers would like to see relevant content from people they know – namely, the people they, follow on Twitter and Quora, are friends with on Facebook, share connections on LinkedIn and who populate their address books – and are putting relevant content shared by those people at the top of the search results we each see.

A look at my Google account settings. Google "found" my Quora account and prompts me to add it to my connected accounts.

Google isn’t alone in using the social graph to influence search results.  Facebook and Bing have teamed up and are starting to roll out a variety of features in Bing search results, including the display of relevant items liked by the searcher’s Facebook friends.  The two companies describe their approach as one that adds personal recommendations from people you know to your search results, in order to aid decision making.

Well, this is a bit of a game-changer for brands, in a few different ways.   For anyone concerned with marketing communications and public relations, this is big news.   And for brands, I think the message from the search engines is clear.

1)      Developing credible presences on networks like Twitter and Facebook is now an imperative.

2)      Encouraging employees to build their own professional presences on social networks is officially a very, very good idea.

Back to what the burgeoning influence of the social graph on search results means for communicators.

  • For a savvy media pro, a credible and authentic Twitter presence is the new Rolodex.  A vibrant social presence – in which connections with media, bloggers and analysts are cultivated – can keep one top-of-mind with people who really matter, and can mean your messages – the press releases you tweet, the thoughtful answers you leave on Quora, the content you share across networks – will be seen in your connections’ search results.
  • For brands seeking search engine visibility, the benefits of a robust social presence are clear – developing social connections with stakeholders (journalists, bloggers, customers, employees, etc.)

Something else brands need to consider is the importance of the conversations occurring in social channels.  How people describe, discuss and refer to a brand or industry segment is going to affect search results.  Brands need to monitor social media and stay on top of the ongoing conversation – changes in audience sentiment or vernacular can have a real-time impact on search results, and can also offer a tuned-in brand opportunity to connect and capitalize upon conversation trends.

The underlying trend is a relentless drive toward authenticity by the search engines.  Powered by the sharing and interaction of the social layer, content sharing and the language we each use when we share content are rapidly becoming the equivalents of backlinks and metadata to SEO seven years ago:  these factors play a key role in how search engines evaluate, index and display content in search results.

Within this authenticity trend is another important opportunity for organizations to shape the conversations in the social network, and that is brand journalism. Brands that can identify interesting people and stories within their businesses and tell those stories authentically will be a step ahead of everyone else in the online visibility game.   Content that is interesting and unique captures audience attention, and they are likely to share it with their connections.   Audiences aren’t fooled by puffery, however.  A successful brand publishing strategy absolutely has to make content quality its cornerstone.

Author Sarah Skerik (@sarahskerik) is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

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The Death of the Impression & Scaling True Engagement

Posted on May 19, 2011 by | 4 Comments

Just as the advent of social media has triggered sea-changes in the media landscape and roiled  public relations, big advertising has also been affected. Generating impressions is a metric that’s fast falling by the wayside. Instead, advertisers are setting the bar higher.  Generating engagement is now an outcome many are building into their plans, but delivering engagement on a larger scale poses a number of challenges.

A recent blog post on the Harvard Business Review site titled “Coca-Cola Marketing Shifts from Impressions to Expressions” awoke me to this trend and got me thinking about what the implications are all communicators – public relations and otherwise.

“Impressions only tell advertisers the raw size of the audience,” stated author Joe Tripodi, CMO and chief commercial officer for a little company in Atlanta called Coca-Cola. “By definition, impressions are passive. They give us no real sense of engagement, and consumer engagement with our brands is ultimately what we’re striving to achieve. Awareness is fine, but advocacy will take your business to the next level.”

At last week’s Mashable Connect conference, Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer drove the engagement point home, stating, “Advertising impressions are dying a painful death. The impression apocalypse is nigh.”


This new emphasis on developing engagement stands traditional campaign timelines on their heads. Earning attention and engagement happens over time – taking longer than budgets last, as Shafer pointed out – and also outlasting traditional measurement cycles.

Coca-Cola, according to Tripodi, is starting to measure “expressions,” which it defines as any level of consumer interaction with Coke content – such as a Like on Facebook, the action of sharing something with friends, or uploading a photo or video showing or mentioning Coke.   Consumers can generate a lot more messages about a brand than the brand itself can, noted Tripodi.

The mechanics of earning interest, attention and engagement are different from traditional media buying, as well.    “The people who buy breadth aren’t good at buying depth,” Schafer noted.  “Tonnage isn’t engagement. You have to earn depth.”

And thus, the real underlying challenge that the social layer presents to all communicators – the fact that brands need engagement to happen in scale – but the consumer needs to be respected.

In the afore mentioned HBR blog post, Tripodi captured this dichotomy nicely, noting, “Now information flows in many directions, consumer touch points have multiplied, and the old, one-size-fits-all approach has given way to precision marketing and one-to-one communications.”

One-to-one communications – that certainly doesn’t sound like scale.  But one-to-one communications are, in fact, the currency of the social layer.  And the platforms that deliver these one-to-one communications work – Schafer highlighted the fact that Facebook offers better engagement rates than standard display.  And there are some efficiencies to be found in the social layer – the platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Zynga et al do gather audience in one place.   And they are building real power.  Case in point: Facebook, according to Schafer, is delivering 1/3 of all display advertising.

Schafer went on to pose a few questions professional communicators are going to be grappling with over the coming year – if they aren’t already, including:

  • Can agencies who trade in reach and frequency also establish engagement and connections?
  •  How will we measure the lifetime value of engagement?
  • And what are engagement parameters? What makes our customers better customers?

Ultimately, Schafer concluded that we need to start thinking about what each dollar spent in an advertising budget (and I’d throw PR and marketing into that mix, too) contributes to the lifetime value of the customer.  Understanding that value point will be necessary in order to deliver scale.

Sarah Skerik (@sarahskerik) is PR Newswire’s vp-social media.

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Using Video in Social Media and Search Engines

Posted on April 26, 2011 by | 8 Comments

Video is one of the most popular and engaging content formats on the Web, and in social networks, today. In addition to offering a compelling experience to viewers, video offers communicators an important way to present visual messages. And – maybe even more importantly – video is given extra weight in the algorithms search engines and some social networks use to select the content we see. Consistently using good video as part of your communications strategy can deliver immediate – and lasting – visibility benefits. Understanding how to integrate video into your online messages, optimize the related content and distribute video is a key skill set for PR and marketing pros.

Search engines and video

Video sharing sites – especially Google’s YouTube – are irresistible fodder for search engines.   Video posted on your web site can also be indexed by search engines – however, creating correct and effective display of videos on a company web site is more advanced SEO work and is something we’ll leave for the pros.  That said, there are plenty of brutally effective ways one can drive awareness, branding and message visibility using video.

Posting videos on YouTube (or other sharing sites like MetaCafe and Vimeo) and then embedding those videos on another page – such as your blog or web site – delivers two very important benefits, including:

  • Your video is accessible to the huge – and social – audiences on those video sites.
  • Embedding the video hosted on the video sharing site (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo et al) on your web site creates a link between the page on which you’ve embedded the video, and the sharing site.   This is important, because search engines see the link, and the content on either end of the link – which informs them more about the video content, and can affect how the video is displayed in search engine results.

While the engines can’t read and index the videos themselves, the information surrounding the video is indexed and defines how the video is displayed in search results.

This metadata includes the video title, description and tags. The publisher of the video also sends a signal to the search engines – those have built out branded YouTube channels complete with descriptive information and site links, and then go on to build popular video archives focused on specific subjects will be seen as credible sources of information for those topics, another factor that may influence search rankings.

YouTube's upload form invites you to add a lot of detail about the video you're uploading.

Best practices for tagging and describing videos on video sharing sites:

  • Fill out all the fields available to you completely.
  • Just as you do with other content, use descriptive language – and target keywords.  But don’t sound like an automaton.
  • Descriptions should also be specific.  For example, if you work for a haberdasher and are uploading videos offering advice on tying ties, don’t just settle on a generic title like “How to Tie a Tie,” if the video shows how to tie a Windsor knot.  Don’t just think about search engines.  Consider your audience, too – because your real goal is to post videos your audience loves, finds useful, and will share readily.

Once the videos have been uploaded to the sharing site, you’re ready to embed them into your blog or web site.  Taking the time to include descriptive language is beneficial at this point, too.  Instead of simply embedding the video and leaving it at that, surrounding it with a relevant description and other content (and even links to still more content) will provide important context for your readers – and for search engines.   Anyone (or anything) looking at the page should understand at a glance what the video is about.   And, as always, keep SEO basics in mind.  Employ keywords in the page headline, and within the descriptive text.

Facebook – video is the key to super exposure

When you log onto your Facebook wall, chances are good that you don’t see everything posted by your network.  Most people use the default  “Top News” news feed view, which cherry-picks the most interesting posts – i.e. those with the most likes, comments and shares – from the people in your network.  Facebook doesn’t want to you to be bored.

The rules of engagement on Facebook start and finish with interactions – those likes, comments and shares – and nowhere is this more evident than in how the news feed works. Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm dictates what content makes it into the news feed – where it can be seen by your fans’ friends. Emphasis is placed on the quality of the action (e.g. a comment is more valuable than a ‘like,’) and the timeliness of the action, as well as the affinity between the interacting parties.   Simply put, items that generate little or no interaction won’t make it into the news feed, and won’t be seen much beyond the poster’s wall.

On Facebook, video is your secret weapon – it’s more engaging for your audience, and appears to be weighted highly by the Facebook algorithms.  Plus, videos uploaded to Facebook directly (versus being embedded in other players) carry a bonus – when they’re shared by fans, a “like” button for your page appears in the Facebook player in your fan’s newsfeeds – effectively creating a mini-ambassador that recruits new fans for your Facebook page.

Good content

As always, it’s important to keep the cardinal rule of social media firmly in mind when creating video and other content to share in networks – be interesting, and be useful.  Content that isn’t of value to your audience won’t be shared, and won’t gain the exponential visibility awarded by search engines and social networks.   Keep the bar high on content quality, and be meticulous in the descriptions surrounding your videos, and you’ll enjoy a higher level of visibility for your brand.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president, social media.

Learn more about using video in social media, online communications and press releases.

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Brand Engagement in Social Media

Posted on February 23, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Oreos, in all forms. What's not to "like" ?

I like Oreo cookies. I don’t mean that in the Facebook sense of the word like, but rather in real life. I like the originals and the double stuff. I like the white frosted ones that come out during the Holidays. I like any ice cream anywhere that features Oreos. I even like those “golden” Oreos. (Try them. They’re good.) Oreos have been a staple of my sweet tooth for as long as I can remember. And I’m sure I’m not alone on this. Still, I had no idea – until recently – of Oreo’s successful social media campaigns.

But I should have known, cause it turns out the makers of everyone’s favorite tuxedo cookie treat (sorry, Hydrox) has positioned themselves as major players in the social media space. For example, Oreo is the third largest brand on Facebook. They have well over 16 million fans. And you may have recently heard about how they set the Guinness world record for most likes on a single Facebook post in a 24 hour period. You may have also heard that rap star Lil Wayne beat that record a day later. How did Oreo respond? They sent him some Oreo cookies to celebrate. Talk about keeping their name in the story!

But sending delicious Oreo cookies to Lil’ Wayne surely isn’t enough to build a social media strategy around. (Or is it?) (It’s not.) Recently, I had the opportunity to listen to representatives from Oreo and other brands discuss what’s worked for them at the Content and Conversations panel at Social Media Week New York. One of the main things Oreo has done is move themselves to where their customers are. Put another way, they went to where the conversation was happening, rather than trying to bring the conversation to them. For example, a year ago, Oreo’s website was their main web hub. Today their Facebook page is. And on that Facebook page they disseminate product and promotional information in three languages 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They encourage their followers to share photos. They award ‘fan of the week.’ They host polls. They post recipes. Oreo not only engages their fans. They keep them engaged.

Representatives from Nokia, who also spoke at this panel, have found recent success in engaging their fans during a cross promotional campaign with the film “Tron.” They cashed in what they called the ‘nostalgic currency’ for the original “Tron” film and parlayed that into promoting the new film. Nokia released free content, two games, a screensave and wallpapers all tied into “Tron.” They offered code-breaking puzzles, complete with binary and assembly codes.  The Nokia N8 phone even came with Tron content already uploaded in it. As they said, “You can’t just blatantly advertise to people using these sorts of channels. A lot of the readers are already owners and fans, for one thing. And in any case, their purpose is to engage with customers, establish more personal relationships and have a little fun sometimes.”

The Nokia team also outlined six basic principles for engagement:

- Keep it in real time
- Take the party to the people
- Reward participation and collaboration
- Add something for everyone
- Understand how your audience wants to be engaged
- Build relationships with new audiences

People Magazine has also seen recent success in social media. Recently, they let their Facebook fans vote on their annual Sexiest Man Alive contest. In order to vote, however, fans had to like People’s Facebook page. In the first two weeks after the polls opened, People added more than 240,000 additional fans. They learned that not only do Facebook users love to vote in polls, but that engaged users will keep coming back.

Keeping consumers engaged is in every brand’s interest. It’s great to sell something to someone once, but to build a trusted and reciprocal relationship can pay way more dividends.

Authored by Tom Hynes, manager, blogger relations, PR Newswire.

It’s tough to engage if you’re not listening.  Do you know if your fans and followers connecting with your messages? PRN Media Monitoring enables you to listen to your social networks and track traditional media mentions, giving you a holistic view of the conversations central to your business.

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Facebook Pages changes layout and adds functionality for brands

Posted on February 10, 2011 by | 5 Comments

Late this afternoon, Facebook rolled out a new design for Pages, closely mirroring the recent changes made to the profiles, while also adding a variety of new functionality for brands.

New facebook pages layout

The new Facebook Pages layout

The most exciting change in my mind is the new ability for brands to interact. Admins can now use Facebook as the brand, enabling the brand to engage in conversations, like and comment on posts, and to post to other walls.   Admins can also browse Facebook as the brand, easily uploading content and behaving as you can when using Facebook as yourself.   Switching back and forth between a personal and brand identity is a snap – you can toggle back and forth with just one click.

PR Newswire liked a post on the Edelman Facebook page.

Other updates to Facebook pages include:

  • Notification for Admins when someone likes or comments on page content or the page itself.
  • Display of recent photos uploaded by the brand across the top of the page. The images are randomly displayed, however, admins can easily hide images.
  • Display of the page admins, along with their personal profile pictures at the top of the page.
  • Page navigation is now found on the left rail.
  • New filtering options for the wall enable display of content from the brand only, or everyone.

These are exciting changes that many Page admins have eagerly awaited.  However, with this new latitude comes responsibility.  Brands admins will need to be careful as they start interacting more with individuals and other brands on Facebook.  On the whole, however,  these changes are simple, straightforward, and will allow brands to interact more freely on Facebook.

Authored by Sarah Skerik, VP social media, PR Newswire.

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Communicating in context – online and off

Posted on February 8, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Creating contextual continuity between online promotions, off-line advertising and real-life sales and service staff is a challenge that can trip up small businesses and big brands.  At the very least, disconnects between promotions and in-store experience result in poor customer experiences.  And at the worst, gaffes on the national stage can take on a life of their own in social channels, and create real problems for a brand.    I’d like to look at a couple examples today, and think about what communicators can do to guard against the gaps in messaging that can sink a campaign.

A local retailer

A few weeks ago, I spotted a great looking offer from a local retailer in my Facebook news feed.  The post said, simply, that if a Facebook Fan knew the secret password (which they gave in that post) then they would get 40% off any one item in the store. Well, that seemed like a pretty good deal, but before getting in the car, I called the store to check and make sure I had interpreted the post correctly.  I was told I had, so I hopped in the car.

However, upon arrival at the counter, with the secret password at the ready, I was informed that no, the deal wasn’t 40% off for Facebook Fans with the password.  The deal was that as a Facebook Fan with the password, I was entitled to spin a wheel, which offered a variety of deals and discounts, including one shot at getting up to 40% off one item. Annoyed, because I had done my homework, I pulled out my iPhone, and showed them the Facebook post, which didn’t refer to any other terms, conditions or offer any type of fine print.

A chat with the store owner revealed part of the problem. She assumed I had seen earlier Facebook posts about the special “Wheeling and Dealing” weekend, featuring all sorts of deals and contests based upon that spinning wheel.    Ah ha.  There it was.  I hadn’t seen those other posts.  I showed her my Facebook news feed, and we scrolled through it.  The only post from the retailer that made it into the news feed was the one I had seen – because a slew of others had liked and commented upon it.   (I ended up giving her a primer on how Facebook works, and helped her correct her promotions.  She gave me the 40% off.  We both ended up happy.)

The fact is, messages distributed by social channels are subject to fragmentation.  Facebook fans may or may not see all of your posts.  Tweets may append or distort true intent.  The challenge for communicators is how to convey the big picture in this fractured environment.

Groupon

We saw another related situation this weekend.  Groupon took a lot of heat for a TV ad placed during the Super Bowl which appeared to make light of the people of Tibet and their tenuous political and cultural situations.   The underlying truth is that Groupon has serious chops in social activism – the company grew from a cause-based web site called The Point. And, importantly, Groupon’s Save The Money program is raising funds and matching donations to four different groups, including the Tibet Fund.

Unfortunately, the television ad that ran during what ended up being the highest rated US TV show ever failed to reveal Groupon’s worthy efforts or promote the Save The Money program. Viewers who were familiar with the company’s efforts may have chuckled at the ad.  However, the majority of people watching the ad didn’t view it in that context, and they were offended.

Creating contextual continuity
So the question in my mind – whether you’re a small business using Facebook to promote a sale, or you’re a big brand splurging on a Super Bowl ad buy – is this:  How can communicators close the loop between social media and real-life promotion, ensuring a continuity of context between fractured messages?   A few practices come to mind:

1)      All messaging should be able to stand alone, conveying key points and calls to action. Simply put, you can’t rely upon other communications to provide needed context.  And you should never assume your audience has seen other related messages.

2)      Keep variables to a minimum.  We’re playing a version of the childhood game “Telephone” – you know, the one where kids sit in a circle, repeating a message to each other, which invariably becomes wildly distorted by the time the last kid hears it.  When we rely upon word-of-mouth, Twitter and other means of viral distribution of messages, the original message must be clear and simple.

3)      Speaking of calls to action, a unified and consistent call to action that is recognizable will be more memorable to people who may see a variety of messages from your organization.

4)      If the offer requires fine print, communicate it.  At the very least, indicate that terms and conditions apply, and include a link to the details on any landing pages or other messages that are distributed.

5)      Be sure your real-life customer service teams are exquisitely well informed of the deals and specials you’re offering.  Ideally, allow them to see exactly what is being communicated to customers.

6)   When in doubt, don’t use politics, race, sex and religion as a gimmick in a campaign.

What advice can you share for coordinating messages between social media, traditional media and real-life?

Authored by Sarah Skerik (@sarahskerik), VP social media, PR Newswire.

Image courtesy of Flickr user mwichary.

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Humanizing the Brand: Tips for Engaging Facebook Fans

Posted on November 4, 2010 by | 2 Comments

Engaging Facebook fans and building visibility within this burgeoning social network was the focus of a recent PR Newswire educational webinar featuring Ekaterina Walter, social media strategist at Intel. The presentation was loaded with tactical advice, and framed by two important ideas:

Facebook is (in and of itself) a unique attention market.

Facebook is the place where people are going to hang out, interact – and seek information.  In fact, earlier this year, Facebooks’ traffic exceeded Google’s. The opportunity for marketers is clear – Facebook is embedded in the daily habits of hundreds of millions of people.  It’s created a new attention market that has its own set of rules.

Facebook’s ROI is in humanizing the brand, not in generating direct sales.

While it’s easy to get caught up in Facebook’s very attractive demographic numbers (more than 40% of households using Facebook have incomes in excess of $70,000) a central fact – and the key to success on Facebook – is recognizing that the value it offers is connection and interaction with people.

The key to the Facebook newsfeed: interaction

The rules of engagement on Facebook start and finish with individual interactions, and nowhere is that more evident than in how the news feed works. Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm dictates what content makes it into the news feed – where it can be seen by your fans’ friends. Emphasis is placed on the quality of the action (e.g. a comment is more valuable than a ‘like,’) and the timeliness of the action, as well as the affinity between the interacting parties.   Simply put, items that generate little or no interaction won’t make it into the news feed, and won’t be seen much beyond the poster’s wall.

Walter emphasized the importance of generating enough interaction to trigger inclusion in fan newsfeeds – because when that happens, your fans’ friends will also be exposed to your message.  Case in point:  recent research by BrandGlue found that more than 99% of comments on their clients’ status updates came from the news feed – not their wall posts.

Rules of effective engagement on Facebook:

  • Do not automate content.  A the least, it’s less personal.  At the worst, it’s boring, irrelevant and can turn fans off.  Walter also noted that the Facebook algorithms may penalize automated content.
  • Video is your secret weapon.  It’s more engaging for your audience, and appears to be weighted highly by the Facebook algorithms.
  • Videos that are uploaded to Facebook directly (versus being embedded in other players) carry a bonus – when they’re shared by fans, a “like” button for your page appears in the Facebook player.
  • Target status updates. The default is everyone, but you can focus status updates on specific geographies.  The “everyone” button that appears at the bottom of the status update box is actually a pull-down menu.
  • Encourage engagement. Use polls to get fan opinions, and focus-group quality feedback. Put fans in charge by having them judge contests or vote for changes.
  • Exclusivity. Offer your Facebook fans something they can’t get elsewhere – such as access to live chats, exclusive videos, or a simple coupon.  Reward them for being your fans.

Fan engagement can also be augmented by timing and frequency of posts, moderation practices and a variety of other tactics  packed into the hour-long webinar.  If you missed the live event (or need to view it again to digest everything, I know I did!) you can access the archive here:

http://promotions.prnewswire.com/Facebook-for-Business-How-to-Effectively-Increase-Audience-Engagement-with-Your-Fan-Base.html

To keep up with what Ekaterina is thinking, follow her on Twitter: @ekaterina and read her blog – Building Social Bridges.

PR Newswire webinars are designed to help you engage opportunity everywhere.  Want to get some ideas and start thinking out of the box? Read our new paper, “Content is Marketing” and rethink content you produce every day – and unearth some new opportunities for your organization.

Authored by Sarah Skerik, vice president, social media, for PR Newswire.  Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahskerik

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