Source & Related Articles

• So You Need a Typeface (creativebits.org)
• TypoFlat offers loads of wild vector typefaces that you can download for free (thenextweb.com)
• Type geeks & athletes rejoice! Sweatyfeet is a typeface made via Figurerunning (thenextweb.com)
• 5 Awesome experimental typefaces that bring together tech, art & design (thenextweb.com)

MVF for Facebook and Twitter

MVF, a hack created by Alex Taub and Michael Schonfeld, allows Twitter users to discover their most popular follower. Last week the app went viral, signaling the importance people place on information of this sort. Now the hacks are back with a second tool, MVF for Facebook. Controversially perhaps, this allows Facebook users to discover their most valuable friend based on a weighted combination of total number of friends and subscribers.

Whereas you can argue that apps like Klout deliver a somewhat arbitrary number, the secret of this app’s success is simplicity; essentially revealing the Facebook friend or Twitter follower in your network with the largest social reach.

Source & Related Articles

• MVF Reveals Your Most Valuable Twitter Follower, Facebook Coming Soon (techcrunch.com)
• Find your ‘most valuable’ Facebook friend (digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com)
• Who Is Your Most Valuable Twitter Follower? This App Will Tell You (mashable.com)
• Does Klout Score Really Matter? (ccblogtheme1.imarc.net)

• Don’t go for the hard sell, be open to change.
• Compromise is not surrender. Listen and respond to the concerns of others and incorporate their perspectives.
• Don’t allow people to present a problem without attempting a solution.
• Persuasion is a process. You’ll rarely arrive at the perfect solution on the first try. Listen, reexamine and refine.
• Do whatever is necessary to achieve better results.

Source Article: 

Harvard Business Review (hbr.org)

United Colors of Benetton Unhate Campaign

This quote points to both a fortunate and unfortunate reality: you can’t really get anywhere by doing the expected. If you want to be noticed, you have to stand out. The problem is that the easiest way to stand out is to create some kind of chaos. Chaos generally offers up negative results, and as such is oft frowned upon. But we’re capable of creating a little disorder to draw attention in a positive way. Small changes can have a profound effect by virtue of being different. You may be a good, talented worker, but if you don’t take a few chances here and there you may avoid creating the positive disorder that gets you noticed.

Source and Related Article

• Order Is Never Observed; It Is Disorder That Attracts Attention. (darrengarman.wordpress.com)
• “Order is Never Observed; It Is Disorder That Attracts Attention Because It Is Awkward and Intrusive.” [Quotables] (lifehacker.com)

Apparently enhanced profile pages come at a price: You can only get an Enhanced Profile Page if you are verified. You can only get verified (easily) if you spend money advertising with Twitter (to the tune of as much as $15,000).

There’s one caveat: The date on the document is from December, and it appears to be instructions for the small number of pilot brands, such as Coca-Cola, who were selected for a test-launch of the enhanced profile page product last year. Nonetheless, its interesting to take a look at the nuts-and-bolts of what advertisers go through in dealing with Twitter.

Click to view

Click to view slideshow.

Source Article

• Read Twitter’s ‘Confidential’ Memo To Advertisers On New Enhanced Profile Pages For Brands (businessinsider.com)

Social media enables people to connect in powerful ways.  Here are 11 ways you can use social media in your events.

#1: Registration

You can create a buzz at the registration stage. Services such as Eventbrite let your attendees share the event with their networks as they register.

#2: Sharing

Offer incentives for spreading the word. Services like Meteor Solutions help you to incentivize your event by offering rewards for sharing your content. Make sure all your event promotions include hashtags to encourage people to start using them early when they talk about your event. You don’t want two or three variations getting coined as it will be much harder to follow conversation threads.

#3: Event-Shaping

Ask attendees for their views to help shape your events. Without going to these lengths, you can use software such as PollDaddy and TwtPoll to create simple polls prior to your event.

It doesn’t matter how ad-hoc your event is, you can use QR codes to connect your audience with your digital properties. Using their smart phones, a guest can scan a QR code and instantaneously “Like” your fan page, “Tweet” a message to their followers, post content to their Facebook profile, and much more. QR Codes are very easy to generate and, best of all, they are FREE!

There’s no need to stick to the rigid format of talking, then opening up to questions from the audience. With a Twitter back channel run on something like Tweetwally, not only can the audience provide commentary, but non-attendees can follow on Twitter.

There can be issues around this: running commentary on screen can be distracting and as the format isn’t censored, comments may go off-topic or turn negative. A solution is to have a screen in the communal area away from the live event, with marshals collecting comments and feedback to put to the speaker at an appropriate time.

#6: Sharing Images

By setting up an official Flickr page and using small prizes and incentives to encourage participants to upload their own photos, you can quickly build a great unofficial photo record of the event, which you can use again in future promotions.

#7: Sharing Locations

Encourage attendees to check in using Foursquare. You may want to offer incentives or special promotions to encourage them. If its a large show, attendees will be able to which booths are popular and what they are offering. You can encourage them to explore booths that they might otherwise miss.

#8: Virtual Attendees

If you don’t want space to limit your attendance, consider opening your event up to virtual attendees. Some events go one step further and are entirely virtual, with speakers recording sessions, eliminating the need for venues, travel and accommodation. Virtual attendees can ask questions via social networks, or comment using hashtags.

#9: Video Streaming

Live recording is the keystone to a virtual event. A dedicated Vimeo or YouTube channel enables you to stream events, either in whole or in part. This is particularly valuable at large events where attendees are never going to get around to everything. If you’re going to do this on a large scale, invest in dedicated recording equipment and internet connection.

#10: Publish Your Twitter Wall

If you have a whole lot of media you don’t know what to do with, use Storify to collect Tweets, videos and photos and embed them in your website or share them through social media.

#11: Provide Access to Your Event with Links to Videos

You can make your website the main place for post-event material using video. This may also serve as marketing for the next event.  Be sure to have an email sign-up on the same page to capture interest, and you may want to offer incentives for early interest.

Source and Related Articles

• Social Media Examiner (socialmediaexaminer.com)
• How to Use Twitter Hashtags to Generate Event Marketing Buzz (hubspot.com)
• 8 Modern Ways to Crush Your Trade Show Competition (hubspot.com)
• 5 Steps to Planning an Awesome Event With Inbound Marketing (hubspot.com)
• 9 Unique Ways to Generate Leads With QR Codes (hubspot.com)

Winter weddings are fabulous in their own right, and seeing as we are now in the thick of these winter months, you brides are some of the luckiest there are. Sure you don’t get sunshine and hot days, but you get the chance of snow and creating a darn right cozy spot.

Sparkles, snow, candles and blankets adorn these weddings to create a romantic space during these cold months. Oh and the color palettes, I can’t get enough of these color palettes.

Source: Bridge, Pears

For ceremony spaces, a cozy fireplace is the perfect backdrop to tie the knot. Details such as cotton and candles are perfect details to add to this space. Sparkly accessories are a fun way to add a little festive decor to any spot. And you can’t go wrong with a little bit of sparkle every now and again.

Source: Ceremony Spot, Cotton

Even after the holidays are over, this is still a great guest book idea. Have guests write their favorite piece of advice, story of the two of you, or a nice note on an ornament. You can hang these on your tree the coming year.

Source: Ornaments

Source: Hot Cocoa, Flower, Invite, Snowball

There are a variety of details to add including hanging snowballs, white flower boutonnieres or sweet drinks. Kraft paper and a light blue compliment white details quite well, creating an overall fabulous palette to work from.

Source: Tassle, Hot Cocoa

A hot cocoa bar is definitely the highlight of winter weddings. This is something unique to winter months that make a cozy treat for guests. Adding a small tassel stir stick and a great sign to the drink bar is one detail I think should be incorporated in all these festive winter affairs.

Source: Cupcake Bar

Similarly, your dessert bar options can create such a romantic and warm feeling. Be it the use of sparkles, candles, ornaments as well as your selection of cookies and other treats you add. Guests will definitely remember this adorable dessert station.

Source: Cotton + Wood

Wood and cotton details kind of come with the woodsie category, no matter the month. For events in log cabins or barns, these additions are a great way to tie the whole event together and bring the outside, in. Other natural elements make the perfect addition for bud vases, cake tables and a variety of other spots.

Source: Bride

For the bride, it is important to stay warm, but after spending all that money on a dress, you are going to want to show it off as well. Find the perfect cover-up to compliment your attire and it will be a great addition to your closet, well after your wedding day.

Source: Burlap

There are a variety of winter elements that can make the perfect winter wedding. Creating a romantic and warm place for guests to feel comfortable in will make your wedding one they will never forget. Wood, burlap and other organic details are a great addition to candle lit nights and a variety of white details. But this doesn’t mean you feel like you can’t add any bright colors into the mix. This palette is pretty simple, so anything else you add is just as great of an addition to make the night your very own.

Related articles

• Surge in winter weddings as couples attempt to save money amid economic gloom (telegraph.co.uk)
• Winter Wedding Trends and Inspiration (trendzproductions.wordpress.com)

How many Twitter Feeds Should a Brand Have

Unfortunately there is no universally applicable answer. Not only is every brand different, but the answer may differ for the same brand over time. What I can offer is a short list of questions you should ask when determining the ideal number of Twitter feeds for your brand:

1. Who will be tweeting?
   It’s not always safe to assume that the time involved in moderating and posting to one account will scale effectively to multiple feeds, especially if you’re planning to monitor publish on a very different schedule for each. Conversely, if you’re planning on having different staffers manage each feed, you’ll want to consider how closely they work together. Will you need to build an additional process for knowledge-sharing and ensuring brand consistency across each account? These factors will have an impact on the resources needed to maintain an additional Twitter feed.
2. What will you be tweeting?
   Can you clearly articulate the difference in focus, scope, tone and content between each feed? Perhaps more importantly, can your community managers all do the same? Successfully managing multiple Twitter accounts while avoiding miscommunication will require you to delineate very clearly what the content and approach will be for each. What types of content will overlap between two or more feeds, and how do you plan to handle that (syndicating, re-tweeting or adapting)? What criteria and process will you use in cases where a follower starts a conversation with one of your accounts that should be handed off to a different account? These decisions may require more depth, detail and discussion than you have anticipated.
3. Who will be following you?
   It’s important to consider the reasons your audience might benefit from you having several Twitter feeds, and not just your own reasons for having them. Even if all of your feeds are equally interesting and valuable, it’s possible that your followers won’t want to follow more than one of them. Some of the best cases for multiple Twitter feeds can be made for scenarios where the intended audiences for each are very distinct (customers vs. job seekers, for instance). But if you find yourself in a situation where the intended audiences for two of your feeds are nearly identical, you may want to hold off on launching that second account and instead consider expanding the scope of the current one.

These three questions are a great starting point for identifying some of the pros and cons you’ll need to weigh against each other depending on your brand’s situation, but they are by no means an exhaustive list.

What other considerations would you suggest for a company considering expanding their twitter footprint?

Source and Related Articles:

• How Many Twitter Feeds Should You Have? 3 Questions to Ask (ogilvypr.com)
• 5 Twitter Tips to Give Your Content More Exposure (hubspot.com)

Looking up companies on social networks is common practice.  Consumers have discovered that they can use social networks to find a company that deals with the product or service they need. Social media search is slowly evolving into a service.

How can you get to the top of a social media search page?

Smart keyword choices and placement gives you a better chance of moving up the social media search page. The keywords you use will be different across varying social media accounts. That is, it’s not a “one keyword fits all” solution.

• Lay Terms: A common word that someone would use to describe your company. If someone couldn’t remember your name/brand, what would they type in the search bar of a social media site?
• Desired Association: Consider choosing a keyword that you want to be associated with. If you want to show up when the words ‘live music’ are typed into the search bar, make that one of your keywords.
• Competition Check: Competition isn’t a big issue when it comes to nabbing the number one spot of a social media search query, but it’s still something to consider. Once you think you have a good keyword, type it into the search bar and see what comes up. If there are a lot of very relevant companies, you may want to try a more specific keyword.
• Search Engine Optimization: If you have already performed SEO keyword research, it would be wise to revisit your findings and use some of those same keywords.
• Prepare for Different Social Media Sites: For example, if you’re a record company, use keywords related to live performances and new releases that will be useful on your page.

Once you have found a keyword that’s right for you, it’s time to start optimizing.

Photo Captions

The goal is to use keywords on your social media site whenever possible. One of the first things you can do is use these keywords to describe your company’s photos. Most companies have several photos on their social accounts, but few may put thought into the captions. It requires some creativity on your part, but the more you can incorporate your keywords the better.

Links and Tags

If you are ever going to update a status on your account, use your keywords as much as possible. Although this may be difficult when linking back to another webpage, it’s entirely possible to add it into a status description or use as a hash tag. All of the major social networks have a place for a small blurb about the person or company. For example, the company Higher Visibility may want people to find their company when they type the word “internet marketing agency” into the search box. By placing it in the headline, they’re optimizing their page for that keyword.

Headlines

Headlines are on-page drivers for search engine optimization, so you can bet that search engines will be indexing important headline content often. In addition, Facebook is a trusted domain, so it tends to rank highly in search engine results. This is almost always true when it comes to an individual, but it’s something for companies to consider. Ranking on major search engines is important, so it’s a good idea to give your social media accounts the extra push by using target keywords.

About Section

Use your keyword in the about section on your Facebook page. Really lay on the keyword usage thick. You don’t want your summary sections to sound strange or unnatural, but if you have an opportunity to use your keyword, go for it.

What This Means for Your Business

Getting to the top of a search page on a social network is considerably easier than trying to get to the top of Google. People search for things on social networks all the time, but the idea of optimizing an account to reach the top of the search results is still relatively new. Take advantage of this now.  Optimizing your social media accounts now is a great way to keep ahead of the competition.

Source: Allfacebook

Related articles

• 8 Universal Traits of a Winning Social Presence (hubspot.com)
• Search Tops Social in Local Business Research [New Data] (hubspot.com)
• Meta Description Magic: Think Less about SEO & More about Click-Throughs (kissmetrics.com)
• Facebook, Twitter Call Out Google On Social Search Results (blogs.wsj.com)
• 7 Key Ways to Optimize Twitter for Search (hubspot.com)

Increase Awareness Using Facebook

• Most fans never return to a page after they like it.
• Most posts by pages are seen by less than 10% of fans.
• Many fans will never see your ’welcome’ tab.
• When fans create new posts on your page, other fans don’t see them.

These facts run counter to many peoples’ assumptions. They go to their fan page, so they think their fans do, too. They assume that fans are seeing their posts, which they have discussed. They assume their fans are seeing posts made by other fans.  But your Fans see the people and pages they interact with.

In fact, fans experience Facebook through the news feeds. The news feed is set by default to top posts, which means Facebook uses algorithms to show people the stories it thinks they’ll be interested in. How does it know what you’ll be interested in? By keeping track of the posts you like and comment on. When fans no longer see your posts, it’s much harder to get them back. Therefore it’s best to engage fans while you’re growing their numbers, and then never stop engaging them.

You may be surprised to hear that there’s a diminishing return on larger fan base. There are a number of reasons for this, some of which you can control.  Many of the biggest pages have fans that are several years old. Fans who don’t respond to posts for many months probably haven’t seen posts from that page.  If you don’t get your fans to like and comment on your posts, they’ll stop seeing them. Imagine you spend months and thousands of dollars getting 10000 fans but in the end only 2,000 see your posts. Disappointing? Of course!

You can get better results from the best practices outlined here. But first, let’s take a more in-depth look.

Post Metrics and Benchmarks - Anyone can see how many likes and comments each of your Facebook page’s posts have received. If you’re an administrator, you’ll see extra data about each post that your fans won’t.

Impressions - This is how many times the post was shown. This isn’t a count of unique visitors, as some may have been shown your post more than once.

Feedback Rate - This is a calculation that shows how engaging your post was. Facebook adds up the number of likes and comments and divides them by the impressions count. This figure is always relative to the audience that saw the post.

Sometimes a post will only go out to a very small audience but have a dramatically higher feedback rate. Don’t fret. Feedback rate is important but can be skewed higher when you don’t reach that many people.  Generally speaking, you want a 1% or higher feedback rate.

Impressions and Fan Count - This number isn’t shown, but it’s easy to calculate. Look at your last five to ten posts, find the average number of impressions you’re getting, and then divide that by your total number of fans.

[Average (impressions / post)] / Fan count = % of fan seeing posts

This gives you an idea of how many of your fans are seeing your posts.  Very new posts won’t show impressions or feedback rate right away.

Feedback Rate’s Effect on Impressions - Here’s the important insight: the higher your feedback rate is, the more of your fans you reach. The pages that struggle to get more than 30% of their fans to see their posts also have low feedback rates and probably aren’t using interaction tactics.

Are Some Fans Unreachable Forever? - If you haven’t stimulated your fans to interact with you for months, it can be very hard to get your messages in front of them again. At this point, you need to use advertising to get them back. There are a couple of ways to use ads to reanimate “dead” fans.

Leading the Community You Create - Facebook empowers you to gather a community of potential buyers and then lead the conversation. This is better than Twitter, where conversation is fragmented and hard to follow.  You can use Facebook to post images and videos for discussion. It’s possible that the people you serve have never had a community in which to share their passions.

Less connected people like that give you high click-through rates and low-cost clicks, they don’t cost a lot to acquire, and they talk like crazy. Put them in a Facebook group and you have a perpetual motion machine.  You can ask questions and use polls to gather more information about them.

Formulas for Posts - There are two or three main goals for each post, and if you want, you can try all three at once!

• To get likes, say “Click like if…” and keep the second part simple.
• To get comments, ask a question or say, “Tell me in the comments below…” followed by whatever you want to know.
• To get clicks to your website or blog post, put the URL in the update and say, “Click this link…” and tell them why.

“Click Like If…”

This is a simple formula. It’s all about whether people agree with you. Choose something that you’re pretty sure 60% – 100% of your fans like. If you got a lot of fans from targeting a particular interest, you can be pretty sure they’ll respond positively to that. Tell them to click like if they like that thing. After you have the thing you want to show them or mention to them, combine it with the following variations of the formula:

Post a photo or video related to the dream or benefits you’re selling, and make it something like “Click like if you’d love (to have this benefit)” or “Click like if you’d love to see yourself (living such and such dream).”

• “Click like if you love…” (denim, or whatever applies to your niche).
• “Click like if you think….”
• “Click like if you’d love to have….”
• “Click like if you believe that….”
• “Click like if you want….”

Questions and Prompts - The best questions are open-ended. The goal is to get the other person talking. The more you listen, the more likely you are to get what you want. The more you talk, the more the other person turns off and you don’t get what you want.

Here are some ways to ask questions:

• “What do you think about…?” (For example, you could ask about some recent good news in the niche you’re operating in).
• “How do you feel about…?”
• “My ideal day includes ______________. Fill in the blank and tell us!”
• “What happens when you…?”
• “What are your goals related to…?”
• “If you could change one thing about…, what would it be?”
• “When do you feel most…?”
• “Why do you…?”

 “Click this link…”

If you put a web address into a post, Facebook pulls in the photo, page title and description. You can actually change them. Simply click on the title or the description and rewrite. That’s a lifesaver if, for some reason, it’s pulling in HTML formatting. Choose a thumbnail that looks interesting or fits best with what you’re sending. If none of the images fit, select “no thumbnail.”

Don’t assume that the information Facebook grabs with your URL is stimulating enough by itself. Add calls to action like these:

• “Check out this blog post because…”; then tell them what the benefits of reading it are.
• “Click here to get this discount now before it goes away!”
• “Check out our latest press release”; then make sure they know why they should care.

Press releases so often consist of information that customers don’t really care about.  If your blog post already has a catchy title, you might not need to be too creative with the text you add in the Facebook page. But be sure you add a reason to click and/or a question for commenting. If you don’t, that’s a missed opportunity.

Good vs. Bad Posts

• The following are qualities of successful posts:
• Has a 1% feedback rate or more;
• Has 50% or more impressions compared to fans;
• It’s attention-grabbing;
• It’s something 95% of the audience cares about;
• Asks for a like or asks a question;
• Fits the demographics and geographic location of the fan base;
• Contains no-brainer text;
• Sells the dream;
• Is based on what you learned from ad testing.

Bad posts have these qualities:

• Feedback below .5%;
• Impressions that are less than 30% of fan base;
• Not understanding audience;
• Posts that 95% of the audience doesn’t care about;
• Promotes things that very few people will care about;
• Photos without captions or calls to action.
• Learning from Your Previous Posts

Administrators can view some pretty cool insights, and one of them lists your last 10 posts, how many impressions it got, and the feedback rate you got from them. You can use this (and of course you can also scroll through your page’s wall and look at more of these) to look for patterns in which posts got better feedback rates and why. Pick out a few of the ones with the highest and a few with the lowest feedback rates, and see if you can tell what you did right or wrong. After you develop a theory about which posts are best for your audience, test it by trying another post along those lines to see whether you get similar results.

Engagement Milestones - Here are three milestones that will tell you you’re making great progress with getting your audience to interact with you:

• Get 1% feedback regularly.
• People posting spontaneously on your page – When people are excited about your brand or page, they’ll go back to the fan page and post there.
• Fans see and post on fan page posts – If you have a lot of fans going back to your fan page and its set by default to show fan posts, too, then some of them might comment on each- others’ posts. This is one way to know your fans are stirred up. When they have that much enthusiasm, they’ll tolerate more sales messages.

Guiding Your Community - Because you administer the page or group, you have ultimate control. You can subtly guide the conversation with your posts and comments.  It’s a good idea to step back and let conversations take their course.  When the administrator is too involved, discussions don’t evolve. Don’t think you need to respond to every post.  If you post something, get one comment, and then comment on that first comment, you are less likely to get more comments. Aim to get five or ten people to comment before you do.

The point is that you create a space for discussion and then leave room. Imagine you’re sitting in a circle with 10 people and bring up a topic. Would the people in the group want you commenting after each person? Or would they prefer to have a normal conversation? Let something evolve out of the fans themselves, and see where it goes.

Dealing with Difficult Fans - You can remove or block troublesome people (but let’s hope it’s because they’re weirdos and you’re not just blocking the people who are bringing to light real problems with your business). If you have issues with your business that customers complain about regularly, fix them! If you make a small mistake in social media, apologize! The way to deal with these situations effectively is to listen, acknowledge the feedback, validate and thank the customer, and then fix the problem.

Because your customer service is public in social media, dealing with problems well or badly is amplified. If it happens in the comments of one of your posts, people are witnessing it. If you do a great job hearing and satisfying an irritated customer, other customers will trust you more.

How to Avoid Publicity Nightmares - Most people have learned not to write an email reply while angry. It’s even easier and quicker to shoot off a negative Facebook comment. When you read something distressing, step away from the computer, take a breath, and do something else for a while. Remember, if they posted it on your Facebook page’s Wall, it does not go out to all your fans. Only the few that come back to the page will see it. It is not an emergency. If you feel defensive, worried, or upset, absolutely forbid yourself from posting a response without getting someone else’s opinion, taking time to relax, and even having someone else edit your response.

Also, if we’re talking about comments that fans see, one of your most loyal fans might respond with a more fair view. It’s much more powerful and believable when a customer comes to your aid. It can be worth the anxiety to wait 30 to 60 minutes for one of them to chime in.

Just keep in mind that what seems like a great idea right now might not later.

Balancing Engagement and Selling Types of Posts

Some people may only care about creating interaction and remaining visible to fans, but others want to profit from their efforts. So, how do you combine conversation with sales? Do they fit together? A number of companies have found that they can alternate interaction-oriented Facebook posts with more direct offers, discounts, and other types of sales-oriented posts.

Ratio and Frequency - There’s no hard-and-fast rule for how many of your posts should engage or sell the dream versus how many should actually sell your products or services. Some go with this rule of thumb: four engagement posts and then one sales post. Your audience might be okay with more sales posts than that, or they might want less. If you’re not sure start with one post per day, mostly engagement oriented, and one or two sales posts per week. You can look at your sales records to see which days of the week you sell best on, and do the sales posts that day or the day before.

I think you’re missing an opportunity if you don’t post every day, but there are exceptions. If you really run out of post ideas, it might be better to wait a day or two than post something inane. Some businesses are seasonal and the customers aren’t buying all year-long, so you might not be able to sing the same tune all year. If you know when people buy, you have a big advantage. For example, people who vacation in the summer often book their vacations early on in the year. Resorts can start selling the beach dream while everyone is at the office freezing.

Ideas for Posting - Some businesses with fans see good sales right away. Others have to work at it, especially those with longer sales cycles.  How often do regular customers buy from you? If they buy every three months, then expect new fans to take three months until they’re ready to buy. Your goal in those three months is to build awareness and a relationship so that, come decision time, that relationship and their knowledge of your offerings will be a strong influence to purchase.

Some of your fans might never have bought what you offer online. So, follow these suggestions:

• Post why it’s good to buy online.
• Post why you’re better.
• Quote positive reviews of previous customers.
• Put a link to your website in more of your posts. If you get more likes and comments, you’ll get more impressions. Let’s say you’re getting 2000 per post. You should be able to get 1% – 2% of those to click to the site if there’s a link. That means you could get perhaps 20 site visitors per day and 140 per week. So create posts that give a reason for people to like, comment, and click. Here’s an example:

“Click over and check out this product: [link]. Do you LIKE it? What would you do if you owned it?”

Posts that get people thinking and talking about products:

• “What’s the most important product for…?”
• “What ________ products do you like or dislike?”
• “Do you have trouble finding products for…?”
• “Do you buy _______ online?”
• “Are you ready to…?”

Another way to bring business into the picture without being in-your-face is to talk about what’s going on in your business. Not all companies are willing to be this transparent, but it can work. Here are some examples:

Vacation Rental: “We are almost all booked up for May and June. We’re actually looking into buying a couple of other properties to meet demand. If you haven’t booked yet, you can call us at xxx-xxx.”

Attorney: “Great settlement today. A very happy client!”

Chiropractor: “Trying out our new massage table, and boy is it nice.

Association: “Just over 5,000 people attended our conference this weekend. Great time! We’re putting on a local get-together. Click here to check out details: (link)”

Feedback Rate and Sales Posts - Anytime you ask people to click on a link in a post, whether you’re sending them to a blog post or to an e-commerce website, your feedback rate will look low. The feedback rate only counts like and comments. Facebook does not say they count clicks on other links you add to posts.  Anyway, don’t freak out that your sales posts have lower feedback rates.

Engagement just asks people to participate around shared interests. Sales formulas try to get people to give up their money. There is definitely a grey area because you can get people to engage around your products and services, and you can send people to innocent-looking informative blog posts that are surrounded by sales messages.

Whenever you’re in doubt, you can ask your fans whether they like some of your approaches better than others. Just take the feedback with a grain of salt, though, because some of your fans might never buy from you. You can phrase it more specifically like this: “If you’ve bought something from us because of our Facebook posts, tell us what you bought and why.” That way, you’ve eliminated the opinions of those who aren’t really your customers.

Source: Brian Carter: The Like Economy

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