Mistakes Only Amateurs Make on Facebook

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I can tell you within a minute of looking at brand’s Facebook page whether it is managed by a professional or an amateur. For those who haven’t worked in social media for years like I did, it is not always as straight forward.

Unfortunately, there are “social media gurus” who give the real social media professionals a bad name.There are also agencies that promise you the world for a hefty price tag yet fail to deliver. Then there are poor employees and interns who were told they had to manage the company’s social media among their million other tasks. The last case scenario is the most common occurrence. Even though it has been said a thousand times, somehow it is still not going through: if you think that anyone who has a Facebook account can successfully advertise your business on Facebook, think again.

So how can you tell the person managing your Facebook page is an amateur and not a professional? 

1. Amateurs set up a profile or a group instead of a business page

If your business needs to “add friends”, it’s set up as a personal profile. This is not only against Facebook rules, but it’s also the easiest way to tell an amateur from a professional. If it’s your case, it is time to create a page.  This also applies to companies that set up their presence as a group instead of a page. Once set up correctly (as a business page), you will be able to view data about your audience in Insights and set up ads to precisely target your prospects. Remember to delete the old profiles/groups you set up incorrectly to avoid confusion.

2. Amateurs use images that are:

•  Too small

The example on the left is actually more common than you would think. The best size for newsfeed photos is 1200 x 900 but it doesn’t mean you have to resize your image every single time. Facebook will automatically resize your image, just make sure your image is not too small to begin with. If you end up with a tiny image, you are better off deleting the post and reposting with a image that people actually can see.

• Copyrighted

You would be surprised how often you can see brands taking an image from Google image search and uploading it without crediting the original source. It goes without saying that such practice can get the company into serious legal trouble. It’s a shame the amateurs don’t know that they can find great images for social media posts on these awesome websites for free and without any copyright.

• Poor quality

Amateurs use drab and blurry images, which are a no-no for fan engagement. Professionals create eye-popping images that inspire and stand out. The pros not only download and upload images, they design them.

3. Amateurs use CAPS and overuse punctuation

Amateurs use CAPS and “!!!???” to put an emphasis on words or phrases they want to highlight. Unfortunately, such practice is often translated as “verbal screaming” and it puts people off.  Professionals emphasize the message through visuals and on-point copy.

4. Amateurs post too much or too little

I once came across a Facebook page that sent updates every hour. On the other side of the spectrum are businesses that post once a week, if that. The golden rule for Facebook is posting 1-2 times a day.  If you are posting twice a day, space out the posts at least 3-4 hours apart.

5. Amateurs link to the videos instead of uploading them

It’s a well-known fact among social media marketers that Facebook users engage more with videos that are uploaded natively instead of just being linked to.

It’s time to check your Facebook page and check against these benchmarks to see if your brand is represented by an amateur or a professional. If the former, it’s time to hand over the key to someone who knows what to do with it!

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What’s Up in Social: June 2015 Quick Overview

June sure kept us social media professionals busy! It’s almost a full-time job just to keep up with all the changes taking place on different platforms.  Here are the most important ones to note:

1. 47% of Americans admit Facebook is their #1 influencer on purchases. Facebook drives almost 25% of all social referral traffic.

2. According to Social Media Examiner’s latest Social Media Marketing Industry Report, majority of small businesses carry out social media marketing on Facebook. Specifically, 93% use Facebook, ahead of Twitter at 79%. In the coming year, 62% of respondents plan to increase their use of Facebook for marketing purposes. Sixty-six percent will increase Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn activity.

3. Most small businesses spend 6 hours or more weekly on social media. How about the users you ask? The average American spends 40 minutes per day on Facebook. Check out which networks are next.

4. Social-native, including Facebook News Feed ads and promoted tweets on Twitter, will draw a majority of native ad revenue between 2013 and 2018. Since 2013, post promotion has risen 120% for brands on Facebook.

5. Facebook is testing new “Lead Ads” which will allow marketers to ask users to sign-up for a newsletter or request a call with just two taps. Talking about increasing those ad revenues!

6. Facebook users now have more control over what they see in their newsfeed. The average user has access to about 1,500 posts per day but only looks at 300. The new feature, “See First”, gives users a simple way to automatically place up to 30 friends’ and Pages’ posts at the top of their feeds whenever they appear.

7. Video posts average 62% more engagement than photos. Facebook is trying hard to compete with YouTube and plans to start running ads between videos for a small group of publishers.

8.  Twitter is lifting the 140-character limit in July for DMs, but it’s still in place for tweets. We can expect quite a few changes in a near future since Twitter’s CEO recently stepped down.

9. Social commerce is becoming bigger than ever. Instagram recently introduced “Shop now” button and Pinterest launched its blue “buyable Pins”

Over to you: which changes are you most excited about? 

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How to Use Social Media During Events

There are many articles on how to build buzz on social media before your event, so let’s focus on something different and learn about what you can do with social media during the event. Whether you are hosting a conference, fundraiser or a tweetup, check out these experience-verified tips:

1. Decide which networks you want to promote and monitor

Even though you may have a presence on many different social networks, some channels are a better fit for events than others. While it is advisable to update all your social media networks with your event information, it’s best to pick one channel per community manager during your event. If you only have one person to service your social media, you should just choose one network to focus on. The most utilized during the events is Twitter due to its public, real-time nature and users’ hashtag adoption. If you decide to utilize Twitter at your event, consider asking for participants’ Twitter handles during registration. Instagram use at events is also on the rise and we can expect more events to make use of live-streaming apps like Periscope and Meerkat.

2. Make sure your hashtag is everywhere

In your event planning phase, you hopefully decided on one, unique hashtag that would be short, easy to pronounce and spell and give event participants a better idea about the topic of the conversation. To make sure your hashtag is unique, search the platform you will be monitoring during your event for the hashtag you intend to use. Once your hashtag is set, make it a part of all your digital and offline marketing materials (email, website, conference app, brochures etc.). Remember to promote your hashtag at the event venue on highly visible spots (on screen before the presentations, in the program, on the flyers etc.).

3. Designate people and their roles

As mentioned in #1, you want to have a dedicated person to monitor and fuel the conversation on social media. You should also have a second person to feed the community manager with pictures, videos etc. Ideally, people handling your social media are present at the event. It is quite common to have a person managing the engagements not to be at the event, but those who are on site will always do a better job than those who can’t get the first-hand experience of the event.

4. Prepare some content before the event and schedule it

Don’t automate too much content, especially on the platforms that you will utilize heavily during your event. However, since your social media staff will be swamped with real-time updates during the event, it’s good to schedule key information in advance.

5. Tell people what you want them to do

Incorporate engaging reminders on-site, such as: “Got a question? Tweet your questions for our panel with #yourhashtag”. Announce the hashtag and your network handle (username) throughout the event and display it on screen before each presenter. Some people are hesitant to use mobile devices during presentations out of respect for the speaker and other attendees, so ask the speakers to invite participants to tweet, check-in etc.

6. Incentivize

Depending on the nature of your event, pick an incentive that your participants would be responsive to. If it’s a fundraising event, get a sponsor to match the social media mentions with donations for your cause. For tech conferences, you can appeal to participants with cool gadgets. To keep it simple, every hashtag mention can serve as an entry to a random drawing (remember people like simple on social!).

7. Make them feel important

It’s in human nature to enjoy public recognition. Set up large screens on site and display interactions in real-time. Use one projector or TV per channel – if you are engaging users on different platforms, you can set up multiple screens.  Use one these free management tools to display all interactions in real-time.

8.  Create engaging and exclusive content

Event attendees love sharing quotes, key takeaways, behind-the-scenes and real-time pictures and videos, so make sure you get as many of those as possible and put those up as soon as possible. Timeliness is key.  You can also attract participants with exclusive presentations, e-books or whitepapers. Speakers can ask interested attendees to tweet (or otherwise engage) with a certain phrase and a hashtag to obtain a link for a free download.

9. Encourage after-event engagement

Keep the momentum going even after the event is over. Post pictures of attendees and encourage the users to tag themselves. Ask users to submit their comments, pictures and videos. Share video testimonials and ask for attendees’ input on what they would like to see at next year’s event.

10. Choose the right community manager

I saved the most important for last. Having the right person managing your event’s engagement is essential because this person becomes a voice of your event. One’s personality projects in one’s writing and social interactions, so if you have never worked with this person before (or agency), ask them to come up with a few examples of posts so you can see if their voice is a good fit for your event. The qualities you should pay attention to are good writing skills, attention to detail, and outgoing personality.  A word of warning – don’t have interns or people without social media experience manage your presence. There are many companies that became famous for their social media fails – you don’t want that to happen to you.

Bonus tip: To figure out the total number of times your hashtag has been used on Twitter or Instagram, use this free tool.

What’s Up in Social: May 2015 Quick Overview

If you don’t have time to stay on the top of social media trends but want to stay in the know, I hand-picked some important news and stats mentioned in May/June social media articles:

1. Social media has now become the number one internet activity in the world. 72% of all internet users are now active on social media. Google’s algorithm ranks social media pages higher up its search ranking as they are seen as active, engaging platforms, with consistent new content – so it’s important to keep social media channels active.

2. Facebook is now dominating the social media advertising budget. It’s on target to hit over $14 billion in advertising revenue in 2015. It is now becoming a serious rival to Google.

3. Twitter ranks slightly more valuable than LinkedIn when it comes to sales prospecting.

4. More than half (52%) of marketers say Facebook is the most important social network they use to grow and market their business.

5. Google has removed prominent links to Google+ accounts at the top of search results, Google’s homepage, and Gmail. The change suggests the tech giant is doing still more to gradually phase out its social network.

6. Facebook has begun testing a new option for users—they’re giving some users the ability to choose people or pages whose posts would always show up at the top of their News Feed. Facebook confirmed the test but offered no more detail about the option and if or when it might receive a wider release.

Designing Business Cards with Canva? Read This First!

Now this post is not directly related to social media, but I chose to share this guide since it could be useful to every professional – whether social or not.

As I was recently working with Canva on my new business cards, I came across few things to add to Canva’s awesome, easy-to-follow guide. 

Source: canva.com

But before I get to these points, it’s important to note why Canva. While there are thousands of templates to choose from when buying business cards, the easy way is typically not the most effective way. A business card is the reflection of you and your business and that’s unique right? Therefore, your business card should be unique as well. If you can’t do magic with Photoshop, Canva is your to-go website. Even though Canva’s guide is pretty good, there are few additional things to know that the guide won’t tell you.

1. Don’t settle for the template. 

Don’t go for the easiest route and just change the text and a logo. You can use the template, but at least change the colors, fonts, and visuals to reflect your brand’s uniqueness. Playing with the layout may be more tricky and time-consuming, but it’s well worth it.

2. Get inspired.

I spent a good hour searching the web for different business card design ideas. Take your time reading through the articles with business card inspirations. Here is one of my favorites that is sure to get you inspired and make you smile.

3. Remember the best practices.

No matter what you do, always always always check for the best practices. Did you know that on average, prospects keep a color card 10 times longer than a standard card? Check out this fantastic infographic to learn more about what works and what doesn’t.

4. When done, save your creation as a pdf not an image!

If you save your work as an image and then try to print it, it will be blurry. Save it in pdf and you can always convert it to an image if necessary (make sure you save it in the best quality possible).

5. What you see is not what you get.

The colors you see on your screen won’t be printed exactly as such. Typically the color will print darker than you see on your computer screen, so make sure you take that into consideration. If you are using colorful background for instance, make sure there is enough contrast between the font and the background.

Now go give it a try, it’s free! 

Brands’ Biggest Instagram Frustrations

Instagram‘s popularity with the brands has been on the rise. Recent report from Olapic and L2  indicated that brands have been putting up more posts on Instagram and decreasing the number of posts on Facebook. Facebook’s organic reach squeeze had the brands looking for alternatives, but before your brand joins the Instagram madness, consider this:

•  Instagram ads are way too costly for smaller players:  “Lower-end monthly pricing is estimated around $350,000, while higher end can get up to $1 million. (Jun 12, 2014)”. In most cases brands don’t have hundreds of thousands to drop on an Instagram ad, so all of the sudden paying few dollars on Facebook isn’t all that bad. Without ads, your brand will be stuck with having to grow followers organically, which will be pretty time-consuming (and time is money). 
• You can forget about clickable links on Instagram (for now). Instagram has only recently given this sought-after benefit to the advertisers who use carousel ads. I expect this feature to roll out to all the users in a near future (or is it wishful thinking), but for now, most brands have to rely on the only active link which is in the profile’s bio. Brands have been pretty creative to work around this by sneaking the link references elsewhere, but it’s pretty frustrating for both brands and users to have to beat around the bush when it can be just so simple (come on, Instagram!).
• Have I mentioned Instagram’s limited analytics options? At the moment, brands have to rely on the third party apps for metrics. There are not many choices either: easily the most popular one, Iconosquare, gives you a decent amount of data (who your most loyal followers are, most popular images, best times to post etc.) but you won’t get any demographics data, won’t be able to customize date range, and there is no option of one-click exporting.

So should your brand invest more into Instagram than into Facebook? Depends on what your goals are.

If you are looking to drive traffic, then you’re currently better off paying to play on Facebook (or get pinning). If you care more about engagement and brand awareness, give Instagram a try. According to a November 2014 Instagram study from research firm L2, users interacted 18 times more on Instagram than on Facebook.

Social Media Contests That Work

It is no secret that running contests on social media (if done right) boosts the company’s following. You can think of it as a good strategy to increase your number of subscribers if you were talking about the email marketing. In a sense, it is very similar: by liking or following you, your fans and followers opt in to receive your company’s messages on a regular basis, which makes it for companies well worth the investment. If the turnout of the contest is good, it can be a pretty cheap way (considering the alternatives like Facebook ads) to boost the number of fans and followers on your social media sites.

In this post I won’t be advising you on how to run a successful contest but rather put on your radar some contests that have been tremendously successful, so you can learn what has worked well and apply these principles for your own contest.

I have decided to pinpoint one for Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter, so if you are thinking about running a contest on any of these platforms, you’ll find good examples to follow below.

TWITTER

Shutterbug Social’s Pre-Contest #MillionDollarPhoto Giveaway

For 4 days, Twitter users can enter Shutterbug Social’s Pre-Contest #MillionDollarPhoto Giveaway. Company used promoted tweets to spread the word on Twitter and the response has been great so far. The contest started yesterday and one day later there have been over 15k mentions and 4,660 tweets with #milliondollarphoto hashtag (when I started on this post 9 hours ago, this number was about 600 tweets lower btw.)

Source: TwitterCounter

Shutterbug Social got over 2.6k followers in two days and is now at 6.5k followers – very curious what it’s going to be on day four. Just a side note, Shutterbug Social is giving away Canon Rebel T3i, Samsung Galaxy S3 &  Canon PowerShot ELPH 110HS to three winners in this contest, not a million dollars (yet).

The tremendous response is to the large point caused by the fact that Shutterbug Social used promoted tweet, which is a sponsored tweet that appears in user timelines or search. Promoted Tweets are priced on a Cost-per-Engagement (CPE) basis, so you pay when someone retweets, replies to, clicks or favorites your Promoted Tweet. Promoted tweets are expensive for most small businesses (over $120k per day) but if you really want to get your tweet across the Twitterverse, they’re a very good way to do so. If you don’t have $120k to drop in a day, you can still run a successful Twitter contest. Twitter celebrity and social media maven, Aaron Lee, wrote a good post about that: http://askaaronlee.com/binkd-twitter-contest/

FACEBOOK

I rarely ever participate in Facebook contests, maybe because I never win or maybe because they are just not fun or simple enough. However, I fell in love with the “Spot the Sun^SM”  campaign ran by Marriott and Renaissance Caribbean & Mexico Resorts. The hotel giant is giving away 100 free hotel room nights each day in August on their Facebook page. Entering the contest is super easy, fast, and fun, which is partially why it became so popular.  To enter, the Facebook user has to find and click on the sun that can be found in the picture posted on the app. First grader would manage to do it, yet it is still entertaining enough for a college graduate.  Once you find a sun, you fill out short form with name and email (great way to grow their email database this way too) and then you just hope you win!

What also adds to the appeal is that you can enter again if you don’t win, as every new day means a new chance to win. The winners are announced the next day, so the curiosity will have you come back and check the page again (and enter again) before you forget such contest existed.

The page’s Facebook Insights reveal that the contest received a great response. Ever since the campaign launched, the Facebook page has been receiving over 1000 likes per week, way more than before the contest started. The engagement on the page also skyrocketed as the result of the campaign, so kudos to Marriott – nicely done.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to run successful Facebook contests, check out my “Top 10 tips on Doing Facebook Contest “ article.

PINTEREST

Norwegian Cruise Line decided to enter Pinterest with a bang and launched a week-long “Pin to Win” contest on August 15 on Pinterest. The concept is fun and smart as it integrates other social media channels (you have to either tweet or post on Facebook about the contest to finish your entry).  NCL is giving away a seven-day cruise for two in a balcony stateroom to any of Norwegian’s popular destinations such as Alaska, Bahamas, Bermuda, the Caribbean, Europe, Hawaii and more on August 24. To win, the participants need to do quite a few things including creating a special board on Pinterest, repinning NCL’s pin and tweeting/adding a comment on the Facebook page. I must admit it was too much work for me so I didn’t enter but apparently many people weren’t that “lazy”, as the contest board that contains 1 pin has over 2,000 followers and this one pin got 822 repins, 64 comments and 84 likes. Not bad if you ask me, especially since the NCL’s overall Pinterest account has just bit over 2.5k followers. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but comparing to the other cruise lines, NCL is now way ahead. Needless to say they can thank this contest for it!

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“Facebook Offers” Are Here: All You Need To Know!

Before I get started on all you need to know about “Facebook Offer”, I would like to inspire you with a success story of a small Northern Irish hotel. Roe Park Resort decided to use “Facebook Offer” feature to get more bookings, so the company created an offer that allowed the Facebook fans to get a 1 night stay at the hotel for £42.50.  The offer quickly went viral and it was claimed over 28,000 times in 24 hours!

It is no secret that the biggest reason why people become fans of a Facebook page is to gain access to the exclusive offers. In fact, the special offer motivates 68% of fans to click on that “Like” button. So far the businesses had to push the special offers on Facebook through variety of creative ways – third-party coupon tab, special offer tab, events, or links to the third party sites. Back in February 2012, Facebook announced the great news of having an “Offer” feature on Facebook pages, which would give companies an easy avenue to share their deals with their Facebook fans. Few premium brands and advertisers were able to test the feature early, but most businesses had to wait for Facebook to enable the feature on a larger scale. As of May 3, 2012, Facebook announced it’ll now start rolling out this FREE feature on more Facebook pages of the local businesses that are based in the U.S.  Sure enough, this feature started to appear on many more Facebook pages, so chances are your Facebook page has this feature already or will get it in next few days or weeks.

Simply go to your Facebook page and you should see “Offer, Event +” right next to “Status” and “Photo/video” sharing options [you must be an administrator of that Facebook page to see that feature, so make sure you are an admin of the page]. If you are not an admin, ask the person who handles your Facebook page to make you an admin (takes 2 minutes).

–         Rejoice! You will be able to share special deals with your fans, add value, increase brand awareness and your revenue!

–         Read Facebook guidelines that specify the rules for Facebook offers   (http://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php)

–         Decide what offer you want to run and make sure your offer complies with Facebook guidelines

–         Create the offer on your Facebook page (it’s free!):

• Go to your Facebook page, click on “Offer, Event+”, click on “Offer” and fill out the easy form
• There is no minimum on how value or discount required, though Facebook recommends at least 20% off for the best impact.
• You can’t edit the Offer once it’s posted, so make sure it is exactly the way you want it
• You can add a thumbnail, headline, expiration date, and terms & conditions
• You can limit how many people can claim the offer
• You can’t limit the offer to fans only, so it’ll be visible to all Facebook users who view your page
• You can choose to target your offer’s audience by country and language only (before posting, click the drop down Public  menu next to the Post button and select Language / Location.)

When you create an offer, it will show up in your fans’ news feed and on your Facebook page. Fans who click on your offer will be able to redeem it by receiving an email that they present at your business’s site. If you are running an offer that does not involve physical business location, you may have to use more creativity on how to have the users redeem the offer. In either case, right after you know what offer you’ll be running, inform the staff who would be involved in the offer redemption (cashiers for retail stores, staff at the front desk if you’re a hotel, waiters if you’re a restaurant etc.).

If you need to change the offer or want to stop running it altogether, you can delete it (you can’t edit it) but make sure you honor the offer claimed by the fans who already redeemed it prior to your deletion.

Last but not least, make sure you track your success (hopefully not failure). “Offer” feature includes a counter of how many people redeemed the offer; however, it doesn’t mean that all the fans who actually signed up to receive it via email will actually redeem it at your location. That is why it is advisable to collect the print outs from the fans and store them in one place so you can easily track the actual success of the offer. Pick and instruct your employees to collect these print outs and tell them where to keep them, so they are easy to find and count. Don’t forget to analyze which offer produced the best results!

–         You can ask Facebook to enable it on your Facebook page by filling out this form: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact/?id=367554259954235

–         Make sure your Facebook page is categorized under “Local Business” and that you filled out the address for your business (Click on “About” – then “Edit” on Basic info tab). If your business address is outside of the U.S., you will have to wait for the feature a bit longer (though Facebook allowed few foreign businesses to test the feature).

–         You can meanwhile share your special deals with customized tab like Hilton Miami Downtown did (requires involving the graphic designer and programmer)

–         You can install a free coupon tab from third-party applications like www.woobox.com

Whether your Facebook page has the “Offer” feature or not, you should create special social media offers regularly to add value, increase the number of your Facebook fans, and differentiate yourself from the competitors. It is also a great way to generate more revenue directly and decrease reliance on OTAs and sites like Groupon that take generous commissions!

Hotel Digital Marketing Trends & Interesting Stats

Which marketing channels does your hotel spend the most money on? What are the most effective ways of bringing business to your hotel? The answers to these key questions and many others can be found in a recently released HeBS 5th Annual Benchmark Survey on Digital Marketing. This is definitely a must-read if you are in the hospitality industry.

Key lessons you should take away from the survey:

•  Forget offline, online marketing is a way to go! (49.1% shifted money from offline marketing budgets to online marketing; also over 45% of all hotel bookings in 2011 will be via the Internet)
• Go Social! Social Media is now a major player. (Social 43% of hoteliers saying they believe social media is one of the Internet marketing formats that produces the best results and the highest ROIs.)
• Go mobile!  Many hotels are planning for a mobile site and mobile booking engine this year (14.6% increase comparing to 2010)
• Invest in website optimization and social media!  Majority of hoteliers attribute the highest ROI to these two components.

From the social media side of things, I’d really advise you to look into Facebook ads, social plug-ins, and relevant blogs.

I highly encourage you to go through the entire survey carefully and to modify your marketing strategy accordingly.

Feel free to ask questions and/or share the best marketing practices of your property as well as your marketing budget projections!

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Facebook Ads: Target Users by Zip Code

Facebook is taking the paid ads to another level and adding the option of targeting the users by their zip code (hooray for marketers and businesses)! So far the companies have only been able to target the users by the city, which can be way too broad. After all, how often do you really travel from one side of the city to another just to eat at the restaurant? Targeting users by the zip code adds much more relevancy to the ads, making this option very appealing to the advertisers. NOW many companies can really enjoy the big BANG for the buck.

This option is to become available the following week – I know I will certainly give it a try. Choose age, key words, zip code, better yet target the fans of the page of your direct competitor … The possibilities are endless 😉

Remember some good practices for Facebook Ads:

• Always design more versions of the ad to test what would work the best (slight changes in text and try different images)
• Don’t rush with choosing the image – choosing the right picture is extremely important
• The pictures should be relevant to your ad yet eye-catching
• Make the initial bid higher – you can lower the bid during the campaign
• Get rid of the ads that don’t convert well and keep those that get the best conversion

Guide to Facebook Ads is a great place to start if you’ve never tried Facebook Ads.

If you did, share your experience!