COGO Interactive

Archive for the ‘Facebook’ Category

If you were ever in any doubt about the effectiveness of social media and online marketing, looking at the successes of other businesses can really help turn you into a believer. Seeing what these companies have done with their campaigns may inspire you to do some forward thinking of your own!

Innovating with Facebook

Facebook has always been a great marketing tool, but it can really take your business to stratospheric heights if you just use some of the standard functions in an extraordinary way. In this marketing campaign for IKEA, photos of showrooms were uploaded at various intervals, and the person who tagged themselves first on any item in the photo, won that item. This led to massive interlinking, and a hugely viral success for IKEA.

Tweet your way to the spotlight

The key with Twitter is to take advantage of the ease and speed with which communication happens. Making tweeting fun for your followers is a great way to get them talking nonstop about your product. Take this example of the new Ford Focus – Ford had a cake created in the shape of the car, and the cake contained technology that allowed it to automatically speak tweets containing a special Ford Focus hashtag. While you may not be thinking of such a large marketing gimmick, it’s a great idea to think of ways to use hashtags to spread your message.

Use the Power of Video

As the above two case study descriptions demonstrate, having a video can really help your audience see what you’re all about. Video can also be used to bring you closer to your audience and give your company that personal feel. Home Depot has taken advantage of the video medium to share a number of do-it-yourself tutorials that help customers learn techniques from an expert that will assist them in making the most of Home Depot products. Customers can then feel more confident about their ability to do things themselves. If this tactic can work to put a human face on such a gigantic corporation, imagine what a few well thought out tutorial videos could do to boost your business.

Do you have a social media success story to share?

Facebook keeps expanding the ways in which page admins can customize their business pages, but a lot of what you can do is limited by how much you understand about the developer side of Facebook. However, you don’t need to be a programmer to make a great looking custom tab if you use one of the free apps out there that can help you turn your creative ideas into actual pages for your Facebook presence. One of the most popular free apps is the  iFrame App by Wildfire, and it really couldn’t be easier to use.

Installation is a breeze – just click the big “install this app” button on the main page and follow the authentication instructions. After the app is installed, there will be a screen on your page that talks you through the procedures to create custom content. You can either use an image that you created in another application (like Photoshop), or if you’re good with html, you can create a page that looks like a web page and paste the html into the provided text window. Wildfire takes care of the rest.

One of the best features of the Wildfire app is what is called the “fan gate.” Basically what this does is create a “front door” page where visitors see a greeting or introduction page, but in order to get to the rest of your page’s content, the visitor has to “Like” your page first. Wildfire allows you to create the separate content for fans and non-fans all on one page of the app, and it’s as simple as uploading the appropriate image or pasting in your html, whichever you prefer.

At the moment, the iFrame Wildfire app is free, but Wildfire has indicated that they may charge for it in the future. They have generously offered to let existing users continue using the app for free indefinitely, so if you’re looking for a good, free resource for Facebook customization, get Wildfire installed now before they start charging for it. It’s such a simple app to use, even those with little or no programming knowledge can make beautiful custom tabs, landing pages, and even special tabs like contests and surveys. Having a beautiful Facebook page can really help your conversion rates, so there’s no reason not to get started on this right away.

Peg McDermott

Cogo Interactive

If there’s one thing this year’s Google updates have taught us, it’s that we can no longer rely on raw numbers to tell us how well we’re doing when it comes to social media and SEO marketing. The Google Panda update back in February was a pretty big wake-up call that simply having a lot of content and attracting a lot of links wasn’t enough to stay high up on the first page of search results. Counting fans, followers, and incoming links used to give us a good idea about how our campaigns were going, but as Google and other search engines move toward more engagement-based algorithms, it’s up to us as marketers to respond appropriately.

The key, of course, is not to think of SEO as a set of techniques to trick Google into ranking your site higher. The whole point of the Panda update is that Google now thinks more like a human site visitor, and that’s how you have to think, too. This means that you have to put yourself in your target customer’s shoes – if you were visiting your business’ web site or social media profile for the first time, what sort of features or content would immediately make you want to come back again and again?

This emphasis on engagement is something we can expect to grow over the next year, as search engines give more attention to the social aspects of how internet users determine quality. Engaging with customers and potential customers, having someone on hand to answer questions, and providing relevant and up-to-the-minute content are all going to be increasingly important for the SEO and social media strategies of 2012, and it’s not likely ever to head back the other direction, where spamming your own site with keywords could give you a high ranking that wasn’t necessarily indicative of how good the site was.

That doesn’t mean that you should ignore keywords entirely, of course – saying the right things in the right places will always help attract an audience. The difference lies in how you approach that audience once you have their attention. Quality engagement matters now, much more than ever. Getting in the habit of communicating effectively with your target market, which has always been a good practice in the world of traditional business marketing, is now equally important in the world of search engine algorithms.

Sometimes in the world of social media, it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that a greater following equals greater success for your business. So many people focus on “getting the numbers up” – increasing Twitter follower numbers, Facebook fans, YouTube channel subscribers, and so forth. However, there may be a sobering wake-up call if you manage to get your following to snowball somewhat, but aren’t managing to convert those followers into customers. As so many social media marketers can tell you, just getting the following isn’t enough – those numbers don’t mean anything unless you can also engage with your audience in an effective way.

If you have reached this realization after having already built up your follower numbers, there may be some backtracking involved if your method of growing a following has been somewhat indiscriminate. These days, getting people to become fans on Facebook or Twitter isn’t that hard, if the numbers are all you’re concerned about. But will those people necessarily be interested in what you have to offer? Will they tell their friends, or more importantly, their own social media followers?

When you seek people out on social networks, put some effort into ascertaining whether you are looking in the right places. Not all followers are equal – it’s better to have ten followers who really get your message and want to share it and engage with you, than a thousand followers who couldn’t care less about your company or what you have to say. There is a common misconception that having a high follower or fan count on a social network will in itself drive more business to you, because people will see the fan count and be impressed by it. But these days, so many people have a high fan count, it’s impossible to judge quality on that criterion alone, and your potential customers are smart enough to realize that.

Also, even if you were able to impress anyone simply by having a high follower count, getting them to come see your social networking profiles in the first place requires a driving force. This is where that follower count comes in handy, if you’ve played your cards right. A small army of people who believe in you and are willing to speak and retweet on your behalf is worth so much more than a large army of people who don’t even notice you’re there. Engage with your following, no matter how large or small. Otherwise, there’s no real point in having them.

It happens even to the best of us from time to time – something thoughtless, inappropriate, or downright dumb gets said on a social network, people react, and next thing you know you’ve got a big scandal on your hands. In the context of a small or medium-sized business, even a minor uproar on a social network can spell big problems for you in terms of unhappy customers and a dip in sales. Just like in every other aspect of business, mistakes will be made from time to time on social media. Even if you’re extremely diligent with your social media policy, there’s not really anything you can do about the fact that people are human, and sometimes they say damaging or offensive things.

What you can do, however, is make sure you have a plan in place to deal with issues as and when they come up, so that you can handle any mistakes quickly and efficiently, with the minimum amount of damage. As is often said, the best cure is prevention, so having a clear and concise social media policy in the workplace is essential. The more people you have working with you, the more comprehensive and specific the policy has to be, as you are dealing with a variety of personalities, all of whom may have different interpretations of what “inappropriate” or “offensive” means.

Even if you’re a sole proprietor, though, sometimes you might be your own worst enemy. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen people posting on Twitter or Facebook who were clearly drunk, angry, upset, or a combination of the three. It’s one thing if you want to do that on your personal accounts, though I still wouldn’t recommend it. On your business accounts, it’s absolutely unacceptable.

If you do wake up one morning and find that you (or an employee) did the unthinkable and said something inappropriate on a social network, don’t just sit there and hope no one noticed. Delete the offending post immediately, and issue a public and very sincere apology. Trying to talk your way out of it or accusing your audience of not being able to take a joke is not a smart move. The sooner you can apologize and make amends, the better. Most of all, use the experience to learn how not to play the social media field, and do your best to be a model social network citizen in the future.

Okay, so you’ve got a Facebook page for your business, you’ve started a Twitter account, and you’re all hooked up on YouTube.  Now what?  How is all this social networking going to help you get what you ultimately need – sales leads?  While having a social media presence is essential for modern businesses, creating accounts is only the beginning of what you need to do.  Your social media visitors need to get a sense of your brand, of what kind of company they’re dealing with, and of how your product or service can enrich their lives.

It may sound like a tall order for a little social media account, but as with most things, appearance matters.  You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and if the first thing a potential customer sees is your Facebook landing page or your Twitter page, you’d better make sure it looks as good as it can.  Page design is important, as is brand consistency – you want something that people can recognize no matter where they see your company online.  In addition to looking good, you have to walk the walk, as well.  This means engaging with your audience and giving them reason to trust you.

Content development is the first step.  Make sure that your accounts are updated daily with information that is both interesting and relevant to potential customers.  This can cross over into interacting with customers while you are online.  Aside from being available to answer questions about your company, you can also do fun things like running contests or asking your audience for their opinion on matters relating to what your company provides.

You can also use your social media as a platform to link to content that your audience might not otherwise find.  If you are an expert in your field, for example, you can use your social media accounts to link to articles you have written on the topic, as well as blog posts from your company’s web site.  If you have a YouTube account, informative or instructional videos can help connect you with pople who are seeking the information, products, or services you provide.

Keep in mind this is not just about straight-up marketing – it’s about giving your audience valuable content that in turn will help them decide to turn to you when it’s time to make a purchase.  Treat your potential customers with that respect, and many will become actual customers before you know it. How have you used good content marketing and a social media presence to engage your users or garner potential customers?