Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category
Tips to Turn Off Geo-Tagging on Your Cell Phone
Keeping tabs on your favorite celebrities might be easier than you think — and much easier than they want. But they likely have no one to blame but themselves. Phone and camera pictures can show where they were taken.
According to two teams of computer scientists, Hollywood stars could be unintentionally giving up the exact locations of their homes and private whereabouts through pictures uploaded to the Internet, leaving them wide open to attacks by tech-savvy thieves (not to mention unwanted visits by starstruck fans).
CLICK HERE to get some tips for disabling geotagging.
Most cameras and video recorders don’t instantly attach location data (or geographic coordinates) to photos and videos. But some smartphones, such as the iPhone, automatically embed the user’s latitude and longitude in each photo’s metadata. It’s possible to disable the function, but the researchers said many people don’t even realize that they might need to.
The scientists say geotag data embedded in photos and videos that are uploaded to Twitter and other online sites often reveals location information that stars — as well as the rest of us — probably don’t want to share.
“Many people are not aware of the fact that there are geotags in photos and videos,” said Gerald Friedland, a computer scientist at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, Calif. “If they are, they’re most probably not aware of the consequences.”
Using simple technology available online, Friedland said he and his colleague Robin Sommer were able to find the private home addresses of a Playboy playmate, a couple of TV hosts and a handful of other television personalities. Out of respect for their privacy, he declined to name the stars.
William Shatner, Hammer Among Celebs Who Tweet Geotagged Pictures
Ben Jackson and Larry Pesce, computer security experts in Massachusetts, said they were able to uncover location information in photos uploaded by William Shatner, M.C. Hammer, Weird Al Yankovic, Arnold Schwarzenegger and others.
“We have no problem with people posting this data online,” said Jackson. “[But] most people don’t even understand that they are posting this information online.”
ICanStalkU.com Scans Twitter for Pictures That Reveal Location
In May, Jackson and Pesce launched the website ICanStalkU.com to raise awareness of just how much information people share when they post a simple picture to Twitter.
The site’s software scans Twitter for images that contain location data and then translates those geographic coordinates into an actual street address or place name. The site then displays a real-time stream of all the tweets broadcasting the precise locations of Twitter users.
“When we initially started setting [this up]… people were shocked that we were grabbing this information,” said Jackson, security analyst for Mayhemic Labs in Boston.
For Hollywood stars or lesser known wealthy Twitter users, the consequences can be damaging, he said.
For example, do celebrities really want to leave behind a real-time digital trail for paparazzi to follow? Do they intend to disclose the specific street addresses of their multi-million dollar homes?
And do average people really want to let potential thieves know that they’re on vacation, leaving their homes vacant, or where they grab coffee or take an evening run?
Jackson said some people might be perfectly comfortable disclosing their location history, but if they’re not, they should be aware so that they can disable the features that make it possible.
Pesce, a security analyst for NWN Corporation, an IT firm in Waltham, Mass., said geotagged photos also pose corporate threats.
Let’s say an employee with valuable corporate information stored on a home computer or laptop posts geotagged pictures to Facebook and Twitter. A hacker could use the photos to monitor the person’s location history and figure out a good time to make a move, he said.
“Thinking about that from a computer security perspective has some interesting implications as to how someone could gain access to corporate IT data,” Pesce said.
These security issues aren’t just limited to social media. Online classified sites such as Craigslist can also pose problems.
Craigslist Users Reveal Location Through Pictures
Friedland said some Craigslist users who otherwise make a point to protect their identities online are disclosing the exact locations of their homes through the pictures they post on the site.
People selling couches, desks and other items online might think that they are posting anonymously, but through the photos uploaded to the site, Friedland said, they were able to locate to users within one meter accuracy.
“We found quite a lot of postings where the photos contained geolocation information, some were even anonymized,” he said.
Friedland and Sommer will present their findings to the technology community next month at a security conference in Washington, D.C. But Friedland said that there’s a takeaway for the non-technical too.
Location-based services, such as Foursquare which can people locate friends and programs that auto-cluster pictures by location, can be helpful and positive, he said. But he emphasized that people need to be careful about what they disclose.
“I think people have to be made aware of the geotagging issue before something really bad happens,” Friedland said. “In reality, this is really nice technology. You just have to be aware of it.”
Web Extra Tips:
People can tag their friends location on Facebook. Follow the following steps to opt out of this feature:
Go to your Facebook account.
Click “Account” in the top right corner.
Click “Privacy Settings.”.
In the “Sharing on Facebook” section, click “Customize settings.”
Scroll down to “Things others share” and make the option next to “Friends can check me into Places” read “Disabled.”
The Web site ICanStalkU.com provides step-by-step instructions for disabling the photo geotagging function on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Palm devices. Click HERE to visit the website.
A Field Guide to Using Facebook Places
Tips for Using Facebook’s New Location-Based Feature
Facebook has just announced Places, the long-awaited feature that brings location-based functionality to the most popular social network in the world.
(http://www.facebook.com/places)
Whether you’re a developer with a great app idea, a business with an interesting location marketing plan or just a regular Facebook user who wants to get involved with Places, there are a few details to note before you start using Places. The feature is fascinating, but it still has its limitations. And our guide isn’t without caveats, especially for users.
If you’re ready to start playing, here’s what you’ll need to know about Places.
How to Use Places
First of all, you or a Facebook friend in your group will need a smartphone. If you don’t have an iPhone, you’ll have to use the Facebook touch mobile site on a browser that supports both HTML 5 and geolocation.
The company does plan to roll out Android and BlackBerry versions of Places, but they haven’t released any specific dates for those releases yet.
To use Places, go to the Places tab on the iPhone application or touch.facebook.com. You’ll first be asked if Facebook is allowed to know your location. Once you click “allow,” you’ll enter the Places interface. From there, you can share your location with friends, find out where your friends are (if they’re using Places), and discover new places near you.
You can add places, check in to places that already exist, and tag people who are with you. If you’re checking in for a group, make sure you tag your friends before you checkin, yourself. For example, I added my house and checked in there. I then opened the Places page for a nearby sushi restaurant, tagged my boyfriend, and checked us both in there.
We’ve noted that it is possible to checkin from other non-smartphone devices in a regular, non-mobile browser, but you will have to use Facebook’s touch site.
You’ll also need to live in the U.S. Facebook’s goal is to launch all over the United States within a few days. International launch dates haven’t been released yet.
Other Services That Will Use Places
Tomorrow, Facebook is opening up certain data that will allow any and all developers to access parts of Places. That means that a lot of applications will start pulling information from Places, scraping it for data about people, locations, groups and more.
For right now, though, only a few apps have been selected to push information back into Places. Initially, Gowalla, Foursquare, Booyah (creators of MyTown and Nightclub City) and Yelp will integrate with Facebook Places.
If you use a Yelp mobile app for checkins, you’ll be able to push those checkins to Facebook Places, as well. Gowalla and Foursquare checkins can also be pushed to Facebook Places.
Booyah plans to launch a location-based social game called InCrowd; it will be built on Facebook Places. The company says it will be “a playful social app based on interacting with people and sharing real-time posts at real-world locations” and will allow players to “socialize, meet new friends and track popularity” in the app. It will be available in the iTunes App Store soon.
What About Privacy?
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said this feature isn’t about sharing your location with the world; it’s about finding places and sharing them with your friends.
That being said, your checkins will appear by default on your profile, in the news feed and in the activity stream for that place. We’ve also noted that your friends can, by default, check you in without your explicit approval or permission.
If you want to change who can see your checkins, go to your account’s privacy settings. You’ll see that “Places I check in” is by default shared with “Friends Only.” You can change who views your checkins from this area.
If you want to change whether or not others can check you in without your knowledge or permission, you’ll have to click “Customize settings” on your privacy page, then scroll down to the “Things others share” section. You will note that by default, you enable others to check you in. You can disable this setting; there’s no option to allow checkins-by-proxy on individual approval.
Also, another default setting on the “Customize settings” page is “Include me in ‘People Here Now’ after I check in.” When you check in, your location is visible to your friends and also to anyone else nearby. If you’d rather be more private, you’ll have to opt out of this setting.
We’ve written a bit about preliminary concerns voiced by the ACLU over Facebook Places and privacy. With much of the Places-related information being shared by default, it’s clear that most users will want to revisit their privacy settings before jumping wholeheartedly into this new feature.
Places for Businesses and Developers
If you’re a business, you can use Places to give Facebook your business’ location. Once your location has been added to Places, either by you or by another local Facebook user, just go to the Place page from Facebook.com and click the link that says “Is this Place Page your business?”
If you claim the location as your business, it will become a Facebook Page. You can then post updates to people who like the Page, update your business information and more.
Places can only be claimed by official representatives. Verifying a Place claim requires uploading some kind of official document, such as a local business license or Better Business Bureau accreditation.
If you’re a developer and are interested in using one of the Places APIs to use this feature’s technology in your application, you’re in luck. Facebook is launching a Read API tomorrow. This API will scrape checkins from identified users and their friends and will gather public data about Places, as well.
Facebook has also developed a Write and Search API that allows third-party apps to publish checkins and run queries on Places data. That’s currently in private beta; partners include Gowalla and Yelp, among others. We don’t yet have a date for when that API will be opened generally, but we’ll keep you posted.
When Places Go Wrong
In addition to changing your personal privacy settings, you can also report Places that aren’t correct or that infringe on your own rights somehow. Facebook allows users to report Places for incorrect data, abusive behavior, the permanent closure of a business or duplication of other content.
Reported Places are flagged; removal may not occur immediately.
You can immediately remove checkins from your own profile, and you can also untag yourself if someone else has checked you in without your approval. Just click the “remove” button next to the story on your profile or news.
Facebook Places Secret Super Power: Local Business Location-Based Ads
BY Kit EatonToday
For now it’s a slightly complicated affair to get location data into your Page if you’re a business–involving creating a new Places page, and then associating the two together. It even looks like not every business page owner can do this final piece of the puzzle yet, and Facebook seems to be alerting specific people about the system. Quite apart from this foible, the Places feature is pretty powerful, and notionally works much like business-owned pages in Yelp. Essentially you build a PR page, and then try to attract fans who’ll then checkin when they arrive at the site. Fans get to “play” the location game, businesses get to work out who their clients are–for promotional purposes or even (if they can get hold of demographic data) for business planning or targeted marketing reasons.
But Facebook is the engine behind all this, don’t forget–the worlds largest social network, with data on over 500 million users. Stripping the concept of Facebook to its core, one realizes that Facebook’s biggest bankable “value” is the structure of this network (with IDs for each user) and the web of links between friends–everything else about Facebook rests on this core. But with Places, not only does Facebook get to add a potentially money-spinning stream of data to all Places players (namely, your location and location habits, which is data ripe for mining for marketing), but it also gets a new network–the location database of local businesses. Facebook had data in businesses before, but the fact that it’ll now be able to geolocate them means Facebook will likely build up plans for location-sensitive advertising, tied to which particular shop you’re in (imaging a competitors ad popping up when youre checked in, offering lower prices or a promotional discount). It lets Facebook potentially build up a powerful “points of interest” database, should it every feel like leaping into the personal navigation or augmented reality games. It lets Facebook’s app developers come up with creative uses for the data that we haven’t even thought about yet.
Similar databases to these exist inside Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and augmented reality services Iike Layar. But they have to be populated by each of these system’s users, and as a result they may never become a complete or even widespread and accurate representation of the local business offerings of a particular city or town. Meanwhile Facebook is huge. Its very bulk creates a compelling reason to add your info to its places system. If Facebook plays this game carefully enough, it could swiftly steal big chunks of the business of Yelp, Layar, and many other location-based system (or just buy them later). All it would take is some clever programming, and a revamp of Facebook’s horribly flat and uninspiring UI to make the different aspects of the location games clearly delineated and more marketing-friendly.
To keep up with this news follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.
Getting Customers to ‘Check In’ With Foursquare
By RIVA RICHMOND
When Alissa White, owner of online retailer Matcha Source LLC, of Los Angeles, opened a temporary “pop-up” shop in June in Manhattan selling Matcha tea, she knew success would depend on attracting people quickly and cheaply.
Alissa White, owner of Matcha Source LLC, used Foursquare to tempt customers to visit her pop-up store in Manhattan.
![[sbfoursquare]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-JL392_sbfour_D_20100803095825.jpg)
Benji White
Location-based social networks like Foursquare have become a hit, especially with tech-savvy urbanites who want to share information about restaurants, bars, shops, music venues and other destinations. Because people provide their location when they “check in,” they can find their friends out on the town using these services, which also include startups Brightkite Inc., Gowalla Inc., Loopt Inc., Pelago Inc.’s Whrrl and review heavyweight Yelp Inc. Meanwhile, gaming elements like points, emblems and honorific titles for favorite haunts—”mayor” on Foursquare, for example—help keep users active.
Businesses of all sizes are trying the services out, looking to tap the networks’ ever-growing fan bases—Foursquare alone has 2.4 million users globally, and is growing 30% to 40% a month—and ability to harness enthusiasm for local establishments. For a small company with a limited marketing budget, the services are attractive because they’re free or cheap, require minimal time and effort, and appeal to loyal consumers who favor local businesses over big, cookie-cutter chains.
To get noticed, businesses “don’t necessarily have to outspend their competition any more. They can outsmart them,” says Dan Zarrella, social media scientist at marketing-software firm HubSpot Inc.
An advantage of location-based social networks, Mr. Zarella says, is that they spotlight frequent patronage of a business. On Foursquare, for instance, users can repeatedly plug a favorite place, often simultaneously sharing that news with Facebook friends and Twitter followers. “On Facebook, I’m only going to ‘like’ it once. With Foursquare, I’m going to check in every time,” he says. (With a half-billion users, however, Facebook still offers tremendous exposure, he adds.)
Dennis Crowley, co-founder and CEO of www.Foursquare.com, takes Lee Hawkins on a Walkabout through the East Village. In between his favorite place for lobster rolls and a bar where he likes to have conference calls, Crowley explains why the challenges of making software in New York help improve his product.
On Foursquare, many businesses encourage repeat visits by rewarding customers with freebies on their fifth or tenth check-ins. “The good thing about Foursquare versus Twitter and Facebook is it’s tied to a location, and, essentially, it can be a digital loyalty card,” says Allison Mooney, vice president of emerging trends at consultancy MobileBehavior LLC, a unit of Omnicom Group Co. “It’s closing the loop between digital social media and the actual point of sale.”
Take Ms. White, whose “special” on Foursquare promised users free tea if they left a digital “tip.” The strategy led people to promote the shop by checking in (an in-store sign reminded them to do so) and add a public recommendation that popped up on friends’ phones if they used Foursquare nearby. “I wanted people to be the preachers,” she says.
It worked: 18 people left tips on Foursquare, including Tanya Brown, age 23, who works around the corner at handbag company Botkier. She came for free tea after seeing the orange “special” tag flagging Matcha Box’s promotion and left this tip: “hours are a bit uneven – so call before. the iced matcha latte = best thing of my life.” She started following Matcha Source on Twitter and became a regular.
Though full of potential for small businesses, marketing tools on location-based services are still limited. And some complain large companies, which pay for marketing opportunities, have an advantage.
“The larger businesses are really the ones who are getting to promote their brands,” says Rick Bakas, director of social-media marketing at St. Supéry Vineyards & Winery in California’s Napa Valley. Mr. Bakas also complains that companies can only promote their physical locations, rather than products or services that may be sold elsewhere.
But change seems a matter of time. Foursquare aims to expand marketing using “badges,” or digital emblems that users can win for an activity, although only Starbucks has its own custom badge now, says Tristan Walker, head of Foursquare’s business development. Small businesses currently use standard badges. For instance, they can throw special “swarm” events at their stores to help Foursquare users win the “swarm” badge, a virtual yellow-bee emblem that’s awarded if more than 50 people check in, he says.
![[foursquare]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-JL393_foursq_D_20100803100441.jpg)
Associated PressWith Foursquare and other services, friends tell friends where they’re physically located using smartphones.
Since March, small businesses have been able to use Foursquare to set up specials and get data about check-ins. Some 10,000 merchants in big cities and small towns alike are participating, according to Mr. Walker. Even businesses without stores have jumped in, he says, pointing to a New York taxi service that gives its mayor free rides to the airport. “We really found merchants co-opting the platform to make it their own.”
Josh Williams, co-founder and chief executive of Austin-based Gowalla, which has 350,000 users, says Gowalla will roll out a small-business marketing product in the next six months, perhaps including custom “stamps” that users add to their digital passports.
Whrrl, which also has about 350,000 users, launched a pilot free-rewards program on July 1 for businesses of all sizes that a few small companies are participating in. And Brightkite, which has 5.5 million users, has run promotions for hundreds of local businesses this year, says co-founder Rob Lawson. It lets businesses reward customers with badges and real-world perks and provides targeted local advertising.
Yelp, which added a check-in feature to its iPhone app in January and Android app in June, could quickly become a force. Businesses have been able to set up “special offers” for free on Yelp for about two years, which are displayed to both its 33 million Web users and 2 million mobile users.
Tags: green tea, yelp, free ms, social networks, urbnaites, pelago, smartphones, startups, marketing budgets, loopt inc, cookie cutter, honorific titles, benji, emblems, minimal time, gaming elements, popular services
Goals for Business Social Media Use
I probably don’t have to tell you that many businesses are still struggling with the concept of using social media. Many simply can’t find a good reason to use it at all, and many more find themselves using it but struggling to validate that use. They can’t find the ROI. They feel that too much time is being wasted. Basically, they’re just using social networks because they feel like they’re supposed to. They just want to keep up.
Many businesses are even banning social media from the workplace entirely. In fact, a great deal of our readers have expressed that they feel that social media doesn’t belong in the workplace because employees are there to “work,” not “goof off.”
Well, that may be the case, and perhaps social media doesn’t fit into your business at all, but considering your general business goals can help you decide whether or not there is a place for social media, and whether or not your employees can fit into that puzzle.
As social media enthusiast Chris Brogan told WebProNews in a recent interview, it’s time to get over the touristy part of social media and start getting down to business.
He says it’s not “Gee whiz, it’s cool” anymore. It’s “What are we gonna do with it?”
“Great you can type. Now what?” he says.
Social Networks Don’t Waste Time, People Do. There are plenty of reasons why social network access shouldn’t be completely banned. We cover these reasons about every day. If your company completely ignores social networks, you’re ignoring a tremendous amount of opportunities for marketing, customer service, traffic, sales, communication, etc.
Social networks are not going away. The popularity of specific ones may change in time, but the concept of social networking is going nowhere. It’s not even a new concept. Forums and email are pretty much social media for all intents and purposes. Social networks have recently been blamed for $2.25 billion in lost productivity. I wonder how much money lost productivity from personal email and general web surfing accounts for. I wonder how much employees simply talking to each other at the workplace has cost companies. That’s not necessarily online, but it’s still socializing. How have you handled email and general web use in the past?
Reputation issues are one thing. Security is another (and I think employee education plays a big role there) but as far as productivity, I really don’t see that the use of social networks is really that different than any other form of simply not working. People can spend their time using the phone for personal calls, but you probably haven’t completely banned the telephone. You may need that to communicate with customers, drive sales, etc. I’m sure you see my point.
Are social networks really the time wasters or is it just the people finding new ways to waste time?
Tracking Facebook Activity Just Got Easier
For small businesses that have already jumped into social media marketing, keeping track of your www.facebook.com activity just got a little easier. (And if you haven’t gotten involved with social marketing yet, what are you waiting for?) Facebook has a tracking feature called Facebook Insights that allows page administrators to measure activity on
their Facebook pages, tracked over a 7-day period. This detailed information is critical to understanding how well your Facebook page is performing for your business.
To see your Facebook activity, all you have to do is log in to your www.facebook.com account, and then click on the Facebook Insights link displayed in the left column of the page (remember, this will be visible only to administrators of the page). Data is typically updated 12 hours after each full day, so you can see fresh stats on how your fans are interacting with your content, and easily watch for trends and overall performance.
You can look at your data in two main ways; 1) by fans that have “interacted” with your page called the Fan Interaction Dashboard, or 2) by all fans of your page, called the Fan Dashboard. An “interaction” occurs when a fan writes on your wall, leaves a comment on a post, or clicks on the “likes this” link on your page. So visitors and fans that simply read your latest information but don’t click on anything or leave a comment will not be counted in this data, but will be counted in the Fan Dashboard instead.
The Fan Interaction Dashboard
Some of the stats available in the Fan Interaction Dashboard include:
Total interactions – the number of wall posts, comments, and “likes”
Interactions per post – the average number of comments, wall posts, and “likes” for each piece of content that you post
Post quality – the score that measures how engaging your content is to visitors – the more engaging your content is, the higher your post quality score will be
Total posts – the number of posts made to your wall or in video
To help boost your interaction stats, you need to encourage visitors to interact with your content in some way. Like any other form of online marketing, you must contribute high-quality content to your Facebook page if you want your fans to actually interact with that content. For instance:
Make sure you post your latest news and events to your www.facebook.com page, so your fans can see your interesting stories or upcoming events and share them with their own networks
Add web video whenever you can, since videos are popular with users and will help engage them
Post photos on your wall that visitors will find interesting – commenting on photos is one of the most common types of interaction on Facebook
Be sure to post regularly – but not too often – to give visitors additional opportunities to interact with your content
When fans interact with your content, it helps distribute your content virally on Facebook, which in turn helps build organic links for you and increases the amount of your high-quality content that gets published and shared in other peoples’ profiles and/or pages.
The Fan Dashboard
The other way to look at your Facebook data is by looking at all fans in the Fan Dashboard, which includes:
Total fans / unsubscribes – The total number of your fans, and the number of fans who have chosen to hide your posts (unsubscribe)
New / removed fans – number of new fans, and number of people who have stopped being a fan of your page
Total page views – the number of times your page has been viewed per day
Media consumption – how many photo views, audio plays, and video plays your content has received
You may have already noticed that within the last few weeks, Facebook has started automatically sending a weekly email to page administrators with a brief summary of their Facebook activity, along with a link to their Facebook Insights stats. This can be a helpful reminder to review your weekly Facebook information, and also to remind you to post your most recent relevant, high-quality content to draw in and engage your visitors.
400 Million Users Can’t Be Wrong
Of course, www.facebook.com is only one of the many social networking platforms that can help you market your small business, but it is certainly the most-used social site today (it has even surpassed www.Google as the most-visited site on the web!). There are more than 400,000,000 active Facebook users, and that number continues to grow every month. Like it or not, your customers are already using Facebook, and you need to meet them where they are spending their time.
But with Facebook Insights, it is now a little easier to measure how your Facebook page is performing for your business. By watching the data over time, you can identify the things that really capture interest or result in better visitor interactions, then focus your efforts on doing more of those things. The more you can build your fan base, spread your content to others, and provide high-quality information, the better the results from your social marketing efforts.
Lauren Hobson, President of Five Sparrows, LLC, has more than 16 years of experience in small business technology writing, marketing, and web site design and development. Five Sparrows provides professional website, marketing, and social networking services to small businesses and non-profits at affordable prices, giving clients access to customized services that meet both their needs and their budgets. More at: www.fivesparrows.com
The Eight Criteria Your Business Needs To Have A Good Facebook Marketing Strategy
by Ken Yeung on August 7, 2010
Categories : Digital Coast
Facebook marketing seems to be somewhat of an enigma when it comes to businesses wanting to use it to reach out to their customers. Not surprising, there are plenty of pundits out there with blog posts and commentary that focus on how you and your business should execute a Facebook marketing strategy and most social media professionals are aware of the tips, tricks and various other nuances on how to build a better brand on the social networking platform. For small businesses, have you been able to justify why you’ve done that particular tactic with Facebook? What about if you’re part of a larger corporation? Do you have the numbers to support your efforts? It just so happens that Jeremiah Owyang and his team at the Altimeter Group have put together a report that should give a deeper look at what people are really thinking when it comes to Facebook marketing.
So what’s probably the biggest thing to plague businesses that are interested in Facebook marketing? No strategy.
Strategy Fail
According to the Altimeter Group’s report “The 8 Success Criteria For Facebook Page Marketing“, in 2010, the top priority for 45% of senior marketers worldwide involved social networks and applications. After surveying over 30 vendors, agencies and experts to “determine success criteria and develop a roadmap for Facebook page best practices”, their evaluation discovered that nearly half of the brands they surveyed didn’t engage fully or leverage the social features to help in developing an effective word of mouth campaign.
So are marketers and brands just not understanding what Facebook is? Maybe and Owyang includes some business-focused statistics about Facebook so that marketers and business owners can put it into perspective that Facebook cannot be ignored. In fact, with over 500 million active monthly users, Facebook should have enormous opportunity to reach out to the masses. According to the report, engagement is “ripe” with 50% of active users logging in on any given day – with on average around 130 friends and spending more time on the site than on Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Microsoft, Wikipedia and Amazon combined. For businesses to dismiss Facebook or any other social network as a place where people can talk to each other is ludicrous. In a recent Nielsen study, consumers are starting to trust their friends and families more than any other source of information. A ReadWriteWeb article cited a Gartner study that said that a majority of consumers are using social networks as a way to inform buyer decisions – they relied on these services to help guide them in purchase decisions. So for businesses to discount them is a big mistake.
Owyang’s report also states that 60% of Facebook users are more likely to recommend a brand after being a fan – but are these brands left out of the loop? If they are, then they need to get back in synch with their customers because if 70% of all brands plan on increasing spending on offsite social media investments, they’re going to need a roadmap on how to leverage their Facebook strategy…
So Altimeter Group built one for brands to succeed in their Facebook marketing strategy…
Criteria #1: Set Community Expectations
Before you begin executing anything, it’s best to look at what you are about to get involved in a look at what your expectations will be. By setting these expectations, you’re preparing your business and also your audience/customers for the experience they will have with your Facebook marketing campaign. Owyang recommends that brands describe to the fans what they’ll expect from the brand: from deals, tips, support or just news & information. But communication is a two-way street so it’s also suggested that brands look at stating what they hope to expect from the fans – not in a negative way, mind you, but describing the type of interaction they hope to get, what comments are considered appropriate and even inappropriate and what limitations there are on what’s posted and shared. By taking these steps, this should hopefully remove any abuse, inappropriate action and help create a great experience for both the brand and the community participants.
Criteria #2: Provide Cohesive Branding
Your brand is the single most important thing that people will recognize about your business. To tie everything together, it’s best to make sure that your branding on your Facebook page matches your overall brand because without it, you’re just confusing your customers and it doesn’t help in building more trust with them. By tying in your brand with Facebook, you’re able to create a familiar experience for your fans and will help differentiate it from other brands. The Altimeter Group report suggests the brand is much more than a logo. In fact, you need to complete your profile information and when you do upload a branded logo that you maximize the real estate given for a profile picture. Other tie-ins could include custom applications or tabs that help resonate with the brand and theme.
Criteria #3: Be Up To Date
When setting up a Facebook strategy, the point is to interact and communicate with fans so it’s really important that you keep the page updated with information that is relevant for them. The Altimeter Group report states that new visitors and fans will want to know that the brand is present and will continue to remain engaged as long as their fans. Internally, it would behoove a brand to set up a content calendar. As you would create content for a blog, so to must you for your Facebook page. Whether it’s posting latest news and information or fun tidbits on your Facebook page wall, these things are important and shows that you’re not setting up a page just for people to be fans. You’ll be given some goodwill for a bit, but if you’re not using the page to interact and conversate with your fans, you’ll burn up all the goodwill you’re given and people will find ways to NOT be your fans. Remember, it’s probably easier to lose a fan than it is to keep a fan. Put forth the effort to make sure fans feel appreciated and you’re giving them an experience they enjoy.
Criteria #4: Live Authentically
Show your customers and fans that there is someone working at your brand that isn’t a robot or just a logo. Allow fans to connect with the people behind the brand. It’s suggested that your content should be reflective of someone who is alive, writes in the first person and is conversational.
Criteria #5: Participate In Dialog
Facebook is communication and conversation and this only happens if at least two people are talking to each other. The report suggests that in order to foster dialog, look at the existing discussions taking place and join in. Then you might also want to start your own conversations and see who participates in that. Make sure that you treat each person’s comment with appreciation and respond accordingly.
Criteria #6: Enable Peer-To-Peer Interactions
A Facebook strategy doesn’t rely solely on communication between fans and the brand. It’s a network that should allow people to communicate with others and share their own experience. This is why they are fans. Allow others to respond accordingly to various posts and discussions and you might see some evangelists pop up or maybe have others do the troubleshooting that you might otherwise not be able to get to at that moment. As in the first criteria, it’s important that you lay out the foundation for what will become a community policy so people have expectations on what type of dialog and interaction can happen in this setting. Embrace the dialog that people have with one another – don’t discourage it on your fan page.
Criteria #7: Foster Advocacy
Getting people to become fans of your brand on Facebook is really great, but the power behind the social network is the virality and word of mouth. Don’t stiffle this feature. Rather, embrace it and allow others to share the experience with their friends and followers.
Some ideas that are recommended by Owyang in his report include having existing fans share the page with their friends and also encouraging them to do something on the fan page that would be worth sharing with others (e.g. voting for something, sounding off on a topic, sharing videos/photos, etc.).
Being creative with custom tabs and applications while tapping into contests, polls and submissions are also good mechanisms to get additional fans.
Bottom line: for businesses, creating advocates can be difficult, but always give people value and reasons to share.
Criteria #8: Solicit A Call To Action
Now you have your customers being fans and they’re willing to engage and talk to you and you hopefully are talking back to them, what are the next steps? Close the deal and bring it all back to business. That’s why you set up the fan page after all…you want more business. Some suggestions to sell more include starting with a simple call to action on a landing page and on your wall. Do you want them to “like” your page, sign up for emails or perhaps just to learn more about your product and company? If you’re offering some sort of value to being a fan of your page, then you need to offer them some incentive to stay – does that include special Facebook deals or coupons? Insider secrets? Whatever that is, you need to make it really obvious and lead the fans to that area where they can take advantage of that opportunity. But before you start trying to sell, sell, sell, make sure that you have your customers trust before pushing your wares on them. You have become more friendly now and you don’t want to ruin the relationship.
So there you have it…eight criteria that brands need to follow through on according to the Altimeter Group to create a good Facebook marketing strategy. What do you think? Is there additional steps that need to be taken in order to be successful? You can view the full report by clicking here.
Tags: altimeter group report, altimeter group research, altimeter group study, altimeter research, building an effective facebook strategy, facebook marketing, facebook marketing altimeter, facebook marketing basics, facebook marketing strategy, how to do facebook marketing, jeremiah owyang report, kenneth yeung, steps for a creative facebook strategy, thelettertwo.com…
Optimizing Web Communications and Response – Converting Time to Cash
Chief Executive Officer and Owner – Compliments International Jennifer Bagley is the Founder and CEO of a 2 Million dollar Web Design( ), SEO and Social Media Marketing Agency, which she self funded over 6 years ago and grew from the ground up. With a background in Six Sigma and project management, Jennifer provides business owners with a more effective and practical approach to their web communications and conversions strategy – considering money, time, resources, relationships and technology.
With over 15 years executive experience in business strategy, consulting and supply chain management, for multiple Fortune 500 brands around the world, she has the unique perspective to help independent business owners leverage technology to build profitable companies. Jennifer concentrates on teaching companies how to utilize high leverage technology and activities that produce relationships and convert to profitable sales. Jennifer has been a keynote presenter for the past 10 years, presenting to global conferences, corporations and organizations.
Her affiliations have been with companies, individuals and brands, including Administaff, Social Styles/Tracom, Nordstrom, Tommy Bahama, Fossil, Tony Jeary, Allstate Insurance, American Airlines, D&M Auto Leasing, Next Level Athlete, Dallas Voice and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, just to name a few. Her company, Compliments International, specializes in helping independent business owners navigate through the transitions and evolution required to convert them to successful small to mid-size businesses. With such a combination of experience and technology, Jennifer’s Company tag line says it all. “Optimizing Web Communications and Response.”
Jennifer Bagley – Interviewed on Kalon Women in Business Show
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/kalon-women