Ok hands up, Facebook was never entirely free, it’s always taken time to generate content and maintain your presence on Facebook. And time = money.

One of the most appealing things about Facebook is that most of the Internet using population is on it and if you could folks to click that ‘like’ button, well, you had ‘em.

Things have changed, a lot.

Over the last couple of years, many changes have occurred to business pages (sorry, timelines) – moving to the timeline design, losing the tab format, losing the obvious landing page to name but a few. And don’t forget there are just simply hundreds of millions more users on there than 2 years, you’ve got more noise to compete against.

But the biggest change? Visibility – thanks to Facebook’s algorithm, Edgerank, which dictates what percentage of the people who like your page actually see what your post.

2 years ago – you could expect 80-90% of your followers to see your posts.

Now - for small businesses you’re looking at 30-40% visibility, for larger businesses that percentage goes down to a paltry 15%. Eek….

Unsurprisingly, many businesses aren’t happy about this. Some now employ the tactics of the ‘share this post if/like this post if’ quick engagement post (although I understand it, it’s lazy marketing in my book) to try to boost their Edgerank. Others have just wondered why their engagement rate has dropped through the floor.

And the rest?

They pay. Using the Facebook advertising model, they hand over cash on a regular basis to Facebook to promote either their page or individual posts. Those ads show up as an advert or a sponsored story – you’ll have seen them filtering through your stream by now I’m sure.

And there’s a problem with those sponsored adverts. I’m starting to see the same brands advertising on Facebook in the same way, all the time. And it’s annoying, to the point where the brand is potentially devaluing itself to it’s target audience.

(Image courtesy of Darren Dean)

Oops. Handing over cash and not helping their brand in the long-term (even though they get some short-term hits). Sainsbury’s and Aviva are both guilty of this recently for me.

Should all businesses be spending money on Facebook Advertising?

Yes, if:

➢ Your business is suited to Facebook (most B2B business aren’t, in my view)
➢ You want to boost your engagement and visibility of your posts.
➢ Your content is good/engaging/creative etc…

If you’re not using Facebook advertising but Facebook is a major part of your social media marketing, it’s time for a rethink.

You need a balance of consistent, compelling, creative content and then use advertising for certain posts where you want your reach to increase towards 75% of your followers (and others). Where you use advertising, don’t run campaigns for too long otherwise the same users may see the same adverts time and time again, and that may well not do you any favours when they just want to see what their mates are up to!

What do you think: are you running a Facebook page that’s producing a return, has high engagement and reach without advertising? I’d love to know!

Are you considering starting using Facebook advertising this year? There’s a good article here with some tips.

Jan

The post Facebook: No longer a free social media tool for business? appeared first on The Net Advantage.

1. Consistency

Are you guilty of not planning what you’re going to post and when?

The result: adhoc, irregular updates/blog posts that doesn’t build trust with your followers, the likelihood is it will start to annoy them (if it doesn’t already).

The recommendation: Space your content out, rather than 6 Facebook updates in the space of a few hours (I see it a lot!) then nothing for a week, schedule 6 updates one a day for 6 days, either the same time (if your audience is online at the same time every day) or at different times (if your audience is wide enough that they use Facebook at differing times).

2. Content

You’ve heard it screamed from the social media industry rooftops “CONTENT IS KING”. It’s still true, without good, compelling content (look, another C!) you’re going to find it hard to keep your audience entertained, there are other brands out there paying a lot of money for such content.

So, what can you create about your business/industry/personality that’s going to grab the attention of your audience on a consistent basis?

3. Context

The other ‘king’ is Context. Interesting content is one thing, tailoring it to be relevant to your audience is another.

So first things first, do you know who your audiences are? Are they male, female, what are their interests, age, location – all have a massive impact on the context you can give to your content.

Most businesses I see churn out every press release they do on every social media channel with a ‘let’s just chuck it out everywhere and hope it sticks somewhere’ approach.

The result: lower engagement, more disengaged followers as you create more noise and less tailored, relevant content.

The recommendation: pretty obvious, you need to get to know and understand your audience better. Look at e.g. Facebook insights, their hobbies/interest – even, gasp, ask them!

4. Competition

Call them competitors (or potential colleagues/collaborators as I like to call them – more C’s!) but if you don’t know what they are up to online, you’re missing a trick.

Where do you come in a Google search versus your competitors, what social media presence do they have, what content are they putting out, do they get good engagement from it? Just a few of many questions you should be asking.

It’s out there in the public domain; use it to your advantage.

5. Creativity

On average, we actively follow just 9.4 Facebook pages and can build meaningful relationships with 100-150 twitter followers. As a business you are up against multinational brand juggernauts and pop stars and film stars to boot. How are you going to get your target audience to follow and engage with you?

Do you churn out all your latest press release where you just talk about your business? That would be a NO!

Do you make your presence more about fan-centred engagement where they feel part of a community and their opinion is valued as it’s more about them than you? That would be a YES ☺

Old Spice (yes, the aftershave your dad wore in the 1980’s!) is one of the best examples of turning around a brand (in the US predominantly) using social media, all it took was a little creativity.

6. Confidence

Whatever you do, do it with style/creativity/pizazz – bland and wishy-washy toeing the line stuff won’t work on social media, remember, you need to try to stand out from a phenomenally large crowd if you want your business voice to be heard online.

Adding personality to the brand is one way, some create characters (my favourite still is Wells Bombadier Ales on Facebook) and others just have a strong opinion and are confident enough to see it through.

This is especially true of blogs, you have to get off the wall and have an opinion (and a fairly strong one at that) to stand out from all your competitors.

7. Commitment

Linked to consistency above, there is a lot to be said for committing to a platform over a long period of time (I usually quote 12 to 18 months as a starting point).

Quick wins can and do happen on social media but the mainstay of your social media return will come from developing relationships over time. You don’t go to a networking event and expect to walk away with 10 new clients after the first visit do you…do you?!

Over to you, did I miss any important other social media ‘C’s’?

Is there anything you’re planning to do differently this year with social media?

Jan

Further reading: Why you should spend LESS time on Social Media…

Image courtesy of society6.com

The post The 7 C’s of Social Media appeared first on The Net Advantage.

I’m delighted to announce more half-day training courses that I’m delivering through Shropshire Chamber of Commerce, we’re now into the second year of our partnership, time has flown!

So if it’s time to dust off your Twitter account, boost your Facebook and blogging efforts or poke your toe into the Pinterest or Google+ water, the courses below will cover your needs and get you right up to speed.

The courses have grown and have become longer (3 1/2 hours) to allow more time for the hands-on learning part of each workshop so you walk away confident to implement what you have learned.

Dates and course titles are below, booking and course details are available via the Shropshire Chamber website.

Wed 30th January – A Social Media overview
Wed 6th February – Using LinkedIn for Lead Generation (CPD Certified)
Tues 12th February – Twitter for Business
Wed 27th February – Facebook for Business
Tues 5th March – Blogging for Business
Tues 12th March – Google+ and Pinterest for Business
Tues 19th March – Social Media for Professional Services

All the courses go from a fairly introductory level through to advanced so are suitable for all levels of understanding. This cycle of course will be based at Stafford Park, Telford.

There will be more courses coming in 2013 in Telford and Shrewsbury, so as they say, watch this space! If there is a course you’d like that I don’t currently offer, just leave a comment below.

Any questions, just let me know. I hope to see some of you soon!

Jan

p.s. If you know anyone that might benefit from these courses, feel free to pass this on (and thank you!)

The post 2013 Social Media Workshops at Shropshire Chamber of Commerce appeared first on The Net Advantage.

 
Every time I’ve hit another 1,000 followers on Twitter, I’ve marked it with a competition to say thank you for following & supporting me. I recently hit 3,000 (engaging, fabulous, informative & entertaining followers – yes, YOU!) so it’s competition time again.

So what do I have to do?

It’s simple – tweet me your best social media tip (or tips, as many as you have!). Start the tweet with the hashtag #mysocialmediatip and include @JanMinihane somewhere in the tweet.

You have from 9am on Monday 8^th October until 5pm on Friday 12^th October 2012.

And if you fancy retweeting the competition tweet, well, don’t let me stop you

But what will I win, Jan?

I asked you for suggestions on Twitter and you said cake, chocolate and an advisory session with me (clearly the booby prize!). Well, if cake is involved, I’m happy to oblige

The winner will win a delicious red velvet cake, some yummy chocolate and a free 2 hour social media advisory session with me (in person or via skype).

What should the tip be about?

Your tip can be about any aspect of social media that you’ve picked up on the way, either about one particular site….

e.g. #mysocialmediatip be sure to use Facebook’s scheduling icon to space out your content @JanMinihane

….or an overall social media tip….

e.g. #mysocialmediatip do less, better. Concentrate your efforts on a couple of sites & do them well rather than be everywhere @JanMinihane

The more creative/insightful, the better!

I’ll then shortlist and retweet/blog about all the best ones and choose a winner from the shortlist.

I hope you’ll jump on board and share a little of your knowledge for everyone’s benefit – surely more of an incentive than the prizes

Go for it and good luck!
Jan

The small print:

• You can enter the competition as many times as you like.
• Your tweet must include both #mysocialmedia tip and the username @JanMinihane to qualify for consideration.
• The shortlist will be decided by Jan Minihane as the week progresses.
• The shortlist will be reviewed and the winners will be notified on Monday 15^th October.
• The winner must respond to the winning email notification within 72 hours or another winner will be chosen.
• No cash alternative.
• The prize is non-transferable.
• The prize is a cake & chocolate (chosen by Jan Minihane) and a free 2 hour social media advisory session which can be carried out in person or via skype.

Image courtesy of fan pop.com

The post It’s competition time … appeared first on The Net Advantage.

1. All sell, no engagement

You know, the ones who put up endless links to their website/latest offer/picture but as far as engagement goes there isn’t any? 

Worth noting that on Twitter, even if you are engaging (i.e. having @mention conversations), if you don’t have many mutual followers, most followers will just see the links that you are pumping out – what message is that sending to them?

2. Automating too much

Automatic feeds of blog post, auto-DM’s, all pumped out without calls to action or personalisation – for me it’s a missed opportunity. Add a call to action to a blog post you’re tweeting about, ask a question on Twitter but put it in a poll on Facebook. A little more work = greater return.

And sure, use a scheduling app in moderation to space out your content (I use Buffer, it’s simply awesome!), but you need to intersperse those tweets with lots of engagement (remember, you are human, not robot).

3. Repeating the same posts on all sites

Yes, there are tools such as Tweetdeck and Hootsute which allow you to easily post across the main social media sites, BUT remember that each site has it’s own style, tone, post frequency and length. 

Far better to spend a few minutes checking with sites the post is suitable for and then changing it up to suit the site and your audience.

4. All about me, not you

When you’re at an event and you get talking to someone who dives into telling you their life story, their latest stresses and strains and after 20 minutes they draw breath … you make your excuses and leave, sharpish! 

Social Media is no different – if you make it more about your audience than yourself, you’ll be putting out a much more appealing proposition.

5. No focus

The scattergun approach, where you see so many different kinds of posts from one user that it creates noise in your stream, it doesn’t add value. The result? Followers unfollow or hide your posts over time, in favour of those providing value, offers, fun and personality.

Concentrate on niching your efforts, try to appeal primarily to a different segment of your entire audience on each site and providing them with what they want, not just dishing out all your company news across all sites, whether it’s relevant to them or not.

All of the points above can be addressed by focusing on what your objectives for using social media are (on each site and overall), what time you have to dedicate to it and as a result, what’s realistically achievable.

There’s many more social media no-no’s out there, what’s your pet hate?

And if you like the post, why not share it?

Jan

p.s. if you don’t want to miss future blog posts, just sign up below in the footer and I’ll deliver them straight to your inbox.

Image courtesy of zazzle.com

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