New Rules for Updating Your Facebook Fan Page Cover Photo

It’s time to update your Facebook fan page’s cover photo. How do I know this? Because last week Facebook actually relaxed its rules about the content of your Facebook cover image. As first reported by marketing guru Mari Smith, the following information that was previously not allowed can now be included:

• Price / purchase information
• Discounts
• Calls to action
• Contact info – website address, phone numbers, etc.
• Like or share buttons
• Arrows pointing to your page’s “like” button

One thing that has not changed is the 20% text rule, so this information can only make up 20% of your cover image. The dimensions are still 851 pixels by 315 pixels, but there are new tools that have popped up quickly to help you measure if you’re doing it right, like the Facebook Cover-Photo Compliance Tool by Paavo.

Also, keep in mind when designing your cover image that when the new News Feed rolls out, a portion of your cover image will show in the News Feed whenever someone likes your page. This is very exciting and holds a lot of opportunities for creativity, branding and conversions.

Good luck and happy creating!

How Will Video Ads Affect Facebook?

With video ads on the horizon, we can only wonder if this will be the end of Facebook. They have slowly rolled out additional ad products in attempt to monetize their free service. Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and CEO, also expressed their eagerness to venture further into mobile during a recent earnings call:

“…comScore put out a report saying that Facebook is now 23% of all time spent on apps in the U.S., and one of the next biggest apps is Instagram at 3%. So, put together, we’re now more than a quarter of the time spent in apps. Today, there’s no argument. Facebook is a mobile company. As I’ve said before, there are three main parts of our strategy; build the best mobile products, build the platform and services that leverage the social graph, and build a really strong monetization effort engine.”

What does this all mean? In Facebook’s eyes, mobile is an untapped revenue opportunity. Now, monetization efforts will no longer focus solely on desktop ads.

With the advent of the “new” News Feed, the emphasis is clearly on visual content. According to Ad Age, the video ad product will be targeted to users’ News Feeds on desktop and mobile devices. The ads are expected to be capped at 15 seconds and will autoplay.

Are marketers excited? Absolutely. This opens up a whole world of opportunity for advertising to Facebook users. Are Facebook users excited? This one is up for discussion. Facebook has to be wary of introducing another new ad product for fears that it might be viewed as intrusive.

How do you feel Facebook users will respond to video ads?

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

Image credit: birgerking

Small Business Disaster Preparedness in the 21st Century

Would you know what to do if your business was affected by a natural disaster tomorrow? Do you have the communications channels and plan in place to take action, or would you simply panic and stop the presses? Many small business owners can’t afford to be closed for even one day. Social media is not only a marketing tool, but it can be a lifeline in today’s modern society.

Recent natural disasters have taught us many things about how interwoven technology is in our 21^st century world. Hurricane Sandy was the first widespread natural disaster in U.S. history that showed us how our social networks can help us and our businesses survive and thrive in the wake of a crisis.

Examples abound both during and after Hurricane Sandy about people and businesses reaching out on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to get help and offer relief. Nonprofits like Invisible People used Twitter to reach out to homeless shelters and gather its resources to help obtain generators and food for the less fortunate. An animal shelter that posted about structural damage to its facilities on Facebook got 30 volunteers to come out and repair the damage. Over a dozen restaurants in one city banded together to provide Sunday night dinner for its community and used Facebook to spread the word.

Making a plan now for your procedure during a crisis or emergency situation can mean the difference between survival and greater loss. Obviously, safety and family come first for both you and your employees. Once everyone is secure, have a plan for working off-site, accessing the Internet and staying abreast of the latest information. Many federal, state and local agencies have social media accounts that will be updated frequently to help you stay informed. If you’ve built out a couple of social media channels for marketing purposes, you can also keep your customers updated and let them know when you are operational and available for support. Note, however, immediately after a natural disaster is not the time for promotional messages, but it can be an effective way to bridge your company and your community during difficult times. So what are you waiting for? Go make your plan!

This Little Symbol Tells You If Facebook Is Watching…

In an effort to promote consumer awareness, The Digital Advertising Alliance launched the icon below to alert you on ads that are being served based on behavioral targeting aka interest-based advertising.

Launching soon, when you see this symbol, you will know you are being tracked for third-party retargeting ads on Facebook:

These ads are served via Facebook Ad Exchange. The intended goal is to show ads based on specific interests. In Facebook’s eyes, this method gives consumers more control by using their interests to serve more relevant ads. How do Facebook retargeting ads work? This diagram from BMO Capital Markets analyst Dan Salmon takes a crack at mapping it out:

Google Retargeting tends to outperform typical Search campaigns. But when it comes to Facebook ads, lately they just don’t perform like they used to. Many consumers are blind to them as they are bombarded with ads throughout the News Feed and right-hand column. Despite the performance of traditional Facebook ads, this method of Facebook retargeting may very well demonstrate increased ad performance. So far the results sound promising according to Exchange partners.

As a consumer, I understand that I’m most likely going to see ads if I am not paying a subscription fee. So from this mindset, I suppose it would be more beneficial to at least see ads for products and services that are relevant to my specific interests.

Keep an eye out for this little icon. I have a feeling we will be seeing it more often.

Watch this video to learn more:



Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

Are the Results from Facebook Exchange Really Promising or Really Skewed?

One of Facebook’s partners, Triggit, has released some stats for the new Facebook Exchange (FBX) advertising network for real-time bidding and retargeting. The numbers from the testing phase may have some marketers and advertisers getting really excited, but we’d caution them not to start jumping for joy just yet.

The in-house analyst at Triggit, Hyunyoung Choi, who has previously worked at Facebook, Google and Hyundai, reviewed campaigns from seven different advertisers in retail, travel and printing over a six week period in November and December 2012. Here are some of the numbers:

• Consumers were 240% more likely to return to an advertiser’s website after being retargeted on Facebook.
• FBX drove 36% more conversions than retargeting on other platforms like Google Display Network, AdMeld, Pubmatic or Rubicon.
• 96% more people converted upon view-through as compared to those who never saw an ad but organically re-visited the site and converted.
• Dynamic creative ads yielded 43% higher click-through rates and one-third lower cost per acquisition compared to static ads.
• 93% of dynamic creative conversions occurred within the first 50 impressions.

While the possibilities for retargeting and placing dynamic creative in Facebook Exchange certainly seem promising, the test period was during one of the busiest times for e-commerce and the stats come from the retail, travel and printing industries. Hmmm… We may wait on doing the happy dance.

Using "Facebook Candy" to Increase Engagement

Engagement seems to be a buzzword among social media marketers who are trying to get the most interaction from fans to increase their brand visibility online. So how do you get fans to share, like and comment on your posts? Let’s focus on Facebook since this is still by far the largest social network, but realize that this can be applied across all social media sites.

One way to spark engagement is by using what we like to call “Facebook Candy” – visual images like photos and videos stand out in a users’ feed and makes them more likely to interact with your post. You can add a single photo or upload a group of photos at once into a photo album. Both are eye-catching in your fans’ newsfeeds, but clicking on a photo album requires the user to leave their newsfeed, so single photos are sometimes more effective. Types of photos you may want to post include product photos, event photos, behind-the-scenes photos and memes. Remember to add a brief comment or question with each post to help jump start the conversation.

Posting relevant videos that are humorous, educational or awe-inspiring can also generate a lot of engagement. Don’t be afraid to go out and create your own videos. Use the title and description to help make the video stand out and always include a call to action. Creating engaged users means you’re building a devoted fan base that will help spread the word about your brand or product. That’s why it’s important to craft posts that grab attention in this media-saturated world. You can raise your brand awareness and build lifelong customers by creating more effective posts with images and video.

Tell us how you engage your fans in the comments below.

Fostering Community Engagement on Facebook

If you admin a Facebookpage for your business, do you know how to foster community engagement or even why it’s so important? We all know what “engagement” means, but let’s look at how it applies specifically to Facebook.

Whenever someone (fan or not) interacts with your post – meaning they like it, leave a comment or share it – their friends see it, which can spur even further engagement. All of these eyeballs are good and well enough, but the flurry of activity makes your page seem even more important in Facebook’s eyes, thereby ensuring more of your posts are seen in your fans’ newsfeeds. 

Posts that usually get the most engagement are photos and videos while self-promotional messages receive the least. By increasing engagement with your Facebook page, you can maximize your page’s impact on Facebook.