facebook :: Small Business Marketing Consultant

Archive for facebook

Tracking The Results of Your Facebook Ads

Tuesday, January 29th, 2013

Facebook recently announced the global launch (top advertisers have been able to do this for a while) of a new conversion measurement and optimization system for direct response marketers. This new system allows you to measure actions users take related to your ads, such as registrations and shopping cart checkouts.

Small business marketers can now also use optimized CPM (OCPM) to deliver ads to people who are most likely to convert on their websites. Beta tests have shown that when conversion measurement is used with optimized CPM, ads reduced the cost per conversion by 40 percent when compared to CPC ads using the same budget.

This means you can now measure how well your Facebook Ads and sponsored stories are driving specific actions on your website. This information will not only help you understand how your ads are performing but should also help you improve the performance of future campaigns.

Conversion measurement is currently available in power editor, the ads manager, and to API partners. Here’s how to get started:

Click on the conversion tracking tab in power editor in Chrome (www.facebook.com/ads/manage/powereditor/) or on the conversion tracking link on the left hand nav in ads manager (www.facebook.com/ads/manage)
Create your conversion tracking pixel(s) and implement it on your conversion page(s)
Once the pixel has been placed on your website, create ads and select “track conversions on my website for this ad”
Set a budget and choose optimized CPM to deliver the ad to people most likely to convert

When you create ads linking to your site, you will see an option called “Conversion Tracking” in the “Campaign, Pricing and Schedule” section of the ad tool. Clicking “Create Tracking Pixels” will take you to another page where you can create, name, and assign a category to a conversion pixel. Facebook then will generate a piece of code that you will need to put on the page of their site you wish to track.

You can review your conversion reports in the ads manager.

You can find more information about Facebook’s conversion tracking here.

Comments (1)

Categories : Online Marketing for Small Business

Tags : facebook

Facebook Limits Amount of Text in Cover Photos

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)

Thursday, January 17th, 2013

You may not have noticed it, but on January 15 Facebook changed their policy for Cover Photos for Pages. Under the new policy, you are not allowed to have cover photos that have text on more than 20% of the image area.

That’s 20% of the image area (not a specific number of words or characters). Cover photos are 851 x 315 = 268,065 square pixels. 20% of that is 53,613 square pixels. Text can appear anywhere, but typical text blocks sizes might include:

450 x 119 pixel area in the top left corner of the cover photo
640 x 83.77 pixel area in the bottom right corner of the cover photo
232 x 231 pixel “square” block area

Depending on the font size you use, many small business may be limited to displaying their business name and/or their tagline under these new rules.

Facebook is reportedly developing a tool to measure the amount of text that they will use themselves and share with users and advertisers to help measure compliance with this rule.

Just for review, here are Facebook Rules for Timeline Cover Photos:

1. All Cover Photos are Public and should be 851pixels wide x 315pixels high.

2. Covers CANNOT be Deceptive, Misleading, or Infringe on anyone else’s copyright, if they are you may find it disappears.

3. You may NOT encourage people to upload your cover to their personal timelines.

4. Cover Photos MUST NOT Include;

Images with more than 20% text
Price or Purchase Information, such as “40% off” or “Download it on yourwebsite.com”
Contact Information such as a Website Address, Email, Mailing Address, or Information that should go in your Page’s “About” section.
Calls to action, including references to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an Arrow Pointing from the Cover Photo to any of these features or Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.

You can read the full set of guidelines here – https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

Comments (0)

Categories : Online Marketing for Small Business

Tags : facebook, social media marketing

How Facebook Can Enhance and Build on Marketing Campaigns

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)

Thursday, October 25th, 2012

I’m attending the annual Duct Tape Marketing Consultants Gathering this week so today’s post is a guest post from David Nelson. David is a consultant who specializes in business strategies. He holds a degree in business administration with a major in finance and lives in the Chicago area.

It is common for organizations to use email campaigns to raise funds, but some disregard this established technique because it seems daunting to scale the campaign large enough to make it worth the time. Email marketing campaigns are most effective when combined with other social media efforts. According to ResourceNation.com, companies reported that client engagement rose from 48 percent when using only social media to 72 percent after adding email marketing.

You can use much of the same content for email newsletters and on social networking sites, such as Facebook. However, content must be interesting enough to capture the attention of donors and volunteers. Simplify your campaign with a marketing tool such as JangoMail mass email service, or whatever email marketing service works best for your business. This service allows you to paste emails into the software and then trigger mass emails using a variety of options. Using mass emails complemented with an optimized Facebook page will boost your business’s bottom line.

Make a Facebook Page

Your organization needs a presence on Facebook. Millions of people and businesses are on Facebook; if your organization does not have a fan page, you are missing out on a great opportunity to reach donors. The content that goes into your emails can be posted on your fan page to inform the world of what you are doing and what you need to succeed.

Creating a Facebook business page takes five minutes. Visit facebook.com/business to sign up, then choose your page name, a photo that represents your business and a brief description of your products and services. Once your page is up and running, start connecting with potential customers.

Join the Conversation

While Facebook is a leading platform for modern marketing, it doesn’t follow the same script as traditional promotional outlets. Businesses on Facebook thrive when engaging fans in conversation, whether through videos, links to articles or open-ended questions. In order to build an effective marketing campaign, contributing to the social culture is key.

According to Facebook, the most engaging posts average between 100 and 250 characters and include a visual element. A natural social networking page contains variety, so don’t feel restricted by these guidelines, but keep them in mind when looking for comments and re-posts. When fans share your content, you are building access to untapped markets because their friends will see it, too.

Engage your fans in a discussion about a trending topic, post a sneak preview of your business’s new product and link to content the has nothing to do with your business. It may feel aimless, but the goal is to establish a personal rapport with fans. Proving that you respect the culture of the platform will help you build trust with Facebook users

Offer Incentives

Save the focus-group tag lines for print campaigns. The best way pump-up sales on Facebook is through an honest portrayal of your product or service, but Facebookers also love a good contest. Ask a trivia question or host a photo contest and offer a discount to the winners. Regular incentives will attract fans who may not have otherwise “liked” your page.

Continual Marketing

Facebook isn’t a one-time promotional campaign. It can continually grow your audience through due diligence and consistently engaging fans. Social-networking-success.com recommends postings at least once a day, preferably during non-business hours, when consumers are more likely to be online. Maintain a consistent voice and your business will be on the front of your fans’ minds when its time to make a purchase.

Comments (0)

Categories : Small Business Marketing

Tags : facebook, social media marketing

The Key To Small Business Social Media Success

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)

Thursday, August 2nd, 2012

The key to effectively using social media for growing your small business isn’t picking the right tool, or determining the right number of hours per week to spend on social media, or any of the other myriad of tips and tricks we hear every day.

The key to effectively using social media in small business is to start by defining business goal – what is it (specifically) that you want to accomplish? Do you want to:

Increase your store sales by driving more traffic to you store?
Find the best people to hire for your open position?
Increase referrals by teaming up with strategic referral partners?
Improve your ability to serve your customers by keeping up with their industry news and competition?

Once you define your business goal(s), you can start to ask important questions like:

Who should I be talking to? Where do they hang out?
Why would anyone take the action I am asking them to take? What’s in it for them?
What should I be measuring to help me determine if I am headed in the right direction? How will I know what’s working and what’s not?
Once a conversation begins, what’s the next step?

With your business goal defined, your next step is to determine how to use your social media communication tools to get someone (including yourself) on the path or continue along the path towards fulfilling that goal.

For example, if your goal is to increase referrals by building a referral partner network, there are several steps along the path to meeting that goal. You can’t just connect or “friend” someone online and then wait for the business to roll in. You must to identify and approach potential partners, meet with them and decide whether you are a good fit, work to achieve and maintain “top of mind” with them, and manage the giving and receiving referrals. All of the steps along this path require communication; whether social media is appropriate for each individual step will depend on a myriad of factors – much the same way you know when it’s ok to send an email but in some cases you need to pick up the phone or meet in person.

If you find yourself getting caught up in trying to find the right tool or the “magic formula” for social media success, trying taking a step back and defining the business goal you want to achieve.

Comments (0)

Categories : Marketing Strategy, Small Business Marketing

Tags : facebook, LinkedIn, social media, twitter

Facebook Apps – 4 Changes Small Business Need To Know

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)

Friday, March 9th, 2012

Facebook recently rolled out a new update – Timeline for pages. This update includes a new features and design elements to that small business owners can use to manage their presence on Facebook.

Small businesses interested in using Facebook as part of their marketing mix often use Facebook’s application (Facebook apps) feature to customize their pages and to tie their page in with their website and other online channels. The latest update made several changes to the applications feature. If you are using the applications feature, make sure to review your page to make sure it still functions as you intended. Here is a list of 4 things to look for:

No more tabs (sort of) – While page tabs will continue to function, it’s looks like Facebook is slowly fading them out. Rather than seeing the tabs along the left hand side, Apps are now available on the right side, beneath the cover photo. Make sure to update any instructions (written or oral) that you give to customers and prospects on how to find your app.

No Default Tab – This one may be the change that upsets small business owners with existing apps the most. Facebook will no longer allow default landing tabs. Again, if you are used to telling people “just go to my Facebook page and you will automatically see…”, you need to change those instructions.

Facebook recommends using another new feature, the ability to pin a post to solve this problem. When a post is pinned, it remains at the top of your page and has a little flag displayed next to it. The idea is you can post a link to your app page and then pin it so it remains on top. Be aware that pinned posts remain pinned for 7 days, so if you take this approach you have a new task to add to your weekly routine.

Fewer tabs can be highlighted above a “See more” option, but all apps benefit from larger thumbnails.

Larger Images – App images can now be 111×74 pixels instead of the 16×16 pixel favicons used previously, giving you a little more opportunity to communicate something meaningful about your app via the image.

Speaking of images, the cover photo guidelines state pages cannot add images that use arrows or text to direct people to visit tabs or take particular actions – so don’t get into trouble by doing that.

More room – Apps themselves can now be up to 810 pixels wide. Apps render as a new page with a header, a link back to your page, and menu of other tabs are also displayed. A Like button also appears if the visitor hasn’t already liked your page.

Facebook’s latest update introduces many other features in addition to the change in apps. My friends and fellow Duct Tape Marketing Consultants in Fort Worth put together a nice webinar about the Facebook Timeline for Pages. You can view the recording of the webinar here.

Comments (0)

Categories : social media marketing

Tags : facebook