Right now, in the USA there are more people accessing Facebook via mobile than desktops. Most of the Facebook mobile user interaction occurs via newsfeed, however mobile application integration is vital for business fan pages.

Via the new Facebook platform for mobile, there are 2 types of apps that users can access.

• The first one is Mobile web apps, anything that was created using html5 can be access, whether it is a web, canvas or tab.

• The second category is native apps, and these applications are downloaded to your phone.

Cheers

Lucio

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Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard with over 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors in January

Every time there is an online phenomenon there is rush from businesses trying to figure out what to do next.

One of the most recent phenomena is Pinterest, which received an interesting infographic animation by MDG Advertising .

In the video it is possible to get some understanding on demographics, growth and potential to expand inbound traffic from Pinterest. Did you know, 60% of the social network users are women and 80% are between the ages of 25 and 54? Another interesting fact is that Pinterest generates more inbound traffic to websites  than Google +, LinkedIn and YouTube combined.

In addition to information, the video provides some useful tips to show how brands can use Pinterest.

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The ranking for March 2012 was steady amongst the five leading industries with FMCG Snackfoods having the highest volume of growth with over 300,000 new fans (‘likes’) over the four weeks of March. Retail oriented industries take up five of the top six positions, with Retail – Grocery & Alcohol being the big mover from the previous report thanks to the addition of brands such as 7-Eleven and Baker’s Delight to the analysis. This coincided with the demise of Air Australia / Strategic Airlines in mid-February, causing Travel – Airlines to move down to seventh position.

The addition of CUA in the Banking & Financial Institutions industry supported its one position upwards move to the ninth most followed industry. All industries grew their volume of fans (‘likes’) highlighting the Facebook users willingness to engage in mutually beneficial support of specific brands that relate to their lifestyle and how they view themselves.

click to view larger table

The highest relative fan growth was experienced by some of the less followed industries Travel – Accommodation (+20.9%) and Pharmaceutical (+14.5%), while Automotive increased by 13.0% and the most followed industry, FMCG – Snackfoods, was able to increase their fanbase 11.9%. No surprise that the two fastest growing industries also experienced the highest engagement rate, as growth was underpinned by promotional and marketing activities across a multitude of brands, Travel – Accommodation with 6.1% and Pharmaceutical with an engagement rate of 5.2%. Retail – Grocery & Alcohol and Automotive also had standout engagement rates of 4.4% and 4.1% respectively in highly competitive industries with strong promotional and marketing activity support driving the performance.

Data for this report was collected on February 28, March 6, 13, 20 and 27. Please review the methodology at the rear of the report for a clear understanding of each metric. To download the current report and be notified of future reports go to w w w . f a c e b o o k . c o m / f a c e b o o k – r e p o r t to register.

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Facebook hands every user a megaphone, it can be very challenging for businesses to manage their image if something goes wrong or if they find a very vocal user. But just as social media makes marketing more authentic, it also enables businesses to respond to crises in an especially effective manner.

A recent report by Altimeter has revealed that globally most companies have adopted social media without adequate ongoing management, leaving them open to alarming exposure and potentially uncontrollable risk.

The trick, of course, is knowing what to do and when. Here are some tips for using Facebook to manage different types of crises:

1. Figure out what the problem is. Assess the nature of the feedback and then determine the validity of the feedback.
2. Before you say anything on social media, take into account everyone who could be in your audience, not just the people you know for sure are in your audience. Think about any media representative? Any client or supplier? Remember, not everybody thinks exactly the same way you do.
3. Before you open up any type of social media forum, have guidelines in place that lets people know that certain types of speech aren’t going to be tolerated and that the platform is being moderated. It also gives you directions for different situtation eg. what happens when someone mentions a competitor.
4. If you find yourself getting emotionally involved in something online, take a step back. Don’t let commenters get you riled up as you could end up saying something that you regret.
5. Think about who is doing your social media postings. An intern may be comfortable using Facebook and Twitter, but are they the right person to be representing your brand online? It is easier to teach someone who knows your brand/business about social media than it is to teach someone who only knows social media about your company.
6. Set up (but review constantly) multiple administrators on all social media accounts just in case you can’t get in touch with someone when you need to – or they leave the company.
7. Make it easy to do the right thing when you are setting up your policies.
8. Own a mistake and do it quickly. Don’t try to hide from it. It’s not going away.
9. Have a friend or an editor check things out. It might seem funny to you, but it may not be to everyone.
10. Understand that you can’t control social media. Instead,  you can prepare for. Be ready to react and take ownership when something does happen.
11. Don’t be insulting or come off defensive. All it takes is one bad post to create a social media nightmare.
12. Remember, most of the time is not personal.
13. Have your PPC campaigns ready to go in case you need to intercept uninformed users to any website with your version of the facts.
14. Have you media person trained for Social Media videos and responses.
15. You DON’T need to have the last word.
16. Engage customer services and corporate affairs at the begin. They WILL help you.

Cheers

Lucio

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The system allows local businesses to use their Facebook pages to promote special deals and promos direct to their customers, sending freebies and promotions straight to users’ news feeds.

When someone clicks on the offer, they can either redeem it straight from Facebook’s mobile apps or receive it by email ready to be used in store.

How do users get and redeem an offer?
Users can click “Get Offer” below the offer’s headline to send it to the primary email address associated with their Facebook account.
They then can bring the email to the business offering the deal and show it to the staff to redeem the offer. Users can show it in printed form or on your mobile phone.

It’s important to understand that users receiving the offer on their newsfeed can also share it with their friends.

How can Facebook administrators create their own Deal?

To create an offer:

1.     Go to your Page
2.     From the sharing tool at the top of your Page’s timeline, click  Offer, Event + and then click  Offer
3.     Type a strong headline for your offer, ex. “Buy one pair of shoes, get another free.”
4.     Upload a photo for your offer that will stand out in thumbnail size
5.     Choose to limit the number of claims by clicking Unlimited and selecting a number from the dropdown
6.     Set an expiration date by clicking today’s date and clicking a different day in the future
7.     Add terms and conditions of your offer
8.     Click Preview
9.     Review what your offer will look like, then click Post

If you want to make changes to your offer when you’re previewing it, click Edit to go back and make changes.
If you want to read more about Facebook Offers you can access Facebook Offers Help link.

What’s your opinion, will Facebook Offers help small, local businesses?

Cheers

Lucio

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You may have noticed that there are a few brands that have been quick to take on the new-look Facebook timeline. This new design will be across all fan pages as of March 30.

This change is not just a visual change for Facebook fan pages; there are several changes to functionality. These changes will help to increase ad activity to attract new fans, but most importantly these changes will fulfill Facebook’s goal of replacing a website at the centre of a brand’s online marketing efforts.

So, what exactly has changed?

1. Default landing tabs are now gone
   This is possibly one of the most significant changes to Facebook fan pages. The good news is, you can still have custom tabs, but they can no longer be set as a default landing entry point to a brand’s Facebook presence. Instead each app has it’s own unique URL which means you can drive traffic to any tab you wish – either from Facebook ads, a personal profile, a tweet, another website or blog… and so on and so forth.
2. The top of the page is now the focal point
   The new Facebook timeline design allows for all apps to be listed at the top of the page, situated under a large cover image. These changes allow for further branding, and the cover image is a great place to showcase photographs and graphics pertaining to the brand. This is a great improvement on the look and feel of Facebook fan pages, although it’s important to keep in mind that there are tight rules around what can and cannot be placed in the cover photo area. You can read more, here.
   The about section is now situated at the top of the page too, under the cover photo. The about section has been reduced to only 150 characters, so short and punchy descriptions are necessary!
3. You can pin and highlight updates
   Important posts can be pinned to the top of the new timeline fan page for up to seven days and key posts can be highlighted. By highlighting a post it spans across two columns on the timeline, becoming 810px wide.
4. You can message fans directly
   Now brands may contact you privately using new messaging functionality. This can be an excellent means to discuss sensitive topics in private rather than on the fan page, and it can also serve as a cheaper channel for customer service.

As a result of these changes, brands have greater control over their Facebook presence. Brands are now able to feature their most important information at the top of their page; apps can be highlighted in the profile boxes, key posts may be pinned, popular posts can be highlighted and the overall design enables a more branded version of a Facebook business page.

The Timeline change is happening now! Are you ready? 

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Marketers have two key strategic approaches for their Facebook activity – i) build a fanbase and, ii) activate engagement / interaction. They are not mutually exclusive as the report highlights, especially when a page such as Woolworths is growing quickly on the back of promotions.

Fan growth is driven a range of activity from promotions to games, often with a number of elements combined to generate the outcomes. The nature of the growth also means we see people engaging with the brand page and so the high growth pages often have high engagement, this will settle once the fan growth consolidates and the challenge moves to activating and engaging the fans.

And so to the contents of the report, this is not a beauty contest based on the most number of fans alone, but looks to fan growth and the engagement rate to understand their comparative health of the industries and strength of the individual brands within.

The following chart highlights the comparative performance of the reviewed industries.

Two of the top industries are FMCG who have been able to leverage their promotional and interaction expertise from traditional media online garnering high numbers of fans. They have now created a platform for engagement and there is a demand for them to continually deliver relevant and entertaining content to maximize their value.

FMCG Snackfoods and Beverages also experienced the largest volume growth of fans while Retail – Grocery driven by Woolworths and their promotional activity had the highest growth and engagement outcomes.

The higher engagement rates tend to be experienced by the industries with lower overall fan numbers, reflecting a commonsense view that the higher the fanbase the more difficult it is to engage a substantial percentage each month, viewing the raw numbers in conjunction provides a balance view and comparison.

Data for this report was collected on January 10, 17, 24 and 31, please review the methodology at the rear of the report for a clear understanding of each metric.

If you’d like to be download the report go to www.theonlinecircle.com/facebook-report.

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