I used to upload all my videocasts both to Facebook and Youbube but changed strategy towards the end of last year.  The reason? I have found the inbuilt Facebook video app frustrating.  It can take ages to upload videos and then they seem to disappear only to re-appear a day or two later. It was this that pushed my decision to upload to YouTube only and link to it from my Facebook page.  The videos can still be watched directly on Facebook and I’ve cut the time it takes to load by half.

The disadvantage is that those who visited my Facebook page and wanted to watch videos from the archive could only access those I’d posted directly to Facebook.  The video tab displayed the old ones but the new ones, linked from YouTube were not easy to find.  YouTube for Pages from Involver solves this problem by allowing you to add a YouTube tab to your Facebook page.  Here’s how it works.

Follow this link and choose which of the Facebook pages you manage that you want to add your YouTube tab to.  You will need to give the application some permissions to access your Facebook account & you will need to provide some basic information to Involver if this is the first time you have  installed one of their apps.

Next add your YouTube username and choose some options for your page.  Do you want to include videos you favourite as well as those you upload?  Do you want to allow comments? Do you want to display related videos?  Most importantly do you want to allow the app to autopost your uploads to your Facebook Timeline?  I don’t recommend this option as posting manually allows you to add your own blurb and encourage more interaction.

Once you have saved your changes here a YouTube tab will be added to your page.  The good news is that this app is fully optimised for Timeline and occupies the full tab width.  Here’s what mine looks like.

A massive hat tip to this excellent post from www.wchingya.com for  helping me discover this handy app.

If you add a YouTube tab to your page I’d love to see it so do leave your links below.  Also let me know if you have any problems installing it.

Finally something new has come along to eclipse the Facebook Timeline business pages.  Yes the new iPad is what has been filling my feeds this week.  There has been other news however and below is my pick of the best blog posts I’ve read this week.  Sorry  I couldn’t squeeze all your suggestions in.

Twitter and mobile advertising

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Twitter introduced promoted tweets. Twitter purists (myself included) were worried that ad’s would kill the network but so far they seem to fit in quite well.  This week sees Twitter up their mobile advertising offering, allowing targeting of mobile customers specifically.  This, and Facebook’s decision to display advertising on it’s mobile app show how seriously companies are taking the mobile web.  Read more here on the Venture Beat blog.

Happy Birthday Twitter

Twitter was 6 years old this week. It’s amazing to think that something so young that started as a SMS service is now such a big part of so many peoples lives.  It’s changed the way that news breaks and it’s given us all the opportunity to converse with people and businesses that were inaccessible to us in the past.  I’ve done business on Twitter, debated on Twitter, made real life friends on Twitter and I’ve only been on it since January 2009!  Here’s an app that will show you how long you’ve been on Twitter.  And here’s a great article from Bernie Goldbach who’s been there since the beginning.

56% of Facebook pages have less than 256 fans!

For those struggling to build their Facebook community this could be good news. If you’ve more than 256 Likes you’re in the majority, well done!  And that’s not it, there’s plenty of other interesting statistics in this infographic from Recommend.ly. Also revealing is that the second biggest page type is local businesses and that 82% of all pages only post 5 times a month!  Read more here.

13 brands using Linkedin business pages

I often feel that Linkedin is one of the most undervalued of all social networks.  But according to Hubspot in this article Linkedin is 277% more effective for lead generation than Facebook or Twitter.  If you feel that you’re not getting full benefit from Linkedin read beyond the stats to discover how to maximise your business page profile.  This is something we’re currently working on at Spideworking.com.

Hiring Interns via Facebook

What an innovative way to hire an Intern, and just in case you’re worried, the job on offer is a fully paid Summer position.  A marketing company called Fast Horse is asking Facebook to choose someone for the job.  Applicants upload their submissions to a Facebook app and the applications are voted on by the community.  More here.  Would you trust your Facebook fans to choose the right person?

Facebook Timeline icons

If you are still in the midst of redesigning your Facebook page before it’s converted to Timeline at the end of the month this free icon set may help you.  They can be used to customise your app tabs and all the basics are there.  I called them ‘not beautiful’ on Twitter during the week (and was caught out by the designer) but they are functional and well designed, perfect for anyone who wants something quick and easy to make their page look good.

Re-arrange your Pinterest boards

Pinterest is still a hot topic and if you are using it for business it’s worth having a look at this post from Write On Track.  It shows you how to  re-order your boards so that some appear more prominently.  This is a great way to highlight seasonal offerings, special offers or a particular board you want to draw attention to.

And from Spiderworking.com

If you missed the Lunch & Learn I participated in on the Sage Ireland Facebook page you can pick up all the tips shared from all the experts on the day on the Sage Ireland blog.

My second video tutorial for those of you trying to get to grips with the new business Timeline Facebook pages.  Some simple tips on pinning posts to the top of your page, featuring posts and repositioning images.

This week I finally got around to answering one of the most common questions I get asked.  How do you get more Likes to your Facebook page? I’m sure I’m missing a few so do leave a comment if you have a great tip to share.

You have probably noticed that I think there are more important statistics than your Like or Follower count.  However you do need to build a following, if you don’t no one will see your posts or know you exist.  Here are some tips on building your Likes on Facebook, including some suggested by my Facebook community.

Ask – The Wise Words Method

At the February KLCK Bloggers meeting Mona Wise from Wise Words shared her method for building her Like count.  She went from 0 to  over 3,000 in a year.

Her method was simple but effective, she asked 12 friends to ‘Like’ the page and asked them to ask 12 of their friends.

If you are going to try this choose your 12 friends carefully, who is most likely to help you and who is most likely to pass your message on to other friends?  You also need to make sure that you are clear about what you are asking.  It’s easy for us to forget that people may not necessarily know what ‘Liking’ a page means.  Include simple instructions in your email or Facebook message asking people to click the ‘Like’ button at the top of your page, and don’t forget to include the link.

Don’t be tempted to ask people twice, if they don’t respond you could be risking a friendship for persistently asking for a Like.

Of course she also offers great content. But more on this later.

Memes – Shareable Images

You must have noticed the trend over the last few months for meme’s or sharable images.  These are photographs with captions that inspire, entertain or are just a bit of fluffy fun.  Get them right and they spread like wildfire across Facebook.  How does this help you get Likes?  If you create a meme it will always link back to your Facebook page.  In the description area when you upload the photo make sure to add a bit of information about you and why you are sharing it.  You can always include a link back to your Facebook page in the description too.  Here’s a video I made on how to add a link to Images.

It’s easy to create your own Meme’s.  There are lots of free generators out there.  I’m a fan of Troll.me, it allows you to upload pictures and add captions.  A great tip from Úna-Minh Caomhánach is to make sure that they have a mass audience.  She tried a few Lord of The Rings memes that didn’t reach as far, probably due to a small LOTR literate audience.

Once you’ve  created your Meme you will need to ask for the Like or the share initially, once your Likers get used to sharing you won’t need to any more, they will do it automatically.  Which brings me on to…

Ask for Likes and Shares

This is something I feel uncomfortable doing but it does work.  When a user interacts with a post on your page their comment or like appears on the Ticker on their friends pages.  In some cases it also appears on the news-feeds of their friends.  This means your updates have the potential to spread way beyond your existing community.  So ask people to ‘Like if you agree’ ‘Share if you like this’ ‘Tell us if you know someone like this’.

Try to vary your call to actions and don’t ask for a share on every post as people will soon get tired of it and think you’re begging.

Add a Like Box to your website

Like boxes are fantastic.  You’ve probably seen them on websites, filled with pictures of the people who Like the Facebook page.  The advantage of a Like box over a button or text link is that people don’t need to leave your website in order to Like your page.  I made a video tutorial on this recently and Dee Sewell from Greenside up followed it.  According to her comment on my Facebook page she’s attracted 29 new likes in the last month since adding the box.

Competition

Competitions are a fantastic way to attract people to your page.  Remember you must abide by the Facebook promotional guidelines when running a contest.  I always recommend using the Short Stack App (affiliate link). It’s easy to create pages there and there’s lots of cool bits and pieces you can add on to encourage sharing.

Sweepstakes style contests are the best at attracting new likes, these are contests where contestants just enter their name and email address to go into a draw.  The less someone needs to do to enter the more ‘Likes’ you will attract.

You need to push word out about your competition way beyond your Facebook page, posting about it on Twitter and letting your email list know really helps drive traffic

Email Digest

A great suggestion from Greg Fry.  When you’re sending out your email newsletter include a digest of your Facebook posts encouraging others to Like it.

When people can see you’re adding valuable content and that you have something to offer they are far more likely to see why they should Like your page.

Great content

This should really be at the top of your list.  If you are producing good and engaging content people will want to join your page.  Think hard about what will appeal to your target market and be creative.  Don’t be tempted just to copy everyone else.  Once you’ve decided what it is you will do on Facebook tell people, tell them what the advantage is of joining your page.  For me it’s that I share useful hints and tips on using social media for business, what’s yours?

Fan only offers

Do you have something special that you can offer to just your Facebook Likes?  Something that would be worth clicking that Like button for?  If you’re a retailer it could be first look at new products, exclusive products or a discount store.  If you’re a consultant an e-book, a free consultation.  Make sure what your offering is unique to Facebook, if you try and pull the wool over people’s eyes the will find out!

Email signatures and printed matter

Finally, one of the most simple things you can do and one of the things that so many people overlook.  Include links to your social media pages in your email signature, on your business cards and on flyers and other printed matter.

Do you have any hot tips for getting more Likes?  Anything obvious that I’ve missed?

This weeks cool tool could prove to be a bit controversial.  Post Planner is an application for Facebook that helps you think of things to post.  One of the biggest time sucks when managing Facebook pages can be deciding what to post today.  I use several methods to combat this, I have a schedule and a list of content, I bookmark interesting links, I write down ideas that pop into my head during the day and I’m always looking for something new and creative.  However, like everyone else I get brain freeze from time to time and this is when I could see Post Planner coming in handy.

Once you authorise the app to Facebook (and it looks for a lot of permissions) a click on the light bulb icon will throw up a number of suggestions for posts.  Unfortunately the free version teases you with question suggestions but if you try and activate them you are asked to sign up for the free trial.  However when you click through to sign up for the trial it looks for credit card details to activate it. This really put me off, maybe I’m an old fuddy duddy but I’m still not ready to trust my credit card to a company I stumbled on through a Google search that has pretty comprehensive access to my Facebook profile.  Sacrificing the Facebook data and my credit card info at the same time was a step further than I was willing to go.   If you sign up for the free trial there’s lots more cool stuff you can have access to, including ‘fill the blank’ updates ‘ask for likes’ updates and posting to your Facebook page rather than just your profile, they have a huge database of ideas for you to tap into, all of them aimed at getting more interaction.  Tempting as it is I’m still not ready to hand them my credit card info.

For free and without the trial there is one useful feature and that’s the ability to schedule updates.  Yes there are tools such as Hootusite that allow me to do this as well but the beauty of doing it through Post Planner is that you don’t need to leave Facebook.  As a free user I can only schedule updates to my personal profile page but I can see that pairing the posting ideas with a scheduling function could yield great results, particularly if you want to target users in a different timezone.

I’d love to try the full functioning app or to hear from anyone who has done the trial.  What do you think?  Would a Facebook app with access to your profile information scare you off giving credit card information or am I being overly cautious?

My news feed has been totally overcome with Timeline this week.  And of course it’s only to be expected.  I think I’ve only managed one non-timeline related piece of content myself.  I’m not going to ignore it entirely this week but there have been other things happening.  So here are my top seven reads this week, there’s news from Google, a great post about images and I’ve even found a couple of tips on using Google+.

If there’s a story you think I should have included do leave your links below.  I might squeeze it in to next weeks roundup.

Irish social media agency Simply Zesty acquired by UTV

Fantastic news for Simply Zesty this week as it was acquired by UTV.  It’s been great to see an Irish business grow so quickly and do so well, I’ve always been a fan of their blog and have been entertained by both Niall and Lauren’s tweets.  It seems hard to believe they’ve only been around since 2009.  They’ve definitely been a shining light in the social media world both here in Ireland and overseas.  So a massive congratulations to all, I’ll look forward to seeing the business evolve.  Here’s how they announced it on their blog.

Google launch ‘Google Play’

Google Play looks like a lot of fun, it makes sense, it’s clever.  What is it?  It takes all your music, movies, e-books & apps and stores them in the cloud, this isn’t particularly new but what makes it brilliant is that it stores information about them, it will bookmark your ebook so that even if you pick it up on a different device it will know exactly what page you were on, like Netfilx it will store how far through a movie you are and play it directly from the point you last viewed it from.  This could be a killer application that will push those who are ready to make the jump from iPhone/iPad over to Android devices.

Most of all, the video they created to promote it is brilliant.  Find out more, and see the video here.

Change the name of your Facebook page

Great news!  I’ve encountered many companies that have wanted to change the name of their Facebook page.  Some set up a page with a geographical location in the name and then changed location, others specified a year.  Until now pages with over 100 Likes were not able to change that name.  The only solution was to start from scratch with a new page.

Now it seems Facebook will let you change the name.  Here’s how to do it via the Imactiv8 blog.  It’s also worth taking a look at the new Facebook page guidelines that tell you what page names are eligable to be changed.

Web graphics, images & conversions

Whether we like it or not Images are more powerful than words, they attract attention and can tell a story instantly.  Images in blog posts and on web sites are essential but do they work for you?  Is a pretty website going to encourage more customers? I found this article fascinating, not only does it talk about how beautiful websites can simply not work but it also has good traditional advice about positioning images and even tips including how captions below pictures get more readers than the main body of text.

Google+ pros & cons for small business

If you are a reader of this blog you will know that I have been sitting on the fence about Google+ since it was launched.  Yes it’s a beautifully put together social network, it’s intuitive and uncomplicated, it takes the best parts of Facebook and Twitter and merges them but will it ever get enough interaction to really take off?  Since it’s inception there has been talk of it failing, it seems there are some people out there just waiting for it to fail so they can say ‘told you so!’.  However as reports come in of the slump of interaction on the network it’s worth taking another look at why we should (or should not) be using it.  And that’s exactly what this article from Viral Blog does.  Worth a read if just to re-asses your presence there.

How to verify your Google+ page

If the last link has persuaded you to stay on Google+ you might find this video useful.  Apparently using this process to link your G+ page and your website will help your website rank on Google.  It’s on my todo list for this week!

Not forgetting Timeline!

I’m not going to totally ignore Timeline, in fact if you scroll down you’ll find three links from me about it.  If you’re still wondering if you should make the change to Timeline business pages but don’t know where to start this article from Christina at CG Online Marketing will help you get started.

And from Spiderworking.com this week

If you’re in preview mode or simply taken the big step and converted to Timeline on your business page here’s my video tutorial on changing your featured tabs and how to change the images that accompany them.

I also wrote a post on the demise of the welcome tab on new Timeline pages for Bloggertone.  Is customisation a thing of the past?

Timeline is very image heavy, there’s a cover photo, an avatar, custom images for tabs.  I’ve collected all the info on these different types of image and included them in a blog post.  I’ve also added three free tools that can help you create great images to use on Timeline.

And finally… nothing to do with timeline.  This Monday’s cool tool is an application that helps you hide specific #tags or people from our feeds! Great way to hide Britain’s Got Talent or the Euro Soccer Championship.

I’m loving playing around with the new Facebook Timeline,  I feel a bit like a kid with a new tool, there’s lots to learn and discover.  One thing is for sure.  Images are a huge part of the new design.  Your cover picture, your logo, your tabs, even featured of pinned stories look better with images.  Here’s all you need to know about those images, ideal sizes and a few tools that will help you create killer images to promote your page.

1. Cover Image

Dimensions 851 x 315 pixels

If you have a photo you can upload it full size and choose the section you would like to use as your cover photo.

This is a huge space for you to play with, it gives you the chance to really own your page.  The image you use should capture the essence of your brand.

Rules!

As with almost everything on Facebook there are rules around what you can and can’t do with your cover image, and as usual you can see them being broken all over the place.  However if you want to ensure you don’t loose your page you must abide by them.

Here’s what they say:

Facebook rules regarding cover images

Some Examples

Wiggle have a striking cover image with colours matching their branding

Greenside Up - Nature and the garden all in one image

Kerrigans Butchers - A friendly shop with friendly staff

2. Avatar / Logo

Dimensions 180 x 180 pixels minimum (displays as 125 x 125 pixels)

We may have gained space with the cover image but we’ve lost space with the avatar.  The old pages allowed us to create banners where we could feature not only our logo but some info about us and even a call to action.  The new avatar size allows just enough room for your logo.

3. Tabs

Dimensions 111 x 74 pixels

You can now display three apps underneath your header and you can customise the images that appear on them.  This gives you the opportunity to keep your branding consistent.  If you have a shop, a competition running or even a blog tab you can draw attention to them using customised images.

If you missed my video last week on how to feature tabs and how to add customise images to your tabs here it is again.

Examples

No Photoshop? Some Tools That Can Help

So Timeline gives us so many opportunities to show off beautiful images but if you don’t have photoshop how can you create them?  There are lots of free photo editing tools that you can play around with to create those images, here’s three of the best.

FotoFlexer

FotoFlexer is by far the most user friendly one I’ve used.  Simply upload photos, add filters, text, even re-size.  You can do all this online and save the completed image to your computer hard drive.

Aviary

Aviary is more complex and gives you far more tools and functionality.  Like FotoFlexer there’s no need for a download, you simply upload your images and edit them online.  The interface is more complicated, but you can do far more.  Aviary has a full suite of tools including screen grabbing outside it’s image editor app.

Gimp

Gimp is an open source image editing programme that unlike the other two needs to be downloaded to your computer.  This is the Rolls Royce of free image editing and it’s what I use.  It has massive capabilities for both editing and designing images.  The downside is that it can take a while to get your head around it, if you are used to Photoshop you will find the interface clunky in comparison.

Have you enabled Timeline yet?  Have you done something creative with your page?  Have you seen any creative cover images?  I’m always looking for examples so please do share your pages below.

This week we’ve seen the Measureit.ie conference in Dublin & the Timeline for Facebook pages rumour has gained traction.  I’ve also discovered some great blog posts on Facebook, Linkedin and more here’s my pick.

Facebook Timeline for Business Pages?

The end of this week seems to be all a buzz with Timeline for Facebook pages.  For some time we have suspected that Facebook will be launching Timeline for business pages on 9th of February.  The rumour gained more traction this week when several influencial blogs started talking about it.  Inevitably Facebook will have to convert pages at some stage, I dont’ see the future of Facebook including completely differnt profiles for business and people.  However it wasn’t until I saw this image shared on Mari Smith’s Facebook page wall that I was convinced:

As many of the articles were predicting it will be rolled out to big brands first, and it looks like Coca-Cola are going to be one of those brands.  Could it be a bit soon?  With so many users still not switched to the new Facebook profiles, and many of them pretty unenthusiastic about the prospect, I suspect that we will see a drop off in page views as our Likers get used to the new layout.

For those of us who offer Facebook customisation it puts us in limbo.  At Spiderworking.com we have temporarly stopped developing customised Facebook pages until we know how they will work in Timeline.  Here’s AdAge’s take on what Timeline could mean for business.

Twitter & Privacy

Last week we talked about how niche network Path had been in trouble for storing users contact lists.  They reacted really well, admitting their mistake and rectifying it immediately.  Since then it has emerged that lots of iPhone apps, including Twitter were storing personal details on their own servers too.

Again the response from Twitter has been good but I think it’s a shame that the revelation about Path last week resulted in lots of people unsubscribing from the service something that is unlikely to happen on Twitter.  Also Path have taken the brunt of this scandal, now we know everyone is doing it we seem less concerned.

The real bad guy in this story seems to be Apple who are allowing apps to use information this way. You can read more on the reactions from both Twitter and Apple here.

Measureit Dublin

The place to be this Wednesday was the Measurement.ie conference in NCI Dublin (aka #donedealsocial).  Organised by Damien Mulley it was a fantastic day for social media practitioners, commnunity managers and business owners alike. My keyboard was smoking all day as I attempted to take down all the top tips from the speakers.  It would be really hard to single out one or two speakers that inspired me the most… but I’m going to do it anyway!  Both Dena Walker (@CurlyDena to the tweeters out there) and Georgina Bowes (@GinaBo) gave energetic and compelling presentations.

I’ll be writing more about what I learnt at the conference next week but for now here’s Dena’s presentation as recommended as a great read by Zwartbles Ireland.

In other Irish social news word of the massive #SMEcommunity Tweetup in Birr made it into the traditional press. I was lucky enough to meet some of the people involved at Measureit and they were full of enthusiasm and support.  Congratulations to all involved.

Using Facebook In Business Mode

A few weeks ago I shared some basic tactics on using Facebook B2B.  There are lots of compelling reasons to use Facebook in business mode and although not all businesses are on Facebook it can be a great way to build relationships between businessses that are much the same way that you can on Twitter.

This excellent article from the Impactiv8 blog gives you 8 more compelling reasons to use Facebook in business mode.

Linkedin Marketing Gems You May Have Missed

Whenever I share Linkedin articles on Twitter I always get a great reaction.  In fact Linkedin is one of the networks I get asked about a lot.  Most people get as far as setting up an account and completing their details and then stop.  Linkedin can be a hugely effective network for finding new leads and attracting new customers.  So if you want to put a bit of polish on what you are doing on Linkedin have a look at this article from Hubspot that takes you through some of the features you may have been neglecting.

5 Facebook Changes

Facebook changes so fast it can be hard to keep up with it.  Luckily Mari Smith is always on hand just in case you missed any of these recent changes, this guide is no exception.

I’m looking forward to seeing her take on Timeline for business pages and I’m sure I’ll be referring to it constantly as I try to navigate my way around.

When Is The Best Time To Post On Social Media?

This is a question that gets asked a lot and of course there is no one catch all answer.  However this is a pretty interesting infographic from Dan Zarella that suggests that you are likely to get the most ReTweets on a Friday afternoon and the most Facebook likes on a Saturday.

Of course results will vary for every user but it’s inspired me to run a totally unscientific mini-study amongst my Facebook Likers.  More info on that here soon.

And From Spiderworking.com this week

This week’s videocast was a tutorial on how to add a sign up form to your Facebook page using Google Docs and WooBox.

On the blog this week I interviewed Beatrice Whelan from Sage Ireland about their recent cloud computing launch and the use of ‘Flogos’ – floating sage logos that became fantastic social shareable objects.  What is a social shareable object? What is a Flogo?  You’ll have to read the article in full to find out!

Do keep me up to date with your news.  Have you written or read a great social media article?  Leave your links below.

Running competitions on Facebook and the promotional guidelines surrounding them is a topic that constantly comes up for discussion. Companies big and small can be seen breaching them and there seems to be a huge amount of confusion about what you can and can’t do. Contests are a great way of building your community but if you break the rules you risk loosing your page.

The Promotional Guidelines

And of course when Facebook originally issued their promotional guidelines they were huge and very confusing.  If you managed to wade through the legalise language you would usually stumble at the last barrier, the requirement to pass your promotion past Facebook for approval, as a result of the complexity many businesses just shrugged their shoulders and ignored them risking loosing their pages altogether.  Thankfully they have since loosened the restrictions and made them a lot easier to digest and the need to submit your promotion to Facebook has disappeared altogether.  You can view the guidelines in full here.

The key points to remember are

- You cannot run a Facebook competition on the ‘Wall’ of your page.  You must use a third party app or create your own iFrame tab

- You cannot condition entry on taking an action on Facebook, e.g. Liking, commenting or sharing a post or uploading a photo directly to Facebook.  However you can make Liking your page a part of the entry process (but not the only condition to entry)

- You cannot use any action on Facebook as a voting mechanism, e.g. Liking a photograph

- You must include a disclaimer including text similar to:

“This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.
You are providing information to [disclose recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook.”

I recommend you read the full guidelines and make sure you understand them fully before you launch your contest.

If that still seems confusing here’s a fantastic video from Facebook that puts it in simple terms

Rules Smules, everyone else is breaking them right?

I’m sure you’ve seen lots of busiensses breaking the rules on Facebook and it can be tempting to jump on board, after all if everyone else is doing it why can’t you?  Do Facebook really take down pages that break them?

The answer is yes they do remove pages. Having your Facebook page removed by Facebook isn’t something businesses tend to shout about so it is often assumed that it doesn’t happen.  Small businesses may be able to keep page removal under their hats but bigger brands aren’t so lucky, a quick Google search will give you examples of pages closed by Facebook for breaching the promotional guidelines including FCUK India.  If you do have your Facebook page disabled follow this link to appeal.

Of course the main reason we run competitions on our pages is to attract more ‘Likes’ so running the risk of losing your entire fan base can’t be worth it, especially as there are some fantastic tools that can help you run an effective competition for free or for a very low cost.

The Good News

Running a competition by the rules is easy.  There are a number of applications that work with Facebook for running legal competitions.  I use ShortStack (affiliate link) as I find it’s easy to customise, great value and there are lots of bells and whistles that can ensure the success of your competition including an option for entrants to tell their friends about the competition or share it to their Wall.  You can run a sweepstakes contest for free using ShortStack and their paid service starts at $15 (around €11) per month with no minimum subscription period.

If ShortStack isn’t for you there is plenty of choice here are three others you may want to look at. Wildfire app, WooBox and NorthSocial

What sort of competition should I run?

There are many kinds of competitions you can run on Facebook and I’ll elaborate on the benefits here over the next couple of weeks but a rough guide if you’re keen to get started:

- For a first competition to build your fan base a sweepstakes works well as entry is simple for your community

- If you have a reasonably active community a caption competition where users vote for the winner will gather momentum and encourage entrants to invite their friends

- If you have a very engaged community a photo contest where users vote for the winner will attract lots of new users and gives you great visual content to share.

I’ll be delving further into competitions on this blog soon so watch this space.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on contests on Facebook, do you enter them? What compells you to enter them?  Have you found them effective for your own business?

If you would like Spiderworking.com to help you set up a competition on your Facebook page get in touch.

I met someone last week who wondered if I still ran Spiderworking.com.  The reason?  She ‘Liked’ my Facebook page but hadn’t seen any updates from me in months.  Since Facebook made it’s latest changes to the newsfeed at the end of last year reports have been coming in of page updates not appearing in the stream.  Page owners also saw a significant drop in their page and post views and a new statistic appeared on our pages ‘talking about’.  All of this combined means that if we really want users to see our updates we need to encourage interaction, the ‘talking about’ stat has become the most important insight on our page.

So how can you encourage more interaction on your Facebook page?  I’ve been experimenting and here’s what I’ve found works so far.

Always look for feedback

Whenever I post something to Facebook I ask for feedback, instead of posting a link and saying what it’s about, I think about why I’m sharing it and add my thoughts and ask others for their opinions.  I try to end most posts with a question mark.  This has been a valuable tool for me and has helped me gather ideas and content for blog posts amongst other things.

Other effective tricks I’ve seen other pages use for getting feedback are posts with a missing word (see below), or asking for ‘three words to describe’.  Giving likers something simple to do will encourage more engagement than asking for a long opinion.

example from Mari Smith

Share on Twitter

If your posts are no longer appearing on the newsfeeds of all your fans you need to be reaching them elsewhere.  Posting links to Facebook posts on Twitter and asking for feedback is an effective way of widening the conversation beyond those who pick up your stories on Facebook.  Facebook users no longer need to like a page to comment on it so you may find you will get more interaction from new users this way.

I try and post one Facebook discussion a day to Twitter and have found it effective for getting new comments, all of these are hugely valuable not just for encouraging sharing but again for garnering opinion on topics that I can translate into blog posts or content in the future.

Use a variety of content

It’s widely agreed that images and videos have better edgerank than other types of content.  Images and video are also more visually attractive to users, they will catch your eye the way a status update or a simple link won’t.  When I’m posting a status update I try and find an image that illustrates my point and add it to the update. It’s important to include a variety of content types on your page and I wouldn’t recommend using the image trick for every update.  People get tired of the same content and you will discover that video and links will reach different users than images and status updates.

example from Amy Porterfield

Run a competition

Running a competition on Facebook will get lots of people talking about your page.  Use an app like ShortStack that allows you to configure sharing, this way people who enter will be prompted to tell their friends.  If you have an active user base running a photo contest that is judged by Facebook users will encourage competition entrants to share your page with all of their friends.

example from Country Hounds

Great content

This should really have been my first point.  Creating compelling content that people will want to share will always encourage interaction and shares.  I always recommend creating a content schedule for Facebook, you can download a blank schedule word document here.  Think about when you are going to post and what sort of content you are going to post on each day.  This will make it easier for you to find content to share and encourage consistent posting.

Carry a camera and a notebook with you everywhere and look out for photo opportunities that will work on your page.  I find the voice memo device on my phone invaluable and am always recording snippets of ideas when I have them.

What have I left out?  How do you encourage engagement on your Facebook page?  Let me know… leave a comment.

One of the highlights for me of the SMM11 event in London earlier this year was the presentation by John Morter, the man behind the ‘Rage Against The Machine for Christmas No1 Campaign’.  He was amusing and gave us lots of handy takeaways.  The one that resonated with me the most, possibly because it’s something I had been advocating myself for some time, was his tip to change your Facebook page avatar when you have a new offering or important news.  The change in profile image will draw people’s attention and maybe make them take a fresh look at what you do.

With Christmas on it’s way Facebook is awash with seasonal avatars and for those selling gifts or Christmas products adding a bit of festivity to your page reminds people that you are there, a fresh avatar attracts new post views and can even be a spark for a conversation.

This year we chose to add antlers to our logo.  Last year more dramatically we made it snow.  The reaction has been great and we’ve seen lots more interaction since we made the change.  It also gives us something else to talk about, we asked our ‘Likers’ to share their pages with us and you can see both their and our designs below.

There are a couple of downsides to being festive, you must remain true to your brand, a cartoon Reindeer or Santa whilst suitable for some companies doesn’t suit others. You need to make sure your brand shines through so that your avatar doesn’t get lost in the sea of Santa hats.

Think about how you can modify your logo to reflect the season without hiding your branding. When creating your festive profile picture imagine your decorating a shop, how you decorate depends on who you want to come in the door, once you have identified this create something that reflects it.

Featured above OutOfHoursVA, MyKidsTime Sligo, Avon From Fiona, Prints4Gifts and Spiderworking.com

What do you think?  Does changing your avatar draw more attention to your page or do all the Santa hats mean you’re missing updates from the pages you usually follow?  If you have created a festive page share your link with us on our Facebook page.