Facebook is Changing the Way We Interact With Brands

Changes are on the horizon for Facebook.  And the newly proposed modifications might not make everyone happy; Facebook “Fan Pages” as we know them will soon be a thing of the past and the way we interact with those Pages will change for better or worst.  In this article we will take a quick peek at some of the changes to come and briefly explore what this says about Facebook’s grip on the market.

But I Liked Facebook the Way it Was!

It is a widely accepted truth that Facebook is a powerhouse in the social media game.  With that said, their true strength in the market may be even more impressive than one could have imagined.  It is easy to look at the staggering user numbers – 400 million active users, 50% of which sign on at least once a day.  While those numbers are impressive and telling, the true measure of Facebook’s market dominance might better be measured by how they go about implementing changes to their website. 

Can anyone recall just how many times Facebook changed their user interface without asking if their users actually wanted a change?  How about the numerous occasions where the Privacy Policy was modified and made public only after a social media uproar shined light on the policy changes?  In keeping with their “we’re going to do what we want and you will eventually get used to it” relationship with their users, Facebook is now making a sweeping policy change to their Facebook Fan Pages which will affect more than just the casual user. 

So What’s Behind the Change Anyway?

The “Become a Fan” concept we have all come so accustomed with will soon be replaced by “Likes.”  Facebook Fan Pages (or whatever they end up being called) will no longer accumulate ‘Fans’ but rather ‘Connections’ (much like your personal profile pages it seems).  Those easy to understand call to action buttons labeled “Become a Fan” will now display a more ambiguous “Like” mention with a thumbs up logo. 

So what was so wrong with the verbiage “Become a Fan” that has Facebook modifying a utility that thousands of brands and causes have happily adopted?  It surely isn’t ease of use or popular demand – Fan Pages have never been so en vogue.  There must be a good reason behind this, but something tells me it has more to do with increasing revenues than it does with making Facebook users happy.  Either way, given Facebook’s current dominance and strategic partnerships with other large web channels, there probably isn’t much we could do about it if we wanted to. 

How do you perceive this move from Facebook?  Should they be more ‘user first’ oriented?  Share your comments below and let us know what you think.

Article written for Unilzyer by Nick Frank:  Follow Nick on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Nick_J_Frank or see his blog at http://mynicknews.blogspot.com/

in to What Your Following Wants

What’s in a Number?  Quite a Bit Apparently

Okay guys, can we go ahead and agree that Social Media is good for business?  At least in an empirical data kind of way?    Well, you might be surprised at how many skeptics are left out there.  Everybody knows “that guy” who will never be seen on Facebook and thinks that Twitter should never have been invented in the first place.  The funny thing is, “that guy” all too often happens to be a marketing manager or marketing influencer for their respective company.  For the good of everyone, new and concrete statistics are now available to add to your pro-social media arsenal.  When “that guy” says you are wasting time creating a Facebook Fan Page, you can remind him that 60% of people surveyed were more likely to refer a brand to a friend if they are a fan of that brand.  And for Twitter? Try 80% more likely.  “That guy” might waive this off as crazy talk.  If he does, forward him the rest of this article – We found some pretty compelling arguments and stats that are hard to dismiss.

Social Media Fans Much More Likely to Buy

Recent findings by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate have given some reassurance to social media marketers looking to substantiate the time and money they put in developing a fandom on Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets.  Take a look at the graph below where US internet users were polled on their Facebook fan habits:

We can see from this graph that Facebook fans are much more likely to not only buy your brand, but to recommend it to their peers.  Most of us could probably have guessed as much – when people are engaged with a product or service through channels such as Facebook and Twitter, brand visibility is heightened and they have a better chance of staying on the customer’s radar.  The trick for brands is to understand why people become fans / followers and then to capitalize on this built-in communication channel by making sure they are telling them what they want to hear. 

Why Your Fans are Fans and Why Your Followers Follow You

So what do your fans want to hear?  Why did they become your fan in the first place?  More data from the study referenced above sheds some light on these questions.  In the graph below, we can see that 61% of “Max Connectors,” or users having 500+ social media connections became fans or followers of a brand to learn about new products, services and features.  This group was also driven to fan or follow a brand to learn more about the company culture, worker’s policies and other corporate information.  For the rest of the users (<500 SM connections), 65% engaged with the brand in order to stay abreast of sales and new deals, while 61% were looking to learn about new products, features and services.  Not to be forgotten, many fans also cited entertainment as a factor in their decision to follow a brand.  Here is the chart:

And what about Twitter?  Do you know why your followers are following you?  If not, you may not be telling them what they want to hear.  The chart below shows strong evidence that supports the notion that many users follow brands on Twitter in order to receive exclusive deals and offers.  Being a customer of the brand and looking for interesting or entertaining content came in neck and neck as the second and third primary reasons users follow a brand on Twitter.

Dig Deeper, But This is a Good Place to Start

Any company with a product or service should keep these easy to remember stats in mind when developing their social media strategy.  While there are countless other ways brands can optimize their social media efforts, the basic concepts laid out above are a great place to start.  Knowing why people follow your brand on social media channels and comprehending what they want to hear is powerful stuff.

Finally!  A Way to Track Your Facebook Fan Page

If only there was a way to track Facebook Fan Pages with Google Analytics…

As Facebook Fan Pages gain momentum as a leading Social Media Marketing outlet, the need to effectively track this medium becomes all the more important.  Up until very recently, the only way to monitor your Fan Page was through the extremely limiting Facebook Insights.  Insights provides page administrators limited data on visitor demographics and fan interaction but is unable to report on visitor statistics, traffic sources, keyword data and some of the other extensive reporting that Google Analytics provides.  Thanks to some crafty out of the box thinking by London based web developers Webdigi, the code has been cracked and now everyone can track their Fan Pages using Google Analytics.  In this post, we will show you how to track your Fan Page with a step-by-step guide, including the necessary links to generate your personal Google Analytics tracking code that will be installed on your page.  We will also introduce you to the Social Media monitoring tool Unilyzer and show you how it can be used in correlation with Google Analytics to extract even more detailed and valuable information from Facebook and other Social Media outlets.  Let’s get started. 

Google Analytics for Facebook Fan Pages + Unilyzer = Tracking Bliss

Once you complete the installation of Google Analytics on your Facebook Fan Page, take your tracking to a new level using the Social Media Monitoring Dashboard from the Unilyzer (www.unilyzer.com).  The Unilyzer is a data-to-dashboard tool that uses Google Analytics to pull data from a wide range of Social Media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well as social bookmark sites like Digg, Stumble and Delicious – using this data, the Unilyzer generates a personal dashboard with insightful charts and trending arrows which allows you to adjust your Social Media marketing efforts accordingly.  Before we tackle the process of tracking the Facebook Fan Page on the Unilyzer, let’s take a look at the following step-by-step guide you will need to follow to install Google Analytics on your Fan Page.

Google Analytics Installation Guide for Facebook Fan Pages

Installing Google Analytics on your Facebook Fan Page isn’t all that complicated, but you will want to closely follow the steps provided below as there are a few moving parts.  Luckily, the aforementioned web development company Webdigi (www.webdigi.co.uk/) has written up an extremely comprehensive “how-to” that will facilitate the process.  Let’s take a look at some excerpts from their article below.  If you’ve already installed Analytics to your page, scroll down to the “Unilyzer” section to learn how the Unilyzer, when used in correlation with Google Analytics, allows for an even more extensive tracking experience.

How to setup Google Analytics on your Facebook fan pages

“The workaround we use in our code is to include Google Analytics as an image instead of setting the standard Javascript. This method tracks every visitor to the custom facebook pages on Google Analytics. It required a combination of server side cookie management and an additional <img> tag to the bottom of the facebook fan page. Here are the steps to get Google Analytics working on your facebook fan page.

1) Setup Google Analytics account. If you already have one, create a new website profile. You can name it facebook.com or facebook.com/your_page_name. You will finally get your tracking code which looks like this UA-3123123-2
2) Create your custom img tag for each of your pages you like to track. EG: contact form, services, products etc. You can use our tool to create the Google Analytics link generator for Facebook pages.
3) Add the entire custom image html tag from step 2 to the bottom of each Facebook fan page that you need to track.

That is all there is to it! Google Analytics is not real-time, so you will need to give it some time. Approximately a day before you see the fruits of your “hard” work.”

For advanced users

“Use this method, if you don’t want to use our hosted link redirection as mentioned in the method above. You can download the entire source code which is just about three files to get this setup working on your own server (running PHP4.3 or above). The code is written in PHP and essentially creates the Google image tracking URL with the referrer, page information, ID, etc. The additional advantage of hosting this on your own server and domain is that visits from your website to your facebook fan page gets tracked, etc. You will also be able to customise further if you wish. Please do share any useful updates you apply to the tracking link code.

Facebook – Google Analytics Version 1.1 (Updated 21st Feb, 2010).  For advanced method – Download this code to use on your server.

If you don’t have a Facebook fan page yet, visit our tutorial for code and help on creating customised Facebook fan pages.

PS: We could not find any other source / blog that described how to get Google Analytics on Facebook fan pages! There is support for canvas pages and applications but nothing for Static FBML fan pages. Hope this helps and please leave your comments below.”

UPDATE:
1) A lot of users have asked how to track visits to the wall. Yes, this can be done. Please see the comments by iphp below.
2) Here is a screenshot to a staticFBML where the code should be placed

Source: http://www.webdigi.co.uk/

Google Analytics is now tracking your Facebook Fan Page – Wait, it gets better…

Facebook Fan Pages have really caught on as a great way for individuals and companies to create micro-communities of followers of their brand and/or cause.  Now that you have the capability of installing Google Analytics on your page, take the next step and use a tool that works with Google Analytics to even further enhance your tracking and monitoring efforts.  The Unilyzer (www.unilyzer.com) is just the tool you need if you are looking for even more in-depth reporting on your Fan Page and other Social Media channels.  We will first take a look at what the Unilyzer is and how it works before moving on to a more detailed explanation of how the Dashboard can be customized to report on specific information. 

The Unilyzer – a new comprehensive Social Media Monitoring and Tracking Dashboard 

A bevy of tools for tracking social media have been developed over the past few years, many of them quite effective in what they do.  With that said, they all have their shortcomings – too expensive, lack of reporting breadth, uninspired user interfaces, minimal tracking channel capabilities.  Some tracking tools are great but medium specific, reporting on only one Social Media outlet and requiring the user to manage multiple monitoring tools in order to get a truly clear vision of their Inbound Marketing efforts.  The new Social Media monitoring Dashboard Unilyzer, developed by Eman Bass, provides a great overall package combining a great user interface, numerous customizable data points, user-friendly functionality, and broad reporting on all of the major Social Media channels.  And now that Google Analytics can be easily installed to track Facebook Fan Pages, the Unilyzer is even more attractive as it offers the best combined analytical reporting of Fan Pages the market has to offer.  For more information about the Unilyzer’s tracking and reporting capabilities, visit www.unilyzer.com or click here to watch a short video that describes the Unilyzer’s basic functions.

All in all, the fact that we now have the capability to properly track Facebook Fan Pages is a very good thing and it will give Page administrators a level of insight that Facebook Insight does not.

• Facebook’s US audience grew by 8.6% in September to 88.3 million uniques
• Largest growth sector Females 18-25, Second largest growth Females 45+
• 50% of Facebook users in the US today are over 35

The growth of Facebook is staggering, a force in the market that businesses can’t ignore. If you have a product for women you’re a fool not to build a Facebook fan page. How many women do you know that are checking out their Facebook pages at lunch? Answer, more than you think!

Here are the top four social media metrics you should be tracking:

#1: Network and Audience Size

• Facebook Friends & Fans Count
• Twitter Followers Count
• YouTube Subscribers Count
• RSS Readers/Subscribers Count
• Website Visitors Count

#2: Engagement

• Comments, replies, re-tweets, on all your channels
• Trackbacks and Pings on your blog site
• Referral links from other websites
• Website Visitor Loyalty
• Social Bookmarking

#3: Growth

• Friends count in the Last 30, 60, 90 Days
• Followers count in the Last 30, 60, 90 Days
• Visitors count in the Last 30, 60, 90 Days
• YouTube Subscribers count in the Last 30, 60, 90 Days

#4 Social Media Marketing Funnel (Social Networks => Website Visitors)

Quality of website visitors from your social networks:

• Visitors from social networks count
• How much time did they spend on your site?
• Did these visitors bounce or stick?
• What is the loyalty of these visitors?
• How many pages did they look at?
• What are the popular pages they looked at?

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Go to the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Follow the step-by step instructions. When it asks for the fan page name give this some thought. The name you give your page is permanent, so make sure it’s the one your fans and customers will recognize. It only takes a few minutes, and the set-up has about five questions.

Take note of your page address. It looks something like this:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Unilyzer/147971667594
In this link ‘Unilyzer’ is the name of my fan page and the link number is the ID.

What are Facebook Fans?
Facebook fans are like your friends on your personal account. They will receive notices when you add new wall posts, photos, and videos. I recommend becoming a fan of your own page, and inviting your existing Facebook friends to ‘Fan’ your page. Make a wall post with a link to your new fan page. Using your existing network to build your fan page is a great place to start.

Need More Documentation?
Download Facebook’s Guide to Fan Pages. This is a great ten page guide, published by Facebook, for setting up a fan page and getting started.

For more tips on marketing with Facebook and other social media channels become our fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

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• Standard Facebook wall post:

• Facebook wall post with photo:

• Facebook wall post with video:

Facebook makes adding video super easy. Embed video from YouTube, Revver, and Yahoo Video. In fact, you can record video from your webcam directly into Facebook, no fancy editing software needed. (watch tutorial) When your friends or fans click on your video link they can watch the video (it expands and plays). They never have to leave Facebook to watch. What a great tool to keep users on your fan page or encourage them to learn more about you, and in the end your products and services.

People are naturally drawn to pictures and video. I know when friends post photos I almost always check out their profile photo galley to see more. Next time you post on Facebook, try adding a photo or video then observe your friends reactions. Did they have a tendency to comment more? Let me know how this works for you by leaving a comment below.

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Ask Powerful Questions. Questions force your audience to think. I like observation-themed questions with a humorous edge. For example, “Why do banks charge a fee on ‘insufficient funds’ when they know there is not enough?” and “If the ‘black box’ survives every plane crash, why not make the entire plane out of that stuff?”

Instigate Brainstorming and Problem Solving. Post a problem to your audience and ask for advice or help. Asking the audience to brainstorm ideas or solutions gets them directly involved. It’s a natural human tendency to want to give opinion or criticism. For example, a blogger I follow took 3 pictures of herself in different dresses, and asked her audience which one she should wear to an awards banquet. She received over 60 replies, and it was a way to talk about the award she was receiving without sounding self-centered.

Acknowledge. Social media is a two-way street. Follow other people’s streams and engage with them. Answer their questions and suggest resources to solve their problems. This is one of the best ways to get people to notice you. If you have something of value to say, most of the time people will look up your website and profile for more info. If you get your audience to reply and engage with you, acknowledge them, let them now that you appreciate their ideas and input. A simple thank you, or a personal note can go a long way in building a strong following.

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Most Facebook users have all of their friends in one big messy list.  By grouping your friends into different lists, you can begin to manage privacy and access levels for each group.  For example, you can create a Friends List for your ‘Book Club’.  Then, create announcements, photo galleries, and events that only your book club can see.  There are a few very important things to remember about Friends Lists:

• Friends can belong to more than one Friends Lists.
• Friends Lists can have specific privacy policies applied to them.

For a basic set-up, I would create three groups: “Friends”, “Family”, and “Professional”.  These three groups can then be used to apply different privacy policies.  For example, you may want your friends to see photos from the party you were at last night, but you don’t want your family or professional contacts to see those photos.

Using Friends Lists is also extremely useful for organizing your friends if you have a lot of them.  For instance I have about 20 friend lists and I categorize people by city (New York, San Francisco, D.C., Tel Aviv, etc), where I met them (conferences, past co-workers, through this blog), and my relationship with them (professional, family, social, etc).

The video below shows you step-by-step how to create and add friends to lists in Facebook.

You can use your Facebook Friends Lists to control which groups can have access to your photo galleries.  Share photos of your kids with your “Family” but not your “co-workers” or “business associates”.  Only allow “college friends”, not your potential employers, to see your drunk party photos.

Facebook Photo Gallery Privacy Settings

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Social Media Marketing is not about quantity, but rather the quality of your network. The true measure is not friend or follower accounts but rather engagement.  Simply having 20,000 fans on your Facebook page is meaningless if they are all zombies, and your marketing message is falling on dead ears. Businesses looking to market on Facebook or Twitter would be better served to have 300 quality fans or followers that actually read their posts and join the conversation.

The best method for increasing your social media network is to produce quality content. Content is still King! Here are four proven techniques for building a powerful social media marketing network:

1. Engage Your Audience by asking interesting questions. Thought provoking questions that encourage open-ended answers.
2. Share Valuable Information on your wall posts. For example share a great article or useful tips your market cares about. Blogging, tweeting, and wall posts are opportunities to position yourself as an expert in your field.
3. Show Your Lighter Side. Humor is a great way to make friends. Dale Carnegie wrote in 1936 about humor as a method for winning friends and influencing people. This still holds true today! Telling a joke or funny quip is a great way to balance your tweets, so your audience knows that you’re not just business 24/7.
4. Don’t Give a Sales Pitch. You are not selling your product on Facebook or Twitter, you’re selling yourself and building trust. No one likes to be sold, and the modern customer can smell a pitch from a mile away. Leave the selling to your website, and focus on building value on your networks.

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