It has arrived.

The newest edition of the Facebook Deals has become available on our Pages this morning and I wanted to share my two cents.  Facebook Offers is a very simple solution to entice users to engage your store and drive foot traffic into your location.  However, I am not quite sure this fits the non- ‘brick and mortar’ businesses.

Most of us can remember the Facebook Deals and it’s almost immediate retraction from Facebook.   See our ‘Deals’ post here.  As we began putting our clients into these spaces to increase interaction with clients, Facebook decided to pull the idea.

Whether it was from lack of use or lack of success, Facebook Offers has streamlined the process while making it a bit more viral.  BUT, I am already seeing a few ‘road blocks’ as we just created our first offer this morning.

Here are 5 things to consider before creating an Offer:

1. Understand the Redemption Process:  To redeem the offer, the user must take the email and print it, if possible.  It also states that you can ‘just show it from your phone’.  This may pose an obvious issue if your store is online only.  Considerations to redemption could be added to the terms and conditions area when creating the email.  It may be wise to require further action like emailing this certificate to the email address in the terms area.  This would have to be manually entered.
   
   
2. Define a Clear ‘Fine Print’ Area:  This is where you need to put in considerations to your offer that can not help filter out the misunderstandings that most offers can create.  Keep the terms simple and apply any necessary restrictions to help make the offer successful.  Just because people are claiming the offer doesn’t mean they are ‘converting’ to a sale or in-store visit.
3. Create A Great Headline:  Facebook is only allowing for 90 characters here so you must be ready to express the offer in very clear terms.  This could be the critical success factor that drives the offer into a viral state.  Be clear and state the call to action.
   
4. Inform The Staff:  It is often these offers are created and then forgotten.  It’s imperative that if you decide to create an offer, you must provide this information to anyone facing the customer on your staff.  You can really create a disconnect with a customer if your staff looks baffled at their inbound opportunity.
   
   
5. Start Simple:  It’s free.  Start simple and try to provide a value proposition for a visit.  You should really consider using this as a tool to promote and create traffic around your services or products.  Groupon began losing its traction as soon as the businesses that were using Groupon found they were actually losing money (read more here).  It’s an advertising opportunity, not a revenue generator.
   
   

You should expect losses up front and should consider using this as a promotional tool.  It’s important to remember that including this offer in an overall marketing strategy combining traditional efforts along with online campaigns will increase the overall awareness to your services/products.  We often see campaigns that are disconnected because they were not put into action with an overall approach or plan.

What is your first offer going to include?

Facebook is now putting ‘Trending Articles’ into our news feed and it’s taking up space.  WHAT!? I am thinking it may possibly be a market test for new Facebook Ad position.  If so, I have mixed feelings.  See below.

You may first realize that the articles are somewhat irrelevant and Mashable reports that Facebook has created this to help users discover the articles of news that their friends having viewed.  As a Facebook Developer, I have noticed that it is quite easy to hack the graph and snoop through the Open Graph to find whether or not users (oAuth’ed, of course) are using and connecting to different OG applications.

Consider this Facebook extending it’s arm again just like last fall when it shifted ‘Top Stories’ into your feed.  Thus, making everyone lose track of the ‘Most Recent’ and causing a decrease in interaction on a majority of our clients Facebook Pages.  This change is also furthering the popular Home page modality as it sits directly atop your New Feed.

It also appears that it has already had a face-lift to a slider-esque (left-right sliding window) instead of the original drill-down you can see here on Mashable.

It is important to remember that Facebook is using your information all the time.  Much like other platforms to serve information to you, Facebook is reviewing the data and hoping it’s shift brings more interaction into the social app platform including Open Graph.  I have not been able to find a way to determine if you can ‘pay’ for this position as it is mimicking the Google Ads placement and therefore creating the affordance that may one day become a paid placement for businesses looking to advertise in this area.  Very hot real estate…obviously.

As of right now, the information in the ‘Trending Articles’ space is delegated by the new series of timeline social apps utilizing Open Graph technology.  It only contains informati0n that was derived from your friend graph and shows you what Facebook thinks you may want to see.

While I am against this change, I will keep my alerts up and track the feedback (whiplash!) and see where it lands.  This may very well be one of the changes that just disappears one day.

Do you think Facebook should shy away from including third-party data, including Open Graph apps, directly into the user experience?

Taking on Timeline meant more than just a fancy cover photo and added functionality.  It is a breakaway from the feed-driven communication we have become accustomed to and a step towards our own ability to browse the archival history of companies and get a first hand look at the actualization of brands.  It will be a great moment when the entire histories of our beloved brands allow us to play hide and seek throughout their past events.

But the question that keeps coming up across the board seems to be the biggest frustration.  It’s new technology and everyone wants to participate  but should you move forward with Timeline?  After responding to several news threads and client inquiries, I have accumulated some of my responses below.

Consider the below before turning ‘ON’ your Facebook Page Timeline option.

1. Clean up your history.  Timeline opens up everything from the first post to the most recent.  Most assuredly, events have changed or moments that were buried in the past are now available.
2. Check your Apps.  A lot of investment is being made into Facebook Applications and this is an update that has added more space for Application development and we have already begun drawing up Gamification apps and optimized Landing pages for Facebook Advertising.
3. Default Landing Pages.  Know that when you move into Timeline you will lose the ability to default your Welcome Tab to the first thing a new visitors sees.  This has a real negative effect as the default landing page option, as it doesn’t exist now in the same place, is (was) a great opportunity to market the page highlights.
4. Utilize the Preview.  You have until March 30th to get everything in line.  No need to rush.  Add your cover, spend time looking through your history of posts and then sleep on it.  That’s what we did.  :)
5. Read all the Notes.  Especially this one:  ” This space is not meant for promotions, coupons, or advertisements. Your cover photo should not be primarily text-based or infringe on anyone else’s copyright. Learn More about choosing a cover photo.”
6. Visit the Intro Page.  This is a great look at the Pages and what other brands are doing.  There are some creative ones out there.  Check our Pages here.  Check out ours.

You have til March 30th til Facebook ‘automatically gives you the new design’.  In true fashion, Facebook adds another dimension to the cultivation of online business.  I predict we begin to see creative games where ‘milestones’, Facebooks’  new story item, or typical statuses, photos and questions can be placed at a certain time and day in the past and the user has to search through a chronological path, thus learning about the brand, to uncover the ‘hidden’ item.

We’ve already began looking at activity ‘hubs’ for Facebook Applications to fit the new dimensions.

Once we capture what Timeline for Pages actually means for our clients we will begin to develop the adapted strategies to continue to succeed.  Look forward to more information throughout the week.

When you are ready to move forward, hire us to move you into Timeline.  Contact us here.

1 PB = 1000000000000000B = 1000⁵ B = 10¹⁵ B = 1 million gigabytes = 1 thousand terabytes

I know you’ve heard of the Facebook IPO.  Check out this great representation of all the larger-than-life numbers.

Check out this great infographic from DreamGrow.com

Check out this great infographic from DreamGrow.com

The latest stat is that every person on Facebook has ‘liked’ over 250 Pages while reporting an average of 229 friends.   It’s quite the experience we have now, especially on Facebook.  Unless you have mastered the ‘friend lists’ or have ‘hidden’ certain content then you may find your feed a little bit ‘spammy’.  You can see this everyday as the majority of our information found in our news feed reflects world events, political lines and everyday rhetoric.

Introducing Path…

For the past 6 months I have been experimenting with something new.  Path is a social network that limits the number of friends to 150 so that you can streamline your communication and life events with a small subset of ‘close’ friends and family without the hassles of overabundance.  Afterall, an average of 7% of our Facebook friends we have never even met.

In short, from their site you can read this statement.  ”We are inspired by Professor Robin Dunbar from Oxford University, whose research delves deeply into the number of trusted relationships humans can maintain throughout life. We tend to have 5 best friends, 15 good friends, 50 close friends and family, and 150 total friends. At Path, we’re building tools for you to share with the people who matter most in your life.”

I have not reached 150 in my potential network on Path but I am switching my mentality from quantity to quality.  As I build this network, I am shedding the common interest of  ’share with all’ to ‘share with few’ which, of course, is an internal challenge as well as a external necessity.

My question is what will happen when I reach 150 and 151 is important to me as well.  Do I now have no other option but to weigh the relationship bonds within my Path or do I simply let 151 know that I am all full up on friends.  Please standby for next available opening.

I wonder if the enriched social media user will begin to depart from mainstream channels and move to protected, no commercialized, networks to improve quality of communication…and life.    Moreover, how can we begin to imagine new ways to identify strategies based on closed user networks.

Wavelength is a ‘MailChimp service that uses a massive amount of email data to help you find publishers who share something in common with you.’  Once you’ve connected you can ask permission to connect to your MailChimp account to chronicle your email lists including categories and tags to identify similar traits.  It takes these traits and recommends similar users with the actual screenshot of the emails that were sent as long as they are ‘set’ to public.

So, it has screenshots, what now?  You can subscribe to the publishers list and have the future emails from the campaign.  BUT, I believe the real take-away, as mentioned in the video, is the connection that is made between too companies whether competitors or not.  You can make contact and talk about possibility of promoting each other.

My biggest fascination is being able to see other ‘public’ campaigns.  If they are private then you can not see them.  I can also see people not wanting to share templates online.

What can this mean to us?

1. More insight to industry standards and best practices.
2. Extending our networks into other markets.
3. More creative ideas!

Photo Credit: MailChimp.com

One of the most frequent ideas brought to the surface was the perspective of the consumer.  I am always shifting roles for our clients playing both the architect and end user for many of our projects so I was able to confirm that missing the connection often comes from not cultivating a personal relationship with the site visitor.

In one instance, I would imagine visiting a site that was image heavy and note that all the images were great.  So great, in fact, that I am inclined to follow through with a contact form or phone call and ultimately completing the online marketing cycle.  However, when the phone rings I have no idea who I am talking to and all I picture is a face behind a lens, some lighting and a studio to sit it all in.  Or at least that is what the site has lead me to believe. At this point, the personal relationship begins from the phone call.

It is also very common to visit a photographers website and find a segmentation.  Why do I have to chose between options to get into your site? It could be that two separate sites exist because of growing needs but if I have to decide between going to your website or your blog I may become confused.

If you look at the site analytics you will find that the average person visits your site and clicks to about 2-3 pages; maybe more.  If you make one of those clicks about deciding which part of the site to visit then you may loose the visitors interest.

Here is a list of what I want to see on a photographers site.

1. Pictures.  (ha!)
2. One website platform.  There shouldn’t be a separation of the site into segments making the point of entry a small maze.  A website and blog are sometimes confused as the same thing.  This is not true.  A blog is a very important component to a website.  If you have a website then decided to add another blog content software like WordPress or Joomla, then you should talk to us about combining them into one.  Combining the two into one site will have many advantages.
3. Blog technique.  Are you posting 30 of your best pictures and then writing only a short paragraph at the top to talk about them?  That is a crime.  I know Judy was a pleasure to work with.  I can see you are at a super secret [enter superlative here] location.  I want to know that you accomplished something that differentiates you from other photographers.  Tell me you had an issue, you identified it and turned it into the best photograph ever.
4. Diversify the blog.  Does your blog contain any content specific posts (maybe only one image and the rest text)?  You should consider writing more content about everything.  It should not just contain a chronicle of photo sessions. It should also include individual posts about  professional experiences, customer follow-ups, press releases, exhibitions, awards and even ‘detailed descriptions’ of how YOU use a camera.  Well…maybe not the last one.  :)  You can separate the business and connect to your visitors on a personal level with more content.
5. Video.  I know your DSLR has HD video.  I want to see you and your customers interacting.  This has high value for me.  And I know with all your editing tools you have something you can use to put together a 30 second clip.  It doesn’t have to be perfect but just enough to grasp your personality.
6. Use social platforms more often.  Integrate Pinterest directly into your blog.  Add a Facebook Like button to make a connection.  If social sites are not on the top of your referral site traffic reports then you must reevaluate your website.  Did you know Pinterest houses all ‘pins’ from your site?  Try this:  Visit http://pinterest.com/source/[yourwebsite.com] and see what has been pinned from your site right now.  Now try another photographers website.  Try photofoodblog.com!
7. Have a plan.  Since you already know you are going to be taking pictures you may want to organize a plan of action per shoot. If you know you are going to write a post about the overview of the session then you can be more aware of the instances you may want to talk about.  Otherwise, they just got written off as mistakes when it could have been turned into a ‘learning experience’ and shared with colleagues who visit your site.

Pictures are the most consumed media on the web including Facebook.  The natural tendencies of people are to look at other people.  It would be nice to accompany those pictures with a non-proverbial ’1000 words’.  Or better yet, split a session into three blog posts; photo session(mostly images), overview of session (mostly words reviewing the session) and follow up (customer feedback/testimonial).

In the end, it all comes down to time.  Time management is always an issue but understanding my perspective when I visit your site is a great place to start.  For any business, websites are becoming digital storefronts eliminating overhead for many markets creating a groundswell of imitators, coat tail minions and envious trolls.

Differentiate yourself by creating a personality with your website.

I sit here looking at a Facebook feed full of family and friends all frolicking around enjoying the days up to the Holidays and I often wonder what they are thinking.  Why are you posting pictures of your tree stacked full of presents?  I’m glad you are going to Vancouver for the next 7 days but does mean everyone on Twitter needs to know.  After taking a good look around, I wanted to string together a few holiday safety tips when using your favorite social apps.

In no particular order here some things to think about as you sip eggnog and enjoy the company of family and friends.

1. Pictures of Gifts (Facebook, Insta.gram, Pinterest, Twitter) – Ok, we get it. You are making out like a fat cat and you want to show everyone that you can barely see the tree.  All your friends are jealous and your family rocks the best Holiday jammies this side of the Chattahoochee.  But what you have really done is made everyone aware that several hundreds or even thousands of dollars are sitting right there by the tree, probably close to window…that someone could easily get to.
2. Out of  town Check Ins – Location Based Mobile Apps (Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter) – Following #1, this can be tough for us @foursquare users who want to check in everywhere!  Keep in mind, you can check in privately and still play while you are out of town with out anyone knowing.  There always needs to be some type of primary security watching over your property like an alarm system or nosy neighbors.
3. Out of town Updates (Facebook, Twitter) – Tell us all about it when you return.  It will be weird that you are not posting updates for a short period but when you return from a short vacation with awesome family pics and new gold jewelry….see tip #1.  lol.
4. Public Updates – Not like the public outside your street in a park.  I am talking about Global…with a capital ‘G’.  If you haven’t checked your Facebook privacy settings or protected your Twitter account you could be letting everyone read your posts.  Including, but not limited to, stalkers, recent parolees, silly string marauders or even our local analytics aggregate software at Stand And Stretch.

So, now you are sitting…thinking about how many times you have done this over the past few days and want to know more.  If you still want to do these things BUT want the privacy part also, then you must learn how to modify your privacy settings.

Here are a few things to look at over the Holidays while you brag about gifts lounging in the pool area in Dubai while a crazed stalker listens to your every move.

1. Facebook - Visit your privacy settings and spend a good hour reading through the options.  LINK:  https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy&ref=mb Notice the area on the bottom right of your Status Update area.  It has a setting to make your post only accessible to a ‘list’ you have predefined.  No more stalkers! Same is true with pictures, statuses, videos and other items.  You can set each manually to who can view it. I recommend making lists of family, ‘close’ friends, co-workers and professional colleagues.  That way I can direct information to the user and help streamline Facebook Feed chatter.
2. Twitter - You can protect your account to limit who follows you.  This is an easy one.
3. Foursquare - Learn how to ‘check-in’ without posting to Facebook, Twitter or even to Foursquare.   What was once known as ‘off-the-grid’ is now more of a privacy feature for those who still want those specials but don’t like their stalkers knowing where they can be found.
4. All picture apps - Be smart. Be aware. And understand that your apps handle privacy you may need to ‘turn on’.  Most apps are wide open by default and require tweaking.

Now that I have given you the basics, go out there and participate wisely.  Turn on those lists on Facebook, protect your account on Twitter and choose when to share your location with your friends when you want to.

After all, its the real life connection that social apps support….not the other way around.

Happy Holidays from the Shaffer Family and our team at Stand And Stretch!

Cheers!

Average the cost of obtaining a fan is $1.07.

Out of our current clients who we handle online marketing, 7 out of 12 are performing below this rate.  Win!

A recent interaction with a client prompted us to build a list of ideas for selling on eBay and realized they work for just about any retail service or eCommerce channel.

Here are some helpful notes from eBay themselves.

1. Evaluate the available tools before you start. Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and YouTube have different attributes and audiences. In a nutshell, Facebook is for staying in touch, Twitter is for “breaking news,” blogs are for telling the story, and YouTube is for videos. Explore each one carefully before deciding where to start. Find out where your customers are—look for groups within these channels that might be interested in your listings, like camera buffs or fashion mavens.
   
2. Genuinely contribute to the conversation. Consider your target audience and how you can build your relationship with them. Budget time for keeping your presence fresh. You need to create original posts at least several times a week, and respond quickly to comments from your online friends and followers.
3. Create a separate account for your business. Facebook rules require you to create a separate fan page for your business. Post about your eBay listings on your fan page, instead of on your personal Facebook page. Plus you’ll look more professional!
4. Start small. Start with one channel and build up your presence. Social media can be a valuable tool to enable online commerce, but it’s important to focus your efforts on those activities that are most likely to provide a good return on your time investment.
5. Listen and engage. Take the time to listen to what your social media fans and followers are saying about you on social channels. Responding promptly and engagingly to your customers helps you take advantage of the power of social media to cultivate loyal customers.
6. Cross-promote your social media channels. Use your social media channels judiciously to cross-promote your content. For example, post your YouTube videos on your blog. Post a Facebook update when you have a new blog post, and include the link. Consider linking your business Twitter handle to your Facebook fan page so that your tweets are also auto-posted on your Facebook page—reaching both audiences at the same time. But be selective—you don’t want to duplicate information on the same channel. Point your Twitter followers to your blog. You get the idea!
7. Don’t expect instant results! It takes a while to build a presence on any social media channel. As long as you post interesting new content on a consistent basis, visitors and customers will keep coming back for more.

Tips for using Facebook

1. Exclusive Facebook promotions. Provide a unique coupon code for your customers on Facebook.
   
2. News about your selling categories. Treat your Facebook page like a mini-blog. For example, if you’re selling sports equipment, occasionally post interesting sports news, optionally linking to your eBay inventory.
3. Polls. Use the Facebook Questions feature to ask your Facebook fans questions on what inventory they’d like to see, when they typically use eBay (so you know when to end your listings for maximum exposure) or any other questions that can help you understand your customers better. Use their responses to fine-tune your offering.
4. Respond to your Facebook fans promptly. Reply to questions or Wall posts with a quick, friendly comment. When your Facebook fans see you engaging with them, it goes a long way toward enhancing your online reputation.
5. Strategize your posting. Post updates on your page only a few times a week, but think through every post and make it count. We recommend posting no more than once or twice a day, on average. Occasionally, if you have something relevant or news-worthy to say, you might try increasing the number of times you post a day. But be careful—post too frequently and people might leave your page.

What not to do

1. Don’t spam your fans! Be selective in sharing your listings. Share one or two a day that are representative of your offering.
2. Don’t be controversial. Remember, your business and personal Facebook pages are different for a reason. Your customers may not share your views on topics such as religion and politics. Stick to posting updates that have a broad appeal and wouldn’t upset your customers.
3. Don’t appear to be unresponsive, indifferent, or rude. Your comments are visible to all your Facebook fans, and your response to your fans shapes your reputation on Facebook.