by Dan Nedelko on May 30, 2011
Facebook.com continues to roll forward gaining more influence, users and targeted users than any other social media site on the Internet. The double threat Facebook.com offers is not only a mass of users but the ability to target users in incredibly accurate ways.
The end result? Wether you’re a Fortune 100 or a single person startup company you’ve got the ability to engage with your consumers and potential customers previously unavailable to business.
Our friends at http://allfacebook.com recently published a fantastic set of 8 tips for PR specialists on Facebook.com:
- Thursday is the best day of the week to get the most visibility for a Facebook post.
- Release major stories in the early morning. If you post between 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST, you risk your content getting pushed down by news feeds and other traffic.
- When sharing stories, include the full link on Facebook — that’s 300 percent more likely to get clicked on than any shortened address.
- Use both the like and send Facebook buttons on your site.
- Want the secret behind making it into your friends’ “top news” feed? It’s based on an algorithm known asEdge Rank. Use words like “today,” and “limited-time only,” to increase its Edge Rank.
- According to a recent study from Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, Facebook is among the leading drivers of traffic to 21 news web sites. So when sharing a good media story, don’t forget to leverage the leading social network.
- Want to know which words are most “shareable” on Facebook? Try words like “best,” “most,” and those that explain, such as “why,” and “how.”
- Facebook may be a better platform for making a video go viral than other social media platforms, probably because the site makes it easy to embed multimedia content into a post.
All of which go beyond the public relations specialist, these tactics have the ability to increase your following and consumer engagement drastically. The end result will be happier and much more engaged clients, regardless of your size, location or product.
You might also be interested in Dan Nedelko’s screen cast tips for organic fan page growth:
Leveraging your personal network to increase distribution
Using photos and tags to increase your distribution.
Do you have any more tips you’d like to share? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments sections below!
by Dan Nedelko on May 17, 2011
On May 11, Facebook revised its promotions policy. This evolving set of legal guidelines govern all promotions run on Facebook, and outline what Page owners can and can not do when running promotions on Facebook to remain compliant with Facebook policy.
The primary change to the Facebook promotions policy is the removal of some specific prohibitions on certain types of promotions, as well as guidelines around minor participation in promotions. Major items that have not changed include that all promotions must be run within 3rd party apps on Facebook.
What does the policy mean for your Facebook promotions plans? Here is a breakdown of the details:
Facebook Promotions Policy Overview:
- The primary change in this update is that Facebook has removed some specific prohibitions on certain types of promotions, such as promotions involving alcohol, dairy, firearms, gambling, and gasoline. While this does mean that promotions can now offer alcohol or dairy as a prize, for example, the new guidelines also strongly maintain that all promotions must comply with all laws and regulations of the jurisdictions where the promotion is open. This means that the burden of responsibility for checking that a promotion can legally offer a specific prize remains in the hands of the promotion administrator and page owner, and that by running such a promotion on Facebook, he or she is affirming that the promotion complies with all applicable laws and regulations.
- There is no longer any explicit prohibition of minor (13-17 years of age) entry to Facebook promotions. Similar to the changes above, the removal of age related guidelines still implies that the promotion administrator is running the promotion in compliance with all of the applicable age related laws and regulations wherever his promotion is running.
- Facebook has included a very clear definition of what constitutes a promotion: “a contest, competition, sweepstakes or other similar offering,” where “by ‘contest’ or ‘competition’ [Facebook means] a promotion that includes a prize of monetary value and a winner determined on the basis of skill (i.e., through judging based on specific criteria)” and “by ‘sweepstakes’ [Facebook means] a promotion that includes a prize of monetary value and a winner selected on the basis of chance.”
What has not changed for Facebook Promotions
- All promotions still need to be run within 3rd party Apps on Facebook.com, and can be run either on a Canvas page or as an app on a Page Tab.
- You may not use Facebook features or functionality as a way of entering or registering for a promotion. In other words, you cannot have users simply “Like” your page to enter into a contest— the entry process must be contained within the 3rd party app environment, and include a registration (like a form) separate of the act of “Liking” a page.
- You may not use Facebook features or functionality such as the Like button as a method of voting for a promotion. Again, because promotions must be run within 3rd party apps on Facebook, this regulation maintains that promotion elements like voting be contained in apps, and not within Facebook simply by using the “Like” button.
- You cannot use Facebook to notify winners, such as by sending them a message, chat, or wall post alerting them to their win.
Reaching out to your customers and their personal social networks is an extremely effective way for local businesses to add real value to their bottom line and can result in real sales. Clearly you should be considering Facebook promotions and contests that engage your fans without turning them off.
Good Luck!
Dan Nedelko
