Content Marketing Archives

Facebook marketing took a major leap forward with the introduction of Graph Search. So how does this impact your Facebook marketing strategies?

Facebook marketing has become relatively standardized in the past few years with the exception of a few minor changes. Apart from the introduction of Timeline and the subsequent modifications to the EdgeRank algorithm, businesses have not had to make many major changes to their Facebook marketing strategies. Well, it looks like that might be changing. A couple of days ago, Facebook publicly introduced their newest feature: Graph Search.

Facebook’s Graph Search does quite a bit in terms of pushing forward the Facebook marketing platform – both internally and externally. To date, Facebook’s search components have been uninspired at best. The limits of Facebook search reached no further than looking up friends and businesses. What Graph Search does is it gives new life to the dying search features Facebook has been struggling to keep up with. Essentially, this seems to be a first step in Facebook’s quest to catch up to Google in the world of online domination, and it means a lot of change to strategy for Facebook marketing professionals.

Some months ago, Google+ introduced Communities. We posted an article about Google+ Communities and noted how they were far superior to anything Facebook was doing in terms of promoting business on a social level. Graph Search appears to be a pseudo response to Communities (and Google in general), and below are a few key points marketers should take away when it comes to Facebook marketing with Graph Search.

1. Facebook Marketing Becomes More Local

The ‘Like’ count on Facebook has always been a focal point for businesses. After all, the higher your ‘Like’ count, the more perceived credibility your business has to the Facebook audience. Well, what Graph Search does is it makes your ‘Like’ count much more important, and introduces an entirely new element to it.

One criticism local businesses often have when it comes to social media marketing is that, because they are local, they do not stand to benefit from a social media program. While there is plenty of evidence to the contrary, Graph Search adds another argument that even the most skeptical of local businesses cannot ignore. Using Graph Search, Facebook users can now search for specific businesses that friends like in a given area. For example, someone can search for “Restaurants my friends like in Los Angeles” and see results of restaurants that their friends have liked in that particular area. So the quality of your ‘Likes’ now matters far more than it did before. While there is no shortage of services that businesses can use to buy additional ‘Likes’, they will have little to no impact on results generated through Graph Search. The screenshot below is an example of this.

Promoting your business to a local audience becomes all the more important with the Graph Search capabilities. This is an element that should be taken heavily into account when Graph Search goes live and marketers are putting together Facebook marketing strategies.

2. Engage with Your Audience

We stress engagement so often, that it almost sounds like a broken record. But in the end, engagement is what will drive a successful social media marketing campaign. In addition to boosting your EdgeRank score, engaging with your audience will also improve your Graph Search results. By maintaining an active Facebook page and engaging with your fans, you stand to reap a whole set of new benefits from EdgeRank. Recommendations and conversations are the cornerstones of Facebook success, and your ability to get found using Graph Search will only increase when you are engaging with your audience – local or otherwise.

3. Prepare to Invest More in Your Facebook Marketing

Like Google AdWords or other paid search campaigns, Facebook’s Graph Search will require somewhat more of a commitment to your social media marketing budget. Garnering local ‘Likes’ will cost a bit more than conventional Facebook marketing, but the benefits will be much greater. It is no secret that Facebook has been looking for a means to increase their revenues from businesses, and this new tool seems to be one of the ways they intend to do it.

Simply building a page and hoping for the best will generate few quality results. As we have noted in the past, an effective social media marketing campaign requires commitments of both time and resources. Graph Search will mean both of these. Building and executing campaigns to effectively drive local traffic to your page will not happen overnight, but if it is done properly, it can certainly mean added benefits from Graph Search.

Visit the Graph Search page and find out more about what this tool has to offer. Let us know what you think by telling us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Marketing Social Media Strategies

Twitter marketing can be an excellent resource, but only if it is done properly.

Time and time again we stress the importance of a strategy when it comes to Twitter marketing and other forms of social media marketing. Where Twitter marketing differs, however, is in the approach you take to promoting your brand. As we never tire of pointing out, Twitter is not a realm apt for self-promotion. And if you approach the social network as a place to simply tout your brand and aggressively pursue conversions, you will be disappointed with the results. So how can you go about conducting your Twitter marketing in an efficient manner so that you get the most out of all the social network has to offer from a business perspective?

Below are three pointers that should help you get the most our of your Twitter marketing efforts. Twitter can be an exceptional tool for driving business, but your strategy must be in line with Twitter best practices in order to see the best results.

1. Establish Your Goals and Measurement Criteria

There is an entire world of untapped leads and potential clients on Twitter, and heading into the social network blind may leave you stumbling to get on track. Therefore, before embarking on your Twitter marketing campaign, you should first define both your goals and how you plan on measuring said goals. If you jump into Twitter expecting that your first tweet will garner dozens of retweets and loads of conversions and followers, you’re going to be disappointed. (Unless of course you’re a celebrity, in which case we appreciate you reading our blog!) Your strategy needs to include a few key criteria. Below is a list of things to consider when launching your Twitter marketing campaign.

Who is your target audience?
Are you looking for followers in a geo-targeted area or worldwide?
Are you hoping for conversions on a website or at a location?

Once you’ve answered these questions, it is time to get a little more specific.

Do you already have a set of followers? If so, how would you categorize them? If not, how do you plan on acquiring them?
If you are looking for followers in a specific location, how do you plan on finding them?
What do you consider a conversion from Twitter? Is it s click through? A download? A subscription? A purchase?
Are you hoping to use Twitter to increase your current business or start something new?

The answers to these questions are essential before you begin marketing on Twitter. Once these goals are defined, you can establish your measurement criteria. This is a little trickier, because in order to measure the success of your Twitter marketing, you need to have answered the third question in the second set of bullet points above: What do you consider a conversion from Twitter? Once you have this answer, you can set up the appropriate criteria for monitoring the success of your campaigns.

2. Design Your Messages Around Your Niche

As you begin building your audience, you are going to want to keep them captivated. One devastating mistake many marketers often make is sending out nothing but self-promotion. While you might be the expert in a given field, constantly telling people about it and ignoring engaging content will get you nowhere. You will want to design your messages around the niche you wish to target in order to keep them engaged. Below are a few helpful tips to consider when drafting your messages and content.

People love advice and garnering knowledge, so share what you know to showcase your expertise as opposed to simply stating that you are the expert.
Quick, entertaining content is a great way to engage with your followers. Share fun facts and quirky anecdotes that people want to see.
Focus on a designated subject or theme that stretches across all of your messages. Keep your content on track so that the niche audience you build stays engaged.
Do not bombard you followers with links and promotional content. Once in a while a message like this is fine – but this should under no circumstances be your starting point.

Engaging content should be the focal point in drafting all of your Twitter messages. One goal that should always be present is to convert your audience members into brand advocates. We can’t all be Coca-Cola or Harley Davidson – we have to work to get our fans coming back. And, as with all social media, content is king when it comes to boosting your audience.

3. Narrow Your Audience with Twitter Lists

Twitter Lists are a fantastic way of segmenting your audience into appropriate categories. Say you have a thousand followers. Great! But not all of them will be following you for the same reasons. Some might follow you because they are in the same industry. Some might follow you because they are interested in your online product or service. Others might follow you because they live in your area, and are already physical customers. Each of these three categories will respond to your content differently. Lists will help you engage with all of them in the right way.

Once you have segmented your followers into lists, you will be able to design campaigns and messages to go out that are geared towards engaging with one of these groups specifically. The industry members might not be interested in your sales and promotions, but they might find some of your industry-relevant messages much more useful. Your physical customers may have no use for online promotions, but they might jump at the chance to collect in-store offers promoted via Twitter. Take this into account when setting up your campaigns, and use the Twitter Lists to your advantage.

These are just a few of the best practices when it comes to Twitter marketing. Over time, your Twitter strategy evolves and some of these points change and disappear while new ones are added. But to get the most out of your Twitter marketing when you are getting started, these pointers should certainly help.

Can you think of any other best practices when it comes to launching your Twitter marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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