Facebook Strategy Training

4/4/11Joanna, Trudy, Robin

Facebook Strategy Basics• Goals

– Let fans tell their stories about PHP

– Let fans spread the word about PHP

– Fans feel valued, respected, included

– Tell fans about your events and share information

• Create a culture and experience consistent with your brand

• Create a page that is a source of info/experience

• Provide content that is regular, relevant, timely, fresh

– Give fans something to engage over

Facebook Engagement Strategies

• News feed• Your page wall• Apps• Social plug-ins

News Feed Optimization

• News Feed content is determined by Facebook’s algorithms– How often the user interacts with your fan page/content – Type of interaction (comments weighted more than likes)– Your content recency + activity

The more popular your page/posts, the more you’ll show in the news feeds of your fans

=Great Content Strategy

Content Strategy Guidelines: What to Post• Variety: share a mix of text, links, photos and videos

– Image posts more engaging (measured by fan responses, likes, shares,) than video, text– Use humor in images

• Incorporate regular calls to action• Use questions/fill in the blanks/offer an opinion, i.e. What is your favorite XYZ? How do you

handle ABC?– Ask about a topic everyone is experiencing – Do this anytime you post 0PC – other people’s content

• Drive fans to your site with information, training, resources, events.• Theme Days

– Question of the week– Tip of the week – short, easily applied tips– Event of the week– Quote of the week – Soundtrack/Video of the week– Link to review or how/to – how to work with PHP, how it feels, etc.

• Polls

Content Strategy: Timing

• The Science of timing– Men/most of the population• Posts made before noon get 65% more engagement • Friday posts generate most engagement, while sat/sun

have least

– Moms• Online after 6pm• Low engagement on Fridays and weekends

– Key: testing

Editorial Guide• Tone/Personality: Smart, educated, real, sense of humor. Age

appropriate. Gender appropriate.• Frequency: Post every day• Mix up the media: including: links to other blogs and articles, videos,

photos, and straight status updates (quotes, questions, updates without links).

• Ask Fans to Like/share your updates• Encourage comments by asking yes/no questions• Promos of PHP itself and events 2X/week – make it worth your fan’s while

to look for your updates• Monitor page

– Reply to everyone that posts on page – use first names and greet them as friends

Women Rule Facebook

• 62% of activity in terms of messages, updates and comments

• 71% of the daily fan activity

• 8% more Facebook friends on average than men

• Spend more time on the site

• Source: Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook

Who Should Post?

• More effective to let one person or small group of people manage your page

• Presenting one consistent, clear voice for your company

– Reassures fans that they're interacting with an actual person from your company, not a generic blast of self-promotional updates

Promo/Conversion Strategies• Include regular calls to action

• Add sufficient value and you can easily intersperse with promotional content

• Iterative testing

– Create plan for testing and learning

• Must use 3rd party to run any giveaway.

– Offerpop, Wildfire, Promoboxx, Involver, and Freepromos (free for <5K fans)

• Can use other Facebook apps for fundraising campaigns

– Birthdays, wishes, gifts, etc.

Rewarding Referrals

• Groupon, etc– Facebook launching their own platform shortly– Applicable if you team up with a sponsor

• Reward fans when the friend recommends them to PHP – by recognizing and thanking them!

Content: Where to Source• Your Content

– Blog posts

– Articles

– Podcasts

– Video

– Photos

– Interviews

– Testimonials

– User experiences

• OPC – Other People’s Content– Blog subscriptions – alltop.com, digg.com

– Ezine subscriptions

– Facebook friend lists

– Twitter lists

Content – Guidelines for Writing

• Keep updates short and to the point

• Think in terms of headlines—grab their attention fast

• End most posts with questions or engaging call to action

– Encourage comments with yes/no questions

– Ask fans to “like” your update

– Ask fans to “share” your update

• Use verbs

• Personify your brand

Design Strategy: Your Wall Settings

• Your wall is a place for fans to express themselves and tell you exactly how they feel about your product or service. Any feedback is useful feedback.

• Fans allowed to write, post photos, post videos, and post links

• "Can comment on posts" - set to “Everyone”

• Default view – change to all posts

Design Strategy: Wall View

• Big logo/avatar: 180 X 540• Company details section• About us section• Opt-in box for email• Secure your username – with 25 fans– Easy to use/find– Users can join your page via SMS – Text: like yourusername to 32665

Design Strategy – Photos

• Upload photos– Put up pictures of PHP, offices, trainings, fans, resources, etc.

– The ideal dimensions to make sure the thumbnail size shows properly is: 970px by 680px. Facebook then makes the entire image the thumbnail size, which is 97px by 68px.

– Organize into albums

• Testimonials

• Other ideas?

– Foster a closer connection between fans and your page by allowing fans to upload photos and videos

Using Photo Viewer for Marketing• Create at least 5 photos with special offers and clear calls to action (CTAs)

right on the images

– Click Here, or Click Here for Details

– Include a short narrative with a hyperlink to that offer in the photo description

– When your fans click the image, it pops up in the lightbox where they can then see the description and link

• Any images of links (URLs) will, of course, not actually click through to the web page.

– BUT, when anyone clicks on the five images at the top of your Page (or anytime you share an image on your wall, load to an album, etc), they will see the image pop up in the lightbox where you then have your compelling offer

Design Strategy: Welcome Tab• Also known as a Facebook Landing Page

– Explain what your page is about, who it’s for, and why they should become members

– Non fans land on a unique tab– #1 way to increase conversions (to “like” your page)– Provide an incentive to “like”

• Why– Visitors immediately feel in the right place – Inviting, compelling – Makes it fun, entertaining, and interactive– Provides an “experience” – not just a static page

• Keep it fresh

Fan GateBefore Like

After Like

Design Strategy: Apps

• Use custom tabs to integrate apps into your page to create more engagement

– Unique, quizzes, games, and other interactive features

– This is where you can get really creative

– Sets your page apart from your competitors (not so hard to do at this point…)

Recommended Apps

• Facebook Causes, Fundrazr

• Blog

– Networked blogs – will autopublish blog articles to your FB page

• Yelp by NorthSocial

• FAQs Page – for answering common questions

• FanAppz polls and quizzes

– Provides the option for voters to share (on their personal profiles) and also to share on their Fan pages!

Managing Your Page• Assign specific, trusted, trained Admins to your Page • Have set times for who checks the wall • Agree upon your in-house policies - these are the ones I recommend:

– Acknowledge fans at every opportunity• Every (legitimate) fan post gets a reply or like

• Join their page and call them out by name if relevant

– Spot your superfans• They answer questions from other fans, leave comments, @tag your page, tweet, blog, etc.

• Reward them!

– Spam is flagged/deleted

– Others are not allowed to promote their content and products on your page• Fan is warned on first offense; banned permanently on second offense

• Assign an arbitrary scale of severity for problems as to who should be alerted and when:– 1-4 Admin handles; 5-6 Senior staff alerted; 7-10 Management alerted

Handling Spam and Negativity

• Strip out promptly

• Handle criticism / negative comments courteously and appropriately

• Ban the fan: Click Flag > Report > select reason > check “Permanently ban” > click Submit

• Set a positive culture – instill a sense of “neighborhood watch”

Remember

• It’s not just about FB, it’s about a multichannel deep and wide engagement

• If its not related to building sales, it doesn’t belong

• Enhance the user experience

• Educate about all you do

• Let your fans spread the word

• Create a community of passionate fans

Getting More Fans

• Focus on building organically by providing consistent quality content and engagement over time

• Keep in mind it's better to have a smaller, highly-targeted, qualified and engaged audience than a large audience who doesn't pay much attention to you

And More Fans• Embed Facebook Like Box on your website and your blog posts• Displays number of fans • Shows people their friends who are fans of your page• Powerful socialproof• Found here: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like-

box

And Many More Fans• Email

– Send out an invite to email list – describe page and provide an incentive to join• Do this several times, over time

– Make sure your Facebook badge appears in HTML newsletters• “Join our FB Community” or “Add your snoring video” or “Write on our wall”

• Add Facebook profile link to email signatures– Check out wisestamp.com

• Make a compelling Welcome Video (Landing Tab)• Create fan-only offers for the landing page and beyond• Use Facebook apps

– Promos and contests that reward sharing

Even More Fans• Embed videos on your Fan Page

– You can load video content to your Facebook fan page, then take the source code and embed on your blog/website.

– Embedded videos display a white watermark hotlink of the FB name in upper left corner of video player. This clickable link toes to the original video page on your fan page If If the visitor to your site clicks through to Facebook from your video, and they are logged into Facebook at the time, they will see a Like button at the top left corner of the video player

• Facebook Ads– More effective when you have a fan base – as users can see friends who like you, which

creates social proof.

• Link to Twitter– You have 420 characters on the Facebook publisher and 140 on Twitter. In the tweet that goes

out, Facebook truncates your post past a certain character count and inserts a bit.ly link back to your fan page

– To track click-through stats on that link, just paste the bit.ly link that Facebook created for you in your browser’s address bar and add a “+” sign to the end. This works for any bit.ly link!

– Also recommend you promote your Facebook fan page on your Twitter background and possibly in your Twitter bio/URL field too

And Even More Fans• Get fans to join via SMS

– To join your fan page, Facebook users just send a text message to 32665 (FBOOK) with the words “like yourusername” (without the quotes).

– This feature is ideal when you’re addressing a live audience

• Use Print Media too – on business cards , letterhead, brochures, ads, products, product packaging and info leaflets, etc.

• Friends– Periodically suggest to friends/share and add a compelling comment along the

lines of exciting news, special incentives, etc.– Use with discretion

• Autograph other fan pages by using the @tag other pages to give them a shout out and to gain even more exposure for yours – also use with discretion

Videos• Funny, engaging video content

– Develop yourself– Take top virals on Youtube and

other sites, then compile segments from each (make sure you aren’t violating copyright laws)

• At the end of each video, prompt the viewer to become a fan and explain to them how to mouse over the top of the video

• Share the video and encourage others to share the video as well

Metrics We’ll Follow

• #1: Using Facebook Insights to measure your daily engagement to make sure the content you are sharing with your fans if being consumed and engaged with.

– Which posts are generating the most interactions, and at what time

• #2: Measuring external growth metrics- ie sales, clickable links, coupons redeemed, blog activity, etc.

Using Facebook Insights• Top measurement: Daily engagement rate

– Fans engaging with your page content

– Post likes, comments, hides, unlikes and media consumption

• Daily page activity

– Posts by fans on your walls + @mentions of you

– Impressions – number of times your content has been rendered in stream – wall, news feed, social plugin

• Page growth rate

– New likes (- unlikes)

– External referrers – where is traffic coming from

• Page views and active users

– Hits from Logged in users = Total + Unique (look at uniques)

– Active users - #fans + non-fans who have viewed/interacted with your page

– Tab views – which tabs are getting most activity

External Growth Metrics• Clickthrough rate (trackable links)• Traffic to website/blog• Blog activity

– Subscribers, comments, length of time on site, number of pages visited, number of social shares

• Email opt-ins – use a unique form code from FB• Coupons redeemed• Phone calls/sales inquiries – unique phone number/extension from

Facebook• SMS/mobile opt-ins• Sales• Per sale value – increase with FB Like button• Brand sentiment

Measurement Tools - Summary

• Facebook Insights

– Weekly summary from Facebook – all arrows up and green

• Twentyfeet.com – daily emails

– Track FB, Twitter, Google analytics, YouTube, etc. all in on place

– Custom rating system

• Socialbakers.com – compare with other pages – engagement rating

• Hootsuite.com

Scheduling Tools Increase Efficiency

• Hootsuite

• Can schedule posts in advance

• Can post to both Facebook and Twitter simoultaneously

• Hootlet bookmark – easily share content from the web to your fan page or Twitter account

Engagement Plan: Twitter

• Step 1:

– Create Twitter Profile – username and avatar

– Begin automatic posting (same content as FB)

• Step 2:

– Actively find Twitter followers, create community, RTs, FFs, @mentions, #hashtags, etc.

Engagement Plan: Blog• The key to subscriber growth – persistence and promotion

– There are many compelling reasons to blog

– While it’s sometimes a slow ramp, data shows that bloggers who are persistent and increase their blog frequency yield leads and sales

Blog Calendar

• Timing – sweet spot is 1-2X week

• Create blog overall topic with a catchy title

• Create a calendar of topics quarterly

Blog: Content Strategy

• Create remarkable content, thought leadership on stress and skincare – so useful, they will tell their friends

– Importance of good skincare

– About certain procedures

– How-to’s at home

– Links between stress and sleep

– Anti-stress tips

Blog Editorial Strategy• Great Title = easy to remember

• Tone/Personality: Subject matter expert on children/families with special needs. With a sense of humor and understanding for the challenges involved.

• Topics

– Educational posts on PHP, resources, events, info

– How to’s

– Advice on where to get help, how to work with PHP, where to start, etc.

– Information on what PHP is doing in the community

– Fundraising campaigns

– Respond to questions and concerns

• Location: at your website

• Content: Use Keywords in Blog and in Blog Titles

• Layout: Navigation: some combo of categories, search, dated archives, most popular posts list, etc .

• Measurement

Blog: Promotion/Traffic Strategy• Post to FB/email/Twitter

• Share buttons on each post - email, Facebook, Twitter

• Like button – Facebook Social Plugin

• Use Keywords to maximize SEO

• Don’t forget images – humor in images is good

• Get on the radar screen for the popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo! by submitting your blog's URL to them

• Use and update your blogroll – add links to sites you like in your blogroll, the owners of those blogs will find your blog and will be likely to add a reciprocal link in their blogrolls. It's an easy way to get the link to your blog in front of many readers on other blogs

• Harness the Power of Comments - respond to comments left on your blog to show your readers that you value their opinions and draw them into a two-way conversation. This will increase reader loyalty. Then leave comments on other blogs to drive new traffic. Make sure you leave your blog's URL in your comment, so you create a link back to your own blog

• Syndicate Your Blog's Content with an RSS Feed to make it easy for your loyal readers to not just read your blog but also know when you publish new content

• Tag Your Posts - easily noticed by search engines. They're also key to helping readers find your blog when they perform searches on popular blog search engines such as Technorati

• Submit Your Posts to Social Bookmarking Sites – Take the time to submit your best posts to social bookmarking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit

Facebook Social Plugin for Blog

• Extends Facebook to your blog

• Lives on the bottom

• Highly customizable

• Lets folks “like” and post on your wall WITHOUT leaving your blog

• Wibiya.com

– Get 'Facebook Fan Page' and 'Facebook Like Button' add-ons

Example: Blog Social Plugin

Blog: Community Strategy

• Monitor comments

• Respond to comments

• Reward most frequent commenters

Blog Measurement

• Unique and total pageviews

• Clicks from FB, Twitter to Blog

• Comments on FB, RTs on Twitter

• Blog comments

• Shares