• Why We Removed our Blog Feed from Facebook

  By Laurel Miltner | Posted Mar 3, 2010 | 7 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

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  Yesterday, we decided to remove PR 20/20’s blog feed from our Facebook Page.

  Originally, we had added the feed to our Notes tab, and all blog posts were automatically uploaded to Facebook via RSS. The downside to this, in our opinion, was that all blog posts were indexed as notes in Facebook. When someone clicked on a link to a post that came through on their wall, they were taken to our Facebook Notes, not our blog.

  Why did we care? For several reasons, the biggest being that we want people to read our blog in its intended context. The formatting on Facebook looks fine, but without tags or categories associated with a post, it’s hard for people to find more information on a topic of interest. Also, navigating to our blog from Facebook Notes is kind of a hassle that requires several clicks, whereas if someone is taken straight to the post on our blog, it’s easy to find additional information (assuming they like what the read), such as:

  • Other posts we’ve written on the topic
  • Other posts by the author
  • Information about our bloggers
  • Our most popular blog posts

  These are all ways that we hope to provide value to our readers, and they just got lost on Facebook. So, from here on out, we're going to spend the extra minute or so per blog article to manually post it to our Facebook Page.

  Of course, as a marketer, there are other issues we considered such as inbound links and accurate information about how many people are reading our blog, but at the end of the day it really came down to giving people the most valuable experience with our content possible.

  At least, that’s what we think. But what do YOU think? Did any of you come here from Facebook, and get confused/annoyed coming to the site? Did we interrupt your flow by taking you away from Facebook? Please, let us know how you prefer to see our posts, and if we were wrong to make this update, we’ll revert back to the Notes RSS feed.

  Now, for anyone who’s considering removing their RSS feed from Facebook:

  It took several weeks for us to make this decision, because in researching the process, we found no information about what would happen to the existing content on our Facebook page (i.e. all the blog posts that had already been fed to Facebook). Thanks to Alana Munro (@dawgpndgirl) and Ellie Mirman (@ellieeille) for your insight during this phase of this process.

  Well, about 30 hours after removing the feed, all existing posts are still indexed as notes and on our wall. 

  Here’s how to remove your RSS feed from Facebook, if you so desire:

  1. Go to your Notes tab.
  2. Click “see more notes” at the bottom.
  3. In “Notes Settings” click “edit import settings.”
     
  4. Click “Stop importing.”

  

  Laurel Miltner is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm (where she also happens to be the blog editor). Follow Laurel on Twitter @laurelmackenzie.
  
  

   Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed, or become our fan on Facebook to get updates there.

• Getting Started on Facebook: Five Tips to Maximize your Company's Page

  By Lyndsey Walker | Posted Aug 14, 2009 | 4 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

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  Facebook is everywhere. Since its founding in 2004, the free social networking tool has grown to more than 250 million active users. And though Facebook has a reputation of college-age users, more than half of them are out of college, and about 34 percent of users work as professionals, executives, educators or are in sales or technical careers.

  In fact, the fastest-growing demographic is 35 years or older, according to Facebook, while Techno-Marketer states the fastest-growing demographic on Facebook is 50+, followed closely by the 41-45 age group.
  
  Either way, your audience is on Facebook and if you’re not, you’re missing an opportunity to connect with them.

  Below I’ve listed five tips to maximize your Facebook Page and better communicate with your audience.
  

  1. Build a Strong Fan Base

  Facebook Pages can be used by businesses to post news, links and live content, and more importantly, to connect with customers and potential customers. Your Business Page is a great tool to drive traffic back to your Website and a way to reach out to other businesses.

  • Build it To Get Found: Give your Page a title using your company name and priority keywords wherever possible — your page can rank in search engines. Also, be sure to select the most appropriate category for your business when creating your Page.
  • Make it Unique: Customize the tabs on your Page to fit your business, including Info, Photos, Videos, Events, Discussions and Boxes tabs.
  • Publish Fresh Content: To attract fans, generate original and unique content on industry trends, news or product reviews. Create videos to engage visitors and start discussion boards.
  • Invite Fans: Invite customers, colleagues, friends, family and business associates in your network to fan your Page. And, remember to become a fan yourself!
  • Host Contests, Giveaways: According to Facebook, research by Forrester shows that contests, giveaways and promotions are the fastest ways to build fans to your page.

  Once you build up your fan base, be sure to only post content that is interesting or in some way beneficial to fans. Avoid being too promotional.
  

  2. Get Found Easily with Vanity URLs

  Once your Facebook Page gains 100 fans, your business page is eligible to register a custom URL. This will simplify and shorten your Facebook URL, helping you get found easier. For example, instead of this long, confusing URL: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/Cleveland-OH/PR-2020/97879779232, PR 20/20 now is able to use: www.Facebook.com/PR2020.
  
  With cleaner URLs, Facebook Pages can be better promoted on business cards, email signatures, social networks such as Twitter, and ad space and sales collateral.
  

  3. Collaborate and Connect with Facebook Applications

  Facebook applications are a great way to collaborate, network and do business through your Page.
  
  Facebook has more than 52,000 available applications on its platform. There are Facebook apps available for everything, including Twitter, Wordpress, Google Reader, etc. But where should businesses begin? Start with the following, and build from there.

  • Add the RSS Feed application to incorporate your blog.
  • Add the LinkedIn Profile application to promote your LinkedIn account by posting a badge on your Page.
  • Add the Twitter application to incorporate your Tweets.

  Then, visit Mashable.com’s post on the 30+ Apps for Doing Business on Facebook.
  

  4. Gain Exposure by Getting Everyone Involved

  Don’t just put up a Business Page and forget about it. Monitor the feeds, make updates and discuss industry trends, product reviews and relevant events. Encourage employees to be active and participate on your Page. Remember, the more people involved on Facebook, the more exposure your company will receive.

  With fresh content and lots of activity, your Page will build in strength and become successful — no one will follow a stagnate page. Another great way to join the conversation is get involved in other Facebook groups and become fans of other Business Pages.

  5. Drive Traffic with Facebook Social Ads

  Advertise on Facebook to gain more exposure and drive a significant amount of qualified traffic to your Page. Because of the personal nature of Facebook, the ads program allows advertisers to target their ads to concise market segments, such as niche demographics, interests, hobbies, music, etc.
  
  For example, since I’m listed as “engaged” on my personal profile, targeted ads such as wedding photographers, custom invitations, weight-loss programs, real estate for first-time homebuyers and more appear on my Profile. 
  
  Below are a few tips to remember when building your Social Ads:

  • Write clear, targeted ads with concise text that speaks directly to the audience you will reach. The title can have up to 25 characters, and the body can have up to 135 characters.
  • Put an attractive and relevant image in your ad that is appropriate for the product/service, event, etc., being advertised. Images will be resized to fit in a 110px wide by 80px high box.
  • Target ads to profiles using your priority keywords.

  There are many ways to maximize your Facebook Page. Do you have other ideas or tips to share that you’ve found effective? I’d like to hear about them. Please let me know by commenting below, or connecting with us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pr2020.
  
  Additional Blog Posts and Resources:

  How to Use Facebook for Business ebook

  Six Tips for Maximizing Your LinkedIn Profile
  
  Twitter Strategy: The Incomplete Guide for Beginners

  Lyndsey Walker is a Consultant for PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. After five years in the journalism field, she is happy to have made the switch to public relations. Follow my updates on Twitter: @lyndseyfrey.

   

   

   

• Selling to the Future (Part 3 of 5): Facebook is life for college students and beyond

  By Christina | Posted Jun 30, 2008 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Internet Marketing

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  (Part 3 of a 5-part blog series on Selling to the Future) 

  Supporting the instinctive trait of gathering in groups, Facebook is a social utility and virtual society complete with social hierarchy, friendship, competition, and user-generated online groups, events and applications.  
  
  To a marketer, it’s a demographically and psychographically obvious place to target efforts.
  
  Facebook also has more than 600 million searches per month making it one of the top 20 search engines.
  
  According to a January 2008 HubSpot.com webinar, “Facebook for Businesses,” Facebook has more than 59 million active users, averaging 250,000 new users each day since January 2007.  More than half are out of college with the fastest growing demographic 25 or older. More than half of active users return daily.
  
  Business Uses for Facebook

  • Create a profile, recruit friends
  • Create a business group, recruit fans
  • Use News feeds to make announcements, show activity, gain friends/fans
  • Buy Facebook social ads
  • Conduct Facebooks polls
  • Participate in the Marketplace
  • Schedule and promote events, invite attendees
  • Build your profile and make connections with consumers
  • Viral marketing, generating traffic and creating links

  Facebook Marketing

  • Facebook has a virtual shop of graphic gifts to purchase and send to friends.  Companies have harnessed this gift-giving power to promote brands, Website products, events, film and TV releases and more, usually offering free gifts as opposed to the typical $1 cost.

  • This prom season, Sears used Facebook for friends to share fashions and recreate the dress shopping experience online.  Sears supported the effort to recreate the mall experience for today’s social networking teen through Facebook ads and retail signage. Click here for full article.

  • According to an article on The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur Website, 41 percent of the teens that use MySpace, Facebook or other social network sites say they send messages to friends via those sites every day. 

  The first step is to visit the site and build from there. The very life of your future Internet marketing strategy may depend on it.

  
  

  Social Networking Continued

  Facebook is currently the number two social networking site behind MySpace, but the landscape of social networking is constantly evolving and segmenting.  Google has recently entered the ring with its beta “Friend Connect,” which lets the sites of musicians, political campaigns and others incorporate profile data from several social networks.  And you can’t overlook the wildly popular, and recently $1 billion valuated,  LinkedIn for professionals social networking site.  Plus, Ning allows you to create your own free social network!

  Keep a pulse on what’s next in social networking and who’s ahead in the fight for top social status.  
  
  Sources: Facebook.com, Hubspot.com, Thebabyboomerentreprenuer.com, retailmarketingblog.com, Wikipedia.com, Google.com

  Part 1 - Connect to convert

  Part 2 - Learn your XYZs

  Part 3 - Facebook is life for college students and beyond

  Part 4 - Blogging in business (coming soon)

  Part 5 - Don't call us, we'll text u (coming soon)

   

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