Mari Smith's 2016 Facebook Tips and Trends

Facebook marketing expert, Mari Smith, recently offered some great Facebook tips and trends to look for in 2016 during her presentation at the Inbound conference in Boston. Here are a few useful pieces of information that I took away:

1.  Mari discussed three critical Facebook trends:

•  Facebook is disrupting TV and video. Will Facebook overtake YouTube? As of September 2014, Facebook's share of video posts was approaching YouTube's.  The new Facebook Live is a live-streaming feature that's only available to celebrity Pages right now. Strategize how to use live video for your business.
• There will be a stronger emphasis on Messenger for Business. Facebook predicts that businesses will be using Messenger for all kinds of customer communication and transactions. Messenger will essentially serve as an inbox to connect with customers.
•  Brand storytelling: Use Facebook to put the spotlight on your customers, to feature case studies, to use video, and to be more "people centric".

2. Mari also focused on Facebook marketing mistakes that businesses are making:

•  Making posts overly promotional
•  Targeting the wrong audience
• Using only the Boost button
• Promoting posts without a measurable ROI
• Not having an effective landing page to tie in with your ads
• Advertising without using a tracking pixel

3. Regarding content and engagement, Mari recommends that your posts either entertain, inform or prompt a call to action. Here are a few of her common sense content tips:

•  Personalize your posts (write in first person when possible)
•  Address people who comment by name
• Use humor
• Always be prompt in responding to comments/questions

4. While organic reach is on the decline, here are some ways to maximize it:

•  Post more native video
•  Try posting outside business hours
• Mix up post types and post lengths
• Repost popular posts
• Include "@" tags of other Pages
• Drive traffic from other sources
• Embed posts and videos in your blog

Are you using any of these techniques effectively? What other trends do you see on Facebook?

Steps to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy and Plan

With the massive number of people actively participating in online social communities, it's become a necessity for your business to get organized with your social media marketing.  As social media continues to change the way people communicate, it is an increasingly important tool for small businesses.

Here are some steps and tips to help you get started:

1. Define Your Goals

It's critical to specifically define what you want to achieve through social media. Your goals for social media should relate to your overall goals for your business and tie in with your sales and marketing plans.

For example, you may want to use social media to:

• Build your brand-name recognition and credibility
• Execute online customer support - answering questions about products/services
• Increase sales through offers
• Drive traffic to your web site or a landing page
• Promote a new line of products

2. Define Your Target Audience and Where You'll Find Them

A business must have a clear understanding of who they are targeting.  Find out which social media channels your audiences prefer and what information they read, share and post.

If you need help figuring out where to find your target markets, check out research organizations such as Pew Research Center that publish valuable studies with this data.

3. Competitive Analysis

Check out your competitor's social media pages! Where are they and what kind of presence do they have?  How can you position your company in relation to the competition? Use a competitive analysis to help craft your own social media strategy and plan.

4. Content Strategy and Plan

Your content strategy needs to directly support your goals. For instance, if your goal is to increase sales through offers, then you might implement a strategy to issue a monthly discount coupon to existing customers or an introductory discount to new customers.

Also consider developing useful information that's of interest to your target audiences. Choose three to five hot topics or categories of information that you'll post about. Your content should be relevant and fresh, and focus on the clients rather than on your company. What does your audience want to read? What do they want to learn? Remember to plan a variety of content types( text, article links, photos, video, coupons, etc.)

-Posting Frequency

Instead of posting randomly, decide how often you'll post on each network . Remember- consistency is key.

-Create a Content Calendar

To ensure that you cover all the topics that you intend to, and that you pay attention to all of your chosen social medial platforms, consider creating an editorial calendar. Try using an Excel spreadsheet to plan out and outline what, when and where you'll be posting. Try using a social media management and scheduling application such as Hootsuite to schedule posts to social media sites in advance.

5. Track Your Progress

Measure your social media results based on the objectives you set. Check your each social media site's analytics such as click throughs (number of people who took action on your post) and click through rates (percentage of people who click on your offer out of all the people who saw it),

Make it easier to track your results by including a call to action in each campaign or on each platform. Use a unique promotion code or develop targeted landing pages.

In today’s connected world, where customers research purchases online and seek recommendations from friends and family, it is in the best interest of most small businesses to not only have a social media presence but an organized plan to get results.

Sources: Social Media Examiner and Investopedia/Jean Folger

Facebook: Pages for Business vs. Personal Profiles

I've recently come across clients, prospects and business associates who are contemplating whether or not to use their Facebook personal profile for business purposes. While it can sometimes be cumbersome to maintain more than one page, there are many reasons and benefits to using a Facebook Page for business.

If you are using your Facebook personal profile to promote a business you could risk having your page shut down by Facebook (it's in violation of their rules). But you're also missing out on the tools and capabilities that are only offered to Pages for business. Here are a few:

1. Facebook Insights

Facebook provides a lot of data to help you analyze how well you're reaching your fan base, the best times to post and which content gets the best response, just to name a few things. But Insights are only available for Pages, not Profiles.

2. Advertising

If your posts are only reaching a small percentage of your fans, Facebook offers Pages various advertising options. Even with a limited budget you can get greater engagement from your fan base through advertising via Promoted Posts, Marketplace Ads and Sponsored Stories.

3. Facebook Offers

For Pages with over 400 fans, create an offer (a special deal or promotion, for example) that can be redeemed online or in person. Limit the number of offers and set an expiration date. When someone takes advantage of your offer, all of their friends see it creating a viral effect. This is great for both product and service based businesses. 

4. Schedule Future Posts

Did you know that you can set up content to post at future dates and times with a Facebook Page?While many people use third party tools to do this, you can now schedule future posting from within Facebook.

5. Manage your Page with Admins

Give employees or social media consultants access to help manage your business' Page by making each of them an Admin. With Profiles, you must give out your personal login and password in order to give access to your page.

There are many other benefits of using a Page for business vs. using a personal Profile. Click here for more information on Pages from Facebook.  Comment here with your thoughts.