Why do you have a Facebook page?

Many companies like yours have a Facebook page because someone said “you should have a Facebook page”. They created one quickly because they thought it would be a ‘good idea’.

It is, so long as you’re already providing excellent value and your customers are already recommending you to all their family and friends. That’s when Facebook can really shine for you, as it’ll be a natural extension to your current marketing efforts. (By the way, if you’re not providing good value to your customers, go take care of that first, otherwise word-of-mouth will go against you!)

However, merely having a static Facebook page won’t do you very much good. A highly engaging Facebook fan page will build brand loyalty and will pay huge long-term dividens.

A highly engaging Facebook fan page is one where

• your current and prospective customers feel valued, respected & included
• the culture and experience is consistent with brand
• fans come to depend on your page as a source for information or a particular kind of experience
• content is regular, relevant, timely & fresh.

[Hat tip to Mari Smith for sharing these four principles of a highly engaged Facebook fan page, at the Facebook Success Summit 2010]

So how do you build a highly engaged Facebook fan page and delve into the power of Facebook’s word-of-mouth marketing?

Facebook page fans can engage with you in one of four ways:

1. on their news feed
2. on your page wall
3. on the page tabs (or apps)
4. on the Facebook open graph or via social plugins

Today we’ll focus our attention on your page wall.

Status Updates on your Facebook Page

Your status updates can consist of text, links, photo and video. The moment you put up a status update, it will show up on your fan’s Facebook news feed. If they click ‘like’ or leave a comment on that update, then chances are high that all their Facebook friends would also see it on their news feeds too.

The more engaging your status update, the greater the chance of having interaction with that update, and therefore, greater word-of-mouth marketing for your business.

So what does it take to create a highly engaging status update and Facebook fan page?

In my view, status updates come in one of two flavours:

1. informational updates
2. anecdotal updates

(1) Informational Status Updates on your Facebook Page

These are simple nuggets of information to do with your business, such as details of your products, services, opening times, location, etc. It’s also an opportunity to share links and resources to help educate your fans and give them the solutions to problems they’re currently facing.

Here are some examples of informational status updates:

Vision One 2 One: Great new designer ranges just arrived vogue, D&G, polo, ralph lauren, gucci a very affordable prices. Book your free eyetest now. call 020 86215948

Indulge Dessert Lounge: We’re now open Monday to Thursday 7am to 10pm, Saturdays 10am to 11pm, and Sundays 11am to 8pm

Best Go Private: If you or a member of your family work or have worked in the past for a charity, in the public sector, the army, police force, a doctor perhaps (some other occupation types apply) discounted medical insurance with some of the best benefits in the UK is now available. Big savings can be made at renewal. More info available.

(2) Anecdotal Status Updates on your Facebook Page

These are the fun updates that give your current and prospective customers an insight into the business’ values, and the atmosphere they would expect when they come to see you.

Vision One 2 One Opticians: It was a pleasure today to see an 80yr old woman who came in for her eyetest. She was very relieved to see that we spoke gujarati, so she could explain her concerns well. She was then pleasantly surprised to find out that we can refer for cataract operations to be done very soon instead of the previous long waiting times.

Indulge Dessert Lounge: Yesterday we sold a shared dessert. A Belgian white chocolate fondue, served with fresh strawberries, chopped waffle peices, nuts and marsh mallows. It looked and smelled delicious, the customers loved it. What would you like in yours?

Best Go Private: An elderly couple contacted me because they had been offered medical insurance by another broker at half the cost of their existing policy & they were told it was like for like. They weren’t told that it did not cover her husband’s existing heart condition which would have been excluded. Before buying medical insurance seek a second opinion & try to double check the advice you’ve been given.

(BONUS) A blend of informational and anedcotal in one update

These are the really special updates where you are able to share information of value while giving your current and prospective customers a feel for the character of your business.

Indulge Dessert Lounge: It’s so chilly out there today! Even Alex has been wearing his jacket whenever he’s had to pop out for a bit. Come round to Indulge, relax here with your friends, and settle in with a warm mug of hot chocolate (specially made from the chocolate fondue).

Mixing up the Status Updates

Text updates are great, but don’t just stick to text. Mix it up! Fans love photos, videos and links to other resources.

If you run a cafe or dessert lounge, then post up a picture of the latest dessert that you’ve started serving. Better still, create a short video of you making the most delicious sweet and savoury crepes, and post that up. I wouldn’t be surprised if you get customers dropping in that evening because they “hadn’t yet decided on plans for the evening”, saw your status update with a photo or video, (via one of their friends’ Facebook feeds!), and decided to come and check out the desserts that evening.

If you are an optometrists, get some of your favourite patients to model your latest range of specs, take some snaps and post them up on your Facebook page. Get your page fans to give each frame a star rating of 1 to 5, and ask them to give a reason. Then respond to people’s comments with your own anaylsis of which frames would suit what kind of face – this gives your current and prospective patients an insight into how you’ll take care of their family when they bring them for an eye test and to get glasses.

If you are running a holiday resort, take a short video footage of different parts of your resort (the rooms, the restaurant, the beach front, etc) and upload those short raw clips onto your Facebook page – your past guests will have nostalgic moments and will want to return to your resort, and may even entice their friends to visit your too.

This needn’t be hard work. Just spend a minimum of 5 minutes a day on Facebook. Put up 3 status updates each day if you can, but just one a day will do for now, and you can increase that over time.

What if people leave comments?

Great! That’s precisely what you want. An engaged fan base.

First and foremost, if the comment is spam or derogatory, then you can delete it, anytime.

However, with genuine comments, respond to each and every one. At the bare minimum, acknowledge them: use their name and say thanks. Your time is the greatest gift you can give to others. Or write a comment in response to their comment. Or ask them a question back if you want clarity or want them to expand on what they said.

Do whatever it takes to communicate that you really appreciate them taking the time to share a comment and that you are listening. The beauty of this is that you learn so much about what your customers want, and so you know how you can best serve them over time.

What better way to get build customer relationships while doing market research?

Ongoing Facebook Marketing Support

Hopefully with the information above, you’ll now have the inspiration you need to keep writing status updates. If you need a Facebook page created or some ongoing support, through regular training or mentoring, then get in touch – email suraj@totalmarketingcontrol.com

When looking through your site statistics using Google Analytics, you may be perplexed about what “bounce rate” means.

According to Wikipedia, bounce rate “represents the percentage of initial visitors to a site who “bounce” away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site”. (source)

This video from Google helps give an understanding of bounce rates and why they are useful:

One of the recommended ways to reduce bounce rate is by writing effective web headlines. Google offers the following Five Tips for Writing Effective Web Headlines:

According to the Wikipedia article about Bounce Rate, “While bounce rate is a useful tool for e-commerce sites, it is of more questionable value for sites such as news and information, where many visitors go to scan headlines and conduct research, and can find what they want immediately on the entry page. Indeed, for any kind of informational site, sophisticated users are likely to bookmark a page within the site, which then becomes their personal entry page, check it (e.g., for sports scores, etc.), then bounce right off. The page will have done its job, but might still have a bounce rate above 80%, bringing up the average for the whole site. For such sites, metrics such as returning visitors vs. new visitors might be more informative and should be used to understand the overall picture better.”

One of the most effective ways of building your reputation is by demonstrating thought leadership about your sector which would indirectly shine a light on your services. The most effective ways of doing this is at live events, or providing education through video.

Sawan Gosrani of Video Sound and Photo, shares his process for leveraging pre-filmed video content so that you can demonstrate thought leadership in your business via your website and other online channels such as YouTube.

For several years, you have been producing online video content for clients. In your experience, what has been the number one reason that clients want video content for their websites?

Videos for business or personal use should never be underestimated. There are endless possibilities for the application of video. Think about this: A picture is worth a thousand words. How many pictures can you get from a 3 minute video? 10? 100? More?

It comes down to what you want to portray to your viewers. A lot of clients use video content on their websites for many different reasons such as education, promotion, testimonials, training… The list goes on. For the most part, the video content is used for education. People film events or interviews to pass on value to their readers. Yes they get paid for providing that value but there are many who go above and beyond the level of value that most people need, and I think that’s fantastic!

For educational videos, what is the process involved in producing a video that meets the client’s requirements?

Most clients require only basic editing. Every editor has their own style of editing. Here is mine:

1. Assess the video and the style of presentation
2. Crop the start and end sections to clean the video up a bit
3. Adjust the colour, temperature, and exposure on the video to make it a better viewing experience
4. Insert transitions to fade in and fade out
5. Insert images/title screens at the start and credits at the end.
6. Insert the slides related to the video (most people miss this out and they think that it will do but the viewer appreciates it much more if the slides are incorporated into the video)
7. Adjust the sound quality
8. Render the video into the format best suited for the client’s website.

In your opinion, what can the client do to make the process smoother and quicker?

The main points are for the client to have a clear vision in their head about the end result that they want. If they know that, and can be flexible on it, then it’s easier for editors like myself to get creative with it.

Providing the correct slides for insertion, providing music which they want incorporated rather than trying to figure out what they want and trying to source it, and providing pictures and exact text for the titles and credits really helps.

As long as the client knows the process and a clear line of communication can be established, an hour long video can be edited, created and up on their server for use on their website within a day.

How else can a client use video on their website, and why?

In terms of other uses, the list is endless. Just a few examples are:

• Testimonials
• Educational/Training videos
• Promotional videos
• Process videos (showing the production of items step by step)
• Catalogues
• Showcases
• … any many more

The best form of video for the marketing of your business, in my opinion, has to be testimonials! If you can get 4 to 5 testimonials up on your site with positive feedback about the product or service, then your sales will increase immensely. Nothing comes close to positive word-of-mouth advertising and with videos you can put a face to the voice and see that it is a REAL person providing the testimonial.

Sawan Gosrani, Director of VideoSoundandPhoto.com, has a number of years of experience in the filming industry. His main focus is on seminar, workshop, meeting and event filming.

With experience in many situations, and his wide client base, Sawan is able to adapt his style of filming and editing to the clients’ needs whilst providing the support and flexibility required to produce a high level end result.

His team of multi-talented individuals, can provide you with photography, sound engineering, design, filming and editing for all your needs.

The reasons for blogging are clear. A blog is a platform for companies to make statements about who they are, what they do, and make comments about the sectors in which they operate. A corporate blog is a central resource through which to demonstrate thought-leadership and therefore attract more interest in their services. It’s also a reliable online space on which to host a conversation around the topics that matter most to them and those they serve.

Once a decision has been made to start publishing regular blog posts, it’s easy to set up a blog on one of the many free hosted blogging sites available such as the Google owned www.blogger.com and ever-popular www.wordpress.com. However, look beneath the hood and you’ll find that by taking just a extra few small steps, you’ll be on a much better path if you set up a self-hosted WordPress blog.

Here are some benefits of self-hosting your blog using the WordPress platform rather than letting WordPress host it for you on their free package

• upload your own theme: I highly recommend the Thesis theme for WordPress which not only is highly visually clear and configurable, but it is technically very heavily search engine optimised compared to the limited theme options available on WordPress.com. The self-hosted WordPress blog lets you upload your own themes, while the blog hosted by WordPress doesn’t.
• upload your own plugins: When visitors come to your site, you want them to be able to keep them there through plugins that point them to related posts as well as other site engagement features. The self-hosted WordPress blog lets you do that, while the blog hosted by WordPress doesn’t.
• own your content: terms and conditions change all the time – don’t be bound by them. At what point will a third party blog host decide that they now own your content? Don’t risk it. Own your own content.
• host it on your own domain to help your corporate website rise up in search engine rankings and keep it looking professional on your own domain rather than a 3rd party web link

So what’s involved in having a self-hosted WordPress blog?

1. get a domain name for the blog. I use GoDaddy. Costs around $10 USD per year
2. get a hosting account. I recommend Dreamhost for hosting of unlimited domains (and they give you one free domain so you don’t need to do step 1). Costs around $120 USD per year
3. point the domain name to your web host’s servers
4. install the WordPress platform & configure the settings
5. select a theme or upload one of your choice. I highly recommend the Thesis for WordPress theme.
6. select the right theme colours and upload your logo to match your corporate brand
7. install plugins to make the site more engaging for your visitors

Remember to regularly backup your blog posts so you don’t lose your wealth of customer-attracting content – backups are very easy to do within WordPress.

Recommended reading: 6 Steps for Setting Up A WordPress Site, in 20 Minutes [with pictures!] (via @ChandeshParekh)

All forms of online communication and engagement have their place. Blogging has it’s own special place and so does twitter.

Social media tools such as twitter and facebook may help get the message to the right audience for now, but you can’t control whether tomorrow they will stay or whether they will go.

Your self-hosted blog (a blog which is set up on your own domain) is here to stay, on your own platform, where you make the rules. Once you publish your post, it can be announced on twitter or facebook, no problem.

In this video, Jeff Bullas explains why your should blog before you twitter:

The core concepts in this video are expanded on his blog post “20 Reasons Why You Should Blog Before You Twitter“

As I spend some time each day tuning into the latest developments in marketing, I was curious about what some of my closest friends and associates use to keep themselves informed about current marketing practices and trends.

Here’s a selection of what I was told about:

• GaryVaynerchuk.com
• Fora.tv
• Scobleizer.com (Robert Scobles blog – I’ve been told his twitter lists are second to none)
• Mashable.com
• Seth Godin’s blog
• The Guardian’s tech weekly podcast

Additional recommended reading is:

• PaidContent.org
• TechCruch.com
• JeffBulas’ blog
• Social Media Examiner
• Social Mediopolis

Thanks to Raj Kotecha (@RajLoveSoul) and Chandesh Parekh (@ChandeshParekh) for the recommendations.

Which blogs / podcasts / vidcasts would you recommend to stay informed about marketing practices and trends?

Mark Kobayashi-Hillary writes ‘The SocialITe’ blog for Computer Weekly, focused on the enterprise use of social media. I asked him to give me an introduction to effective tagging of online content.

What is tagging and why is it so important?

Tagging creates a searchable description of the content. It’s easy to go out and search for content when it’s just text, like a news story or a blog, but if you are searching for a photo or video then you will only find it if the content creator has attached some descriptive tags.

For videos which are hosted online, such as on YouTube, what is more important out of video title and video tags, and why?

The title is something that stands out when the video is listed in search results, so that is important, but it is the effective use of the tags themselves that will help the content to be found in the first place.

Then where do photo or video titles and descriptions come in? How do you make them most effective?

Try to be direct about the content in the title. Imagine what would make you select the video if it was one of many in a list of results. The description is just an opportunity to add some narrative explaining the content of the video. It’s important to give a good description of course, but talking about “Dave and Sandra’s wedding” in a description is entirely different to the tags you might use.

When tagging photos and videos, how do you know what tags to use?

As I just mentioned, tagging can be directly descriptive or more oblique. For example, in the wedding video, you might want to tag the happy couple by including their names as tags because they are clearly in the video, but then you might tag the video with some more generic tags such as WEDDING, HAPPINESS, LOVE, CHURCH – that’s assuming you take the view that getting married is a happy event! You may also add some geographic references and even a postcode. When I shoot videos near to my home in west London I will almost always include EALING LONDON W5 as tags, because then the area itself is also associated with the video.

Put simply, try tagging your content with what is directly in the image, what it signifies or is related to, and where it is taking place – with those simple pointers you can create really good tags that ensure your content is found easily.

Mark Kobayashi-Hillary writes ‘The SocialITe’ blog for Computer Weekly, focused on the enterprise use of social media. His ‘Talking Outsourcing’ blog in Computing was even turned into a book-of-a-blog in 2009. Mark has written several books about technology and globalisation, including ‘Global Services’, ‘Who Moved My Job?’, and ‘Building a Future with BRICs’. He is a visiting lecturer at London South Bank University.