Different Ways to Humanize Your Brand On Social Media

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Due to the enormous use of social networks, many companies have benefited from different ways they can implement social media into their brand culture. Humanizing your brand means communicating and/or interacting with each customer on a personal level in order to build relationships with your audience. Many companies’ use social media but lack in creating that vital bond that is crucial to a social media campaign and for brand loyalty.

Following are the different ways you can humanize your brand on social media:

Show you are real!

Put your name on all your posts, blogs, tweets or status updates. It gives a real touch to all your postings and people will be able to differentiate between real postings and robot or an automated stream of sales pitches and company news. Don’t be afraid to make and admit your mistakes. It will only prove that you are human. Also you can be professional without being overly formal. Being funny and using layman’s terms makes the audience more comfortable and they can better understand you. Let people see what the inside and outside of your office and the employees who work at your company look like in their working environment.

Show You Care!

Everyone needs praise and acknowledge feeling good about them. According to author Michael Brito in his book Smart Business, “while many organizations are trying desperately to humanize their brand, they are failing to understand that they need to humanize their business first.” In simple terms, your employees are the most authentic expression of your brand.

Customer is the King!

Some brands treat their customers as the face of the company. They use their social media website to acknowledge their customers and fans by posting their photos and/or videos. Nothing makes a person feel better than being honored especially by a company. Be polite and thank people when they follow you or comment on your post. This will help you engage your fans and shows that you actually care about each and every customer on an individual basis. Find a way to give kudos to your loyal fans!

Time is now, the Present!

Having a social media presence is not the start and end. One has to be active on these sites in order to attract and engage more customers and get a larger audience. Social media sites are one way of communicating with your audience on a more personally and less official level. Brands that foster the culture and processes required to engage in widespread conversations can create vibrant customer communities.

Hear and be heard!

Keeping one’s ears open is always useful. One has to pay close attention to what is being said about them in the cyber world. Most of the time, people neglect the importance of listening. After, you listen you can get involved in the conversation. Obtaining and responding to user feedback is one of the quickest ways of maintaining this social relationship and lets your fans know that you not only care, but consider them to be important. This makes them feel a personally connection with you and makes them feel heard.

Engage your fans by asking and answering questions provide them with relevant content and links to articles or retweet people and comment on blog posts. Connect with people in meaningful conversations. People like to know that their being heard!

Reasons Facebook Brand Pages Are Good for Businesses

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With the new Facebook Timeline for business, majority of the people are skeptical about it being a change for the good. In reality this new layout has many great opportunities for all the brands and businesses, especially if they use it properly to merchandise their brands.

More branding area

On the old Facebook layout, applications were not prominent. They were small icons and text on the left side under the avatar image which were often overlooked.

In the new Facebook timeline layout the number of Likes, events and apps are brought to the top-and-center area of the page where it attracts the much-needed attention. Brands and business can say more with the cover photo option which is the first thing a user sees when they land on the page.

 

New rules for the cover photo include the following:

  1. You cannot include any price or purchase information.
  2. You cannot include contact information, web address or email.
  3. You cannot ask people to Like or Share your page.
  4. You cannot include a call to action

Say bye-bye to stale and out-dated news and conversations

With the new Timeline layout, brands and businesses will need to post new and up-to-date posts for their audience. A post can also be “pinned” at the top of the Timeline for almost a week.

Let Your Customers Bring Customers… Incentivise!

Smart brands and businesses will look to engage their audience by actively encouraging comments on their posts by polls or publishing content which entices participation.

Use the canvas area to the fullest

The new Facebook pages give an opportunity to showcase one’s brand and products, starting with the cover photo. Be creative and attract customers by telling your story as well as theirs e.g. Dunkin’ Donuts have started a campaign of updating their cover photo each week with a photo of the fan of the week.

 

Think beyond “cover photo” to the total picture. Your profile image can be part of your cover photo if you design it well.

Advanced Insights and Tools

With the new Insights, page owners can track how a post is doing almost in real-time i.e. within five to ten minutes after publishing, allowing them to immediately tweak their posts depending on how they are performing. Some other new or enhanced analytical tools include:

  • People Talking About Engagement: This is the total number of people that have engaged in any way with your page, including users liking your page, commenting on or sharing a post from your page, or answering a question you’ve asked on your page.
  • Friends of Fans: This is the total number of friends all your fans have meaning how many people you are reaching. Use this feature to spread your brand name across the globe to millions of people who could be your potential customers.
  • Reach: This is the total number of people who have seen content associated with your page. Understanding how far and wide messages are traveling will enable brands and businesses to optimize their content to generate maximum reach.
  • Virality: This is the percentage of people who saw a story from your Page and “talked about it.” Again, knowing what’s being shared can help sellers assess what is actually of interest to their fans and customers.

9 Ways to Attract New Customers via Social Media

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Businesses and brands can use social media to not only promote themselves, but also grow their businesses.But, then, how can one convert random Twitter of Facebook users into real-life customers?

Here are 9 ways, which can help you attract new customers via social media.

1. Search – Be on a Look Out

There are over 835 million Facebook users and over 340 million tweets sent every day. Chances are that some of the users are talking about you.On Facebook, you can know how many via the ‘People talking about this’ option on your Facebook page; and on Twitter you can know using the Twitter handle or a hashtag.

However, there may be instances when people don’t hashtag you, then in this case you can use a third-party tool, called TweetDeck, to search for your name.You can use it to search particular items on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google +, LinkedIn, and FourSquare.

By searching the social media channels for anything that may relate to your business and for keywords relevant for your business, there is a very good chance that you may find potential customers.You can somehow convince them about your product or service.

Another way to attract new customers is by finding out who is engaging with your competitors and approach them by giving them special offers to try out your services.

2. Incentivise – Let Your Customers Bring more Customers

Target new customers through your existing customer base by providing incentives through ‘refer a friend’ schemes.You can give the existing customer a referral bonus, a discount, special offer, or a free gift, if they convince his or her friend to register an account with or buy from your business.

You can also give incentives to non-customers to join your fan page and to buy the first few products at a discount, to encourage trial.

3. Be Innovative – Think Out of the Box

For attracting new customers, you need to be innovative and come up with unique ideas or campaigns. Coca Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ campaign in Australia is an excellent example of ingenuity.

Coca-Cola replaced its traditional branding with one of Australia’s 150 most popular first names for a new ad campaign in the country.

They used Facebook to attract people to submit more names. Top 150 names were printed on the Coke bottles and each of the names has also had an individual song written about it, which can be heard on the Facebook page.

People with unusual names were given an opportunity to create a custom can of Cole with their name on it at the various shopping centers.

This campaign shot up Coke’s sales by 4%-5% and attracted a lot of non-users to become users of Coca Cola. It stirred up excitement amongst people as they had fun finding their friends’ and family members’ names and then enjoy sharing a Coke together.

4. Use Images and Videos – Add life to Your Content

One way to make your page, or content lively is to use good quality images and, if possible, videos too.Photos are usually the most engaging updates, followed by videos, plain text posts, and finally links.

Social media users are visual; images in the news feed grab their attention and encourage them to engage with your brand. People usually ‘like’ and ‘comment’ more on images than they do on text statuses on Facebook.

If you want to attract more people towards your social profiles, then try to upload appealing and engaging pictures. The images that you upload can be related to your business or images that reflect the personality of your business – using imagery.However, make sure that the pictures which you use provide a tasteful, professional frame for your copy, not replace it.

You can use:

  • Upload photo feature on Facebook
  • TwitPic on Twitter – You can describe an image with the help of a hashtag
  • Add photos feature on MySpace
  • Add photo option in Google+ – You can target the uploaded photos to specific users by selecting your particular ‘circle of friends’.
  • Instagram App – There is a big Instagram community out there and the app is for free! So why not use it to promote your products and business?

5. Be Different – Add Variety Across Networks

There are so many social platforms out there so it is advisable to have a separate Managing Officer for each channel – and make sure not to repeat the same content everywhere.

As they say, ‘Variety is the spice of life.’ Users need a reason to follow you on different social media – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Four Square, Tumblr, Instagram. If they see the same information on all platforms, then they will most likely ‘unlike’ or ‘unfollow’ you.

So, here’s what you can do. You can use:

  • Facebook for broadcasting and events
  • Twitter for conversation
  • FourSquare for exclusive offers
  • StumbleUpon for sharing interesting facts
  • Instagram for sharing interesting pictures and videos
  • Blogs for the updates and press releases

In short, come up with ideas and promotions that are platform-oriented.

6. Be Personal – Get Intimate with your Customers

The best way to build long-term relationships with your customers is to be intimate with them. Make them feel that they are special. – be personal, get to know them as much as you can and speak to them in personal ways to establish touchpoints that build relationships and create loyalty.

If someone asks a question either on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media, make sure to answer his or her question immediately. You can go as far as Googling the individual to get to know him or her better before replying to his or her query. A little effort of yours can go a long way of creating loyal customers for you.

Apart from this, you can do the following:

  • Celebrate – If you get to know that it is your customer’s of fan’s birthday or anniversary, wish them Happy Birthday and give them a discount or a free gift.
  • Live chats – It is an effective way to be close to and engage with your customers, as you can have real-time conversations with your customers and fans.
  • Say ‘Thank you’ – When a fan or customer praises you, make sure to thank him or her. They will really appreciate this gesture of yours and would be more
  • Don’t ignore negative feedback – Remember that a negative word-of-mouth spreads more quickly than a positive one! But, don’t worry, if someone gives a negative feedback about you or your product, never ignore it. Instead, think of it as an opportunity to convert an unhappy customer into a happy one by addressing his or her complaint. 

7. Host a Competition – Get Things Rolling

What better way to boost your followers and engagement, then to host a competition – occasional contest can spark interest in your customers.

When conducting a contest, make sure that it does not attract the wrong followers. For that, keep the following things in mind:

  • The contest should be interesting to attract attention.
  • Try to build in actions which allow your fans to share the contest with their friends. This would increase virality and in return provide maximum exposure and publicity to your brand.
  • The prize should be valuable for people to participate and it should be related to your product.
  • If it is possible, then ask for their email address as the entry requirement for the contest. The worth of a business is how many people they can ultimately reach.
  • Make sure that the contest is appropriate for the platform, for example, you can have a photography contest on Facebook, or have a wordplay contest on Twitter etc. Zara , a clothing brand, recently, held a competition. They asked their fans to create a look with at least 2 main items from Zara, then to upload their creations, and the winner’s selection would be displayed on Facebook.

8. Bring Your Customers in the Limelight

Loyal customers and fans are the biggest asset for any brand or business.When they are acknowledged by their favorite brand, a customer feels delighted and honored, especially if he or she is your loyal fan.

When a customer is highlighted, they feel special and have a special connection with the brand.

Skittles is highlighting its fan through the ‘Greatest Fan in the World’ contest, by asking them to upload their photos on Facebook, and then other fans would vote the photo.

9. Collaborate  – Promote on other Sites

You can ask another website to promote you on their website; to drive traffic to your page. Choose those sites which cater for a similar audience but who are non-competitive. In return, you can offer to promote them on yours in blogs and on the pages they prefer.

This will help you not only expand your exposure, but also has the added advantage of increasing your Google rankings, which are dependent on other websites linking to yours.

 

 

Got any more tips? Add them in the comments below!

Facebook Is Building a Search Engine

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Ever heard of a social media search engine? According to a report from Bloomberg Businessweek, the social media giant, Facebook is finally taking search more seriously.

The company is reportedly working on incorporating a search engine within the site and has dedicated a team of 20 engineers and this team led by former Google engineer Lars Rasmussen.

This brave move from Facebook was bound to happen after Google became a contender in social media market with Google+.It’s only fair that Facebook would strike back with a search engine of its own. Interestingly enough it seems as if the lines between the two giants are beginning to vanish quicker than anyone’s estimation and the competition intensifying

According to several sources, the idea behind this is to take advantage of Facebook’s 800+ million users and their contents.This new search engine will help people find and search through the volume of content on the social network.With almost billions of status updates and content sharing on Facebook by different users and brands, this project aims to enable users to more easily search through them in a user-friendly and convenient manner.

According to a report co-authored by Douglas MacMillan and Brad Stone; “The goal, they say, is to help users better sift through the volume of content that members create on the site, such as status updates, and the articles, videos, and other information across the Web that people “like” using Facebook’s omnipresent thumbs-up button,”.

“I am aware of rumors that Facebook is working on a search capability that will slowly siphon off Google search customers,” said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

“Search is still the number one use of the Web and is the front door for most users.Facebook obviously owns social networking but needs to rapidly grow through generic search and mobile,” he added

“It’s not surprising that Facebook is working on doing more with search, just as it wasn’t surprising to see Google push forward with Google+,” said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. “Google and Facebook are like scorpions in a bottle.And the bottle is gradually getting smaller and smaller as both expand their reach. Over time, they’re going to be directly competing in pretty much every area.”
“Search is the biggest and most durable killer app on the Web,” said Olds.

“In fact, you could even argue that search is the Web.Owning a successful search engine is one of the keys to the kingdom of Internet riches. Advertisers will flock to you and you can build a lot of ancillary products based on search.If Facebook can build a better search mousetrap, or at least a decent one, they’ll have a much more compelling product to sell to advertisers,” he added.

Olds pointed out that Google has a lot of user data, but not close to what Facebook has.A strong Facebook search tool could attract potential advertisers.

Brad Shimmin, an analyst with Current Analysis, however, said Facebook may not yet have the resources needed to overtake Google in a market it has dominated for so long.

“I don’t think a Google-like search is a service that will benefit Facebook users,” he said.

“That’s not why they go to Facebook.Google is an infrastructure. Facebook is a destination.Users look to the two for very different reasons. As with any business venture, a failed attempt to capture an already conquered market, such as Web search, could injure Facebook’s overall corporate position,” Shimmin added.

There is always huge risk whenever a company diversifies from what made it successful.

“The possible downside is if Facebook gets all wrapped around the axle trying to out Google,” said Olds.

“They won’t be successful if they try to build an exact substitute for Google. They need to build something that’s uniquely suited to Facebook users and serves them better, or at least as well, as Google’s search tools,” Olds added.

Facebook for iPad Launches Retina Version — But Still No Timeline

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At the starting of this month, Facebook launched their official iPad application.This application is incorporated with Apple’s HD Retina Display. Version 4.1.1 of the app is available now with offline chat mode, photo bug fixes, and added language support and stability improvements. There is still no sign of Facebook adding its Timeline interface regardless of the fact that the iPhone version has it for months now.

With this new feature, all the icons and photos look much clearer and sharper.You will not see any jagged edges.Thanks to this feature, showing off your photo albums on your new iPad brings a new meaning.

There are a lot of useful features incorporated in this update, such as the ability to sign out of chat without needing to log off from Facebook. In this way you can stay logged into Facebook without having to be online for all your friends to know. Notifications have been fixed now, meaning they no longer keep popping up.

The only must-have feature lacking in this application is the Facebook Timeline. Facebook timeline is your collection of the photos, stories, and experiences that tell your story. The timeline has various options that are very useful for all Facebook users. Some of the features include:

-Adding a cover photo on your profile which is the larger photo at the top of your timeline, right above your profile picture.Cover images can be viewed by anyone visiting your timeline.

-Jumping to your past by scrolling through your timeline, or use the menu of dates on the right side of your timeline to jump from year to year.

-An Activity log which is a list of your posts and activity, from today back to the very beginning.You will also be able to see stories and photos that your friend tagged you in, as well as all the connections you have made and the pages you have liked since you joined Facebook.

You can use the activity log to review and manage everything you share on Facebook.

-Month-wise Summary which include the friends you connected with, events you attended, pages that you liked, and places you visited during any specific month

Not having this feature in the application is a very strange and makes one wonder what Facebook has in store for their next release for iPad. What makes this omission strange is the fact that Facebook is in the process of switching all profiles to Timeline-based profiles.The amount of time and effort being put into creating eye-catching Timelines by different users and designers will be in vain if the iPad users won’t get to see them instead of the old profile.

So far no comments from the Facebook team about when we can expect to see a Timeline release. But one thing is for sure that everyone who uses an iPad and Facebook wants to show off and experience those high definition Timeline profiles using the retina display.

4 Facebook Features Marketers Can’t Afford to Ignore

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As of February 2012, Facebook has more than 845 million active users which are more than the any other social media website making it the most powerful tool in marketing in this era. It has an effective way to engaging customers and exposing brands and businesses to the world. But having a Facebook Fanpage does not suffice; you also need to get Facebook Likes to be effective in Facebook Marketing.

In order to be an effective marketer, you need to develop thorough understanding the vital network features which will be beneficial for your company.Having a powerful Facebook presence means having unsurpassed community management skills.Following are the four Facebook marketing features that you cannot afford to ignore:

1)Smart Moderation

The most bothersome and time taking thing on a Facebook page is moderating i.e. censoring bad language and comments from people attacking your brand. Facebook has provided a feature in the Facebook page settings which is moderation blacklist that allows you to select words that will always be banned from your wall. This is a one-time effort resulting in you never seeing those banned words on your page.You don’t need to mention rude words because they will automatically be censored based on your profanity blacklist settings.Although the best approach is to have an open discussion environment on your Facebook page since no one likes to be censored but there will be certain situations that call for more control. This is where this tool comes handy.

2)Facebook Activity Logs

Facebook activity log is a list of all your posts and activity, from the time you created your profile/Fanpage till date. In this log, you will be able to see updates you’ve made, like comments or Facebook Questions stories and photos you’ve been tagged in, as well as the connections you’ve made – like when you liked a Page or added someone as a friend.Facebook activity log is like a Facebook Timeline for every interaction that fans have with your page.You can think of this tool as an archive of all the actions you have performed on Facebook which you can review at any time. Because of this reason, this tool is useful for keeping track of your performance in terms of following up and interacting with fans, and what kind of feedback you’re getting from them during specific events.

3)Targeted Audience

Before you embark on the impossible quest of tackling the entire 800+ million Facebook market, try narrowing down your strategy to specific/targeted audience. Facebook’s new Timeline feature for Pages, gives brands the much-needed opportunity to interact with their audiences. The Facebook pages have an Admin Panel, which is like an all-in-one shop for the tools and tips brands require to manage and respond to people and quickly see how your Page is performing. From your admin panel, you can view notifications, respond to messages, view your Page insights and publish updates to specific demographic groups.Having the ability to address different audience is useful if your page serves audiences in different countries. So in this way, only relevant users will get the update and not treat your page as spam.

4)Inter-connected Social Media Profiles

There are a lot of social media websites nowadays and in order to expose your company/brand to a broader audience, you need to have presence in all the popular sites. Cross-promoting between social networks is a vital ingredient of any social media marketing strategy.Facebook recognizes this and offers the ability to link your Facebook page to Twitter for the purpose of publishing updates to both sites.There are many third-party tools that allow you to integrate your social media profiles with each other.One such third-party tool is HootSuite which allows its user to link their Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles.

10 Most Popular Facebook Pages

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Facebook’s strengthening grip and integration with popular culture is very evident as you go through this list of the world’s top 20 most popular Facebook pages and realize between them they have over 315 million fans.

That culture reflects our movie, TV shows and music tastes including Michael Jackson, Eminem, Lady Gaga, the Twilight Saga, The Family Guy and even Justin Bieber.

Two corporate brands made it into the top 20 with the world’s most popular soda drink (Coca Cola) and the ever growing coffee culture that has spread globally over the last 20 years made its presence felt with Starbucks coming in at No. 10.

What you will notice also is that they are all B2C brands which are where the primary strength of social media marketing truly lies and especially Facebook.

The other surprising revelation is that the company behind some of the world’s popular social media games over the last 12 months Zygna has two Facebook pages in the top 20 with Texas Hold’em Poker at No. 3 (dropped from No. 1) and Mafia Wars at No. 19.

Sports only presence in this Top 20 list is the Football Star, Cristiano Ronaldo who sneeks in at No. 20.

One surprise was YouTube but maybe that should be expected with online video such a large part of the Gen Y culture and one of the most highly shared media types.

This list also reveals that social media marketing success is becoming more integrated with traditional Mass media marketing that allows brands to permeate and leverage on the web using multiple media channels.

To put some perspective on this list, not one of these pages in the top 20 has any less than 13 million fans.

Following are the top 10 most popular Facebook pages with the number of fans and the current ranking status represented by 3 arrows; upward arrow means that the ranking has improved, downward arrow means the ranking has decreased and the horizontal arrow means the page has the same ranking:

 Overall 10 Most Popular Facebook Pages

1.       Facebook            -              64,707,131 Fans

On February 4, Facebook celebrated its eighth birthday and what a way to celebrate your birthday by ousting all the other brands and holding the number one position as the most popular Facebook page, with over 64 million fans.

With the advent of Facebook, the social media has become an integral part of everyone’s life. It is their mission to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

People ‘like’ their page to get ongoing updates on new products, announcements and stories. As can be seen, they recently showcased new timeline apps from Foodspotting, Foodily, Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Rotten Tomatoes, Pose, Kobo, Gogobot, TripAdvisor, and others.

 

 

2.       YouTube              -              55,960,725 Fans

YouTube has revolutionized the Internet by providing a forum to the people to connect, inform, and inspire others by letting them distribute original content and advertisements.

YouTube ranks #2, with over 55 million fan base. The YouTube fan page shares interesting videos like ‘The nominees for Comedy Central’s Best Viral Original’, in which the users are asked to cast their votes. The page also informs the users of the latest updates regarding different events. Recently, they uploaded a video creating awareness about the ‘Earth Day’.

3.       Texas Holdem Poker      -              59,550,790  Fans

The #1 poker game in the world, after a long, lost its standing as the #1 page and has come down to Rank #3, after a long time, with over 59 million fans.

Zygna Poker as used various tactics to attract users to its fan page. They give incentives to players who like their page – they get free chips, free collectibles, a chance to skip a tournament round – and recently, they started the ‘New Poker Girl Challenge’, in which they asked their players to vote for their favorite model to become the Poker Girl. Moreover, they have added a big ‘Play Now’ button to attract more players.

 

4.       Eminem               -              55,333,742 Fans

Eminem’s fan base has increased to over 55 million. It has linked its fan page to its other social media accounts like the official website, Twitter and MySpace. The Facebook page promotes and gives the latest updates about his recent Slaughterhouse tour to Michigan. Moreover, he also informs his users about his Shady Records.


 5.       Rihanna                -              54,118,422 Fans

With over 54 million fans, Rihanna takes the 4th position. You can see from her fan page that she has used different tactics to attract users by uploading interesting pictures of her, promoting her latest albums (like, currently, Talk That Talk album), providing links to her official website and iTunes.

 


 6.       Lady Gaga           -              49,752,234 Fans

At Rank #6, we have Lady Gaga, with over 49 million fans. Her page is the most interesting of all – contains interesting pictures of herself and funny, sarcastic posts updated every now and then. Additionally, her page is linked to her other social media profiles like the official website, Twitter, Little Monsters, YouTube videos etc.

Just like Rihanna, she is promoting her new album ‘Born This Way’. Lady Gaga, recently, turned 26, and this is what she had to say: “This is how it feels turning 26 in three hours. Ha!”

The black Gothic cover photo captures the user’s eye. The photo goes with the image she has created.

 7.       Shakira                 -              48,560,654 Fans

Nice blend of amber and orange welcomes you when you come to Shakira’s page. It gives a good, warm feeling of serenity. The array of morning gold and orange portrays vitality, endurance and healing. The color combination of her page reflects two things:

1)      It goes with the theme of her new album ‘The Sun Comes Out’

2)      Shakira is optimistic, as people who favor the color gold are optimistic. She believes in helping humanity, as it can be seen from the posts on her page. For example, ‘It costs around $100 to save a child from chronic malnutrition. Want to learn about ways to help?’

Her page also contains pictures of her shoots and the latest updates about her work.

 

 8.       Michael Jackson               -              47,129,887 Fans

The King of Pop has maintained his position at #8. When you come to Michael Jackson’s page, you are greeted by the captivating cover photo of the famous Moon Dance. The photo truly personifies the late pop singer.

The page is being monitored by the Estate of Michael Jackson with support of Sony Music Entertainment. The fans are encouraged to express their memories of MJ, join the conversation and express their thoughts and opinions about Michael Jackson.

The fans are kept interested in the page by sharing interesting quotes, articles about the achievements of MJ, and photo of the day of the pop singer.

 9.       Family Guy         -              43,720,474 Fans

The only TV show has managed to attract more fans, due to which it has inched its way to rank #9. The cover photo shows the main characters of the odd family of middle-class New Englanders.

Their page is linked to their other social media sites like Twitter, Google+ Circle. There are many calls to actions on this page, making it interactive for the users. The fans are asked to vote and take different quizzes about the characters of the show. They can also watch the previews of the upcoming episodes or the full episodes of the old ones. They have also added humor by uploading funny pictures of the characters, to keep up with the image of the show.

 

  10.     Harry Potter     -              43,707,639 Fans

The Harry Potter series is the only movie genre to make the top 10 coming at #10. With over 43 million fans, Harry Potter is a major hit for Warner Bros studio. Despite the last part of the series was released in 2011, the movie fans are still keeping this Fanpage active.

Their page is linked to their website and YouTube channel. There are many calls to actions on this page, making it interactive for the users. They post quotes from the movie, interesting pictures from the movie, and exclusive interviews of the stars and much other. The fans are updated with all the current news about the cast and the new releases in the Harry Potter franchise.  They also upload cover photos for their fans who wish to use them for their Facebook profile page.

Another promotion campaign is the ‘Get ready for Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter!’ Opening 31st March 2012, Warner Bros. Studio will open a Tour London which is a behind-the-scenes walking tour which lets the guests truly experience the world of film-making. The Studio Tour will initially focus on the Harry Potter film series which has made the Studios its home for over 10 years.

 

Best Facebook Campaigns

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Ever since social media got the spotlight, both B2C and B2B companies have tried to figure out how to convert the Facebook “likes” into qualified leads by gaining as much information about their fans as possible for example who they are and how to engage with them.

The key of having a successful Facebook campaign is about enticing your fans to be inside Facebook as much as possible. You should encourage your fans to have more conversations on your page, start interesting and interactive discussions to get people involved. Once you have enough people actively participating in your discussions, they will automatically start posting their own discussions and the page engagement will grow drastically. Once the page engagement grows, you should add your content and enable your fans to buy them from your page instead of going to a third-party site. The longer your fans stay on your page will give you greater return on investment. You should also consider having a support tab in your page where your fans can post inquires and/or complaints and get the answers/help they seek, all in one place! In this way, you will keep your fans happy and have a better chance of turning them into leads and/or loyal customers.

One area of particular focus is your landing page of your Fanpage. You should have a creative and eye-catching landing page to attract more fans. Consider spending a little on this and the return would be fruitful. First impression is everything! When a page is designed correctly, it gives a great first and lasting impression for the non-fans. You need to focus on tempting the non-fans to ‘Like’ your page and become a fan. For doing this, you will need to grab the user’s attention and entice them to like your page.

Engaging fans and making them want to stay on your page, involves different strategies but the most effective one is creating a contest and keeping it simple so it will be hassle-free. The less your fans need do to, the better. Make it simple, entertaining and easily sharable to incorporate the virality feature of Facebook to gain great exposure.
A few companies have stood out in terms of creativity and interaction with customers over social media network. Following are the top 5 Facebook campaigns:

1) Kohl’s Care
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Kohl’s Cares, Kohl’s the Department store gave away $10 million to 20 deserving schools in the US, decided by the votes of their fans on Facebook. It was a tremendous promotional campaign as the schools with the most votes were each given $500,000. Kohl’s Facebook page sky rocketed more than a million fans, and the winning schools each tallied well over 100,000 votes. When the campaign ended, Kohl’s had over 6 million fans who submitted 12 million+ votes in six weeks.

Users were encouraged to recommend and vote for the school they felt most deserved the funds, and submit their ideas about how the funds could be best used. They had incorporated Leader-board feature and other voting tools to encouraged participation from all Kohl’s fans.

2) Coca-Cola
The Coca-Cola Company has been top of many best-of-the-best Facebook page lists due to their innovative and creative promotion features to drive engagement, brand loyalty and exposure for Coca-Cola.

Their Summer Snapshot contest was again one of the best Facebook campaigns where they encourage their fans to take photos with the summer Coca-Cola cans and upload them on the Fanpage. Not only does this get fans involved with their page, but the contest also incorporates photos of their products with fans. With over 41 million fans, this campaign will viral because photos are the most viewed on Facebook. They go viral quickly because when a fan posts a photo, that photo is then sent out to the news feeds of all of their friends. Hundreds of thousands of potentially new fans will see these photos and whenever anyone likes a photo, it again generates a newsfeed exposing it to further audience.

 

3) Target
In last year February, Target, the department store, launched a campaign in which their fans had the choice of where wanted to donate $1 million for charity. The campaign application “Super Love Sender” kept fans updated in real time which charity was in the lead. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital ended up being the winning charity and got the $1 million. With over 10 million fans, the campaign got more than 10 million votes/suggestions for charity.

4) RedBull
Red Bull Fanpage is renowned for their extremely innovative and custom campaigns and application that are in tune with their target audience. They have thorough knowledge about their fans as well as target audience and in this way launch campaigns where their audience will respond to best. Their latest campaigns that got enormous reply from their fans were “Procrastination Station” and a web TV program on their Facebook page. The Procrastination Station as a series of online games for their fans which are geared toward sports and high-impact competitions. The web TV has multiple segments and videos spotlighting the lives of their sponsored celebrity athletes. With over 27 million fans, these games and videos became viral as soon as the campaigns were launched, reaching out to over 30 million Facebook users.

5) Toy Story 3
Disney Pixar has done an excellent job of making their Toy Story 3 Fanpage both fun and functional. Their latest application, ‘Toy Creator’ is a testament of their fun factor element in their page. This application let their fans turn themselves into animated toys. With over 28.5 million fans, both children and grown-ups, enjoyed the application and shared the animated version of themselves with their Facebook friends. Because of this, the viral exposure the application got was huge. If we talk in terms of functional page, Toy Story had a custom tab which allowed the fans buy movie tickets direct from Facebook.

10 Social Media Mistakes a Business should Avoid

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Introduction

Social media marketing (SMM), also sometimes called social network marketing (SNM), is a strategy that helps you build a network of customers and potential customers, stay in touch with those who are interested in your products and services, and ultimately build your bottom line in the form of additional sales.

Business owners worldwide are utilizing various social media platforms to promote products and reach out to consumers.

However, many businesses do not know how to build a sound SMM strategy, or they make many mistakes along the way that actually do more harm than good. Thus, before you began marketing your business it is advisable to brush up on your social media skills.

Here we are going to discuss top Ten (10) common social media marketing mistakes problems, which will be categorized into 4 main headings and how you can avoid making them:

•Not to have a Well-defined Strategy

Many small businesses think that:

1.Social media marketing is all about sales.
2.SMM is free so they don’t give it much thought.

In reality, they are wrong! That is why; they fail to take advantage of SMM to grow their business.

SMM is not about making a Facebook or Twitter page and making sales pitches, sharing links to sales pages and showcasing your latest products. Social media and online marketing is about developing an engaged community, building trust, developing relationships and increasing interest.

Like any other marketing, SMM also requires a proper formal online marketing plan, with clear goal for each step of the process. By developing a plan, you create a critical foundation for which the rest of your social media efforts are based on.

The first step to creating a strategic online marketing plan for your social media marketing is to answer the following questions:

- Who is your target audience?
- What do you intend to communicate to them? That is, what your objectives are?
- How do you want your target audience to respond?
- Does your social media campaign tie into your traditional marketing plan?
- Do you have enough staff to manage your social media efforts?
- How will you measure your success?

You should ask yourself these questions before you start your social media journey.

Even though it does not cost anything to create accounts on social media sites, but social media marketing itself is not free – it costs time and time equals money. Hence, SMM should not be neglected. It requires investment in terms of time!

You will be able to better manage your SMM efforts by developing a social media scheduling plan. The plan should help you meet your online marketing objectives.

You should:

- Make a list of all the social media sites you wish to target.
- Assign particular sites to particular individual, who will responsible for its updates.
- Make a schedule of when to revisit the sites for updates.

• Failing to have a Company Website.

If you rely on:

3. Social media, alone, to promote yourself online.
4. Only one social media site to grow your business.
5. Treating each social media individually.
Then you have prepared a recipe for your doom!

No doubt social media is a valuable tool, but it can never replace your own website. Since you don’t own your social media pages, you have to follow their rules. They may decide to start charging fees that just don’t fit your budget, and then you’ll be left without an online presence.

Having your own website has many advantages:

• It provides an instant visual presentation of your business the way you want.
• Your customers can easily find you on the Internet.
• Your customers can easily contact you on the Internet.
• It helps you display/sell your products and services.

Just using one social media site to promote your business will not help you cover your market. When doing online marketing, you should have an account on more than one social media sites – Twitter page, Facebook page, Pinterest account, Digg and Stumble Upon. This way, you will be able to expand your business by targeting more users of different social media sites.

To have web presence – by having a website and social media profiles – is futile if the multiple social sites are not linked to each other, your blog and to your website – by using widgets or by providing the address to your blog or homepage in your social media profile. All of your social media profiles should lead back to the same URL.

If you have not linked your website or blog with your social media profiles, then what is the point of being on the social site? Your social networking should draw more customers to your own website so they can learn more about your products and services, and even make more purchases through your site.

• Problems with Social Media Account

Have you:

6. An incomplete profile on social media sites?
7. Provided false information about your business on social media sites?
8. Forgot to Optimize your Social Media Profile?

Then you will face problem in creating your positive online web presence.
When creating a social media profile, make sure that you provide complete information about your business – your company information, your products/service, your expertise, logo, profile picture, website address, email address, contact number – as an incomplete profile reflects poorly on your company’s image. When you give complete information about yourself, then the users will know what your business is all about and how to contact you.

Building trust online is the most difficult task, so always provide authentic information about your business and products/services etc. Otherwise, you may lose your customers’ trust, if you provide any false information to attract attention or traffic towards your website. And in the long-run, it will not only hurt your business, but also your loyal customers.

Having a complete and authentic profile is of no use, if it does not appear on the first few pages of the search engines. Make sure that you include the right and relevant keywords in your profile and content, which your audiences will most likely search for. Do not forget to keep updating the keywords with time.

• Problems with the Content

You may face problem when:

9. Your content lacks quality.
10. Your content is not proofread.

If you want to attract more users towards your social media accounts and website, then you should have good quality and interesting content to create interest. Just like junk mails are given no importance, in the same way, your business will not be taken seriously. When you write or add good quality material, then people would be interested to follow you or may forward your information to their friends, and they will re-visit your web-pages.

Just as a dirty spot on a good shirt ruins the entire impression, a bad grammar and spelling mistakes can make a good page look bad. All material – status updates, blogs, posts and tweets – should be proofread and professional in appearance, and “text lingo” – like TTLY, BRB – should be avoided as well.

An easy way to proofread is to type your material in a word processing document, which will help you identify any spelling or grammatical mistakes. Once the content is written, it should be proofread by a co-worker to make sure no mistake has been overlooked.

GSA’s Ways to Get Attention, Traffic and Higher Ranking through Social Media

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In the enduring pursuit of increasing website traffic and gaining attention, many individuals and businesses are grasping the real value of social networking. Approximately each day, millions of users access social networks because these sites allow them to connect with others, share, and build new relationships.

Social networking sites instantaneously allow you to have access to a larger audience and user base. Within minutes, you can establish your online presence by creating a profile on any highly-trafficked social site and begin posting information about yourself, your website, or your business

In a recent survey conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity, it was reported that approximately 65% of business professionals use personal and professional social networking sites
In order to gain more attention and traffic, you need to attract people to your website and get them to share your content amongst their social circles. This can be done if you place the social sharing buttons where the reader’s frame of vision instead of them scrolling through the website. Remember to give and share great information that may help readers connects with you and helps them solve their problems while at the same time entertain them. Keep it both formal as well as fun.

To gain exposure to a more global audience, expand your social networks. Focus on expanding one network at a time and then moving to the next. For instance, you could focus on Facebook then Twitter and then Google+. Building a brand that people know, recognize and trust takes time but in the end your social sharing numbers will grow exponentially. Make your content speak for itself and tempt your users to want to share it with their friends.

When expanding your Facebook network, you should mainly focus on the ‘Like’ feature of Facebook. Have people like your Facebook page because when someone likes your Facebook page, you can pay to highlight that ‘Like’ and reach out to millions of Facebook users.

Using Twitter is all about getting the most number of active followers. In order to get large following, you will need to tweet on a regular basis that would give your followers content that they want and love. It should always be useful and valuable in their eyes and if you have a budget, then you can utilize the power of Sponsored Tweets. This is a platform that lets advertisers sell their tweet to Twitter users who have the large fan following. While sponsored tweets are a safe bet, you can also try the old tried and tested approach, running ‘Content’.

By tempting your followers with a free gift/content, you can be sure that your content will get shared amongst thousands of Twitter users.

Social profiles that normally rank well for businesses include Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, FourSquare, and LinkedIn.One of the advantages of social media like Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, all your shared content gets broadcasted throughout the world, peer recommendations will automatically happen whenever someone likes your page, mention you on Twitter, or tags your brand name. This means that if you write a post that gets 100+ tweets, 50+ likes and 50 or more +1s …you will definitely grow your traffic and consequentially improve your search engine rankings.

According to a report by Econsultancy, they found that around 61% of users use search engines to help them in making a purchase.This means for those businesses and individuals, who wish to gain attention, will need to concentrate on ranking high by using keywords. In the same report, they found that around 75% of users in the age group of 18 – 26 preferred social sites for making a purchase.

Writing good content, expanding your social presence is not the only ways of improving your ranking and gaining user attention and traffic.You need to concentrate on presenting a good face of your business.Whenever you come across a criticism about your business or company, you have a chance to turn those complaints into compliments by responding back to them in a well-mannered and convincing way. Knowing how to do this is essential to showing current and potential customers that you respect everyone’s point-of-view and care about their satisfaction with your business.