Monthly Archives: August 2012
Better Targeting for Brand Page Updates on the Horizon?
Yesterday, I was surprised to see a number of targeting options – gender, age, language, interests etc – on one of the brand Pages I manage. I tweeted with enthusiasm and couldn’t wait to leverage this new functionality. Yet, Facebook must be slowing rolling this out or testing it. When I visited both the brand Pages I manage, the option to target on a deeper level had vanished. Why does Facebook play with my emotions?!
In all honesty, the ability to target Page updates on a deeper level is nearly identical to Facebook ads. Would this mean a drop in community managers creating for Facebook ads? It’s likely but no way to tell at the moment.
I am hopeful Facebook will offer this functionality. Of course, with all new things, there are benefits and drawbacks but I am still keeping my eyes open!
Potential Benefits
- Increased relevance to your fans based on how you target.
- Lifts in engagement as a result of increased relevance.
- The chances of updates appearing higher in News Feed increases as a result of a lift in engagement.
- Opportunity to be more strategic with messaging. For example, using specific copy for men vs women, or fans aged 21+ vs 13 – 20.
- Increased traffic to website and/or blog.
Potential Drawbacks
- Overly targeting decreases the size of your message’s audience.
- Virality may drop. For example, by not targeting OR minimally targeting you reach members of your audience that may not find the message relevant, but would “share” it with friends they believe would.
3 Things I Liked in Social Media, Week ending August 12. #BlogHer12
I usually post these recaps on a Sunday or Monday, but things have been pretty nutty over here. So, better late than never, right?!
1. BlogHer 2012 Virtual Conference – I had the opportunity to attend BlogHer ’12 in New York. I had a great time and learned so much. I understand conferences can be pricey, which is one of the reasons why I love that BlogHer offers the “virtual conference” within a week of the event. It’s free of charge and bloggers can get in depth recaps from many of the most popular sessions. It’s perfect for those who don’t have the resources to attend.
2. Defend the Flame – Twitter users kept the Olympic flame burning simply by tweeting, tweeting and more tweeting with #keepitburning. It’s an Olympic-themed site allowing users to prevent the damp London weather from dimming the Olympic flame. It’s sorta fun to play along.
3. WordPress mobile app gets an upgrade – I use WordPress, so this is something I am pretty thrilled about. Before the upgrade, the WordPress mobile app was mediocre. Post upgrade, there are a 180 new features including sliding sidebar panels, which you may recognize because that is how Facebook’s mobile app functions.
photo source: http://ios.wordpress.org/
On Facebook, Ask and You Shall Receive.
It’s easy to get distracted on Facebook.
One minute I’m looking at my sister’s recent status…but oh, look! Nike just updated their cover photo! Then oh wow, two of my close friends got engaged. All this could happen in a matter of 75 seconds.
Now think about your Page’s updates. Are fans seeing those and engaging with the content? Fortunately, every time a fan gives a thumbs-up, comments or shares your Page’s updates this action gets published on their and their friends’ news feed.
Why not take it a step further?
Think about those fans we consider passive fans or distant observers. They see your updates but don’t take action. The power of the words, “Like”, “Comment” and “Share” resonates and can help our content’s total reach by asking those passive fans and distant observers to engage with your posts. This could mean hundreds or thousands more eyeballs on your content, which could then drive more traffic to your site!
Here are some examples of leveraging “Like,” “Comment” and “Share” -
