More Changes to Facebook Pages

As many people may already have heard, there have been some recent changes to Facebook platform by developers in terms of their formatting and function. Although I'd urge everyone to go and check them out one that I'd particularly like to talk about this week is the new: Featured Liked Pages function.

Facebook says, “These pages are shown on the left of your page. Up to five pages are shown at a time, and you can specify which of your liked pages always rotate there by selecting them as featured.”

Recently there was a nice piece in the SM examiner that gave an example (shown below). 

These are pages that your page has liked (previously "featured").

Essentially the default is that it will pick 5 Liked Sites at random but wisely Facebook have given account holders the ability to pick which 5 they want featured.

This is simply done by clicking the 'Edit' button then clicking 'Featured' and 'Edit Featured Links'.

 From this you will be able to select the ones that you want featured.

Clearly there is great potential to form strategic alliances with people using this type of functionality but remember to always use 5 listings who are not competitors with each other.

Always ensure your listings are complimentary but not competitive.

Until next time, good luck and good marketing.

For Those Trying to Convince Their Boss or Management About Social Media

Hello again everyone. I recently read a great post quoting some wonderful and powerful stats that could be useful if your in the process of trying to convince policy makers at your place of business about the value of social media marketing.

The full piece is at: jeffesposito.com at: http://jeffesposito.com/2011/02/14/social-media-facts-share-executives/

The key facts listed are:

• In the US, there are 149M active Facebook users, 70% log in once a day – Ogilvy & BuddyMedia
• Social media accounts for ~ 25% of all time spent online over 35 minutes per hour –Nielsen
• Facebook accounts for 8.93% of all website visits in the US. All of Google’s properties including YouTube, Gmail, Google accounts for 9.85% – Experian Hitwise
• 64% of Facebook users have liked a brand on Facebook - ExactTarget
• By 2012, half of the world’s Internet users, 1 billion people, will have a Facebook account – TIME (12/7-1/3 edition)
• Facebook’s fastest growing demographic is 17-35 year olds – TIME
• 43% of Facebook users who “unlike” a brand do so because of too much push marketing – Exact Target
• 46% of Internet users worldwide interact with social media on a daily basis -TNS
• 25% of social media users are more likely to look into a brand advertising on social media – Adology
• 15% of these users are more likely to purchase from social media advertisers – Adology
• 38% of Small & Micro Businesses would use social media more if they had more time or a convenient management solution –  Vistaprint
• 46% of micro business owners utilize social media – Vistaprint
• $4.26 billion will be spent on social media marketing globally in 2011 – eMarketer
• 17% of US online consumers have created a Twitter account – ExactTarget
• 48% of Twitter users check their account at least once a day – Exact Target
• 71% of Twitter users expect to receive marketing messages via the platform – Exact Target
• 41% of users who have unfollowed a brand on Twitter did so because they were over-marketed to – ExactTarget
• 46% of Twitter users meet with friends more in person over 2009 – Social Mythbusting
• 78.6% of consumers have joined a company’s community to get more information on the company – Universal McCann
• 71% of community members say they are more likely to purchase from brand – Universal McCann
• 66% of company community members note that the community has made them more loyal to a brand – Universal McCann
• 63% of corporate community members note that they will recommend brand to friends/family – Universal McCann
• Ford’s 2011 Explorer launch on Facebook generated a 200% greater return than a Super Bowl ad -  Social Media Case Studies, Stories, Perspectives

My guess is that these and other facts that continue to emerge will continue to sway people moving forward.

Until next time,

Good luck and good marketing.