Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Cashpig.gy Review - A New Legitimate GPT Website

Cashpig.gy, which is pronounced as cashpiggy, is a GPT (Get Paid To) website where users get paid to do various tasks. Cashpiggy is a subsidiary site of Adf.ly which is a very famous money making URL shortener website and is online since 2009. So, you can also trust Cashpiggy because the team behind Cashpiggy is the same team that is working for adf.ly for years. This also shows that they have an experienced team who can tackle all the major ups and downs in the business and can make a business stable both for users and themselves.

Cashpiggy's aim is to revolutionize the GPT industry and to allow everybody to earn some cash in their spare time. Cashpiggy provides various opportunities to newbies as well as professionals to earn a good income through it. On cashpiggy there are various ways through which you can earn money like viewng ads, completing offers, filling up surveys, playing games, referring people etc.

How to earn money on Cashpiggy ?

As i already said there are various ways to earn money on Cashpiggy. So, lets discuss them one by one in details:

1. By Viewing PTC Ads: This is the most simplest way to earn money on cashpiggy. In this way you should have to click an ad link given to you, so when you click on the ad link then you will be shown an ad for about 30 seconds and after that you will be paid for that. Generally Cashpiggy's PTC ads pay better than other PTC sites.

2. By Completing Offers: This is the major source of earning on Cashpiggy. Generally there are two kinds of offers, one that pays some money for completing them and other that pays some points on completion, which you can redeem to earn prizes for yourself. These offers are very simple and hardly takes few minutes to complete.

3. By Filling Up Surveys: Short surveys are also the great way to earn on Cashpiggy. The surveys on Cashpiggy are simple to complete. Basically these surveys ask you few simple questions based on your likes and dislikes that you have to answer to earn some money.

4. By Playing Games: Cashpiggy also offers a game called PigGrid that you can play to earn up to 10$ everyday. Basically in PigGrid they show you an image/scenery that is divided into small squares and each square contains an advertisers link. So the simple thing is that you have to click those squares to check whether you have won any prize or not. So, whenever you click on a square then you will be taken to their clients website where you have to wait for 10 seconds to find out whether you have won anything or not. Everyday you get 30 chances to try your luck and win a prize. So, in short you can say that the more you play the bigger the chances you have to become a PigGrid winner.

5. By Referring People: Cashpiggy offers a great referral program to its users that you can use to earn some extra income from Cashpiggy.

So, if you refer people to join cashpiggy then you will get 20% revenue share of your referrals earning for lifetime. So start referring people to join Cashpiggy to earn extra cash on Cashpiggy.

6. Earn Prizes By Redeeming Points: As there are two types of offers one that directly pay money and other that give points as reward on completion. So, simply redeem your points to earn prizes for yourself. There are many other ways to get points like viewing ads, daily log in or whatever indicated with points and rewards.

Sign Up And Approval:

Sign up and approval is easy, the all you need is a valid email id to register an account after that you can start earning money on this great site.

Reporting System:

Reporting system is just good, not great but it shows the necessary details. One thing that i want to say is that since this website is in beta phase at the moment so they may upgrade their reporting system when they fully launch their website.

Minimum Payout:

Since this site is in the beta phase so currently they have not set any minimum payout so whatever you have earned they directly send it to your adf.ly account where you can cash-out that money.

Note: This website is in beta phase right now, but this is gonna be a great website because its a subsidiary of adf.ly. So, don't bother about payment options, payment frequency etc. Simply join this program if you like it because soon they will add the required payment methods, minimum payout, payment frequency etc. 

Payment Frequency:

As i already said it is in beta phase so currently payment frequency is not set, however your earned income is directly added to your adf.ly account where payouts are made on demand. So, you can say that they pay on daily basis.

Payment Methods: 

Currently they send your earned income to your adf.ly where you get Paypal, Payza and Payoneer as payment options.

Note: In Cashpiggy's FAQ section you can see that they will add the Paypal, Payza and other payment options soon when they fully launched their website. For now the sign up is invitation only (Invitation Link).

Conclusion:

This website is looking good and have high trust ratings because it is a subsidiary of Adf.ly. Overall you can join this site without hesitation and don't bother about its design and other facilities because when it is fully launched then you will get all the necessary facilities.

Thinking Of Joining Cashpig.gy:

https://www.cashpig.gy/

Cashpig.gy Details At A Glance:

Website Type:GPT (Get Paid To)
Countries Accepted:ALL
Requirements:N/A
Payment Methods:PayPal, Payza
Minimum Payment Threshold:$
Payment Frequency:-
Payment Proof:Coming Soon
Referral Program:Yes
Statistics Updated:Instantly
Website URL:http://www.cashpig.gy/
Posted on 10:29 PM | Categories:

Why Two Social Platforms Are Better Than One






Why Two Social Platforms Are Better Than One



Why Two Social Platforms Are Better Than One


You may think a single social network is enough for your campaigns. Perhaps all of your users flock to Twitter or the size of Facebook makes it the best place to target your social efforts.


However, restricting your efforts to a single network means you’re restricting your reach, too. Even if most of your customers are on a single social platform, it’s highly unlikely that all of them are. Plus, if you want to grow your business and reach out to new potential customers a new network can be a great idea to reach untapped markets.


Launching a social campaign across multiple networks has its pitfalls, though. To help you run your own multi-platform campaign, we’re going to look at a campaign that’s already been a success to see just what we can learn about what makes multi-platform strategies succeed.


Building a Dino-Sized Social Campaign


The Smithsonian Institution is a large organization, with 19 museums and over 137 million items, but the social team for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History is quite small, with only two staffers. Earlier this year, the museum was set to receive its first Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton and the team was faced not only with the challenge of publicizing this new exhibit, but also educating its audience.


To this end, the museum had the T. rex himself take over its social presence on Twitter and Facebook during the month of April. During this time, the social team produced a huge amount of original content for the campaign, including:



  • Memes, like this Jurassic Park reference to build excitement for the event and “Princess Rex” art that reimagined Disney princesses as dinosaurs.

  • Live social coverage of the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s bones being packed and shipped cross-country, as well as their arrival in Washington, D.C. The trip was tracked on Twitter using the hashtag #TrexRoadTrip.

  • Introducing the T. rex to its new home by showing it the sites around D.C. under the hashtag #TouristRex, featuring photos of the dino visiting the Washington Memorial and other tourist landmarks.

  • Involving other museum staff to make videos, participate in online chats, and other activities to raise awareness of the new exhibit — all promoted across social channels.

  • Cross-promoting the T. rex with the help of other organizations and celebrities, like the T. rex doing a Q&A with PBS Newshour and meeting Kid President.


As you can tell, this was a major social campaign and it generated a lot of positive buzz for the new exhibit, including over 77 million social impressions in the month of April.


Tweaking the Message to Suit the Medium


However, while it’s certainly a challenge to juggle that much content, tailoring it all to fit on both Twitter and Facebook is another challenge. While a lot of the same content was posted to both networks, the presentation had to be tweaked for each.


On Twitter, content was organized by hashtag. It primarily used #NationsTrex, but there were also hashtags referencing specific events, like the #TouristRex, #PresidentRex, and #PrincessRex ones mentioned above.




The Smithsonian also published many tweets in order to share campaign content, from facts to photos, within Twitter’s character limits. Content on Twitter was bite-sized, often featuring a single photo or message which made it easy for followers to read and share.


On Facebook, there were less stringent sharing restrictions, which meant fewer individual posts but more content in each of them. For example, the campaign’s dinosaur princess art was shared on Twitter over the course of nine tweets, each with its own image. But on Facebook, the images were shared as a single gallery where viewers could check out all of the art in one place. In this example, Facebook’s gallery generated more shares and comments than the individually-tweeted photos did on Twitter.







 


That’s not to say that Facebook was the superior platform for the campaign. It was by combining the strengths of both Facebook and Twitter that the NMNH managed to reach that impressive 77 million impression mark. Some audiences will prefer the lower volume and higher content of the campaign’s Facebook postings, while others will prefer the small, easy-to-digest Twitter updates. Utilizing both platforms allowed the campaign to pull in a larger audience with only minor tweaks to its content strategy.


Tips for Multi-Platform Success


Planning your own multi-platform campaign? Here are some lessons to take away from the Smithsonian’s success:



  • Create original content with a strong visual element. No matter how many social networks you’re running your campaign on, good content is what will draw people to those campaigns. Striking visuals, like the NMNH’s cardboard T. rex posed in front of iconic landmarks, will help catch potential viewers’ attention.

  • Tweak your message to suit the platform. Even the best content won’t perform its best if you just copy and paste it from one social network to another. Be sure how you’re communicating your content works for the medium you’re using. Though the tweaks the NMNH made from platform to platform were relatively minor, taking simple steps to fit your content to the social network will pay off.

  • Leverage partnerships to expand your reach to even more people and platforms. The NMNH’s T. Rex made cameo appearances with other organizations and a few celebrities, who went on to share the message with their own audiences, on their own platforms.

  • Clearly brand your campaign across networks. Hashtags and other consistent branding will help turn a series of isolated social messages into a major campaign. The NMNH used specific hashtags across platforms and, additionally, had a unified look (primarily in the form of their T. rex logo) that helped make the campaign easily identifiable, despite the fact that it was shared across networks and content types.


The post Why Two Social Platforms Are Better Than One appeared first on Sprout Social.






Posted on 10:30 AM | Categories:

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Advanced Guide for Advertising on Facebook






Advanced Guide for Advertising on Facebook



Advanced Guide for Advertising on Facebook


Facebook Advertising is always a hot topic – as evidenced by the great conversation our recent Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Ads prompted. The article discussed how to choose the best campaign objective and ad placement, but glossed over the idea of choosing who to actually advertise to.


An advertisement is worthless if it doesn’t reach the right people. Thus, we wanted to provide a guide for targeting those Facebook ads through the network’s Power Editor.


Getting Started with Power Editor


To kick off the process, open your Facebook ads account and find the link to the Power Editor on the left hand side of your dashboard. Once there, navigate to the Manage Ads box in the upper left hand corner and choose Audiences.


Advanced Guide for Advertising on Facebook


From the Audiences page in the Power Editor navigate to the “Create Audience” button, which allows you to create a new Facebook advertising audience using one of three segmenting styles.


Advanced Guide for Advertising on Facebook



 


Facebook Custom Audiences


Facebook Custom Audiences give you a secure way to import customers from other sources to then target on Facebook. There are currently four ways to import customers from other sources – Facebook’s Data File Custom Audience, MailChimp Custom Audience, Custom Audience from an App and Website Custom Audience.


1. Facebook’s Data File Custom Audience


This function enables you to upload your own spreadsheet of customer data so that Facebook can cross-reference it with information they have on file to find matches and create a target audience.


Advanced Guide for Advertising on Facebook


There are currently four different types of data that Facebook will accept.


Email Addresses

There’s a good chance that you have a list of prospects’ email addresses that you’d like to target on social. Just upload the list of emails and if any of those email addresses match one on file for a user, that user will be put into a custom audience.


Facebook User IDs

Facebook User IDs are essentially unique identifiers given to each person by the site. There are a handful of ways to find out someone’s user ID for targeting purposes, but make sure you do it ethically; it’s against Facebook’s terms of service to scrape user IDs.


Phone Numbers

Typically a sales team will have a CRM system full of phone numbers that could make prime social targets. That’s why it’s key to keep the communication channels open between sales and online marketing departments.


Mobile Advertiser IDs

Mobile Advertiser IDs are ways application developers can identify who is using their mobile app. They can then use that information to go on to create advertisements targeted to those users. Sometimes advertisers get nervous about infringing upon their customers’ data privacy, but it should be known that Facebook encrypts your data before uploading it. You can read all about the terms of service for custom audiences here.


2. MailChimp Custom Audience


If you have a MailChimp account, you can use it to import email lists to Facebook. Once you log into your MailChimp account through Facebook, you’ll have the option to import any or all of your email lists to the site for targeting. The prompt assures you that your leads will not be notified they’re being put on a targeting list.


Advanced Guide for Advertising on Facebook


3. Custom Audience from an App


This feature can be a powerful way to create hyper-targeted audiences for businesses with their own apps. Not only can you create an audience based on every person who accesses your app, but you can get even more granular by targeting people who reach a certain part of the app, such as a high level in a game.


4. Website Custom Audience (aka Facebook Retargeting)


Also known as Facebook retargeting, Website Custom Audiences are easily the most powerful of the Facebook Custom Audience features. By placing a Facebook pixel on your site, you will be able to track your visitors back to Facebook where you can retarget them with a custom advertisement. You can even refine the custom audience to target people who have visited certain pages, not visited certain pages, or a combination of the two.


Advanced Guide for Advertising on Facebook



For example, you could create an audience that will target someone who has checked out your product’s features but never made it to the purchase page.


Facebook Lookalike Audiences


Now that you’ve combined your own data with Facebook, it is time to look for new potential customers. With Facebook Lookalike Audiences, you can upload one of your current audience segments and Facebook will use its own algorithm to find users who are similar to the people in that group.


Advanced Guide for Advertising on Facebook


There are three different audience sources you can create a lookalike from:


Custom Audiences

These can be based on email addresses, Facebook user IDs, phone numbers, and mobile advertiser IDs.


Conversion Tracking Pixel

This is a specific type of pixel for your page that will only trigger when someone accomplishes a goal, like clicks a particular button or makes a purchase.


Page

If you’re a Page admin, you can create a lookalike audience based on your Page’s current following. Once you pick an audience source, choose the country you want the new users to live in and decide if you want to optimize for similarity or reach. The former choice will find fewer people who are more closely related to the original group, while the latter will find more people who are not as closely related.


Facebook Saved Target Groups


This type of user targeting is much more conventional. Facebook has a plethora of information on all of its members and this is the place to come to take advantage of that. Here are just a few of the many segmenting capabilities Facebook has for their saved target groups:


Custom Audiences

Facebook Saved Target Groups has the amazing ability to upload one of your custom audiences so that you can continue to refine the targeting around that segment. For example, you can upload a big list of emails that you want to target, then continue to refine that audience by adding on different parameters like age, gender, or location.


Excluded Audiences

This is the ability to upload a custom audience to a saved target group, but instead of serving the ad to those users, Facebook will make sure to not show the ad to those people. So if your campaign objective is to bring completely new visitors to your site, you can choose to exclude a list of people who have visited your web page in the past.


Life Events

Facebook has a unique way of finding people who have experienced, or are about to experience, important life events. This includes things like an approaching anniversary, someone celebrating a new job or someone celebrating a new relationship. This is a great way to target customers if your product fits into any of these categories.


Categories

This data is interesting because it comes from third parties sources Acxiom, Datalogix, and Epsilon. The companies that provide this information actually base it on information collected on other websites, which is why it would definitely be worth testing out.


Connections

This capability is great because it will allow you to solely target users connected to your Page, so you have a good idea that they already like your brand. You can also choose to target people not already connected to your Page, which can boost your reach to unique users.


Facebook Targeted Ad Example


We’re now going to walk through an example of creating an ad and targeting it using a custom audience, a Lookalike audience, and a saved target group. Imagine the sales team of your company just sent over a list of about 700 customers who you would like to target with Facebook ads in hopes of bringing them back to your site to buy more products.


Step 1. Upload the List of Potential Customers’ Email Addresses


You need to upload the file in the audiences tab of Power Editor. All of the email addresses must be in the first column and the document must be saved as a .txt or .csv file. When you upload the file in Power Editor you should see a prompt similar to this:


Advanced Guide for Advertising on Facebook


The 727 instead of 730 mean that three of the email addresses weren’t uploaded due to errors, most likely formatting mistakes. Facebook will now go to work pairing the emails that did upload properly.


Step 2: Create a Lookalike Audience


Facebook finished matching as many emails as it could and we ended up with a segment of 400 users, which doesn’t seem high enough for this campaign. That’s why we should create a Lookalike audience to supplement this group. Open up the Lookalike Audience section and choose the correct source, what you named the email list in step one, then choose a target country and level of similarity.


Advanced Guide for Advertising on Facebook


We chose to optimize for high similarity because we don’t want this list of very relevant emails to be watered down with people who don’t fit. This Lookalike yielded an additional 2.1 million users to target.


Step 3: Additional Targeting by Demographics


Now that we have a sizable audience pool, we can start to layer on some additional targeting parameters. For instance, we can cut the audience down by adding an age restriction, location, or interests. That’s what we did for this example, and we went from an audience of more than 2.1 million users down to 30,000 very relevant targets.


Advanced Guide for Advertising on Facebook


Testing for Continued Success


As you can see, there are many different ways to find audiences to advertise to on Facebook. The key is to keep testing new ways to find which one will drive the lowest cost per goal and which will be the most effective. If you’re not quite ready to start your foray into paid Facebook advertising solutions, don’t worry. There are some great tools out there – like our own Sprout Social – that can help you maximize your organic engagement with your customers.


The post Advanced Guide for Advertising on Facebook appeared first on Sprout Social.






Posted on 12:30 PM | Categories:

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Read This Before Launching a Facebook Contest






Read This Before Launching a Facebook Contest



Read This Before Launching a Facebook Contest


When done right, social media contests can be great vehicles for driving engagement and increasing brand visibility. Whether you’re gathering user-generated content or simply rewarding loyal fans, contests have become a staple in marketers’ outreach strategies.


With more than 1.35 billion active members and low barrier to entry, Facebook is a popular platform on which to host these contests. But before you start collecting Likes and handing out prizes, here are a few things you need to know about running promotions on the social network — including some very important Facebook contest rules.


What Is Considered a Promotion?


On Facebook, promotions typically include the following:



  • Entry or registration

  • An element of chance

  • A giveaway or prize


Prior to August 2013, brands wanting to hold a contest or run a promotion on Facebook had to rely on a third-party service. In order to make it easier for businesses to create promotions, the social network removed the requirement that they may only be administered within apps. You can now host contests or promotions on Page Timelines and in apps. Promotions on personal Timelines are not permitted.


While you can still administer promotions via Page tabs and apps, creating one with a Page is faster and easier. That said, if you’d like a more personalized experience, as well as more space and flexibility for content, creating a promotion with an app is a solid strategy. Regardless of the method chosen, Page posts about promotions can be displayed in the News Feed, thus helping you reach a broader audience.


How You Can and Can’t Collect Entries


According to Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines, Pages can collect entries by:



  • Having members post on the Page or comment/Like a Page post

  • Having members message the Page


On the other hand, you can’t:



  • Encourage people to tag themselves

  • Require members to Like your Page


The actions you can take are fairly self-explanatory; however, those you can’t require a bit more detail.


The social network has prohibited businesses from tagging or encouraging people to tag themselves in content that they’re not actually depicted in. For example, it’s alright to ask people to submit names of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize as part of a Facebook contest. It’s not, however, permissible to ask people to tag themselves in pictures of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize.


Read This Before Launching a Facebook Contest


It’s also worth noting that Facebook’s new Like-gating policy will undoubtedly impact the way contests are run the on platform. As of Nov. 5, the social network is making sure that individuals who Like a Page really like that Page. This means that brands can no longer require members to Like their Page in order to enter a contest or receive more points in a game. Facebook detailed this change in a developer’s blog post.


These restrictions ensure that people who are taking these actions are doing so because they genuinely want to interact with your Page. It creates a better experience overall, and ultimately you’ll have much more loyal fans.


Additional Promotion Guidelines


The Promotions section of Facebook Page Terms offers up more legal guidelines for businesses.


In summary, if you use Facebook to communicate or administer a promotion, you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion. This includes:



  • Official rules

  • Offer terms and eligibility requirements

  • Compliance with rules and regulations governing the promotion and all prizes offered


Additionally, Facebook contests must include a complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant, as well as acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with Facebook.


Best Practices


There’s isn’t a single strategy that will work for every business looking to run a promotion on Facebook, but there are some best practices to help guide you.


Offer Compelling Promotions


Promotions offering significant upside to people who enter are more likely to encourage engagement and generate buzz. Simply put: make sure your promotion is worthwhile, and that the action you’re asking of people is equal in value to the prize or product being offered in return.


With so much content to sift through and dozens of brands offering promotions, you want to make sure that yours stands out. Make sure that promotion announcements include compelling text and images. And don’t stray from the brand voice. Those that remain consistent tend to garner better response and engagement rates.


Keep Business Objectives in Mind


Contests of any kind on any platform require energy, time, and in many cases money. Even if your immediate goal is to acquire more Likes, that’s not what really matters here. Rather, you should be focused on how those new Likes will affect your long-term goals. What do you hope to gain from having 100 additional people aware of your brand? Are they driving more foot traffic into your store? Adding more registrations or free trials?


Before you can move forward with your contest, make sure that you’re clear on how it benefits your business objectives. Once you’ve defined what it is you’re hoping to achieve through the contest, you can begin describing what success looks like to you. To guarantee the best outcome possible, here are a few more questions to ask before launching a social media contest.


The post Read This Before Launching a Facebook Contest appeared first on Sprout Social.






Posted on 11:30 AM | Categories:

Friday, November 14, 2014

What Facebook’s Latest News Feed Tools Mean for Brands






What Facebook’s Latest News Feed Tools Mean for Brands



What Facebook’s Latest News Feed Tools Mean for Brands


Facebook’s News Feed is where members spend a majority of their time. It’s where people go to catch up on what’s happening with friends and find content they value most. The actions people take in News Feed help to determine what Facebook is most likely to show them in the future. As such, members control who they want to connect to, and what Pages and public figures they want to follow.


On Nov. 7, Facebook gave members more ways to control and give feedback on their News Feeds. While this will help to create a more positive experience for individuals on the social network, there’s one important implication that businesses should be aware of.


What’s New and How It Impacts Brands



Added visibility will now show individuals which of the people and brands they follow accounted for the most posts in their News Feeds each week. The main implication is that it’ll be easier for consumers to track oversharing or uninteresting posts from brands.


As such, members will be able to dial down the number of posts they see from a specific friend or brand, essentially filtering those individuals or Pages. This isn’t so bad when you compare it with the alternative: unfollowing. However, even that has been simplified — it only takes two clicks for someone to unfollow you from their News Feed.


On the plus side, Facebook made it easy for members to see who they’ve unfollowed in the past so they can choose to re-follow at any time. There’s no guarantee that they ever will, but the extra visibility could serve as a reminder of better times and prompt a second chance.


What You Can Do About It


Before we start worrying about second chances, let’s focus on how you can avoid being hidden or unfollowed in the first place. Here are a few tips for crafting fan-pleasing Facebook Posts.


Use Engaging Copy and Media


Across social media, heavy emphasis is placed on rich media like photos and videos. Not only do posts featuring them attract more attention, but on Facebook specifically they can help your message stand out.


Do keep in mind that there are best practices you can follow to prep your images for the News Feed. Additionally, lifestyle images tend to be more engaging. Facebook recommends sharing images of your customers enjoying your products or services.


When it comes to creating the text portion of your post, remember that less is more. Try to limit yourself to between 100 and 250 characters. Succinct posts tend to garner more engagement.


Create Opportunities for Conversation


When it comes to growing your online community, sometimes the easiest way to go about it is by asking for what you want. Facebook posts are a good vehicle by which to ask your audience to share their thoughts and feedback on your products or services. Doing so demonstrates that you’re listening and can help improve your business.


You can also take it one step further by posting content that shows you took customer feedback into consideration and applied it. This shows that you value your customers and their thoughts, and it’s a great way to build a more loyal fan base.


And while consumers are more likely to act if prompted to do so, don’t ask for something you don’t actually need. Calls-to-action should always provide value for those who participate. So before uploading a photo to your Page and asking people to Like or share it, ask yourself the following:



  • What value does it provide to those who interact with it?

  • Aside from a temporary spike in engagement, what does your brand take away from it?


Modify Watches, for example, regularly asks customers for input on product designs and names, and builds watch designs from this feedback.







Share Exclusive Information, Discounts, and Promotions


Facebook posts can do more than just help you gather feedback for your team. When used strategically, they can help drive sales or boost subscriptions. Providing access to exclusive content and deals is a great perk to offer fans, and a fantastic way to keep people interested in your Page.


In order to improve engagement with these types of posts, make sure they include a strong and clear call-to-action. Since this determines whether a viewer will act or not, spend extra time crafting your call-to-action and follow the best practices that we’ve laid out for you.


Plan Your Calendar for Timely and Relevant Posts


One of the simplest ways to stay in regular contact with fans is by coming up with ideas for what to talk about each month and incorporating that into your editorial calendar. These conversational prompts will help you post consistently while ensuring that your content is well planned and interesting.


In addition to general conversation topics, don’t forget about timely content. Audiences are much more likely to engage with posts when they’re related to topics that are timely, such as current events or holidays. Timeliness is also important when replying to comments on your posts. Again, this goes back to creating the opportunity for conversation and showing that you value your customers’ insights.


Keep in mind that these tips should be used in conjunction with targeting. Some posts are meant for specific groups of people, and if left untargeted, you might not see the level of interaction you had hoped for. It’s also a risk that the unintended groups will find the post irrelevant, and could hide you from their News Feeds or unfollow you entirely. Rather than risk the decrease in reach, target your posts based on gender, relationship status, interests, location, and any other key traits.


The post What Facebook’s Latest News Feed Tools Mean for Brands appeared first on Sprout Social.






Posted on 12:45 PM | Categories:

Monday, November 10, 2014

How Facebook Can Be Used for Building B2B Relationships






How Facebook Can Be Used for Building B2B Relationships



How-Facebook-Can-Be-Used-for-Building-B2B-Relationships


The majority of what’s posted online about using Facebook and other social networks centers around B2C marketing.  It makes sense, after all.  Facebook is chock full of millions of consumers, ready and waiting to see your message.  Or not see it, as the case often is for businesses.


The problem with using Facebook for B2B marketing is how outside the norm it often is.  It’s hard to target other businesses with your messages.  Business marketers often think in terms of getting others to follow their pages, not in following other businesses relevant to their interests.  The prevailing attitude seems to be “B2B?  Go to LinkedIn.”


While LinkedIn is a great tool for B2B, you can use Facebook effectively if you just know what to do.


Step 1: Build a Robust Profile


Just like using Facebook as a marketing tool to reach the public, B2B marketing requires a strong foundation.  Remember, even though you’re marketing towards business entities, they’re still people making judgments about your business and your offering.  You need to be just as convincing as you would if you were a B2C company.


On Facebook, this means attractive and professional cover photos and profile pictures.  It also means compelling bio text, where you make it clear that you’re looking to work with other businesses, not necessarily with standard consumers.  If you do both, make that clear as well, or create separate pages for your B2B and B2C efforts.


The key to remember from all of this is branding.  Consumers are agile in their thinking; brand loyalty must almost be pushed upon them if you want to keep their business.  In the world of B2B, brand loyalty is the norm.  Businesses are much less agile in general, particularly in industries where adopting a new brand or new technology will require a significant investment to retrofit old systems or install new ones.  Play on the strengths of your brand and make sure it’s clear who you are and who you represent.


Step 2: Deep Research


Step-2-Deep-Research


Your customers are businesses, and those businesses have customers.  Just like how those businesses need to understand their customers in order to identify their needs, you need to perform that market research.


The difference is one of depth.  A B2C business needs to understand the needs of their massed audience, in a generalized way that’s useful to their decision making.  You need to understand how your potential business customers operate and what they need.


You can, if you investigate the users who follow your potential customers, retrace their steps.  Your perspective is different, however.  Instead of looking for what those customers need, you’re looking for what the business needs to fill those needs.  It’s a higher level form of analysis, but Facebook provides a wealth of information.


Step 3: Content Marketing


Just like a B2C business uses content marketing to attract users, so too will your company.  The difference is only in the concerns and perspectives you put into your blog posts.


Essentially, the difference is one of scale.  A B2C company can write blog posts targeted at single individuals, with specific needs on a small scale.  For example, a tech company could write a post about installing a home printer successfully.  You, as a B2B printer manufacturer, could then write a similar piece.  The difference would be, yours focuses on how to set up and network half a dozen office printers, as well as the most efficient arrangement in an office.  The same topic; a difference in scale.


All of the basic focuses of content marketing online hold true, regardless of your customers.  You need to writing deep, lengthy posts full of valuable content with an eye for the keywords and subject matter you’re covering.  You need to produce content on a consistent basis, typically at least 2-3 posts per week.  You need to be optimizing those posts within your website, including meta descriptions and headlines.


For Facebook integration, you’re going to want to use their Open Graph attributes to customize how your posts look in preview.  This is important, because you’ll be sharing your posts frequently.


Step 4: Follow Up on Leads


When a user likes your Facebook page, they’re entering a long-term sales funnel.  Business deals take a long time to close, longer than the average customer sale, so you need to be able to commit to the long-term funnel.


This means, primarily, that you can’t abandon Facebook users in the middle of the process, nor can you abandon Facebook when it doesn’t immediately return results.  You might not close a sale that started with Facebook for a year after you started.


Every person or business liking your page is a possible lead.  Don’t disregard a follower because they’re a personal account rather than a business page.  Remember, everyone needs a personal account in order to create a business page.  The person you ignore might be the primary decision maker for a business you’re trying to connect with.


Step 5: Cast a Wide Net


Cast-a-Wide-Net


With B2C marketing, you’re talking to one person who has total control over the decision whether to buy.  With B2B, you may be working on an entire suite of executives, attempting to convince them all.


Remember, each person taking part in a decision has their own agenda.  It’s not a cloak and dagger affair, it’s just simple politics; someone in charge of a particular department may want their department to thrive, where a big purchase from your company will set them back months in their own development cycle.


You need to communicate with as many people as possible, working different angles and customizing your message to each.  Publicly, you appeal to the crowd with wide-angle messages broadcast to entire industries.  Each narrower step of the funnel grows more granular, with individuals pulling to the fore as decision influencers.


Finally, remember that you’re building relationships with both people and businesses.  With people, you’re building a relationship of trust and respect, brand recognition and confidence.  You want to get these people on your side on an individual basis, so they help you argue in favor of the transaction within their own business.


On another level, you’re building a relationship with a business as a whole.  You never know when, in the middle of a deal, a key employee advocate leaves their employ and is replaced.  It doesn’t jeopardize your relationship with the brand, but it changes the dynamic.  That’s why you’re focusing on both sides of the coin.


The post How Facebook Can Be Used for Building B2B Relationships appeared first on Boostlikes.com.






Posted on 7:00 PM | Categories:

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Facebook Tests Tool to Remove Fake and Low Quality Likes






Facebook Tests Tool to Remove Fake and Low Quality Likes



Facebook-Tests-Tool-to-Remove-Fake-and-Low-Quality-Likes


Likes are the bread and butter of Facebook.  They’re the most basic form of currency you have as a user, and they’re the most essential thing you can gather as a business.  Businesses need likes – specifically users liking their page, rather than their content individually – in order to have an audience.  Without those users liking your page, you have nothing.


This has led to a wide array of possible abuses of the system in the past years.  You had people buying fake likes from robot accounts to boost their like number.  You had people implementing like gates to hide their content from people who don’t like their page.  You had gates one step further, requiring both a like and an app install to see.


Facebook has been combating this problem, slowly.  They already have a delete on sight policy for robot and fake accounts.  They tweaked their EdgeRank algorithm so that fake followers hurt your broadcast range.  They blocked like gates from their service recently.


Now they’re testing a tool internally to deliver a qualitative judgment about your fans.  Currently, when you visit your users section in Facebook’s Page administration section, you can see individual readouts of:


  • People who like the page.

  • Pages that like the page.

  • Subscribers to the page.

  • Page Admins.

  • Users banned from the page.

With this new tool, Facebook adds two new groups; Valuable and Irrelevant.


Facebook Fan Quality


What does this mean for your page administration?  It means you have access to a quick judgment of quality for your fans.


Note that Facebook would only be dividing your users into three groups, with one group being the majority who are neither exceptionally valuable nor exceptionally worthless.  The other two groups would be your most valuable fans – the brand advocates, the people who always comment and like your posts, the people who keep mentioning your brand through tags – and the worthless fans.


The worthless fans are the most important category to recognize, because you want to keep them as limited as possible.  These are the people who never see your posts, the people who never like, share or comment on your content; generally the people who don’t interact with your brand.


Facebook-Fan-Quality


Where do these worthless fans come from?  There are a few sources.


  • Robot fans you either purchase or had purchased for you.  Bad SEOs often do this to make a Facebook page look more active, even though it hurts more in the long run.

  • Fans from countries or locations outside of your sale zone.  This happens when clickfarms get involved.  The users like your page but never bother to come back.

  • Users who like your page for one specific reasons and then are dissatisfied and leave.

  • Users who like your page for a contest or a like gate, before they were banned, and who don’t bother to follow your page after the contest period ends.

With Facebook’s tool, you might be able to get a clean readout of these uninterested, valueless fans and remove them from your page.  You don’t have to ban them, necessarily; just remove them from the pool.


Beneficial Filtering


Why might you want to remove these fans?  If they don’t engage, they don’t see your posts.  If they don’t see your posts, why do they matter?


Facebook shows your posts to a pool of users chosen based on their own criteria internally.  Each post you make is only visible to a small percentage of your users.  Your true visibility, your viral reach, comes from those users liking, sharing, commenting and otherwise engaging with those posts.  Each time they do, it exposes your post to their friends, which balloons your available reach.


The problem with fake fans is that they don’t do any of that.  Any post shown to those users is a waste of time.  If they don’t see your posts at all, it doesn’t precisely hurt you, but each time they see one it’s a detriment.


The best part about this potential tool is how easy it makes finding those fake fans.  Previously, identifying fake fans was quite the process.


First you would want to check the profiles of any fans you’re suspicious of.  If they have no profile picture or cover photo, or if their picture or cover photo is shared with another user – check with Google’s reverse image search – they’re likely a fake fan.


The removal process is even worse.  You can’t create a list and remove fans in bulk; you have to go through each of them individually to remove them.  As if that isn’t bad enough, Facebook uses a lightboxed “infinite scroll” readout to show you your fans.  If you pass a certain number of fans, you no longer can load that window.  Your oldest fans are impossible to find without knowing who they are.


The ideal with Facebook’s quality judgment would be to remove all of those fans in one click, or at least be able to remove everyone in the list indiscriminately.


A Potential Future


Potential-Future


For now, Facebook is still testing the feature.  They have not yet released it to the public.  This is likely just due to how difficult it is to identify fake fans compared to real, disengaged users compared to real engaged users.  There’s no easy line in the sand, and spammers do their best to trick Facebook anyhow.


The tool does open up potential future targeting, as well.  This is just spitballing, there’s no evidence to support this, but wouldn’t it be neat if you could target a post specifically at your “irrelevant” fans?  Sure, you’d catch a lot of fake accounts, but what about the users who would be interested, but who have slipped through the EdgeRank cracks?  The users who don’t see your posts, and thus don’t engage, and fall into the downward spiral that keeps them from ever seeing your content?  It would be like targeting the users who never open your emails with a specific “why don’t you open our mails” message.


Either way, keep an eye out for this feature in the future.  You never know what Facebook will be able to pull off.


The post Facebook Tests Tool to Remove Fake and Low Quality Likes appeared first on Boostlikes.com.






Posted on 10:30 PM | Categories:

15 Incredible Tools that Facebook Power Users Swear By






15 Incredible Tools that Facebook Power Users Swear By



Incredible-Tools-that-Facebook-Power-Users-Swear-By


Facebook, and Facebook marketing, have been around for a while.  You might say they’ve gotten fairly popular, as well.  With anything that gets somewhat popular, people start making tools and add-ons that make it easier to use, give it more features or otherwise expand their capabilities.


If you were ever curious what tools might be popular among Facebook power users, look no further.  This list isn’t exactly exhaustive, but it will get you the best and most popular tools.


1. Power Editor


The Facebook Power Editor is part and parcel to any well-maintained ad campaign on Facebook.  If you’re actually crafting ads by hand, you’re wasting a lot of time and missing out on a lot of nice features.  The power editor is a browser plugin that only works with Google Chrome, so you’re going to need to use that specific browser to make it work for you.  When you do, though, you’re going to be amazed at the sheer amount of power it feels like you have at your fingertips.


2. Pages Manager


The Facebook Pages Manager is an app designed for both Apple and Android devices.  You can find it in the iTunes store or the Google Play store.  What does it do?  It gives you enhanced ability to run your business page from any mobile device.  Sure, you could use the standard Facebook app, but you’re limited yourself and the features you have available when you do so.  Rather than hobble yourself, use the Pages Manager.


3. Facebook Debugger


The Facebook Debugger is a tool you can use to plug in a URL you want to link to.  You’re given a readout of useful information to make sure that it will work properly when you link to it.  Facebook will tell you if it has an error code, what the URL is, how long ago it was scraped, if there are redirects and a host of other attributes it learns through Open Graph.  If you ever link to a broken page or the preview doesn’t show up properly, run it through the debugger to find out why.


4. View As


The Facebook interface grows cluttered as you add pages and ad controls, not to mention plugins.  It can be difficult to see what your page looks like without all of that clutter.  More importantly, you never know if your posts are really as restricted or private as you want them to be.  Go to your private page, press the … button and click “view as…” to see what your page looks like from a public perspective, or from the perspective of a specific person.


5. Ad Reports


Ad-Reports


Marketers can’t live without analytics; it’s basically one of the prime food groups to us.  The Ad Reports tool, if you’ve ever used it before, is way better than it used to be.  Just trust me on this.  It has improved dramatically over the last few months, and it can help you in a single swoop double your ROI from your advertising.  You’ll be surprised at the sheer volume of useful information you can find in this simple readout.


6. Shortstack


There are dozens of tools available to create ad campaigns that sync between desktop and mobile, but few do it as well as Shortstack.  Contests, promotions, voting widgets, cross-site promotions; if you can come up with an idea, Shortstack can help you bring them to life.  They’re also always kept up to date; no advertising “like gates” here.


7. Post Planner


Again, there are dozens of apps available for planning and scheduling posts.  Post Planner is among the best by far.  Not only can you plan your posts in advance, schedule them through the app and go viral.  There are two keys to Post Planner’s success; the ability to upload scheduled posts in bulk through a CSV file, and the ability to reach a massive number of people with a small, easy tool.


8. LibSyn


As easy as it is to create video these days, chances are you’re going to YouTube to host it.  YouTube can’t exactly be classified as a tool to help you with Facebook, now, can it?  What about that lesser-used form of multimedia, the podcast?  Podcasts are more accessible than videos, though they have a lower adoption due to their lack of fancy graphics.  LibSyn allows you to host your podcast professionally, and syndicate it with major podcast distributors.


9. AWeber


AWeber is one of the best tools available for harvesting emails and creating a mailing list.  MailChimp can do the heavy lifting of managing your newsletters later, but when it comes to creating templates or opt-in forms, you’re not going to go wrong with this particular tool.


10. Dropbox


Dropbox


Really, there’s nothing that sets Dropbox apart from competitors like Box, Microsoft’s OneDrive or Google Drive.  Consider this a placeholder for any system that syncs your data with the cloud, so you always have access to your information when and where you need it.


11. Mention


If you’ve ever fought with Google Alerts to get some form of social listening set up, you’ve experienced the pain and frustration of its limitations.  Mention is a better social listening platform that collates and analyzes your social presence in many ways.  Plus it lets you dig into responses directly.


12. Swayy


Swayy – with two Ys – is a social discovery tool that allows you to set your interests and gives you the most interesting, relevant content available in a timely manner.  More importantly, it allows you to quickly and easily share that content with Facebook in a manner of your choosing.  It links with several other social networks as well.


13. Canva


Canva is a simple, easy to use editor creating graphics for, well, basically anything.  It has templates for everything from social media posts and Facebook cover photos to podcast covers and greeting cards.  You can access their large library of graphics, though each one costs a bit to rent for use in your image.  It’s surprisingly robust and, for a year or so at least, cheaper than investing in Photoshop and graphic design training.


14. Tagboard


Tagboard is a tool that scans and generates reports for you based on hashtags used on multiple social media platforms.  While this isn’t directly relevant to Facebook – Facebook’s hashtags are garbage – it’s great for finding trending topics on Twitter and YouTube for use on Facebook.


15. Komfo Analytics


Facebook Insights and a host of other third party apps give you really detailed information into your audience, your EdgeRank and your reach.  Komfo strives for the other end of the road with simplicity and easy to read reports.  It’s intuitive and it’s great to see the key metrics you need to see, without needing to take a stats refresher course.


The post 15 Incredible Tools that Facebook Power Users Swear By appeared first on Boostlikes.com.






Posted on 12:45 AM | Categories:

Friday, November 7, 2014

7 Creative Facebook Marketing Ideas in Time for Christmas






7 Creative Facebook Marketing Ideas in Time for Christmas



Creative-Facebook-Marketing-Ideas-in-Time-for-Christmas


Halloween is over and November 1st has rolled around, which means Christmas decorations have come out in full force.  Businesses are ramping up for Black Friday, and they won’t calm down until the new year has begun.  Now’s the time to start considering holiday marketing campaigns to make your December a jolly one.


Let’s turn to popular Christmas music for our inspiration this season, shall we?


1. Oh Christmas Tree


Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree!  The tree is a symbol as much as an object.  It’s a community project to decorate in many towns, it’s a family project to set up in homes around the world, and it’s a shining, brilliant beacon in the cold and darkness of a long winter.


Idea: Market yourself as a beacon of light and warmth.  Offer something a little extra with every purchase during the December season.  Coupons for free coffee or hot cocoa.  Free candy canes or gingerbread cookies.  Candles with Christmas scents.  The sky is the limit!  Get together a team to brainstorm ideas for small items or coupons for items that can represent the ideas of warmth, of coziness, of companionship, of light.  Partner with other businesses to help provide those items.


Idea: Market yourself using an actual Christmas tree.  Make a game out of it!  Make an interactive Christmas tree that you shake presents out of, with a random present for each user who registers or makes a purchase.  It’s up to you what those presents are, but make them worth the user’s time.  You can double up with this if you have a physical storefront and a mobile presence; make a tree app that runs based on a unique code you hand out with each purchase.


2. Jingle Bells


In many ways, Jingle Bells represents everything there is to represent about Christmas.  It’s packed full of imagery; the sleigh ride, the fields, the bells, the joy.  It’s a bright and happy carol, known by and sung by everyone.  On the other hand, it’s fiercely popular and overdone; a representation of the consumerist drive to exploit every ounce of the holiday.  On a third level, Jingle Bells is a carol with a long history and lyrics few people actually know.


Jingle-Bells


Idea: Go all-in with commercialized carols.  Write, produce, sing and record videos of branded Christmas carols to send out in digital or television advertising.  Hire a choir to sing your deals carol outside your store.


Idea: Run with the trivia of the unknown lyrics.  Research weird origins for Christmas traditions, unknown lyrics for popular carols or even make up your own astonishing “facts” to make users laugh.  It’s not about an embedded deal; it’s about building momentum with a volume of weird and amazing facts.  Think Snapple Facts or a Christmas version of Coke’s names on cans promotion.


3. Deck the Halls


Deck the halls is a carol all about decorating your surroundings, singing, gathering around a fire, telling tales and laughing in the face of the cold winter ahead.  It’s also strongly referential to Yule rather than Christmas.


Idea: Run with the Yule idea and come up with a promotion that follows burning or symbolically burning a Yule log.  Set up a donation station for a good charity with the goal of reaching the bottom of a burning log.


Idea: Decorate!  It’s quick and easy to update the color scheme and images on your site with Christmas variations.  Hang stockings from your navigation, put lights around your logo and pile snow on your footer.  You can even use scripts to make something a little more dynamic.


4. Two Front Teeth


All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.  They’re simple and easy and above all, they’re free.  Heck, losing the first two got me a little payout from the tooth fairy.  This carol is more of a story, so why not form a narrative out of your marketing this season?


Idea: Give out something small and free, particularly to children who shop in your store.  Candy teeth, little toys, small discounts; whatever you feel matches the theme and the abilities you have to give as a business.


5. Winter Wonderland


A Winter Wonderland might be overkill depending on your location, but you can make the most of it.  Snow and ice, white and blue and the powdery colors of a winter morning, that’s what this carol is all about.


Go-all-in-with-commercialized-carols


Idea: Redecorate everything with ice and snow!  The crystalline aesthetic will be especially popular among children this year, just look at how many kids dressed up as Elsa from Frozen for Halloween.  Ice castles are a sure draw if you market anywhere near kids.


6. 12 Days of Christmas


The 12 days of Christmas is perhaps one of the most famous marketing carols ever made.  It’s practically custom-made as a framework for promotions and sales.


Idea: Follow the 12 days theme to its logical conclusions and create a two-week-long promotion, with a new deal each day of the 12.  Ramp up from small deals to something heavy at the end, to encourage people to check back every day.  For bonus points, give people additional discounts if they’ve bought something on previous days.


Idea: Hold a 12-day-long contest.  Come up with questions, trivia, puzzles or activities to earn a check mark for each day, with entry into a contest to win a major prize coming for people who complete every day.


7. Silent Night


Silent night is a calm, gentle carol with more religion than celebration involved.  Many businesses won’t be able to pull off something so religious in nature this holiday season, but if you’re one of those that can, you have a ready in with Christian families.


Idea: Uphold the silent night values by holding promotions for items that encourage spending time with family.  Christmas meal ingredients or recipes, gift exchanges and the like are all valid targets.


Idea: Hold a special event on a particular night, with extended hours or limited-time promotions for the 9 p.m. and later crowd.  Carefully avoid the religious themes and operate with the theme of calm and night.


The post 7 Creative Facebook Marketing Ideas in Time for Christmas appeared first on Boostlikes.com.






Posted on 8:45 PM | Categories: