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Recently, Facebook announced one of the biggest changes they have ever made: a change in their News Feed.

Here is Facebook’s official page on the information: http://newsroom.fb.com/News/581/A-New-Look-for-News-Feed

Here are the big changes:

New Visuals

This displays visual content (like photos and videos) much more prominently than before. Although Mark Zuckerberg stated they did this after pulling data that shows visual posts make up about 50% of the News Feed, I suspect it has to do more with the popularity of visual websites like Pinterest.

“Choice of Feeds”

Although this option is already on Facebook, it looks like they are making it easier to filter out what shows up in your news feed. This is the big change that has marketers panicking, but I’ll cover that in a minute.

Mobile Theme

They also mentioned the fact that they were planning on making the Facebook App for smartphones a lot friendlier for users. This shouldn’t be hard as the Facebook App is hands down one of the worst Apps I’ve ever used in my life, and making it “easier” to use wouldn’t take that much.

Okay, last part I got off on a rant, but those are the major changes.

How To Accept These Changes as A Business Owner

I assume you’re reading this article because you want to know how those changes will impact your social media marketing strategy.

First of all, stop worrying about the “filter” option they are implementing.

Seriously.

I’ve seen more articles, status updates, and tweets in the last week centered on this subject than anything else. While I do understand the concern, correct social media marketing strategies and tactics won’t suffer with these new changes.

In fact, it is actually a blessing in disguise.

Every time something like this happens, business owners start to worry that they can’t spam their social networkers to death anymore.

You’re right, you can’t.

The same tactics that I have taught on building a community around your brand apply to these changes right here. Instead of worrying about whether or not they won’t see your sales posts, become a page that they can’t wait to visit!

This concept is implemented very differently across niches, but let me give you an example.

One of my clients (by client, I mean this is actually my better half) just started her very own photography company. She also happens to have a marketing degree, and started posting all kinds of wonderful corporate type posts promoting her company.

The problem is she’s running a photography company, not a corporate law firm. Her target market is middle aged women with families. I coached her on posting a lot more pictures, and funny little internet comics and memes that are floating around the internet (you know, the stuff that makes up 98% of Pinterest).

These photos are shared, engaged with, and commented on a lot more often than her other status updates. These “fun” posts boost the awareness of the brand, and encourage more people to like the page.

There are a million companies in your niche right now. Why would your target market follow yours? If you haven’t already, figure out who your target market is—and market to them on a more personal level. Always stay within the professional requirements, but start treating them like they’re individuals and you’ll be surprised at how many of them don’t hide your status updates.

Think Visual

The majority of your status updates from now on should have a visual element attached to them. Maybe it’s a company picture or a video. Or maybe it’s just a unique stock photo with a little bit of words on your product or service.

There are literally millions of free stock photography pictures out there, so it shouldn’t be too hard to make your Facebook page more “visual.” Imagine you were turning your status update into an article, and needed a picture to go with it. What would be a good picture?

Visual posts not only make the post stand out, but they also make your Facebook page look more professional.

In closing: don’t worry about users “hiding” your business updates, instead, become a brand that users can’t wait to hear from.

Recently I wrote an article on overall social media psychology in 2012.

Today, I’d like to talk about some important adjustments you need to make in order to gain the most out of your Facebook marketing campaigns. As always, I have successfully tested and implemented these ideas through my clients, and am happy to report the findings to you.

Understand Facebook Marketing and the EdgeRank

If you haven’t already, I suggest that you invest in my Facebook Rock Stars: Training Course. It gives you all the information you’ll need to market Facebook with all the internal Facebook changes, as well as the changes in “the social psychology” of Facebook users.

EdgeRank is the name of the formula which Facebook uses to determine what appears in their users’ News Feeds. It’s their way of ranking status updates based on the interaction history of each different Facebook user.

Basically, the more a user “likes” or interacts with a page or profile, the more likely their updates are going to show up to said user. Certain things like pictures and videos are more likely to show up than basic status updates. This means that funny pictures and status updates (which don’t necessarily help the short term sales of your company, but generally receive more likes and interactions) are important in your Facebook marketing campaigns.

Think about it like this: if you post a funny picture, more people are going to “like” the picture or share the picture with their friends. The next time you post a more business oriented update, it will rank hire to the folks who “liked” and commented on your previous status updates. The more someone interacts with your page, the more of your updates and information is shown to them.

Post More Frequently

One of the biggest changes this year (for the first time in my nine years of social media marketing) is the frequency of posting. Previously, you could get away with posting 3-5 times a week. However, now you really need to focus on posting at least once a day on Facebook.

Ideally you’ll post twice a day, once in the morning or early afternoon, and once in the evening.  I’ve started doing this for my clients, and the results have spoken for themselves.

There are a lot more people using and posting on Facebook, and you need to make sure that your posts aren’t getting lost in the shuffle.

Engage With Other Pages

The new Timeline and Facebook Pages have allowed Page owners to interact with other Pages. This is a very powerful tool that not as many people are utilizing. It’s time for you to use your Facebook as a page, and interact with similar niches.

Start sharing their status updates, and commenting on their pictures, videos, status updates, and anything else they might post. Naturally you don’t have to comment on everything, but you want to start paying more attention to interacting with other Pages. This can grow your fan base, and will also provide more content for you to share with your followers.

Share More Pictures and Videos

Pictures and Videos generally have more interactions (likes and comments) than traditional text only status updates. The more visual your Facebook Timeline is, the more people interact with your company and share your status updates.

Try and get more pictures and videos that you can share with your followers. I highly recommend most of your status updates include some type of picture (even if it’s just a funny picture).

This is a really bare bones article on the subject of Facebook marketing. As you can see, there is a lot more to it than just posting status updates and funny pictures. If you haven’t already, I suggest that you invest in my Facebook Rock Stars: Training Course. Stop trying to “figure out” Facebook, and turn it into the marketing machine that has worked out for many other companies.

Image: Credit

There have been a lot of rumors and misinformation swarming around ever since Facebook released their Promoted Posts feature.

To summarize: Facebook now allows pages with over 400 fans to “promote” a status post. For a small fee, you can select any post that was posted within the last three days, and it will be shown more prominently in the News Feed of your fans.

You set a lifetime budget (which usually is pretty small) and the post will reoccur in your fan’s (and the friends of any of your fans that like or comment on the post) for up to three days in the News Feed.

Basically, this is Facebook’s way of allowing you to schedule certain, important, status updates and give the post more visibility in user’s News Feeds.

For more information on the actual mechanics of this feature, click this link to read Facebook’s official press release and training on the subject.  

Now to the main point: I’ve seen a ton of hateful status updates, pictures, and other various forms of protest against the promoted post feature. Many people feel that Facebook is now hiding a page’s posts, and only showing it to certain amounts of fans unless the page agrees to pay Facebook for more expose. They further believe that Facebook is using this as an excuse to squeeze more money from businesses.

Here’s Facebook’s response:

“Nothing has changed about how your posts are shared with the people who like your page.

A lot of activity happens on Facebook, and most people only see some of it in their news feeds. They may miss things when they’re not on Facebook, or they may have a lot of friends and pages, which results in too much activity to show all of it in their news feed.

If you don’t promote your post, many of the people connected to your page may still see it. However, by promoting a post, you’re increasing its potential reach so an even larger percentage of your page audience and the friends of those interacting with your post will see it.”

If you’ve been on Facebook (or any social networking website) you may have noticed that people post things, a lot of things. Some of my friends literally post something new every hour. The more friends, pages, and applications you’re a part of, the more cluttered your News Feed will be (the famous “what I had for dinner” status updates).

The Promoted Post tool is meant to give you that little extra time on those important posts, and a very small cost. In the end, I feel that this is a good solution to page owners and their most important posts. If you’ve been doing just fine so far, you don’t have anything to worry about. But as you may have felt (and I certainly have in the past) that you wish more people would see a certain status update, you now have the option to ensure that.

If you have more than 400 fans, I’d recommend doing some testing on the new Promoted Posts tool. Promote one of your best posts, and see if that increases the interaction and fan base for your page at all.  If you’ve been doing just fine without it, you have nothing to worry about. It’s just a new little tool to help business owners guarantee more people will see those important updates.

There are still natural ways you can use the Facebook Edge Rank formula to ensure your posts are more visible to your fans. To learn more about that, check out my Facebook Rock Stars: Training Course.

Image: Credit

Hey everyone!

Check out the following video to learn two easy methods that will help you grow your Facebook fan base!

Basically, you are using your Facebook page to do two things:

1. Find and comment on other pages that have a similar niche as yours. Or, any page that has the same or similar target market that you do. Leave thoughtful, contributing comments on their status updates, photos, videos, and anything else they post on Facebook. You will be using your page, so curious onlookers will click on your page and land directly on your Facebook page.

2. Use the @ symbol to tag other pages when you share their articles or status updates. This is a great way to provide content for your followers, and to show up on their page.

I’ve recently received a ton of questions on Facebook SEO, and I wanted to write a blog article on how you can set up Facebook SEO.

I also wanted to debunk a common myth: Facebook will not get you a number one result for your chosen keyword.

Google (and other search engines) understand that anyone can set up a Facebook page, and trying to use Facebook to beat out other competitors in huge niche words like weight loss, insurance, make money, etc. will not happen.

Try it. Go to Google and type in your main keyword. Do you notice any Facebook results? I’ve tested tons and tons of different keywords, and I’ve never found a Facebook result for any of the most competitive keywords out there.

Now that that’s out of the way, I want to talk about some Facebook “best practices” for SEO.

What you’re trying to rank for is your company name, and any local information that might help people find you. If you’re mainly a national company, then you just want to focus on ranking your Facebook page for your company name.

There are four important parts to your Facebook Page.

Fan Page SEO Title

When someone does a search for your company, or any company, the result looks something like this:

This is just broken down as your “Fan Page Name | Facebook.” DO NOT try and stuff as many keywords in your Facebook page as possible. I’ve seen a ton of people try and put something like: “Scott Taylor Real Estate Investor for North, East, South, and West Florida.” These pages are too long, and generally will harm your conversions (as your page looks like spam). It also doesn’t do anything to help your SEO. Try and keep your name as simple as possible, something that people can easily find when searching for you.

Meta Description

The Meta Description that Google (and other search engines) are looking for is simply your “About” section, as well as your Fan Page name. Make sure both of these are filled out, and accurately represent you. Try and use your company name in your About section, as you’re mainly trying to make sure people looking up your company name can find you.

The H1 Tag is Your Fan Page Name

Really simple. Your Fan Page name is your H1 tag.

Fanpage URL

This is an important one… Be careful about choosing your fan page URL! Once you’ve chosen it, you’re stuck. Right here is where you can play around with keywords. So, if it’s available, you’d want to try something like:

Facebook.com/yourmainkeyword or Facebook.com/CompanyNameAndLocation

I use both for my clients, and it works out pretty well.

To summarize: Stop looking at Facebook as a way to sneak in a boost your SEO. Unfortunately it’s very unlikely for this to happen. Instead, focus on creating a great place that Facebook users can view your company.

I cover all of this and more in my Facebook Rock Stars: Training Course. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of that course. It will change the way you market on Facebook.

Jerry