Successful Facebook Marketing

Rockablepress.com Envato.com © Rockable Press 2011 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or redistributed in any form without the prior written permission of the publishers.

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Table of Contents

CONTENTS Introduction 5 The Like Currency

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Your Facebook Strategy

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Creating Your Facebook Page

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Naming Your Page

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Adding an Image

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Adding Information

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Adding Content to Your Wall

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Adding Photos to Your Page

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Customizing Your Page Tabs

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Promoting Your Page

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Suggest to Friends

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Promote this Page on Your Website

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Adding a Like Button to your Site

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Adding an Activity Feed to Your Site

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Adding a Recommendations Feed to Your Site

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Adding a Login Button to Your Site

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Adding Facepile to Your Site

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Add a Live Stream to your site

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Adding Comments to Your Site

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Promoting your Facebook Page on Social Media

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Table of Contents

Publishing Unique Content on Facebook

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The Basics: Importing RSS

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Updating from Twitter

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Unique Facebook Content

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Driving Traffic

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Encouraging Actions

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Deepen Relationships

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General Tips for Content

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Getting a Vanity URL

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Turning Visitors Into Fans Fan-only Content Setting Up Custom Tabs

Facebook Metrics

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Users Detailed View

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Interactions Detailed View

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Using Insights

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Facebook Advertising

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Creating Your First Ad

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Targeting Your Ad

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Sponsored Stories

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Conclusion 136 About The Author

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Introduction

INTRODUCTION Hundreds of thousands of words have been written about Twitter’s power as a marketing tool for brands, businesses and websites, but now there’s a new player on the scene: Facebook. Since its launch in 2004, the social networking site has primarily been viewed as a platform for personal expression, and a place to connect with friends. However, Facebook has put significant effort into creating a platform that individuals, businesses and organizations can use to promote themselves. These are Facebook Pages. By gaining an understanding of how to use Facebook Pages now, you’ll reap the benefits of being an early adopter. While many of your competitors probably don’t even have a Facebook Page, websites like Psdtuts+ (part of the Tuts+ Network I manage) are finding Facebook is now its highest referrer of social media traffic, even though it has a Twitter account with more than 40,000 followers! Facebook is being used more and more as the primary front for large-scale social media campaigns and promotions. But why is it so effective? • There are over 600 million Facebook accounts. On any given day, 50% of Facebook’s active users check their Facebook accounts1. While Twitter usage is generally restricted to people who are social media savvy, Facebook is used by just about everyone.

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http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

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Introduction • Facebook is an intimate platform. When your Page updates show up in the News Feeds of your fans, they are appearing alongside the status updates of some of their closest friends. This is a very powerful and intimate place for your content to appear, bringing your brand into your fans’ personal lives. • Facebook commands more attention. When people are using Facebook, they are strongly focused on it. Unlike Twitter, which most people keep running in the background while they work on a handful of other tasks. • Threaded comments encourage better quality discussion. On Twitter, discussion generally only occurs between Twitter users and their followers. On Facebook, it’s easy for fans to participate in discussion with both Page admins and each other, making it much easier to develop a sense of community among fans of your brand. • A Facebook Like is more public than a Twitter follow. When a Facebook user Likes a Page it’s added to their profile for all to see. It becomes a part of their Facebook identity, and because of this, a Like is a powerful gesture. A follow on Twitter, by comparison, is much more hidden. • Pages are flexible. Twitter is restricted to a 140-character text update, but Facebook allows you to post photos, videos, links, events and more. • There are a wide range of promotional tools available. Tools such as the Like Box and Like Button make it very easy to get a steady flow of new Likes and Facebook interaction happening on your Page.

With all these advantages, it’s stunning that there are still so many brands, businesses and websites that don’t have a clue about how to use Facebook for marketing. By owning this book you’re already ahead of the curve. When others in your industry finally get around to creating a Facebook Page, you’ll already be enjoying the

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Introduction

benefits of having a fan-count in the hundreds, or even thousands. To capitalize on this advantage, we’re going to get started building your Page right from the first line of Chapter One. As Tuts+ Manager at Envato, I manage Facebook accounts with over 87,000 fans. I believe a big part of the reason we have such a strong Facebook presence is that we were relatively early adopters. Though it’s important to create the best Facebook Page that you can, it’s more important to just get started!

The Like Currency Twitter’s currency is made up of follows and retweets. On Reddit, it’s upvotes. For Facebook Pages, it’s Likes. Users can Like your Page, your updates, or content you’ve published. Each of these translates to different benefits for you. When a user Likes your Page, this means: • A link to your Page will appear on the user’s Info tab. • A notification that they’ve Liked your Page will appear on their profile (temporarily) under Recent Activity. • Your posts will now appear in their News Feed. When a user Likes an update on your Page, this means: • Other users can see that they have Liked the item. If enough people Like the update, their name will be replaced by a total count of Likes. This doesn’t share the update in any way and is primarily a source of social proof.

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Introduction

When a user Likes your content on another website (outside of Facebook): • It will increase the number of people who are shown as Liking the content, which adds social proof. • An update is posted to their Facebook profile saying that they Liked the content. The update links to the content they Liked. • An update is posted to their friends’ News Feeds saying that they Liked the content, and linking to it. The most important of these actions is Liking your Page. Once a user Likes your Page, they’ll be subscribed to your updates forever, unless they Unlike your Page or close their account. This is a powerful way to keep the user engaged with your brand over the long-term. The second most valuable form of a Like is a Like on your content. This shares the content with the user’s Facebook network and can drive new visitors to your website, blog or store. The least valuable form of a Like is a Like on an update you’ve posted to your Page. This is useful for social proof, but little else. It’s still a good thing to have, but there’s no need to worry about this too much. Post good content and the Likes will follow.

Your Facebook Strategy It’s tempting to view your aim with Facebook very simply: to get as many Likes of your Page as possible! While having more fans certainly doesn’t hurt, the level of engagement of those fans is what truly matters. There are Pages with tens of thousands of fans, but these people never visit the Page, never comment and never visit any of the links shared on the Page. There are other

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Introduction

Pages with only a few hundred or a few thousand fans, which have extremely active and engaged communities. The ideal is to have a large and engaged community, but if you’re forced to choose between lots of fans and active fans, choose active fans every time. Likes are important because they enable you to get a return on investment from the work you’ve put into Facebook, but getting fans should never be your only goal. Instead, fans are useful in that they enable you to reach other goals, like increasing traffic to your website, making more sales, raising brand awareness, or getting more clients. Before we start building your Facebook Page, take the time to decide what your real end goals with Facebook are. What made you decide to invest in this book? Was it the thought of opening up another avenue to get clients? Getting more traffic to your blog? More opt-ins to your newsletter? There are a thousand possible reasons, but some of them are likely to outline exactly what excites you about learning Facebook marketing. Rather than focusing on fans, it’s these goals you should have in mind with everything you do on Facebook. As long as you make your Facebook Page easy to find and post good updates, your Page will add fans on autopilot. Facebook is an exciting, ever-changing platform. Every day, new Pages are created, and more people discover how useful Pages are for keeping up with their favorite things. The Pages platform is growing at a rapid rate, but the knowledge in this book will put you ahead of the curve. This is information that companies pay social media marketing consultants thousands of dollars to share. By the end of this book, you’ll have the knowledge required to create a Facebook Page that’s as good as those run by some of the world’s biggest companies. I hope you enjoy learning about Facebook marketing!

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Creating Your Facebook Page

CREATING YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE To begin, go to the URL http://www.facebook.com/pages/create. php. You’ll be met with a grid of six colorful icons for different Page types. Click the one most appropriate to the kind of Page you want to make. • Choose Local business or Place if you’re setting up a Facebook page for a brick and mortar business or noncommercial location. An example of a ‘Local business’ Page is Zachary’s Chicago Pizza. • Choose Brand or Product if you’re creating a Page for a product brand (like Adidas), online-based business (like The Book Depository), a freelance business or firm (like Make Design, Not War) or a website (like Psdtuts+). • Choose Company, Organization or Institution if you are creating a Page on behalf of a company (like Intel) or an organization (like Amnesty International). • Choose Artist, Band, or Public Figure if you are an author, artist, musician, performer or other figure marketing your own personal brand. • Choose Entertainment if you are creating a Page for a particular source of entertainment, like a movie, TV show, book, song or sports team. • Choose Cause or Community if you are creating a Page for a political cause (like Animal Rights Now), a group, or a community (like Real Madrid Fans).

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Fig. 1: Create your Page

Naming Your Page In my case, I’m creating a Page for my blog, Skelliewag.org. I’ll click ‘Brand or Product’. From the drop-down list that appears, I’ll select ‘Website’ and carefully type the intended name of my Page.

Fig. 2: Spot the typo? Make sure your Page’s name is correctly spelled or you’ll be stuck with the mistake!

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Next, you need to enter a name for your Facebook page. Once again, be very careful with this step, as names can’t be edited after you have 100 fans. In general, the simplest, shortest, most accurate name is best. Long or descriptive names don’t work well, as shown in the comparison below.

Long and descriptive

Fig. 3: Long and descriptive

Short and accurate

Fig. 4: Short and accurate

Lastly, you’ll need to tick a checkbox to verify that you agree to the Terms for Facebook Pages.

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Once you’ve made sure there are no mistakes in the title and that you’ve chosen the most relevant category, proceed by clicking ‘Get Started.’ Congratulations, your Facebook Page is live! Right now, it looks frighteningly bare, but that will change soon.

Fig. 5: It’s alive!

For now, resist the urge to immediately Like your Page. Doing so will cause it to show up in your News Feed and make it accessible to all your friends. Before your Page makes its public debut let’s take the time to jazz it up a little.

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Adding an Image Let’s start by adding a profile image. This will replace the question mark in a grey box on your Page. Note that images with a width larger than 198 pixels will scale down to 198 pixels wide.

Fig. 6: Upload an image

Fig. 7: Choose a file

Fig. 8: Check the results

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Here are some suggestions for choosing an appropriate image for your profile: • For a business, use your logo, or an image prominently featuring your logo. • For a freelancer, use your business’s logo, or a picture of yourself. • For an organization, use your logo, or an image prominently featuring your logo. • For a product, use a good picture of the product. • For a website, use the website’s logo, or a screenshot of the website. • For a personal Official Page, use a picture of yourself. As mentioned earlier, it’s best to create an image 183 pixels wide or less so that you can keep image quality high. When Facebook sizes down an image, the result can be blurry. You want your image to be crisp and high quality. Keep in mind that you can get creative with your profile image. You can add text, messages, a tag-line, use it to promote current offers, causes and new products, or briefly describe what the Page will offer. For inspiration, here are a number of different approaches to profile pictures for Pages: Profile pictures: 1. The Gnomon Workshop 2. Zippy's Restaurants 3. Nettuts+ 4. reddit 5. Howls! 6. Texas A&M University

7. Whole Foods 8. Curli 9. P.E.T.A 10. Sennheiser 11. Amnesty International 12. Cheetos

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Creating Your Facebook Page

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Creating Your Facebook Page

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Adding Information Let’s add some more detail to your Page by filling out the ‘Info’ tab. Note that depending on which of the six options you chose when first creating your page, the fields you see in the ‘Info’ tab may differ from these examples. Because I’m creating a Page in the Brand or Product category, let’s run through the options for that category.

Brand or Product Info Tab

Fig. 9: Edit info

Fig. 10: Basic info

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Creating Your Facebook Page

When you click ‘Edit Information’ you’ll be met with a drop-down to change your Page category, as well as a field where you would be able to enter a username if you had more than 25 fans. Once you’ve hit this milestone you can add a username at any time. Every field is optional. You may wish to mention when your business, brand or organization was Founded. The next three fields, Address, City/Town and Zip are important for businesses and organizations with a physical address you would like people to visit, such as a brick and mortar store. In my case, I’m going to leave these fields blank, as they seem more appropriate for a physical business than a blog. Because of the short length of the About field, it seems like it’s intended for a tag line or motto. It’s not immediately clear how Company Overview, Mission and Description differ from each other. Remember that any fields you leave blank will not be shown, so you can choose to only fill-out fields that are appropriate for your Page. I suggest choosing just one of these options to avoid repetition. A trophy case made of text, you can list any awards you’ve won in the Awards field. You can use the Products field to list your product line, or if you offer services, to list your services. Enter an Email and Phone if you want people to be able to contact you via your Facebook Page. This will be visible to both fans and non-fans. Note that neither of these fields are required, and you can provide just your email address, just your phone number, or neither. If you would prefer to be contacted in another way, such as Twitter, it’s possible to add a URL or plain text to either of these fields. Because I’d prefer people contacted me via Twitter rather than a phone, I’ll be a bit tricky and use that instead.

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Website: add a website address to be linked to from your Page. URLs will be clickable, and http://www. will be automatically added to links if you have not done so already. You can add multiple links by adding a space between each link, or putting each link on a new line. You are limited to 10 links.

Fig. 11: Finished product

Are Your Fields Different? Depending on the category and sub-category you selected when creating your Page, your ‘Info’ options will vary greatly. The following principles apply to the ‘Info’ tab for all categories: • Leave a field blank and it will not show. Focus on what’s important and appropriate, and resist the urge to pad the ‘Info’ tab with unnecessary information. • Some text fields can be bent to your own purpose, such as providing a Twitter URL in the Phone text field.

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Adding Content to Your Wall The first item on your Getting Started page suggests that you post your first update. You can post a Status Update, Photo, Link or a Video.

Fig. 12: Post status updates

Adding content is done via the “Wall” tab. Your Page’s Wall is the primary means to communicate with visitors to your Page (it is visible to both fans and non-fans) and to provide value to them.

Fig. 13: The Wall tab

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Fig. 14: Sharing is caring

We’ll be exploring unique Facebook content more deeply in Chapter 3: Publishing Unique Content on Facebook. For now, let’s post our first ever Status update on your new Page.

Fig. 15: Hello world!

Fig. 16: Your first Wall post

Adding Photos to Your Page The photo bar at the top of your Page is looking rather empty! Uploading and sharing photos is a well-loved Facebook activity, so it’s no surprise that this feature is available for Facebook Pages, too.

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Fig. 17: Add a photo

Hit “Select Photos” and a file select window will open. Browse to the photo/s you want to upload and hit “Open.” Watch as your photo is uploaded. While you wait, you can create an album to house your photo.

Fig. 18: While you wait...

You have the option to give your album a descriptive name, and provide a location. The Location field works well for a personal photo album (i.e. “St. Kilda Beach”), but it doesn’t make sense for an album like “Portfolio” or “Products.” Luckily, it is completely optional, and can be left blank. If the images you’re uploading are already optimized for the web, selecting “High Resolution” will not take significantly longer than selecting “Standard” resolution. In cases where image quality is

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Creating Your Facebook Page

very important, such as when uploading examples of your graphic design or photography work, consider selecting High Resolution. However, if you’re uploading images pulled directly from a camera, or that you know to be more than 500k, select Standard quality to have the image undergo Facebook’s basic image compression. When you’re ready, select “Create Album.”

Fig. 19: Preparing the album

If you want your album to be posted on your Page’s Wall, select “Publish Now.” If not, or if you want to add it later, select “Skip.” In my case, I’m going to hit “Publish Now.”

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Fig. 20: Your first Photo Album

A little bare, but it’s a start! Soon I’ll add photos of the rest of my book covers to fill out the album a little. I can do that at any time by selecting “Add More Photos.” For now, let’s fill out some details for our album by selecting “Edit Album Info.” If appropriate, add a caption to your image. If there are people in your photo, you can click on them to tag them. This opens a context menu you can use to type in a name or select from your Facebook friends (drawn from your personal “admin” account, not from people who have Liked your page). When you tag someone in a photo, a link to his or her Facebook profile appears beneath the photo in your album.

Fig. 21: Adding a caption

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Lastly, you can select the “Edit Info” tab to add a description to your photo album. Let’s do that now.

Fig. 22: Adding a description

If you view your Photos again, you’ll see your new custom album next to the default “Profile Pictures” album. Success!.

Fig. 23: My albums

Your new album has also been posted to your Page’s Wall. Your Page is starting to look a little less empty!

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Fig. 24: Posted to your ‘Wall’

You can also quickly post either a single image or a new album to your Wall via the “Share” options:

Fig. 25: Posting photos and albums to your Wall

Using the Photo Bar Every Facebook Page has a series of five photo thumbnails that display across the top of the Wall. Any photo you upload to your Page will be added to your photo bar. Though you can remove photos, you can’t re-order them. By using small thumbnails that randomly shift in order, Facebook is trying to prevent companies using the photo bar as a banner ad

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Creating Your Facebook Page

by stitching images together. Even so, many Facebook Pages are putting the photo bar to good use.

Fig. 26: ShortStack photo bar gives highlights of the business

Fig. 27: The Psdtuts+ photo bar shows previews of recent tutorials

Fig. 28: The FreelanceSwitch photo bar shares various photos

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Even if your business is non-visual (for example, maybe you’re a freelance writer), I would still strongly suggest filling out your photo bar with five good photos. To help you, here are a number of ideas for ways to use your photo bar: • Product thumbnails. If you run a business that sells products, showcase them here. • Recent work. If you’re someone who does visual, creative work, showcase it in your photo bar. This is especially useful for freelancers, who can use it as a mini portfolio. • Articles you’ve written. If your blog posts have images (they should!) you can use these as thumbnails, and link to the full article in the photo description. • Photos of you, or your team. You can use the photo bar for up to five headshots. • Community pictures. This could be photos of your fans, or photos of fans interacting with your brand at conferences or community events. If you want to add a picture to your photo bar without publishing it on your Wall, upload it as normal. When it gives you the option to “Publish” or “Skip,” select “Skip.”

Customizing Your Page Tabs To remove a tab from your Page, select “Edit Page.” then navigate to “Apps” in the sidebar. Select “Edit Settings” on the App you would like to remove, and select “Remove” next to “Tab: Added.”

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Creating Your Facebook Page

Fig. 29: Re-adding a deleted tab

Deleting a tab is a reversible process. Go to “Edit Settings” for the tab you want to add again and select “Tab: Available (add).” You can also use the Apps page to add additional Apps and Tabs to your Page. • Events. The Events tab allows you to post events related to your Page. • Links. Similar to a Twitter feed, this tab provides an easy way to share links with your Page visitors. • Notes. Facebook Status Updates are limited to 420 characters, but the Notes app allows for longer, blog-post style updates. • Videos. Upload videos from your computer, record videos on the spot, and store them here.

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Promoting Your Page

PROMOTING YOUR PAGE Now you’ve fleshed out your page a little bit, it’s time to get your first Like. While you weren’t looking, I added some more content to my Wall, and my Page is looking much more finished (though really, it’s only just getting started!).

Fig. 30: A basic finished Facebook Page

Now that the structure of your Page is finished, let’s take advantage of some of Facebook’s sharing options to get some eyes on your new Page. In the right-hand admin menu on your Page, select “Suggest to Friends.”

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Promoting Your Page

Suggest to Friends

Fig. 31: Suggest to Friends

Let’s suggest the page to a friend or two. Family and close friends are a great source of charity Likes to get your Page started!

Fig. 32: Recommend your Page

Once you’ve found the friend or friends you want to send your Page to, hit “Send Recommendation.” Though it’s possible to send your Page to all your Facebook friends, it’s a little spammy. Stick to friends who you know will understand and appreciate your Page.

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Promoting Your Page

Promote this Page on Your Website This option suggests that you add a Like Box to your website to help promote your page. It’s no surprise Facebook recommends this as one of the first things you should do, since adding a Like Box to your website will hugely increase the amount of traffic your Facebook Page gets.

Fig. 33: Promote this Page on your website

You may have seen a Like Box before. It looks like this:

Fig. 34: The Like Box

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Promoting Your Page

The Like Box is useful in a number of ways. It’s a great way to let your audience, customers and clients know that you have a Facebook page by promoting it on your website. They can Like your Page without having to visit Facebook. If anyone in their friendship network also likes the page, their friends will often show up among the sample thumbnails of people who Like the page. While helping to manage the Facebook Pages for the Tuts+ Network, we noticed a huge increase in Likes after adding the Like Box to the sidebar of one of our websites, Nettuts+. The arrow points to the day we added the Like Box.

Fig. 35: Effects of adding the ‘Like Box’ on Page activity

I strongly recommend that you add a Like Box to your website. Now that I’ve created a Facebook Page, I’ll add a Like Box to the sidebar of my blog, Skelliewag.org. You can follow along and add a Like Box to your own website (or get someone more technical to do it for you!). After selecting “Add the Like Box” you’ll be whisked away to a page in Facebook’s area for Developers. Facebook have created a helpful widget you can use to build a custom Like Box for your Page, no coding required. Start by copying and pasting your Facebook URL into the Like Box builder. Right now, your URL is probably long and complicated. The good news is that once you get 25 fans you’ll be able to select

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Promoting Your Page

a so-called Vanity URL for your Page. My Page’s URL is currently http://www.facebook.com/pages/Skelliewag/183414908349583, but by the end of this book it will be http://facebook.com/ Skelliewag. Next, select a pixel width for the Like Box. If you’re adding the Like Box to your sidebar, this pixel width should be thinner than your sidebar. If you’re not sure how wide your sidebar is, you can find a good width through some trial and error. Next, you can choose a light or dark color scheme for the Like Box. The next three options are the most interesting. They’ll determine how much stuff is packed into your Like Box. For the simplest possible version, leave “Show Faces,” “Stream” and “Header” unchecked.

Fig. 36: The simplest Like Box

Select “Show Faces” to put a selection of your fans’ profile pics in your Like Box. The Like Box can show profile thumbnails of up to 15 fans if left at the default 290-pixel width. Select “Stream” to add your latest Wall posts to the Like Box. Lastly, you can enable “Header” to show a “Find us on Facebook” header. I’m going to use a Like Box with only “Faces” enabled for my own blog.

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Promoting Your Page

Fig. 37: Like Box with faces

Fig. 39: Like Box with Faces and Header

Fig. 38: Faces and Stream ‘Like Box’

Once you’re happy with your Like Box, hit the “Get Code” button. You’ll be met with two different code formats, iFrame and XFBML. iFrame format is easiest to setup and retains the core functionality of the Like Box (being able to remotely Like) a Page. XFBML is an acronym for Extended Facebook Markup Language and is an ideal choice for web developers, as it allows further customization with the JavaScript SDK. To keep things simple, I’m going to walk you through adding iFrames code to your website. Select the iFrames code from the pop-up box and copy it, then hit “Okay.”

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Promoting Your Page

Fig. 40: Plugin code

The next step is to add the code to your website where you want the Like Box to appear. If you run a standard HTML site, open up the HTML file for the page you want to add the Like Box to and copy and paste the code where you want it to appear. I’m using WordPress for my blog, so I can access my theme’s code by going to “Appearance” > “Themes.” If you’re not 100% comfortable with code, make sure to save a copy of your theme file before you modify it, or find someone to help you.

Fig. 41: WordPress code

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Promoting Your Page

With a bit of tweaking the box sits nicely in my sidebar. The more traffic you can send to your website, the more people will see your Like Box and know that you have Facebook Page. The presence of a Like Box will help you to add new fans automatically over time.

Fig. 42: Like Box in a sidebar

What You’ve Done So Far You’re now running an Official Facebook Page for your business, organization, website or personal brand. You’ve fleshed it out with information and photos. You’ve added content. You’ve shared your Page with friends and contacts, and added a Like Box to your website. By now, you might have even seen a little activity on your Facebook Page, such as comments on your posts, or Likes (but don’t worry if you haven’t yet... you will soon!).

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Promoting Your Page

Fig. 43: First blossoms of activity on my Facebook Page

You’ve built strong foundations for a popular and well-liked Facebook Page. And yet, there’s still much more you can do to build your Facebook fan-base and increase engagement with your Page. In the next section of the book, I’ll be focusing on key ways to promote and enhance your Facebook presence. These strategies are focused on increasing the number of fans for your Page.

Adding a Like Button to your Site If you’ve ever used social media voting sites like Digg or StumbleUpon, you’ll be familiar with the concept of “voting up” content you find online. The Like Button is Facebook’s voting up mechanism. It’s a social plugin that allows Facebook users to Like specific pieces of content. A link to the content they’ve liked will be

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posted to the user’s profile and to their friends’ News Feeds. When a user Likes your content, they share it with their entire friendship network on Facebook. For this reason, the Like Button is a musthave for your website. To start the process, visit Facebook’s page for the Like Button. There you can read an explanation of how the button works, but most importantly, you can use the supplied widget to generate a customized Like Button for your site. Similar to the Like Box we added earlier, this comes in both iFrame and XFBML versions. This time, we’re going to install the XFBML version by default. It’s easy, and means you do not have to enter anything for “URL to Like.” The code will detect the page or post the user is on, and they will automatically Like that page. Users will also be able to leave a comment on the post to their News Feed and profile whenever they Like your content. 1. Since we’re using XFBML, we do not need to enter a “URL to Like.” 2. Next, choose between the three layout options available. Keep in mind that the “Show Faces” feature is only available when you choose the standard layout. 3. Show Faces” will display profile pictures of friends who have Liked the same page beneath the Like Button. 4. Next, set the “Width” so that the Like Button is not wider than the content it will be displayed within. 5. Choose whether to display the verb “Like” or “Recommend.” While “Like” is the standard, “Recommend” might be more appropriate in formal contexts where “Like” would seem too colloquial. 6. Lastly, choose your preferred font and color scheme. 7. When you’re done, select “Get Code.”

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Fig. 44: Like Button widget

Fig. 45: Selecting XFBML code

Promoting Your Page

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Just as we did with the Like Box, we need to paste the code into our website where we want the Like Button to appear. In my case, it’s at the bottom of all blog posts. In a basic HTML website, simply paste the code where you’d like it to appear. In WordPress, you can access this by editing the code for the PHP file controlling single posts. To find this, look in “Appearance” > “Editor.” Unless you’re a code maestro, make sure to save a copy of the original before making any changes. In my case, I’ll open the Single Post PHP file and look for php the_content, a tag which serves up the content of your blog post. I’ll paste the Like Button code directly below this to ensure the Like Button is the first thing that appears at the end of a post.

Fig. 46: Adding the Like Button code to WordPress posts

Fig. 47: It worked!

If you’re a developer, make sure to read through Facebook’s Like Button documentation to discover more advanced functionality. When a user Likes your content, a link to the item is posted under “Recent Activity” on their profile. The anchor text will be taken from the title attribute of the page being shared. Now, anyone who visits the user’s Profile will see a link to your content.

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Fig. 48: Likes are posted to “Recent Activity”

After you’ve added the code to your site, no more work is required to maintain the Like Button. You’ve just installed a fully passive promotional channel for your content on Facebook!

Adding an Activity Feed to Your Site The Like Box showcases users who Like your site. The Activity Feed shows visitors to your site how people are interacting with it on Facebook, including when they Like your content or share it on their profile. Unlike the Like Box, it doesn’t allow for users to Like your Page directly from your website. If it’s a choice between the Like Box or the Activity Feed, I’d go with the Like Box. If you have the space for both, however, consider what the Activity Feed may be able to offer your site. Let’s take a look at how to install the Activity Feed. Fig. 49: Activity Feed widget

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Navigate to Facebook’s Activity Feed page. Once again, there’s a helpful widget available to help you craft your Feed. Because we’ll use the XFBML version of the code, we don’t need to specify a domain. Set the width smaller than the area you want to display the Activity Feed within. The rest of the choices are cosmetic, though you can select whether or not you want to show recommendations in the feed. When you’re happy with your settings, hit “Get Code.”

Fig. 50: Getting the XFBML code

Select the XFBML code from the pop-up screen and hit “OK.” I’m going to test the Activity Feed in my blog’s sidebar, below my Like Box, so I’ll navigate to “Appearance” > “Editor” in WordPress and add the code there. Here’s how it looks:

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Fig. 51: The Recent Activity feed

Looking good! I can see one issue, though. Instead of pulling the correct thumbnail for my last two posts, it’s pulling a Twitter icon I have in my sidebar. If I decided to keep the Activity Feed in my sidebar, I would need to remove the incorrect image, or specify the image I wanted to use as the post thumbnail in my blog’s code. Here’s a possible solution.

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Adding a Recommendations Feed to Your Site The Recommendations Feed is very similar to the Activity Feed, but it’s focused on recommending your content to users based on what they’ve Liked in the past, and what their friends have Liked. If you want the feed to serve up what Facebook believes to be your site’s most relevant content, rather than its most popular, use the Recommendations Feed rather than the Activity Feed.

Fig. 52: The Recommendations Feed

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Adding a Login Button to Your Site A clever way to integrate Facebook into your web app or membership based site, the Login Button shows users which of their Facebook friends have already signed up for your site. As always, Facebook has provided a helpful widget to generate the Button code. You can choose whether to show faces, specify the width of the Button and faces area, and select how many rows of faces you’d like to display.

Fig. 53: The Login Button

Adding Facepile to Your Site The Facepile widget shows the faces of friends who have Liked your page or have signed up to the site. If none of your friends have interacted with your content, it will show the total number of Likes without any accompanying faces.

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Since the Like Button also shows faces of friends who have Liked the same page as you, this seems mostly useful for membership sites. To add Facepile to your site, visit Facebook’s Facepile page.

Fig. 54: Facepile

Add a Live Stream to your site The Live Stream widget lets people comment about an event on Facebook as it happens. This works best for things like live streaming video, product launches and live chats. It gives visitors a place to discuss what is happening, while also posting their responses on Facebook and further promoting the event. To add a Live Stream to your site you’ll need to first get an App ID. Your account will also need to be verified by adding a mobile phone or credit card. Once you have an App ID, head back to Facebook’s Live Stream widget. You can customize variables like height and width, and select whether comments in the Live Feed are posted to the user’s profile.

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Fig. 55: Live Stream

Adding Comments to Your Site The Comments social plugin lets users comment both on the page it appears on as well as reposting the comment on their Facebook profile, if they so choose. The option to “Post comment to Facebook profile” is ticked by default. This can work as a replacement for blog comments, or for use on pages where there is currently no commenting functionality. The best thing about the plugin is that it takes something that would not normally help to give your site more exposure (commenting) and turns it into a way to share your content. The drawbacks are that users need to have a Facebook profile in order to comment, and that you can’t moderate comments before they appear (though you can report comments that violate Facebook’s Terms of Use).

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A number of companies have started to use the Comments social plugin on product pages. Users can give feedback and testimonials for a product, then have those recommendations shared with friends in their stream. Additionally, a number of high profile blogs have been trialing the use of Facebook comments on their blog posts.

Fig. 56: Comments

Promoting your Facebook Page on Social Media Since you’re interested in marketing with Facebook, you may already be using other social media outlets for promotion, such as a Twitter account. These social media outlets are an excellent place to promote your Facebook Page, because the people who follow your brand on these services have already shown that they’re willing to engage with you on social media. Your Twitter

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followers or LinkedIn connections are perfect candidates to become Facebook fans.

Fig. 57: Linking to Facebook from social media profiles

One of the simplest ways you can promote your Facebook Page on your other social media accounts is to add a link to your Facebook Page in your profile. In this screenshot, you can see that I’ve added a link to my blog’s Facebook Page to my Twitter bio. Most other social media services will allow you to add several links to elsewhere on the web, so make sure to add links to your Facebook Page to as many of these as possible. On social media platforms where you generate unique content, like Twitter, there are many ways to encourage followers to also Like your Page on Facebook. The simplest is to let your followers know that you have a Facebook Page! Here’s an example tweet: If you use Facebook, you can also follow us there: http://facebook. com/yourusername

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Another option is to encourage your followers to engage with content you have posted on your Facebook Page, for example, a question you have asked your audience.

Fig. 58: Asking followers to answer on Facebook

Often, you’ll need to share a photo or screenshot on social media. These can be hosted on Facebook, so why not link to the image on Facebook, rather than using a service like TwitPic?

Fig. 59: Share photos on Facebook rather than a third party service

If you’d like to promote Facebook to your Twitter fans more heavily than the occasional update, you can link your Facebook account to your Twitter account by visiting Facebook.com/twitter. Click “Link a Page to Twitter,” and on the next screen, select the Facebook Page you want to link. Note that you will be able to choose which kinds of updates you do or don’t want to post to Twitter.

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Next, you’ll receive a Twitter notification that Facebook wishes to access your Twitter account in order to post the updates. Select “Allow” if you are happy with this.

Fig. 60: Giving Facebook access to Twitter

Now that you’ve linked your Facebook Page to Twitter, you can choose which updates to auto-post across, and which to post on Facebook only. You can toggle Twitter sharing on or off for the following update types: Status Updates, Photos, Video, Links, Notes and Events.

Fig. 61: Choosing which updates to post to Twitter

Now that Twitter is integrated with Facebook, let’s test it out by posting an update.

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Fig. 62: The Facebook update

Fig. 63: The Twitter update

After publishing this Facebook update, my Twitter account immediately tweeted the same update, though it’s worth noting that only my comment on the link was posted on Twitter. The title of the link wasn’t included in the tweet. Because of this, you might consider adding the title of the link to the comment field when you’re posting to Facebook, so it’s retained when the link is also posted to Twitter. Unfortunately, there is no way to stop a specific update from being shared. You might have wanted to do this when posting an update that doesn’t make sense outside the context of Facebook (for example, a status update thanking your Facebook fans for their support). To temporarily disable sharing you’ll need to visit Facebook.com/twitter again and disable ‘Status Update’ from the list of content types to be shared. Then, you’ll need to re-enable it once you’ve made the update you don’t want to share on Twitter.

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PUBLISHING UNIQUE CONTENT ON FACEBOOK We’ve explored a number of ways to promote your Page from outside Facebook, but what about the promotion that happens on your Facebook Page itself? Everything you post on your Facebook Page can be Liked, Commented on and Shared. Though Likes are very valuable when it comes to your Page, they are much less valuable for individual Wall posts. Liking an individual post does not post it to your “Recent Activity,” or into your friend’s News Feeds. Sharing and Commenting are much more valuable. If you comment on a post, it will appear in your profile page’s “Activity Feed.” If you Share a post, it will appear on your personal profile’s Wall as well as being posted to your friends’ News Feeds. When it comes to promoting your Page within Facebook, Sharing and Commenting is extremely valuable.

Fig. 64: Like, Comment, Share

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Though Sharing and Commenting helps you promote your Page within Facebook and is a great reason to post unique content to your Wall, it’s not the only reason. By providing value to your Fans and interacting with them through Facebook, you help to deepen their relationship with your brand or product. By posting unique content, being active in discussions, or letting your Fans post content and questions to your Wall, you can create a thriving community on your Facebook Page.

Fig. 65: Interacting with fans leaves a good impression

None of this can happen without content on your Page which can be Liked, Shared and discussed in comments. In this section, I’ll explore the myriad options for unique Facebook content available to you.

The Basics: Importing RSS If your website, product or brand has an associated RSS feed for new content, this gives you a means to automatically update your Wall with new content.

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Select “Edit Page,” then select “Apps.” From that page, select “Go to App” under the Notes App. If you previously disabled the Notes app, you’ll need to reactivate it through the “Edit Settings” window.

Fig. 66: The Notes app

From the Notes page, select “Edit import settings” from the bottom left of the sidebar.

Fig. 67: Edit import settings

Next, enter your RSS feed into the text field. If you’re not sure of your RSS URL, you can enter a direct link to your website. Tick the checkbox to verify the content is your own, then hit “Start Importing.”

Fig. 68: Start importing

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You’ll be treated to a preview of what your feed will look like. If you’re happy, hit “Confirm.”

Fig. 69: A preview of your feed

Courtesy of the Notes app, your RSS feed is now neatly displayed in individual posts. If you want to make this a tab that visitors can access at any time, you can do so via “Edit Page” > “Apps” > “Notes” (Edit Settings) and selecting “Add” next to the Tabs option. Otherwise, posts will be added to your Wall but the Notes page will not be accessible to visitors. Navigate back to your Page’s Wall and you’ll see the most recent posts from your RSS feed have been automatically posted there. If this amounts to too many posts you can manually delete some of them by mousing over the update and selecting X (delete).

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Whenever your RSS feed is updated, your Wall will update with a link to the new post that people can Like, Share or Comment on. This is an excellent way to ensure your Wall is always fresh and active, even on days when you don’t have the time to update it with unique content.

Fig. 70: Wall posts from an RSS feed

Updating from Twitter If you use Twitter, it’s easy to cross-posts your tweets as status updates to your Page. While you could set up an RSS feed of all your tweets, some of your tweets might not make sense on Facebook, and you may not want to flood your Wall with too many tweets. One solution is the Selective Tweets app for Facebook. It enables you to choose tweets to add to your Facebook Page by adding the hashtag #fb to the tweet.

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Go to the Selective Tweets profile and you’ll be met with a Page for the app. In the sidebar, select “Add to my Page” and choose the Page you’d like to add. Head back to your Page and select “Edit Page” > “Apps.” Select “Go to App” under Selective Tweets. From there, enter your Twitter username and select “Grant permission.”

Fig. 71: Installing Selective Tweets

You’ll receive a pop-up notification telling you that Selective Tweets needs to access your basic information, as well as access to post to your wall. If you’re happy with these terms, hit “Allow.” Make sure “Has permission?” has changed to “Yes,” then hit “Save Changes.” To test the app, publish a tweet with “#fb” added to the end. If Selective Tweets is working, the tweet will be cross-posted to your Page’s wall with the #fb hashtag removed. Rather than posting duplicate content between your Twitter account and Facebook, you can now update both at the same time. Coupled with the RSS feed you’ve added to your Facebook Page, it’s clear that keeping your Wall updated won’t be too difficult!

Fig. 72: A tweet posted to your Wall

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Unique Facebook Content Though you’ve learned some quick and easy routes for keeping your Wall updated, there’s much more you can do with Facebook content. It requires more effort, but the rewards are worth it. By posting updates unique to Facebook you’ll help your fans to feel like they’re part of an exclusive group, bringing them closer to your brand, product or website. In the “Creating Your Facebook Page” section of this book we walked through the different types of content you can post to Facebook: status updates, photos, links and videos. When you post one of these content types, your Page’s visitors can interact with it in one of three ways. • Leave a comment. When a visitor to your Facebook Page leaves a comment on something you’ve posted, it’s also posted on their Wall, sharing your content with their friends. • Share this update. Used to repost your content to the user’s Wall, this is the best way to get exposure for your content within Facebook. • Like this update. Though having a high number of likes on an update helps with social proof, Liking an update does not share it in any way. For this reason, comments and shares are more valuable than Likes on individual updates. Somewhat confusingly, the same term (“Like”) is used for how visitors become a Fan of your Page. And, when a user Likes a page on your website, it will be shared on their wall. If you are confused by the “Likes” system, you’re not alone!

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Fig. 73: Like, Comment, Share

Regardless of whether your fans interact directly with your content or not, your Wall posts will be posted to their News Feed. This is the most powerful way Facebook drives traffic back to your business or website.

Fig. 74: A new item from a Page I’ve Liked shows up in my News Feed

Though it gets far less publicity as a source of traffic, for some sites, Facebook can be a bigger referrer than Twitter. This is all generated by Wall posts showing up in the News Feeds of your fans, people Liking your website content and sharing it in their friends’ News Feeds, as well as by other big Pages linking to your content. Below, you can see the top traffic sources for Psdtuts+. Facebook is just behind Google and RSS in this top 10 list of referrers.

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Though the site has a Twitter account with nearly 40,000 followers, and half that number of Facebook fans (as of this writing), Twitter is not even in the top 10 list of referrers. Why is this?

Fig. 75: Top 10 traffic sources for Psdtuts+

When people are using Twitter, they’re generally doing other things. You work on a task, glance at Twitter, then start on another task. Also, depending on how many people a user follows, tweets can disappear very quickly from the stream if not read soon after they’re published. Contrast this with Facebook. When people use Facebook, they give it their full attention. Most importantly, unlike Twitter, people don’t use Facebook when they’re busy. People turn to Facebook in times of boredom, relaxation and procrastination. They’re looking for something to catch their attention, which is why getting your content in front of Facebook users is so important. Though we know we can publish a number of different content types on our Facebook Page, and have already experimented with a few, this doesn’t help us to decide what we should publish on Facebook.

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What you publish depends on what you want to achieve with your Facebook Page. Do you want to: • Drive traffic back to your product or website? • Encourage specific actions (sales, sign-ups, subscriptions, hiring you)? • Deepen your relationship with your customers, clients, audience, or fans? Rather than focusing on one of these aims exclusively, you’re likely to be working towards a percentage of each. For example, 50% of results being traffic, 30% of your results being sign-ups and 20% of results being more community engagement. This means you need to choose the same proportion of content types that work towards each of these aims. • To drive traffic, you must post content that links back to your website. • To encourage specific actions, you must post content that is a ‘call to action’ (specifically asking your fans to undertake the action you want.) • To deepen relationships, you need to ask your fans for their opinions and answers, and respond to their comments and feedback. You can also build loyalty by helping fans get to know your brand, product or website better. Let’s look at each of these three content paths in detail.

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Driving Traffic This is, arguably, the easiest type of content to produce because it must always meet one key requirement: it must contain a link. Earlier in the book I showed you how to pipe an RSS feed into your Facebook Page. If your website has an RSS feed, the auto-posted updates give you a good foundation from which to drive traffic. But you can go further. For any update designed to drive traffic to your website, you will usually need to use the ‘Link’ content type. However, URLs included in Status updates will also be converted into clickable links. In this example, I’ll post a link to my blog’s most popular post. Because it was published some time ago, it’s not going to be automatically posted via RSS. I need to take matters into my own hands!

Fig. 76: Posting a link

Paste your link into the field and hit “Attach.” Facebook will automatically pull an image thumbnail from the URL, as well as some text. If the widget chooses the wrong thumbnail, you’ll be able to scroll through several options, or select “No Thumbnail” if there are no suitable images on the page. You can also edit the text preview Facebook automatically pulls from the URL by clicking it.

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Note that you can add an additional comment to your link. This is a good idea, as it helps to add more personality to the update.

Fig. 77: Customizing a link

When you’re happy with the customizations to your link, hit “Share.”

Fig. 78: Published link to a past post

In less than a minute I’ve created a new pathway into my website, via Facebook.

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Though the process for adding a link is simple, there are a number of ways you can link back to your site: • Bloggers and website owners can link to great posts from the past, interesting user comments, or category pages. • Businesses can link to products, a company blog, testimonials, landing pages, and fun stuff created for branding. • Freelancers can link to their portfolio or post recent work, to service pages, or blog posts. Though what you link to is important, how you link back to your website or product is crucial. In the example above, I offered a little bit of description of the link, but didn’t directly engage with my Page’s fans. Though commonly seen, this is not the best way to link to your content. Instead, you should ask your fans to provide an opinion on what you’ve linked to, or to add to it in some way. As we discussed above, every time a fan comments on your content the comment is posted on their wall, spreading the reach of the post to their entire social network. In this way, you can drive traffic back to your website while also promoting your Facebook page. The majority of what you publish on Facebook should be designed not only to achieve your aims, but also to stimulate comments.

Fig. 79: Asking for an opinion

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Fig. 80: Asking fans to expand on the content

That being said, make sure to do so in a way that will not annoy your fans. Being controversial or provocative might get you more comments in the short-term, but it could damage your relationship with your fans. Instead, it’s best to engage with fans openly and honestly, asking them to enhance what you’ve posted with their tips, advice and reflections, or to share their own opinions. Whenever you post something to Facebook, ask yourself, how can I encourage my Page’s fans to discuss this further?

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Encouraging Actions When you were first setting up your Facebook Page, I asked you to think about your goals. While creating a Page and amassing fans is fun and easy to measure, it’s not the end goal. After acquiring a fan, the next step is to encourage that fan to take action. We’ve already been through encouraging your fans to visit your site, but what about other beneficial actions they might take? In this section, we’ll discuss the different content types that encourage fans to take a certain type of action. Following your brand on Twitter. A Facebook fan is an excellent candidate to become a Twitter follower. To encourage your fans to follow you on Twitter, it’s important that they know you have a Twitter account. A Wall update specifically asking fans to follow on Twitter will help you gather a number of new followers. The same strategy can be used for any social media account. Let your fans know you’re active on that service, ask them to follow you, and provide them with a link. This strategy is simple, transparent, and effective.

Fig. 81: Encouraging fans to follow

Pre-order a product. Facebook is a platform suited to brief updates. Because of this, it’s perfect for revealing dribs and drabs of information about an upcoming launch. After you’ve posted a number of updates building anticipation about the product or event, you can conduct a launch on Facebook.

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Use discount codes and coupons. Many companies post discounts specifically for Facebook fans. This is a great way to make your fans feel special while giving exposure to your product and encouraging sales. Hiring you or your company. To be hired more you need more people to know about your services, and their benefits. Because of this, you should occasionally post on your Wall about one of the services you offer, and link to a page where people can contact you about it. To convince your fans that you do quality work, it’s a good idea to share examples from your portfolio. These can be links to articles, or screenshots of work. And of course, sharing testimonials from happy clients is excellent content for your Wall!

Fig. 82: Sharing work can help you land clients through Facebook

Signing up to your newsletter. Because you can’t embed HTML in Wall posts, it’s not possible to post a newsletter sign-up form directly to your Wall. But you can add a sign-up form to your Page within an iFrame (discussed in Chapter 4). You can also take the simple route of posting a link to a page with a newsletter sign-up page on your Wall. This will always convert better if you offer a bonus for signing up, and let your fans know. These days, many newsletters come with a bonus for all new subscribers.

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Fig. 83: A bonus offered with a newsletter from ChrisGuillebeau.com

Share your content. Some of the actions you will want fans to take will occur directly on Facebook. Remember that when a fan shares your content, it appears on their personal profile to be seen by their entire friendship network. A “Shared” post has the same visibility as a normal status update from that user, and appears at the top of their profile rather than tucked away under “Recent Activity.” Sharing your content is the best possible way a fan can support your content on Facebook. Instead of waiting for users to share your content, why not ask them at the end of a high quality update? Here is a simple script you can add to the bottom of an update every so often: If you liked this, please Share it using the link below! Attend events. If you’re active on a personal Facebook profile, you’d be familiar - perhaps too familiar - with Facebook Events. A Facebook Page also has the ability to create Events, and you can then link to them from your Wall to get more RSVPs.

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Fig. 84: Sharing a promotional event.

Sell your product. Your Wall is a great place to post short updates about new products. Despite the potential to generate sales directly via your Wall, any time someone shares or comments on your product post, it will be posted on their profile and spread to their network of friends, helping your product sell through new channels.

Fig. 85: Selling a product on the Wall

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Deepen Relationships Your goals with Facebook should not only be to get more Likes and more traffic. One of the first things people learn at Business School is that it costs much more time, energy, and often money to add a new customer than it does to retain an existing customer. Keeping your fans loyal and happy is just as important, if not more important, than finding new fans. For this reason, it’s important to use your Facebook Page to build more loyalty among your existing fans, and to gain a better understanding of them. As I mentioned earlier, comments are one of the most useful ways fans can interact with your Facebook posts. Every time a fan leaves a comment it is shared on their profile and in their friends’ News Feeds. While you’re building brand loyalty and interacting directly with your audience, you’re also creating pathways for new fans to find your Page. For this reason, content that encourages discussion will be one of the best possible additions to your Facebook Page.

Ask Questions! If you want to encourage discussion, sometimes the simplest path is best. Ask a question! You’ll see this kind of content on many Facebook Pages. There are lost of different types of questions you can ask. To ask a question or poll, use the ‘Question’ link under your Page’s ‘Share’ options. If you like, you can convert your question into a poll by selecting ‘Add poll options.’

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Fig. 86: Using the ‘Question’ update type

Fig. 87: Adding poll options

Fig. 88: A live poll

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Questions about your brand, product, or service. Though these kinds of questions do stimulate discussion, they’re particularly useful for the insights they can give you about your audience. Here, you can see an example of a Page asking for feedback on how fans consume the website’s content, and how this could be improved.

Fig. 89: Polling fans

Questions that are relevant to your audience. This operates on the basic social principle that people like to discuss the things they have in common. If you ran a blog about graphic design, for example, you’d be safe in betting your Facebook fans are interested in the topic. So why not post a general question or discussion point on graphic design? The same approach can be applied to any Facebook Page. Here you can see an example of an expert in making money with blogs asking fans whether they sell eBooks through their blogs.

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Fig. 90: Asking related questions

Questions that are relevant to everyone. Facebook is, by its nature, a fun and informal platform. People are familiar with using it to chat with friends, organize their social calendar, and share bits of their everyday lives. Brands have been able to add a similar feel to their Facebook Pages by asking fun, informal questions that everyone can participate in. This can include questions like ‘What are you doing right now?’, ‘Do you prefer Coke or Pepsi?’, and ‘What’s your favorite video game of all time?’ If the tone of your Page is usually quite formal, you may need to set up your question a little bit, or the change in tone could be too jarring. Try something like: ‘Fun question today: What’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever visited?’ By making it clear that this informal question is a departure from your usual content style, fans will be more accepting of the change in tone. If you’re still concerned about changing your tone too much, try saving these kinds of questions and discussions for the weekend. Fans may be much more receptive to a ‘Favorite movie?’ discussion point on a lazy Sunday afternoon than they’d be on a hectic Monday morning!

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Fig. 91: Asking an informal question

Controversial and breaking news. Nothing generates comments like a controversial topic. That being said, taking sides can damage the brand perception of those who disagree with you. You can harness the discussion power of controversy by reporting on the issue without taking sides. Instead, ask fans ‘What do you think?’

Fig. 92: Breaking news

One case where it might benefit you to take sides is when your audience, by their nature, will agree with you. For example, if your Page was for a political party or pressure group, presenting your group’s stance on an issue is likely to be well received among fans of your Page. Alternately, you might make the decision to take sides, knowing that your position will resonate with the majority of your audience.

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Even if some people disagree, the benefits should still outweigh the negatives. Useful and valuable links and tips. One of the most popular uses for Twitter is to share links, tips and quotes that your audience will find interesting. People love recommendations that are well tailored to them, and this kind of content does well on Facebook, too. However, where this kind of content is often the majority of what’s shared on Twitter, it’s a good idea if this kind of content only features occasionally on your Facebook Page. People usually ‘Like’ your Page not solely because of what you post on your Wall, but because they Like your brand. For that reason, most of what you publish should be about, or related to, your brand. It’s the reason people Liked your Page in the first place! Treat it as a mini-blog. This type of content can be particularly effective if your Facebook Page is dedicated to a website or blog. On your Facebook Page, you could share extra ‘mini’ blog posts, almost like it’s a tumblelog. Post photos. At the time of this writing, Facebook Pages display a photo bar of five photos across the top of your Page. To keep your Page seeming fresh and dynamic, it’s important to occasionally refresh your photo bar with a new photo. Here are some ideas for photos to post to your Page: • Photos of your products. • Sneak peeks at things you’re working on. • Photos of you or your team. • Photos of customers and clients. • Photos from events you’ve held. • Images of your branding, i.e. a logo.

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Engage with video. Video can be a more intimate form of communication than writing. By talking to your fans ‘face to face’ through video, you can bring them closer to you. Video content on Facebook has another impressive benefit. If you upload video to Facebook, rather than linking over to YouTube or another video hosting service, your video will display a ‘Like’ button when viewed by someone who’s not yet a fan of your Page. If they click that Like button, they’ll become a fan. For this reason, it’s often best to host your video content on Facebook directly, unless a YouTube subscriber is as important to you as a Facebook fan. Fig. 90 shows this custom video Like button. Because the video is hosted on the Mari Smith Facebook Page, the button says ‘Like Mari Smith’. If I hosted a video on my own Facebook Page the button would say ‘Like Skelliewag’.

Fig. 93: The Like button on a Facebook video

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General Tips for Content There are two principles that will serve you well regardless of the types of content you want to publish. The first is that you should be active in the comments on your own Facebook posts. One of the most helpful ways a fan can interact with your Facebook Page is by commenting. To encourage comments, you need to set the example. This includes answering direct questions, but you might even want to thank people for their comments, even if they’re not specifically looking for a response. Additionally, you can use comments to add persuasive weight, or extra information, to your posts.

Fig. 94: A Page account responds to comments

The second guiding principle for Facebook content is that more is better. Because posts are naturally limited in length, and more comments means that your Page will spread further on Facebook, it’s ideal to update your Page a number of times per day if possible. The next best thing is to update once a day, and the next best thing after that is to update a few times a week. How much time you commit depends on how important Facebook is to your business, and how much you enjoy creating Facebook content.

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There’s one catch with the ‘more is better’ philosophy: what you post needs to be unique content created specifically for Facebook. Upping the number of RSS feeds you pipe through your Page won’t have the same effect. People are very tuned in to separating the unique from the generic and the personal from the impersonal. Your Facebook content should, as much as possible, be handcrafted by you or your team.

Getting a Vanity URL

Fig. 95: Applying for a Vanity URL

Once you have at least 25 fans for your Page you’ll be able to choose a shorter “vanity” URL for your Page in the form of facebook.com/<username>. To do so, go to http://www.facebook. com/username/. Select your Page, then carefully type the name of the username you want. You can’t change usernames after you have 100 fans, so be certain there are no typos, and that you’re not planning a name change in the future. When you’re ready, select ‘Check Availability’. You’ll be met with a number of warnings. Double-check you’re happy with your username, take a deep breath, and hit ‘Confirm’.

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Publishing Unique Content on Facebook

Fig. 96: Take a deep breath...

Fig. 97: Success!

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Publishing Unique Content on Facebook

Fig. 98: Looking good!

There’s no need to worry about breaking old links, as Facebook will automatically redirect your old URL to your new vanity URL. Looks much more professional, doesn’t it?

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Turning Visitors Into Fans

TURNING VISITORS INTO FANS In Chapter 3: Publishing Unique Content on Facebook, I mentioned that encouraging people to post comments on your updates helps to spread the word about your Facebook Page. But once someone visits your Page, there’s no guarantee they’ll ever click the Like button. If your Page is not immediately compelling, they’re more likely to browse somewhere else! To get around this problem, many Pages have started to practice the old marketing adage, that if you want people to do something, you need to tell them what to do. When a visitor comes to one of the following Pages, they’re met with a message asking them to Like it, located on a “Welcome Tab.”

Fig. 99: Like our Page! (Redbull)

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Turning Visitors Into Fans

As you can see, this is very different to greeting first-time visitors with the hubbub of your Page’s Wall, and much more likely to convert visitors into long-term fans. In this section, I’ll show you how to easily set up something similar for your own Page. Earlier in the book, I showed you how to add and remove Tabs from your Facebook Page, such as the Photos, Notes, and Discussions tab. Aside from these pre-built tabs, it’s also possible to add new, custom tabs to your Facebook Page. We’ll use this functionality to create a landing page within your Facebook Page, specifically designed to encourage visitors to become fans. With a custom tab, a unique graphic and a little bit of magic, you can create something like the following examples.

Fig. 100: The welcome tab for Kotaku.com’s Facebook Page

Fig. 101: The welcome tab for The Book Depository’s Facebook Page

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Turning Visitors Into Fans

Fig. 102: The welcome tab for Backcountry’s Facebook Page

This system means that rather than potentially being distracted by the many updates and comments on your Wall, visitors are immediately urged to Like your Page before going further. Before we start, be aware that adding a custom tab to your Facebook Page requires that you have a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS (or can work with someone who does) and have a server where you can upload files. To create our custom tab, we’re going to use an iFrame. An iFrame is essentially a means to show one webpage within another webpage. We’ll create our “Welcome” tab content, then use an iFrame to reveal it on our custom “Welcome” tab. Most of the websites showcased above have opted for the simple route of using an image to urge visitors to Like the Page. This means the iFrame can contain very minimal code. The image you or your designer create should be 520px wide, as this is the width of Facebook’s layout.

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Turning Visitors Into Fans

A little while ago, I showed you some call to action images from a selection of different Facebook Pages. Looking at these, you can find some tips for your own call-to-action image. For example, many of these graphics directly call attention to the Like button by pointing to it with arrows, or using an image of the button itself. They also ask visitors very clearly to Like the Page. These two tips will serve you well in creating a call-to-action image that successfully converts visitors to fans. Create this image, then embed it inside a HTML document. It should be contained inside a containing