Category: Facebook

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Is a Facebook “Like” Worth Anything Anymore?

Facebook has slowly dismantled the things that have made Facebook Business Pages a great resource for a business to have. In September and October Facebook has disabled these features.

No longer can you use these two important items on Facebook if you are a business:

  • Cannot send out a note to all your fans using the Facebook message system
  • Cannot have a forum like exchange on the discussion tab – discussions are removed too
  • Did away with the Facebook reviews tab
  • Serious changes to contest and “like” building strategies – many things are now off limits

Some of these features went away as of September 30th and others on October 31st, and I have to tell you I think more changes are in store.

Additionally, fans now can block all your updates from their pages. In fact, unless they subscribe to your updates on their wall they may actually never see what you have talked about or shared through default Facebook settings.

For businesses these very important changes have removed the value of a “like” on Facebook. Additionally, Facebook is now allowing anyone, not just fans, to post on your business wall. So now someone doesn’t even need to “like” your business to have their comments posted as it was before.

You may still force people to “like” your page with a fan gate for the time being, but this will probably change as well. In conclusion, before a “like” really had value – you could additionally market fans with coupon codes and messages all within Facebook; building relevancy and a reason for someone to actually “like” your business. With the changes that are being rolled out it sure seems like the value of a Facebook “like” has lost its value.

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How to Track the Success of Facebook Advertising

Without conversion tracking tools provided by Facebook, it is hard to justify spending advertising dollars on Facebook ads. However, with a little bit of creativity you can gage how Facebook ads are working for you. Here are a few suggestions you may want to try out as you test pay per click advertising on Facebook.

  1. If you sell products, do a unique coupon code for Facebook and put it in your ads. You’ll be able to see in your store control panel how many times that coupon code was redeemed. Check your sales against your Facebook ad spend to see if continuing to advertise on Facebook makes sense for you.
  2. If you sell services not products, send your Facebook ad clickers to a special landing page, embed in the page a contact form with a subject line that says “Lead from Facebook.” This way you’ll know for sure that the when you get that form that the lead was generated by a Facebook click.
  3. Create a special gift pack to sell in your store that you only advertise on Facebook. This way if you cannot do a coupon code, you can at least get an idea if your investment in Facebook advertising is generating a return.

If you are advertising on Facebook using pay per click advertising, you do need to watch your Google Analytics account to check to see if you can identify a volume of traffic from Facebook. If you see a spike and you are advertising, it makes sense to assume that Facebook is generating these additional exposures.

Many business owners want to advertise on Facebook, especially in the upcoming holiday season, but without true conversion tracking tools we can only hope and guess that Facebook is the “right” place to be. Find out more about our Facebook ad services.

If not knowing if a pay per click service is working for you is too problematic for you, consider using our Google AdWords services. With Google AdWords conversion tracking, we can KNOW what sales have been generated by clicks and can even measure phone calls. Find out more about our Google AdWords services.

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The Facebook Timeline

On September 22nd, Facebook announced that by September 30 a new look would be rolled out in Facebook. The new look is called a Timeline. As of early this week (this post was written on October 1) I am only seeing the Timeline on developer sites. I can’t see the Timeline on our spokesdog site or that of family members.

I have found in one news article that Facebook has stated that “Facebook Timeline has yet to be launched to all of its 800 million users.” Which brings us to when exactly will mainstream Facebook users be funneled into the Timeline?

Although most press has been good, especially with the new attractive cover image which is 720 pixels wide, the depth of information shown on users is a bit concerting. Comments of “this is too much information about me” and “this looks like a life resume” are surfacing on the Web; with not everyone being in love with the new Timeline look.

Personally, I like the cover, and I like how the content is now compartmentalized, but will I go back and add baby pictures of myself? No way! How this will impact Facebook Business Pages is still to be seen. I have not seen the select a cover option appear in any of the Business Pages we manage professionally. I have however seen that the ability to send a note to all fans has disappeared as Facebook said it would after September 30th.

It will be interesting this next month as Facebook rolls out the Timeline to see what people do with the graphic space. Once you set up your cover, enter a link to your Facebook profile in the comments below so we can see what you have done. Here’s mine: http://www.Facebook.com/nancymccord.

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Introducing Our New Facebook Advertising Management Program

With Facebook being the place to meet clients and prospects on the Web, Facebook advertising is really something you may want to strongly consider at this time. Because we’ve had so much interest in Facebook pay per click and are already managing several client accounts, we have rolled out a formal program. You can find out more about our Facebook Advertising Program.

For $100 we’ll set up your Facebook Advertising Program and for a monthly charge of $100 we’ll manage it and update your ad creatives weekly. That’s only $25 per week for management! With some services charging a minimum start up cost of $400, 12% of your ad spend, and $25 for each new creative they add to your account, we think you will find our Facebook advertising services a real value.

Although you don’t need us to set up Facebook pay per click advertising for you as it is fairly simple, there may be situations where you don’t have the time or know how on how to effectively manage Facebook to get results. Our services aren’t the right match for everyone, but for the busy professional or business owner who has heard about the value of Facebook, our services offer the opportunity to get started on Facebook at a practical price.