There’s a very good chance that you’re aware of just how powerful a regular, well-written, informative blog can be when it comes to lead generation and driving traffic. If you aren’t posting your blogs to your Facebook page (or if you don’t yet have a Facebook page), you could be missing out on even better results. Here’s what you should know about creating and maintaining a relationship between your blog and your Facebook account.
The Link between Blogging and Digital Marketing
Before diving into the best way to share your blogs with the world, it’s helpful to recap all the reasons why you should be writing and maintaining a blog on your website in the first place. Of the dozens of exceptionally good reasons, the most important include:
- Providing dynamic content for your website. Google loves it when the content on your website changes and updates frequently, and the best way to do this is with an outstanding blog.
- Creating an authoritative online presence. Your blogs give you the opportunity to show your visitors that you are the best source for information that is relevant to their needs.
- Designing a home for links. Linking to authoritative and well-known sources in your blogs is highly beneficial, as is ensuring that you link to some of your other relevant blog posts. This keeps the chain of interest going and helps your visitors stay on your site longer, which boosts your rankings.
Why You Need a Facebook Page in 2019
For the first several years after its inception, business Facebook pages were optional. However, this is 2019, and if your business doesn’t yet have a Facebook presence, you are cheating yourself out of traffic. A Facebook page for your business gives you the opportunity to put your brand in front of millions or even billions of people by sharing everything from status updates to photos and videos and even your blog posts.
A Facebook page gives you the opportunity to engage with your customers – or even your would-be customers – on a very personal level. The more interaction with your business posts, the more people who will see them, and the cycle continues. Facebook also gives you the opportunity to focus attention on a very specific action. Do you need to generate leads for your business? Ask people to subscribe to your newsletter. Are you trying to sell a backlog of stock? Announce a huge sale. The possibilities are endless, and Facebook is an excellent way to make yourself known.
Finally, if you are struggling to come up with ideas for your blog, your Facebook page is the perfect solution for this issue. You can simply ask the people following you what they want to know. Essentially, ask them what you should write about. When you follow through with their requests, not only are you building rapport with your audience, but you can be certain that your topic is trending with the people who matter most to your business’s success.
Sharing Blog Links with your Facebook Followers
You should be writing a new blog for your website at least once each week, and you should be certain that your blog covers a trending topic that your readers will find interesting. Though it should be related to your business in some way, it is also important that it is relevant to your audience. It doesn’t always have to be about you, per se, but it should be related to your niche or industry. Each time you put a new blog on your website, head over to your business Facebook page and share a link there. You can create a short, simple headline to accompany the link, or you can create a call to action and help direct people to click.
When you share this link, Facebook will also show your followers the image that you selected to represent the blog post on your website to make your social media post more attractive to readers. Be sure you choose your blog images carefully so that they show up clearly and in the right size when you share them on Facebook.
How Often Should You Share Blog Posts?
Numerous experts – including our own – believe posting to Facebook twice a day, every single day, any time from late morning until mid-afternoon is the best strategy. This gives you access to 14 Facebook posts a week that you should divide evenly into photos, videos, questions, polls, and links to your blog. Making sure to create different types of social media content will cover all your bases and reach the largest number of people possible.
If you only write one blog a week, be sure that you provide a link to every single one. If you write two blogs a week and publish both on the same day, you can link to one of the posts on Facebook but tease the other in the caption or comment. If you publish your blogs on different days of the week, consider sharing up to three a week on Facebook if they are relevant, well-written, and informative without being pushy.
The Dangers of Too Frequent Facebook Posts
Just as not posting on Facebook at all can cheat you out of traffic and leads, posting too frequently can have much the same effect, so be sure to keep this in mind. For the best possible results, share no more than twice per day on Facebook. Otherwise, by the time you get around to sharing your blog links, people may not be as interested in hearing from you. What’s more, if you’re posting your links too early in the morning or too late at night, you won’t get the engagement that will benefit you.
In summary, you should post links to your blogs no more than three times per week to keep your reach as broad as possible. It is also important to post your links when your readers are most likely to be on Facebook and realize that by the 90-minute mark, your Facebook post has reached its half-life in terms of engagement. Pick the best three-hour window possible and share your link right at the start of that window to get the best possible results.
The recent changes to Facebook’s algorithm, announced in January and implemented in the weeks following, is (by many standards) the most significant alteration to the news feed in history.
While those with personal accounts were either complaining that things had changed again or congratulating Facebook for finally getting it right (depending on the personal sentiments), social media marketers took a very different route. Glued to their own news feeds, marketers scanned the results for signs of what had changed, why, and how it would affect their efforts moving forward.
One thing that everyone noticed was that the professionals were split into two different categories. While page owners and publishers were panicking over the recent update, trusted social media experts were staying calm – and telling others to do the same. But why weren’t they panicking? Why would they not be concerned about the biggest alteration to Facebook’s news feed yet?
Words of Wisdom from Mark Schaefer
Mark Schaefer is an adjunct marketing professor, consultant, and public speaker who had just one simple thing to say:
Of course, that wasn’t all he had to say – and his message was much the same as other industry experts. The fact is, organic reach was already dead. It had been dying for years – a slow, steady trickle of a death that had made Facebook advertising a difficult transition without paid advertisements. In fact, before this last update, organic reach per page was lower than 1%. That is an amount insignificant enough that it may not be anything at all.
But it isn’t all disheartening news. Those who have been doing well on social media will continue to do so, regardless of how this latest update has altered the landscape. Those pages which were able to generate a massive amount of engagement with their followers will still be able to do so.
The fact is, whatever content you put out – social media or otherwise – must matter to your audience. This has always been the way things work, and no matter what updates occur on Facebook or any other social media platform, that will continue being the way things work.
The Truth About the Change
All this new algorithm does is clean up user’s news feed so that personal accounts hold more sway – which, consequently, is the true purpose of social media platforms to begin with. This makes it harder for businesses, but not that much harder.
It’s true. The big Facebook algorithm change is not that big. The types of content which will be driven out of a person’s newsfeed had no value, to begin with, because those pieces of content who were trying to get a little attention and engagement with no other promotional efforts were rarely doing anything, anyways.
Organic reach opportunities still exist, of course, but will be harder to attain. Think of this as a positive. The most effect marketers have always had to place significant creativity and effort into their strategies. The change just pushes you a little harder to reach your goals, which (eventually) can turn you into a better social media marketer.
Tips for Moving Forward
While the new algorithm will not change everything, it will change some things. Many of the below items have been social media marketing best practices for years now, while others are just slightly altered to consider the newest algorithm update. Using the following will help to ensure your strategy is as efficient and effective as possible.
Embrace Paid Advertisements
You must fully embrace Facebook’s paid advertisements. While many have been avoiding this – or using it sparingly – now is the time to jump in with both feet. The potential targeting and reach of these advertisements are great to begin with.
Diversify Marketing Efforts
Continue diversifying your marketing efforts. Most marketers are already doing this, but those that are relying heavily on their Facebook fans need to branch out.
Include a wide variety of marketing platforms, like email, search engine optimization, video, podcasting, e-books, webpage copy, blogs, articles, guest blogs, forums, etc. Even diversify your social media platforms a little. If you are only on Facebook, add one other site to your repertoire.
Don’t Just Post – Start A Conversation
The only way to get great engagement statistics is to have a dual-sided approach. One of the biggest mistakes beginning social media marketers make is failing to personally engage with those followers who have engaged with your post.
You want to have conversations. It makes customers feel appreciated and listened to. Starting a conversation also prompts much higher engagement metrics. For example, if you receive 100 comments on a single post and take time to respond to roughly half of them while liking the rest. If only half of those respond to your comments, you’ve accumulated an additional 25 likes.
Simple, Clear Campaign Goals
Set simple, clear social media marketing campaign goals which are trackable using metrics. Each campaign should only have one primary goal. Your first goal may be to increase your Facebook followers by 200%. Your second might be to increase click-through ratings for social media posts.
Defined Posting Schedule
Set a clearly defined posting schedule that encompasses all content formats on all platforms. Let’s say your company is an upscale women’s clothing boutique. In addition to your blog and website, you utilize Facebook and Instagram.
Your social campaign should include links back to your blog posts, for starters. You’ll also want to create social media posts that are specialized for social platforms to create engagement. It should be repackaged to fit each platform’s news feed and formatting. Have an idea of which posts you plan to boost and keep a small portion of funding for boosting posts which perform well.
By doing this you can ensure that each site is posted to regularly, and that your message is being seen across multiple channels in the most platform-accurate style.
To Sum It All Up
The Facebook algorithm change really isn’t a big deal. Yes, it is a notable change, but those who were already doing well on social media will easily continue to do so. Stick with the most basic guidelines to effective social media marketing but lean a little heavier on Facebook’s paid advertising.
Facebook is no longer the newest, shiniest site out there. Originally launched in 2004, it took off in 2006 when it allowed anyone, not just college kids, to join. Since then, it has become one of the largest and most influential social media networks in the world. Most importantly for advertisers, Facebook continues to be a very powerful presence in terms of marketing and advertising, and we’ll go over why.
Facebook Is Still The Most Popular Social Media Site
Facebook gets more traffic and has more users than any of its closest competitors, meaning there are simply a lot more people on Facebook than elsewhere to see and respond to your ads and content. Facebook has an estimated 1.86 billion monthly users, which makes it bigger than Twitter, YouTube and Google+.
The Opportunity For Your Posts To Be Shared
Facebook works well as a marketing tool because anything your business posts has the potential to be shared and viewed by people who are not your followers.
For example, you share information about a promotional giveaway, which everyone who likes your page and follows your feed sees. But then people start sharing the giveaway so their friends can see it, and then their friends might share it, and so on and so forth. That’s a lot of potential customers who might not have had any idea you existed otherwise.
Facebook Ads Are Cheap And Targeted
Facebook ads are not only quite reasonably priced, but the targeting features they offer are extensive. You can choose to display your ads based on geographical location, age range and interests to get your ads in front of the targeted groups you think will be most likely to buy your product or service. This alone makes it an invaluable tool for marketing, because you can pick and choose who will see your ads.
Facebook Drives Traffic Elsewhere
Even if you would rather have users interact with your content outside of Facebook, marketing via Facebook can still drive traffic to your website. You can do this either by running an ad campaign that’s designed by Facebook’s algorithms to draw visitors to your site or post interesting, relevant content with links back to your site or blog.
You Can Advertise On Your Own Page
Facebook not too long ago introduced another advertising tool on your own Facebook page – the cover photo. Facebook cover photos, which are easy to create and design, allow you to put important information front and center on your page to draw in and engage visitors. It’s also very easy to change out your cover photo when you come out with a new release or an event is coming up you want people to know about. Consider using a Facebook banner maker to make a customized graphic that completes your brand image.
So even though Facebook has been around for a while, it is still a very effective tool to use for your marketing, whether you buy out ad space or not. Due to the fact that it can be used for many different purposes, and any advertisements or posts will reach the maximum amount of people, Facebook is far from obsolete.
Copyright: rvlsoft / 123RF Stock Photo rvlsoft / 123RF Stock Photo
For start-ups or any business for that matter, one of the best ways to grow is to avoid competition. Yes, you’ve heard it, “competition is good”, but if that were true there would be no need for patents or anti-competitive laws. The best companies try to avoid competition and create monopolies. The Facebook and SnapChat war isn’t a board game, however, disguised as Instagram, Facebook is out to dominate social. And with SnapChats rising popularity, the objective is to kill any momentum.
Why Avoiding Competition is Good
Disruption has been a hot buzzword for start-ups. Uber disrupted the transportation industry and AirBnB disrupted lodging. But disruption shouldn’t be a strategy, it should be a result of great companies being innovative.
Napster disrupted the music industry and was crushed by the RIAA. On the contrary, Apple found a way to work with music executives and iTunes thrived for many years because of it. Now streaming services like Prime and Spotify are on the rise, and this was done by avoiding competition, not picking fights.
For years SnapChat has been in a league of its own, growing exponentially using innovative ideas only found in China. In 2013 Facebook attempted to buy SnapChat for $3 billion, but after being rejected, Mark Zuckerburg launched a similar app called Poke. It flopped, however, but that didn’t stop Mark and the Facebook team from taking shots at the young company. With Instagrams latest release of “Stories”, Facebook mimics SnapChats interface and functionality. CEO of Instagram Kevin Systrom, recently announced the introduction of events, a move some are calling a full-blown SnapChat blitz. Many Instagrammers are excited about the new features since they are comfortable using the platform, and wanted to avoid the cost of taking on another social network.
Image Source: Instagram
War is Costly
The reason why finding a niche is so rewarding is because you get to focus on growth and avoid distraction. War is costly. Don’t believe me? Ask Blockbuster and Hollywood Video (who no longer exist)… While they were busy warring with one another, Redbox and Netflix were finding new ways to serve their industry.
So what does this mean for SnapChat? I personally think SnapChat has done a great job at being creative and keeping to themselves. They have attempted to stay off the grid while focusing on growth. Unfortunately, this doesn’t prohibit larger corporations from competing against them. And who can blame Facebook? They don’t want another company to do to them what they did to Myspace. So the mission is to buy or destroy. And right now Facebook is in destruction mode.
Will SnapChat be able to survive this offensive? Who knows. The founders have proven to be savvy and strategic, constantly innovating and resisting competition. Nevertheless, Facebook has deep pockets and the best talent. This may be the reason they fell behind in the first place. Buy and absorb has been the MO of many market leaders in regard to small competitors. And when you can’t buy, #attack.
In the end, who will win, Grams or Snaps? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
About Author:
Larry C Lewis is an Internet behavior scientist best known for his work in social media and video marketing. He is the head of marketing at Digital Exponents and the founder of Marketinglikeapro.net. For more information, Larry can be reached on Twitter @larryclewis.
Let’s face it, search is a big deal. When you have a site the size of Facebook a properly placed search feature can dramatically increase visitor engagement (Not to mention put a dent in Google!)
Here are a couple of videos from Facebook that discuss how to use their search featured.
It never used to be like this but for most of us we got to bed looking at Facebook and wake up looking at Facebook. Have you ever stopped to think about Facebook’s infrastructure and the data centers that keep things moving? The heart and soul that keeps all the connections together? Many of you are not computer geeks like us so you’re probably not thinking about it too much but if you are – check out this awesome video.
You ever wonder what makes this giant run? Well, to start, you need an awesome team which Facebook has (clearly). Check out this Facebook video titled Sourcing & Operations Engineering at Facebook. Gives you a good glimpse into the inner workings of this massive connection tool we call Facebook.
Snapchat is one of those apps that really took people by surprise. Facebook once wanted them for 3 billion dollars but Snapchat owners turned them down without even batting an eye. What has happened since is nothing short of a Silicone Valley style cold war.
Our friends at www.dpfoc.com/uk put together this stellar infographic showcasing some of the differences between the two.
What is Snapchat?
Snapchat vs. Facebook Infographic
Hi there! I’m sure many of you might be wondering as to whether there has been a decrease in Facebook users or am I just mistaken with my interpretation. Well, if you look at the statistics, you’ll find as compared to the 39.0% decrease in Facebook users, the current year 2013 has witnessed around 62.0% fall in Facebook account holders. This amounts to nearly 50% increase in the count of people who’re quitting Facebook. While the reasons for such astounding stats range from practical scenarios to the existential ones, there are people who’ve cited account maintenance stress as the sole reason behind leaving the very popular social networking website. Today, through this blog, I’ll be making you aware about the real reasons behind the decreased usage of Facebook.
Reason #1
Baseless disturbance caused due to add-on social media
If you’re an existing Facebook user then you must be well familiar with the overwhelming nature of the site. The overpowering features such as business-targeted ads, Instagram pictures and shared articles leave very little room for real socializing between friends/colleagues/relatives. This unwanted interference caused due to such social media makes people irritable, wondering as to why they’ve created an account on Facebook? I’m sure you too might’ve got frustrated watching the product ads, articles links etc. which continuously pop-up towards the left side every time you switch to new pages in your Facebook profile.
Reason#2
To Avoid Anxieties resulting out of posting sensitive information
Creating an account on Facebook expects you to manage it on a regular basis. This directly points towards the fact that in order to stay an active Facebook member, you need to post every minute detail regarding your day to day activities. Doing this emerges as a mess when you’re confronting major setbacks in your life. For example, if you’ve lost your job, gone through a breakup or failed in your college exams; posting details on Facebook will just cause you a whole lot of anxiety. So, as an attempt to avoid such a psychological disturbance, many people prefer to part ways with Facebook.
Reason#3
To conceal incriminating facts from new as well as existing employees
Nowadays, almost every employee prefers to do a background check for a candidate before hiring him/her. Facebook is the medium that’s been chosen for doing this. Irrespective of Facebook’s privacy tools, it becomes hard for the candidate to hide his/her incriminating details from the potential employers. It’s at this point of time when the candidate thinks about leaving the social platform for ever. So, if you too are looking forward to protect your future job and don’t want your past deeds to interfere with your glorious future, quitting Facebook will be your best decision.
Reason#4
Facebook entails oversharing, ruining an individual’s privacy
Constant sharing of pictures, text etc. makes it difficult for the people to hide their personal details. A majority of Facebook lovers never care as to what they’re sharing and whether the shared photo/text is actually strengthening relationships or simply diminishing an individual’s image and damaging his/her relationships. Considering this threatening feature, most of the Facebook users have chosen to quit the site for their own good.
Reason#5
Facebook encourages more connections that usually turn to be shallow
I can guarantee you that once you create your profile on Facebook, you’ll actually receive friend requests from people whom you might have never even seen in your rarest dreams. Well, yes, with Facebook, you get a chance to scale your friends count but it’s just a shallow friend list that you maintain. What’s the point of being connected with people you hardly know about. This is plain wastage of your time and efforts. Do it if you’ve the time and patience, else leaving the social network platform is what you may opt for.
Conclusion
I’m sure after going through the list of reasons jotted down above, you might be wondering as to whether Facebook has a future or not. So, clearing the air, I’d like to update you that different people use Facebook for different reasons and it’s not that a feature which hurts you will hurt others as well. So, I’d like to recommend you to analyze your expectations from using Facebook and make a well informed decision.
About author
Jack Calder is a Chief editor by profession in Markupcloud Ltd. a PSD to Drupal Conversion Company. All his write-ups have the potential of showcasing a variety of tips and tricks that can prove beneficial for the technically sound population. Being a tech savvy, he is focused on writing blogs that contain an in-depth information about different technologies and technical advancements.
If you would have had an inkling of social media’s vast success only a few short years ago, then the odds are good that you would have put stock in companies like Facebook and Twitter and would be wildly rich now. The truth is that few saw this social media invasion coming. And what’s more: Even in 2010, when the large social networks were already thoroughly established, many still believed they were simple come-and-go trend sites.
Maybe a site like MySpace gives precedent for believing that social media is a fad you can afford to pass up, but that’s much more the exception than the rule. Facebook has gained more and more steam after every passing year, consistently revamping the site to give users what they want while offering marketers what they need.
Facebook is a start-up brand’s dream. Low-cost, wide-reaching marketing that’s not only easy to figure out and to implement, but the features here are wholly customizable and allow for your brand to create a new niche rather than just standing out in an existing one. So if you haven’t taken your brand to Facebook yet, now’s a great time to get started.
Let’s look at some of the top benefits a brand can experience by creating a social media presence.
Top 5 Benefits from using Social Media
Easy Engagement
When you’re advertising using Facebook and other popular social media sites, engaging with your audience becomes much easier. This is especially true as time passes and marketer-friendly updates are released in droves. For instance, you can take a simplistic Facebook Page Post on your Timeline and turn this into an incredibly effective, specifically targeted ad by choosing an option like “Promoted Post.” You can use campaign splitting features in third-party apps to reach out to a much larger market while simultaneously narrowing the scope (as in who sees the ad). And the medium is ideal for engagement; “liking,” sharing, commenting, taking something viral, creating memes and infographics out of material – high-quality, relevant material is gobbled up by social users.
Coordination and Cooperation
Say that you wanted to set up a brand-sponsored gathering, event or something similar to get your name out there. This is the modern-day version of the “grand opening” perhaps. Well, social networking allows you to coordinate this in real time and down to the last, finest detail. It also reaches exponentially more people than an ad in a newspaper or a pamphlet could ever reach. Then there’s the cooperation aspect of social media. Whether you’re working together with another business to target more customers, or if your fans are helping you get your brand out there through sharing, social networking connects you to a useful community.
International Intermingling
It’s hard for an American brand to reach out internationally unless the brand is large, wealthy and popular. On-location businesses will have to experience massive growth within their intended niche before branching out. This isn’t the case with social media. You can target people from all around the globe easily and effectively by using campaign splitting tactics, narrowing features, attractive apps for opt-ins, and an endless range of materials to draw people to your brand.
Centralization of Marketing
If Facebook was as far as you took your social media marketing, that may be as far as you would have to take it. And with so many apps, plug-ins, protocols, and streamlined third-party apps that run alongside and coordinate with your page, the marketing structure of your entire brand could be handled neatly and quickly from one centralized location. This increases productivity, which trickles down into increasing your brand’s effectiveness.
Expense vs. ROI
Everyone wants a hefty return of investment through ads on Facebook. No businessperson invests without expecting high ROI. With Facebook, this is made possible not only due to the lower advertising costs, but also the fact that you can supplement your paid advertising through many organic methods. Your return on investment can skyrocket by simply using solid branding principles.
Keep in mind that all the above benefits hold true for the future. As more updates are released and as more trends are followed through on mega networks like Facebook, everything from engagement and cooperation to international targeting and ROI will increase in effectiveness.
We’re only seeing the beginning stages of what social media is going to become. A brand taking advantage of this platform stands to benefit tremendously if only that brand takes the social networking approach seriously.
Author Bio: Craig Robinson, Editor at Qwaya.com – a Facebook campaign tool. Besides writing about marketing on Facebook, Craig also writes about social context and customer engagement online.
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