• #1042 (no title)
  • About Leoni Designory – www.leonidesignory.com
  • Infographics
  • Social Media – A Overview

leonidesignoryblog

~ socially savvy design

Monthly Archives: October 2014

No More Facebook Like-Gating on Facebook

30 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Facebook recently made updates to their API and SDKs, but one of the most impactful changes was buried at the bottom of the announcement:

You must not incentivize people to use social plugins or to like a Page. This includes offering rewards, or gating apps or app content based on whether or not a person has liked a Page. It remains acceptable to incentivize people to login to your app, checkin at a place or enter a promotion on your app’s Page.

The change went largely unnoticed for the first 24 hours or so. I’ve read responses ranging from “no big deal” to “freak-out mode.” In this post, I’m going to help you understand what this change means and how it will impact you as a Facebook marketer.

Did you hear? You can no longer like-gate on Facebook. Here’s what you need to know as a marketer…

CLICK TO TWEET

What It Means

If you use apps like ShortStack, Heyo, TabSite and many, many more, you may be using a like-gating (also known as “fan-gating”) feature. It works by showing different content to fans and non-fans.

Let’s use a contest for Brand A as an example. To make it work, you need to provide different views whether a user is a fan (“Click to enter!”) or non-fan (“like first to enter!”). When you visit Brand A’s custom app, Facebook will check to see whether or not you are a fan and present the view accordingly.

Well, this is no longer going to work. If you already have an app that is using this functionality, it will continue to like-gate until November 5. After that, the like-gating functionality of the app will stop working.

Like-gating functionality will not work for any new apps created going forward.

Why Facebook Did It

Well, let’s take it straight from Facebook:

To ensure quality connections and help businesses reach the people who matter to them, we want people to like Pages because they want to connect and hear from the business, not because of artificial incentives. We believe this update will benefit people and advertisers alike.

Facebook wants users to like brand pages because they actually “like” them, not because they were promised some freebie or contest entry for doing it.

Ultimately, Facebook says this will improve the experience for both users (they will see content they actually want to see) and advertisers (targeting by interests is more effective).

Why It Makes Sense

Look, I have used like-gating. I constantly run ads to build relevant likes, and one approach I took in the past was offering my free ebook in exchange for a like. I found that to be very effective.

I personally think this approach works. I am giving highly relevant content to people in exchange for a like. If they like that content, they should also like seeing my posts in their News Feed.

Unfortunately, this may be the exception when it comes to like-gating. The majority of brands using like-gating do it in connection to a contest. Many offer prizes (think iPads) that aren’t closely connected to the brand. Or it could be in exchange for coupons or even a contest with a relevant prize.

The main issue with this form of like-gating is that it is not in exchange for content. There is no implied desire to see that brand’s content in their News Feed.

On one hand, like-gating can be compared to website lead magnets where a valuable piece of content is offered in exchange for an email address. In either case, the value of that opt-in may be less than if provided without incentive. But the lead magnet is certainly an effective method of list building.

The difference, though, is that the negative impact of like-gating goes far beyond your number of likes.

Facebook tells us that the average user would see 1,500 stories in a given day. Facebook’s algorithms bring that number down to a more manageable 300. In order for Facebook to be a desirable place for users, the best and most relevant content needs to be surfaced.

Facebook uses many signals to determine what users see. But like-gating confuses those signals. Does a user really want to see content from that brand? It’s not always clear.

This move is aimed at preserving the value of the like. If users are liking pages for the purpose of getting something rather than because they actually want to see the content from that brand, it can harm the user experience. A bad user experience means users spend less time on Facebook.

Less time on Facebook — and fewer users — also negatively impacts advertisers. The implied reason is obvious — advertisers need users to be online to target them.

But preserving the value of the like is extremely important for advertisers as well. If I target users who like Brand B’s page, I do so because I think they have a common interest. But if Brand B built their audience through nothing but contests and giveaways, the value of that targeting is minimized.

That’s why I’ve written before about the “death” of interest targeting. It’s impossible to be 100% confident in the quality of another brand’s fan base. They may have acquired their audience by buying likes, running poorly targeted ads or by constantly running giveaways.

Why It May Be Too Late

This all sounds great, but I can’t help but think Facebook is a few years behind on this change to make much of a difference.

There are well over 1 Billion Facebook users who already like dozens, if not hundreds, of pages. Audiences are well established. Implementing this change will do nothing about the people who were incentivized to like pages in the past.

While this should be a positive change, the increase in quality will be a drop in the bucket. It should hardly be noticeable, particularly for larger pages.

I appreciate the move, and it may actually help the user experience. If a user rarely interacts with a brand, they won’t see that brand’s content anyway. But I doubt it will do much of anything for advertisers.

If I target fans of a particular page, I’m not able to only target “actively engaged” fans. I target all fans, and that will include those who were incentivized to like the page.

But targeting based on activity seems like a pretty darn good idea, doesn’t it??

Likes Still Matter

One common response to this change I’ve read is that it doesn’t matter because you shouldn’t be focused on likes anyway.

I find this to be way off base.

The argument is focused first on the fact that Organic Reach is down for most brands, so the value of a like is diminished. While Organic Reach may be down for some (not all — including me), brands are still reaching a lot of people for free. That remains significant.

Likes still matter.

Additionally, the act of a “like” helps marketers bucket users for more effective targeting. If you build your audience with relevant people, this gives you a highly effective group of people to target when building your email list, driving traffic to your website or selling.

I’ve seen it over and over again: Fans convert at a very high rate. I see this through organic content and with ads. Read this example and this one from my personal experiences.

Now What?

This isn’t the end of the world. Embrace that your fans will be those who care most about your brand. But also accept that it will now be harder to increase those numbers, particularly if you previously thrived with contests and other like-gating.

No matter what the method of increasing your audience, you need to establish a compelling value proposition. Why should someone like your page? The “incentive” may be as simple as providing the most thorough, helpful or entertaining information in your niche.

Don’t panic. Increasing likes still matters. But it may be time to get more creative with your methods.

Additionally, you should still use third party apps to build your email list. So instead of requiring users like your page to get the incentive, you are collecting an email address. This is allowed!

 

Share this:

  • Print
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

7 Obsolete Social Media Tactics – by NEIL PATEL

13 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Best Practices

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Best Practices, Marketing, MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, social media tools, Strategy

You already know social media marketing is a channel that can drive traffic and sales, but the question is: are you actually seeing an increase in traffic or sales?

Chances are you are not. Why? Because you are using obsolete tactics that aren’t effective anymore.

If you want to change that, just avoid these 7 strategies:

Obsolete tactic #1: Posting whenever you’re free

Posting daily or whenever you have time isn’t ideal. Why? Because your followers may not be online when you are posting.

That means no one is going to see the content you are promoting.

Simply Measured has some free tools that show you when you should be posting. It will analyze your user base and tell you the days and times the most optimal for engagement.

Here is an example report for Instagram:

instagram stats

Once you figure out the ideal days and times you should be posting, sign up for Buffer (free), and start scheduling your posts.

Facebook posts are the exception. If you schedule them, you’ll see your share and like counts drop. Instead, you’ll have to post on your Facebook profile yourself and schedule posts through Fan page by clicking the clock icon.

facebook scheduler

Obsolete tactic #2: Selling directly to your audience

Once you have a big following, you’ll want to start convincing them to buy whatever you are selling. But just posting a link, telling your followers to buy your book, product, or service, won’t do much for you.

The only time I’ve seen it work is when a sale or a discount is offered, which isn’t an ideal scenario.

What you need to do is drive your social media fans through a funnel. First, collect their emails, and then offer your products or services through email.

A good example of this is Josh Flagg. He started driving people to a blog, where he collected emails. Within a few months, he collected just over 2,000 emails.

He then launched a webinar course for $499 dollars, and within 24 hours, he made $12,974 in sales. When he promoted his webinar product directly to the group, he didn’t even generate $1,000 in revenue.

The reason this works is because you are getting your fans to make micro commitments. Eventually, when you ask them to make a purchase, they are more likely to say yes.

Obsolete tactic #3: Trying to game your follower count

I’m continually seeing people follow thousands of users in order to build up their accounts on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Some people even go as far as buying thousands of fans. The big numbers may make you look cool, but they will eventually hurt you.

Why? These social sites are getting smart at analyzing how many of your followers are actually engaging. And if the ratio is poor, your content won’t spread much, which will cause you to get less traffic compared to having a smaller fan base that actually engages.

So, instead of trying to game the system, start looking at your competitors. See what types of content they are posting that causes engagement. Test posting similar types of posts. And avoid posting content that doesn’t get likes, comments, or shares.

Obsolete tactic #4: Sharing without optimizing

Sharing content from your site isn’t as simple as copying and pasting your URL on a social site. If your website code isn’t optimized for social media, you’ll notice that when you share your content on these sites, no images appear:

no graph

When you optimize your code, social sharing will look more like this:

graph

So, how do you ensure your site is optimized? You add social media meta tags to your content.

The difference is huge. When I implemented this on Quick Sprout, my Facebook traffic went up by 174%.

Obsolete tactic #5: Being self-promotional

I started participating on social sites because I wanted to grow my brand, traffic, and sales. I didn’t really care about anything else, and people saw it.

People started to unfriend and unfollow me, and I wasn’t getting any social traffic. But once I started sharing other people’s content, answering questions, and just helping people out, I quickly noticed that I started to build a loyal following.

The loyal following eventually converted into traffic and sales once I started to build a funnel similar to Josh Flagg’s. But when I was just being self-promotional, I didn’t generate one sale.

Make sure you help people out, answer their questions, and share content from others within your industry. You don’t have to promote competitors, but you should be promoting news and content sites.

Obsolete tactic #6: Linking directly to someone’s site

When you share someone else’s link, you are driving traffic to their site and generating no traffic in return. That kind of blows.

What if I told you that every time you promote someone else’s site, you can actually drive more traffic back to your site?

There is a cool social tool called Sniply, which puts a promotional box on any site you share.

sniply

When you drive traffic to others, there is a chance that some of those visitors will come back to your site.

Obsolete tactic #7: Adding one too many social sharing buttons to your site

If you want people to share articles on your site, what do you do? Add social sharing buttons to your site, right?

But did you know adding one too many social buttons to your site can hurt your traffic? I tested placing 3, 4, and 5 different social media options on Quick Sprout. When I reduced the button count from 5 to 3, I was able to increase my click-through rate by 11%.

So, instead of treating your site like Nascar and promoting every social site out there, focus on just 3. Pick the sites that resonate most with your readers. Chances are it is going to be Facebook, Twitter, and one other social site.

And if you are wondering what kind of social buttons you should be using, try the plugin Flare. It’s flexible, it looks pretty, and it’s free.

Share this:

  • Print
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Five social media skills millennials don’t have

10 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Best Practices, community manager, Content Marketing, Hootsuite, Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Listening

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Best Practices, Online Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, social media networks, social media tools, social sharing

Shared from Ryan Holmes

Don't assume younger staff will know everything about running a clever social media campaign.Don’t assume younger staff will know everything about running a clever social media campaign.

They’re the generation brought up on Facebook. Some have never known a world without the Internet. The innermost details of their lives have been exhaustively Instagramed and they get their news from Twitter, not TV.

But when it comes to using social media in the workplace, millennials – the generation whose birth years can range anywhere from 1980 and 2000 – can be surprisingly, even dangerously, unprepared. “Because somebody grows up being a social media native, it doesn’t make them an expert in using social media at work,” says William Ward, professor of social media at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. “That’s like saying, ‘I grew up with a fax machine, so that makes me an expert in business.'”

For students and recent grads, some social media 101 is definitely in order.

Lacking in critical areas

According to Ward, who teaches a series of popular undergraduate and graduate courses on social media at the university, millennials are lacking in a number of critical areas. While they’re very good at connecting with people they already know, they often fail to understand the professional opportunities and pitfalls posed by networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

“Companies hire millennials because they think they’re good at social media. Then their bosses discover they don’t have those skills and get frustrated,” Ward says, noting that social media expectations are often higher for millennials than for older workers, who may be just as inept.

For students and recent grads entering the workforce, some social media 101 is definitely in order. In particular, career-minded millennials desperately need to brush up on these five social media skills:

1. Knowing when not to share

Recently, Business Insider attracted attention for firing its CTO, Pax Dickinson, because of comments he made on his personal Twitter account. While Dickinson’s Tweets on women and minorities were especially offensive, the situation hints at a larger issue. Millennials sometimes fail to appreciate that personal profiles can have professional repercussions. Twitter, Facebook and other networks are largely public platforms; comments made can – and often do – get back to bosses. As the Dickinson case shows, few employers are eager to associate themselves with off-color or offensive content, even when it may be intended as a joke.

2. Using social media to actually save time

According to a 2013 Salary.com survey, the most frequently visited personal website at work is – you guessed it – Facebook. As networks proliferate – and millennial employees not only check Facebook but post on Twitter, browse Instagram and more – social media has the potential to be a devastating time-suck. Yet it can also be a time saver in the office. A recent McKinsey reportnotes that social media has the potential to save companies $1.3 trillion, largely owing to improvements in intra-office collaboration. Internal social networks like Yammer enable employees to form virtual work groups and communicate on message boards. Instead of endless back-and-forths on email, co-workers can post and reply in continually updated streams. None of this is revolutionary, but millennials are often still in the dark on ways Facebook-like innovations are being taken behind the firewall.

3. Understanding how to crunch the numbers

While millennials often have an intuitive understanding of what resonates on social channels (hard to go wrong with cat GIFs), quantifying what works and what doesn’t is another matter. Should the success of a Twitter campaign be measured on the basis of retweets, mentions, replies, referral traffic or sales leads? What are the best times of day to post on Facebook and what is the optimum post frequency? Which analytical tools are best for crunching the numbers? While social media is about authentic, human interaction, it’s also an arena where data can easily be collected and applied to improve results. Knowing what data to look for, where to find it and what to do with it separates real experts from mere social natives.

4. Mastering the multi-network shuffle

It’s one thing to be a Twitter guru or have a huge LinkedIn following. The real talent lies in orchestrating different platforms to work together and in understanding the niche each fills. Visual networks such as Instagram and YouTube, for instance, are increasingly the foundation of campaigns by social-savvy brands such as Nike, Red Bull and Mercedes. Catchy images and videos are, in turn, seeded onto traditional text-based networks such as Twitter and Facebook. From there, links lead viewers back to blogs and company pages, sending customers spiraling deeper into the sales funnel. Meanwhile, uniform hashtags across platforms help unify and track the overall campaign. Even millennials with deep social credentials often fail to understand the profound multiplying effects of integrating different networks.

5. Networking professionally on social media

By the time millennials graduate, many have dutifully filled their LinkedIn profiles with part-time positions, internships, extra-curriculars and academic accomplishments. But the network’s true job-finding power is often overlooked: Hiring managers and CEOs who would normally be out of reach are often just a connection or two away. In fact, you don’t need to be connected at all. A paid feature called InMail, for instance, enables users to send emails directly to any one of LinkedIn’s 277 million members. Truly enterprising job seekers can hunt down big fish like Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Deepak Chopra, then send a pitch straight to their inbox. Notoriously footloose millennials – forever in search of the next job opportunity – might well take this tip to heart when searching for greener professional pastures.

The plug ‘n play myth

Of course, amassing these skills is no short order, and millennials aren’t the only offenders. “The real problem is that we expect people to know these skills without providing any training,” social media professor Ward says. As the number of social networks expands and platforms are used in more sophisticated ways, it’s unreasonable to expect anyone – even the most plugged-in users – to just intuitively get it.

But there are options for millennials hoping to brush up on social media skills. “There are lots of online training programs out there,” Ward explains, “though some are better than others.”

He cautions learners to stick to programs offering industry-recognised certification, like the most widely used offering, Hootsuite University, an offering from my company which has seen 50,000 people enroll since it was started in 2011 and is also used in 400 higher education programs.

For millennials competing in a tight market, these skills – unheard of just a decade ago – can mean the difference between finding and keeping a job. “Students using digital and social media professionally in an integrated and strategic way … have an advantage,” Ward says. “[They’re] getting better jobs and better internships.”

Share this:

  • Print
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

YouTube Fan Finder Gives Away Free Advertising To Creators

05 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

YouTube is hoping to get back on side with creators with the release of their Fan Finder feature. The site is offering creators the opportunity to produce Channel trailers as skippable TrueView ads which will appear across a range of videos. YouTube rolled out their Top Fan feature a while back which (whisper it) integrates very nicely with Google+ but this new initiative stays within the site and gives the chosen creators a chance to reach a wider, but carefully targeted audience. All users need to do is produce a promo, upload it to Fan Finder and YouTube will turn it into a TrueView video ad (if it’s good enough? Not much info regarding a selection process).

YouTube’s Top 5 Tips For Creating A Great Channel Promo Ad:

Keep your channel ad short and engaging: Introduce the viewer to your content; don’t assume they have heard of you or your channel before. Remember, your channel ad will run as a TrueView ad which the viewer can skip after 5 seconds, so get to the point.

Entertain the viewer: When in doubt “show” what your channel is about, don’t “tell”. If you have a comedy channel make sure your ad is funny, if you have a music channel make sure your ad has music. You get the drift.

Aim for a strong message: Keep your channel ad focused on your channel and why viewers should subscribe or check out your content.

Have a clear call to action: What do you want your viewers to do? This should be scripted and annotated in your channel ad. Don’t forget to explain what subscribe means (example: “Want to see more content? Subscribe here”).

Branding matters: Make sure your branding is clear and reiterated throughout the ad. You want viewers to remember your channel.

Fan Finder is free at the moment which of course gives YouTube access to lots of invaluable data as thousands sign up. It’s still a fantastic opportunity for creators to grab a bit of free publicity though. Here’s a couple of explainer videos about it all:

Don’t Miss Out – Join Our VIP Video Marketing Community!
Get daily online video tips and trends via email!
22405
Posted in Web Video Industry News

Be Kind & Rewind ► Scan Related Stories

How To Upload A YouTube Fan Finder Video [Creator’s Tip #119]

TrueView In-Stream Video Ads Are Coming To Online Gaming

Marketers Should Use TrueView Ads on YouTube [Creator’s Tip #103]

YouTube Testing Viewer’s Choice Pre-Roll Advertising

Share this:

  • Print
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • November 2012
  • August 2012

Categories

  • Advanced Search
  • Best Practices
  • Bing Search Engine
  • Bloging
  • community manager
  • Content Marketing
  • Email Marketing
  • Facebook
  • Flip Key
  • Google Analytics
  • Google SEO
  • Google+
  • Hashtags
  • Hootsuite
  • Instagram
  • LInkedIn
  • Mail Chimp
  • Marketing
  • Merchandising
  • Mobil Web
  • mobile app marketing
  • Mobile Web
  • Multi Channel Marketing
  • Online Marketing
  • Pinterest
  • Political
  • PR
  • Responsive Web
  • Responsive Web Design
  • Social Listening
  • SPAM
  • Trip Advisor
  • tumblr.
  • TV Advertizing
  • Twitter
  • Uncategorized
  • Web Site Design
  • WordPress
  • Yelp
  • YouTube

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
<span>%d</span> bloggers like this: