Measuring Facebook key to Social Media Success

When you are running ads on Facebook, different options exist for executing campaigns today. That includes the tracking of actionable success metrics.

You are probably familiar with the sponsored (paid) ads. But, you might also consider the sponsored stories, which can be really good for your brand lift.

How do you determine which is better for you business? Analytics and monitoring is key.

No matter what you choose, including the (must-do) free options (the Facebook account itself, events, groups, applications, newsfeeds, etc) – it will be important for your business to reveal what your users do on your Facebook network.

Performance graphs, real-time measurements and in-line ad management are a few of the new things you’ll need to understand.

Here then are the 5 things to consider when reviewing your Facebook account for success:

Image by Cristiano Betta via Flickr

1. Targeting Your Audience

Sharing and displaying your messages are part of your marketing mix. But, if you are not targeting the right audience, it’s like they never saw the billboard – even though you placed it right next to a busy freeway. With ads or sponsored stories, you can select from the 700 million users on Facebook, and target down to your exact demographic. The data will help you decide on what works. You will share your messages with your intended audience, which will really help you.

2. Discover your Overall Reach (fan engagement)

Find out the number of real people that saw your ad or story. Reach is different than impressions, which include people who saw an ad multiple times.

3. Discover your Social Reach (friends of friends ad positioning)

Reveal the people who saw your advertisement with the names of friends that saw the ads, application or event. Note that ads shown with friend’s names are twice as effective as not. This will only work when you advertise a page or similar on the Facebook platform. Sending traffic to an external page (website) will not allow this to work.

Image by Cristiano Betta via Flickr

4. Frequency

Find out when your messages are going out at regular intervals if they are working. Are  they make the most sense on a Saturday (highly popular in many industries) versus a Monday am west coast time, for example. Change your marketing strategy and test this very important element.  The Facebook ad manager reporting system will help you with this.

5. Connections

Reveal the number of people who liked your page within a given time period. This includes other assets like events, applications.  Connections shows you how many people connected with your business. This way, you know you are driving results. This will only works for pages and Facebook assets, not external web properties. Even if conversations are taking place elsewhere, make sure to have a strong Facebook presence.

The data in the Facebook ads manager is continuously updated, so make sure to refresh and visit often if you are looking at intra-day management (which you should). You can also schedule reports to be sent to you via email, and direct to your phone (email).

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Finally, adjust your bids, budgets and targeting to test your advertising account regularly. This will be YOUR secret to success. And, don’t stop if it’s not working. It probably means you have not dug deep enough, worked enough ads, text and positioning.

And, remember that social networks and Facebook are about people and connections. Marketing online today is not about selling, but sharing. So, engage!

Are you running Facebook campaigns for your business today?

Related articles Facebook Advertising Success

• 3 Types Of Facebook Image Ads That Work (searchengineland.com)
• 15 Tips For A Successful Facebook Ads Program (bayintegratedmarketing.wordpress.com)
• Facebook Ads Gaining Popularity Among Local Businesses (webpronews.com)

“Will it Blend?”

( Campaign by Blendtec )
There are few internet users who are unaware of the enticing videos by Blendtec; each documenting a heavy-duty item being demolished in one of their heavy-duty blenders. These videos went viral across YouTube and other social media networks partly because of their absurdity, encouraging people to watch an iPhone, tennis shoe, or other novelty item being chopped to pieces. Since the campaign, sales have raised 700%, proving the importance of thinking outside the box.

Australia’s Tourism

( Queensland Campaign )
This campaign was directed from Facebook, and drew over 375,000 internet users to the official website of the campaign. They encouraged viewers to participate by offering a large reward for one lucky participant, and spread the word by including other social networking platforms, such as Twitter and YouTube. Because of this campaign, web searches for Queensland rose 40%, and 9,000 tickets to the area were purchased directly from their website. Needless to say, it did the job of increasing tourism, and it did so on a minimal budget.

“Create Next Donut”

( Campaign by Dunkin’ Donuts )
Dunkin’ Donuts increased their sales, as well as their internet presence, significantly with their offer to let consumers create a menu item. With over 130,000 submissions, and 174,000 registered voters to determine a winner, this is one of social media’s incredible success stories. The wide exposure can be credited to the use of multiple social networking platforms, and the creativity of the promotion.

“My Starbucks Idea”

( Campaign by Starbucks )
Starbucks shocked internet marketers around the nation by not only utilizing existing social media networks, but creating one themselves! They noticed the great success brought on by interactive platforms, and created their very own site designed specifically for user feedback. The “My Starbucks Idea” website presents users with different suggestions on how to improve products and services, allowing them to make suggestions and respond to existing suggestions with their opinion. They also provided a regularly updated blog with news on progress, allowing users to see how their feedback was used throughout the development process. By directly asking consumers what they want, they increased web engagement and ensured the success of future campaigns.

“The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”

( Campaign by Old Spice )
Old Spice created a series of YouTube videos advertising their product that quickly went viral, averaging over 23 million views. Their most successful video has over 32 million views, and that number is growing on a daily basis. These videos present different versions of the “ideal” man, with an amusing tag line that insinuates Old Spice can “smell your man into a romantic millionaire.” Because of the humor, the videos led to a number of spoofs, increasing their popularity even more. They even received press coverage for their originality and success.

Dell Campaign

( Dell Social Marketing Group )
Dell is one of only a few companies that can boast of a return on investment from their Twitter campaign, which can be primarily credited to the “Dell Outlet” campaign. What makes their campaign so successful, however, is their use of multiple social networking sites. In addition to multiple Twitter handles, they offer a diverse network of informational blogs, and they maintain an active presence on Facebook. Their dedication to social networking has led to over one million dollars in revenue.

“Comcast Cares”

( Campaign by Comcast )
There was a time when Comcast users were dropping like flies out of disappointment with the company’s services. Most of these people have changed their tune, however, and it is all thanks to the “Comcast Cares” customer service outlet started on Twitter. With a social media platform that allows direct connection between consumers and help agents, they have decreased complaints dramatically. They also monitor mention of their name on various social media platforms, ensuring that anyone who has a complaint will be met with an offer to help.

“Check-in”

( Campaign by Domino’s )
Domino’s pizza credits Foursquare with a 29 percent increase in their profits. By creating promotions that encourage customers to “check-in,” they have increased the mention of their company across social media networks. Facebook has a similar feature now, which has also been successfully used to increase sales.

Blog Campaign

( by IBM Marketing )
IBM is a unique social media success, as their dramatic increase in profits can be linked primarily to the creation of numerous blogs. They offered their employees the opportunity to set up their own blog, as well as their own Twitter account, allowing them to directly communicate with customers. This led to a 10 to 1 return on investment, equaling close to $100 billion.

Zappos Twitter Outreach

( Campaign by Zappos )
Zappos proves the worth of sites like Twitter by becoming the leading online shoe store in the country via innovative use of social media. The CEO of the company, and other employees, keep active Twitter accounts, engaging with customers and encouraging open lines of communication. Often thought of as the company that instigated widespread corporate Twitter use, Zappos brings a large personality into their campaign by remaining fresh, humorous, and informative.

What do you think?

There is a formula for success in social media. If you want to learn more, feel free to reach out to us. We can provide you a social media marketing campaign demo.

Image by Intersection Consulting via Flickr

For those of you not familiar with social media, here’s a brief description: “media that is social”. Funny, but true.

We see so many organizations that begin with social media, and they set up a Twitter or Facebook account and tell us their are doing social media.

When we look a little closer, we can see it’s nothing much at all, and its typically “one-sided”, meaning they only speak about themselves, and nobody is engaging with them.

Maybe the reason is that they didn’t build out a strategic plan with specific goals and targets, as well as not understanding that listening is the second word (after competitive & market research) to learn in social media.

Listening to social media chatter can be done for free. But,  there are (great) paid tools as well.

We always suggest (when a company is engaging with social media), to manually learn about their space, and listen/watch in specific channels (their marketplace).

For example, on Twitter – you can search (search.twitter.com) and find out what’s going on both locally and globally with ease. You could spend 20-40 minutes in the morning searching on Twitter to discover much information about your market.

You may then decide to start following a few key people. Perhaps you download Tweetdeck and set up lists of key people to monitor. That’s a good start.

Furthermore, you’ll search in Google and Facebook for competitors and brands that are in your marketplace.

You’ll do the same for the B2B LinkedIn marketplace. And, of course – let’s not forget YouTube. What is your market doing there? You’ll quickly find out if Twitter works better versus Facebook, for example.

You should go where the fish already swimming. It makes little sense to spend time and dollars on Facebook if your audience is highly B2B centric, for example. (Disclaimer: your research is only part of the equation. It’s ok and necessary to “test” markets. Facebook and Google has a powerful advertising platform, for example).

But, all this research and constant watching takes time. Just like driving a car – if you understand what’s under the hood, you’ll be much more agile and knowledgeable when things go wrong. That’s why we recommend a manual approach, so you can learn & see better.

When you are ready, here are some free & paid social media tools that can help you further:

1) SocialMention

2) NetVibes

3) Google Alerts

4) Radian6 (paid) * recently acquired by salesforce.com

5) Synthesio (paid)

6) Tweetdeck

7) Hootsuite

Now that you understand your market better, are able to listen and monitor, the engagement part comes next. We’ll cover that in our next post. How do you communicate and connect in a natural, non-threatening way?

And, make sure to connect with us on Twitter

Related articles social media tools

• The Ultimate Guide to Twitter Marketing (copyblogger.com)
• Does Social Media Performance Vary by Country? [Marketing Cast] (hubspot.com)
• Tools to Effectively Listen and Engage Social Media Fans and Followers: Guide for Local and Small Business Owners [Francene Mullings] (ecademy.com)

If you are looking for more ‘face time’ with potential customers, advertising on Facebook may be great opportunity.

Begin your quest by identifying some workable goals.

Remember that not all ads are driven by the force of the sale.  In fact, a more workable solution may be using Facebook advertisements to generate leads, increase brand awareness or generate increased traffic for a specific page of your site.

Use these goals to help develop text for your ad – always remembering that Facebook limits the number of words you can use.

A successful Facebook strategy always starts with identifying  specific goals. What objectives are you thinking about?

So, what goals have you defined? Here are some examples:

How many leads? How many new likes? How many fan pages? How many ads? What pictures to use? How many new content pieces each day? Contests? Quizzes? What else?

And, goals don’t get met in a day. Space these over time, and make sure you have a process in place to make it happen. Build out a plan for it, including resources if you don’t have it.

Related articles About Facebook Strategies

• Facebook Announces New Design and Upgrades to Fan Pages (hubspot.com)
• How To Create and Optimize a Facebook Content Strategy – Advice from Alison Zarrella (bethkanter.org)
• New Facebook Pages: Everything You Need To Know (allfacebook.com)

However, it’s a lot of talk, and – it’s as if they forget all the other ways to drive traffic, and more importantly, build conversions on your website.

Well, now you have a chance to test and see if you can leverage the true, tried tested methods for driving traffic quickly to your site, while you build the (sometimes slower) social media programs. (Big note here: not to be discounted, you should leverage Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and others while you test the multi-channel marketing).

You can meet the experts that we have worked with at previous conferences. And you do it all from the comfort of your own home or office.

Click the find out what your competition may already know.

Other pet-focused businesses are taking a similar approach. Many pet food manufacturers, including Whiskas and Purina maintain, have maintain, or sponsor interactive social media sites, complete with online games and videos. Purina Animal All Stars, for example, hosted by Yahoo! Invites pet owners to send in videos of their talented, funny, or unusual pets. The company’s main site www.purina.com, also has games, downloads, and coupons available for it’s visitors.

“People who go to sites like these are people who love their pets and people who are spending time thinking about the products that they buy for their pets,” Bob Shaw, CEO of Concentric Marketing, the agency that works with natural cat litter manufacturer Feline Pine to help socially promote its corporate website, told DMNews in a recent interview.

“From a marketing perspective, we’ve understood that there is an opportunity to connect with consumers around their emotions to connect with pets.”

The campaign, which includes a website with shareable videos and an interactive sweepstakes,and a Twitter account, McCafeYourDay, was to promote the McCafe coffee line.

“We’re having a lot of fun online, and there’s a great dedicated area for McCafé on the McDonald’s Web site with some really quirky fun things,” Sofia Therios, director of marketing for McDonald’s USA told DMNews.com.

It is clear that more and more corporations are beginning to realize the value, and the tremendous impact of social media campaigns and strategies.

Image via Wikipedia

As more businesses realize the value of interactive website
features and social media techniques, DelMonte, makers of Meow Mix cat food, has recently debuted a new interactive website and a game show to promote its new Wholesome Goodness line of cat food.

The website features interactive games called Cat Capades, which allows players to use their “house cat” instincts to overcome household obstacles and challenges.

“We know that cat parents feel a kinship with their cats,
and it’s not uncommon for them to ‘know”
what’s going on their heads—what they think and
feel,” Alison Olsson, account executive for Agency.com,
said in a recent email to DMNews. “We knew this would be
especially fun for cat lovers, because they are familiar with
many of the cat behaviors highlighted in the games.”

Social media strategies are being employed by many companies in
the hopes to reach an increasingly Internet savvy and Internet
based audience. Cereal companies, like General Mills, have
offerings similar to the Meow Mix Site, including an interactive
avatar-based town called Millsbury, which is designed to provide
a place for children to share avatars and items with other
Internet users in their demographics.

Based on trends in Internet usage and social media prevalence
and popularity, it isn’t a stretch to imagine the
websites of the future as increasingly more interactive and
geared toward specific interests and demographics.

“When you begin to work with government people on the
client side, you learn just how passionately they care about the
issues, and the limitations that they have.” Brian Herder,
president and executive creative director of Russell Herder, a
Minneapolis based firm specializing in government to public
marketing for state and local government agencies told
DMNews.com.

Some of the biggest obstacles to any government sponsored
commercial marketing campaigns include accountability and ROI,
both of which can be measured more easily when they are
Internet-based. While traditional commercial marketing
campaigns, which are television and ad-based, have been proven
to be effective, the role of the Internet in the lives of the
American public means that online advertising reaches a greater
audience than most traditional types.

Alan Minton, VP at Track Marketing, an Alexandria, VA based firm
specializing in work with federal agencies including the EPA,
the SSA, or Social Security Administration and The Department of
Justice, believes that direct marketing within these campaigns
is the key to their success.

“It’s not enough to say `we put out 20,000 brochures’
anymore,” says Minton. “The OMB (Office of
Management and Budget) requires measurements and agencies are
forced to show real outcomes.”

In addition to isitdoneyet.com, other successful government
sponsored campaigns to emply social media tactics include the
Minnesota Department of Health Teen Education Campaign, and the
Healthy Eating Campaign sponsored by the CDC.