Archive for category: Social Media

Facebook Transparency for Ads – Is it Good News for Advertisers?

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Facebook advertisingFacebook recently announced that they are making significant steps to bring more transparency to ads and business Facebook pages.  Facebook is now providing users with more information about businesses and organizations on Facebook and the ads they are running.

One very significant change is that a visitor can now see the ads any Page is running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook's partner network, even if those ads are not targeted to that visitor.    How does this affect your business and your advertising strategy?   Well, you can now see all ads that your competitor is running.  And, they can now see all ads that your business is running.

We love to help small businesses develop cost-effective advertising strategies on Facebook.  Call us is we can help your business!

 

Facebook Introduces New Tools to Make Fundraisers Even More Impactful

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And waiving platform fees for all personal fundraisers

Friday, April 27, 2018

MENLO PARK – Today, Facebook announced new features and tools for Facebook Fundraisers that are aimed at helping fundraiser creators and donors make even greater impact. Every day, people start Facebook Fundraisers to support the causes that matter to them.

These new features include the following:

  • People can pledge to match donations to their nonprofit fundraiser, which is a first of its kind tool in online fundraising that's now available in the US and will soon expand internationally.
  • There are now four new categories for fundraisers for personal causes so people can raise funds for more social good causes across family, faith, travel, and volunteering.
  • In the coming weeks, Facebook is eliminating the platform fee on all fundraisers for personal causes, helping people maximize their support.

Matching Donations for Nonprofit Fundraisers 
People often pledge to match donations to their Facebook Fundraisers, and the company wanted to make that easier. For example, David Smith lost his sister in a car accident in 2013, and this year for his birthday, he started a fundraiserfor Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). He told family and friends that if he could raise $100, he would match their contribution. People rallied around the cause and raised $2,360 — more than 10x his original goal.

Facebook wants to help everyone meet and exceed their fundraising goals through matching donations. Now people who create fundraisers can pledge to match donations, directly within the fundraisers tool. Matches can be any amount that they choose, from $5 to $2,500, helping people build momentum for their cause.

Matching Donations for Nonprofit Fundraisers

New features for Impact for Personal Causes
People on Facebook have raised money for many personal causes, including loved ones who need critical surgery, teachers needing school supplies for their students, and families in need after losing everything in a fire. They’ve added more categories for fundraisers for personal causes to give people more options to raise critical funds for themselves, a friend, or something or someone not on Facebook.

Based on feedback from the community, they’ve added fundraiser categories for family (like adoption or new baby supplies), faith (like missions or religious community events), travel (like educational trips or travel for medical needs), and volunteering (like volunteer programs or supplies) causes.

There are already examples of people using these new categories, like Lauren Pyskoty who started a fundraiser to support her first mission trip and raised $1,328. These are in addition to existing categories for personal fundraisers: community projects/groups, sports/competitions, education, medical, pets/animals, personal emergency, crisis relief, and memorial/loss.

Asha Sharma, Head of Product for Social Good at Facebook added, “we're inspired by the many ways people have come together to support one another. In the coming weeks, we're eliminating the platform fee on all fundraisers for personal causes, so that people can maximize their fundraising support.”

To create a fundraiser for a nonprofit or a personal cause, visit facebook.com/fundraisers or tap the Fundraisers bookmark on the Facebook app. You can choose the cause you want to support, share why it's important to you, and follow the steps to set up your goal. The company also waived all fees for nonprofit fundraisers last fall at the Social Good Forum in New York City, NY.

“We know people care a lot about the organizations and causes they support. We're grateful for their passion and for the feedback that helps us build better tools to help them reach their fundraising goals,” Sharma added.

How do the 2018 Facebook news feed changes affect your business?

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As you probably have already heard, Facebook is making significant changes to how news is delivered to your news feed. What is this change and what does it mean for your business?

In a nutshell, people who “Like” your page will see less of your organic Facebook posts in their news feeds. Facebook feels people in general desire to be more “social”. Therefore, content from your “Friends” will be prioritized over posts from “Brands” or “Pages” you like.

While this move has some businesses panicking, we are not as concerned for our clients as we have always recommended that Social Media be a complement to an overall marketing strategy and not a replacement. This move, however, will significantly affect companies who rely primarily on Social Media as a primary marketing strategy.

If you have retained us to work with you on a regular basis, you can consider yourself in good shape and here is why:

  1. Your website is your company’s online storefront. If we are managing the ongoing search engine optimization (SEO) of your website, your Social Media posts are designed to give you short lived boosts for SEO. The 2018 changes in how Facebook delivers news to your news feed will not affect this.
  2. Many of our clients run Facebook Ads. We take a strategic approach when designing and managing your Facebook ads campaigns. The new changes will NOT affect how Facebook Ads are delivered.
  3. If you’ve followed our advice, you are not using Social Media as your primary marketing strategy. Therefore, having your organic Facebook posts delivered less often will have minimal – if any – adverse effect on your overall marketing strategy.

Many clients have asked if they should still post on their business Facebook page. The answer is, “YES”! Remember, this change will not affect what people see if they visit your page directly. And, your posts will still be delivered, just not as often.

The biggest advantage to using Facebook for your business is the SEO benefit and Facebook Ads, which offer an affordable and targeted option to get your message out to potential customers.

If you are not already working with us on ongoing SEO for your website or Facebook ads, please give us a call. Both are becoming more and more important, especially since this latest change with Facebook. Let’s set up a free telephone consultation to discuss how we can help you achieve your online goals in 2018!

Is Link Building For Your Website Worth The Effort?

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Link building is the process of acquiring links from other websites to your own. It is one of the most important factors in search engine optimization (SEO), as it helps to improve your website's ranking in search results.

But is link building worth the effort? The answer is a resounding yes.

Here are some of the benefits of link building:

  • Improved search engine rankings: Links are one of the most important factors that Google and other search engines use to rank websites. Websites with more high-quality backlinks tend to rank higher in search results.
  • Increased traffic: When people click on links to your website, it will drive traffic to your site. This traffic can lead to increased sales, leads, and other conversions.
  • Improved brand awareness: When people see links to your website on other websites, it helps to increase brand awareness. This is because people are more likely to trust and do business with brands that they are familiar with.
  • Increased authority: When other websites link to yours, it is a signal to search engines that your website is authoritative and trustworthy. This can lead to improved search engine rankings and other benefits.

Of course, link building is not easy. It takes time and effort to build high-quality backlinks. However, the benefits are well worth the effort.

Here are some tips for effective link building:

  • Create high-quality content: The best way to attract backlinks is to create high-quality content that is informative, engaging, and relevant to your target audience.
  • Promote your content: Once you have created high-quality content, you need to promote it so that other people can find it and link to it. You can promote your content through social media, guest blogging, and other online channels.
  • Reach out to other website owners: You can also contact other website owners and ask them to link to your website. When you do this, be sure to explain why their audience would benefit from linking to your website.
  • Build relationships with other website owners: The best link building is done naturally, over time. By building relationships with other website owners, you can increase the chances that they will link to your website.

Link building is an important part of SEO and can have a significant impact on your website's search engine rankings, traffic, and conversions. However, it is important to remember that link building should be done in a natural and ethical way.

If you are looking for a way to improve your website's search engine rankings and traffic, link building is a great way to start.

LinkedIn Personal Profile Tips

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Optimizing your Social Media accounts is a good practice for both your personal brand and your business. Below are some tips on optimizing your personal LinkedIn profile. These tips are current as of 8/30/17 and are subject to change at any time. LinkedIn adds new features and changes processes on a regular basis, so it is important to review any new tutorials or information made available to you by LinkedIn.

  1. Profile: Complete your profile to achieve All-Star status:
    • Profile photo
    • Include industry and location
    • Add description to your current position. Try bulleted lists that incorporate relevant keywords for things like job duties.
    • Include at least two past positions
    • Include education details
    • List at least three skills
    • Obtain at least 50 connections
  2. Contact Information: Check all profile contact information to make sure it is accurate. All fields should be completed (website, phone, address, email, twitter, date of birth).
  3. Company Connection: Be sure that the jobs listed in your EXPERIENCE section connect to the correct company. It’s easy to connect to the wrong company when multiple companies have the same name.
  4. Groups: Join and participate in relevant groups to expand your network and improve the search optimization of your profile.
  5. Connections: Expand your network. Try searching your email contacts for possible connections. Click the MY NETWORK link and look for the PEOPLE YOU MAY KNOW section for most streamlined way to request connections.
  6. Review your account settings: (https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/66?lang=en) to select the best settings for things like what information can be seen about you and how others may contact you.
  7. Give and collect endorsements: Giving skill endorsements is a great way to keep your name in front of contacts. Collecting endorsements validates your skills.
  8. Recommendations: Ask others to recommend you. The RECOMMENDATIONS section of your PROFILE includes a link for “Ask to be Recommended” which you can use to ask specific connections to write a brief recommendation.
  9. Public Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/public-profile/settings View your public profile the way others see it then adjust settings based on your preference of what you want others to see.
  10. Profile URL: Create a custom URL for your LinkedIn Public Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/public-profile/settings
  11. Profile Badge: Create a profile badge to use on your website to link directly to your personal profile https://www.linkedin.com/badges/profile/create
  12. Articles: You can use LinkedIn to post blog-like articles. Look for the “WRITE AN ARTICLE” button in the status update section.
  13. Updates: Post frequent status updates. Like and share updates of your connections.
  14. Samples of Work: You can upload videos and presentations to show samples of your work, services, or product information.
  15. Jobs: Search for employment (note: posting jobs is handled through a company page).

Most people are intimidated because they do not feel they have the time to commit to developing their personal LinkedIn profiles. The best way to approach this is to not do everything all at once. Rather, set aside a few minutes each day to work on optimizing your profile and making connections. Social Media profiles are always a work in progress. Good luck!

How do I create a successful social media campaign?

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Put yourself in the shoes of your customers. What appeals to you? What compels you to act? Peer to peer impressions have more influence now than ever before. A friend recommending a restaurant, product, service, etc. can have more impact than a paid advertisement. Think about the types of posts, information, etc. that not only appeals to your customers, but they will also want to share.

The ALS Association’s “Ice Bucket Challenge” was one of the most successful social media campaigns to date. It incorporated entertaining videos of people challenging people they know to support a worthy cause. The challenge went viral and spread like wildfire. As a result, the ALS Association not only raised a ton of money for their cause, but they spread awareness of the disease and their mission throughout the United States and beyond.

Social media was meant to be “social.” Direct selling of your product and/or service through social media is not as effective as offering something of value to your customers. Consider these ideas when developing a social medial campaign for your business:

  1. Helpful tips people will want to share
    (i.e. a pest control service may want to post tips on reducing mosquitos around your home, etc.)
  2. Entertaining videos – people love to share humor so come up with a video or series of funny, short videos that demonstrate the value of your product.
  3. Contests
    (i.e. send us a 30 second video showing why you love our product; we will post and people will have an opportunity to select their top three favorites; winners will receive a prize, etc.)
  4. Live streams – Facebook Live is an example of a platform where you can transmit live video streams. Consider broadcasting “live” content that is entertaining and informative. This new feature of Facebook – introduced in April 2016 – is gaining in popularity. Learn more here: https://live.fb.com/

You don’t have to be a million-dollar company to create catchy a social media campaign that reaches millions of people. It just takes one good idea to go viral.

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