Throughout the years I’ve had conversations with various types of people.

Some cool, some not so cool… but always falling under a different personality type.

Digital Jungle recently posted an infographic of the 10 main personality types on social media.

As a Facebook page owner or Social Media Manager it’s very important to acknowledge & understand these different types of personalities.

How you communicate with each of them can make or break your brand online.

10 Social Media Personality Types – Which One Are You?

The infographic itself is a bit hard to read — I’ll link to it below but will also just offer the text here in this blog post for easy reading.

1. The Social Athlete

• Serious & quiet — interested in security & peaceful living
• Extremely thorough, responsible & dependable
• Well-developed powers of concentration
• Usually interested in supporting & promoting traditions & establishments
• Well-organized & hard working
• Works steadily towards pre-identified goals
• Can usually accomplish any task once they set their mind to it

Profile:

• Complete
• Profile Pic: headshot with informal dress in outdoor setting or behind desk in professional setting
• Often have joined maximum number of groups for each platform
• Borderline spammers for number of daily tweets & posts

2. The Social Luddite

• Quiet & reserved
• Not interested in the latest & greatest tech
• Reluctant participant in the world of social media
• Uncomplicated in their desires
• Loyal to their peers & to their internal value systems
• Excel at finding solutions to practical problems

Profile:

• Often no Profile Pic

3. The Social Nurturer

• Warm-hearted, popular & conscientious
• Usually put the needs of others above their own needs
• Stable & practical
• Feel a strong sense of responsibility & duty
• Value traditions & security
• Interested in serving others
• Need positive reinforcement to feel good about themselves
• Well-developed sense of space & function

Profile:

• Profile Pic: often animals (commonly cats) or group photos with attractive friends
• Posts characterized by large numbers of smiley face emoticons & images depicting motivational sayings

4. The Social Lazies

• Quiet, reflective & idealistic
• Interested in running online communities & has many profiles
• Well-developed value systems they strive to live in accordance with
• Adaptable & laid-back unless a strongly-held value is threatened
• Usually talented writers
• Mentally quick & able to see possibilities
• Interested in understanding & helping people

Profile:

• Profile Pic: head shots with informal dress
• Automates using tools like Post Planner & schedules bulk posts
• Posting characterized by a flurry of activity that dwindles & stops after 2 weeks

5. The Social Geek

• Independent, original, analytical & determined
• Have exceptional ability to turn theories into solid plans of action
• Value knowledge, competence & structure
• Driven to derive meaning from their visions
• Long-range thinkers
• Have very high standards for their performance & the performance of others
• Natural leaders, but will follow if they trust existing leaders

Profile:

• Profile Pic: photoshop’ed — includes a Star Wars character, attractive girls or tech CEO’s

6. The Social Doer

• Friendly, adaptable & action-oriented
• “Doers” who are focused on immediate results
• Living in the here-&-now
• Risk-takers who live fast-paced lifestyles
• Impatient with long explanations
• Extremely loyal to their peers
• Not usually respectful of laws & rules if they get in the way of getting things done
• Great people skills

Profile:

• Photos: feature drunken escapades or extreme sports.

7. The Social Lurker

• Practical, traditional & organized
• Likely to be reading posts
• Not interested in engagement or participation with social media
• Have clear visions of the way things should be
• Loyal & hard-working
• Like to be in charge
• Exceptionally capable in organizing & running activities
• “Good citizens” who value security & peaceful living

Profile:

• Profile Pic: absent or default image
• information is basic

8. The Social Inspirer

• Enthusiastic, idealistic & creative
• Able to do almost anything that interests them
• Great people skills
• Need to live life in accordance with their inner values
• Excited by new ideas, but bored with details
• Open-minded & flexible, with a broad range of interests & abilities

Profile:

• Often have the best personalized wall papers on their Twitter pages
• (They speak at industry events to highlight how much they know)

9. The Social Ranter

• Popular & sensitive, with outstanding people skills
• Externally focused, with real concern for how others think & feel
• Quick to share their ideas & beliefs, sometimes in a single stream of information
• See everything from the human angle & dislike impersonal analysis
• Very effective at managing people issues & leading group discussions
• Interested in serving others
• Place the needs of others over their own needs

Profile:

• Often found with major environmental interest groups linked to their social accounts
• Sometimes known as the soapbox hero

10. The Social Visionary

• Creative, resourceful & intellectually quick
• Good at broad range of things
• Enjoy debating issues & may be into “one-up-manship”
• Get very excited about new ideas & projects
• May neglect the more routine aspects of  life
• Generally outspoken & assertive
• Enjoy people
• Are stimulating company
• Excellent ability to understand concepts & apply logic to find solutions

Profile:

• Their number of fans & followers is super important to them

Which Social Media Personality Type are You?

Personally, I’m a mix of the:

1. “Social Ranter”
2. “Social Doer”
3. “Social Visionary”

Just depends whether you’re talking to me on Facebook, Twitter or Google+!!!

Which personality are you? Tell me in the comments.

The post 10 Social Media Personality Types – Which One Are You? appeared first on Post Planner.

At least for businesses who want to reach more customers & make more money.

Yet, because business owners face so much pressure to get active on Facebook, a lot of them struggle to do it right.

That’s understandable — you’ve got employees, vendors, bill collectors, customers and a family to deal with.

When your Facebook page becomes just another to-do, it’s easy to neglect it.

So whether you’re a newbie trying to figure out Facebook for the first time or a seasoned “Social Media Manager” — I’m going to try to help you – so take notes !

4 Quick Fixes for a Boring Facebook Page

1. Have a Plan

If you don’t have a plan you will fail. Period.

You simply MUST put some thought into your Facebook strategy regarding what you post & when you post. Not doing so is mistake.

There are tons of tips I could give you here — but let me refer you to a few easy-to-read resources about planning posts on Facebook:

• 5 Posting Templates Every Facebook Page Can Use
• Give Your Page Mouth to Mouth with just 3 posts Per day
• Are You a Crappy Fan Page Owner?
• How to Manage Your Facebook Page in Just 5 Minutes Per Day

 2. Make a Good First Impression

Your Cover Photo is the most important piece of real estate on your Facebook Page.

Use it wisely and you’ll see great results — use it poorly and your bottom line will suffer.

3 Point Checklist for a Great Cover Photo on Facebook

1. High Quality
2. Representative of your Brand
3. Current

If you follow this checklist, you’re sure to have a cover photo that makes a great 1st impression on potential fans.

You’ll also need to make sure you’re following Facebook’s recently updated 20% text rule.

And if you need a little inspiration, check out these 20 Awesome Cover Photos.

3. Only Install Apps that Matter

Apps on pages are great — and can be of huge value if used correctly.

The most common ones today center around contests run on Facebook, maps, email capture forms, etc.

Sure, apps on pages aren’t as important as they were before Timeline. I’m seeing fewer & fewer pages use them since the change.

In any case, if you’re going to have apps on your page, make sure they’re current, working, high quality & offering value.

4. Post More Photos

Regardless of what some Facebook “experts” are saying, photos still perform very well on Facebook — and typically get great engagement (likes, shares & comments).

Here’s a study by EdgerankChecker:

Your main goals with your Facebook posts should be:

1. Engagement
2. Driving traffic to your site
   

So if photos are getting great engagement, then your page should be posting lots of photos.

However, I do want to caution you about posting too many nonsense photos just for engagement’s sake.

While posting a meme every 3 hours might get you some engagement — it will also likely get you tons of negative feedback (when fans hide or mark your posts as spam), not to mention unlikes.

Edgerank Checker studied what types of posts got the most negative feedback and found that photos were the primary culprit:

My Advice on Posting Images on Facebook:

• Post timely photos
• Keep them high quality
• Mix it up — don’t post 10 photos in a row

You’re Done!

Now go fix your lackluster fan page and get out of Boringville.

By using these 4 quick fixes, your page should go from dull to engaging in no time.

4 Quick Fixes Recap:

1. Have a Plan
2. Make a Good First Impression
3. Only Install Apps That Matter
4. Post More Photos

The post 4 Quick Fixes for a Boring Facebook Page appeared first on Post Planner.

The first thing prospective fans see when they visit your page is your cover photo.

So will they be impressed?

They won’t be if your cover photo is low-quality, random or out-of-date!

Remember:

You’ll never get second chance to make a first impression!

So make sure your cover photo is:

1. High Quality
2. Representative of your Brand
3. Current

☑ High Quality

Whether you use a photograph or an image you created, your cover photo needs to be high quality!

You can start by using an image that’s the right size — 851 pixels by 315 pixels.

If you upload an image that’s smaller than these dimensions, Facebook will expand it — and the results are horrible!

The best — and cheapest — way to produce a great cover photo is to just use your camera & take a photo of your business or your employees.

But make sure your logo is prominent in the image (or just photoshop it in later).

If you don’t have a location or employees, then use a high-quality background with some text & your logo layered on top.

We have a small staff at Post Planner — and we are literally spread around the globe. So a photo of our crew is nearly impossible without some major photoshopping.

That’s is why our cover photo is a high-quality, descriptive graphic instead:

There are some great tools out there to create cover photos for those of us who are “graphically challenged”. I’d recommend the inexpensive Timeline Slicer Pro.

You can also find tons of other sites that make generic cover photos for you — but they’ll typically add THEIR branding to it — which stinks!

For your personal profile it might be ok — but for a business I’d steer clear of these types of sites.

Plus, most make you connect to their FB app — and then post the photo for you.

I did find one called Cover My Timeline that doesn’t require you to install an app — but they do add their logo to every image.

☑ Representative of Your Brand

If you sell kayaks, then it makes sense to show kayaks on your Facebook cover photo.

It doesn’t make sense to show of Ford trucks.

Remember: your cover photo is your #1 branding opportunity on your Timeline — and in the “Like” stories that show your page in the News Feed.

It only makes good business sense then for the cover to include images & text ABOUT YOUR BRAND.

One Facebook Page that consistently represents their brand well in their cover photo is Coca-Cola:

☑ Current

I see a lot of page owners loading a cover photo and then never changing it. This doesn’t make sense to me — and is a poor use of the space.

When you’re driving on the highway, do you notice how often billboards get changed? It happens all the time — even when the brand doesn’t change.

Why?

Because our minds tend to tune out images that we’ve seen over & over — once they become part of our everyday routine.

The same thing applies to cover photos on Facebook.

So you have my permission to change your cover photo as often as you like!

The good people over at ShortStack just released a great post — as I was typing this — on an experiment they did with their own cover photo while testing the new relaxed 20% text rule.

In the blog post they cover 6 ways to leverage the cover photo in ways most haven’t thought about:

1. Drive your audience to your top apps
2. Ask your fans to “Like” you
3. Direct fans to an offer
4. Provide a link to valuable information
5. Ask your fans to share your Page
6. Send people to your website

I really like the cover photo below — asking fans to “pass it on” and showing off their laid back style.

Great Cover Photo Checklist

So there you have it.  Great cover photos on Facebook are:

1. High Quality
2. Representative of your Brand
3. Current

Tweet This!

You’re all set for success!

Now… if you need to test your cover against the new 20% text rule –> GO HERE.

The post 3-point Checklist for a Great Cover Photo on Facebook appeared first on Post Planner.

Reading all those blogs & finding the best articles to share with your followers is time-consuming.

Even if you use a Google Reader replacement like Feedly, you still have to weed through all the fluff to get to the EPIC posts.

That’s why I wrote this blog post.

I wanted to remove all the pain from the process — and just give you a list of 30 EPIC posts on Facebook Marketing.

I even arranged them by category — so all you have to do is click “Share on Facebook” or “Click to Tweet” and BOO-YAH!

30 EPIC Articles on Facebook Marketing

>> Facebook Contests

The Perfect Facebook Contest App

via Social Mouths

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

5 Types of Facebook Contests You Should Know

via Windmill Marketing

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

6 Ways Facebook Contests Can Increase Engagement

via Pam Moore

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

>> Facebook Posting Tips

How to Turn Your Facebook Page Into an Insane Traffic Driving Machine

via Social Mouths

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

The Art of Writing Great Facebook Status Updates

via QuickSprout

Share on Facebook  | Click to Tweet

Contagious Content: Facebook Posts That Get Shared Like Crazy

via Marketo

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

These 5 Posts Will Increase Your Facebook Engagement Overnight

via Post Planner

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

Simple Tricks to Improve Your Facebook Engagement

via Social Mouths

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

7 Ways to Get More Engagement Out of Your Photos on Facebook

via Jeff Bullas

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

>> Facebook Apps

Beyond Contests: How Facebook Apps Can Boost Your Brand’s Visibility

via Danny Brown

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

How to Make Money with Facebook Landing Pages

via Amy Porterfield

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

5 Facebook Competition Applications to Build eMail

via Razor Social

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

6 Ways to Capture Leads From Facebook Pages

via Jon Loomer

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

What Makes a Great Facebook Landing Page?

via UnBounce

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

>> Facebook Ads

Relying Too Heavily on Facebook Ads is a Big Mistake

via Social Fresh

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

How Facebook Advertising is Changing with Open Graph

via KissMetrics

Share on Facebook  | Click to Tweet

Beating Edgerank: Why Facebook Promoted Posts Are Worth The Money

via Jon Loomer

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

How to Analyze Your Email List with the Facebook Power Editor

via Andrea Vahl

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

Everything You Need to Know to Promote Your Business with Facebook Offers

via Crazy Egg

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

>> Facebook Page Management Tips

5 Key Tips for Facebook Page Marketers

via Pam Moore

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

How to Merge Facebook Pages

via Amy Porterfield

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

Is Your Facebook Page Show Ready? Use this 10-Point Checklist

via Andrea Vahl

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

A Crash Course in Facebook Marketing

via Post Planner

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

Why Buying Facebook Fans Makes Your Company Look Really Stupid

via Sales Lion

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

9 Ways to Become a Better Facebook Community Manager

via Social Media Examiner

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

>> Facebook Graph Search

The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Graph Search

via Crazy Egg

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

How Facebook Graph Search Affects Your Privacy

via Marketo

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

>> Facebook Marketing Tips 

7 Deadly Facebook Marketing Sins

via Andrea Vahl

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

10 Outside-the-Box Tips on How to Get More Facebook Fans

via Traffic Generation Cafe

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

Facebook Fans are Brand Currency

via Heidi Cohen

Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet

My Challenge to You

Now that I’ve supplied you with 30 amazing resources to share with your followers and look like a smarty pants… I have a challenge for  you!

Are you up to it?

Get out there & share this post so others can be smarty pantses too!

(Is “smarty pantses” a word?)

The post Have You Shared These 30 EPIC Articles on Facebook Marketing? appeared first on Post Planner.

If you guessed over 3,200 then give yourself a pat on the back!

It’s a lot, I know. But I’m trying to follow as many Facebook pages as I can.

Why?

To test Facebook’s Edgerank, for one — I want to know how my news feed will look after Liking 5,000 pages!

But also because I love seeing what others are doing:

• how they’re marketing
• how they’re targeting ads
• how they’re running Sponsored Stories
• what content they’re posting
• etc. etc.

What are My Favorite Facebook Pages?

A friend recently asked me what my 5 favorite Facebook pages are that no one knows about.

I knew the answer immediately.

My answer may shock you — no, they’re not all “Social Media Marketing” pages.

Sure, my wife may disagree — but I don’t actually eat, sleep & dream Facebook all day every day!

In fact, lately I’ve been spending less time on Facebook — so I can focus more & get more done.

In any case, here they are:

5 Facebook Pages You’re Not Following But Should ASAP!

1. Invisible People

This is a page I’ve only recently discovered. But I’m addicted to it — and challenged by it.

Invisible People is the passion of Mark Horvath and exists to tell the stories of homeless people around the globe.

Mark’s videos are not only professional (his background is in television) but also incredibly moving — I’d challenge you not to tear up while watching one!

Here’s their About section:

Invisible People is an innovative storytelling organization that inspires action by curating thoughtful content and networking individuals, brands, and organizations to change the way we think about people experiencing homelessness.

If you want to be encouraged & inspired to make a difference, then please go Like this page — and then share it with your friends & followers.

2. UnMarketing

Scott Stratten is absolutely crushing it with his Facebook page, UnMarketing.

The company’s slogan is simple, yet powerful:

Stop Marketing, Start Engaging

I agree 110%!

Sure, Scott tends to rant a bit here & there on the page — pointing out the ridiculous ways brands & marketers misuse and abuse social media & email marketing.

But his rants contain tons of pointers to listen to & learn from.

3. Marketing Profs

MarketingProfs is a must follow for anyone marketing a business.

From their About page:

MarketingProfs provides marketing know-how through its newsletters, templates, guides, courses, online seminars, conferences, and research (whew!).

They share tons of insights & real world tips that can help any business. They also use a lot of humor in their posts — which makes me engage more.

You can get a free membership on their site — tons of courses & resources!

4. Buzz:60

I’ve been a huge fan of Buzz:60 for a while now.

Basically they produce 60-second videos on various news topics from around the world. The videos are a successful because they’re short & to the point — a great combination when it comes to Facebook Marketing.

Surprisingly, they don’t get a ton of interaction on their page lately — perhaps they need to read our blog posts about how to increase engagement on Facebook!

Here’s an example of a recent video about diapers & Twitter:

5. Killer Infographics

I’m a sucker for a great infographic — maybe this goes back to my days of reading books with pictures only.

Infographics are getting hotter & hotter in the social media world — especially on blogs.

The Killer Infographics fan page doesn’t have a ton of followers — only 776 Likes as of writing this — but they provide great value & are entertaining to follow.

They were just recently voted the “Geekiest Office Space” by GeekWire.com

If you’re looking for ideas on graphics & ways to use them in your marketing, this is a great page to follow.

They also do motion graphics — like this great one called “Seth Godin vs Guy Kawasaki”:

Like ‘em up!

Make sure to Like all of these pages & engage with their posts.

My advice: don’t just follow pages in your niche!

Try to find pages that can compliment your business & that you can learn from.

So what do you think?…. What are your favorite pages that not many people know about?

Comment below.

The post 5 “Hidden Gem” Facebook Pages You Need to Follow ASAP appeared first on Post Planner.

Can’t figure out what to post on your Facebook page?

You’re not alone.

In fact, I bet if we surveyed all the fan page owners out there, they’d all admit that sometimes they have no clue what to post on their pages.

Not a problem!

Below are 11 ways to generate fresh content ideas for your Facebook page — and to start posting awesome content again today!

1. Read other Blogs

No matter what niche your in, there’s always someone else out there writing about your topic.

So watch what’s trending and find a way to leverage the content or topic ideas for your page.

Here’s a great way to find blogs in your niche

2. Answer a Frequently Asked Question

Whether you’re running a page for a product or service — or one based around a topic — you can always find a common question people are asking and then answer it on your page.

I’ve mentioned Quora as a content resource before — but I think it’s still underused in this manner.

There are literally 1000s of questions being asked on the site everyday — on almost every topic. So find a question that’s in your niche and post it to your page.

You could either ask your fans to answer it or answer it yourself.

3. Record a Video

People love videos — especially short videos that help answer a question.

Remember: there are things you do without thinking that other people are struggling with. They need your help!

Record a weekly 3-minute screencast video showing others how to do the activity.

(I’d recommend Snagit for screencasts — it’s super easy to use.)

4. Interview Experts

One of the best ways to create content — and drive traffic to your site/page — is to interview someone in your niche.

You can do this via Skype or Google+ — or any other video capture tool.

You can also just record the audio & turn it into a podcast.

Don’t have equipment to record audio or video? Then just interview via email & post as a blog post… like this.

5. Start a Podcast

I’m a huge fan of podcasting. I listen to 3-4 hours of podcasts per day and have 3-4 podcasts of my own on different subjects.

You can start a podcast with a mic & a site like Spreaker and you’re on your way.

Or just use your smart phone to record via Spreaker and there is no cost to  you. The important thing is delivering valuable content your followers will learn from & enjoy.

6. Ask Questions

The most engaging types of posts we publish on our page are questions.

People just love to offer their input!

But keep your question short & easy to answer.  If your fans can answer in 3 words or less, then you’re doing it right.

7. Share a Post from Leaders

There are thought leaders people look to for advice in every niche

Sharing a post from a niche-specific thought leader’s blog or fan page is a great way to:

• show love to the thought leader
• acknowledge the importance of the niche
• show your followers that you’re not just a broadcaster of your own content
  

8. Say Thank You!

Did you just hit a milestone in your Like count? Or maybe you got a good review recently?

Sometimes just saying “Thank You” to your fans is content enough.  Not only does it give you something to post — but it also spreads good will to your followers.

And hopefully they’ll return the favor by liking or commenting on your post.

9. Re-Share an Old Blog Post

Fan page owners who blog — myself included — tend to post a link to their blogpost once (right after they publish it) and then never post it again.

Why?

If you only post your article once, then you’re missing all the fans who happened not to be on Facebook that day.

Don’t you think they want to read your post too?

You’ll notice on the Post Planner Facebook page we are constantly re-sharing posts from months ago — as long as the content is still relevant, of course.

So feel free to re-share your old posts — just make sure a it’s been a week or so before re-posting.

10. Share a Quote

People love to be inspired & they love to laugh.

So share a quote from a known leader or comic.

You can do this via a text update or an image. I’d recommend mixing it up — as mentioned in my post about increasing engagement.

11. Write a List Post

I bet you’re reading this blogpost right now because you read the headline & knew it was a list.

Right?

That’s because people love lists. Especially when they offer multiple ways to solve a problem.

My advice though is to keep them short. Once you get above 15 items in the list, people tend to skim through your post & move on.

That said, if you’re gonna go big then GO BIG — as we did in our blog post about 100 Facebook Interest Lists – which is still our all time most visited blogpost.

Your Turn

Hopefully these 11 tips will inspire tons of ideas and help you come up with some awesome Facebook posts.

Do you have a tip you’d add to this list?

The post 11 Ways to Generate Fresh Content Ideas for Your Facebook Page appeared first on Post Planner.

Your #1 Goal on Social Media (whether on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, or Instagram) is to Get People to Take Action. ~Scott Ayres

Click HERE to tweet this

If you’re not getting people to take action on social media, then you’re just killing time.

And don’t get me wrong — killing time ain’t always a bad thing.

But for those of you reading this blog because you’re running a business & want to use social media to grow it — well, let’s just say you’re not in social media for the cat memes.

So How do you Get People to Take Action?

Easy. Ask them.

Sure you can come up with awesome, engaging posts to get your fans to do things — but sometimes “engaging” just means including a call-to-action or CTA.

Yep, by far the easiest way to get your fans & followers to take action is by adding a clear CTA to your posts.

Why?

Because people need direction. As Zig Ziglar said:

Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.

This is true in so many contexts — how you get work done, how you raise your kids, and yes, how you post on Facebook or Twitter.

And now we have some data to back the claim up.

Dan Zarella from Hubspot recently published his findings from a study of over 2.7 million tweets. In it, he analyzed the use of CTA’s & their relationship to a tweet getting “retweeted”.

He found 7 words & phrases that made people retweet posts at higher rates:

How Does This Apply to Facebook Pages?

Obviously you’re not going to use “Retweet” or “RT” in your Facebook posts — but you can still apply the lessons learned here.

Just use “Share” or “Like” instead of “Retweet” or “RT”.

Actually, Dan published another study on Hubspot in November of 2012 discussing this very topic:

So there you go!

Further proof that having a clear call-to-action in your posts tends to increase engagement — which in turn increases Edgerank.

Luckily for you, Post Planner has a whole category devoted to CTA’s in our Status Ideas Engine.

The category is called “Ask for Likes/Comments”.  Check it out HERE.

And don’t forget to do your part to help others find my blog post by:

• Tweeting this
• clicking “Like”
• “Sharing” this post with your fans & followers

See what I just did there?

The post Here’s the Science Behind Asking Fans to LIKE Your Facebook Posts appeared first on Post Planner.

Man, I loved that show.

I loved watching Wile E. Coyote come up with his “fail-proof” plans for catching the Road Runner.

Here’s one of my favorites:

Did the Coyote’s plans ever work?

Not really.

Did the Coyote get frustrated?

Totally.

And I bet a lot of you feel a similar frustration when trying to “catch” engagement on your Facebook posts.

Coyote-like, you devise the perfect plan — deploying a super-enticing Facebook post, published at just the right time.

But then you post it — and nothing.

Facebook crickets.

And yeah, it kinda hurts.

And like the Coyote, you head back to the drawing board — to try to figure out a new failsafe way to get your fans engaging.

Well… figure no further, my friends. Help has arrived.

3 Essential Ingredients of an Enticing Facebook Post

Yes, there is a recipe for creating enticing Facebook posts.

As an example, let’s look at one of the most success posts of all time — cooked up by the Oreo Fan Page.

I think when we examine this post, we’ll figure out what makes a Facebook post enticing.

1. Be Relevant

Do you remember when the power went out during the Super Bowl — and the whole stadium went dark?

It was at the SuperDome in New Orleans — right in the middle of the game. The outage lasted a whopping 34 minutes & created quite an interesting situation for the NFL, the teams & the players.

The first brand on Facebook to take advantage of the situation — only to be copied by everyone else — was Oreo.

Within a matter of minutes they posted this image to their Facebook page & Twitter account:

Pure Genius!!

Why?

Because they made their post relevant to the current situation — and that’s the takeaway here.

Sure, you & I aren’t a big brand like Oreo — and yeah, the power’s probably not going to go out at the SuperBowl again for a long time.

At least for another year.

But you should always try to be relevant to what’s current & hot — both in the news feed on Facebook and in the world at large.

Doing so will surely increase your posts’ engagement.

2. Keep It Simple

Oreo could have really “coyote’d” this post up — for example, by posting something long, complicated & overflowing with text.

Instead they went with a simple image of a spot-lighted Oreo cookie & the words “YOU CAN STILL DUNK IN THE DARK”.

The pic was simple — and together with the text update “Power out? No problem”, the post nailed it.

There was no need for a call-to-action, a link, or for Oreo to beg for clicks.

Just pure simplicity.

I’ve said before & I’ll say it again — “Less is almost always More on Facebook” — and on social media in general.

During the power outage, I saw tons of other brand posts trying to leverage the situation — with longer & more contrived posts.

But Oreo was the only one that stood out.

Why? Because their image was simple. Simple & powerful.

As a small business you may not have Photoshop — or any expert image-editing skills. That’s fine — I don’t either!

Just use something like PicMonkey or Pixlr or even PowerPoint — yes PowerPoint is a great way to add text to images — and most of you have it on your computer already.

Or don’t use an image at all. Text-only status updates can do just as well.

Just remember to keep it simple!

*** Bonus Tip — Notice how Oreo didn’t include the word “SuperBowl” in their text update. This was intentional so their post wouldn’t get lumped in with the “200 other conversations about SuperBowl”. 

3. Timing Is Everything

The power at the SuperBowl went out at 7:37pm. Oreo had this image posted by 7:47pm.

And yes, the timing was absolutely crucial for the success of the post.

Had Oreo waited too long, they would not have seemed as witty & quick-on-their-feet.  And the post wouldn’t have been such a hit.

But because they got the image created & pushed out within 10 minutes of the power going out, the post went viral.

Notice the number of Likes, Shares & Comments:

Lisa Mann, who led the Oreo’s social media efforts during the SuperBowl, had this to say about the timing:

Because we picked such a big stage, we decided to have a social media command center, so we could respond real time to buzz. Of course we couldn’t have anticipated the blackout, but in that command center we had brand people, agency people.

Because everyone was together, they had everyone in place to jump on a real-time marketing opportunity, which was, how would Oreo see the blackout? And Oreo saw the blackout as an opportunity to dunk in the dark.

You may not have the need for a “social media command center” like Oreo — but you can still be smart & intentional with the timing of your posts.

A Facebook page should NEVER post “just because”.  Instead, you should be very aware of the times of day that get the most engagement — and post during those times.

Once you know these times, you can easily plan your posts at the correct times — regardless of timezones — to increase your chances of getting the most engagement.

The Road Runner CAN Be Caught

Let’s face it… not all of your Facebook posts are going to go viral

And not all of them are going to entice your fans to Like, Comment on or Share them.

But that’s ok. Just keep trying!

As long as you keep your posts (1) RELEVANT, (2) SIMPLE and (3) WELL-TIMED, you will eventually catch the Road Runner:

The post The 3 Essential Ingredients of an Enticing Facebook Post appeared first on Post Planner.

Like many page owners, I thought Edgerank — the algorithm that decides what you see in your news feed — was garbage & was ruining my Facebook experience.

Today, however, I’d like to make a statement:

“Hi… my name is Scott Ayres & I now LOVE Edgerank!”

Glad I got that off my chest.

Why Do I Now Love Edgerank?

This shift in my thinking didn’t happen overnight — and honestly it was a surprise to me.

I guess it’s easier to be a hater.

But now that we’re officially reconciled, let me tell you why I changed my mind.

4 Reasons I Now LOVE Edgerank as Page Owner

1. Edgerank Rewards Pages w/Good Content — Punishes Bad

The main goal of a Facebook page is to get engagement — and to turn engaged fans into customers.

The best way to get engagement is by posting good content – ie. content that’s relevant, appealing & has a call to action.

It’s simple:

• if you post good content, you get rewarded with better Edgerank & your posts get seen more in the news feed
• if you post crap content, you get punished with worse Edgerank & your posts don’t get seen

As a page owner, this is fantastic news!

To master Edgerank, all you have to do is post good content.  :)

2. Without Edgerank, You’re Drinking from a Fire Hydrant

Twitter & Google+ don’t use an algorithm to limit or optimize the posts you see in their news feeds.

This makes it nearly impossible to keep up with anything there.

For example, I follow about 700 Twitter accounts from my personal account.  Even with that low number, I still can’t keep up with every post that comes through.

The stream is constantly moving & I probably catch about 1% of it on any given day — even though I keep TweetDeck open all day.

On Facebook I’ve:

• liked around 3000 pages
• friended about 650 friends
• followed about 300 people
• followed dozens of groups & lists

If every post from every connection came through in my news feed, I’d probably lose my mind — and probably hate Facebook.

Instead, Edgerank makes sure I see a filtered view of posts from the people, pages, & groups I engage most.

Again, as a page owner this is fantastic news!

Why?

Because as long as you’re posting good content, your page’s posts will get seen by the fans most interested in your product/service.

Sure, there are reports — even from Facebook — that only about 16% of fans see any given post. And yes, when this was announced, marketers worldwide cried foul & got ticked off — myself included.

We worked diligently to get our fans — why should only 16% get to see our posts?!

The truth is — 16% is just an average.

Pages doing things the right way (posting good content) will see a higher — sometimes much higher — percentage.

But still… 16% is a good number, IMHO. It means about 1 in 6 fans see your posts & get the opportunity to engage.

On Twitter you’re lucky if 1 in 100 followers sees your posts.

So embrace the filtering — and again, post great content so more than 16% of your fans see your posts.

3. Edgerank is a Customized View

Facebook — more than any other social network — wants you to have a great experience on their site.

They achieve this goal via Edgerank.

Guess what?

Yep, this is fantastic news!

As a user it’s awesome because you see (mostly) what you’re interested in. So you love being on Facebook.

As a page owner it’s awesome because your fans (like you) love being on Facebook — and will be more likely to see & engage with your posts.

If users had to constantly scroll & chase posts to engage, they’d have a miserable experience & your posts would never been seen or get responses.

Are you embracing Edgerank yet?

 4. Edgerank Keeps Users Engaged

Yes, I “see” every post made on Twitter and Google+… but do I engage with all of them?

Nope.

In fact I couldn’t do so even if I wanted to — because the stream moves too fast.

With a focused & filtered news feed, users are more likely to engage with the content that shows up in it.

When I go to a restaurant & the waitress hands me a 10 page (front & back) menu I get overwhelmed. I spend the next 10 minutes never truly looking at the menu items because there are too many choices.

When it’s time to order I just order something I know I like & never try anything new.

Facebook is the same.

If users see too many posts in their news feed, they stop engaging because they don’t have enough time to add valuable input.

Think of the Edgerank filtered news feed like ordering at Chipotle — you only have a few choices to start (bowl, burrito or tacos), then you choose your meat and toppings. That’s it.

Simplified. Streamlined. Optimized. Customized.

That’s the beauty and power of Edgerank.

And that’s why I’ve begun to embrace it.

Who’s With Me?!

Are you on my side yet as a cheerleader for Edgerank?

Maybe not today, but if you’re a smart marketer you will be soon.

The post 4 Reasons I Now LOVE Edgerank as a Fan Page Owner appeared first on Post Planner.

Which means you’re ultimately on Facebook to make more money.

I mean, you’re not just doing this to distribute cat memes, are you?

Ok, some of you are.

But for those of you who are serious about making a profit on Facebook, please pay close attention to the recommendations I make in this blogpost.

If you don’t, it could literally cost you thousands of dollars!

Below I’ll be reviewing the fan page of Rod’s Racers – submitted by one of our fans.

ALL of the changes I recommend can apply to YOUR page too!  And I promise — if you make the changes, you’ll see tangible results on your bottom line.

Make these Changes on Your Fan Page ASAP

1. Optimize your Cover Photo

With all the new changes to the news feed & cover photo layout — it’s more important than ever to take advantage of your cover photo real estate.

Make no mistake — your cover photo is one of the biggest & best branding opportunities you have on the web.

Unfortunately, Rod’s Racers’ cover photo offers little branding — other than the extremely fit (and somewhat out-of-focus) woman running along a bridge.

Remember: when someone Likes your page, a “Like story” shows up in the news feed of their friends. This story consists of a cropped version of your cover photo.

If the cropped photo says nothing about your brand, then you’ve missed a huge opportunity to grab new (and free) fans.

Here’s an example of one of these “Like stories” (with effective branding):

The exact slice of your cover photo that Facebook shows in these stories still seems to be changing.

Previously it was showing the lower portion of the cover photo — but now seems to be showing the upper portion along with your profile image.

Here’s what Woodford Reserve’s full cover photo looks like:

And here’s the “Like story” again:

Notice that brand’s slogan gets covered up by the profile image — which isn’t optimal. But at least we see some repetition of the branded bottles — and we know they’re all about selling bourbon.

Compare the Rod’s Racers “Like story”. Here’s approximately how it would look:

Not terrible… but it still seems like a missed opportunity to me.

The story as a whole (cover & profile image) doesn’t tell me much about what Rod’s Racers is — nor the value they offer & why I should Like their page.

Also, the page name overlaps the lighter background of the runner in the cover photo — and makes it hard to read.

Remember — if I’m a potential fan seeing your “Like story” in my news feed, I want to be able to do the following instantaneously:

1. read who you are
2. know the value your page offers me

If I can’t do these things in a fraction of a second, then I’ll probably keep scrolling… and instantaneously forget your page instead.

If I do that — if I forget you & don’t Like your page — then you probably won’t get another chance to convert me into a fan — and then from a fan into a customer.

That, my friends, is why having a great looking, high-quality cover photo — along with a branded, relevant value proposition in the cover’s upper half — is crucial to your bottom line.

2. Optimize your Profile Image

Your profile image is easily the most important image you have on Facebook.

It’s what your fans (and other FB users) see in the news feed when you communicate with them.

My advice is to not clutter this image up with phone numbers, slogans, etc.

Remember — your profile image shows up so small in the news feed (and even smaller in comments) that no one will be able to read any text in it — nor will they be interested in trying.

For example, can you read any text here:

Rod’s Racers would be much better off just displaying the 3 silhouetted runners in full size.  At least that would be recognizable — and thus convey information.

Remember — the #1 place fans interact with your page is in the news feed — not on your Timeline. So optimize your profile image for the news feed!

You can do this by making your profile image:

• high quality 
• easy to read & recognize
• branded
• consistent across all social platforms (Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, etc.)

If you follow major brands on Facebook, you’ll quickly see that they almost all use their brand’s logo as the profile image. They know what they’re doing, in my opinion.

So please resist the temptation to add phone numbers, URLs, bullet points, etc. in your profile image.

Keep it simple, recognizable & branded.

3. Choose the Appropriate Category for Your Page

The category you choose on your page is ultra important. I’ve mentioned a few reasons why in a previous post on how to create a Facebook Business page.

What I want to focus on here is the difference between calling your page a “Local Business” or a “Company”.

Below is the “About” section for Rod’s Racers:

Notice anything wrong?

Yep, they’re:

1. listing a P.O. Box as their physical address
2. not showing their website link

This is a real bummer, because Rod’s Racers is missing out on a huge opportunity for people to learn more about them & also to click over to their site – and it could be costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

Plus, the whole reason to be listed as a local business is for people to find your location & check in — which is impossible at a P.O. Box.

I’d recommend Rod’s Racers:

1. choose a different category
2. edit their About section to show their website link & some keywords — like we have on Post Planner:

By including a link to your site & great keywords, you will create more opportunities for people to find your site & page.

Do this asap!  :)

4. Dump the Useless Apps

In my opinion, the most important goals of tab apps on fan pages are to:

• Drive traffic to your website
• Gather Leads

Anything else is taking up space & confusing your fans.

I know many “experts” love to recommend putting Pinterest, Twitter & Instagram apps on your page. But why? What is the real value of doing this?

My guess is you’re just distracting the attention of your visitors & missing opportunities to get them to your website.

Now… if you want to post links to your Pinterest page in the news feed as posts — then go for it! At least that’s driving traffic to a destination.

But adding a tab app to your fan page doesn’t do that — and it probably won’t result in repins, shares or more followers on those platforms.

Also… Rod’s Racers has 2 Instagram apps on their page instead of one — probably causing more confusion. If you can’t live without Instagram on you page, then please only add one tab app with it.

And if you haven’t added any new notes to your “Notes” app in over a year, then it’s probably best to hide it. Nothing worse than someone visiting your page, clicking an app thumbnail & finding outdated information

The same is true with the Events app.

Remember — with tab apps, less is more!

5. Stop Over Posting!

I’ll be upfront here — there’s no “magic” number of posts you should be publishing every day.

But posting 20 updates in a 24 hour time period without getting much engagement may be doing you more harm than good.

For example, the content posted by Rod’s Racers is very informative, but the engagement is low — and I believe could be much higher.

The low engagement is probably a sign that the page needs to post less often in order to increase engagement.

*** If you are posting 20 times per day & seeing tons of engagement, by all means keep doing it!

Most pages however need to post less often so they can get users re-engaged with the page. This is a key factor in Edgerank — Facebook’s algorithm that determines what shows up in your news feed.

By publishing so many posts, most fans are probably missing the opportunity to engage with most posts — and the less someone engages with posts from your page, the less often your posts will show up in their news feed later.

Sounds unfair, I know.  But that’s Edgerank, people!

My recommendation is to post at least 3 times per day — morning, noon & night.

And if your page attracts fans from around the globe, you should be publishing your posts at the appropriate times in all time zones.

So… Are You Ready to Make More Money?

Cool.  Me too.

So let’s make these changes to our fan pages & stop burning the potential cash that could be in our bank accounts!

The post WARNING: Failure to Make These 5 Changes to Your Facebook Page Could Cost You Thousands appeared first on Post Planner.

I write about a lot of Facebook marketing tactics on this blog.

My #1 goal here is to make you a better Facebook marketer — which in turn makes you a better user of Post Planner.

But today I want to go back to the beginning & make sure we’re all on an equal playing field.

Maybe you’ve created a Facebook page before — or maybe you haven’t — or maybe you created one in haste and aren’t sure you did everything right.

Today I want to walk you through the process of setting up a Facebook page the right way.

So let’s get to it!

How to Create a Facebook Business Page

Step 1 : Go to “Create Page” Link

There are lots of ways to get to this page, but I’ll make it easy for you. Just click here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/create/

You should see something like this:

Step 2 : Choose a Page Type

Choose one of the following:

• Local Business or Place
• Company, Organization or Institution
• Brand or Product
• Artist, Band or Public Figure
• Entertainment
• Cause or Community

You’ll need to decide which page type is best for you as each type has different benefits & drawbacks.

For our example I’ll choose “Local Business or Place”

Step 3: Choose a Category

If you choose a page type other than Cause or Community then you’ll need to choose a category for your page.

You’re category is VERY important with Graph Search – so choose wisely so people can find you easier.

Just click the dropdown and you’ll be given plenty of choices.

For our example I’ll choose “Restaurant/Cafe”.

Step 4 : Choose a Business Name

Pretty simple — yet SUPER important. Enter your exact business name here.

Keep in mind people need to be able to find your business in Graph Search — so choose the name people know you by. Some “experts” recommend that you add keywords to you business name.

I think this is a mistake.

If your business is “Post Planner Burgers” then name your page that, not “Burger, Fries & Sodas in Texas”.

Plus if your page name is too generic, Facebook could take it over as a “Community” page — which limits the page features.

In the example above you’ll notice I’ve entered an address & phone number. This is only necessary if you select “Local Business or Place” — all other page types require only the Category & Business name.

Step 5: Agree to Facebook Pages Terms

To proceed further in creating your page you must agree to Facebook’s terms.

It’s a good idea to read over these terms every few months, as Facebook is constantly tweaking them.

Inside the Facebook Pages Terms you’ll find out information regarding:

• Page Administration
• Content
• Page Management
• Page Names
• Collection of Data
• Page Features
• Advertising on Pages
• Cover Photos
• Apps on Pages
• Offers
• Promotion Guidelines

As a page owner, this is info you should definitely stay familiar with.

Step 6: Click “Get Started”

Now that you’ve followed the first 5 steps it’s time to “Get Started”. So click the blue button.

Step 7: Set Up Page

Here’s where the fun starts!

You can choose to fill out this info or you can skip it. The best thing to do is fill it out now.

The info will show up on your “About” page and in the “About” section on your page’s Timeline.

You’ll need to enter the following:

• Category — No dropdown here, just type in the category you want to associate with (important in Graph Search)
• Add a description — This will show on your Timeline as the “About Section” — unless you’ve chosen a Local Business
• Website — Let people know how to find you online outside of Facebook

Facebook then asks you “Is XYZ business a real establishment, business or venue”? Kind of a dumb question, but check Yes anyway.

Once you select Yes, Facebook will ask you “Will XYZ business be the authorized and official representation of this establishment, business or venue on Facebook?”.

Again seems like a dumb question, but check Yes — unless you’re setting up a fan page for a TV show or celebrity and aren’t the official brand representative.

Once you’re finished with the above info, you’ll see something like this:

Notice how I selected multiple categories and Facebook gives me more to choose from.

Select the ones that apply & click the “Save Info” button.

 Step 8: Add Profile Picture

Here you need to upload an image from your computer or import from a website:

Your image needs to be at least 180 pixels wide in order for Facebook to accept it.

Upload your image & click “Next”.

Step 9: Like Your Page

Facebook will now walk you through a few steps.

The first one directs you to Like your page:

If you aren’t ready for people to see your page it’s probably best to hold off on Liking it just yet.

I clicked “Skip”.

Step 10: Invite Your Email Contacts

This is a great way to get your initial burst of Likes.

But as mentioned above, if your page isn’t 100% ready for primetime I’d hold off on inviting people just yet.

Step 11: Share Something

At this point Facebook considers your page ready to go & encourages you to share a status update to your Timeline.

But if you don’t have any Likes yet, no one will see it — unless they come to your Timeline later.

You might consider posting a “Welcome” image or greeting. But posting any sort of important link or other update might be a waste — seeing as you have no fans yet!

Step 12: Add a Cover

Facebook doesn’t prompt you to upload a cover photo like it does all of the other setup features. But you should definitely add a cover to your page — otherwise it looks like it’s not ready for business.

Your cover needs to be 851 pixels wide, 315 pixels tall & less than 100 kb to get the best load time.

Also, it can’t contain more than 20% text. You can test your cover photo here to see if it breaks the rules.

Your Page is Created!

Congrats! You’ve officially created a Facebook fan page! Hopefully this step-by-step guide was helpful to you.

Now it’s time to start marketing with your Facebook page. Here are some resources to get you started:

Give your Fan Page Mouth-to_mouth w/just 3 posts a day

How to grow your Fan Page

6 Fan page features you’re missing

3 Tools that Make Facebook Suck Less

Crash Course in Facebook Marketing

The post How to Create a Facebook Business Page appeared first on Post Planner.

You’ve seen pages that are crushing it & pages that are full-on ghost towns.

So there must be some sort of “secret” to successful Facebook pages, right?

That’s what I set out to discover when I asked a few friends of mine — who happen to be Facebook experts — a simple question.

I asked them:

What’s the #1 Secret of Successful Facebook Pages?

Brian Carter

The people running the page should understand Facebook is a new & different type of marketing & adjust their strategy accordingly.

This is much easier when your company is small or a one-person-show.

Bigger brands face internal obstacles like coordinating the people doing posting & ads (for both insights gained from ads as tests & for ad folks to be able to create good long-running post promotions) and maybe even getting a budget for Facebook ads.

Not to mention the scenario where a company’s normal brand positioning doesn’t fit with what works best on Facebook.

Some companies haven’t fully integrated search marketing — though they should have been doing this at least 5 years ago.  So as they try to integrate social marketing they run into the same issues that haven’t been resolved in search marketing — things like inflexible budgets chosen a year ahead of time, or learning how their customers respond on a monthly rather than annual basis.

It often seems like new Internet-based companies have an advantage over traditional rivals here.

But it’s not just the tools, or the youth of the people involved. It’s also that the new companies aren’t stuck in old paradigms & strategies that were created for other advertising & marketing mediums.

Brian Moran

The #1 Secret is custom tabs.

There’s no call-to-action on a fan page until you add one. You should do this using a custom tab. Use custom tabs to collect leads, or sell products & services.

You should be driving all fans and non-fans to a custom tab where you can actually monetize all the effort you’re putting into your fan page.

Without that, you’re flat out wasting your time.

Ravi Shukle

My number #1 secret is to be human & transparent with your fans.

How can you humanise your brand? Here are the top 3 ways:

1. Sign of comments with your name – Your fans like to feel like they’re talking to a real person, not a logo. Signing off with your name lets you build a personal relationship with your audience.
2. Tone of voice – When talking to your fans, avoid using corporate jargon. Use a more personal tone they can relate to. For example, use the fan’s first name in conversations.
3. Create conversation — When commenting & replying to fans, instead of just Liking comments or offering a 1-word reply, start a conversation & ask them “why” they like the post. Or when replying to a query, ask if there’s anything else they need help with. This increases both interaction & trust.

How can your brand be transparent? Here are 3 great ways:

1. Share your plans – Keep your fans in the loop & give them behind the scenes access. This builds trust & engagement as fans feel like they’re part of the process.
2. Invite fans to help make decisions – Don’t be afraid to get feedback from your fans. They’re your target market so you should value their opinions like gold. Ask multiple choice questions or give them a choice via an image e.g. Logo A or B?
3. Take your fans on the journey with you – Take advantage of Facebook’s milestones feature & share your company’s history with your fans.  Taking your fans on this journey with you helps build affinity with your brand.

Do these 6 things on your fan page & start enjoying a deeper & more engaging relationship with your fans.

Mike Stenger

As much as understanding Edgerank is important, it all comes down to great content.

You can know all the ins & outs of making sure your posts reach more of your audience — but if the content is lacking in any way, it won’t matter.

Mike Gingerich

I feel the #1 Secret of Successful Facebook Pages is engaging content.

This means posts & apps on the page that spur fan interaction & sharing.  There no way to succeed on Facebook that skips focusing on content.

Since Facebook users are less prone to return to a page after  becoming a fan, content in the News Feed that captures attention & invites comments, Likes & Shares is critical.

While apps & promotions on tabs are key ways to add further engagement to a page, the means of alerting users to a promotion on Facebook is largely via posts.

Since Facebook moved to Timeline in 2012, the News Feed has become integral to the user experience on Facebook.  Brands that are succeeding are finding inviting & innovative ways to interact with their community in the News Feed, which in turn, extends their page’s reach.

Content in the News Feed can & should vary — and the best interactive Pages know this.  From images to videos to update posts that drive traffic to promotion apps, thinking strategically about content is essential for success on Facebook for any brand.

Conclusion

Great responses here from 5 guys who know what they’re talking about when it comes to Facebook — and social media, in general.

Hopefully you can take away some nuggets from this little experiment and apply them to your page.

Your Turn

What do YOU think the #1 Secret to Successful Fan Pages is?

The post The #1 Secret of Successful Facebook Pages – 5 Experts Weigh-in appeared first on Post Planner.

Bad assumption!

Just because someone has Liked your fan page doesn’t mean they’ll Like & comment on your posts.

After all, you aren’t “Friends” with them.

The ONLY way to capture the attention of your fans is to publish great posts that entice them to engage.

Here are 5 posts that will do that:

5 Posts to Increase Engagement on Facebook Immediately

1. Caption This Photo

Every time I post a funny picture like this and then ask fans to caption it, the response is huge.

People just love to add their funny comments to photos like this.

I posted this image while writing this blog post and quickly have gotten 20 shares, 20 likes and 10 comments.

We already know that photos get great Edgerank in Facebook.  So by getting people to comment on a photo like this, you’ll definitely increase the reach of your post — which will create more opportunities for engagement.

Check out Josh’s post where he shows you how to find awesome photos to share on Facebook if you’re having trouble finding images.

2. Quotes

Quotes are maybe the simplest way to increase engagement on your page.

Why?

Because people love to share & Like quotes — especially whimsical or motivational quotes.

You can post a text update like this motivational quote:

Or you can post the quote as a photo update like Kim Garst often does:

Notice her post got 132 shares & 379 people Liked it. That’s HUGE engagement!

I’d recommend mixing up your quotes between text only updates & photos so you can measure their effectiveness.

 3. Fill-in-the-Blank

Fill-in-the-blank posts are a quick way to elicit a response from your fans — and thus increase engagement.

Let’s face it — people love to be creative & show off their smarts. The key here is to keep the update short & make it a knee-jerk reaction to fill in the blank.

Notice in this post we actually gave people 2 choices — making it even easier for them to answer.

This post got 3 times as many comments as Likes — which is exactly what we wanted.

Here’s a great post showing you some awesome templates for Fill-in-the-blank statuses on Facebook.

4. Timely & Comical Photos

Facebook will give photos ever more prominence in the News Feed — which should excite you as a page owner.

Images have always carried a lot of weight in Edgerank. And with the majority of Facebook users being mobile-only, photos should see even more engagement moving forward.

As you can see, the above timely & comical image got a ton of engagement — which boosted our reach nearly 16,000 people (around half of our Like count).

It’s an example of a hugely successful post that created tons of engagement for our page — and probably exposed our page to a whole new crop of fans.

Why?

Again, because the photo was:

• Timely & Comical
• but also… it had a Call-to-Action

These are all key elements in a good photo post.

If you want to take it a step further, try posting a link in the photo caption — to drive traffic to your site.

And consider editing the photos you post to add your logo and/or url at the bottom of the image. That way when it does get shared 109 times, everyone will know where it came from!

5. Questions

Asking a question on your page is another easy way to increase engagement — and it requires few resources (ie. photos).

We ask a ton of questions on the Post Planner page, because:

1. we know they get engagement — as shown in the above example
2. we have a huge arsenal of questions in our Status Ideas Engine

My advice on questions is to:

• keep them short
• ask Yes/No questions when possible
• ask multiple choice questions and list the choices as A, B, C
• ask light-hearted questions to get the biggest response (lighten up!)

We do NOT recommend using the “Questions” feature on Facebook Pages.

Why? Because even if the post gets lots of engagement and goes “viral” it won’t really help your Edgerank. Plus people who answer the question often won’t even see where it’s from.

Sure it could be great to gather stats & do research for a blog post, but as a way to get engagement I’d recommend just asking the question as a text update instead.

Did You Know?

Did you know that 3 of the above 5 post types are ready-made functions in the Post Planner app?

Yep… Questions, Fill-in-the-blanks & Quotes are specific categories in our Status Ideas Engine – which makes it super simple to find & share awesome status updates.

In fact, we’ve taken the guessing game out of creating engaging posts by providing you with an endless assortment of pre-written statuses to choose from.

I can tell you from personal experience — I’ve used the database since it was launched 2 years ago — that Post Planner’s Status Ideas Engine has been essential in increasing engagement on the myriad pages I’ve run during that time period.

So if you haven’t connected to the app and tried our Status Ideas Engine, do it right now!

Remember — it’s FREE to post to all of your pages!

CLICK HERE to connect.

The post These 5 Posts Will Increase Your Facebook Engagement Overnight appeared first on Post Planner.

I don’t fully agree with the list — but it’s definitely a great group of people.

The author of the list, Haydn Shaughnessy, used data from Peek Analytics to decide who qualified as a “power influencer” — the main factor being a metric called Pull.

According to the Forbes article, a person has a Pull of 10x if:

The audience the individual can reach is at least ten times greater than what the average social media user can reach.

I checked my Pull and it’s 30x — which means I should have been on the list, right?

Maybe next year.

What’s Missing in the Forbes Article

Forbes does a great job of providing each Influencer’s:

• blog/website
• Twitter handle

But strangely, it doesn’t provide Facebook links for the Influencers… which I found interesting – seeing as I put more weight on Facebook influence than Twitter. 

For that reason, I wanted to create a quick way to follow these Influencers — their blogs, Twitter AND Facebook accounts — in order to

1. see how their influencing others
2. monitor the types of content they’re sharing
3. share their content with my followers

If you try to find all the Facebook pages of these 50 people yourself, I can assure you, you’re in for a long day.

How do I know?

Because I just spent the day doing it.  ;)

Yep, I’ve just created & curated a List for all the Facebook pages, blogs & Twitter accounts of Forbes’ Top 50 Influencers.

You’re Very Welcome!  :)

Here’s how to tap into my awesome List:

How to Easily Follow & Share the Content of Forbes’ Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers

To follow my tutorial below, you MUST be connected to the Post Planner app.

You can get started for FREE here.

Step 1: Go to your Post Planner App

Once you’ve connected to the app, you’ll see a bookmark in the left column of your Facebook Home under “Apps”.

(I’ve added my app bookmark to my “Favorites” section — so I can access it quickly)

Step 2: Click “Content”

Once you’re in the app, click the “Content” bubble in the right column.

Step 3: Open Global Content Library

Once you click “Content” you’ll see the following 3 sections, top to bottom:

1. Trending Content
2. Content Library
3. Global Content Library

We’re going to use #3 — the Global Content Library.

So click the “Open Global Content Library” button, like this:

Step 4: Find “Forbes Top 50″ Folder

Once you open the Global Content Library, a huge list of folders will load.

These are all the Content folders that have been created by other Post Planner users — including Josh & myself.

Scroll down the list & find the folder “Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers”:

Step 5: Add to My Library

Click “Add to My Library” as shown above.

You’ll then see the folder pop up in your personal Content Library in the right column.

Step 6: Open Folder

Once you find the folder in your personal Content Library, just click the arrow next to the folder.

This will open the folder & reveal all the goodness inside.  :)

You’ll see all of the sources I found from the Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers — blogs, fan pages & Twitter accounts.

I can’t even show you a full screenshot of this folder’s content — because it contains literally 150 content sources for you to chew on!!

Step 7: Select a Source

Just click on any of the sources to choose an influencer — one who shares awesome content preferably.

You’ll then see a list (in the left column) of all the recent articles they’ve shared.

(Note: you can also just click the folder itself to see ALL the content from ALL 150 sources)

Here’s Darren Rowse’s FB page feed:

Step 8: Choose an Article

Find an article that looks interesting & then click the article’s title.

I’m choosing “5 Keys to Writing Excellent Blog Posts” as it’s an article I could really use — as could my followers.

Notice that the article expands so I can read it right inside the Post Planner app:

This is especially helpful as it lets you read the article before sharing it — plus it’s a great way to replace Google Reader.

And if you’d rather read the article on its original blog, you can always click “Open in a New Tab”.

Step 9: Add to Publisher

I’ve read over the article from Darren Rowse & now I want to share it on my Facebook profile, page or group.

All I have to do is click “Add to Publisher” and the article will be sent to the Post Planner publisher for posting.

Step 10: Plan Your Post

Once you add the article to the publisher, you can:

• Choose a page, group or list to post it to
• Add a text update
• Target the post by location, language, age, etc.
• Schedule it, Queue it or Post it immediately

*Note: You can also edit the Title & Description and choose an image thumbnail, just like in Facebook.

That’s it!

Keep in mind that the Content Library will only show the LINKS a Fan Page has shared — not the statuses, photos or vids.

Btw, if you’re a diehard Twitter user and want to retweet posts from the Forbes Top 50 list and maybe become a Power Influencer for 2014 — I’ve also created a Twitter List for you to follow called Top 50 Social Influencers.

Influence By Sharing!

It’s worth noting here that one way these 50 have become “Power Influencers” is by sharing the content of others.

Remember: people who only share their own content are more Broadcasters than Influencers.

So use the features I’ve described here to find & share the same awesome content the Power Influencers are sharing!  Then you will have completed Step #1 to becoming a power influencer yourself.

One Final Step

And with that in mind, make sure to Tweet this post to your followers & share it on Facebook.

One of the best ways to influence other is to acknowledge & share the work of others, right?

The post Here’s Step #1 to Becoming a Forbes “Top 50 Social Media Power Influencer” appeared first on Post Planner.

Then use the “Promoted Posts” feature on your page Timeline ASAP!

Facebook has recently changed the default settings on Promoted Posts to force page owners to promote their posts to Fans AND Friends of Fans.

In the past you could choose Fans ONLY — and not their Friends too.

Not anymore.

Why is this a BIG deal?

It’s a big deal because the potential downside of promoting posts to non-fans is much larger than the potential upside.

In fact, by promoting your posts to non-fans, you risk a huge backlash & significant long-term damage to your page.

In almost every case where I’ve seen pages promoting posts to non-fans, the sentiment on the posts (judging from the comments) is super negative.

Ie. hundreds of comments screaming “spam” (and other 4-letter words) — and hundreds of people clicking “Report Story or Spam” on the post.

Edgerank Nosedive

If hundreds of people mark your post as spam — whether the post is promoted or not — then your page’s Edgerank will surely take an immediate nose dive.

Facebook has made it clear that “negative” feedback on posts greatly reduces Edgerank — and when fans hide your post or mark it as spam — well, that’s about as negative as feedback can get.

But is this fair? The post you promoted wasn’t even spammy, was it?

Doesn’t matter.

If other people see your post as spam & mark it as spam — then it’s spam.

In truth, these people probably have a legitimate gripe. Your post is essentially an unsolicited marketing message — no matter how valuable & informative it is.

It’s unsolicited because non-fans have NOT Liked your page & have NOT asked to see your content.

“Unsolicited marketing message” is the very definition of spam, my friends.

So what should you do?

Well, first off don’t panic. There’s a way to still promote your posts without pissing off non-fans.

Just follow these instructions:

Step-By-Step Guide to Promoting a Post to Fans Only

Step 1: Go to the Ad Manager

There’s a bunch of ways to get here. Facebook has links everywhere these days.

For a shortcut just use this link: Ad Manager

Step 2: Choose your page as the “Facebook Destination”

Find & choose the page you want to Promote a Post on.

Step 3: Select “Promote Page Posts”

The “Get More Page Likes” option will be selected by default — so you’ll need to change this to “Promote Page Posts”.

Step 4: Choose the Page Post you Want to Promote

You have 2 options here:

1. Select an existing post on your page… or
2. Create a new page post.

(For this tutorial, we’ll select an existing post)

Once you select it, you’ll see a preview in the Right Column Preview:

Step 5: Sponsored Stories Settings

You can choose to deactivate certain options here, like:

• People liking your Page post
• People commenting on your Page post
• People sharing your Page post

My suggestion is to leave them all checked & activated.

As I mentioned in a previous post about Like Ads, showing social proof on your ads makes them much more effective.

Step 6: Choose Your Audience

Here’s where you choose the Location, Age & Gender you want to target.

In my opinion, you should definitely segment your ads by different location, age & gender targets, as it lets you measure & compare the response of the different segments

Also, if it’s 2am in a certain location, then it doesn’t really make sense to pay to promote a post there. And unless your page is geared towards teens, you should bump up minimum age to at least 20.

For our ad, we’ll choose “United States”, ages 20-50 & men.

Step 7: Choose Interests

Next you can choose to target fans based on Interests.

This is especially handy if you have a large page & want to drill down & show your post only to people who are interested.

If your post is about baseball, for example, you can choose “Baseball” as an interest — and the likelihood of engagement will increase.

For our ad we won’t choose any interests.

Step 8: Narrow down the Connections

This is THE most important part of the setup process — and the reason I’m writing this tutorial.

Remember — if you run a Promoted Post from your Timeline, Facebook requires that you show the post to your Fans AND the Friends of your Fans.

Again, this will only cause you headaches & kill your page’s Edgerank.

Here’s the way to avoid that!

• Select “Only people connected to XYZ Page” (Post Planner in this example)
• Leave the “Friends of Connections” blank

Step 9: Name the Campaign & Choose Your Budget

You get to name your campaign anything you want. I suggest naming it something descriptive & recognizable — so you can easily distinguish it from your other ads.

Then you’ll need to decide how much you want to spend on the promotion.

If you had promoted the post from your Timeline, you’d be shown something like this:

As you can see, both the Reach numbers AND dollar amounts are pretty high — plus you have no control over the age, gender or location targeting.

By using the Ad Manager instead, you can drill down by location, age & gender and also choose a specific budget.

Select your daily or lifetime budget for the promoted post.

Pay attention to the fact that Facebook selects “Run my campaign continuously starting today” by default — which means the post will be promoted until you turn it off.

For this ad, I’ll set it to run for just one day.

Your promoted post will be set by default to CPM (Cost Per Impression) — and I’d recommend leaving it that way. Trying to bid on a CPC (Cost Per Click) basis could be tough for a promoted post.

Step 10: Place Order

Here you should click “Review Ad” and check for any errors. Once you’ve done that — and corrected any errors — just click “Place Order” & you’re done.

Step 11: Wait for Facebook to Approve the Ad

Now you just have to wait for Facebook to approve your promoted post & start running it.

Waiting for Facebook’s approval definitely sucks — and it’s the obvious downside of promoting posts via the Ad Manager.

If you promote a post from your Timeline, for example, the promotion will start running immediately — although it will still be stopped if your post violates any of Facebook rules.

But again, because Facebook won’t let you target ONLY FANS when promoting posts from your Timeline, you should not do it there.

Key Takeaways

The Bad News — You can’t promote posts to ONLY FANS from your Timeline anymore.

The Good News – There’s an alternative, and it only require a few more steps.

By using the Ad Manager to promote your posts, you keep control of how the post looks, how it’s targeted and most importantly, whether it’s promoted to ONLY FANS.

So just use the Ad Manager.

The post Stop Promoting your Facebook Posts to Non-Fans. You’re Pissing People Off! appeared first on Post Planner.

I have.

For example, I’m in California.  So if I post a “Good morning!” on the Post Planner fan page at 7am California time — then our fans in the UK see the post at… yes, 3pm!

Not exactly top of the morning.

Even worse, our fans in India & Australia see the post at 7:30pm & midnight, respectively.

Not good.

So is there a way to fix this?  Is there a way to say “Good Morning” to fans worldwide — during their actual morning hours?

Turns out there is.

Solution = Targeting + Time Zones

The solution involves a combination of:

• geo-targeting posts
• converting time zones
• scheduling the targeted posts for the converted times

You can do this manually in Facebook — which takes a fair amount of time & effort — or you can do it in a few clicks with Post Planner.

Either way, it’s probably worth your time — so let me show you how it’s done.

2 Options for Post Targeting

Before I show you how to post at the same time-of-day in different time zones, I want to take a step back & make sure you understand the different targeting options in Facebook.

Facebook offers 2 options for post targeting:

1. News Feed targeting — limits the visibility of your post ONLY in the News Feed
2. Post Gating — limits the visibility of your post across ALL of Facebook (including the News Feed)

If you want to target a post on Facebook, you need to choose between these 2 options.

You have to tell Facebook either to:

1. show your post ONLY to certain people in the News Feed… or
2. show your post ONLY to certain people across the entire social network — including the News Feed, your Page Timeline & everywhere else

Here’s where you access the 2 targeting options in Facebook:

Now let’s talk about each of the 2 targeting options in more detail.

1. News Feed Targeting

News Feed targeting limits your post’s visibility ONLY in the news feed.

Example:  If you use News Feed Targeting to target a post to people in France:

Then:

• ONLY people living in France will see your post in their news feed
• But — and this is a BIG “but” — EVERYONE (no matter where they live) will see your post when visiting your page’s Timeline
• And — and this is a HUGE “and” – EVERYONE who has turned on notifications for your page (no matter where they live) will get a notification for your post

2. Post Gating

Post gating is more comprehensive than News Feed targeting — because it limits the visibility of your post EVERYWHERE in Facebook.

Example:  If you use Post Gating to target a post to people in France:

Then:

• ONLY people living in France will see your post, no matter where they are on Facebook
• ONLY people living in France (who have turned on notifications for your page) will get a notification for your post

Again, Post Gating is the more comprehensive of the 2 targeting options — because it hides your post from the non-targeted audience *no matter where they are* on Facebook.

With Post Gating, the non-targeted audience will NEVER see your post.

My Recommendation: Use Post Gating

I recommend using Post Gating in most cases — especially when employing the tactics described in this blogpost.

Why?

Because if you follow my instructions here, you’ll be publishing several posts with the exact same content to your page — each one targeted to a different location.

The last thing you want is for fans to visit your page & see the same post repeated down the Timeline.

And the VERY last thing you want is for fans (who have turned on notifications for your page) to get notifications for 8 posts with the exact same content!

These things will happen if you use News Feed Targeting instead of Post Gating.

The solution: just use Post Gating!

One Last Thing

Please remember you can only use Post Gating for these targeting categories:

• Location
• Language

You CANNOT use Post Gating for Facebook’s other targeting categories:

• Gender
• Relationship Status
• Educational Status
• Interested In
• Age

These 5 can only be used in News Feed Targeting.

But since we’re mainly talking about locations & time zones in this blogpost, not being able to target by Gender, Age, etc. isn’t important.

Now… let’s get to it!

Spanning the World

To start, let’s make it clear exactly what we’re trying to do.

Our Goal: We want to publish a post on our fan page that will be seen by fans across the world *during their morning hours* — no matter what time zone they’re in.

Our post will have the following content:

• Text: “Good morning, Post Planners! Here’s a great article to start off your morning.”
• Link: A Crash Course in Facebook Marketing

So… how do we make sure this post gets published in the morning — and that fans around the world see the post in the morning, no matter which time zone they’re in?

Step 1: Segment your Fans into World Regions

Let’s start by segmenting our fans into exclusive regions of the world.

Here are the 8 regions I use:

1. North America — US, Canada, Bahamas, Jamaica 
2. South America  – Mexico, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile
3. UK, Ireland, South Africa
4. Europe — Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Greece
5. Middle East — Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman
6. India+ — India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
7. East Asia — Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam
8. Australia, New Zealand

I chose these regions based on a combination of location & language — as well as the geographical distribution of the fans on my fan page.

Also, I tried to make sure each region doesn’t span more than 4 time zones.

** Note: to see the geographical distribution of your fans, go to your page Insights & click “Likes”

Step 2: Assign Each Region a Time Zone

Here are the time zones I assigned to my 8 world regions:

1. North America — San Francisco, or UTC -7
2. South America — Santiago, or UTC -3
3. UK, Ireland, South Africa — London, or UTC +1
4. Europe — Paris, or UTC +2
5. Middle East — Cairo, or UTC +2
6. India+ — New Delhi, or UTC +5:30
7. East Asia — Singapore, or UTC +8
8. Australia, New Zealand — Sydney, or UTC +10

** Note: Daylight Savings has been applied to the time zones where applicable

Step 3: Choose Posting Time & Convert Time Zones

Our post is a morning post — so let’s publish it at 7am.

But remember — we want the post to publish at 7am in each of our regional time zones.

So now we have to figure out:

• what 7am in Santiago equals in California time
• what 7am in London equals in California time
• and so on…

We can use this awesome time zone converter to make these conversions.

Here’s what I got:

• North America – 7am
• South America – 3am
• UK, Ireland, South Africa – 11pm
• Europe – 10pm
• Middle East – 10pm
• India+ – 6:30pm
• East Asia – 4pm
• Australia, New Zealand – 2pm

Now all we have to do is create the 8 posts, target them & schedule them for the above times.

Step 4: Create, Target, Schedule

We already know how to create the post.  Here’s how we target it using Post Gating:

• Click “Public” then “Location/Language”

•  Add the countries in the region and click “Gate Post”

Then it’s just a matter of scheduling the post at the right time, so it publishes at 7am in the targeted region.

I know from my time conversions above that 7am London time equals 11pm California time.

So I schedule the post for 11pm:

Voila!  This post is done.

Now we just have to repeat the process for each of our 7 remaining regions.

Once we do that, we’ll have 8 identical posts that are:

• targeted (using Post Gating)
• scheduled to go out at 7am in each regional time zone

Then we can kick up our feet & sip wine while our posts span the world.

But… Isn’t There an Easier Way?

I was thinking the same thing.  ;)

Let’s face it — the above process takes A LOT of calculating, typing & clicks.

For the South America region alone, we have to manually enter 20 countries every time we target a post.

And for Europe, that number is 36!

In fact, the whole thing wouldn’t be so bad if we could just add the countries to the regional Target ONCE — and then save the Target for later use.

And it wouldn’t be so bad if we could just create our post ONCE — instead of having to recreate it 8 times.

And it wouldn’t be so bad if we could just make the time conversions AUTOMATIC — so we don’t have to calculate & convert time zones every time.

Yeah… if these things were possible, then it wouldn’t be so bad. In fact, it would be pretty easy.

Damn!… someone should make an app for that.

Guess what?

Yep, we already did. It’s called Post Planner.

Watch me do the entire above process with Post Planner — FOR ALL 8 REGIONS — in exactly 37 seconds:

(If you can’t view this vid, CLICK HERE to view on screencast.com.)

That was easy, wasn’t it?

Yep, if you use Post Planner to target & schedule your posts, you can

1. create & save your regional Targets — to be selected anytime in a single click
2. write your post only once — Post Planner automatically generates a unique post for each regional Target
3. avoid time zone conversions — Post Planner converts & schedules for you!

Not bad, eh?

Now let’s break down the above process in Post Planner — so you can do it yourself.

How to “Time Zone Target” in Post Planner

The first thing we need to do is install the app here:

https://apps.facebook.com/postplanner

Once we have it installed & we’ve signed up to the Guru App, we can head to our app & get started.

Preparation: Create & Save Regional Targets

Here’s where we add the countries in each region and save them as a Target.

All we have to do is:

• Click “Target” and then “Create New Target”

• Add countries & give the Target a name

• Click “Link Target to a time zone” & choose a time zone
• Click “Save Target”

• Repeat this process for each of our 8 world regions

Yes, this IS kind of a pain in the ass.

But remember — you only have to do it ONCE! Then your targets will be saved & you can use them anytime in a couple clicks.

Once we’ve created our custom regional Targets, we start scheduling our posts.

Step 1: Create Post

Here’s where we add the text & attach the link.

Step 2: Select Regional Targets

• Click “Target” & select our 8 saved Targets
• Click “Done”

After clicking “Done” you’ll see a square around the “Target” button that indicates targeting is turned on:

Step 3: Choose Publishing Time & Click “Schedule”

Again, you don’t need to worry about any time zone conversions here.  Post Planner converts the times automatically.

Just open the scheduler & choose 7:00am.

Then click “Schedule” and watch as 8 unique posts appear in your plan:

Notice the publishing times have been automatically converted.

**Note: You can hover over the gear icon to see the targeting on each post.

Step 4 (optional): Translate Posts

If we really want to go the extra mile (or kilometer) & delight our worldwide fans — not to mention increase clicks & engagement — then we should probably translate our targeted posts into the language most relevant to each region.

In the case of my posts, it really only makes sense for to translate one of them — the post targeted to Latin America.  Let’s translate it to both Spanish & Portuguese.

We won’t translate the other posts because the regions are either English-speaking:

• North America
• United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa
• Australia, New Zealand

Or they have too many languages in the Target to bother with translations:

• Europe
• Middle East
• India+
• East Asia

So here’s how we translate the Latin America targeted post:

• Click the pencil icon on the planned post:

• Go to Google Translate, translate our post & then replace the English status with the translation(s)… like this:

We’re Done!

Now we can kick back, chill & sip wine as our posts span the world.

And — as the wine slips down our parched gullets — we can feel content knowing that the next time we want to do this — ie. target a post to our 8 world regions — it will only take 37 seconds!

Or 40 tops.

Only Scratching the Surface

As you can see, this new Custom Targeting feature in Post Planner is SUPER powerful.

In fact, in this blogpost we’ve only scratched the surface of what it’s capable of.

There are soooo many other “use cases” for it.

One obvious example is pages that don’t have a worldwide following — but rather only have fans in North America.

In that case, you can create regional Targets made up of states in the US — and then link those Targets to the 6 North American time zones — Alaska & Hawaii each have their own, remember.  :)

Also… we didn’t even mention the demographic targeting possibilities.

Yes, you CAN actually save your own custom Targets for any of these — Gender, Age, Educational status, etc.

But remember the difference between News Feed Targeting & Post Gating we discussed above. You’ll need to adjust your posting tactics accordingly.

How Does This Affect Reach?

Good question.

Actually the jury is still out on reach. I’ve been testing & measuring this strategy for the last month and I’ll report my findings soon.

As of now, the data shows a clear increase in reach — of about 10-20% — when using this “Time Zone Targeting” strategy.

That said, I don’t recommend using this strategy on all your posts.

For example, if you’re posting a photo with the aim of getting as much worldwide engagement as possible — you should post it as a single post without any targeting.

Same goes for statuses or vids.

But if your goal is to get click-thru on link posts — to your blog for example — then this Time Zone Targeting strategy is the way to go.

As I mentioned, I’m seeing higher total reach AND higher click-thru rates on our link posts using the Time Zone Targeting strategy described here.

What do you think?

Does this sound like something you could use on your page?

If so, please give Post Planner a try & let me know your results.

And definitely let me know any creative use cases you come up with for Post Planner’s Targeting feature.  I’d love to write about here on our blog.

The post How to Publish a Facebook Post at the Same Time-of-Day in All Time Zones appeared first on Post Planner.

Right — but do you ever feel like you might be missing certain Facebook features or tricks?

No matter how long you’ve been running your Facebook page, my bet is you still have a few things to learn.

And even if you’ve learned everything — you still might have forgotten something.  ;)

So this blogpost is either going to be a refresher for you — or be full of things you never knew about.

Either way — I hope it helps!

6 Awesome Fan Page Features

1. Pinning a Post

When Timeline for pages came out, one of most popular new features was the ability to “Pin” a post to the top of your Timeline.

This is a great feature for page owners because it lets you keep an important update, sale, blog post, or photo at the top of your page for up to 7 days — so when people visit your page (especially new fans), they see the post.

For example, I’ve seen creative page owners pin a “Welcome” photo giving visitors instructions on where to find things on the page.

To pin a post to the top of your page, just click on the “pencil” icon on any post on your Timeline — and then click “Pin to top”.

Once you pin the post, you’ll notice a ribbon icon indicating the post has been pinned:

2. Adding a Featured Page Owner

This feature is great whether you’re a local small biz or a global behemoth brand.

It adds a personal touch to your page, while also helping build a following for the page owners.

To add a featured owner, click “Update Page Info” (above your cover) and then “Featured” and then “Edit Featured Page Owners”.

Once you choose which Page Owners to feature, their profile pics — linked to their profiles — will show up on your page’s “About” page.

3. Quickly Viewing How Many People Saw Your Post

Looking at Facebook Insights can be a pain in the butt sometimes — not to mention confusing.

But did you know Facebook lets you quickly see how many people have seen your post?

Just go to any post on your page and hover over “xxxx people saw this post”.

A pop-up will show you how many people saw it, broken down into:

• “Organic” — which means your fans
• “Viral” — which means friends of your fans
• “Paid” — which means you Promoted the post & exposed it to other fans & non-fans

The pop-up will also give you a link to your most viewed post so you can quickly compare it.

4. Managing “Posts by Others”

Other people posting on your fan page is usually a good thing — but sometimes it’s just spam.

As a small biz owner, it can be hard to keep up with fan posts — and to manage them in an easy way.

There are 2 quick ways to do this.

1)  Click dropdown arrow on “Highlights” (at top of Timeline) and select “Posts by Others”

Then you can like, comment, hide or ban as you wish.

2)  Click “See All” on “Recent Posts by Others” box

If you’ve allowed the “Posts by Others” box to show on your Timeline, you can just click “See All” in the top right corner and see all the posts made by fans.

To me this is the quickest, most efficient way to manage posts on your page:

5) Re-positioning Photos

When you upload an image to Facebook — whether on your profile Timeline or page Timeline — and the image is too large or of strange proportions, it can end up looking goofy on the Timeline.

Did you know Facebook allows you to Reposition your photo so it looks better on your Timeline?

Just find the photo on your Timeline and click the “pencil” icon.

Then choose “Reposition photo”.

Hover over the image and you’ll see a 4 way arrow that lets you re-position it. Once you have the image positioned how you want it, click “Save”.

As you can see, the bottom re-positioned image is much more appealing on our Timeline.

6) Adding Featured Likes

Did you know your fan page can actually “Like” other fan pages?

Yep.  All you have to do is click “Use Facebook as Your Page” and then visit other pages & click “Like”.

Once you do this, Facebook will start showing 5 of your Liked pages in the top right slot of your Timeline.

I recommend that you make sure the pages shown are ones that compliment your page.

You might even want to approach the page owners of pages that can compliment your page and agree to “Feature” each other.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Click “Edit Page Info” (above your cover photo)
2. Click “Featured”
3. Click “Edit Featured Likes”:

4. Select the pages you want to Feature & click “Save”:

Keep in mind a maximum of 5 Featured pages will be shown on your Timeline. If you’ve selected more than 5 to feature, then Facebook will rotate them randomly on your page:

Did I Miss Anything?

Hopefully now you won’t be missing out on these “hidden” Facebook page features.

But please leave a comment and let me know any great tricks and features I didn’t mention here.

The post 6 Awesome Fan Page Features You’re Missing Out On appeared first on Post Planner.

There are many methods & tactics you can use to get them.

In my opinion, the hands-down most effective way to get Likes on your page is through ads.

WAIT!… HOLD ON!… don’t click “X” and close the tab just yet!

I know a lot of you are against Facebook ads — or just plain scared of running them.

Don’t be.

Facebook ads are actually super easy to create & use — and if you’re running a business, you *should* be spending money on advertising.

What is a “Like Ad”?

A “Like Ad” is simply an ad on Facebook that shows one of your friends has Liked a certain page.

They typically look like this (in the sidebar):

Or this (in the news feed):

Why do “Like Ads” work?

They work for many reasons.  But mainly it’s because:

• they have great social proof (as shown above) — ie. they show pages your friends have Liked — which makes you want to Like them too
• they’re the easiest ads to set up — and tend to be the least expensive
• they get your page instant exposure to new fans

How to Create a “Like Ad”

I see a lot of Facebook experts telling people to use Facebook’s “Power Editor” for ads. It’s a great tool, but I’d only recommend it if you’re running ads for multiple pages — or you’re running many ads from your own page.

Otherwise, use the options I lay out below. Remember: my goal is to make this super simple for you.

There are 2 main options for creating “Like ads”, depending on the size of your page:

1. “Get More Likes” Option — only available for relatively new pages with a couple hundred likes
2. “Build Audience” Option — for larger & older pages

I’ll start with a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up a Like ad using the “Get More Likes” option.  Then I’ll do the same thing for the “Build Audience” option.

“Get More Likes ” Option

Step 1: Go to Your page

The easiest step of all! Just head to the page you want to run a “Like Ad” for.

Step 2: Look above your Cover Photo

If you see “Get More Likes” in the admin panel above your cover photo, you can use this option. If not, scroll down now (in this blogpost) to the “Build Audience” Option.

Step 3: Choose Budget

Depending on your page size, you will see different amounts to spend per day to promote your page. Decide what amount is best for your budget.

I’d recommend starting with a smaller amount first to test the ad — and then you can increase it later.

Step 4: Click “Promote Page”

After you’ve chosen a budget, just click the “Promote Page” Button.

Step 5: View Ad Summary

After clicking “Promote Page” the image below will load in a lightbox:

The above image is from the page of a small church I go to in my hometown. I’m helping them with social media and because their page is still under 200 Likes, I’m seeing this “Get More Likes” option.

And it’s working!

I’ve spent maybe $20 in ads over the past 5-6 weeks — and increased the fan base from 65 to 164!

Facebook Ads DO work, people!

Anyway… in the Ad Summary you’ll be able to do a few things:

1. See a sample of the ad that will run — keep in mind the ad will also show friends who Like the page
2. Change your budget — as you increase it or decrease it, Facebook will show you an estimated number of “likes per day” the ad could get
3. Choose an Audience — for example, I was given the option of people (1) near the church’s town, (2) in the state (Texas) or (3) in the United States. I chose people near the church’s town as that makes the most sense for this page: 
4. Choose the account — if you’ve run ads for someone else before, then you’ll have the option to run the ads under their account
5. Payment — you actually can’t change your payment method here. Facebook will just deduct the amount from the paypal or cc account you have designated for your ads

Step 6: Click “Promote Page”

Once you’re satisfied with the ad setup, hit the “Promote Page” button.

This notice will pop up: “Your ad has been created and will run until you stop it”

Pay attention to this notice! Remember: there’s no end date for your ad. Whenever you’re ready to stop the ad, you can go in and turn it off.

What will the Ads Look Like?

Once you start an ad like this, Facebook actually creates 3 sample ads for you:

1. Sample ad for laptop/desktop users — to appear in the right column for users on laptop/desktop computers
2. Sample ad for mobile device users — these first 2 ads will look similar to the image below (notice the ad shows the page’s “About” section copy. Facebook will let you edit this copy — which I’ll do after finishing this blogpost! But make sure you do it too.)
3. Sample “Sponsored Story” ad — shown in the News Feed. This could show up on desktops or on mobile devices.

The great thing about these 3 ads is you can click the “Edit” pencil and edit any item in the ad — including the headline, text, image, target audience, budget, etc.

You can even change the landing page users get sent to when clicking the ad.  Choose between the page’s Timeline or a tab app.

IMPORTANT!  if Facebook gives you this option, it’s super easy to set up — but REMEMBER: you need to go in & edit the ads to make sure they look correct.

I learned my lesson the hard way on this by letting an ad run with really bad text on it.

The funny thing about my ad was the title of “Grace Bible Church of Gatesville” is actually 7 characters too long. But since I created it through this “Get More Likes” option, it will post as is. However, once I go in and edit the ad, I have to shorten it.

That’s the “Get More Likes” Option. Now onto the “Build Audience” Option.

“Build Audience” Option

If your page doesn’t have the “Get More Likes” option, then you’ll need to follow these steps to create basically the same ads.

Step 1: Go To Your Page

Pretty simple step — just head to the page you want to run the ad for.

Step 2: Click “Build Audience”

Scroll above your cover photo and you should see a tab that says “Build Audience”. Click on it.

Step 3: Click “Create An Ad”

To create your new “Like Ad” click “Create An Ad”

Step 4: Choose “Get More Page Likes”

After clicking “Create An Ad” you’ll be taken to a page that should look like the image below:

Note that under the “What would you like to do?” question, Facebook gives you 3 options.

Make sure the “Get More Page Likes” option is selected (which it should be by default).

Step 5: Edit Your Ad

I could have turned this into 4 steps, but wanted to keep it simple for you. You should see the options below at this point:

 Now you can do the following:

1. Edit your Headline – Keep it short. I’d suggest leaving it your page name.
2. Edit the Text of the ad – You get 90 characters here to entice people to click Like. Use it wisely.
3. Choose Landing View – You can direct traffic to your Timeline or any tab app on your page.
4. Choose an image – Usually you’ll leave your logo/profile image in place for this type of ad. But that’s up to you.

*This ad you’re editing in Step 5 is what will show up as a “Sidebar” ad.

Step 6: Sponsored Stories Settings

Not many things to edit or change here. You can choose to show a story in the News Feed when someone Likes your page — and you can add URL tags.

I won’t get into URL tags here, as it’s an advanced option most of you won’t need.

I suggest leaving the box checked for “People liking your page”.

As you can see in the “Sample News Feed Story”, when someone’s friend Likes your page, a Sponsored story will appear in their news feed.

This gives great social proof — the kind of proof you want & need.

Step 7: Choose Your Audience

Depending on your page, you’ll need to decide how you want to target your ad.

There are 7 settings to consider:

1. Location – if you’re a local business, you should target to a city or zip code within 20-25 miles of you.
   
2. Age – if you have a product meant for a certain age, it’s best to target by age. Again, this is totally dependent on your business and brand. For me I always choose 20 & over at minimum — because unless your product is teen related, you might be wasting ad dollars.
3. Gender- Choose All, Men or Women. Again this depends on your goal of the ad and how you are targeting it. No right or wrong selection here — unless your ad text says “Hey Ladies!” or similar in it. I do think it’s best to segment your ads by gender just to see how each react to them.
4. Precise Interests- This can be a bit tricky, but super powerful if used correct. If your business is in the Automotive niche, for example, you may want to choose interests like “Nascar” or “Cars”. This will target your ad down to a smaller, interested audience. And will save you lots of money. 
5. Broad Categories- Use these categories to target people that share similar interests as well. I can’t stress enough how important it is to choose the right categories. This can make or break your ad.
6. Connections- Here you can choose to show the ad to “Anyone”, “Only people not connected to your page” or “Advanced connection”. Select “Only people not connected to your page”.
7. Friends of Connections- This setting is a great one. From here you can choose to only show the ad to people whose friends have already Liked your page. I highly recommend this. Again, it’s all about social proof.

Step 8: Campaign, Pricing and Schedule

You’re almost finished!

Now you have to choose the name of the Campaign. This is more important if you’re running multiple campaigns — and especially for various pages.

Then choose your budget. Just enter a dollar amount and then select “Per day” or “Lifetime Budget”.

Next you can decide to leave the ad running continuously every day or choose a specific start and end date.

By default, this Like Ad is setup as a CPM (Cost Per Impression). Which means you pay when people see the ad.

CPM ads will give you greater exposure, but will spend your ad dollars faster.

CPC (Cost Per Click) tends to be more competitive to get impressions, but you only pay when someone clicks on the ad.

If you click on “Switch to Advanced Pricing” the image changes to this:

Facebook then asks you to choose between letting them automatically optimize your budget to get more clicks or you manually bidding for clicks.

If you choose the manual bid, Facebook will give you a “Suggested bid” which will be based on what others are paying based on how you targeted the ad.

***At times I’ve been able to bid lower than the suggestion and still get ad placement — but, again, it all depends on how competitive your space is. 

In the end you’re probably going to have to run Like Ads using different techniques and bidding methods to see what works best for you.

To start, just keep it simple and do CPM. Then once you’ve gotten comfortable with ads, try CPC ads.

Step 9: Review Ad

It’s always a good idea to click the “Review Ad” button and check if you set things up right.

If you’ve made a mistake, it will show up in a red lined box like below — and you’ll need to adjust your ad accordingly.

Once Facebook approves your ad, you’ll be taken to a screen where you can see a preview of your ad — which you’ll notice looks just like the ads in the “Get More Likes” option.

The only thing you can change here is the “Ad Name”. If you need to change more, click “Edit Ad”.

Step 10: Place Order

You’re done!

So hit that big blue button that says “Place Order”.

Now the bad news… the HUGE downside of having to place a “Like Ad” using the “Build Audience” option is you have to wait for Facebook to approve your ad.

Using the “Get More Likes” option gets your ads approved immediately.

Watch the Likes pour in…

Yep, now you can sit back and watch your new fans arrive.  But don’t forget to start engaging with them and turning them into customers.  :)

In any case, congratulations!… You’ve now graduated from learning the basics of Facebook “Like ads”.

You’re now smarter than 90% of your competitors marketing their businesses on Facebook.

I hope you found this useful and helpful. Now please hit that “Like” button and share this post on Twitter & Facebook.

The post How to Use Facebook “Like Ads” to Grow Your Fan Page & Business appeared first on Post Planner.

You’ve chosen the perfect category for your page, added a branded profile pic, and pimped out your About section.

You’ve even liked your own page.

Now what?

Felt like this before?

If you’re like a lot of page admins on Facebook, the answer is probably “Yes!”

That’s because pimping out the static design elements of your page is easy — in fact, it’s REALLY easy if you use awesome tab apps like TabSite.

Sure, the actual design is tough. Branding is tough. Copywriting is tough.

But you can just import or copy & paste most of the branding & copywriting straight from your website — which is good — and easy.

Now comes the tough part…

The going gets tough

If you’re like a lot of page admins, it’s that moment when you hover over your page’s status box that things start to get real.

The “What’s on your mind?” in that box seems to stare right through you — to peer into depths of your soul.

“Do you have anything to say?” it seems to ask.

“Anything?… Anything at all?”

You hesitate… blink… hesitate a little more… and… head back to the news feed and waste another hour lol’ing at grumpy cat memes & videos of really bad Russian drivers.

No worries.  It happens to the best of us.

But there’s no need to let it happen too often. And that’s what I wrote this blogpost. I’m here to give you a 3 post solution to your fan page writer’s block.

The tough get going

The first thing you need to do is decide which post types to publish — text-only statuses, photos, links or videos.

Decide no further, my friends.  I’ll do that for you.

Post one of each — every single day.

*** For this blogpost, I’m going to assume you don’t have a large backlog of original video content — so go ahead and leave video posts out.  But if you do have original videos, by all means!… include one video post per day in the mix.

So there you have it.  Here are the 3 posts you should post every day from now on:

1. one text-only status
2. one photo
3. one link

Easy so far, right?

Your daily status update

Text-only status updates are just fun.  So have fun with them.

They almost always perform well in the news feed and — if you write them well — get lots of interesting & entertaining engagement.

But you still have a lot of options as far as status formats go. You can post straight questions, multiple choice questions, fill-in-the-blanks, timely or seasonal references, inspiring quotes from famous dead people, uplifting quotes from famous alive people, etc. etc.

Stop.

Just post fill-in-the-blanks.

Done.

But now you need ideas for content, right?  No problem. Head over Post Planner’s Facebook Status Ideas Engine here.

Done.

So there you go!  You now know which status format to use — and you have thousands of examples & brainstorming material.  You’re all set. But don’t forget these few last tips:

• mix it up with different subject matter (it doesn’t always have to relate to your biz)
• like or reply to EVERY SINGLE comment
• comment (as your page) a few times within the comments
• [important!] don’t give up when a status only produces cricket chirps — ie. nada — ie. silence

Just keep on posting.

Your daily photo post

Photo posts are just fun. There’s so many awesome images on the net.  And you can share pretty much any of them — as long as you include a credit to where you found them.

Of course, you should favor posting images relevant to your business — images of your products, images of people using your products, etc.

But you should also get a little random sometimes — and post the odd optical illusion, funny meme or “Where’s Waldo” type post as well.

Above all, be creative and unpredictable.  Randomly post a photo “just because” — just because you think it’s cool.

Cool things are what 90% of us are after on FB.  We want to see cool things!

Here are a few sites I’d recommend for finding great photos:

• http://twistedsifter.com/
  
• http://totallycoolpix.com/
• http://www.petapixel.com/
• http://www.pictorymag.com/

Again — always, ALWAYS include a link to the blogpost where you found the photo — just add it in the caption of your photo post.  Otherwise you’re just pilfering someone else’s work without paying due respect — and that ain’t cool (or legal).

What if you don’t know how to turn an image from a blogpost or webpage into an actual photo post on Facebook?

Will you need to screen-capture it and get all photoshoppy on it?

No way.

You can easily post a link as a photo in a few clicks with the free version of Post Planner.  Just plug in the blogpost’s URL, select the photo, and check “Post link as Photo post” checkbox.

Your daily link post

Link posts. Yep —  they’re just fun. So post them!

Face it — the web is all about links. And if you put a little effort into it, you can find seriously valuable articles out there — and then share these articles with your fans — to help them — to enrich their lives — to make them more powerful at whatever they’re trying to be powerful at!

So do it.

What exactly is the best way to curate said content?

Well, you can follow the right people on Facebook and Twitter — read their blogs — and compile their blog feeds in feed aggregator apps like Google Reader (soon to be extinct), Feedly, Flipboard, etc.

Or, again, you can just use Post Planner.

Head to the “Content” section of the app and grab the hottest Trending Content — or set up your own streaming Content Library with RSS, Fan Page and Twitter feeds — or search the amazing Global Content Library, which contains all the blogs and feeds added by other Post Planner users.

Trust me — there are some serious gems in there!

In fact, the amazing photo blogs that I listed above… yep, I found them in a folder called “Awesome Photos” inside Post Planner’s Global Content Library.

Summing it up

So there you have it.  From now on, you’re going to post 3 posts per day, every day:

1. one text-only status
2. one photo
3. one link

Post these 3 posts during the following times (in the time zone of the majority of your fans):

• 6-8am
• 11am-1pm
• 6-9pm

But mix it up.

Sometimes post statuses in the morning, sometimes links.  Sometimes post links at lunch, sometimes photos. Switch it up and measure the results on your page Insights (or Post Planner’s Insights).

And if you have any questions, hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.

* This post was originally published on the Tabsite Blog

The post Give your Fan Page Mouth-to-Mouth with just 3 Facebook Posts a Day appeared first on Post Planner.

I’m assuming you haven’t had a chance to read them all yet.

If you’re like me, you only skim the news feed on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter — so seeing everything is impossible.

For that reason, I wanted to take a break today (from writing a new post) and do a quick roundup of last quarter’s posts — so you have a “One Stop Shop” and can find & read these posts quickly.

In addition to reading them, I hope you actually take the advice & tips to heart and apply them to your business.

Our #1 goal in blogging is to make you a better user of Facebook.

I hope we’re achieving that goal.  :)

Don’t Buy another Expensive Facebook Training Course!

Let’s face it — there’s a bunch of expensive information products out there that can help you learn Facebook marketing.

But, here’s the deal…

Facebook changes so often that these products are usually out-of-date within 3 months of buying them — so you have to keep buying the new versions to stay on the “cutting edge”.

I call it “Shiny Object Syndrome”.

So instead of spending your money on these time-dependent courses, just read our blog instead!

Below I’ve listed several categories of blog posts — Facebook posting best practices, fan page best practices, general social media, etc.

But as a jumping off point, I’d like to share the most trafficked blog post I’ve ever written. I’m still honored that so many have read, shared & liked it:

100 Facebook Lists to Follow (and bypass Edgerank) – Get the best out of Facebook with these lists.

Now, let’s get started with the rest…

Facebook Marketing Tips

Facebook Posting Best Practices

How to Increase your Facebook Status “Likes” – 9 easy-to-follow tips to get more Likes on your posts.

7 No-brainer Tips to Write an Awesome Facebook Post – Simple tips to help you write better updates.

9 Things You Should Never Share on Facebook – Stop posting these things on your page!

Write Better Facebook Status Updates – Josh offers 5 Templates to make posting easier!

What You Should Post on Your Facebook Page to Get More Likes & Shares – A look at the goals of the 4 different post types on Facebook.

5 Questions to Ask Before Clicking “Post” – Before you post an update to Facebook, ask these 5 questions.

8 Facebook Status Ideas that will Improve Edgerank – Josh’s huge & humorous rundown on improving Edgerank.

Fan Page Best Practices

5 Minutes a Day to Becoming a Better Facebook Page Owner – Short on time? Give me 5 minutes a day.

These 7 Lessons will Revolutionize your Facebook Page – Want a Revolution on your page? Go read this.

5 Essential Tips to Jump Start your Facebook Fan Page – These tips will get you on the fast tract!

Are you a Crappy Fan Page Admin? – Find out if you’re a Crappy Fan Page owner.

4 Things Every Facebook Page Needs to STOP doing Right NOW! – Stop doing this on your page!

Tips about Facebook Likes

9 Surefire Ways to Get More Likes on Your Facebook Page – Need more Likes? Go read this!

Here’s a Quick Way to Get More Likes on Your Facebook Page – Need more Likes? We all do!

5 Reasons Why People UnLike Your Facebook Page – Losing Fans? Find out why.

Content for your Facebook Page

3 Ways to Find Better Content for Facebook – Stuck figuring out what to post? Time to get unstuck!

How to Leverage the Status Updates of Top Facebook Experts – Need content for your page? Use content from leading experts.

Get More Facebook Traffic to Your Blog – How to use Facebook to drive traffic to your blog.

Warning: These 58 Social Media Tips could Explode your Content Marketing – You have been warned.

5 Blogs every Facebook Marketer Must Follow! – These blogs will transform your business. Go follow them!

Leveraging Facebook Page Features

These Mistakes with your Facebook Contest will get your Page Deleted – Contests are great, but making these mistakes could get you banned.

How to Optimize Your Fan Page for Graph Search – 6 Easy Steps to get your page ready for Graph Search.

Increase your Facebook Edgerank Today! – 7 Easy Tips to improve your page’s Edgerank.

4 Easy to Follow Tips to Help You Crush it on Facebook – 4 tips for crushification.

How to Choose the Right Promotion App – Guest post by Mike Gingerich to help you with contests.

Facebook Image Tips

Test your Cover Photo  – Are you breaking Facebook’s new cover photo rules? Know for sure by testing your cover here.

Does your Post’s Image Break Facebook’s new Ad Rules? – Runnings Ads? Then read this post.

20 Awesome Facebook Cover Photos to Inspire You – These cover photos will inspire your page for sure!

The Mother of all Social Media Graphic Dimensions! – Great cheat sheet for social media graphics.

Fan Page Reviews

Not reviews of your Facebook page, but still… the tips are general in nature & you should probably follow them.

Bugaroo Boutique

Darren Grenz

Gifted with ADD

Driven Audio

Ashley McFarland Graphics

Mr Bee’s Appliance

Sound Connections, Inc.

General Social Media Tips:

Top 10 Mistakes Businesses Make on Social Media – My bet is YOUR business is making some of these mistakes!

The Quickest and Easiest Way to Find Blogs to Follow – Great tool to help you find blogs in your niche.

The Winner and Losers in Social Media in 2012 – Find out what social platform is the winner.

36 No-Brainer Tips for Boring Products and Brands – Don’t think your business is good for Facebook? You’re Wrong.

Google Reader is Dead- Here’s a Facebook Alternative – Google killed Reader, but did you know there is an alternative on Facebook?

Facebook User Tips:

17 Facebook Experts React to the Re-Designed Facebook News Feed – A new News Feed is coming, find out what the experts think about it.

Robert Scoble won’t stop Poking me! – Podcast discussing some changes to Facebook, including the Poke app.

$100 to Message Zuckerberg?! – Want to message Zuck? It’s gonna cost ya!

Facebook Followers vs Subscribers – Facebook changed the name of Subscribing to Following.

3 Tools That Make Facebook Suck Less – These tools will make your life so much better!

Warning: Facebook’s Graph Search Changes the Meaning of a “Like” – You might want to rethink what you Like on Facebook.

Thanks!

Thanks for reading our blog and for letting us into your life a few times a week.

Our hope is that you become an amazing Facebook page owner!

Also a BIG thanks to Josh & the team for deciding to make the Pro plan of Post Planner FREE for everyone!!!

You can read more about that HERE or just click on one of the big talking heads to the right and start using the app!

The post A Crash Course in Facebook Marketing appeared first on Post Planner.

Somewhere close to 3,000 pages to be exact!

Why?

Well I’m a self proclaimed Facebook addict for one — but mainly because I like to monitor how businesses are using Facebook.

So on a daily basis I see a lot of good, a lot of bad & A LOT of ugly!

For the bad & ugly, I wanted to offer some tips that should help take your fans (and potential fans) from saying “woe” to “whoa!” about your page.

Here they are:

1. Think About Strategy Before Tactics

A business without a plan on Facebook is destined to fail. So before you start posting 50 cat memes a day, plan out a posting strategy so your posts make sense (even if they include a few cat memes).

Decide how often you’re going to post to your Facebook page & what types of posts you will be using.

Once you do this, you can move on to tactics on finding awesome content to post.

2. Learn From Others

I don’t recommend copying what other fan pages do *just* because it’s “working” on their page(s). What works on one page doesn’t always work on another.

But you should be monitoring other pages in your niche to see what types of posts are working for them.

The opposite is true as well. If you’re a local hot dog joint and you notice the hamburger joint isn’t getting a reaction from posting a “special of the day” using a text only status update — learn from that.

For example, post your “special of the day” with a photo instead — to see how it performs in comparison.

The key is to continuously monitor others in your niche & experts in your field to see what they’re doing — and then testing to see if it works on your page.

3. You Have an Imagination — So Use It!

I hear from many page owners that they just don’t know what to post on their pages.

Hogwash!

For one we’ve provided many resources for you that can help you figure out what to post.

But secondly you have an imagination, right?

So use it!

If you’re a small local business, don’t just always post updates of your menu or a photo of your staff. Whip out your iPhone and take pictures of your community on your lunch break and share those with your fans.

Above all, be creative. Your fans will love you for it.

4. Spend Some Money

Advertising on radio, TV, newspapers or direct mail isn’t free. So why people think advertising on Facebook should be free is beyond me.

If you’re using Facebook to market your business, you need to spend money on ads — money on ads to gain targeted fans, money on ads to reach your existing fans, etc.

You don’t have to break the bank either. I saw Jon Loomer post recently that he only spent $750 total in ads to build his business! And it’s becoming very lucrative for him now.

If you haven’t tried running a Facebook ad, the key is getting started. Test a $10 ad to see how it does for your page and then use those results to see what your next ad should be.

But I’ll warn you — pay attention to the budget of your campaigns — or you may find your paypal account drained pretty quickly!

5. Don’t Just Broadcast… Engage!

This is probably the number 1 mistake pages make — and it’s one of the biggest reasons people un-Like your page.

Constantly posting things no one cares about will get you no where on Facebook.

In fact it will probably cause your Edgerank to drop and cause no one to see or engage with your posts anymore.

I’m currently advising a local newspaper on how to use social media. As I’m writing this, they’ve posted over 30 posts in the past 24 hours! Guess what kind of engagement they got from the 230+ fans — yep, almost ZERO!

That’s because they’re over-posting & posting things that fans clearly don’t want to engage with.

Sure people might want to know the updated score of the high school boys baseball game — but do we have to get an update with every pitch?

They’d be better off posting 1 photo from the game when it’s over — and then stating the score. The photo get the moms excited about seeing their baby on Facebook — and everyone else will be appreciative that it’s only 1 post.

Less is more when it comes to posting to Facebook.

6. Repeat Tips 1 through 5

No joke. That’s it!

We don’t need to make social media and specifically Facebook Marketing so complicated & confusing.

It’s not Rocket Science!

Some methods will change — and how we use Facebook as a business will change. But these are the 5 things you should be doing to really make a difference with your Facebook marketing.

Your Best Tips

I’m sure there are more tips we could share here, but now it’s your turn.

What is the #1 tip when it comes to social media that you can give to someone? Share it below.

The post 6 Tips to Take Your Facebook Page from Woe to “Whoa” appeared first on Post Planner.

Hemorrhaging Likes.

Nothing’s more exciting for a Fan Page owner than seeing your Like numbers going up.

You feel a sense of accomplishment — your marketing efforts are working.

You brag on your page when you cross certain big numbers and celebrate with your new fans.

But what happens when you lose Likes?

Was it something you said? Was one of your posts or comments offensive? Did your fans switch to a competitor page?

Image courtesy of Purely Branded

Maybe.

These are definitely the questions page owners ask themselves when they see their Like counts dropping — especially now that unLiking a page is harder than it used to be.

Why would someone take time out of their day specifically to unLike your page?

5 Reasons People UnLike Your Fan Page

If you’ve been following some of the social media tips I’ve given you recently, you shouldn’t be too upset when people bail on your page. People move on, profiles get deleted & closed. Don’t beat yourself up about it.

But it is important to do a quick gut check and make sure you’re not doing things that could be causing people to flee from your page!  Here are 5 of those things:

1. Constantly Self-Promoting

It’s your page — you should be able to constantly SELL, SELL, SELL, right?

WRONG!

If we’ve learned anything about social media over the last 3-4 years, we’ve learned that “push marketing” no longer works.

What is Push Marketing?

It’s when a brand/person pushes advertisements & posts on an audience — interrupting them and soliciting them to visit their website and/or buy their crap.

You’ve probably seen pages that do this. Every single post is a marketing pitch to sign up for their webinar, or buy their product. Even if those webinars & products are great, no one wants to get sold to over & over again, day after day.

That’s why Pull Marketing is a much better strategy.

In Pull Marketing, you’re still generating leads — but you’re doing it in a generous, informative, non-used-car-salesman way. For example this blog post is an example of pull marketing.

You probably came to this post via some form of social media or email and you’re reading it to get information to improve your social media knowledge.

You doing that is actually our goal with blogging. But our goal is also to sell our app. By providing you with (hopefully) quality information and not giving you a sales pitch, we’re building a relationship. Some time in the future, we hope you try out our app.

Follow My 70/20/10 Rule

You’ve probably heard Facebook “experts” talk about the 80/20 rule or 90/10 rule.

This means 9 posts on Facebook should be informative or light-hearted and 1 post can be “salesy”. I’d take it a step further.

To me 70% (or 7 out of 10 posts) should be informative posts — and most of those should be your own blog posts, podcasts, images, etc. They should not be salesy in nature.  You’re “pulling” not “pushing”, remember.

Then 20% of your posts should be shares of other people’s posts, blogs, images or videos.

Then the remaining 10% of your posts can be promotional. You’ve earned it at this point, so feel free to make the sales pitch.

This is just a different version of the 90/10 rule. But I think it’s important to be conscious of how much content from other people you’re intentionally sharing on your page.

Not only does it show your audience you’re not a walled garden of your own content — it also motivates the people who’s stuff you’re sharing to share your stuff and return the favor.

2. Posting Too Much

No one likes a chatterbox.

When it comes to social media, especially Facebook, less is often more.

People tend to hop on Facebook for just a few brief moments on their lunch breaks or after work. If they log in and then all they see are 37 posts from your page, you WILL get hidden, or worse: UnLiked.

*Disclaimer- I’m guilty of posting too much on my personal profile, if you follow me you probably know this. Oh well.. Guilty as charged.

So how much is too much?

Well, I’d like to say that there is a “golden rule” and “magic” number of posts per page you should follow.

But, that’s simply not the case.

Every page is unique and should decide what’s best for their particular audience.

That said, I’d advise against posting back to back posts within a few minutes of one another. And I would suggest not posting more than 6-7 times per day on Facebook.

3. Not Posting Enough

Wait a second… didn’t I just say that posting too much can make you lose fans?

Yep, sure did!

But not posting enough can also cause people to unlike your page.

Why?

People don’t want to be connected to dead pages or to pages they don’t have a good working relationship with.

In a blog post about “The  Top 10 Mistakes Businesses Make On Social Media” I touched on how being a “ghost town” on social media is a death wish.

And it’s true. If you’re serious about your business’s social media presence, you’ll adopt a posting plan that involves daily posts.

Is there a minimum number of posts you should be posting to your page every day? In my opinion, yes.

You should at least post once a day. But I’d challenge you to to post 3 times a day (morning, noon & night).

What exactly should you be posting?

For this, check out Josh’s guest post on the Tabsite blog: Awaken your Fans & Revive your Fan Page with just 3 Facebook Posts A Day.

4. You’re Sort of a JERK!

Ok, maybe you’re not *really* a jerk, but you play one on Facebook.

Do you vent your problems & frustrations constantly on your page and post in an arrogant and/or rude way when responding to comments or messages?

Then you might be a Facebook Jerk!

Sure it’s ok to consider yourself an expert in your niche. But you don’t have to talk down to people on your page.

Remember — everyone is watching.  And they *will* take note when you’re rude to someone. And they usually won’t tell you — they’ll just unLike your page.

Or, maybe you’re constantly calling out competitors in your posts — pointing out their mistakes or criticizing them.

No one likes that guy.

Overly negative posts might get a reaction from certain people, but most people will just hide you or unLike your page and move on.

So be nice!

5. Posting Un-Related Items to Your Page

We all love a good laugh & chuckle.

But if your business’s Facebook strategy is posting memes 12 times a day, you’re probably just annoying people.

So Knock It Off!

Yes, according to most Edgerank articles, photos do carry the greatest weight — and they do tend to garner the most likes, comments & shares.

But is it really helping to establish your business as an expert in your field?

Probably not.

Sure it shows your company has personality, I get that. But it shouldn’t be every single post.

Eventually your fans will realize you aren’t serious about your business and will unLike your page and find another business that’s serious about their industry and about offering value.

This doesn’t just apply to silly memes (and boy are there a lot of memes these days!). I’m also referring to posting about un-related topics to your page that your fans may not be interested in.

People probably liked your page because they had interest in your brand or product. Polluting their news feed which too much garbage will just cause your Like count to go down.

And rapidly.

Are You Ready to Be a Better Fan Page Owner?

These 5 probably aren’t the only reasons people unLike Facebook pages, but they’re the main ones.

So focus on not doing these things and I bet you’ll see better results on your page — which is your (and our) ultimate goal, right?

*Blog inspired by “Six Reasons Why You’re Losing Twitter Followers“

The post 5 Reasons Why People UnLike Your Facebook Page appeared first on Post Planner.

It’s 4pm and you’ve been staring at your computer all day trying to think of something to post on Facebook.

You’ve found yourself watching hours of pointless cat videos and reading skimming through blog posts hoping to find some inspiration & good material to post to your Fan Page.

We’ve all been there right? (Heck I’m there today as I am trying to figure out what I’m going to blog about!)

So I figured I’d get myself unstuck on what to blog by helping you get unstuck on what to post to Facebook.

The Solution

While probably the best solution to getting unstuck is to shut down Twitter & Facebook and get focused, I wanted to give you a less drastic alternative — 3 practical ways to get unstuck that you can easily & quickly use — and then get back to those cat videos!

1. Quora

Quora is a fascinating site that’s basically the professionals version of Yahoo! Answers.

I’ve recently gotten pretty addicted to visiting the site, answering questions & just seeing what others are asking. If you’re stuck looking for fan page content ideas, go to Quora and do a search based on your niche/field/category.

Let’s say your niche is in nutrition. Go to Quora.com and do a simple search for “nutrition”, as seen below:

Once you hit enter, you’ll get an endless list of questions and topics posted to the site.

From there simply choose a question that might be appealing to your audience & either ask it on your page or answer it on your page.

***If you want to go a step further, find a popular question on the site, answer it on Quora and then write a blog post with the question & answer!

2. AllTop

I’ve become incredibly addicted to AllTop lately as well. It’s quickly become my homebase to read content & read it fast!

What is AllTop? This is straight from their About page:

The purpose of Alltop is to help you answer the question, “What’s happening?” in “all the topics” that interest you. You may wonder how Alltop is different from a search engine. A search engine is good to answer a question like, “How many people live in China?” However, it has a much harder time answering the question, “What’s happening in China?” That’s the kind of question that we answer.

If you’ve haven’t heard of Guy Kawasaki, he’s basically the brains behind the site.

Alltop grabs headlines from blog articles all over the web and posts snippets of them in a lightbox/popover box. You can then read brief excerpts of the articles or click to visit the full article and read more. It’s truly amazing!

Using the same ‘nutrition’ example as above, you can do an Alltop search for nutrition — or just click the letter “n” and go directly to the “Nutrition” section:

Then just find an article your audience will enjoy and post it to your Facebook page.

Easy as pie!

3. Frequency

Frequency is an awesome site I found for my iPad a while back. It’s a video curation site that organizes videos from your favorite channels and makes them easy to watch & share. The cool thing is you can now access the site right from your desktop! No iPad required!

You can even create channels of your own that can contain videos based on a category of your choice.

The share functions allow you to share to Facebook, Twitter and Google+ in an instant.

It doesn’t allow you to share directly to a Facebook page, but you could easily snag the url of the video and post it, or share to your page from a post you make to your personal timeline.

Frequency is very addicting because it removes the distractions you get on YouTube (yes, cat videos).

I did a search for “nutrition” and got over 43,000 results to view & share!

Let’s face it — people enjoy watching funny & high quality videos on Facebook.  But… they definitely don’t like watching low quality vids that are long or not related to your niche.

So choose wisely.

You Should Now Be Unstuck!

Using these 3 resources you should be able to easily find quality content to share on Facebook (and Twitter & Google+ too). Your goal when sharing content like this, as I’ve blogged about before, is purely to get engagement, which increases your Edgerank.

BONUS Tip!

If you’re looking for an even easier way to get unstuck & find great content to share, look no further than the Post Planner app!

With our “Status Ideas Engine” & “Content Library” you have an endless supply of content no matter the niche.

To see exactly what is in the status idea engine and content library click HERE to play around with the app for FREE!

The post 3 Practical Ways to Get Unstuck & Post Better Content on Facebook appeared first on Post Planner.

But what if you sell a product or service that basically bores people to tears? Can Facebook and other social networks still work for you?

I’d argue yes.

For example, look at what Blendtec has done with their “Will it Blend” series of videos. They’ve taken a boring product — a blender — and made it a cultural icon.

I started thinking about how to help companies with boring products after doing my recent fan page review for Mr. Bee’s Appliance. I worked in the appliance sales & repair business for almost 4 years, so I know what it feels like trying to make a run-of-the-mill product sexy.

Anyway, I came up with 36 tips.  Check them out below.

Note: these aren’t just Facebook tips. You can use them on Google+, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, or any other social network.

36 Awesome Social Media Tips for Boring Products

1. Post at least 3-4 times a week, but once a day is even better
2. Don’t be “salesy” — follow the 70/20/10 rule: 70% informative, 20% other people’s posts, 10% sales
3. Be personable — people want to see the personal side of your business
4. Use blog posts to drive traffic to your site
5. Write “How to” posts related to your product
6. Post information about your community
7. Be unpredictable
8. Share pictures of your staff getting involved in the community
9. Share customer reviews & testimonials
10. Post pictures of customers using & buying your product/service
11. Create contests for your fans on Facebook and give away awesome (relevant) prizes
12. For brick & mortar businesses — encourage fans to check-in while at your business (even better if they get a discount)
13. Choose one social media network & master it — you don’t have to be on every site!
14. Host a live Q&A once per month using a webinar platform or something like Spreecast or Google+ Hangouts
15. Promote your referral or affiliate program
16. Do a weekly podcast discussing hot topics in your niche and giving how-to tips
17. Encourage customers to post pictures & reviews to your Facebook page
18. Change out your Cover Photo on Facebook at least twice a month
19. Never be negative
20. Share posts from “experts” in your niche
21. Have a weekly or monthly plan of what you’re going to post each day
22. Run a “Promoted Posts” to re-engage with lost fans
23. Post about fresh & timely current events — but stay away from politics!
24. Use Facebook as a fan page and comment on other local or similar pages as your page (but don’t spam with links)
25. Post informative videos about your boring product, but make them funny (and short)
26. Don’t beg your followers & fans for Likes
27. When sharing content from others, include a brief text with your thoughts
28. Ask great questions about your product — for example: Who invented the 1st “boring product”?
29. Dig through Quora and find what people are asking about in your niche — then answer their questions on Quora & Facebook.
30. Create events and fill the event page with great images of your business, products & staff
31. Start a Facebook Group around your niche product — people tend to talk more in groups
32. Schedule posts for the weekends & after hours — the majority of Facebook users are online during this time
33. Choose & recognize publicly  a “Fan of the Week” or “Month” – Booshaka‘s a great app for this!
34. If your product is visually appealing, create a board on Pinterest & encourage your fans to share
35. Be active on your page! Reply to every comment and message — it only helps your Edgerank
36. ???

What’s tip #36?

That’s where you come in.

Leave a comment below and let me know a tip I didn’t cover.  Make sure it’s one that could help any brand on social media — even the boring ones.

The post 36 No-brainer Social Media Tips for Boring Brands & Products appeared first on Post Planner.

For about 3 months now, I’ve been doing quick “Fan Page Reviews” every week to help Post Planner fans and offer actionable tips on fan page optimization.

What I’m noticing is that a lot of the pages I review (& follow) are making the same mistakes over & over again – and I’m about to go all “Mr T” on them!

“I pity the fool that gets in my way!”

But seriously, I’m kinda bummed about seeing the same mistakes over & over again — not because it means you’re not reading my blog posts  – but because it means you’re not getting the most out of your page.

After all, our goal at Post Planner is to make you a Facebook Guru!!

So with that said, here’s this week’s Fan Page Review:

Fan Page Review: Mr Bee’s Appliance, LLC

Did you catch all of those things to stop doing on your page?  If not, let me break it down for you one more time:

4 Things to Stop Doing on your Facebook Page ASAP!

1) Stop using low quality Cover Photos

No offense to Mr Bee’s Appliance, but the cover image below leaves some serious room for improvement. The problem is it doesn’t tell me anything about the brand and doesn’t convey quality.

Your cover photo is THE place show off your branding — in the most awesome & impressive way you can.

Sure Facebook made some recent changes to the cover photo guidelines that allow you to include more marketing call-to-actions, etc.  But this doesn’t change the fact that your cover photo is all about branding your business.

Think of it as the first impression someone gets of your biz.  Kinda like the first impression someone gets of a restaurant when they walk in.

Do you want the potential customer to see a bunch of dirty tables & floors and an unhappy employee?  Probably not.

Instead, you want them to see a spotless, friendly place with lots of smiling faces.

I grabbed one of the previous cover photos from Mr Bee’s and placed it on a test page. While I’m not a huge fan of the orange bars on the image, just look how much better this branding is compared to the cover above.

Plus, with the new way that “Like” stories are shown in the new version of the News Feed –  well, the bottom portion of this cover photo (with the Facebook url) is perfectly optimized for those stories.

2) Stop Leaving the “Like” app on Your Page!

This is something I’ve mentioned on every single Fan Page Review I’ve done.

The “Like” app — with the thumbnail that shows the page’s fan count — is absolutely useless. It has no value for your fans and is a complete waste of the real estate on your Timeline. It doesn’t serve any function other than to show off your fan count — a count that’s already shown on your page, directly below your cover photo.

Here’s how to hide the Likes app by swapping its position with another app.

Step 1: Click the drop down arrow to the right of your apps and find an app to swap positions with your Likes app.

Step 2: Click the “Pencil” on that app and then choose the “Likes” to swap positions with it.

Once you’ve installed a few apps or loaded videos and/or events, you’ll have enough apps that you can easily choose one to swap positions with the Likes app.

Trust me, you don’t want this Likes app on your page.  So please remove it.

3) Stop Installing Useless Apps on Your Page!

I’m a big supporter of Facebook page apps. I’ve marketed, designed & installed them on 100′s of pages over the last 3-4 years.

But one of the worst things you can do as a page owner is leave an app on your page that:

• has outdated information on it
• has poor design
• doesn’t function

Above are the apps fans can see on Mr Bee’s Appliance page. Most are ok — but the “Used Appliance” one, for example, is very dated and no longer relevant.

Your goal with apps on your page should be to:

• Show off your products and services
• Run contest or promotions
• Gather leads

Other than that, installing 48 apps on your page won’t benefit it in the post-Timeline era. So please stop installing every app you run across!

4) Stop Posting Long Updates!

Your #1 goal when running a page should be to get engagement with your fans — which increases your Edgerank and the visibility of your future posts.

One of the best ways to kill your Edgerank is to post extremely long text posts that your fans don’t read, and may even hide — which again hurts your Edgerank as “negative feedback”.

There are lots of theories about how long or short a post should be on Facebook, but my general rule of thumb is 80-120 characters. Yes I realize that’s shorter than a tweet on Twitter, but in my experience it works.

Long winded posts can be good at times, but mainly for bloggers or personalities. The majority of us will get more bang for our bucks by posting shorter updates.

Think of long posts like long finger nails — they may seem cool at first, but they usually end up creeping people out.

Note: if you need ideas on what to post instead, check out the following posts:

• Here’s What You Should Post on Your Facebook Page to Get More Likes & Shares
• How to Leverage the Status Updates of Top Facebook Experts
• Write better Facebook Status Updates with these 5 Templates
• 7 No-brainer Tips to Write an Awesome Facebook Post

That’s all for this week. Please let me know in the comments below if you have questions or additional ideas about what NOT to do on a fan page.

The post 4 Things Every Facebook Page Needs to STOP Doing Right Now! appeared first on Post Planner.

Personally, I was praiser.

Sure, Graph Search isn’t perfect yet — and definitely not a replacement for Google search. But it’s useful & powerful — and in 2 years, it will probably be one of the top search engines on the net (if not THE top).

Of course, I could be wrong.

I also thought MySpace would never become irrelevant. Oops!

I’m in!

I was lucky enough to get access to Graph Search just a few days after Zuckerberg’s press conference. Since then, I’ve been playing with it and getting useful results. But Graph Search is definitely not a complete research database yet.

In a previous blog post I mentioned how the act of “Liking” a page has taken on new meaning with Graph Search — and how the Facebook “Liking” game has changed quite a bit with new search engine.

But now that the dust has settled and we’ve all seen Graph Search in action, I want to give you some action steps you can take to fully leverage Graph Search and get the most out of it.

*** Please note that Graph Search is still officially in “beta” — so its power & utility could literally change overnight as Facebook figures out new patterns of usage & gathers more data.

Action Steps to Leverage Graph Search

1. Optimize your Page’s About Section

Graph Search, like Google, is all about keywords. Therefore any information you put inside your About section will be crucial to getting found via Graph Search.

I’m not saying you should stuff your About section full of random keywords though. Just make sure it contains relevant words that describe your business AND words that people are searching for.

Ie. don’t just add your businesses slogan or motto.

In addition to making sure your About section has relevant & searchable keywords, you should also make sure you select the correct Category & sub-category for your page.

Again, this will just make it easier for users to find you with Graph Search.

But I don’t recommend filling out the “Official Page” section for now. I’ve seen reports of pages being converted into Community Pages after doing that. Better to leave this blank.

That said, if you’re a franchise — or if fans have created several pages for your brand — then you might consider filling out the “Official Page” section.

One last thing — make sure your About section shows your web address, phone number, etc. I wouldn’t leave any fields blank.

2. Encourage Check-Ins

This tip only applies if you have a physical location where customers visit and do business with you. (Sorry digital product & service providers!)

With Graph Search, users can search for things like “BBQ restaurants my friends have visited” — and get results like these:

To me this is the most exciting & crucial feature of Graph Search. Local businesses should be LOVING it and getting ready for it ASAP!

To make sure you’re ready, you should select “Local Business” in the category selection, and also choose the appropriate business category.

I’ve heard that some pages can also select “Company or Organization” and then enter a business address. If you’re able to do this, then apparently you also get the option of adding text to the About section that shows on your page’s timeline — instead of it just showing your address & business hours.

Once you have your address entered, you should encourage (and even give an incentive for) people to check-in when visiting your establishment. For example, if they check in on their phone, you give them a coupon or freebie of some sort.

The more people check in at your location, the easier it will be to find on Graph Search — and the more business you’ll get!

3. Grab your “Vanity” URL

By default Facebook gives you a really ugly URL for your page, similar to this:

www.facebook.com/pages/YOURAWESOMEBIZPAGE/1234567890

This sucks because you can’t leverage a long URL like this in print, videos or podcasts – and apparently it makes your page harder to find in Graph Search.

Luckily, it’s super easy to get a custom vanity URL.

Just click here: Facebook Vanity URL. Then select the page you want to get the URL for.

You may need to try different names to find one that hasn’t been snagged already — Facebook’s a big place and most common names have already been taken.

If you’re a local business I’d recommend adding your town’s name to the end of it — so it ends up like:

facebook.com/yourawesomebusinesspageSEATTLE

Or something similar. But only if your attempt at getting your business name doesn’t work.

*** Bonus tip: You can’t use apostrophes or any sort of symbol in your vanity URL — and it’s never a good idea to include symbols, quotes, apostrophes or dashes in your page’s actual display name.

Doing so can throw off 3rd-party apps you might be using on your page.

4. Encourage Engagement

This should be something you’re doing anyway.

And it’s something we talk about at Post Planner quite often. But it will become even more important for your page to have great engagement once everyone is using Graph Search.

In Facebook’s own words:

Focus on attracting the right fans to your Page and on giving your fans a reason to interact with your content on an ongoing basis.

The search results users get from Graph Search will be based primarily on the interaction their friends have had with pages.

For example, maybe you have the most awesome shoe store in Houston — but if your page is a ghost town, then it might not show up in any Graph Search results at all.

How do you encourage engagement?

Oh Post Planners… let me count the ways.  :)

Actually Josh just wrote a great guest post on Tabsite that discusses 3 types of posts you should post each day that’s a great tutorial on getting more engagement. You might also check out our blogpost teaching you how to write better Facebook Status Updates.

They key takeaway here is that a dead page — a page with little or no fan engagement — probably won’t show up much in the search results of Graph Search — while a page with consistent, heavy engagement will float to the top of results.

5. Attract the Right Fans

Having the right fans is vastly more important now with Graph Search — especially for local businesses on Facebook.

It may be cool to say you have 8,000 fans — but if they aren’t engaging as described above, what’s the point? And if they don’t consist of any influencers in online or offline communities, they’re definitely not helping your page much.

What do I mean by “influencers”?

Basically, you want fans with a large friend-base or following to be liking your page. If Joe only has 15 friends, his page Likes aren’t going to influence Graph Search results much.

But if Jim has 1,200 friends — and they’re all within a 30 mile radius of your business — then you definitely want Jim to Like your page & engage with it often.

Seriously, folks… I can’t underscore this enough! — There is HUGE potential value in having the right kind of fans on your page.

And the best way to get them is through Facebook Ads. Yes, those things that cost money — and that Facebook addicts love to gripe about.

Remember — if you’re a business, you’re also a marketer. So embrace Facebook Ads and do everything you can to master them.

Don’t bash them.

They are far & away the most advanced tool for customer acquisition that we’ve ever had online. Sure, Google has great search ads, but they require an action (a keyword search) on the part of the user.

On Facebook the user just has to log in and they will start seeing targeted ads.

I won’t pretend to be a Facebook Ad expert (a great one to follow is Jon Loomer) — but I’ve played around with them enough over the last 2-3 years to understand their power & utility.

My advice: learn how to run a Promoted Post, or a Sponsored Story RIGHT NOW!

And don’t forget to target!

In fact, the #1 secret to effective Facebook Advertising is “Targeting”. You should be targeting your ads by location, age, gender, interests (Likes), etc.

If you target your fan page ads towards your ideal customer, I guarantee you will get higher quality fans.

But if you target everyone and their dog, then I guarantee you will either get a ton of fans who couldn’t care less about your product — or you’ll just blow threw a wad of cash and have nothing to show for it — and swear never to run a Facebook Ad again.

You might also be tempted to run a Facebook contest to attract more fans.  This is great idea and I highly encourage it.

But again, make sure you target potential customers with your contest, not just anyone.  And make sure your giveaway is relevant to your product or business. Ie. don’t just give away another iPad! — although I’ll take one if you’re giving it away!

6. Post More Photos

It’s pretty well known now that photos perform well in the News Feed compared to other types of posts on Facebook – especially if we’re measuring performance by comments, likes & shares.

And photos will take on even more importance with Graph Search — and with the new News Feed that’s rolling out. Graph Search seems to be very image driven — ie. most search results seem to be based around images.

A smart business, especially a local business, will post lots of photos — and also encourage fans to tag themselves in those photos. Or better yet, encourage fans to upload their own photos to the page.

Are You Ready for Graph Search?

Graph Search has a long road ahead of it — and it will be some time before it even puts a dent in Google’s domination of search. But as Facebook iterates on the product and gathers more & more data, I can see a time not so far away when many of us rely 100% on Graph Search to find the stuff we’re looking for.

Especially once Graph Search is available on the mobile devices!

So if you’re marketing your business on Facebook, follow the 6 steps above and get ready for Graph Search now.

Don’t let your competition beat you to it!

The post How to Optimize Your Fan Page for Graph Search in 6 Easy Steps appeared first on Post Planner.

Yep, it’s called Edgerank.

In this blogpost I’m going to give you 7 tips on how you can quickly increase your Edgerank.

But just so we’re all on the same page, let’s first discuss exactly what Edgerank is — and what it means for you & your Facebook page.

Here’s a good graphic that breaks it down:

Image courtesy of www.whatisedgerank.com/

Clear as mud right?!

Let me break it down in layman’s terms:

• Edge – You can basically think of a an Edge as a post. So every time you post something new on Facebook, you create a new edge.
• Affinity – Affinity measures how close your page’s relationship is with each fan. So the more often a fan has interacted with your page, the higher your page’s affinity with him.
• Weight – Weight measures the popularity of your post via the amount of the interaction it’s getting.  So a post getting tons of comments, likes & shares will have a lot of weight.
• Time Decay – Time Decay is the simplest component of Edgerank. It basically refers to how recent the post is. The older the post, the lower its Edgerank.

Some people claim that photos get the highest starting Weight numbers — ie. Facebook gives them more weight from the moment they’re posted — and therefore they get higher overall Edgerank.

But this claim has been put into question recently by the consistently higher reach numbers of text-only status updates.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the starting weights of different post types — because you can’t control (or know) what weight Facebook chooses to give them.

But you can control other things.  And that’s what this post is all about.  :)

7 Tips to Improve Your Edgerank

1. Get More Likes on Your Facebook Page (Helps Affinity)

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

But you’d be surprised how many small biz owners aren’t leveraging easy methods to get more Likes on their pages.

I’ve mentioned before that you cannot simply “build it & they will come“. You have to actively market your page to prospective customers on a daily basis.

The more fans you get, the more chances you have to build your affinity with each one of them.

2. Post Great Content (Helps Affinity & Weight)

If you’re posting junk, you should expect junk results.

Likewise, if you’re posting great content, you should get great results.  Great content will increase:

1. your Affinity with the fans who value the content & click on it
2. the Weight of the post — when fans click on it & make Facebook rank it as popular

But it’s not always simple, right? You probably get stuck sometimes with what to post on Facebook — even I do.

Have no fear though — the crew at Post Planner has your back.

Here are just a few recent posts about how & what to post on Facebook:

• 5 Questions to ask before posting to Facebook
• How to Leverage the Status Updates of Top Facebook Experts
• Get more Facebook traffic to your blog
• Write better Facebook Status Updates with these 5 Templates

3. Encourage & Respond to FB Messages (Helps Affinity)

When Facebook introduced the Message feature for pages, I for one was elated!

Instead of people having to remember your biz or support email, they could just message your page. To me it was a huge time saver because I rarely email anyone these days — and instead prefer to communicate via Facebook Messages.

But did you know Messages actually help your Edgerank?

Yes, they can. Now you probably don’t want 1000 useless messages to your page overnight — but it’s not a bad thing to encourage fans to message you on your page.

The more fans interact with your page in any way — whether by clicking on your posts, visiting your page, or yes, messaging your page — the more affinity those fans will have with your page.

But remember that if someone does message your page, you need to respond quickly — or you could actually lower your affinity with them.

4. Post Visually Appealing Content (Helps Weight)

Facebook is a very visual medium — so photos are naturally effective on it. And as Facebook moves to a revamped news feed, the even larger photos will have even more appeal.

As I mentioned above, people have long claimed that Photos get more Weight by default from Facebook — but this isn’t the whole story.

In my opinion, Photos just tend to get the most comments, likes & shares — which in turn gives them higher Weight.

So it’s not necessarily true that photos get a higher starting Weight number in the Edgerank algorithm — rather they just get more engagement, which increases Weight and Edgerank.

But whatever the case may be, you should definitely post more visually appealing content to your page. Photos get attention in the news feed — so use them.

5. Post Questions & Fill-in-the-blanks (Helps Weight)

Of all the status updates we post to our Post Planner fan page, it’s the questions & fill-in-the-blanks that get the most comments. (FYI: comments seem to increase Weight more than likes or shares)

But if you do post questions and fill-in-the-blanks, keep them short and easy to answer.

For example, instead of asking “What is the best smart phone on the market?” ask “Question: iPhone or Android?”.

You’ll get more comments from shorter question with fewer options. Yes, some people will answer “neither” and that’s fine. They still commented — which was your goal from the beginning.

Again, by only offering 2 choices, you’ve made it easier to answer.

The same thing goes for “Yes/No” or “Agree/Disagree” type questions. The easier the response, the more comments you’ll get.

Long open-ended questions never do as well — as they require too much thought by your fans.

Remember: your fans are getting hit with 1000′s of posts per day — so make it easy for them to interact.

6. Ask for Likes, Comment & Shares (Helps Weight)

This tip is highly debated at times because some people feel it cheapens the post. But I’ll disagree for the sake of this blogpost.

My main reason for encouraging you to ask for interaction on your posts is because…. well, it works!

Adding a simple call to action inside your post almost always causes an increase in engagement.

Example: “Here are some tips to increase Edgerank on your page. Do me a favor and LIKE this post and then drop a comment after reading the article”.

It may seem silly and even surprising, but adding that call to action telling people to “LIKE” the post will get you more likes on the post.

Of course, comments hold more weight than likes — but when you’re posting a link to your blog post your main goal should be to get traffic to your article, not comments, so getting a few extra likes is a win-win. (You increase your Edgerank and you still get the same traffic to your blog.)

7. Plan your Posts (Helps Time Decay)

There isn’t a ton you can do to help with the Time Decay factor in Edgerank. All posts get old and basically forgotten about after several 12-24 hours.

In fact, according to a study by Optimal and reported on by AllFacebook, if your content hasn’t “gone viral” after 3 hours you should move on:

Now I’m not going to recommend that you post to your page every 3 hours. On most pages this would cause a negative reaction from fans/followers. But it might work on yours — you’ll need to test this to see.

What I will recommend is that you have a clear plan in place and are aware of the best times of day to post to your page.

(Again there is no magic time to post — like snowflakes no 2 pages are alike.)

However, there is a general rule of thumb when it comes to times you should see the most engagement on your page:

• First thing in the morning between 6-8am
• During Lunch time 11am-1pm
• After “work” hours 6-9pm.

These will generally be the best times to post and get the most engagement.

But remember that other pages will be posting at these same times — so you’ll still need to make sure your content is good.

You should also definitely be posting on the weekends — and late into the night on occasions. Just because you’re not at work doesn’t mean your fans aren’t on Facebook.

The thing most biz owners & social media marketers tend to forget is that most people work 9-5 day jobs — and often aren’t on Facebook during those times.

But they are on Facebook when they get home — or after the kids go to bed. So posting after 6pm and on weekends could be your sweet spot!

Does that mean you should sit on your computer and wait until 8:15pm to post? No way.

There is a simple solution.  It’s called Post Planner.

If you want to schedule a post for a future date it only requires a few clicks:

Just click the date/time box, choose your date & time and click OK — and then click “Post”. It can’t get any easier than this.

You may also notice in the image above the “Queue” button.

This is a built-in feature that allows you to set up a daily publishing schedule for each page you manage.  You set up daily times when you want posts to publish on weekdays & weekends.

Once you’ve figured out some optimal times to post on your page by reviewing your insights, you can then set up your Queue schedule accordingly and just click the green button to line up your posts.

Like this:

See how simple it is to queue up your posts and not worry about the so called “magic” time to post on Facebook?

If that doesn’t help your Edgerank Time Decay, Weight & Affinity — I don’t know what will!!!

Anyway, whether you use Post Planner to schedule your posts or not, I hope you can see the value in scheduling your content in advance to get the most out of Edgerank.

Let’s Wrap it UP!

If you have a business and are marketing it on Facebook but are not taking into consideration how your posting strategy affects your Edgerank, you’re basically shooting your gun blindfolded and without any bullets!!

Be intentional.

Have a Purpose.

Have a Plan.

And work that Plan!

The post Follow these 7 Easy Tips & Increase your Facebook Edgerank TODAY appeared first on Post Planner.

But you don’t want engagement purely for the sake of engagement.

You want it because an engaged Facebook community translates into more leads, more customers & more sales for your business.

Put simply, more engagement means more sales:

Research data reported by Vocus notes that 79% of Facebook fans are more likely to purchase from a brand they have liked.  Thus, pursuing more fans and deeper engagement with existing fans is a valuable priority!

But how do you get more engagement on your Facebook page?

Lots of ways. You can:

• create highly shareable content
• post more images and videos
• post succinctly at key times
• etc. etc.

And you can also run promotions. But you need to choose the promotion type that fits best with your goals.

Certain promotion types work better for certain goals and certain industries.

Below I’ll outline a number of promotion types and offer tips on how to select the right one for your Facebook Page.

Each type can draw fans to your page and incentivize them to explore and engage with it. And each type is a Facebook approved tab app that complies with Facebook’s promotion policy.

4 Promotion Types for Fan Pages

1. SWEEPSTAKES

A sweepstakes is a chance-based, easy-entry promotion that fans enter by completing a simple form with their name & e-mail. Winners are drawn randomly after a set date.

As with most Facebook promo apps, a sweepstakes can be a “Like-gated” so fans have to Like the Page in order to access the entry form.

Pros of using a Sweepstakes:

• Low barrier to entry (simple form completion)
• Works for a wide variety of industries
• Pages can capture key user information – important for future email/location marketing

If you run a sweepstakes, you can limit each fan to a single entry or allow fans to enter repeatedly.

I recommend allowing fans to enter daily because it ensures the most continued engagement — it incentivizes the fan to return to the page day after day.

Sweepstakes promotions can work for a wide variety of businesses — including B2B and B2C.  They help

• draw fans to the page to enter
• boost viral sharing – if the app has a sharing mechanism that increases entries

2. DEALS & COUPONS

A deal or offer is another promotion type with a low barrier to entry.

Here’s how it works:

1. Facebook page asks the fan to do something
2. when fan completes task, he is given access to the deal

For example: “Like our Page to access this 40% off Coupon”

Other examples (and app offerings) include (1) sharing a post on your Facebook news feed or (2) sharing a post on a friend’s timeline to access the deal.

Like sweepstakes, deals are useful because:

1. fans respond to them
2. it accomplishes a task helpful to the company (e.g. more Page Likes)

Pros of using a Deal app:

• Low barrier to entry (simple task completion)
• Expands reach to additional social networks — which can help the Page reach a wider audience or other type of audience than currently reached on Facebook
• Works for a wide variety of industries
• Pages get something of value in return – such as further exposure, a Like, or a e-mail address for their list

3. CONTESTS

A contest is different than a sweepstakes or a deal in that it requires more effort & skill from the fan to enter.

For example, the fan has to take a photo that meets certain requirements to enter.

Instead of a random drawing to determine the winner, contests select a winner via:

• voting by the public
• judging by a select group

While photo contests are the most common type of contest on Facebook, there are other types too, like videos, essays or photo captions.

Pros for using a Facebook Contest:

• More opportunity for engagement

Contest entrants engage via their entries, of course. But more importantly, new users and potential fans come to your page & engage by way of viewing and voting on entries — which can add up to some serious reach, exposure, & interaction on your page.

Another option for a contest is to consider a two-stage process.  This adds the benefit of a initial round of voting and then the need to return to view and vote again in the final round.

• Entrants are motivated to share with Friends

Entrants want more votes — so they extend the reach of the contest to their network of friends by asking for their votes.

This social sharing by entrants to their friends both (1) increases the contest’s reach and (2) functions as a positive referral mechanism.  The entrant’s invitation to friends to vote adds trust & credibility to the Page — and to its products & services.

• Better qualifying of entrants

Making entrants meet a certain criteria for entry acts as a sifting mechanism.  It adds a barrier for those who just enter any promotion because it’s easy & they might win, regardless of whether they’re interested in your business.

Depending on your contest’s entry guidelines, this process can serve to qualify or pre-screen entrants as potential customers.

• Access to user generated content

If your promotional rules make it clear that contest entry materials can be used by your company in the future, the contest can be an excellent method of getting user-generated content relevant to your brand — and useable in future social marketing.

Note: Contests may not work for industries or businesses that don’t lend themselves to this type of engagement.  For instance, it might be a stretch for a medical practitioner to run a photo contest due to privacy concerns or relevance.

4. MULTI-NETWORK SOCIAL PROMOS

A multi-network social promotion is a promotion that involves Facebook and at least one other social media platform — such as Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram.

Similar to a deal, the fans are asked to accomplish a task and upon completion they are then given access to the deal offer.  The difference is that the task is centered around doing something on a different social platform such as Pinterest or Instagram.

In this case the fan comes to the Facebook page and the promotion is outlined.  The fan then accomplishes the task — such as adding a image to Instagram with a certain hashtag or using a integrated pin tool to pin a image to Pinterest.

Some apps allow images to be pulled in from the other social network to appear on the page tab.  Otherwise the image can simply stay on the other social network.

Either way the fan has engaged with your Facebook page and simultaneously extended information about your brand to another social network.

Pros for using a Multi-Network Social Promo:

• Extends brand to more social locations - This type of promotion can work great for a company whose audience is active on more than one social network — or for a company seeking to continue gaining Facebook traction but also expand visibility on Pinterest, for example.
• Image Driven - Images are powerful in social media and a multi-network social promo using images can capture the attention of viewers and invite sharing & comments — all of which boost visibility & drive referral traffic.
• Suitable for a wide variety of businesses - A multi-network social promotion can work for apparel firms to credit unions, venues to radio stations and more.

BONUS TIPS FOR RUNNING SUCCESSFUL PROMOTIONS:

• Keep the entry form simple — too many fields will cause fewer entries.
• Make the prize relevant to your company! – an iPad is not relevant if you own a craft store.
• Ensure the prize value equates to your product – $30 Gift Card for $600 watches is not a motivating deal!
• Keep the contest moving! – don’t run a month-long contest.  The attention span of a Facebook fans is short. They won’t keep track of an entry and vote daily for 30 days.  5-7 days is a better span or perhaps 10 days if it’s a 2 stage (initial and finalist rounds) contest.
• Set voting to 1x per day for Contests — this encourages entrants to get voters to come back each day — a perfect situation for your page!
• Know your target audience!  — is your target using Pinterest or Instagram already?  If so, a multi-network social promotion could work well.
• Ensure the process is seamless – make sure the promotion is doing the work for you and giving the user the best possible experience.  Apps integrating OAuth for login or other integrated means to access the service directly (without the “open a new browser window” issues) are critical.  Fans should be able to arrive, understand, and complete in short order.

Promotions for Facebook pages offer the power to draw fans in, boost page engagement, and accomplish tangible marketing goals — like increasing e-mail list numbers.  Deals in the form of coupons and discount codes will always be an attractive means to help increase traffic to a page and encourage visitors to begin a fan relationship with the page.

While not an end in themselves, contests & offers can be part of a larger marketing strategy and a key piece of helping a business grow their social community.

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That’s why for the next 5 days (until April 1) we’re offering all Post Planner users a coupon for 35% off TabSite for up to 1 year on monthly or yearly plans.

To take advantage of this offer — and start leveraging the promotion apps mentioned in this blogpost — just CLICK HERE, sign up, and use the coupon code “PostPlanner”

The post Here’s How to Choose the Right Promotion App for Your Facebook Page appeared first on Post Planner.

Word is the app will be dead by summer.

Here’s the official Google announcement:

We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years the usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next few months.

Currently over a million people use Google Reader to aggregate and keep up with their favorite blogs.

Personally I’ve never been a fan of Google Reader.  The process of adding a subscription, reading it and sharing it has never felt fluid to me — so I’ve sought out and used other tools, or nothing at all.

But I know many of you depend on Google Reader (and tools like it) to keep up with blogs — and to quickly share content with your followers.

Well, I have a easy solution for you.

Ready for it?

It’s Post Planner!

Yep, I said Post Planner.

With our app, you can do all the main functionalities of Google Reader:

• add blog feeds
• organize your feeds into folders
• click on folders to see aggregated feeds of all blogposts inside the folder

But even better, with Post Planner you can also add Fan Page & Twitter feeds.

Yes, you heard that correctly. You’re not just limited to RSS feeds with Post Planner’s content reader.

You can also add your favorite Fan Pages & Twitter users — the ones who share the best content — and Post Planner will show you the articles from their posts & tweets in Google Reader format.

By “Google Reader format”, I mean you can actually read the articles inside Post Planner — and then easily share them via the app publisher.

For a detailed look at how to add a folder to your Post Planner app, you can check out my previous post on how to become a Blog Recycling Ninja.

Below let me show you how to use Post Planner to quickly read all of your favorite blogs — and share the blog posts to your profile, page or groups:

As you can see from the video, Post Planner is a pretty sweet replacement for Google Reader

It’s not only easy, it just makes sense.

Now instead of just reading your favorite blogs, you can read them and immediately schedule them to be shared with your fans/followers/friends.

What do you think? Are you going to make the switch to Post Planner now?

The post Google Reader is Dead — But There’s an Alternative Inside Facebook appeared first on Post Planner.

I mentioned in a previous blogpost the Facebook images rule that prohibits cover photos from having more than 20% text on them — which is pretty arbitrary & hard to measure.

But now Facebook has made drastic changes to its Cover Photo guidelines.

Old Guidelines for Facebook Cover Photos:

All covers are public. This means that anyone who visits your Page will be able to see your cover. Covers can’t be deceptive, misleading, or infringe on anyone else’s copyright. You may not encourage people to upload your cover to their personal timelines.

Covers may not include:

• images with more than 20% text;
• price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it on socialmusic.com”;
• contact information such as website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section;
• references to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or any arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features; or
• calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.”

New Guidelines for Facebook Cover Photos:

All covers are public. This means that anyone who visits your Page will be able to see your cover. Covers can’t be deceptive, misleading, or infringe on anyone else’s copyright. You may not encourage people to upload your cover to their personal timelines. Covers may not include images with more than 20% text.

These guidelines can be seen here (you may need to clear your cache to see the new version):

http://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

While discussing the change with Hugh Briss from Social Identities, we noticed that some people in the UK were not seeing the new, shortened version of the guidelines.

I find it interesting that the last revision date on the guidelines still reads December 17, 2012 — although this change just happened this week around March 18, 2013.

My guess is that Facebook is making this change because enforcing intent is basically impossible. Enforcing the new “20% text” rule, however, is very easy to do. And it kind of automatically limits you from doing many of previously prohibited items (calls to action, price, contact information, etc.)

What Should You Do Now?

Well, first of all, I don’t recommend going crazy and running through the streets naked in excitement that you can now put your phone number or web address on your cover photo!

My stance has always been that the cover photo is simply your chance to brand yourself in the eyes of your page visitors. It’s not a billboard to market with — since hardly anyone is going to see it anyway.

Then again, as I mentioned in a recent post giving you tips on how to jump start your Facebook page – with the new News Feed Facebook launching, when people like your page, a cropped version of your cover photo will show in the news feed of the new fan’s friends — so you should definitely be creative with that bit that shows.

Are You Breaking the Rules?

Figuring out if your cover photo breaks the 20% text rule is tough. Apparently Facebook has set up a grid that contains 25 boxes on it. If you have text in more than 5 boxes you are in violation of the rule — even if the box only contains a small portion of text.

My opinion is they need to use a grid with 50-100 boxes to be more accurate. Below I ran a test on Post Planner’s cover photo — and as you can see we have text in 8 boxes. But in most of those boxes the text is taking up a very small portion of the box. Would this be a violation of the rules?

Using the strict “box” rules in the grid our cover would be breaking the 20% text rule!

Test Your Cover Photo HERE!

I found a very handy tool via Hugh Briss that you can use to test your cover photo against the new rule. Just enter the URL of your Fan Page in the box below and click “load Cover-Photo”.

Once your cover photo loads, just click on every box that has text in it — then the app will tell you if you’re breaking the rules or not! Love this!

Sweet tool right?!

Conclusion

In the end, this rule change isn’t as big of a deal as many seem to think it is.

Really Facebook just simplified the rules — and boiled it down to a very basic 20% text rule: “Put whatever text you want on your cover, but keep it under 20%.”

What are your thoughts on this “new” rule change?

The post Test Your Cover Photo HERE to See If You’re Breaking Facebook’s New Rules appeared first on Post Planner.