Social media has infiltrated the purchasing funnel, helping consumers make informed decisions, from what to have for lunch to where to go on vacation. Depending on the decision, sometimes you turn to your social media, and sometimes you turn to Google. So, as a brand marketer, you want to know what online channels you should be targeting in order to reach the perfect audience for your product.
To better understand the new social consumer, Beyond and M Booth conducted a study of 1,500U.S. consumers, asking about the two products and services they had most recently researched online and how they went about it. They were then categorized as either a high sharer or a low sharer, each utilizing various digital channels differently, depending on whether they are researching and interacting with high or low involvement products.
Of the 1,500 consumers polled, 53% use Facebook to interact with a brand, with 42% going so far as to write a post or comment about a brand, and 40% ‘liked’ a product. 33% wrote a product review, and 20% use Facebook to research a product at least once a week.
Products research or purchased were categorized as either high involvement or low involvement. High involvement products such as photography equipment, other electronics including computers, and vacations, were less frequently purchased. This due to them being more complex and expensive, requiring more time and effort in the research phase. Low involvement products, such as cosmetics, baby supplies, and food were bought more frequently with less thought and research effort, due to the lower cost.
High sharers tend to be the most valuable to brands as they recommend products three times more often and influence other’s buying decisions. They make up 20% of online consumers and tend to be younger, have stronger brand loyalty, own multiple internet devices, and research low involvement products.
Low sharers make up about 80% of online consumers and tend to be older, are more open to changing brands, care more about quality than brand image, are more likely to purchase researched products, and research high involvement products.
The three channels that influence the social consumer are Earned, Owned, and Search. Examples of Earned are rating and reviews sites, news articles, word of mouth, and blog posts. Owned channels are brand websites, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Search channels are paid search and organic search.
Channel influence on products is very similar for all three channels, with baby products the most influenced, with personal finance products the least influenced. Facebook has the most influence on baby brands, YouTube on music brands, and review sites on electronics.
After online interaction, 31% are prompted to purchase, 26% take no action, 20% are prompted to recommend, 9% are encouraged to visit, 8% have an increased awareness, and 3% had their product impression changed and were encouraged to contact.
All digital channels play a role in a brand’s marketing strategy; looking at the channel your consumer is most influence by will lead to an increase in your digital ROI. With Search acting as the gateway of influence on today’s consumer, creative digital content is essential within Earned and Owned media channels to boost a brand’s organic search relevancy. Identifying high sharers in the most effective digital location, and engaging them with sharable content, will help lead to a cycle of recommendation, loyalty, and purchase.
Sources: Lauren Drell, Mashable, and data from M Booth and Beyond
Monday, October 31, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Our Christmas Wish Golf Tournament Is Coming Up!
What better way to give back to our community while having a lot of fun, than by joining us at the 2011 Christmas Wish Charity Golf Tournament, Saturday December 10th at Talking Stick Golf Course in Scottsdale. If you are unable to participate in the tournament, please also consider the underwriting sponsorship opportunities available.
· 8:00 a.m.—Registration & Breakfast
· 9:30 a.m.— Shotgun Start
· 2:30 p.m.—Tournament Concludes
· 3:00p.m.-5:00p.m.—Awards Ceremony, Food & Cocktails @ Shadows Lounge
Tournament:
Talking Stick Golf Course
9998 East Indian Bend Rd
Scottsdale, Arizona 85256
Lunch/Awards:
Shadows Lounge - Talking Stick Resort
9800 East Indian Bend Rd
Scottsdale, Arizona 85256
Fidelity National Title is proud to partner with the Johnjay and Rich Care for Kids Foundation that assists and serves children in need by creating uplifting experiences for families facing difficult life challenges. The funds raised will directly benefit the Johnjay and Rich Care for Kids Foundation which helps children and their families in the local community. With these donations, this foundation will be able to “grant” the wishes of over 100 families this holiday season with gifts, food, clothing and bill payments. Both Fidelity National Title and Clear Channel Communications deeply believe in giving back to our local community.
The Christmas Wish Program grants wishes and offers assistance to families in extreme need. It can be heard on the radio and online during the Johnjay and Rich Morning Show on 104.7KISSFM primarily during the holiday season, between Thanksgiving and Christmas. A “wish” is delivered each day (Monday-Friday). Special 12-hour “Wish-a-thons” are held in various markets to increase donations and awareness. During these wish-a-thons, multiple families are granted wishes throughout the day.
For more information, sponsorship form, or registration, please visit https://www.facebook.com/FidelityPhoenix?sk=app_182667455607.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Using Google Analytics In Social Media
In a recent interview Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner did with Avinash Kaushik, the digital marketing evangelist for Google and author of Web Analytics 2.0., Avinash shared how the free enterprise-class tools available through Google Analytics affects businesses today. He explained how your social media activity influences the behavior of your business audience to help you improve your results.
Think about 3 buckets:
Acquisition – It provides details about where people are coming to your site from. Was it from SEO you’ve implemented, from your Twitter, etc.
Behavior on your site - Bounce rate, the percentage of people who somehow landed on your site, but went (clicked) no further. It’s pretty valuable information, as it can help you identify weaknesses at the floor level of your site. From seeing what pages they’re landing on and immediately leaving, it may suggest broken links or landing pages, or campaigns/content that may not be enticing enough to make them WANT to go further.
Conversion or outcome for you – This is where Google Analytics goes deeper. Did they land, click on an e-report to be sent to them, and thus become a lead? Did they leave a comment on your blog thus adding value to your site as well as to SEO and the conversation? You can measure the number of people who follow you on Twitter, who sign up for your RSS feed, who come back repeatedly, etc.
Google Analytics can also help you understand your social media results, particularly when used in your business branding and marketing. Not only do you want to know when your Tweets or Facebook posts, etc. cause activity and engagement, but most important, what was the value of that activity? Did that activity drive more website visitors, more website engagement, more prospects? Knowing these things, by Google Analytics measurement, quantifies your social media efforts. This enables you to compare the value of your social media efforts against that of other avenues, i.e. display ads, SEO, etc.
One of the things you can easily do in Google Analytics is to create and track what they refer to as advanced segments. This could be your Twitter segment, another for Facebook, another for YouTube, etc. It takes you literally about 3 seconds to create a segment, then once created, all the same stats and details you can find out with Google Analytics, are than drilled down to specific segments. You can than compare the value you’re getting from one segment to another, and make adjustments of time invested based on that. If you’re getting say 23% more comments on your Tweets than your are on your Facebook posts, might knowing that direct where you apply the larger percentage of your social media effort and time? Super valuable information!
In terms of which metrics of social media provide the greatest value to you, while it’s great to know how many Facebook followers you have, how many Tweets you’ve been mentioned in, etc, it’s of more value to you to move beyond those basic numbers. For example, with your Twitter segment, look at the number of re-Tweets. Think about it like this, each of your Tweets is like a drop in a lake. What matters more than the number of Tweets you’ve made, is the wave caused by that drop; is it a big wave or a small wave? If your Tweets provide value to your followers, they validate that by re-Tweeting, and now that value goes out to others who aren’t perhaps already following you or even know who you are. You’ve just been introduced to perhaps countless other prospects!
The follower re-Tweet percentage is also important to measure and look at. Is it just your Mom and Dad re-Tweeting your brilliance, or is it a growing number of followers that you have? If you analyze these metrics, it enables you better know who the people are who follow your Twitter account, what are their needs, what do they respond to?
Another important metric to look at is conversation rate; on Twitter this would specifically be the number of replies you sent each day, and the number of replies received each day. Basically, it’s measuring more one-on-one or one-on-few conversations. Social media is not a medium where simply shouting creates value. The real value comes when that “connection” is made by people with your brand. THAT is the real gift of social media.
To learn more about Google Analytics in social media, you can follow Avinash on Twitter, @avinash, or go to http://www.google.com/analytics.
Think about 3 buckets:
Acquisition – It provides details about where people are coming to your site from. Was it from SEO you’ve implemented, from your Twitter, etc.
Behavior on your site - Bounce rate, the percentage of people who somehow landed on your site, but went (clicked) no further. It’s pretty valuable information, as it can help you identify weaknesses at the floor level of your site. From seeing what pages they’re landing on and immediately leaving, it may suggest broken links or landing pages, or campaigns/content that may not be enticing enough to make them WANT to go further.
Conversion or outcome for you – This is where Google Analytics goes deeper. Did they land, click on an e-report to be sent to them, and thus become a lead? Did they leave a comment on your blog thus adding value to your site as well as to SEO and the conversation? You can measure the number of people who follow you on Twitter, who sign up for your RSS feed, who come back repeatedly, etc.
Google Analytics can also help you understand your social media results, particularly when used in your business branding and marketing. Not only do you want to know when your Tweets or Facebook posts, etc. cause activity and engagement, but most important, what was the value of that activity? Did that activity drive more website visitors, more website engagement, more prospects? Knowing these things, by Google Analytics measurement, quantifies your social media efforts. This enables you to compare the value of your social media efforts against that of other avenues, i.e. display ads, SEO, etc.
One of the things you can easily do in Google Analytics is to create and track what they refer to as advanced segments. This could be your Twitter segment, another for Facebook, another for YouTube, etc. It takes you literally about 3 seconds to create a segment, then once created, all the same stats and details you can find out with Google Analytics, are than drilled down to specific segments. You can than compare the value you’re getting from one segment to another, and make adjustments of time invested based on that. If you’re getting say 23% more comments on your Tweets than your are on your Facebook posts, might knowing that direct where you apply the larger percentage of your social media effort and time? Super valuable information!
In terms of which metrics of social media provide the greatest value to you, while it’s great to know how many Facebook followers you have, how many Tweets you’ve been mentioned in, etc, it’s of more value to you to move beyond those basic numbers. For example, with your Twitter segment, look at the number of re-Tweets. Think about it like this, each of your Tweets is like a drop in a lake. What matters more than the number of Tweets you’ve made, is the wave caused by that drop; is it a big wave or a small wave? If your Tweets provide value to your followers, they validate that by re-Tweeting, and now that value goes out to others who aren’t perhaps already following you or even know who you are. You’ve just been introduced to perhaps countless other prospects!
The follower re-Tweet percentage is also important to measure and look at. Is it just your Mom and Dad re-Tweeting your brilliance, or is it a growing number of followers that you have? If you analyze these metrics, it enables you better know who the people are who follow your Twitter account, what are their needs, what do they respond to?
Another important metric to look at is conversation rate; on Twitter this would specifically be the number of replies you sent each day, and the number of replies received each day. Basically, it’s measuring more one-on-one or one-on-few conversations. Social media is not a medium where simply shouting creates value. The real value comes when that “connection” is made by people with your brand. THAT is the real gift of social media.
To learn more about Google Analytics in social media, you can follow Avinash on Twitter, @avinash, or go to http://www.google.com/analytics.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Highly Anticipated 2012 Crystal Ball Conference
Where, on November 3rd, will you find 600 of the top thought leaders in the real estate market, as well as the top 25 brokers and the top 50 agents in Arizona? At our Crystal Ball Conference! You won't want to miss this amazing event!
For the first time in history, every major bank, servicer, and asset manager will be participating on a speakers’ panel, sharing their thoughts regarding the future of distressed property in Arizona for the next 12 months.
This is the most highly anticipated real estate event of the year! You’ll gain insight into how servicers and banks are liquidating property in Arizona. New programs, philosophies and trends of the Arizona distressed market will be discussed. Inside tips and information on how to navigate the REO short sale and pre-foreclosure market will be shared.
The illustrious panel includes:
Bill Borda, Senior Vice President with Bank of America’s Short Sale, Deed In Lieu and Real Estate Owned organization. Bill’s team is responsible for gathering voice of customer data and using that data as a catalyst for process, policy and technology changes to close more short sale transactions and improve the real estate agent and homeowner experience. Bill’s team is also responsible for conducting education on the Bank of America short sale process for real estate agents.
Bill has been with Bank of America for 12 years and served in a variety of sales, marketing and process design roles at the bank. His key accomplishments within the Home Loans organization include building a broker loyalty program, transitioning more than 5,000 banking centers from a mortgage origination channel to a referral channel and earning his Six Sigma Greenbelt Certification. Bill is a graduate of the University of Delaware and earned a Masters of Business Administration from the University of North Carolina Charlotte. He is based in Charlotte, NC, where he lives with his wife and four children.
Alex Charfen, Co-founder of the Charfen Institute, LLC, is an entrepreneur, teacher, author, speaker—and is on a mission. Has made a career out of helping agents grow their businesses by learning to cope with shifting markets and better serving their clients. Since the Institute's inception in January 2008, tens of thousands of real estate professionals have attended his education courses and achieved the Certified Distressed Property Expert® (CDPE) designation, making it the fastest-growing designation in real estate industry history.
Charfen Institute continues to set the pace for the real estate industry by leading the next wave in the market – real estate investment. The company made history again in October 2010 when it launched the only designation specifically addressing the needs of residential real estate investor clients, the Certified Investor Agent Specialist™ (CIAS) Designation.
The CIAS Designation trains real estate agents to find, create, and close with residential real estate investors, providing the necessary tools and strategies to help them make sound investment decisions for their future.
Reginald H. Givens, Foreclosure Assistance Administrator with the Arizona Department of Housing. Currently Reginald is working on the implementation and continuing development of the State’s foreclosure prevention program, Save Our Home AZ, which is part of the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund.
Reginald successfully coordinated the State’s Your Way Home AZ program which is part of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Additionally, Reginald works on the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program, designed to help homeowners facing foreclosure by providing them with much needed loss mitigation counseling. Through the combination of these programs, Reginald is helping to bring stability back to our housing market.
Bob Hora, Short Sale, Deed In Lieu, Real Estate Owned, BAC Field Services & LandSafe Default Executive for Legacy Asset Servicing, Bank of America Home Loans, one of the world’s leading financial services companies and the nation’s leading mortgage servicer. He leads a team of approximately 5,000 associates dedicated to assisting customers with property liquidation and foreclosure prevention strategies.
Mr. Hora has more than 27 years of leadership experience in the financial industry. Most recently, he served as Vice President and Officer for Default Management at Fannie Mae. In this role, he was responsible for supporting Fannie Mae’s servicing portfolio managing loss mitigation caseloads and preferred loss mitigation strategies, as well as managing foreclosure, bankruptcy, and retained attorney activities and related third-party support.
Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Hora was Senior Vice President at GMAC ResCap. His responsibilities included managing the special servicing and subprime loss mitigation platform for first and second liens, including instituting the HAMP program.
JK Huey, Senior Vice President REO and Short Sale, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage REO and Short Sale, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. In her role, Huey is directly responsible for managing all REO, Short Sale and Deed-in-Lieu activities for the servicing channel.
Huey, a 29-year veteran of the mortgage industry, joined Wells Fargo in 2009. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, she was the servicing manager at IndyMac Bank and held senior management positions with Washington Mutual and HomeSide Lending. Huey has managed Customer Service, Default Management, Escrow Administration, Cash Management, Investor Reporting, Acquisitions and Retail Production.
Along with being a Certified Mortgage Banker, Accredited Mortgage Professional, a member of the MORPAC and Loan Administration Steering Committees with the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, Huey was the President of the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association from 1998-1999, the past Chairman of multiple committees, and the recipient of the Young Mortgage Banker of the Year in 1992.
Brent Taggart, Senior Vice President of business development and client relations at Green River Capital LC (GRC), a leading REO asset management and loss mitigation provider.
The real estate and mortgage trading industries are familiar ground for Taggart, who has more than 14 years experience. Before joining GRC, Taggart was the SVP of trading at 406 Partners where he was responsible for pricing, business development, and client management. He also worked for Credit Suisse in New York, where he managed pricing, due diligence, portfolio management and the portfolio’s servicing oversight as vice president of Scratch and Dent Trading.
Taggart began his career at Fairbanks Capital Corp., where he discovered a penchant for the mortgage business and began to learn the fundamentals of default servicing. He quickly moved up the company from operations to the analytics department, becoming a senior analyst who meticulously dissected large data sets for clients as well as the senior executive team and served on the Pricing Committee.
For the first time in history, every major bank, servicer, and asset manager will be participating on a speakers’ panel, sharing their thoughts regarding the future of distressed property in Arizona for the next 12 months.
This is the most highly anticipated real estate event of the year! You’ll gain insight into how servicers and banks are liquidating property in Arizona. New programs, philosophies and trends of the Arizona distressed market will be discussed. Inside tips and information on how to navigate the REO short sale and pre-foreclosure market will be shared.
The illustrious panel includes:
Bill Borda, Senior Vice President with Bank of America’s Short Sale, Deed In Lieu and Real Estate Owned organization. Bill’s team is responsible for gathering voice of customer data and using that data as a catalyst for process, policy and technology changes to close more short sale transactions and improve the real estate agent and homeowner experience. Bill’s team is also responsible for conducting education on the Bank of America short sale process for real estate agents.
Bill has been with Bank of America for 12 years and served in a variety of sales, marketing and process design roles at the bank. His key accomplishments within the Home Loans organization include building a broker loyalty program, transitioning more than 5,000 banking centers from a mortgage origination channel to a referral channel and earning his Six Sigma Greenbelt Certification. Bill is a graduate of the University of Delaware and earned a Masters of Business Administration from the University of North Carolina Charlotte. He is based in Charlotte, NC, where he lives with his wife and four children.
Alex Charfen, Co-founder of the Charfen Institute, LLC, is an entrepreneur, teacher, author, speaker—and is on a mission. Has made a career out of helping agents grow their businesses by learning to cope with shifting markets and better serving their clients. Since the Institute's inception in January 2008, tens of thousands of real estate professionals have attended his education courses and achieved the Certified Distressed Property Expert® (CDPE) designation, making it the fastest-growing designation in real estate industry history.
Charfen Institute continues to set the pace for the real estate industry by leading the next wave in the market – real estate investment. The company made history again in October 2010 when it launched the only designation specifically addressing the needs of residential real estate investor clients, the Certified Investor Agent Specialist™ (CIAS) Designation.
The CIAS Designation trains real estate agents to find, create, and close with residential real estate investors, providing the necessary tools and strategies to help them make sound investment decisions for their future.
Reginald H. Givens, Foreclosure Assistance Administrator with the Arizona Department of Housing. Currently Reginald is working on the implementation and continuing development of the State’s foreclosure prevention program, Save Our Home AZ, which is part of the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund.
Reginald successfully coordinated the State’s Your Way Home AZ program which is part of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Additionally, Reginald works on the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program, designed to help homeowners facing foreclosure by providing them with much needed loss mitigation counseling. Through the combination of these programs, Reginald is helping to bring stability back to our housing market.
Bob Hora, Short Sale, Deed In Lieu, Real Estate Owned, BAC Field Services & LandSafe Default Executive for Legacy Asset Servicing, Bank of America Home Loans, one of the world’s leading financial services companies and the nation’s leading mortgage servicer. He leads a team of approximately 5,000 associates dedicated to assisting customers with property liquidation and foreclosure prevention strategies.
Mr. Hora has more than 27 years of leadership experience in the financial industry. Most recently, he served as Vice President and Officer for Default Management at Fannie Mae. In this role, he was responsible for supporting Fannie Mae’s servicing portfolio managing loss mitigation caseloads and preferred loss mitigation strategies, as well as managing foreclosure, bankruptcy, and retained attorney activities and related third-party support.
Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Hora was Senior Vice President at GMAC ResCap. His responsibilities included managing the special servicing and subprime loss mitigation platform for first and second liens, including instituting the HAMP program.
JK Huey, Senior Vice President REO and Short Sale, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage REO and Short Sale, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. In her role, Huey is directly responsible for managing all REO, Short Sale and Deed-in-Lieu activities for the servicing channel.
Huey, a 29-year veteran of the mortgage industry, joined Wells Fargo in 2009. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, she was the servicing manager at IndyMac Bank and held senior management positions with Washington Mutual and HomeSide Lending. Huey has managed Customer Service, Default Management, Escrow Administration, Cash Management, Investor Reporting, Acquisitions and Retail Production.
Along with being a Certified Mortgage Banker, Accredited Mortgage Professional, a member of the MORPAC and Loan Administration Steering Committees with the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, Huey was the President of the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association from 1998-1999, the past Chairman of multiple committees, and the recipient of the Young Mortgage Banker of the Year in 1992.
Brent Taggart, Senior Vice President of business development and client relations at Green River Capital LC (GRC), a leading REO asset management and loss mitigation provider.
The real estate and mortgage trading industries are familiar ground for Taggart, who has more than 14 years experience. Before joining GRC, Taggart was the SVP of trading at 406 Partners where he was responsible for pricing, business development, and client management. He also worked for Credit Suisse in New York, where he managed pricing, due diligence, portfolio management and the portfolio’s servicing oversight as vice president of Scratch and Dent Trading.
Taggart began his career at Fairbanks Capital Corp., where he discovered a penchant for the mortgage business and began to learn the fundamentals of default servicing. He quickly moved up the company from operations to the analytics department, becoming a senior analyst who meticulously dissected large data sets for clients as well as the senior executive team and served on the Pricing Committee.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Facebook Best Practices
We previously shared 5 of our 20 Facebook best practices and today we share the next 15 best practices.
#6: Put a fan page widget on your blog or website: You’d be amazed at how many people simply don’t know about your fan page. Putting it on your website (i.e., your home base) will get it in front of all of your website visitors. My favorite example of this is from Klout. It got me to Like them!
#7: Customize your fan page URL: Vanity URLs are a fantastic way to make your fan page memorable. Check this awesome fan page http://facebook.com/awesomefanpage. Vanity, baby!
#8: Put your fan page URL on your business cards: Combine offline and online by letting the people you meet IRL know about your fan page.
#9: Put a link on your personal Facebook profile: Put this under the “links” section. This is a “soft sell” of sorts, letting your friends passively know about your page. You might have forgotten that people actually check that part of your profile!
#10: Harness the power of your team: Have everyone in your organization put your fan page link on their personal profile.
#11: Ask fans to post a link: Ask all of your current fans to post a link to the fan page on their personal profile. As long as you don’t ask this often, I’ve found that people love to help out. Leverage the power of your existing audience and get results! For instance, at Monk Development, we simply asked everyone to post a link to our company fan page on the same day. We doubled our average daily Likes because of one simple step.
#12: Put a tag in your YouTube videos: If you make compelling videos as a part of your content marketing strategy, throw in a well-timed fan page link at the end of your YouTube videos. The Gregory Brothers, the geniuses behind “Auto-tune the News,” are some of the best social marketers around. They always include a link to their fan page (and other social networks) at the end of every video and make it a welcome addition to their content.
#13: Put your fan page URL on your Twitter profile background: Lots of tweeters still use the web-based version and your profile background is a prime piece of web real estate. Cross-advertise and use one social network to promote another! CenturyLink does a great job of this. If you go to their Twitter page, you can clearly see where their fan page is located. They don’t make you guess, which leads to conversions!
#14: QR codes for your page: I bought the furniture for our house mostly because the store used QR codes to get me to their fan page. Once I got to the fan page, I was welcomed with a custom landing page that welcomed me to the store. It wasn’t elaborate, but it was creative and it worked! They engaged me as a customer both online (QR code leading to fan page) and offline (sales agents in the store), making sure I knew I was welcome. Smart!
#15: Use your fan page: Use the “Tell Your Fans” feature. With the tools built in to the fan page, Facebook allows you to import a contact file or import your contacts from Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. Good for when you’re just starting out and want to tell people you already know.
#16: Add a Like box: Place this in your blog/website sidebar. This is a given. A must. But when you do this, make sure you set the options to include face pile. That way, your Like box will show your readers how many of their friends like the page as well. Genius.
#17: Use targeted keywords in a Google AdWords: Use a keyword-based ad and direct people to your fan page. This is like Facebook ads on steroids. If you’ve never used AdWords before, it’s fairly straightforward.
#18: Redirect your webinar guests to your fan page: If you use GoToWebinar, you can choose to send registrants to a URL of your choosing after they sign up. This is where you let them know of the awesomeness that is your fan page.
#19: Put your fan page URL in your Keynote/PowerPoint slides: When I present, the last slide I show is my contact info, complete with our organization’s fan page. Most people are already on Facebook, so it’s a no-brainer to give them an easy way to connect with you.
#20: Last, and certainly least, invite all of your friends (if you must): This is at the end for a reason. Pester your friends only as the nuclear option. I’ve given you 19 other ways to let people know about your fan page. Give your friends a break!
Don’t let the list stop there. There are hundreds of different ways to let people know about what you and your online community are up to on Facebook. Why not get creative and start a list of your own? What are some of the most interesting ways you’ve seen people or businesses promote their fan page? Let us know; share what you’ve found!
Source: Social Media Examiner, Justin Wise
#6: Put a fan page widget on your blog or website: You’d be amazed at how many people simply don’t know about your fan page. Putting it on your website (i.e., your home base) will get it in front of all of your website visitors. My favorite example of this is from Klout. It got me to Like them!
#7: Customize your fan page URL: Vanity URLs are a fantastic way to make your fan page memorable. Check this awesome fan page http://facebook.com/awesomefanpage. Vanity, baby!
#8: Put your fan page URL on your business cards: Combine offline and online by letting the people you meet IRL know about your fan page.
#9: Put a link on your personal Facebook profile: Put this under the “links” section. This is a “soft sell” of sorts, letting your friends passively know about your page. You might have forgotten that people actually check that part of your profile!
#10: Harness the power of your team: Have everyone in your organization put your fan page link on their personal profile.
#11: Ask fans to post a link: Ask all of your current fans to post a link to the fan page on their personal profile. As long as you don’t ask this often, I’ve found that people love to help out. Leverage the power of your existing audience and get results! For instance, at Monk Development, we simply asked everyone to post a link to our company fan page on the same day. We doubled our average daily Likes because of one simple step.
#12: Put a tag in your YouTube videos: If you make compelling videos as a part of your content marketing strategy, throw in a well-timed fan page link at the end of your YouTube videos. The Gregory Brothers, the geniuses behind “Auto-tune the News,” are some of the best social marketers around. They always include a link to their fan page (and other social networks) at the end of every video and make it a welcome addition to their content.
#13: Put your fan page URL on your Twitter profile background: Lots of tweeters still use the web-based version and your profile background is a prime piece of web real estate. Cross-advertise and use one social network to promote another! CenturyLink does a great job of this. If you go to their Twitter page, you can clearly see where their fan page is located. They don’t make you guess, which leads to conversions!
#14: QR codes for your page: I bought the furniture for our house mostly because the store used QR codes to get me to their fan page. Once I got to the fan page, I was welcomed with a custom landing page that welcomed me to the store. It wasn’t elaborate, but it was creative and it worked! They engaged me as a customer both online (QR code leading to fan page) and offline (sales agents in the store), making sure I knew I was welcome. Smart!
#15: Use your fan page: Use the “Tell Your Fans” feature. With the tools built in to the fan page, Facebook allows you to import a contact file or import your contacts from Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. Good for when you’re just starting out and want to tell people you already know.
#16: Add a Like box: Place this in your blog/website sidebar. This is a given. A must. But when you do this, make sure you set the options to include face pile. That way, your Like box will show your readers how many of their friends like the page as well. Genius.
#17: Use targeted keywords in a Google AdWords: Use a keyword-based ad and direct people to your fan page. This is like Facebook ads on steroids. If you’ve never used AdWords before, it’s fairly straightforward.
#18: Redirect your webinar guests to your fan page: If you use GoToWebinar, you can choose to send registrants to a URL of your choosing after they sign up. This is where you let them know of the awesomeness that is your fan page.
#19: Put your fan page URL in your Keynote/PowerPoint slides: When I present, the last slide I show is my contact info, complete with our organization’s fan page. Most people are already on Facebook, so it’s a no-brainer to give them an easy way to connect with you.
#20: Last, and certainly least, invite all of your friends (if you must): This is at the end for a reason. Pester your friends only as the nuclear option. I’ve given you 19 other ways to let people know about your fan page. Give your friends a break!
Don’t let the list stop there. There are hundreds of different ways to let people know about what you and your online community are up to on Facebook. Why not get creative and start a list of your own? What are some of the most interesting ways you’ve seen people or businesses promote their fan page? Let us know; share what you’ve found!
Source: Social Media Examiner, Justin Wise