The Arms Race to capture the most Likes on Facebook has been a complete failure. In fact, starting in January, Facebook is cutting down unpaid promotional material in user news feeds that businesses have posted as status updates (source). This announcement is Facebook’s way of saying that rent is due and it’s time to pay up. If you want your followers to see your promotional posts in 2015, you better set budget aside for Paid Social.
A year ago Facebook offered some serious cash (to the tune of $1 billion – pinky raised) for Instagram. The final purchase price was around $750 million.
The purchase at it’s initial value was the largest acquisition of a venture capital-backed consumer web company since Zappos was purchased by Amazon for 1.22 billion in 2009 (source).
Was it over-valued? Perhaps. As Facebook has yet to make any money from the purchase of Instagram.
With the anniversary of the announcement we thought it would be fun to put together a 13 things for 2013 on Instagram. Enjoy.
Brands with Instagram accounts share an average of 98% of the photos they post to the site to Facebook, and 59% to Twitter (source) [TWEET THIS STAT]
Instagram’s Facebook app has more than 7.3MM active monthly users (source) [TWEET THIS STAT]
18 – 29 year olds are the largest user base on Instagram (source) [TWEET THIS STAT]
Women are more likely to use Instagram than men 16% vs 10% of internet users (source) [TWEET THIS STAT]
34% of internet users on Instagram are African American or Hispanic (source) [TWEET THIS STAT]
41% of brands post 1 or more photos per week to their Instagram accounts, up from 34% in Q4 2012 (source) [TWEET THIS STAT]
100 million Monthly Active Users (source) [TWEET THIS STAT]
40 million Photos Per Day (source) [TWEET THIS STAT]
1000. The Number of Comments Per Second on Instagram (source) [TWEET THIS STAT]
8500 Likes Per Second (source) [TWEET THIS STAT]
257 Minutes is the average time spent on Instagram (source) [TWEET THIS STAT]
Instagram Launch Date: October 2010 (source)
Room for Growth: There are 5.2 million phones in use, 83% of all phones in use are camera phones (source) [TWEET THIS STAT]
In our research we stumbled across a tool for tracking your own Instagram numbers: Statigr.am http://statigr.am/instagram-statistics
Now go be social.
Facebook has rolled out a new feature called Replies. It allows page admins to reply directly to a comment instead of posting a comment.
How did it work before
When you had a super busy thread you had to reply to a comment with a comment. This would be further down the thread and it was never readily apparent whom you were responding to.
How it works now
Now you have the ability to reply directly to the comment similar to what you see on blogs. We like to call them “conversation threads”. The most active comments will rise to the top of the discussion and comments marked as spam are moved to the bottom.
According to Facebook replies will make it easier to respond to people who have commented on your page. You can reply to a specific comment by clicking Reply under someone else’s comment. The replies are shown blew the comment, so it’s clear who’s responding to which comment.
When will you have it?
Currently you have the option to turn this feature on, you should see a notification when you visit your Facebook page. It will be turned out automatically for pages and profiles with more than 10,000 followers on Monday. It will be turned on for all pages by July 10.
What do you think of the new feature?
Facebook Likes. We want ’em. We need ’em. We pay for ’em.
I noticed a recent feature on Facebook asking page admins if they would like to get more likes. If you admin a page you’ll find it on the left hand side. It replaces the section that showed the most recent person to like your page. [UPDATE] Promoting your Page from the admin panel is only available to Pages with locations and a profile picture. [/UPDATE]
Similar to promoted posts, it’s Facebook’s way of making the advertising process easier to start. Page admins don’t have to fuss with the Facebook Advertising Dashboard or the hassle of creating an actual campaign.
Let’s take a look at how it works.
Facebook gives you the option of setting a daily budget between $5 – $100 per day (image right). To the right of the price is an estimate of how many likes the page should get. As you can see a $100 per day should net you between 43-391 likes per day. Your mileage may vary depending on your page and it’s existing fan base.
Where do the Ads Show?
Your ads will start showing in the new feed or on the right side of Facebook with a link that encourages them to like your page. They ads may appear on mobile or desktop and run until you end the promotion.
What Type of Ads?
People will start seeing ads in their news feeds or on the right side of Facebook with a link that encourages them to like your Page. These ads may appear on mobile or desktop and will run until you stop your promotion.
Who Sees my Ad?
Your pages ad can be targeted to people located near your business. You can choose from your business’s city, state or country.
I’m thinking this will prompt me to write a post about targeting ads on Facebook. I’ll also post some results as we’re testing the feature now (see bottom photo)
Have you noticed this new advertising option on Facebook? What do you think is it worth it?
Now that you having a basic understanding of a Facebook page vs. a Personal Profile, it’s time to look at customizing your page.
Facebook gives you the ability to:
There are plenty of tutorials on adding custom apps, do a Google search and you’ll certainly find a plethora of selections. Adding a custom app for Twitter or blogs posts is fairly straight forward so we won’t cover that here. You do however have the ability to swap out the default image for apps. You can also swap app positions.
1. Hover over the app
2. Click on the pencil at the top right
3. Select “Edit Settings”
4. Select “Change” on Custom Tab Image
5. Upload new Image
6. Give Custom Tab a Name
7. Save (all done!)
Cover Photos
The default size for cover photos is 399 pixels wide. Your image at minimum needs to be this size. The dimensions for cover photos are 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall. You’ll may also get better quality by using a PNG file.
If your image is smaller than the dimensions listed it will get stretched to the appropriate size which can have an effect on quality. You’ll also have the option of re-positioning photos if they are larger than the default size.
1. Go to your page
2. Hover over your cover
3. Click the pencil at the bottom righ of your cover
4. Pick on of the options from the pop-up menu
5. Save your changes
Profile Photo
Profile photo’s are important not just because it’s the first thing that visitors see, it’s also what show’s in the newsfeed every time you make a new post. Make sure you adjust your design accordingly. Profile photo dimensions are 160 pixels by 160 pixels.
Customizing the About Section Under your Profile Picture
You can edit the about section anytime you like, however, you cannot choose what fields are displayed there. It varies depending on what type of page (category) you have. An example would be a restaurant will show price range, address and phone number while an musicians page shows the About field of the Page’s basic information.
When getting started with Facebook for business it’s important to understand the difference between a Facebook page vs. Personal Profiles.
Some business either from lack of understanding or purposefully create personal profiles for their business. Creating a personal profile for a business is against the Facebook terms of service.
Personal timelines:
[o_list][li]Timelines are for individual, non-commercial use. [/li] [li]Timelines represent individual people and must be held under an individual name. [/li] [li]You can follow Timelines to see public updates of people you’re interested in but aren’t friends with.[/li] [/o_list]
Facebook Pages:
[o_list][li]Pages look similar to personal timelines, but they offer unique tools for connecting people to a topic you care about, like a business, brand, organization or celebrity. [/li] [li]Pages are managed by admins who have personal timelines[/li] [li]Pages are not separate Facebook accounts and do not have separate login information from your timeline.[/li] [li]Pages provide insights to help admins understand how people are interacting with the Page. [/li] [li]You can like a Page to see updates in your news feed about brands you care about.[/li] [/o_list]
What’s the Big Deal?
Opting for Personal Profile vs. a Facebook page may quickly allow you to garner friends, but be warned, Facebook has been known to completely delete profiles that are against the Facebook Term of Service. You’ll lose all of your pictures, posts, and friends in the process. All the hard work is gone. We know this to be true because it happened to a client prior to coming on board with us. 3,000+ friends gone.
Why do people do it?
Building a following isn’t easy. By using a personal profile companies send out mass friend request. It’s an attempt to get around the need to run ads or actually engage to build a page.
I’m Guilty What do I Need to Do?
First things first, you admitted it. Now you can go about making things right. You’ll need to convert your personal page to a Facebook page. Facebook will transfer your current profile picture and add all your friends and followers as people who like your page. You account username will become the username of the page. You’ll have the option to create a new page name if you like.
No other content (images, videos, etc) will be carried over, so make sure you download your Facebook history. From here you’ll be able to rebuild your page (contact us if you need help doing this).
Beware, once you convert your personal account to a Facebook you cannot reverse it. So it’s extremely important that you remember to download your history.
I’m Creating my First Page. Where do I go?
You want to start out right by visiting the Create a Page section on Facebook.
The internet is a big, wonderful place with content to consume at every turn. Some days it can be overwhelming trying to wrap your head around the information thrown at us. We thought it would be cool to share just how much happens in the span of a minute on the internet. Below you’ll find a nifty infographic from Go-Globe. These numbers are from early 2012 so I’m certain they’re are adjustments here and there, but you get the point.
Infographic by- Shanghai Web Designers
With Facebook’s announcement of changes to the New Feed, the first question we heard in meetings was “how will this affect our page?”
Our response? Great question.
As of right now, thanks to the infograph from ShortStack, here are a few changes you can expect for your business page.
1. Sharing will be important. A feature called spotlight will showcase your Page’s most shared posts.
2. Profile and Cover photos. Whenever someone new likes your Page, your profile image and cover photo will show in the new feed. Good opportunities here. But don’t over do it with the text in your cover “photo”. Please.
3. You’re kind of hidden.There will be a “following” feed for fans to access news from Pages they like. FYI average Facebook users will rarely use this feature which already exists now. Expect engagement to drop a bit.
4. App integration will show larger complete images of what your fans like.
While this is a pretty short list, we’ll be sure to keep you updated as we get our hands on the updated News Feed.
You can download the PDF here at Short Stack.
Facebook search has left a lot to be desired. To be honest, it was just plain awful and at times frustrating to use. All of that changed when Facebook announced the addition of Graph Search. What is Graph Search? According to Facebook it’s a new search feature that allows users to discover people, places, and things on Facebook.
This is great for local business because if you’re a Page or place, you and the content you share can appear in search results based on the information you have shared.
So if you’re a local business who has been active on Facebook with an abundance of content and fans you’re sitting in a good spot right now. If not, you have some work to do.
Here are five things you need to know about Facebook Graph Search:
1. Make sure your Place or Page is up to date.
This includes your name, categories, vanity url, and any information you’ve placed in the About section (address, phone number, etc). Facebook uses this information to help users find your business.
2. Be Engaging
This is a rule that never changes. Facebook has rewarded those pages who have the most engaged fans by showing them more often in the news feed. Nothing has changed here when it comes to search. Results will be ordered based on the strength of a users relationship. Places and pages that are most popular with a persons friends and connections will show first.
3. Photo Resolution is Larger
Be sure to upload at least a 620×620 pixel resolution profile photo. Don’t be lazy here by simply uploading your logo. Take the 10 minutes to customize it size. This will be one of the first impressions those searching will have of your business.
4. Share Photos and Videos
Photos tend to have a good shelf life on Facebook. What you share on your page will be available for photo and video-related searches.
5. There is no time like the present
Facebook started rolling out the Graph Search on January 15th to a small set of users so you have time to get things together. As with most things, those that do the work will be rewarded.
Are you ready?
