Facebook Has
Changed and
You Have to
Change Your
FB Game Plan
Compiled By
Bryant Vickers
Vickers Marketing Group
Wilmington, DE/Winston Salem, NC
302-353-2542
LATEST FACEBOOK INFORMATION:
FACEBOOK CHANGES: GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS
FACEBOOK CHANGES WILL REDUCE TRAFFIC TO YOUR
FACEBOOK PAGE
Announcements from Facebook about their recent changes make it clear the easy days of getting
traffic to your Facebook “business” page are over. Facebook has slashed the number of fans who
actually see your updates by quite a bit—yes, I’m talking about those who have clicked your
LIKE button. Derek Halpern at Social Triggers is reporting a 20% drop in the organic reach of
the posts on his page. Here’s his article called “Warning: If You Have a Facebook Fan Page, Read
This.” It looks like Facebook changes are here to stay.
It appears that Facebook is doing what many have warned about for a while: they’re cashing in
on the incredible numbers and extremely detailed demographic information they’ve been
collecting for years, and now they want you to pay to reach a higher number of those who have
already said they’re interested in your content.
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IF THE SKY’S NOT FALLING, WHAT’S THE ANSWER?
No, of course the sky’s not falling (though it is annoying, I’ll admit). Those of us using social
media have learned the hard way that nothing stays the same, and there’s no choice but to
adapt. I think Derek’s on the right track when he encourages his followers to remind their fans
about what’s going on. Make sure they understand that just because they have “Liked” your page
doesn’t mean they’ll automatically see your updates or special offers. Tell them that the best way
to get all the good things you have to offer is to get on your email mailing list if they’re not
already. Be specific about what those things might be: critical industry or niche information,
freebies, webinars, discounts, etc.
HERE’S THE SILVER LINING
Facebook’s frustrating news could truly lead to a great opportunity for you to build your email
list. Once someone has opted in to your email list, then no one can take that person’s name away
from you (unless they choose to unsubscribe on their own.) Be bold about spreading the news to
your fans and followers!
YOU SHOULD HAVE AN EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER
If you have a website, you should use an email service provider to build your email mailing list.
In these days when spam is rampant and people sign up for things they later forget about, a
website owner can get banned for spamming, even if they didn’t mean to. It’s critical to send
bulk emails according to all the latest rules and regulations. Using an email service provider will
ensure that this happens, and a good provider will make it so much easier to send email
newsletters, updates, or even a series of autoresponder messages. I started out with MailChimp,
which is free up to a certain number of emails on your list. I now use Aweber and have been
very pleased with their added functionality and terrific customer service. If I had to start all over
again, I’d start with Aweber so I didn’t have to move my old list. Other reputable email service
providers include Constant Contact and Infusionsoft.
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14 WAYS NEW FACEBOOK
BETRAYS SMALL BUSINESS
I get it. The IPO is coming, and even though Facebook is the largest seller of online
advertising, it has massively under-monetized its inventory due to the relative paucity of
big-brand spend. Most of Convince & Convert’s clients are larger corporations (or the
agencies that serve them), but we’re a small business and work with a few as well, and I
never thought I’d yearn for the cozy embrace of Google and it’s methodologies and
mechanisms that were – and are – small biz friendly.
In word and in deed, the new design and rules accompanying the new Timeline
version of Facebook pages is a boon to big business, and a blow to small
business.
1. COVER IMAGE
Sure it’s visceral to have a 850-pixel signature image dominate your Facebook page.
But for small businesses that lack existing photography and/or personnel with the
creativity and time to get something created for the Facebook Cover, it’s a burden not
an advance.
2. PROHIBITION ON COVER PROMOTION
Facebook wants businesses to act and interact like people, and banning promotional
language on the Cover image is one way to enforce this “engagement trumps
calls-to-action” philosophy. About the new Cover photos, and in particular
Facebook’s ban against promotional messaging in them, Facebook design lead Sam
Lessin said:
“The key with cover photos is storytelling and expression. We want to create a good
experience for everyone, and we think these guidelines really help brands… They’re
encouraging people to create engaging content that people want to come back to and
create and emotional connection with.” (quote from VentureBeat)
Creating emotional connections is a luxury that is out of reach for small businesses
where the Facebook page manager is doing so on her lunch break.
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3. DEATH OF THE LANDING TAB
One area where small businesses could excel in “old” Facebook was with the default
landing tab. This became a de-facto landing page/microsite for many companies,
and made it relatively easy to drive fan behavior – especially when using inexpensive
software. Of course, Facebook killed it in Timeline.
For big businesses that can and have embraced other ways to drive “likes” however, the
death of the landing tab is less troublesome. Said Roland Smart, Director of Product
Marketing at enterprise social media management software company Involver(whom I
interviewed about Facebook’s changes)
“I don’t think it’s a big deal at all. Facebook users aren’t spending a lot of time
browsing around. They are getting to the Nike Facebook page via a link on the Nike
website, through an ad, or through a link on the Facebook Wall.”
4. PINNING AND STARRING
“Pinned” post – indicated by small bookmark graphic in top right corner.
The new ability to highlight posts to make them double-width, combined with the
option to “pin” a post to the top of the page for up to 7 days (but not both on the
same post) is being touted as a big advance. For larger companies, I agree. But for
small business, having to now not only figure out what to post to Facebook but also
what to star and pin creates additional editorial calendar pressure and complexity that
many are unprepared or under resourced to tackle.
5. DIRECT MESSAGES
Presumably to keep the Wall chatter more positive and to stop Twitter’s march toward
becoming the default place for social media customer service, Facebook is offering an
(optional) feature whereby people can send direct messages to businesses. Note that
people must initiate this interaction, brands cannot direct message people unilaterally.
This seems commendable, but for small business it’s now one more “inbox” that
must be monitored and responded to in as close to real-time as possible.
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Screen shot of recent activity from @kikolani. Click image to see her excellent Pros/Cons post.
6. ACTIVITY STREAM
On each Page, the new Timeline version prominently displays the interactions that your
friends have had with the brand, as well as all activity on the page. Thus, if a small
business is not willing or able to update the Page on a regular basis (at least daily) the
design of Timeline will make that lack of activity glaring and garish. Perhaps that’s a
good thing, and companies that can’t update their Page shouldn’t be on Facebook at all,
but it’s still a change that doesn’t favor the small guy.
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7. PENALTY ON 3RD PARTY APPS
From @kikolani. Click for more.
Despite the fact that it continues to proclaim its disinterest in entering the social media
management business, Facebook embraces its ecosystem partners with one hand,
while slapping them with the other. Posting to a Facebook page using some third
party tools often results in status updates that are displayed with less visual
prominence than content entered directly at Facebook.com.
For small business that rely on third party tools to save time and boost social media
efficiency, this is a problem.
8. NEW TAB WIDTH
To provide additional real estate for apps, Facebook has changed (again) the maximum
width from 520 to 810 pixels. This isn’t a catastrophe, as legacy, narrower apps will float
in the center of the newly wide page. But eventually, apps will need to be widened or
overhauled entirely, creating another issue that small business needs to address.
(Fortunately, several low or no cost software options are already available to assist in
this process, including Lujure, North Social, Short Stack, Tabsite, and Agorapulse).
9. PREMIUM ADS
Says Involver’s Roland Smart, “Facebook is sending a clear message about
experimenting with new ad units that Madison Avenue will enjoy.” Indeed they will, and
at the expense of small business.
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The targeting potential of Facebook ads is unprecedented and extraordinarily powerful.
But, this opportunity to hyper-target your message is primarily of interest to smaller to
midsize businesses looking for clicks and leads and sales, rather than big business
looking for branding and engagement.
Facebook’s perspective for larger businesses, of course makes sense, as every seller
of advertising would prefer to do so on an impression rather than clicks basis. But for
small business, it might hurt.
10. REACH GENERATOR
Facebook will now allow large companies (only, for now) to purchase additional “reach”
for their status updates via a new Reach Generator option. Sheryl Sandberg –
Facebook’s COO – acknowledged that on average the reach of status updates is only
16% – meaning that only 16 out of every 100 of your “fans” actually see your
status updates.
Compare this to the average open rate for an email newsletter (~25%), and note that
Facebook gives companies one third less visibility than does email. But magically,
Facebook has found a way to fix this “problem” – by purchasing more ads from them.
Given that Facebook itself dictates the 16% ratio (which is actually higher than the 7.5%
– 10% figure researched and cited by Facebook experts like Pagelever.com’s Jeff
Widman), based on its EdgeRank algorithm, it’s maddening that they have
nowessentially admitted that they have been artificially reducing the reach of
status updates as a precursor to the rollout of Reach Generator ads (which can put
your status updates in front of the eyeballs of ~75% of your fans).
Essentially, Facebook has said that companies need to spend time and money (on apps
and such) to acquire “likes” but that the vast majority of those fans won’t typically see
updates from the brand, unless the brand pays for it. This is the end of Facebook as a
“free” option for brands, and demonstrates such gall and guile it makes me want to
scream at my laptop.
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11. REAL-TIME INSIGHTS
Facebook’s built-in Insights statistics platform has been positively Gingrich-like
in its frequent changes of direction, and now it’s unveiling real-time stats. The notion
is that businesses will be able to instantly know when posts are gaining disproportionate
traction, so that they can be immediately turned into paid ads to build reach. This is a
nifty opportunity to be sure, but of course will be beyond the reach of small business
due to budget and lack of staff to sit around and stare at real-time data streams.
12. MILESTONES
Starbucks’ Timeline with Milestones
The biggest indicator of Facebook’s new scrapbook mythology is the Milestones
function. Brands can now create posts from any time in their history (including long
before Facebook existed) and note them as Milestones. This notation shows them in the
scrolling milestones timeline on the right hand side of the Page. For legacy brands, it’s a
very nice option. For small businesses that may not have the photos to post, the time to
post, or the inclination to figure out a backwards-looking historical record, it’s probably a
bridge too far.
13. AUTO-PLAY CONTENT
According to Involver’s Smart, an underreported feature of Timeline is that Facebook
apps can now auto-play content – without requiring a user click or other action. This
has serious implications for rich media apps and video-oriented Facebook content. A
newfound playground for big brands, but probably not something most small businesses
will have the dollars or desire to embrace.
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14. ROLLOUT SCHEDULE
My favorite quote coming from Facebook in the announcement of Timeline for brands
and the other changes, was this beauty from Facebook’s Lessin:
“We’ve been focused on giving tons of notice. It really helps in terms of people
understanding what’s coming.” (quoted by VentureBeat)
Compared to small and midsize businesses, Facebook and large companies with
staffed social media departments (or consultants like Convince & Convert) have a
different sense of “tons of notice.”
Thirty days to find a Cover image; replace the landing tab; change about copy; decide
what and when to pin and star; figure out how to handle direct messages; reconfigure
legacy apps and pick which two will be shown as a default; and potentially add
milestones, is actually a frighteningly short period of time for small business – who do
not sit around and ponder their Facebook best practices every day.
And one of those four weeks that Facebook graciously offered before Timeline becomes
mandatory will be occupied by Spring Break, when many small business owners are on
vacation with their families – ostensibly making the memories and images that
Facebook craves above all. Oh, the irony.
7 REASONS WHY YOUR BUSINESS IS
FAILING ON FACEBOOK
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Social Media is about building awareness and acquiring customers. The ultimate goal
for every small business is to increase the overall visibility of your business, drive traffic
to your website, and find more customers.
Although 51 percent of small businesses use Facebook to acquire new customers,
many businesses are still struggling to master the basics of Facebook. Are you
unknowingly driving customers away by falling victim to some of the most common
Facebook blunders?
Below are 7 Facebook mistakes that are hurting your Social Media efforts.
1. YOU HAVEN’T GOT A CLUE HOW TO USE
FACEBOOK
Your granddaughter told you that it’s ‘like, super important’ to have a Facebook Page,
but you don’t know the first thing about Facebook or why the heck it’s important for your
business. If you are guilty of any of the following, we suggest you take some time to get
to know Facebook and why it’s important for your business before trying to build your
presence.

You use a personal profile for your business: Nothing screams, “I have no idea what I’m doing”
like assigning your business to the wrong category. It’s important to create an official Facebook
Business Page in order to take advantage of richer functionality: fan likes, checks-ins ads, analytics,
etc.

You like your own posts: We know you liked your post…You posted it! No need to gloat!!

Your wall is all “spammy”: Delete spam comments (not to be mistaken with consumer complaints).
This page is associated with your business…take care of it!

You ignore comments and messages: Maybe you only open your Facebook once in a while, or you
still haven’t figured out how to see your messages, but your fan comments or questions have gone
unanswered for weeks.
2. YOUR PAGE LOOKS LIKE CRAP
That’s right, I said it…your Page looks like crap. Your logo is from 1980 and you didn’t
bother to resize it to fit your profile image. Your Facebook profile and cover photo are
an opportunity to showcase your business. Take a look at your branding (your logo,
your website, your business cards and you social media profiles) and ask if you are
sending consumers the right message—that you are a qualified, interesting business
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that knows the market. Facebook is visual and having strong visual representation is
important to growing your presence.
3. YOU ACT LIKE A USED CAR SALESMAN
Stop thinking like a marketer and start thinking like a customer. You’ll soon understand
that the secret to social media is in the “social” not the “media.” Yes, you can (and
should) use social media for marketing and you can increase your sales figures from it,
but it can’t be your focus 100% of the time. As a general rule of thumb, only 5% to 10%
of your social media activity (i.e. status updates or tweets) should be self-promotional.
4. YOU’RE BORING
Just because your company seems ordinary or boring, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible to
add some pizazz to your content creation efforts. Let’s take an insurance company for
example. YAWN! While demand for information about insurance is high, that doesn’t
mean the topic is particularly interesting. It simply means that despite this recognized
boring industry, it’s an important part of everyone’s life. Geico and Allstate have both
found ways to lighten up the discussion around insurance, Geico with its Geico Gecko,
and Allstate with its character, Mayhem, who’s been featured doing everything from
streaking across a football field to munching on a bone while your house gets robbed, to
my personal favorite, driving while being a teenage girl.
5. YOU DON’T INVEST ENOUGH TIME
Some small business owners are under the impression that if they set up a Page on
Facebook, people will just naturally come and want to be a fan of their product or
service. Creating a Facebook page is the first of many steps, but the page needs to be
updated and monitored. Social media requires constant commitment, from keeping
fresh content on your accounts to engaging your community.
The worst thing a business can do is open a page on Facebook and never touch it
again. Designate one person on your team that is responsible for posting at least once
daily. They should create a plan aimed at not only providing interesting content, but
driving traffic, generating leads, and increasing awareness of your business.
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6. YOU’RE CHEAP
Sure, you don’t have to spend a dime to join Facebook, create a Twitter account, or
start a blog. However, social media is far from free…and businesses that choose to look
at it this way should shut down their account now and put their time into other avenues.
You could post 5 times a day with witty and entertaining content, but without purchasing
advertising only 10-15% of your fans will ever read it! Period.
The great thing about Facebook is that you can work with very small budgets. For a
mere $25/ month you can promote your posts, drive traffic to your products, deals and
sweepstakes…even your website or offline events. The more budget you provide, the
better your exposure and results.
7. YOU’RE TERRIFIED OF WHAT PEOPLE WILL
SAY
If consumers know they can reach out to your company via social media and are
encouraged to do so, this is a good opportunity to provide great service in front of a
large audience. Don’t be afraid of customer complaints. Address them head on. These
opportunities can often turn into great testimonials when customers are handled with
care.
Your business is built on people. By fostering those relationships, you show customers
that you care about their needs and, in the end, build a better business. Facebook is a
great way to connect with your consumers, build loyal relationships and showcase your
business personality…not to mention generate leads. If you want to utilize Facebook to
help create real opportunities for your business, then you need to put time into
understanding the platform and adequate resources into building a strong and beneficial
presence.
FB Info/Resources:
http://socialmediatoday.com/pamdyer/1458746/50-top-tools-social-media-monitoring-analytics-and-management2013
http://www.firstcovers.com/generators/flash.html
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32712/New-Facebook-Coupon-Feature-Helps-Local-BusinessesDetermine-Social-ROI.aspx
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Now you have the facts; Vickers Marketing Group is here to help simplify all this.
Get the results you really want.
We specialize in the social management of:
FB Contests, Social and Email Events, Lead Magnets, Coupons, Share and Like Gates and
Ecommerce sites ; Google Plus; Twitter; Linkedin; Pinterest; Youtube; Blogger; Picasa
and Brand Booster Campaigns. And we also Syndicate Videos across 30 Video Sharing
Sites, and Post Ads across 550 Classified Sites. There may be a possible 10% -20% royalty,
lead or barter deal negotiation (do to our low fees).
Call VMG for free initial phone consultation and trial offer.
Rory Koonze, Social Media Specialist
302- 220-1400
Or
Bryant Vickers, Marketing Optimization and Lead Conversion Advisor; Internet and
Direct Mail Specialist
302-353-2542
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