For over a year, rumor has had it on the web that Facebook Page posts reach an average of only 16% of fans. Actually, Facebook itself started this rumor in February of 2012 at the Facebook Marketing Conference in New York.

This famous figure of 16% has been repeated again and again on all social media blogs so that it is now perceived as an uncontested truth by virtually all Facebook page administrators.

But the reality is quite different!

Your posts don’t reach exactly 16% of your fans, but most likely a little more or a little less — sometimes a lot more or a lot less!

This 16% figure is the average of data from millions and millions of pages of very different types, it is a myth!

The real figure is somewhere between 2% and 47%, quite far from 16% for everyone…

The overall average fan reach is certainly close to 16%, but in reality, the best pages have a 47% reach, while the worst only reach 2% of their fans! Are you closer to 2% or 47%? This is the real question!

Let’s take a moment to look at the different forms of measuring reach on Facebook pages. In my experience, there are still many Facebook page administrators who don’t fully understand these metrics. It’s necessary to recognize that understanding them is not always easy. Let me try to clarify this point.
The different types of Facebook reach metrics

Fan reach

Fan reach simply corresponds to the number of fans of your page who have seen any given post. This reach is called “organic”, which means that it only records the number of people who saw your post because they like your page and not because of an action of a friend (such as like, share, or comment).

The Fan only reach metric is not available in the Facebook statistics interface. Fan reach will only be available in the Excel file available for download. You’ll find it under the label “Lifetime Post reach by people who like your Page”. Not as user friendly as the web interface.

To easily measure it, you’ll probably resort to paid Facebook statistics analysis software such as Agorapulse. Probably the best thing to do first is the use a free service like our Facebook Page Performance Barometer.

In order to obtain the fan reach for your posts, you’ll have to download the excel version of your post level insights and seacrch for the “Lifetime Post reach by people who like your page”.

Organic reach

Organic reach corresponds to the number of people, fans and non-fans, who have seen a given post. Organic reach only records views which are not the result of a friend’s action (such as like, share, or comment). The views that are a result of an action of a friend are actually recorded in “viral” views. The real difference between fan reach (above) and organic reach is that the latter include views of people that are not fans of the page but have directly accessed your page on Facebook or seen its content in a widget (for example, a “like box” on your site or blog).

So, for lack of being able to see fan reach in the Facebook interface, organic reach can serve as a substitute data point.

On the other hand, it won’t be exact and in some cases could even be quite different from the fan reach.

In the two examples below, we found differences between these two metrics that range from a few percent to more than 100%!

From one page to another, the difference between scope and organic reach can go from small to one more significant (more than double here). If you use organic reach as a reference measurement, make sure your page is closer to the former than the latter!

Viral reach

Viral reach corresponds to the number of people who have seen one of your posts from an action taken by one of their friends (like, share, comment). We assume that the metric records fans and non-fans in the absence of a more specific definition from Facebook.

The viral reach is therefore the most immediate translation of Facebook’s implicit marketing promise: “recruit and engage in conversation with your fans so they talk about you with their friends.”

However, take note that the average viral reach of Facebook pages is, as a general rule, quite limited. The average viral reach that we observe on the Facebook Page Performance barometer is between 6 and 12 times less than the organic reach.

Caption: Above is an example of a page with 500,000 extremely active fans. As you can see, its performance in terms of fan reach, engagement and “people talking about this” is more than double that of pages of the same size. In theory, all the ingredients are there to create “buzz” and benefit from a viral reach more than the rest. But it is not happening, this page only benefits from a viral reach equivalent to 1.2% of its fans, dismal compared to its organic reach of 15.4%.

Does Facebook let you reach the friends of your fans? Yes, of course, but don’t expect the ‘buzz of the century’. The potential remains relatively limited even for the best performing pages with the highest quality content.
Last minute update: Facebook has revealed on February 22nd that a bug on their insights has led to a misrepresentation of Organic and Viral reach for most pages. (URL: https://www.facebook.com/business/pages_insights_update) According to the data I have in hand, the way pages have been affected by this bug varies significantly from one page to another. Apparently, Organic reach has been slightly affected (between 5 and 10% more reach starting February 23) but viral reach has been much more affected with more than 300% increase in some instances!

After Facebook fixed a bug affecting the reporting of Organic and Viral reach, the latter have increased significantly for some pages. In the above example, Viral reach has been multiplied by almost 4 from February 22 to February 24!

Therefore, I advise you to check the evolution of your Organic and Viral Reach on the Facebook Page Barometer (http://barometer.agorapulse.com) to find out how it has affected you!

Paid reach

No need for a lengthy definition – this is simply reach obtained through paid means, such as promoted posts and advertisements (sponsored stories). This paid reach can come from fans or non-fans.

Total reach

Total reach is the sum of organic, viral, and paid reach. That one was easy!

But the complexity doesn’t end there. Beyond the type of reach (organic, viral, etc.), Facebook also allows for different time periods to be measured. Fan reach — organic, viral, and paid — can therefore be measured over multiple periods.

Different “periods” of measuring the reach on Facebook

1 – Post reach

This is the fundamental unit of measurement. It’s also the one used in the context of our discussion of the “16%” myth. It measures the number of people who have seen a particular post. It is the most important measurement because it lets you compare posts to each other without regard to how frequently you post them. It is not actually a “period” of time but assume that it’s the basic unit for measuring reach.

2 – Daily reach

This is the number of people (fans and/or non-fans) that the page reaches each day. This metric is relevant if you publish every day and publish the same number of posts every day. I personally don’t find this metric so interesting because it represents little and is too heavily influenced by post frequency.

3 – Weekly reach

This is the number of people (fans and/or non-fans regardless of whether they are organic, viral, or paid) that the page reaches each week. This metric is therefore influenced by the average reach of each post and also by the number of posts published each week.

4 – Monthly reach

Same definition as the weekly reach, but here the measurement is made over the last 28 days. Right behind post reach, this is my second favorite metric because it shows me the total number of people who have seen the page content at least once in the previous month.

What you must remember: Post reach is the only good indicator of the quality of your content and good health of your page because it is not influenced by the frequency of your posts. On the other hand, weekly reach, or even more so, monthly, is a good indicator of the visibility of your brand over a given period of time. Facebook users are not permanently connected and cannot see all your posts. That’s why it is interesting to see the percentage of fans reached over a given time period, especially to have an approximate idea of the percentage of fans with whom you have completely lost touch. The percentage of fans that haven’t seen your posts over a month is probably a good estimate of the percentage of fans who no longer see your posts at all.

Why is « per post » fan reach the most important metric for follow?

Per post Fan reach is probably the most important metric. Its importance is due to being a key indicator of the appeal of your content to your audience and the quality of said audience.

An audience recruited from an eye-catching contest (or worse, bought by the thousand from sites with practices as questionable as their effectiveness) will quickly hide your posts from their newsfeed. If they don’t actively unsubscribe, their lack of interest, and therefore disengagement, will cause them to be effectively unsubscribed from your publications due to the relentless effect of Edgerank.

Fan reach is a key indicator of the health of your Facebook page. The higher the quality of your audience and the more interesting your content is, the greater the increase in percentage of fans reached will be — and vice versa.

There was a time when Facebook put this metric at the forefront by displaying it very clearly on each post.

A few months ago, Facebook displayed the percentage of fans who saw each of your posts. This feature has quickly disappeared. That’s too bad.

This feature has disappeared. Personally, I don’t really understand why it had such a short lifespan, just a few weeks.

In any case, this metric is the basis of the famous “16%” and it is the one that interests me today.

More attention must also be given to post reach than other measurements (daily, weekly, monthly reach) because, for example, a high frequency of posts to an mildly interested audience will give you a daily reach which could seem correct but is artificially “bloated” by the sheer number of posts.

You can post more on a daily or weekly basis to reach more people, nothing to be blamed about, but it only makes sense if each individual piece of content resonates well with the audience. Trying to post more often to hide a low performance per post is not a strategy I recommend.

Let’s take a look at the factors that can influence this reach percentage.

What factors can influence your average reach per post?

In Facebook land: small is beautiful!

The smaller your page is, the higher percentage of fans you will reach. According to statistics that we have based on more than 3,000 Facebook pages, those with less than 1,000 fans reach on average 22% of their fans per post while pages with more than 100,000 fans reach an average of only 6.6% of their fans with each post.

This is a ratio of 3.5 to 1! You can already see that the 16% average figure makes no sense because if your page has 1,000 fans, a good comparative average is 23%. If your page has 150,000 fans, it is closer to 6 or 7%.

The mere fact that your page has less than 1,000 fans or more than 100,000 will have a significant impact on your potential reach, regardless of the quality of your content. Performance averages calculated above for almost 4,000 Facebook pages clearly shows that the size of pages strongly influences their performance averages. You can see this data live at http://barometer.agorapulse.com

Small or large, not all Facebook pages are equal

The differences in Facebook page’s reach isn’t just about their size. Even within the same size range, the gap between the best and the worst is absolutely astounding.

For example, pages in the range of 100,000 fans have an average fan reach of 6.7%. However, the average of the worst 5% performing pages shows a reach of 0.6% of fans (oops!), while the top 5% performing pages reach an average of 20% of their fans with each post. Wow! The best pages reach, therefore, 3 times more fans than the average on a percentage basis!

The difference of fan reach even within the same page size range can vary by a factor of 33 to 1 (here, from 0.6% to 19.9% reach)!

We went a step further and examined the figures for the top 5% performing pages. Among them, THE top performing page reaches up to 29% of its fans with each of its posts. Impressive! This means each post of this page that has 100,000 fans reaches almost 30,000 people on average every time it posts something…and that is without any paid advertising.

It is absolute proof, if it were still needed, that Facebook does not play with the reach of pages to force them to pay for advertising. An effective page still enjoys phenomenal reach without paying a dime.

What percentage of your fans can you expect for each of your posts?

As mentioned above, the 16% figure embraced by the blogosphere for nearly a year makes no sense and most likely does not apply to your page.

The first thing you can do is to check our Facebook Page Performance Barometer (http://barometer.agorapulse.com) to find the average reach that corresponds to your page size. This will give you a benchmark for comparison based on a sample of similarly sized pages.

Then, if you would like, you can install the application to measure the average reach of your page (fans, organic and viral). You have to install the app but it will save you the trouble of having to calculate it manually.

So is your average fan reach closer to 2% or 45%? Please share your results in the comments — I look forward to helping you analyze and improve them!

The post Busting Facebook’s Most Widespread Myth (or why you are not reaching 16% of your fans!) appeared first on English.

#1 Facebook introduces #hashtags

Author: Emil Protalinski The Next Web
Why read this article?
Although not unexpected, this is a major new development for Facebook. Your brand Pages will be able to contribute to topical issues and stories, how will you benefit?

>> #FacebookHashtag

#2 Recruit Genuine Fans with Facebook Contest

Author: Emeric Ernoult, AgoraPulse
Why read this article?
Avoid the competition junkies and attract genuine Fans to your Page with a strategic Facebook contest. Done correctly you will be the winner in the long run!

>> attract real fans here

#3 Are People Really Influenced by Friends’ Likes?

Author: David Cohen, All Facebook

Why read this article?
Facebook marketers have long relied on Friends of Fans as a way of reaching a new audience and potential customers. We have to ask ourselves to what extent are social media users really influenced by what their friends ‘Like’?

>> Find out here

#4 What Type of Facebook Ad Offers the Best Value?

Author: David Cohen, All Facebook
Why read this article?
Advertising on Facebook has become a necessity in order for your content to reach your Fans. As the cost of advertising increases, it is useful to know where the best value is to be found.
>> read the full study

#5 9 Pillars of a Great Facebook Community

Author: Andrea Vahl, AndreaVahl.com

Why read this article?
Engaging with your community is vital to the success of your brand on Facebook. Deciding on the best way to do that is less straight forward – particularly when there are several managers involved.

>> Get some tips here

#6 People Come in All Shapes, Sizes and Fan Types

Author: Scott Ayres, Post Planner

Why read this article?
There are many different types of Fan on Facebook, from the casual observer to the ardent supporter. When it comes to your content one size definitely does not fit all. Get some tips for targeting each Fan type.

>> Hope you like this

#7 Make the Smart Move with Mobile Ads

Author: Jon Loomer, Jon Loomer Digital
Why read this article?
Find out how to get your ads into mobile news feeds. They have better CTR’s and generate more Likes. Sounds like a (Facebook marketing) plan!

>> Here’s how

Did we leave anything out? Why not let us know what you think of this week’s roundup? “Like” us on Facebook and leave your comments and if you would like to know more about your page reach, check out our cool [free] tool

The post The Agora [Weekly] Pulse – All you need to know about Facebook marketing this week (June 14th) appeared first on English.

#1 Why Small Brands Can Succeed on Facebook Too

Author: Justin Lafferty, All Facebook

Why read this article?
Not every business has a million dollar budget for Facebook marketing. In reality, few do. Here are some great tips from Dennis Yu and Lisa Buyer on how to market your brand successfully on Facebook.

>>Take a look

#2 ‘Insight’ into the Most Valuable Metric for Marketers

Author: Guest Writer, All Facebook

Why read this article?
So, what is the most important Facebook Insights metric to measure success? It’s Reach. That’s right – Reach – not Engagement and here’s why…

>>reach your own conclusion here

#3 Where Would You Like To Promote That Post?

Author: David Cohen, All Facebook

Why read this article?
Facebook has introduced more flexible geo-targeting options for Promoted Posts. In the past you had to use geo-targeting on the original Post for this feature to work. Not any more..

>>Find out how

#4 Customize What Appears in Your Newsfeed

Author: Justin Lafferty, All Facebook

Why read this article?
This one is for every Facebook user out there. You can filter what appears in your Newsfeed by creating Lists.

>>Bypass EdgeRank here

#5 Novel Ways to Use Sponsored Stories

Author: Jon Loomer, Jon Loomer Digital

Why read this article?
Did you know that there are more than 11 different types of ‘Story’ you can sponsor on Facebook? That’s a lot of ways to reach your Fans.

>>Get the full story here

#6 How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

Author: Scott Ayres, Post Planner

Why read this article?
It’s funny because it’s true…

>>Tongue firmly in cheek

#7 Reach – The Top 10

Author: Mari Smith, Mari Smith

Why read this article?
Now that we are all agreed Reach is the most important metric to measure success on Facebook – here are some tips on how to improve it.

>>Here’s how

#8 Facebook Gets Most of Social Media Budget

Author: Jonathan Espinosa, Inside Facebook

Why read this article?
Brands are allocating 57% of their social media marketing budget to Facebook. As the largest social networking site this is hardly surprising. In a recent study of 3000 marketers, 41% were ‘uncertain’ of the effectiveness of Facebook. This is surprising, particularly given the amazing tools available for measuring marketing success on Facebook – shameless plug!!

>>Full article here

Did we leave anything out? Why not let us know what you think of this week’s roundup? “Like” us on Facebook and leave your comments and if you would like to know more about your page reach, check out our cool [free] tool

The post The Agora [Weekly] Pulse – All you need to know about Facebook marketing this week (June 7th) appeared first on English.

This week we delve into the world of Facebook contests, we find out more about Facebook Insights, including some top metrics that you should look at and we learn how to customize conversion tracking on Post ads. As summer gets underway we also felt it would be timely to provide Facebook marketing tips for hotels. Enjoy!

#1 App or Form? A Facebook Contest Conundrum

Author: Emeric Ernoult, AgoraPulse

Why read this article?
There is a lot of debate about which works better. Review some genuine statistics from Fan contents to help you decide. Find the winning formula for your Facebook contest thanks to this valuable data.

>>Take a look

#2 ‘Known Issue’ In Facebook Insights Data

Author: Emil Protalinski The Next Web

Why read this article?
Many Page owners are concerned because Facebook Insights data has not been updated since as far back as 13th May. Facebook have confirmed that this is a ‘known issue’ and they are working on a solution.

>>Read the full article here

#3 A Five Star Facebook Marketing Strategy For Hotels

Author: Emeric Ernoult, AgoraPulse

Why read this article?
Every hotel has a Facebook Page but too many hotels try to make their Page into a booking portal. This is a waste of time and effort. Find out how to create a five star Facebook Marketing strategy.

>>Check in

#4 Are Your Posts Reaching Their Full Potential?

Author: Scott Ayres, Post Planner

Why read this article?
To answer this question you must first be able to measure the Reach of your Posts. Organic Reach is great, but you also want to know how many of your Fans saw a Post. Find out how to access this valuable information and more importantly how to use it to increase Fan Reach.

>>Reach info here

#5 Warning – Facebook Phishing Scam Targets Admins

Author: Brittany Darwell, Inside Facebook

Why read this article?
A new phishing scam targeting Page owners has been reported. The ‘Fan Page Verification Program’ prompts Page admins to supply their Facebook username and password.

>>Find out more here

#6 Top 3 Facebook Insights to Review Now

Author: Andrea Vahl, AndreaVahl.com

Why read this article?
Not everyone has time to analyze their Facebook statistics on a daily basis. The amount of information is confusing to many business owners and managers. Here are some great Insights that you should review today and what they mean for your Page.

>>Top three insights

#7 Customize Conversion Tracking of Post Ads

Author: Jon Loomer, Jon Loomer Digital

Why read this article?
When you promote a Post with an Ad, Facebook automatically optimizes it for engagement. Find out how to customize your conversion spec to track the action you are aiming for, such as a video view or a comment.

>>Here’s how

#8 Facebook Insights Bug Fix – The Results are In!

Author: Emeric Ernoult, AgoraPulse

Why read this article?
We discussed the bug fix in Facebook Insights last week. This week we look at 3 case studies to see how their Reach statistics have changed.

>>Insight here

#9 High Profile Pages are the Real Deal

Author: Lindzee McCain, Social Fresh

Why read this article?
The addition of Verified Pages helps Facebook move towards a more meaningful presence in the real-time content broadcasting space. The move is designed to entice high profile individuals, journalists and brands to use Facebook in this way, by reducing concerns over potential impersonation.

>> Verified content here

Did we leave anything out? Why not let us know what you think of this week’s roundup? “Like” us on Facebook and leave your comments and if you would like to know more about your page reach, check out our cool [free] tool

The post The Agora [Weekly] Pulse – All you need to know about Facebook marketing this week (May 31st) appeared first on English.

As we get a lot of questions on this very issue, we wanted to give you a real answer, one backed with facts and figures and statistics you can rely on. So we have digged into our app data for thousands of apps and campaigns and here are our findings. You can’t get more transparent than that!

#1 Does requiring the installation of a Facebook app will reduce the number of participants to your contest?

Some Facebook contest app vendors require your fans to install a Facebook app in order to participate into your Facebook campaign (Sweepstakes, Photo Contest, Coupon, etc.). This is our case. And to be straightforward, yes, this will turn some users down and you will never have a 100% conversion rate.

To be precise, we have looked into 3 of our applications’ statistics for the same period and checked the conversion rate (number of people who have installed the app / number of people who have been displayed the app authorization dialog*100) and here are the conversion rates we have found:

• For our Quiz application, 87% of users have installed the Facebook app (i.e., 13% have dropped at that point)
• For our Instant Win application, 78% of users have installed the Facebook app (i.e., 22% have dropped at that point)
• For our Fan Vote application, 84% of users have installed the Facebook app (i.e., 16% have dropped at that point)

Conversion rate for a Facebook Quiz application for one month as shown in the app native Facebook statisctics.

Here is the screenshot of Facebook app insights for the Instant Win app:

Conversion rate for a Facebook Instant Win application for one month as shown in the app native Facebook statisctics.

 

Remember that these are averages among dozens of different campaigns, some may have had a better conversion, others a worse one. But averages are interesting as they give you a rough idea of the overall conversion rate you can expect.

Obviously, a well known brand offering attractive prizes will get a better conversion rate, and vice versa.

So, will the requirement to install a Facebook app turn down a percentage of your participants? The answer is yes. But the real question should be: is the alternative to a Facebook app requirement give you a better conversion rate? Let’s find out.

#2 Does requiring participants to fill in forms only instead of approving a Facebook app boost your number of participants?

As you will run a campaign that will, in most cases, reward your participants with prizes, you need their contact information. At the very least. And most of the time, you will also want to have qualified information about them to leverage this information in future email marketing campaigns or in connection with your CRM efforts. The only way to obtain this information is to ask for it in a good old form!

An example of form asking participants to a photo contest to enter their contact information as well as the type of motorbike they own.

So, Forms vs. Facebook App what is the best option for conversion? That’s a good question! To give you an answer, we have audited the conversion statistics of three of the recent campaigns we’ve had on our platform, and here are the results:

• For a Sweepstakes with 3,872 visitors and a like gate, the app install conversion rate was 71.5% and the form completion rate was 74.6%. Pretty close.
• For an Instant Win with 24,381 visitors and no like gate, the app install conversion rate was 88.3% and the form completion rate was 27.3%. Wow, this client would have had better conversion by sticking with the app install and not requiring its participants to fill-in a form!
• For a Fan Vote with 3,270 visitors and no like gate, the app install conversion rate was 56% and the form completion rate was 32.8%. Both pretty bad.

Conversion funnel for one of our sweepstakes:

Facebook Sweepstakes app install and qualification form conversion rates

Conversion funnel for one of our Instant Win:

Facebook Instant Win app install and qualification form conversion rates

Conversion funnel for one of our Fan Vote:

Facebook Instant Win app install and qualification form conversion rates

The conclusion? Well, first things first, you will not necessarily have a better conversion with a form versus a Facebook app install. In some instance, you may even have a worse conversion rate!

Second, there is no “one-size-fits-all” answer to that question. The Facebook application conversion will depend on the type of authorization you ask from your participants, and the form conversion rate will depend on the number and nature of the fields you require your participants to fill-in. So whether you use a Facebook application or a form is not the point, the real matter is what you ask from your participants in one or the other.

In any event, as you can see in the results above, the number of people who leave your app because you ask them to install a Facebook app is no way higher than the number of people who leave your app because you ask them to fill-in a form.

#3 Arguments in favor of the Facebook app install

The good thing with forms is that you can ask for information that do not exist within Facebook, that is the reason why we also offer customizable forms to allow you to collect the data you really need.

But having a Facebook application installed in the process brings a lot of advantages:

It allows to socialize the experience of the users. You can show them their friends’ scores in a quiz, display the number of friends who have also signed a petition, tell them what personality their friends have in a personality test, etc. In a nutshell, if your want your participants to see their friends in the app, challenge them, invite them to increase their score or get more chances to win, you need to have them install a Facebook app. Otherwise, you won’t know who is friend with whom!

Requiring the installation of a Facebook application will reduce the number of cheaters. It is pretty easy to have a lot of Yahoo or gmail email addresses and enter a form several times, it is much more difficult to do the same by creating several fake Facebook profiles. Plus Facebook doesn’t like fake profiles and have a lot or weapons to track and disable them, so this is not a sustainable strategy for prize hunters…

Finally, it allows you to track your fans individually across multiple campaigns and to link that with their engagement on your timeline. If they install an app, you will get their unique Facebook ID and you will be able to gather all the activity they’ve had on your page, across all campaigns and on the timeline. This gives you a much better view of your fan base and its engagement. If you just use forms, you will never be able to match up the data collected and its value will soon be close to nothing…

#4 What are the best practices to maximize your conversion rate and number of participants?

Do not require your participants to enter information you will never use! Actually, never ask your participants to provide you information that is not absolutely necessary for your app to perform well. The fewer data you collect, the less anxious they will be to provide you with it.

However, this is a general rule, and there are exceptions.

For example, if you are a love brand and want to ask your participants if they already own one of your super sexy products, go ahead, chances are that they will not be anxious to let you know!

Or, if you prefer to collect high quality (and well qualified) fans, it may make sense to ask relevant questions (such as “what is your frequent flyer card number”)! There are situations where quality (of the participants) matters more than quantity (and high conversion rates).

Now, your take, what is your opinion on that matter?

The post Should your Facebook contest require your participants to install a Facebook app? appeared first on English.

This week we concentrate on Facebook Offers – now available on Android and still costing too much. We get the inside scoop on Facebook Insights and take a look at the effects of the bug in Viral Reach statistics. We also have some great practical advice for all Facebook Marketers.

#1 Facebook Insights – The Inside Story

Author: Emeric Ernoult, AgoraPulse

Why read this article?
Take a look inside the marketing data available through Facebook Insights. Find out what each of the metrics mean and how they relate to performance. There are also some expert tips on where the best information is to be found, because you know Facebook have hidden the best stuff away right?

>> Take a look

#2 Jon’s Six Commandments for Facebook Marketers

Author: Jon Loomer, Jon Loomer Digital

Why read this article?
Every Facebook marketer needs to find out what works for their Page. What works for some, will not work for others. There is no ‘one size fits all’ Facebook marketing strategy but there are some common practices that are universally flawed. Follow Jon on the path to Facebook enlightenment.

>> Read the full article here

#3 Offers + Promote Later = Gone. What Now?

Author: Jon Loomer, Jon Loomer Digital

Why read this article?
The option to use Jon’s previous workaround to manage the cost of promoting Offers has disappeared. Never fear – he has another solution – thanks Jon!

>> Read the full article here

#4 Facebook Offers Mobilized for Android

Author: Justin Lafferty, All Facebook

Why read this article?
Facebook Offers were made available on the iOS platform at the end of April. Facebook have now launched Offers for Android. This is an important development for Facebook Marketers as their target markets become more ‘mobile’ online.

>> SMART marketers read this

#5 Did Reach Statistics Leave You Cold This Winter?

Author: Emeric Ernoult, AgoraPulse

Why read this article?
Facebook Reach statistics took a significant hit last September – it must have been caused by the change of season – the affect only applied to Viral! Facebook corrected this ‘bug’ at the end of February so Page owners should have seen an increase in Viral Reach since then. How did this affect your pages?

>> Reach your own conclusions

#6 Back to Basics – How to Change Your Page Name

Author: Andrea Vahl, AndreaVahl.com

Why read this article?
The name you choose for your Facebook Page is fundamentally important, but what if it was set up incorrectly and you need to change it? Andrea Vahl has the answers.

>> Change your name here

#7 Facebook is Promoting Promoted Posts

Author: Brittany Darwell, Inside Facebook

Why read this article?
Facebook are using a variety of methods to encourage Page owners to use the Promoted Posts feature. It seems Facebook are testing their own ‘Facebook Marketing’ to see what works best. A lesson for us all no doubt!

>> Here’s how

#8 How What We ‘Like’ Affects What We Watch?

Author: David Cohen, All Facebook

Why read this article?
This is an interesting study by Viacom about the influence of social media on the TV shows that we choose to watch. Some of the results may surprise you!

>> Tune in here

#9 What Would You Change about Facebook?

Author: Justin Lafferty, All Facebook

Why read this article?
Facebook are constantly pushing updates and let’s face it, there is always room for improvement. As Facebook marketers some changes we like, some we don’t. Here are five changes that could make Facebook better, do you agree?

>> Constructive criticism here

Did we leave anything out? Why not let us know what you think of this week’s roundup? “Like” us on Facebook and leave your comments and if you would like to know more about your page reach, check out our cool [free] tool

The post The Agora [Weekly] Pulse – All you need to know about Facebook marketing this week (May 24th) appeared first on English.

Top Study Takeaways

Reaching users that can be marketed to consistently is one thing many business and marketers are looking to achieve through the different media forms they can advertise on. Marketers also want to be able to find new pockets of users that aren’t aware of their brand, business, or a new product/service. In doing this, marketers are able to drive new customer sales. Reaching the right customer, at the right time, and with the right content is key. Aggregate Knowledge found that:

• Portals and social continue to drive reach efficiency, with portals improving 5x quarter-over-quarter.
• Social continues to deliver the highest-quality users, performing 65% better than the industry overall and 33% better than the next best channel.

Boost Your Social Media Reach Efficiency

Social media networks are where businesses can connect with their customers in order to build a relationship and deepen engagement. Customers feel closer to the businesses they buy from and businesses gain deeper insight into who their ideal customer is and what that customer is looking for. In a social media nurturing post on Business.com, we share tips on connecting with prospective customers on social networks, engaging with them and then converting them. The first two steps in this process are how your business can boost its reach. Other ways you can use social media to become more efficient with increasing your reach are:

• Get creative with user-generated content. Holding a content or sweepstakes where you ask customers to submit a type of content and then share it with their friends will bring new impressions, an influx of content, and potential close-to-purchase leads.
• Tidy up your targeting. Reaching the right people on the right networks, without breaking the bank, is how your business will be successful with its ad campaigns. Focus on maximizing many, smaller, and more targeted social media campaigns.
• Analyze your insights. Even if you aren’t investing in a social listening or monitoring platform, you can analyze each post’s reach. Using tools such as Facebook Insights, Hootsuite (the free version), and Pinterest Analytics, you’ll gain insight into the type of content that is being shared, and therefore reaching new customers.

Social media has one of the greatest reach efficiencies because these platforms are more about engagement than they are advertising. Customers are using social media to engage with the businesses, brands, and people they find interesting. If you’re looking to reach a new database of customers, make sure you’re on social media platforms and engaging with your audience. This can be done through status updates, tweets, photos and targeted campaigns. Use the tools you have available to gain insight into what is being shared socially with respect to your business and you’ll have a better understanding of what will help your business reach customers.

Author Bio: Erica, Social Media Specialist at SME purchase site Business.com, writes on topics such as social media recruiting and local search optimization. Connect with Business.com on Facebook!

The post The Reach Efficiency of Social Media appeared first on English.

This is a week of best and worst. We see the best Facebook marketing blogs ever written and the top 5 apps to use on your Page this summer. We also look at the B2B sector and find out how small business owners can measure ROI on a Facebook campaign. It’s all here; enjoy it and if you have any comments don’t forget to share!

Oh, and the worst? You’ll have to see for yourself…

#1 The Bottom Line is – You Can Measure ROI

Author: Mike Pare, Musttry.it

Why read this article?
Calculating the ROI on a Facebook campaign is vital, particularly for small businesses with limited budgets. By providing business owners with quantifiable data, reporting the results of a Facebook campaign is greatly simplified. Put your thinking caps on folks – this gives you more time to get creative!

>> See the results

#2 B2B? You Can’t Be Serious!

Author: Dennis Yu, Bizmetrics

Why read this article?
If you are ‘all business’ on Facebook, then you are way off target with your approach. People are on Facebook to be entertained. Your business needs a personality, not a ‘corporate identity’. Jason Miller talks to Dennis Yu about the pitfalls of B2B.

>> Get down to business here

#3 I can Hardly Bear to Look – A Car Crash FB Page

Author: Pam Moore, Pammarketingnut.com

Why read this article?
This is an incredible example of how NOT to treat your Fans on Facebook. It could almost be funny if it wasn’t so seriously wrong.

>> You have been warned

#4 Mum’s the Word

Author: David Cohen, All Facebook

Why read this article?
Mothers are a major target market for big brands. They are the decision makers when it comes to most of their families’ purchases. Here is some interesting research on how mums might decide on what brands to share, review and like on Facebook.

>> Read all about it

#5 Building a Better Community – Facebook Style

Author: Shelly Kramer, V3 Integrated Marketing

Why read this article?
We like these great tips for Facebook Community Managers from the team at V3. The whole team offered their top tips, now that’s what we call a community effort.

>> Read the full article here

Did we leave anything out? Why not let us know what you think of this week’s roundup? “Like” us on Facebook and leave your comments and if you would like to know more about your page reach, check out our cool [free] tool

The post The Agora [Weekly] Pulse – All you need to know about Facebook marketing this week (May 17th) appeared first on English.

#1 The Perfect Post? It’s a Slam Dunk from Oreos

Author: Scott Ayres, Post Planner

Why read this article?
What makes the perfect Facebook Post? Find out how Oreo’s simple post during the Super Bowl power outage stood out from all the rest.

<< Read the full article here

#2 Twelve Tricky Facebook Marketing Questions

Author: Dennis Yu, Bizmetrics

Why read this article?
We regularly come across tricky questions about the value of marketing a business on Facebook. Here are some great answers to some of those most troublesome questions, like ‘How do you know you’re succeeding as a business on Facebook?’ – I’d like to phone a friend please!

<< Want to be a Facebook Marketer? Read this

#3 Why Facebook Marketers Should Love EdgeRank

Author: Scott Ayres, Post Planner

Why read this article?
Most Facebook marketers were very much opposed to EdgeRank in the beginning, but it rewards good content and punishes bad content. How can this be a bad thing? It filters news in users’ feeds, based on what they engage with most.

Twitter and Google+ don’t do this; could EdgeRank actually be one of the best things about marketing on Facebook?

<< On the Edge of your seat? Find out more

#4 Save on the Cost of Promoting Facebook Offers

Author: Jon Loomer, Jon Loomer Digital

Why read this article?
If you have been promoting offers on Facebook, you will have noticed that the cost of doing so is rising at an alarming rate. Jon Loomer shares how to effectively promote your offers, looking at both cost and targeting. Can anyone say ‘Power Editor?’

<< Frugal Facebookers – here’s the link

#5 Enough ‘How to…’ Posts – Here’s What NOT to Do

Author: Andrea Vahl, AndreaVahl.com

Why read this article?
Where Facebook are concerned, it is vital that you know what NOT to do. If you fail to follow policies, don’t respond to comments, or have a Profile for your business instead of a Page, you could be in trouble. These will all have a much more detrimental effect on your business than a piece of content that didn’t get the engagement you had hoped for.

<< Do NOT miss the full article

#6 Changes to ‘Give a Gift’ Functionality

Author: Brittany Darwell, Inside Facebook

Why read this article?
The commercialization of Facebook continues, as changes are made to encourage users to ‘give a gift’ to their friends. If Facebook manage to crack this, it may become a valuable source of revenue and a significant sales pipeline for business Pages. They have a way to go yet, if revenues are anything to go by.

<< Don’t look a gift-horse in the mouth. Click here

#7 The Value of Facebook [INFOGRAPHIC]

Author: Justin Lafferty, All Facebook

Why read this article?
We have all had customers that we know would benefit from a Facebook Page. This is a great infographic outlining the steps to take to get a reluctant client to ‘like’ the idea of marketing their business on Facebook.

<< Valuable info here

#8 Graph Search – Have You Scouted it Out Yet?

Author: Ekaterina Walter, Clickz

Why read this article?
Graph Search presents an enormous opportunity for brands, particularly in the area of local search. Results will be filtered to include friends’ likes and recommendations at the top of the listings. You want to be ahead of the curve on this; be prepared and make sure your brand appears high in those search results.

<< Read the full article here

#9 Selling on Facebook – Turn Fans into Customers

Author: Amy Porterfield, Amy Porterfield.com

Why read this article?
A successful Facebook marketing campaign takes time, resources and effort. Once you have a loyal and engaged fan base, how do you turn these prospects into customers and get a return on your investment?

<< click to convert

Did we leave anything out? Why not let us know what you think of this week’s roundup? “Like” us on Facebook and leave your comments and if you would like to know more about your page reach, check out our cool [free] tool.

The post The Agora [Weekly] Pulse – All you need to know about Facebook marketing this week (May 10) appeared first on English.

Likes are nice, dollars are better. Likes are nice, dollars are better. That is the mantra for our team when evaluating Facebook campaigns.

It’s easy to get caught up in the glamour of accumulating Facebook likes, but they are a terrible indicator of social media marketing success. An unengaged audience of thousands is worthless compared to a smaller army of loyal advocates.

This point can be illustrated simply using AgoraPulse’s ROI reporting tools. AgoraPulse assigns industry average dollar amounts (or custom values for advanced users) to several key performance indicators (KPI’s) to approximate a page’s value over the trailing 30 day period. With this information you can definitively prove (or disprove) the value of any page’s Facebook content.

I’ll share a recent example of this tool in action from one of our clients—a sports radio show based in the Northeast U.S.

Their program is well known for their impressive guest list, so, to coincide with the NCAA tournament, we helped them put together a bracket of their 64 best guests and let fans vote for their favorite.

Over the course of the three week promotion, a new page with only 375 fans was able to organically reach over 40,000 people and gain 180 new fans. But what does it mean? Was this promotion really valuable, or was it just smoke and mirrors?

Let’s look at the numbers to find out.

This is a screenshot of the Agorapulse ROI measurement tool. Want to know how it works? Check out this video:

Despite a big chunk of the value coming from impressions and link clicks, which will dry up now that the promotion has ended, the report shows that our content was a big success for a page this size.

We were able to generate $1,972 of value while spending next to nothing on overhead, and, during the course of the promotion, we qualified 38 new fans using the AgoraPulse’s sweepstakes app. Unless those qualified fans unlike the page (which is unlikely) we have permanently identified a huge amount of value in our client’s Facebook page.

This is all news any small business owner would be delighted to hear.

Having the ability to simply quantify and present the results of Facebook campaigns is a huge boon to our agency. Because they are focused on other facets of their business, small business owners are often inexperienced online marketers and don’t know what type of results to expect from their Facebook campaigns. By presenting data in real dollars we can show them the impact we are having directly on their bottom-line without resorting to fuzzy web terminology.

Once likes, reach, and engagement are converted to terms that small business owners appreciate, we can clearly show that likes are nothing but a vanity metric. The real value is in the dollars the page generates.

What do you think? How do you measure the value generated on your Facebook page?

The post Facebook ROI: Converting likes to Dollars for Small Businesses appeared first on English.