Facebook has not only exploded into our personal lives, it is also having a dramatic impact on how businesses operate and market themselves. However, many business owners are quick to admit they are pretty lost when it comes to marketing themselves on Facebook. Many people set up their Facebook pages and then think “now what?” So we’ve put together some simple tips to help you get started, get more “likes” and engage your fans more effectively.

Add a Like button to your website

It may sound obvious, but adding a ‘Like’ button from your website is a simple way to attract traffic to your Facebook page. Moreover, you’ll be attracting the right people – your current and potential customers that are visiting your website. Try including a strong call to action such as “Like us on Facebook for exclusive offers, discounts and news.” Make sure you use the Facebook logo or F icon as it will be highly recognisable to your visitors.

Keep it smart

Clearly state your strategy and what your business stands for or about and keep it Simple, Meaningful Attractive, Relevant and Targeted. Make sure your info tab on your Facebook page clearly states what your business is about, what you do and why you’re different.

GRAB their ATTENTION:

Offer various discounts, incentives and promotions to give people a reason to like your page. One of the most commonly cited reasons for “liking” a Facebook page is just this so give them what they want.

Start a debate:

You can periodically ask questions or comment on a topic and encourage conversation. Make your page interactive to create an experience for the audience and bring people back.

Contact or connect to groups:

When it comes to messaging ability, groups are more powerful than pages. Pages send updated info whereas groups send message directly into your Facebook messages inbox. However, it all depends on how scalable you want to be – groups are limited to 250 members whereas pages can have limitless fans.

Use video and video blog:

A video blog is an extremely powerful tool yet very underrated. Video is a great medium to engage audiences as it is interactive and easy to consume. Regular video blogs on your Facebook page give people a reason to keep coming back and facilitate viral referrals.

Connect to other links:

Place a link of your Facebook page to related websites and interesting articles. Content sharing is still the number one activity on social networks. If you find an interesting article, photo or video that you think would interest your fan base link to it from your Facebook page.

Run a contest or games to engage your audience:

Engaging people to enter a game or contest is another great way to increase likes, visits, viral referrals and fan engagement. Moreover, if the competition is a “game of skill” your fans will be required to create their own content (e.g. upload a photo/video or “tell us in 50 words or less”) which can be disseminated as content on your Facebook Wall.

Make your audience a part of your community:

Through a clear strategy and effective message a page can create a community where people share their common interest and feel a part of it. It also helps encourage people to invite their friends to join.

Blogs:

Write, manage and update a blog to get your followers engaged and give them a richer content experience. Write about topics that will interest your audience such as news from your business industry news, and relevant trends, and encourage people to comment and blog.

Use a powerful and effective profile picture:

Think of your profile picture as a marketing banner. You may not realise but it can be over 400 pixels tall. Maximise use of this space by not only including your logo but also promoting any special offers, new products and/or a strong call to action. It can catch customers’ attention, motivate new visitors to “like” your page and promote new offers to existing fans.

Interactive page:

Try creating attractive and exclusive campaigns such as a ‘Fan of the month’ promotion can work to get fans engaged and motivated them to visit and interact more. Rewarding your best customers and more loyal fans will only help to build a more loyal fan base and facilitate word of mouth marketing.

Like, Share, Suggest:

Encourage current fans to share their stories and suggest friends to join and like you page. Remember: don’t ask, don’t get, So don’t hold back!

Network with other Facebook pages

Talk about your page on other related pages by tagging your page in posts. However, make sure you are contributing to the conversation on the other Facebook page, otherwise you will come across as SPAM which is a big “no, no”.

Ask Question:

A poll of various ideas and promotions. will help to get more people to visit, like and improve your page and business. You can now do this directly on your Facebook Wall using the Facebook Questions feature. Simply ask your question and set the answer options. It’s a simple and easy way for people to interact with your page.

Did you like the recent YouTube takeover party launched by Desperados? If you like me was super impressed, you’re sure to love the stunning Perrier’s campaign on YouTube, French sparkling water.

It features a video of a scene club with a thermometer in the side which measures the temperature. The more that people watch the video, the more scenes will get unlocked and the hotter the video will become.

This campaign is very innovative because the viewer has two reasons to share the video: showing something cool and fun to their friends and get more out of the experience for themselves. However, a Perrier rep notes, “Viewers can unlock the next video immediately for their own viewing simply by sharing the campaign via the email, Facebook and Twitter buttons directly below the video screen. Here they can also download the Babe Youth song that plays in the background of each video.”

The channel generated 174,000 views in the first 24 hours of the campaign being live. So far the channel has received over 4,191,395 views, which has unlocked 4 of 6 levels.

Michele Vieira, brand manager of Perrier says of the campaign, “In addition to the break-through digital activation, a strong TV and digital media buy, point-of-sale materials for on and off premise and mobile components round out this 360 degree integrated campaign. The integrated experience carries over to the cocktail napkins used in cafes and bars, which will invite consumers to call a phone number where an automated voice encourages them to receive information via text about the promotion.”

Perrier says it earned 2,000 Facebook fans in two days and “le Club Perrier” was the first tweeted French video in the world on Wednesday, 8^th of June.

Great work Perrier! Ready to enter the party?

How do you say Twitter and Facebook in French? You don’t! At least if you are on TV or radio, where bring them up is banned unless they are specifically part of the story. Actually, a 1992 decree says that mentioning such services by name is an act of advertising.

French anchors should say “Find us on social network” instead of “Follow us on Facebook or Twitter”. This measure is impotent because it won’t stop the viewer from going on Facebook and Twitter, it will only make it harder. This is one of the reasons why Matthew Fraser said in his blog “Anglo-Saxons who live in France, as I do, constantly struggle with the puzzling paradox in a society universally admired for its splendid “joie de vivre” – yet infamous for its oppressive bureaucratic culture of legalistic codes and decrees.”

You are probably wondering how the French government justify this reform. Christine Kelly, France’s Audiovisual Council, said, “Why give preference to Facebook, which is worth billions of dollars, when there are other social networks that are struggling for recognition? This would be a distortion of competition. If we allow Facebook and Twitter to be cited on air, it’s opening a Pandora’s box. Other social networks will complain to us, saying, ‘Why not us?’.” She added that “the authority was not seeking to block the networks, only to foster fairer practices. We encourage the use of social networks … Perhaps one day Facebook will become a generic term, but for the moment it is a commercial enterprise – a leading one, certainly, but not the only one.”

Can you imagine this measure in U.K or America? Everyone would protest to have it abolished. In France, there was scarcely any reaction from media. No stupefaction, no outrage in the mainstream press. However some bloggers and journalists have ventured into a more detailed analysis.

Some commentators have suggested the ban is another effort to control the influence of Anglo-Saxon cultural influences, particularly those seen as encouraging the use of English. Are French holding their language and culture in perhaps too high esteem?

Few days ago French President Nicolas Sarkozy (400 000 fans on Facebook) met with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. But Pierre Haskim, the editor of the online French daily Rue 89, says that beyond that celebrity moment, France is showing itself as “out of touch” thanks to the new law.

On the radio France Inter, journalists in the studio wisecracked on air over what they called a ludicrous law.

Loic Le Meur, French who moved to Silicon Valley, is close from the government as he participated to the web politician campaign of Sarkozy in 2007. However he said on Twitter: “French regulation forbids TV networks to say Facebook or Twitter? My country is screwed…”

In 2012, around 68.7 million Americans will be playing social games, according to analysis firm eMarketer! Does that sound right to you? It should. Especially when you observe the amazing appeal about logging into Facebook or picking up your smartphone and playing with all your friends all around the world!

Social games are already incredibly popular. They are played by hundreds of millions of people, that’s more than  those who have played “traditional” video games. So, what is a social game exactly? Why is it so different from the traditional games? What is the best way to create a successful social game?  Let’s have a look about all you  need to know concerning the social games.

1.    Definition

It is indispensable to start with this definition. I found an interesting one on socialtimes.com, “Social games are a structured activity which has contextual rules through which users can engage with one another. Social games must be multiplayer and have one or more of the following features: turn-based, are based on social platforms for providing users with an identity and are casual”.  Here’s a simpler one: “Games that run on a social network and use that network to enhance game play between players”.

2.    Social Games vs Traditional  Games

The differences between social and traditional game are:

• One of the main differences and appealing criteria is the fact that social games are incorporated on social networking sites such as Facebook. So, users can play for free and with friends! Social context has an impact on the game play and enjoyment. For example, if I am losing against a stranger, I might just abandon the game – this not an option when playing against a friend.
• Social games target a large public with hundred million registered users’ social networking.
• Social games attract new people, most of them are feminine. Most of the time, they don’t consider themselves as “gamers”. In average, they play 20 to 30 minutes per day. The target is wide as anyone can be keen to play.
• Social games are highly accessible: they are free, require no installation, and are easy to get started.
• One of the frequent features of social games is turn-based game mechanics to lower the stress level and focus on playing with your current crop of friends. These games allow users to take time to make their decisions, they integrate well with a players current set of friends, and they do not require the “presence” that real-time games require.

3.    Keys to build a successful social game

1. Social: it requires interaction to be played by people who want to share what they are doing with friends; that’s why setting up these games on Facebook or this kind of website is the special successful secret
2. Relationships: people have to build new relationships or nurture them
3. Relatable, appealing and fun: themes and mechanics have to be attractive and easy to understand in order to pick up new users easily. If it is not fun, it won’t monetise.
4. Mass market: it has to attract a lot of people
5. Addictive: it is important to retain people who played once. Therefore, it is vital to find some elements to make people go back on the website
6. Quality: it is necessary to look at games in the market and know the benchmarks for playability, aesthetic quality…

4.    How brands can advertise within social games?

One of the most important advantages with social games is the fact that users may see ads for hours; which is very different from television, print, search ads… where it is just few seconds.

These are few successful keys to respect before setting up an advertising campaign with social games:

• Your brand has to have a real link with the game.
• Interactions with users’ social games is important; for example you can say “Reply to this quiz (about your brand) to earn 10 points”
• Branded content have to appear for a limited time only, then it looks like a real bargain, because hard to get. However, let users keep any branded virtual goods they’ve earned or purchased

5.    Key figures of social games

According to a study realised by Information Solutions Group:

• 55% of women active on social network platform play social games vs 45% men
• Users’ social games are 48 years old in average in States vs 38 years old in UK
• 43% of users’ social games play to have fun / 53% because they like challenges / 45% because they want to relax
• 83% of users’ social games play on  Facebook platform
• They play 2.5hours a week in average
• 28% acquired virtual cash
• Social games represented $1.6 billion in 2010 (+100% vs 2009!) / $500 million in Europe / $5 billion in Asia
• It costs around $1 million to develop a social game (VS 3 to 7 million for a traditional game)

For all these reasons, you will understand why according to vanityfair.com, “ Zynga – the company behind such Facebook games as FarmVille, CityVille, and Zynga Poker—is the hottest topic in Silicon Valley: valued at $10 billion, with 250 million users and a rumored I.P.O. next year. Its C.E.O., Mark Pincus, takes fun very, very seriously.”

Ever wondered what it would be like to see an exhibit of your life? Or what it would like to see you life flash before your eyes… without having to experience a life-or-death situation that is. Then you should check out the new Intel application “The Museum of Me”.

When you launch it, the site connects to Facebook and extracts all the details of your life to turn it into a 3D movie where your friends and YOU are on show! The video is beautiful and the music ethereal, poetic and elegant. Yet, it is also kind of creepy. In a post Gizmodo’s Kelly Hodgkins writes that “seeing your information online as a museum is unnerving, yet fascinating.” It was exactly the feeling I had when I visualised mine. The experience might make you reconsider your Facebook activity. Do I want to be remembered mostly for once having liked a Chanel video?

This application is not the first one. The one of The Deutsche Post translates information of your Facebook account into a book. LinkedIn released a tool that visualises your connections. I bet that Twitter’s one will appear soon. The challenge is now who does it better. So far, Intel is definitely my favourite one!

You are probably wondering what is Intel’s purpose: just a great way to promote Core i5 processor and the new slogan “Visualize Yourself”!

Awesomeness aside, its usability is not optimal. You can’t play/pause/rewind/forward/share the video. However, you can upload a museum pamphlet for display to your friends.

Even though it’s not perfect, I think that it is a fantastic Facebook application… who would not want a museum dedicated to themselves?

Ready to be taken on an emotional journey through your Facebook life? Click here to give it a whirl!

You can find a lot of different ‘tweets’ on Twitter. With a bird as the logo, it is time to find out what kind of birds you can find on Twitter. We are not talking about Twitter accounts of birds, we are talking about your personality. What kind of tweet-bird are you?

Penguins: Penguins are social animals. The penguins are replying every tweet and they use twitter as some kind of chat room.

Stetter Jay: These birds are loud. They tweet all the time. Posting more than 10.000 tweets in three months is very common.

Peacock: Peacocks like to show off. Especially men. Their tweets are about themselves – their latest blog update, their latest buy or their latest meal.

Vulture: Vultures are always looking for bait. They follow thousands of people in the hope that people will follow them back. People who follow them back can expect spam about earning a lot of money of the best Viagra in the world.

Parrot: a parrot likes to copy things. They are mostly busy retweeting stuff.

Dodo: This bird died a long time ago and is now extinct. There are a lot of extinct Twitter accounts out there that nobody is using.

Mockingbird: This bird’s speciality is to copy sounds. You can recognise them on Twitter by the fact that they pretend to be a famous person. They don’t take themselves to serious and are very funny.

Image by Calsidyrose

What is the F-Commerce?

You have heard about E-commerce and M-commerce… but what about F-Commerce? According to Social Commerce Today, “F-Commerce is the use of Facebook as a platform for facilitating and executing sales transactions – either on Facebook itself or externally via the Facebook Open Graph.  F-commerce is a form of social commerce.”

So far, brands have been using Facebook as a marketing tool to engage customers. These days, a shift is being observed: businesses are using it as a platform for facilitating and executing sales transactions.

Does it sound crazy? Not at all when you think about the beginning of the E-commerce. Go back in 1996, when there were only 36 million people online, and not one of them was used to shop on Internet… Therefore selling on Facebook makes sense:

• Facebook has more than 37 times the number of users than the whole web back in 1996.
• It took the web 14 years to reach an audience of 600 million; it took Facebook 7.
• Facebook is rapidly growing: 1 in 11 people are on Facebook globally and it grew in 2010 by 7.9 users per second.
• Facebook users spend up to 1.5 times more online.

Why the brands should use Facebook to sell their products?

• To reply to the needs of the customers. When asked, customers say the principal reasons for connecting with businesses on social sites are to buy and for deals.
• To present their products to their fans. As they already “like” the brand, they should be more receptive.
• To engage Facebook users in a sale where they feel comfortable instead of forcing them to go to another website.
• To be innovative around a new fun and interactive way to shop in order to increase the sales.
• To give exclusive offers to their fans: discounts, free delivery, free gifts, loyalty program…
• To become a loved brand thanks to the connection established between customers, their friends and their brand.
• To get real time feedback from the consumers as Facebook users are able to converse about the products with their friends and brands when they shop online.
• To target people easily.

The future of F-Commerce?

Does Facebook is going to change the way we shop as he changed the way we network and communicate?

More and more retailers are starting do f-commerce: Amazon, Apple, Best Buy, Bulgari, Coca-Cola, Delta, Diesel, Disney, Dove (Unilever), Gap, Heinz, Levi’s, Macy’s, Max Factor, Mazda, Nike, Nine West, Old Spice, P&G, Pampers, Pantene, Rachel Roy, Sears, Starbucks, Volkswagen, W Hotels, Walmart, Warner Bros…

Industry experts look optimistic about the future of f-commerce:

“Social media may not have driven sales in an obvious way so far, but the next logical step will be transactional social media. When you can buy products through Facebook, rather than just liking them, we’ll start to see a shift in the role of social media in the business” Manish Mehta, head of social media, Dell.

“In three to five years, 10 percent to 15 percent of total consumer spending in developed countries may go through sites such as Facebook” Mike Fauscette, Analyst, IDC Consulting.

It looks like Facebook is not just keen to become a better communication tool for its users; it is having an impact in the E-commerce business.

Once upon a time when looking for group buying deals, you had to open 20 browser windows, click around and around and around again and then try to remember where that deal you were the most keen on was located.  Sometimes, you realized in horror you somehow closed it! You don’t have to experience that frustration anymore (unless you are a masochist and enjoy it), because Dealies got sick of the confusion as well and put, not a foot, but some web pages down that make online group buying shopping two very ideal things: simple and sophisticated.

The group buying platform is growing more popular and more crowded in Australia – which is great for shoppers who want deals. Dealies is a group buying aggregator that began all the way back in Berlin, Germany. It collects all the deals from all the group buying sites in Australia like Scoopon, Ouffer, Stardeals etc. al and puts them onto one page based on city, merchant, type of deal or and/price. Thus it can save a shopper time and money, since many deals offer discounts of around 80% off the retail price of a product. The Dealies staff is young, excited, and talented and is spread all over the world as Dealies sites sprout up on five continents.

So what then is the future of group buying? Expect more group buying merchants to pop up and expect group buying to apex sometime this year. Group buying sites will make themselves a bit more unique to stand out, because they will have to. Dealies is watching group buying in Australia closely so that it can stay on top and most importantly, keep things simple and accessible for shoppers.

Social media usage has seen unprecedented growth in Asia Pacific in the past year. Australia plays an important role in this trend as it leads the world in social media engagement, with the highest global average for time spent per month on social media sites (7 hours!).

Therefore the companies should keep investing in Social Media. “The findings highlight, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that social media is here to stay and needs to be taken seriously by the broader business community, from the CMO to the CEO,” notes Megan Clarken, Managing Director of Nielsen’s online business in Asia Pacific. “With three quarters of the global Internet population now participating in some form of social media, businesses can no longer afford to simply observe the social media phenomenon, they need to embrace it.”

You will find 20 key figures to be able to consider the important impact of web 2.0 on brands and societies.

1. In Australia, 80,1% of the population use Internet (17 033 826 people).
2. 74% of the world Internet’s population have now visited a social networking/blogging site.
3. Internet users are spending an average of almost 6 hours per month on social media sites. Australia has the highest global average with 7 hours per month.
4. 62% of Australian Internet users visited a message board or forum in 2009.
5. 32% of internet users read blogs.
6. In Asia Pacific, online products reviews are the 3^rd most trusted source of information when making purchase decisions, behind family and friends.
7. Nearly nine in 10 (86%) of Australian’s online are looking to their fellow Internet users for opinions and information about products, services and brands.
8. Nearly two in five online Australians are now interacting with companies via social networking sites, reinforcing notions that Australians are open to engaging with brands and companies online.
9. 25% of Internet users use Twitter and Facebook to have an idea about a brand.
10. 50% of Internet users read user critics to have an opinion about a brand.
11. Facebook has more than 600 million users.
12. Facebook has more than 9 million users in Australia, which means a penetration rate of 45%.
13. Facebook gained 80 million new accounts in the first quarter of 2011.
14. 475 million Facebook’s users are between 18 and 44 years old.
15. Twitter has 175 000 members.
16. Twitter’s unique visitors increasing from under 200 000 in May 2009 to 10 million in May 2010.
17. Viadeo has 35 000 professionals.
18. LinkedIn has seen one of the fastest growth trends amongst social media sites in Australia, with unique audience numbers increasing by 99% from July 2009 to May 2010.
19. There are 161 million blogs on internet.
20. Nearly four in five (78%) of Australia’s nine million social media users sent or shared a photo in the past year and nearly three quarters (74%) sent or shared a link

Sources: Nielsen; www.pewinternet.org; www.yahoo.com; http://online.wsj.com; http://www.socialbakers.com; http://www.emarketer.com/; www.viadeo.com

So you want a blog that has real content that will draw people to your site? Here are some tips…

It’s not just about you
No one likes it when a person is “me me me” all the time so you don’t want to write pieces that are just about marketing yourself. This makes the scope of your blog very narrow. Instead, inform your readers about your industry, these kinds of posts show that you understand your niche and it’s a way of showing your expertise. If you do it right, it will make you stand out. Ask questions and ask your readers to share. Perhaps they have some interesting insight into the topic or they might have something they want to ask. Encourage your readers to engage with your content.

Tell stories
Stories personalise the blog and it shows that you’re human. Stories are also a way of drawing on your personal experience. You may be surprise how people will connect with your story and share theirs in return! Your experiences are unique to you and it’s an easy way to be memorable!

Format properly
It doesn’t matter if you have the best content but forget to close your tags, making a mess of your blog post. Your font should be simple and legible. Don’t make it too fancy or it’ll distract from your content. Also make sure you do have tags to make it easier for people to access the content thematically.

Filter the spam
Use a SPAM filter so legitimate commenters aren’t put off by spam comments on your blog. Don’t set the security too high or some people won’t be able to comment. Generally the more hoops the commenter has to jump through (providing email, website, typing in the captcha) will decrease the amount of SPAM comments you are likely to get.

Deal with negativity in a timely and respectful manner
Don’t engage in a flame war. This will make you look unprofessional at best and at worst, petty and juvenile. If there is a heated argument and it’s not started by you, freeze or delete the thread as appropriate and ask people to take it elsewhere. If you respond to criticism and are willing to acknowledge the weaknesses in your blog post, people will respect you more.

Don’t trash talk your competitors
Focus on positives. You can point out the flaws in a competitor’s product but don’t attack them personally. Remain professional at all times. Remember everything you say on the Internet is in the public domain and even if you delete it, content can be cached, people can take screenshots. You don’t want a libel and/or defamation law suit on your hands.

Multimedia
A blog doesn’t have to be just words. Feel free to add pictures and video content. Multimedia content is much more eye-catching than chunks of words. The key is to make sure everything is relevant.

Persevere
Track your performance, pay attention to your feedback and keep doing things that work for you. Don’t expect your hits to go through the roof in one day. They key is maintaining regular traffic to your blog that will translate into real business. It takes time to build a loyal audience base.

Image by Jorge Quinteros