When A Welcome Tab Isn’t Enough: Use Custom Facebook Tabs To Give Fans More
July 20, 2011 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
When it comes to custom landing tabs, all the big brands have them, all little businesses want them, but just how effective are they in engaging your Facebook Page’s following?
Since landing tabs primarily target those who don’t already “Like” your Page, what’s in it for your fans, and are your fans even aware of the stuff you’ve got tucked away in your sidebar?
Creating a worthwhile Facebook tab is an art, and using it effectively, both before and after a visitor has Liked your Page, can be a challenge. In the first installment of this two-part series, you will receive some tips on how to make your tabs more interactive.
Make It Interactive
Take a cue from the video game world, and design your tab so it provokes interaction. What does this mean exactly? Don’t imitate your website with static text and images; you’re on Facebook after all! Being social means fostering participation and engaging with media, so try adding a few tricks to your custom tabs.
Video
Video can be fun, engaging, and effective; for many, watching a quick 60-second video is a more attractive option than reading an entire blog post. Video can create more opportunities for your fans to share your content too. Video, along with links and images, is one of the most popular forms of media shared across Facebook
This tab features video, a sign-up form and a PDF download (This tab was created using ShortStack)
Polls Surveys
People love to give their opinion! Present your fans with a poll, and give them an easy way to share their opinions with your brand. Don’t forget to make your fans feel like they have been heard — make use of the poll or survey data you’ve received and put good ideas into action.
Photo Product Galleries
While static images have their place, if you’re trying to show off your summer product line, or display the pictures from last week’s company outing, photo and product galleries are definitely the way to go.
In the 520px world, conserving space and preventing the “forever-scroll” is key, so watch the height of your content. By including a lightbox feature or slideshow-scroller in your gallery, you’ll better engage with your visitors by giving them content right up front with an active way to see more.
Virtual Gifts
Virtual gifting is hugely popular among Facebook users, and the best way to have success with a virtual gift is to create something that’s both unique and matches your fans’ interests (humor never hurts either).
By offering your fans something specifically designed to be sent to their friends, your fans will be doing your job for you by exposing their friends to your business’s Page.
This tab allows users to select a virtual gift to send to a friend (This tab was created by Likeable Media using ShortStack)
Quizzes
Check out any newsstand and you’ll see a plethora of magazines featuring a quiz (What kind of boyfriend ARE you, anyway?). Silly, sure, but they exist for a reason — people love to learn about themselves and test their knowledge, especially if the topic speaks to them.
Try working a quiz into your Facebook tab, or ask your fans a trivia question every week on your wall.
Contests Promotions
If you really want to jumpstart activity on Facebook, a properly run contest or promotion can boost interaction like nothing else. There are many ways to go about introducing a contest, so this will be discussed more thoroughly in part two of this series.
Integrated Facebook Functionality
Always integrate core Facebook functionality into your tab by adding the ability to “Share”, “Comment” and “Invite Friends” throughout. It’s what Facebook is all about. Social media is supposed to be social, so allow your visitors to share your content on their own walls. You’ll reach beyond your fan base and expose your brand to users who might not otherwise hear about your brand.
Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are a number of third-party tools out there, and by using an iframe application built on the Facebook Platform, the sky really is the limit, so get creative!
Next month, we’ll dive deeper into contests and promotions, as well as the value Facebook-only content.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
Related Topics: Facebook | How To: Facebook | How To: Social Media Marketing | Let’s Get Social | Social Media Marketing
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Google+ Tips and Tricks Facebook Should Use
July 20, 2011 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
I have been using Google+ for a few days now, and so far I have had had a few complaints about the new Google social network. Google+ is not without its merits, though, and there are some hints and tips Facebook could pick up from Google+ that might improve the user experience.
For starters, there are Circles. Circles are the defining feature of Google+ that allow you to segregate your contacts more intuitively. Everyone isn’t your ‘Friend’. Some are family, some are co-workers, some are buddies from your golf league, etc. Google refined the social network concept by developing a system that lets you decide on a post by post basis which group or groups of your contacts should see what you are posting.
The Facebook Circle Hack tool is cool, but it misses the important part that makes Circles valuable.The drag and drop graphic interface for creating circles and adding contacts is cool–but to me that is a flashy novelty on top of the real value of circles. That is why the Circle Hack tool that enables a drag and drop interface for Facebook that is virtually identical to Google+ Circles misses the mark. I give credit to the developers who basically bought a pizza and a six-pack and developed Circle Hack in one night, but if they really want to impress me they need to make it so I can send status updates, photos, links, etc. to those lists.
Facebook should take a hint, and enable something similar. Right now, I have all kinds of lists in Facebook–Family, High School, Air Force, Infosec, etc.–which help me cut down the noise on the incoming stream by letting me view individual lists, but when I write my own post I can only choose between Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, and Custom. I can use Custom, but Facebook only lets you set up one Custom profile, so I would have to rebuild the custom profile each time–adding the individual Friends from whatever group I am trying to communicate with.
Next, lets talk about the posts themselves. On Google+, I can say what I need to say…at whatever length I need to say it. I have never been a fan of the 420-character limit for Facebook status updates. I often end up posting the status update, then immediately commenting on my own post to finish my thought–it drives my wife crazy. But, if I wanted a character limit I would post it on Twitter. I don’t like having to whittle and edit my thoughts to fit in some arbitrary 420-character box.
Speaking of editing my thoughts–I can do that on Google+. If I discover a typo, or choose to add or rephrase something after I have posted an update or comment, I can just click Edit and make changes at will.
Not so with Facebook. Once you say it, you said it and you can’t take it back. Actually–there is a little known feature that lets you edit in Facebook. If you accidentally hit Enter before you were done typing what you wanted to say, or you post something without thinking and you wish you didn’t, you have a small window of opportunity to fix it. If you immediately delete the post, rather than deleting it, it takes you back to the editing mode so you can make changes. But, you have to act quickly.
Facebook can learn a trick or two from Google+ and expand the maximum length for status updates, and make status updates and comments editable.
I am not sold on Google+. I have not sold my soul to the Google Borg, and I am not sure I appreciate the pervasive integration into other tools and services by default. Google has some issues to work out as it beta tests its social network, and Facebook should be paying attention to ‘borrow’ what works and provide something similar for its 700 million members.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a Google+ account, so hopefully he is taking notes and learning a thing or two that he can use.