How Important Are Facebook Likes To Your Business?

When Facebook first began opening its doors to businesses, creating features like Pages so that businesses could engage with users online, gaining Likes was one of the main goals. Now, however, as Facebook improves its advertising features, with the focus being on gaining engagement and reach rather than watching the little meter gradually tick over in an iframe at the top of a company’s Page, how important have likes become, or how unimportant?

From the very start, Facebook engagement has been centred around the Like button. The Facebook Like button is the easiest and quickest way someone can show appreciation of a post or a Page: just one quick click and comments from a business Page will start appearing in your News Feed. This is the key purpose of the Like button: by clicking Like, users are saying they are happy to see a business’s page content in their News Feed, potentially leading to more engagement.

However, the Like button’s simplicity is also its downside. A Like doesn’t necessarily mean that a user has properly engaged with a business, it only takes one click after all. Although Likes are often a gateway to better sorts of engagement such as comments, they don’t make further engagement a certainty. Also, if someone Likes your Page or post, there’s no real way to thank them. If someone comments on your page, it opens up the possibility of an actual conversation.

If someone Likes your Page, it won’t necessarily show up in their friends' News Feeds. A comment or a Page post is far more likely to appear in the News Feed than a Like. Likes, therefore, rarely directly effect reach, as a user’s friends won’t necessarily see the Like activity. The only place friends’ Likes regularly show up on the News Feed is in the “Add to News Feed” section, but this has been scrapped in the new News Feed design.

So, Facebook Likes help engagement and reach, but they don’t necessarily guarantee engagement and reach. How important, then, are Facebook Likes to your business? They are still very important, in fact, so important that Facebook are still releasing features to encourage users to Like Pages, features like a “Like Page” button and a “Promoted Page Likes” Feature.

At its most basic level, the more Facebook Likes a business’ Page has, the more popular it will appear to people, people who also might be encouraged to click Like. However, amount isn’t everything, businesses need to focus on getting the right Likes for their page. A few months ago, researchers at Cambridge University discovered that what people were liking on Facebook revealed a lot about their age, gender and political viewpoint.

If you get the right people to like your Page, therefore, you will instantly know a lot about your Page posts’ audience, helping you to target them with the right content. As long as they don’t hide you from their News Feed, all your Page posts will appear exactly where you need them to: in the News Feeds of people who have already shown their appreciation of your company by liking your Page.

Facebook Likes also contribute to the stats on your Facebook Insights page, helping you to better understand and target your audience. So, Although they’re a pretty simple measurement of engagement, Facebook Likes are still the best way of building up an audience that you can then engage with properly further down the line.

Do you think Facebook Likes are still important?

How To Use Social Media For Viral Marketing

Viral marketing depends on word-of-mouth: the willingness people have to share the things they see and enjoy with their friends. Thanks to social media, sharing content has never been easier. Popular posts and pictures can spread around the internet like wildfire, gaining the person or company that posted it a lot of great publicity.

Frustratingly, however, viral marketing is very difficult: as much as you prepare your content and share it online, there’s no way to predict how well your posts will do. In order to be with any chance of your content going viral, preparation is key. Here are a few tips and hints on how to successfully implement social media in your viral marketing strategies.

Prepare

If you’re creating content that you want to go viral, then you need to know your audience. There’s no point in creating content that will attract 18-25 year old, single men if you’re trying to promote a family car. You also need to work out what sort of content you want to use. Any type of content can go viral – tweets, images, infographics, articles – but videos go viral more frequently and in a bigger way than any other type of content. Choose a type of content that will work for what you’re trying to promote, will appeal to your audience and can be shared across numerous social media networks.

As I said earlier, preparation is key to viral marketing. You need to be prepared if your social content does go viral on social media. Even if you’re content goes viral, you might lose out if you can’t follow up on it. You need to make sure that you can engage with people who enjoy your content, and then follow it up with a campaign. Viral content rarely lasts very long, it’s more of a flash in the pan, but if you follow up successful viral content with a campaign you can keep it in the public eye for longer.

You also need to make sure that you maintain active social media accounts before you attempt viral marketing. If you just post something cold, it’s unlikely to do very well. Instead engage and interact online: share and comment on other people’s content and maybe they’ll share your content. Whatever content you post you also need to make sure that it’s mobile compatible – almost 30% of social media users access sites on their mobiles.

2. Make it Sharable

Content can only go viral if it’s easy to share and people will only share content that they find interesting. Make sure that your content is compelling and appealing and, very importantly, that it isn’t too long: people want content that gives them instant gratification. Also, the faster content can be enjoyed, the quicker it will get shared. Last month, Unruly released a white paper detailing how to make content sharable. They concluded that content has to elicit a strong emotional reaction in order to get shared. Create content that is funny or exciting: the more funny and exciting, the more likely it will be shared.

You also need to make sure that, if your content is posted on sites other then social media platforms, the share buttons are very obvious and easy to use. Put on a tally so that people can see how often your content gets shared on social media as an added incentive. Content with high share tallies persuade people that they are popular, and that sharing them is the usual thing to do.

You could even offer a reward to people who share your content: make a competition where the entry is dependent on sharing a photo or video, and then reward the winner with a prize. You also want to get the right people sharing your content. Try to publicise your content to people with large followings on social media. A celebrity endorsement can boost sharing and engagement massively.

3. Start a Conversation

When it comes to viral marketing, being controversial can be one of the best strategies to ensure success. It your content touches on a controversial subject, dividing opinion, you can start debates in the comments sections of social media sites. This will, in turn, draw more attention to your content as people will see their friends commenting on your content in their news feed on Facebook, or theirTwitter/Google+ stream.

Often, topical content sparks the best conversations. Stay abreast of what’s happening in the world: a story or item of news that might be relevant to your industry can be leveraged to promote your business. Content centred on a popular news article can draw the attention of people checking it out.

Going viral is never assured, however much you prepare, and there really isn’t a sure fire way that you can make your content viral. However, by following these steps (and with a lot of luck), your content might well go viral on social media sites.

Has any of your content gone viral?

Facebook Levels Playing Field for Android, iOS Developers

Facebook announced an update on Tuesday to its software developer kit (SDK) for Android that lets app users share to Facebook without having to log in to the network. Developers can now add a line of code to their apps that allows users to push content from the app to their Facebook page. If a user is already logged in to Facebook on their phone, they won't need to log in again to share content, tag friends or share their location.

Facebook released this same sharing feature for iOS in April. Tuesday's update puts Facbook's Android SDK on par with the iOS SDK, meaning there is nothing developers can do on one operating system that they can't also do on the other, according to Facebook.

"We’re focused on providing the best products and tools to help you build great apps for any device or platform," wrote Facebook software engineer Chris Lang in a blog post.

Facebook confirmed that 73% of the top 100 Android apps already integrate with the platform, and the hope is that this update will elevate that number even higher, said a Facebook spokesperson.

Does your favorite Android app integrate with Facebook? Tell us in the comments below.

How to Stand Out on Social Media

One of the main challenges people and organizations encounter in social media is how to stand out in the crowded marketplace. Social media can seem like a hoarse carnival, it gives you an opportunity to meet people, interact with them, and make new friends only if you are willing to undertake new things, and think boldly and creatively about the world around you. You can use the secrets below to stand out in social media.

A. Obey netiquette
There are rules governing the use of any social site, get conversant with them so that you don't encounter problems with other users.

B. Be social
You might think this one could go without saying. Even today though, on occasion, we work with people who don't understand the social nature of interactive media. Early in their exposure to social media, some people think it's just another marketing vehicle, when it is actually an opportunity to be social and connect with people. The first step to standing out in on this sites is to be social, interact with people, and find common things to talk about. Social media is a great opportunity to involve others in creating content. Find others that are interested in your niche and partner with them to produce something complementary to both your efforts.

C. Be concerned in people
One quick and easy way to stand out in social media: be more interested in people than you are in yourself. Find topics that interest other people and get them talking about their interests. Be genuinely interested in others and they will be genuinely interested in you.

D. Share video
This might the most difficult thing on the list: how do I produce content or video people would be interested in that reflects well on my brand? For personal branding, this may not actually be an easy thing to do but it is rewarding. Many people today are visual learners. When you create content or update your social media, don't discount the visual aspects - great photography, well produced video, lots of white space. A majority of your audience will appreciate your design, colors, and photos more than the text on the page. People love video online, producing and sharing high quality and interesting videos is a sure way to stand out in social platforms.

E. Create gripping Content
Content is king in today's social media and creating high quality valuable content is a sure way to generate a big following online. This is a subjective measure that is really key to the audience you're targeting. High quality content for a hotel company is different from an educational institution or a motivational speaker and is completely different from valuable content targeting banking professionals. As you create your content, have your target audience in mind.

F. Share timely, interesting and significant stuffs
The people that amass tens of thousands of followers and fans are ones who produce timely, interesting, and relevant updates. Create a vision for your social media efforts: what do you want your social media to look like a year from now. By creating this vision, you have a clear picture of your mission online.

Following these strategies will help you move from just being a follower of social media trends and bring into being a leader in the social media platform.

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