Weblicious Solutions

Online Marketing | Web Design | Social Media

Hashtags on Facebook – What does it mean for Facebook Business Pages

By Leave a Comment

The months old dispute whether hashtags work on Facebook or not is finally resolved – so far they haven’t, however Facebook announced today that it’s launching ability to follow conversations via hashtags.

The Facebook admits that this is not an innovative function and further explains that  “every day, hundreds of millions of people use Facebook to share their thoughts on big moments happening all around them…— people on Facebook connect with their friends about what’s taking place all over the world. …To bring these conversations more to the forefront, we will be rolling out a series of features that surface some of the interesting discussions people are having about public events, people, and topics. As a first step, we are beginning to roll out hashtags on Facebook.”

Facebook statement indicates that hastags will be rolled out gradually and we’ll also see some other new functions of this sort.

From a practical perspective this means that once rolled out, any hashtags you add to your posts will now be clickable. The search bar at the top of the Facebook homepage will also allow users to look for hashtags, and hashtags on Facebook will also tie in to those from other social media platforms such as Pintrest, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.

This will allow you to add context to a post and indicate that it’s part of larger discussion. By clicking on a hashtag you will see a feed of what other people and pages are saying about a topic or an event.

But there is a big difference in using hashtags in Facebook and it relates to Privacy settings.

From a privacy perspective, hashtags will work similarly to Facebook Graph Search. You’ll only see the comments that you’re authorized to see.  This means that if you include a hashtag in friends-only post, only your friends will be able to see it in a hashtag search.

Considering that hashtags are already widely used on other social media platforms and commonly visible on Facebook already, it is highly likely that users will embrace this new add-on. And that can only be positive for Facebook Business Pages as well.

 

 

Are You on Top of Facebook’s New Terms & Conditions?

By Leave a Comment

Ignoring Facebook rules can cost you moneyIn my last blog post I kind of touched up notion that it seems that Facebook is relaxing its rules for using Facebook for business and that changes, which are currently being rolled out will mostly benefit small businesses.

Well this is true but with any change come also new rules. Are you on top of these? How often do you refer to Facebook’s terms & conditions? Regularly? Once a year? Never? It’s probably the latter, isn’t it?

Ignoring Facebook rules can cost you big time!

I’m not just saying this to scare you. The fact is that with growth and new technology, Facebook is becoming more capable and efficient in finding those who breach Facebook rules.

Why should you care?

#1
If Facebook decides that your page is breaching Facebook rules, it can deactivate your page without any questions asked. How much would that cost your business? – Probably, heaps!

#2
Yes, you can complain to Facebook if you think there has been an error of deactivating your site – but have you ever tried to contact Facebook? If yes, then you know this is not really a solution. I recently had a client who wanted to post a link to her custom tab and Facebook has labeled it as “spammy” link. We filled a complaint and they don’t even deal with such ‘trivial’ requests. Not so trivial for my client, as you can imagine. What I’m trying to say is that getting answers takes too long, so once you are hit with adverse actions, it will take long time to even hear from Facebook, let alone fix the problem.

#3
Even when you speak to Facebook, there is no guarantee that they will give you a chance to fix your errors.

#4
Even if Facebook acknowledges your errors, your reputation will be damaged and you will lose your credibility. Imagine fans looking for you and not being able to find your page. All your marketing materials that link to your Facebook business page will be sending fans nowhere. This could be pretty embarrassing, right?

 

As you see non-compliance with Facebook rules can have significant impacts on your business, financial and reputational. So, don’t even go there. When it comes to Facebook rules – Ignorance is NOT a bliss!

It’s true that most people are not trying to deliberately breach the rules or push the boundaries. Unfortunately, Facebook is not policing the intent, but they rules.

And for that reason I think hiring a professional social media consultant can save time and money for your business. Imagine what would be a cost to your business to suddenly lose your Facebook page over a simple, unintentional yet avoidable mistake, let say, if your cover photo breaches Facebook rules? Or if you run a competition on your wall which is in breach of Facebook rules? Do you know that such rules even exist? Or that they have recently changed? If not, think sincerely of what you are gambling with. What processes you have in place for staying on top of current terms of using Facebook for business. What about other social media platforms?

Quite often I see that businesses don’t thing about these things and are oblivious to the rules. If you know someone in your network that can benefit of this information, please share this article and raise their awareness.

Why You Should Use Facebook Offers

By Leave a Comment

Facebook Offers

Facebook is definitely thinking hard how to monetize itself yet keep true to its original purpose. You may or may not be aware that Facebook launched another cool feature for Facebook pages called Facebook Offers. This tool is quite handy for promoting your special deals on Facebook Business Page. It will help you make sales and it will also increase your exposure and brand awareness on Facebook.

Of course there is a cost to use this tool, which is calculated based on how many people you wish to reach. But don’t panic you can start from as little as $5.

So, what are Facebook Offers?

If you own Facebook Business Page you can now offer your fans special offers, sales, discount coupons or other specials. These can them be claimed by fans on you page by clicking on your offer, which then gets emailed to them to redeem it at your store or on your website.

To set up a Facebook Offer you just click on the offer icon in your new post area and follow the prompts. You need to have at least 400 Fans to be able to use this tool.

Facebook Offer

 

 

 

 

Why should you do it?

Apart from most obvious reason, making a sale, you will get extremely good exposure of your business to wider network of people on Facebook.

 

How?

Let’s say you post an offer on your wall . This then appears as a post from your page in your fans’ news feeds. If your fans don’t share or comment on the offer, this is as far as it gets in reaching out.

Now, if you set up Facebook Offer and your fan claims it, the tool will posts this to their news feed, which then gets seen by friends of that fan.  Sounds good?

It gets even better. When one of their friends claims the offer, this then shows in their news feed and then if their friends claim the offer….you get the picture. Now imagine how far you can expand your reach with one offer. The benefit: Your brand gets exposed to the whole new network of people.

If you need a proof that this really happens,  Facebook released statistics, which show that 3 out of 4 of the most popular Facebook offers were claimed by friends of the fan who was originally targeted.

 

Will this work for you?

Of course, but you need to consider these things:

  1. You have to have a good offer. There’s no point of offering something that no one wants. Really think about what value you can add to make your offer the best as you can.
  2. You can have the best offer but if you are pitching to the wrong audience, you will not make any sales.
  3. Test, measure, tweak your offers; only then will you know what works and what not.

Remember, Facebook is a new word of mouth and as humans we always want to have what others have, that’s what make Facebook Offers a win-win tool for businesses and users.

Now go, try them out and let us know in comments below what you think about Facebook Offers.

 

 

How Can Facebook Gifts Benefit Your Business?

By 2 Comments

Facebook GiftsIn December 2012 Facebook launched in US a new tool called Facebook Gifts. It’s been rolling it out to the rest of the World as we speak. It’s a great new exciting feature for users and more so for businesses. While Facebook collects percentage of sales made through Gifts, it rewards participating businesses with wider exposure.

What are Facebook Gifts?

Users can purchase actual, physical gifts from retailers, which then get shipped to their friends for their birthdays and other special occasions.

Why should you sign-up?

Apart from making a sale, you will achieve impressive reach, which will promote your business beyond your current fans.

How?

When a user purchases a gift a receiver is notified about the gift with a post to her or his Timeline. This post contains a massive photo of the product and the store it came from and who bought it. This means that your business gets exposed to a person who bought the gift, a person who got the gift and the whole network of friends from both of them.

Taking into account that both purchaser and receiver are not yet your fans, you just got your business exposed to a whole new network of people. And even if they are, exposure of your brand to friends of your fans can extend your reach for up 34 times more than if you market to your fans alone.

Worth giving it a go?
Even though this tool is not yet active in most countries outside US you can contact Facebook and get ready for the roll out.

Facebook Gifts small