9 Ways to have A Good Welcome Page On Facebook

There is a saying...You impress first and it lasts till the end ! Facebook is a platform of people coming from varied background, cultures and languages.. At times you may use this to your advantage but it cam get a bit tricky.To hold on to every visitor on your Facebook Page, you need to be captivating and at the same time be informative. There needs to be a fine balance and your landing page should just set the tone. Here's how you can have a great Welcome Page on Facebook to get you loyal first timers and keep the old fans interested as well!

1. Get a paid welcome page. Allows custom icons: I know you need to spend that extra bit but a paid service goes a long way to establish your identity. It adds so much of creativity to your content and image.
2. Include you tube and flicker links : Take your visitors to some visual platform where you have shared things for them to see and believe in your services and products.
3. Put the description about your company on top: People want to know who you are before anything else. So just write who you are and what you do. Doesn't need to be as lengthy as the info but should give the visitors an idea that this is an official account and they are at the right place!
4. Put a section as" Products" : Show them what you got! A nice way to introduce your product would be to include a small image of a product with a "see more" link. Should sound a bit tempting to them!
5. Include a Greeting : Say hello! If its Christmas decorate your page with snow. Make it relevant to the current time in-order to   make the visitors take notice.
6. Urge the visitors to like the page for staying connected: This is an old one but yes you still need to remind them to like the page. You can try a wall/screen to ensure they really need to like to enjoy a complete look of the page, But that's too harsh mate! 
7. Include New Product releases(upcoming or newly released): Make them come back frequently with your new product releases. Give them a sneak-peek of the things you have in store. They love stories! So give it to them.
8. Include some recent photos or videos: Other than including links of your company's YouTube and Flicker accounts, you may well leave some recent images and videos. Remember not to leave the video on play mode as it makes the loading pretty slow.
9. Include a nice Logo: This could be a dynamic image, but I recommend not to use huge ones.

You have a great idea? Share it with us...

Facebook Insights: Revamped

Facebook Insights Icon

Facebook has upgraded its Page Insights giving a more detailed account of the page activity and fans. This is a major step to counter the Google + pages popularty. As the war in the social media platform continues be ready to experience dynamic changes throughout.The Insight Section could be found, like before, on the left hand side of your page.What facebook tries to achieve through its evolving Insights is to make page owners understand the actual performance of their pages.


Insights give vital information on how fans react to posts. A new defination called "Virality" was introduced to implicate the potential of the fans associated with the page. A customisable Export option allows users to collect and work on the page data. Facebook is allowing data to be collected in Excel or CSV file formats.

The sections "Friends of Friends" shows the number of people who are friends with your fans, thus highlighting the people who mite be interested with your page !

The section "People Are Talking About This" shows how many people are discussing things about your page with thier friends. The topics which they can share might range from liking your page to answering your questions.

The Total Reach section is further categorised as Paid, Organic and Viral. A healthy page should strive to achieve maximun organic reach compared to paid reach. The Viral reach is a good option too to consider working on !

Nevertheless, Facebook has answered its critics wanting a better statistical data representation. However it is far from givin us a complete Insight into the dynamics of our pages. Users may be comfused with the repetition of certain metrics. An advice to page owners would be to consider working on metrics which meets their publishing strategy ! So get your priorities right before you set out to work with a particular metric.

What's your Reach?

Google+ Advantage For Businesses

Google+ Pages Logo

Last week you may have come across my blog mentioning the need for Google+ Pages for Businesses. And wow Google responded quickly by offering pages for businesses. Google+ Pages presents to us a host of marketing opportunities and makes the web a lot smaller ! Yes ! Smaller. The reason why I believe this is going to happen is because of the fundamental difference of a Google+ page with a Facebook Page.

In Mark Zuckerberg’s words, Google“is trying to build their own little version of Facebook". But we all know the added power of  Google Search for Google + Pages.It may prove an edge to Google over Facebook. Let us look at the potentials Google+ Pages holds for businesses.

  

1. Better Search Opportunities

Enhanced Search Opportunities

Google offers something extra, something that Facebook and Twitter can’t offer - the power of Web search.Call it cost efficiency, Google+ Pages fair far better compared to Facebook Ads. Generally the domain Facebook.com generates a lower CTR(Click Through Rate). In comparison, a Google + Page would be search friendly, as Google has over 60% of the Search Engine Market. This would mean a higher ranking of your page and website without spending much moolah ! It boils down to lesser effort to optimise your rankings on search engines. Create a page, maintain it and link it to your website. Let the Google algorithms do the dirty work. 



2. Better Analytics

Be Informed !

Google Analytics provides with metrics like time spent on page, referring sites top content, and geographic information. All this was horribly missing in the Facebook Pages Insights. Google with its detailed Analytics is a far better option for all the number crunchers. Its opens up information and visitor behaviour, giving the page owners the ability to adapt by the minutes!

3. Learn from Facebook's mistakes

Integrating Facebook’s positives and avoiding the mistakes offer invaluable lessons to Google. Better privacy settings, customisation and ,making content visible to the entire web (under user's discretion) could make Google Pages an instant hit. How did Google master these tricks so fast ? Of-course, learning from Facebook's mistake of making its users the "experimental Guinea Pig".



4. Direct Connect

Type + a on Google Search Query. It Prompts Google + Pages

I see it as a way how the Layman would go about in search engines in the future. Simply type + followed by the name of the brand/organisation in the search query box and hit the enter button. You will not be taken to the search results page. Instead directly to the Google+ Page of the brand/organisation. It would save us the time to go through hundreds of search results by taking us instantly to the Official Google+ Page. A special notification gives the option to the user to circle the Official Page. Companies can enjoy the Direct Connect feature once the have linked their website to their Google+ pages and vice-versa followed by a check by Google Algorithms to test the authenticity of the connection.


5. +1 Counts and being Circled as a Business

Add the +1 Button to your website

Business pages will have something unique compared to regular  profile pages — an overall Google +1 count that shows on their Google+ page. This may change the way you drive traffic to your website. Added to this, Google allows the users to add pages to their Circles. So Pages do not entirely lie in a separate category as on Facebook, but could well feature in Circles including friends and family.




6. The Power of Live Chat and Hangouts

Let Your Fans Experience it all. Live !

You must have noticed that whenever you use Facebook as a Page, you Facebook Chat is disabled. For sending a message across, you depend only on your status updates. What if you need to communicate instantly with a fan? On facebook, you would have to keep commenting on a particular post. However, Google+ Pages offer instant Chats. Moreover, Hangouts could be an excellent tool to promote an event such as a product launch or a conference.

More features are set to be rolled out in the coming days. One of these could be added personalisation to the tall blank spaces on both sides of a Google+ Page and enhanced tabs to control the different sections of a page. Stay tuned !

Get a Google + Page Today !

Google finally launched Google+ Pages for organisations and businesses. Much of the features resembles Facebook. However tools like the Google Search Engine, Google Analytics and other useful Google tools makes the Google+ Pages stand out.

Take a look at how you can  Start your own page.



Log in to plus.google.com

Click on Create a google+ page

Select the type of business page you want to create.
Tip: Hover over to find examples of business categories to help you select one.
Agree to the Pages terms and proceed.

Select a short and good Tag line which describes your business with a nice photo or business logo.

The pop up which adds photos is better than Facebook as it allows a bit of creativity and customisation.

Google+ allows you to choose between your profile and pages, just as in Facebook.In your stream you can share a photo,link or just text and Google+ allows to disable comments for a post, unlike Facebook.

Goggle says that it still experimenting with Google+ Direct Connect. In addition you could start a Hangout to allow all your fans to witness an event with you. Interesting feature...Only time will tell if Google+ Pages could pose a threat to Facebook fan pages !

Whats missing? The Custom Page URL ! Hope it will be done soon...

Things to expect from Google+

Google+ : A Facebook Killer ?

At the time of its launch Google+ was thought to be a facebook-killer. Millions flocked to the new social media platform and it was thought that facebook's days were indeed numbered. Circle, Hangouts and Sparks were a new thing and everybody wanted to have their share of the experiment. However midway, somehow, Google+ lost the plot. All thanks to the facebook add-ons like the Timeline, Video chat and better privacy options. The question that still remains to be answered is whether users are willing to leave Facebook for Google+. May be Google has to wait for a generation to meet success. The things that we expect to see from Google in the days to follow would be interesting. Some of the things which Google can take care of are discussed below.

1. Personalised Themes

Dynamic Themes

Google can pick up from where Facebook left. Users were unable to modify their themes to highlight creativity and differentiation. Probably Google + can allow users to add background images, enabling users to display their vibrant profiles.

2. Better Picture Galleries 

Improved Picture Galleries

Picture do tell a story. Many users take the joy of sharing their piece of the world through pictures. Google+ can gain a big advantage if it adds a picture editor. This would solve the problem of many who share pictures regularly. Normally we need to edit the pictures, crop them in an external editor and then upload it on social media platforms. Services like Picnik , Lunapic and Pixlr are used to edit and share the pictures onto social media. Also a more presentable and personalized display of pictures would be loved by users.

3. Pages for Businesses

Business Pages Are a Must

Google did announce that they had been developing pages for the businesses. It is yet to be released and all businesses are eager to get a glimpse of it. The advantage to business pages on Google+ pages would be a helpful integration of Google maps, Google places and the Google search of course. 

4. No Ticker

Privacy of the user should be a Priority

I was amazed to see the number of disapprovals for the facebook. No wonder Google + should avoid such real-time ticker to display what everyone else is upto. Users deserve privacy.

5. Limit The Number Of Pages Per User

Sky shouldn't be the limit

When you search for a page on face book you get countless options. More annoying is that there are pages with just 1 or 2 users. Fake pages are created in abundance. We need to streamline the number of pages to help the users find what they want, fast. This could be done by limiting the number of pages per user or setting a price for the creation of each page. I think this would tackle the problem of duplicity as well.

The days to come would determine the fate of Google+, whether users are won away from Facebook or not. I am looking forward to a more personalized and dynamic Goole+.

Measure Your Online Influence in Social Media Platforms

Unbox You True Reach

One of the most interesting and thought provoking topics included in my under-graduate course was “Influence”. It showed how the most unthinkable and minute elements in society lay claims to political authority and power. Influence could be hidden or displayed openly. Manifestation of Influence in politics relates to diplomatic talks, sanctions and grants. In the era of coalition governments (barring the US and UK) influence is a game-changer in the political arena.

Fast tract and a shift into the digital world. Influence may have different facets to it even in today’s  world of social media. Imagine being a Corporate Relations Manager. You need to build your relations with the present and potential clients. How would you go about doing this? Who would you try to communicate to get the most for your organization. The answer lies in choosing the most Influential ones. And how would you find out these lot of people. Simple. With the launch of services like Klout and PeerIndex. The former has indexed more than 100 Million individuals, scaling their influence on a scale of 1 to 100. Klout goes on to determine your actual reach and the impact your actions have based on your online interaction.

Be the Leader of the Pack

Who would benefit from these values of influences?

A host of people. 

Students- Consider an election. You would definitely try to gain the upper hand by bagging the most influencers on your side. Students are so often glued to social media platforms and hence their measurement of influence could be quite helpful.

Corporates- How about saving a few thousand bucks in advertising? Well this is exactly what you may end up doing if you are able to secure some influential clients. Business we know thrives by the word of mouth.It would also enable the organizations to recruit the best person for the job.

Politicians- Movements, demonstrations and demands could be a success or a failure depending on the influence a group has. If you get the most influential ones on your side possibilities are you may end up with not only the numbers but also the means and resources.
Or simply get your Influence Score and if you happen to be on the higher side than your pals you have the right to all the bragging rights.

For measuring your influence visit:

http://klout.com
http://empireavenue.com/
http://www.peerindex.com/

Social Media For Small Companies

Engage In Social Networks

There has been a paradigm shift in marketing ever since the arrival of the world wide web. So accustomed  were the marketeers with traditional forms of marketing that they somehow did not believe that "internet would help them sell". Things have changed. Iconic launches of the Windows and Apple Inc. have helped changed this notion for the years to come. In a survey conducted by a leading marketing magazine last winter, the internet soared with dollars from marketing revenues. What helped in the influx of these financial resources in an otherwise skeptical sector? Its technology! And social media has a great deal to do with it.

People Love Being Addressed Directly

One of the few things new or smaller organisations need  to do is to do away with  the traditional broadcasting culture. Gone are the days when when your loyal customers would flock for your products after reading about your new endevours in a newspaper or magazine, or see your add in a commercial. Its the age of social media. Things happen on the move.You need to connect with the masses instantly. At times even before your product is launched. Interact, publish and reward and do much more at the social media platform. When you address or make any communication to a customer over a social media forum, it is likely that the person will be satisfied and content. It would imply each customer is looked after well and they hear directly from you.

Let you employees engage on social media platforms responsibly. This would certainly help your brand name expand on the web. Let workers share pictures and events related to the organisation with friends. Remember, many customers are won over in the social media platform than the website. Social media enables individuals to address their issues directly to the organisation.

Activities You May Undertake

 Companies should not restrict their presence on social media platforms only to marketing. Other avenues do exist for companies. Recruitment and other PR related issues could also be addressed at social media platforms. It is important that you choose the right tool and the right platform for engaging in social media for your organisation. A lot of it is determined by the type of product/services you intend to promote and the type of people you want to connect to.

Here are some of the social media sites to get things started:

1 | Facebook
2 | Twitter
3 | LinkedIn
4 | MySpace
                                                                                     5 | Ning
                                                                                     6 | Google Plus+
                                                                                     7 | Meetup