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?

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+.

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

Link Facebook fanpage to Twitter account

With the growing importance of facebook fanpages for business, it is essential for us to link it with our twitter account. You could argue that you might as well post on your facebook fanpage instead of tweeting, but twitter is a unique marketing tool in itself. So, you could emerge a winner only if you could integrate the two. How?? I am going to show you that in a few simple steps.

1. Log into your facebook account

2. In a new tab open : http://involver.com/

3. Click on " Get Apps"

4. In the section titled " BASIC APPLICATIONS" click on "INSTALL" below to the Twitter App

5. The next page seeks your permission to add the App to your page.Click on "Add Tweets To Pages"

6. The next page Requests permission for Tweets for pages. Click on "ALLOW"

7. The next page asks for the name of the company you are creating the page for and its phone number.Tick on I have read and accepted the Terms of Service. This is for their promotional policy only.

8.In the next page you are required to field in the user name of the twitter account you want to link your facebook page to. From the drop-down menu select the number of tweets you want to display on your tab.

9.First ADD the username (beginning with @) then click on SAVE CHANGES

10. Go to your fan page where you will notice a new tab labelled as TWITTER

11. Click on the tab and you will see the tweets from your linked twitter page. Wait its not over yet ! go a step ahead. Post selective Tweets on the wall of your fan page by clicking on PUBLISH when you hover your mouse over a particular tweet..

Go ahead and link your facebook Fanpage to Twitter....

The New Face Of Social Media

AN ARRAY OF ACTIVITIES ON THE WEB

Initially I wasn't a social media enthusiast at all..Things changed dramatically when I joined an Internet Marketing firm for my internship in the last year of my graduation. I knew what facebook was and had around 200+ friends at that point of time.. I was there only to connect with my Friends who had gone away for their studies.. Applications on facebook like Farm-ville and City-ville drew my attention at times. However, I wasn't taken into it as my other college friends, most of whom had over 500 friends.

My first experience with social media was with Orkut..It was when I was in high school.Back then no one realized the potential of social media like we do today. It has made significant contributions to the way we think, act and connect. Take the example of President Barrack Obama. He successfully used Twitter in his Presidential campaign and emerged victorious. It is not guaranteed that your social media campaign will always go smooth without any hi-cups. Take the example of the Indian MP Mr. Shashi Tharoor. His Tweets about the "Holy Cows" lead to his resignation from an official post. Such was the momentum social media had gathered over time.

ARE YOU THERE ON ANY OF THESE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ?

 I understood the value of social media.It was not only being utilized for connecting and sharing stuffs with ones friends and family. Its being used today as a major marketing strategy. When I got a dissertation assignment for my final semester, I chose the topic "The Impact of Social Media In Politics". Significant developments occurred in the global political arena which caught my attention. By then my experience as an intern gave me the opportunity to understand the dynamics of social media better. Social Media toppled governments one after another and the Egyptian President Hossein Mubarak was the worst sufferer, losing power which he held for 30 years.

TWEETS HELP IN CROWD MOBILIZATION

I consider myself lucky to work in an industry which is very deeply integrated to social media. I get to experience all the latest developments in the field of social media. With limited technical and programming knowledge, I have huge grounds to cover..Lots of interesting things to learn..