The New Insights

Posted: December 21st, 2011

Last week, the old version of Facebook Insights faded into history, replaced by a leaner, more focused version. The new Insights places less of a focus on Likes, as maturing Fan pages switch from Growth to Engagement+Growth. Troy Thompson at Travel 2.0 made this observation earlier this year.

2012 will be all about Engagement.

It’s not enough to have tens or even hundreds of thousands of Fans if they aren’t interacting with your Brand. Engagement is about turning passive observers into passionate contributors. The Holy Grail of Engagement is a Brand who barely posts content because Fans are sharing their own content that reflects the Brand. The example below is the Powder Highway page, which has seen incredible Fan posted content.

The new Facebook Insights makes steps towards creating Intelligence on what content is engaging and highlights 4 important metrics:

  • Weekly Total Reach
    • The unique number of Fans who have seen content posted to your page
  • People Talking About
    • The number of Fans who have shared your pages content to their network by way of Comments, Posting to your Wall, Liking a Post, Answering a Question, etc.
  • Friends of Fans
    • The number of potential Fans you can reach through your pages current Fan network
  • Total Likes
    • The current number of people who Like your page (Fans)

For Tourism Organizations, the primary KPI’s to measure using these metrics are

  1. Reach (Awareness)
  2. Engagement (Organic Conversation)
  3. Industry Leads (Conversions)

Your Reach can be targeted in two ways: targeting to potential Fans, and targeting Friends of Current Fans. In a funnel Structure, this is the top and largest part of your funnel.

Your Engagement percentage is the number of Total Fans divided by People Talking About. The Goal here is to increase the People Talking About number, turning passive observers into passionate contributors.

Depending on the structure of your particular organization, Industry Leads are the Conversions that happen when Engaged Fans take your desired action, such as a click through to your website, sign up for a newsletter, or filling out a form. It’s important to note that Facebook currently does not track Conversions, so a Link Tracker must be used (such as Bit.ly) to see this data.

As part of a Social Media Strategy, filling this funnel and strengthening the levels within it is key to keeping your Fans, while turning them into SuperFans who impact your business.

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Posted in By Joel Marc, Facebook, Social Media | 3 Comments »

FACEBOOK evolves! Critical changes and what they mean to you.

Posted: August 23rd, 2011

It was only a matter of time. Facebook unveiled plans to overhaul some of its key features which will roll out over the next week. We’ve detailed the ones that will have the most impact on Tourism businesses and users alike.

The main Publisher bar “aka. Status Update Field” has three new changes entitled: Tags, Location (places), and Control (privacy).

Tagging/Untagging

“[Just] because I share an experience with them doesn’t mean I want to be Facebook friends with them.” – Facebook Product Manager, Kate O’Neill

You can now tag any Facebook member, whether they are your friend or not. This enables photos of groups to be tagged in their entirety. Concerned that you’ll be tagged without your knowing? If you’re not a friend of the person who tags you, you’ll still have to formally approve their request before it displays. On a related note, if you are friends with someone who has tagged you, you can now turn off the “require approval” feature of tagging.

Three new features have been rolled our regarding Untagging including: untagging yourself from a photo, asking the photo uploader to remove the photo, and blocking that person on Facebook.

Places

The GPS restriction of Checking-In to Places has been removed in the latest smartphone application update. This enables users to check-in to places retroactively and is now accomplished from the Status Update field (instead of the old ‘places’ menu). This also MAY enable businesses to setup Places without being at their physical location, but we are still waiting on this confirmation.

Control

No doubt following the Google+ launch of Circles, Facebook has reorganized how and with who you can share content with (for the record, we think Circles is much sexier). In the Publisher Bar, the former Padlock icon will change with the type of sharing. A posts visibility may also be retroactively updated. New sharing categories are:

  • Public
  • Friends
  • Custom (for Lists or Groups)

Additionally, the Privacy Settings have been given their own button on every screen (simplifying the process in navigating to the bulky privacy menu). A handy “View Profile As” button has been added as well, to see exactly what your different permission levels look like.

Advertisements

While the Facebook’s Privacy updates have stolen the show, Facebook Ads have rolled out a new feature in the targeting of ads. Last month, Facebook Ads added a new target set called “Precise Interests” in which advertisers could target specific Likes and Interests that users have posted to their profile. For example, I’ve Liked the W Hotels fan page, and low-and-behold, I now see ads for W Hotels!

The new feature launched today is within Precise Interests and is called ‘Topic Targeting.’ It allow advertisers to target Topics relating to that specific interest, in order to pick up a relating audience. Displayed with a ‘#’ symbol, Topics cover both the Precise Interest AND relating Interest. For example, if I were to add the topic #Ritz-Carlton, it would include interests such as Ritz Hotels, Ritz Carlton Hotels, and the Ritz Carlton Hotel Group. Optional category Interests are also displayed that may be applicable to my target market. Using the Ritz Carlton example, optional category interests would include the #Starwood Hotels and #Hilton Worldwide topics.

Instead of only targeting the 20,00 fans living in the US who Like the official Ritz Carlton Fan page, my reach using the #Ritz-Carlton Topic has increased to 73,000. Longer reach = better target exposure.

 

What’s your opinion? Good improvements or not?

Posted in By Joel Marc, Facebook | No Comments »

What’s the deal with Foursquare?

Posted: August 16th, 2011

You’ve probably heard of Foursquare or seen a sticker encouraging you to Check-In at your local coffee shop. While some may write-off Foursquare as another social media platform to keep track of, Foursquare has been quietly picking up momentum to the tune of 10 million subscribers. Then yesterday, Foursquare got it’s biggest endorsement yet as President Barrack Obama announced the White House’s official use of Foursquare.

So what is Foursquare? Foursquare creates personalized experiences among friends using location-based technologies within mobile smartphones. The entire goal of Foursquare is to share tips, insights, and deals from the businesses and areas you interact with on a daily basis.

Checking-In on your mobile phone unlocks the tips left by your friends and others for that particular business or area. I could Check-In to my favorite deli and leave a Tip for a particular sandwich that isn’t on the menu, or when running a trail in Stanley Park I could leave a tip for a particular place to get that perfect scenic view. When friends or others check-in to those locations, my tips are automatically displayed to them. My friends can even add these tips to a To-Do List to create their own mini adventures based on my experiences.

Recently, Foursquare launched support for Businesses, called Foursquare Pages. This is where Foursquare becomes really valuable for DMO’s and their members. Pages enables a business or organization to brand the Page to their own graphical feel and display Lists of places that they recommend. So if you decided to follow the Think! Social Media Foursquare Page you would see our List of places around Yaletown we love to go for lunch. Additionally you can see the tips we’ve left at all the locations around the world.

Foursquare Pages are a natural fit for member-based organizations who want to promote the members of their region. The trick is to make your Page appealing so visitors will want to follow it. We suggest providing tips, insights, and deals that only Foursquare users can experience. Luxury hotelier Ritz-Carlton took some of the knowledge from their esteemed Concierges and made them tips on their Foursquare Pages of each property. Their motivation? Take the renown insight of their Concierges and make it accessible to people who love the Ritz-Carlton brand online.

Encouraging members to offer small freebies to customers for checking-in on Foursquare is a great way to build some momentum. A cupcake shop offered an extra shot of icing if customers showed an employee a check-in on their mobile phone. Small items such as an “extra shot of espresso” work best.

Marketing material stating that your business is on Foursquare is a helpful way to remind people to check-in (as they’re thinking about what kind of sandwich they want). A small stand-up at the checkout counter goes a long way. I was buying groceries recently and the display showing my purchase had a graphic stating “Check-in to Foursquare and ask for a free apple.” Smart and simple.

Want a Free Foursquare Window Sticker for your business? Just verify your businesses location on Foursquare and they’ll mail you one. Or, to get Foursquare’s logo to use in your marketing material, visit this link and choose Buttons and Logo’s.

Have you used Foursquare in an innovative way already? We’d love to hear your story in the comments section below.

 

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Posted in By Joel Marc, Foursquare | 1 Comment »