How to See Which Facebook Pages Have Liked Your Business Page

Do you want to find out which other businesses have liked your Facebook Page? Discovering this is a good way to check out if the competition is keeping tabs on you, and often provides a good list of related company's that you might want to reach out to in order to join forces with to work together in some capacity. It's really easy to do, so let's take a look:

1. Open up the Admin Panel on your Facebook Page, and look for the "See Likes" link below the list of your most recent posts. Click it.

2. In the window that pops up, switch from People Who Like This to Pages that like this in the drop-down menu.

3. Here's a list of all the Pages that have liked you. Scroll down and keep clicking 'Show more' to view them all.

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Conclusion

That's all there is to it! Do you use this feature to benefit your marketing and business strategy? Let me know in the comments below.

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Social Media Should Be about Engagement Not Likes and Followers

Marketing is all about engaging with the customers and measuring your results. There is never a cookie cutter approach to anything and that is what makes it difficult and fun. We all use social media on a regular basis but for business purposes the approach is a bit different. 

The typical business owner cares about two things, likes and followers. They think if they have a large enough number for these two their social media profiles are a success and no longer need any further development.  They could not be more wrong with their reasoning. Yes, these two figures are the popular ones but there are more effective figures that will help you measure success.

 Before embarking on a social campaign you have to lay out your set of goals. You have to establish what the goals are and why you want to achieve them. For example, a goal could be to increase the number of comments per post; in turn this will increase customer engagement.

To those not in the loop, likes and follower figures can be manipulated. There are plenty of places where you can pay someone to increase your likes and followers. Granted these are not targeted or real users but they will look nice on your fan page.

Your most important stats should revolve around engagement. Specifically with Facebook, the Edgerank algorithm determines the weight of your posts, giving comments much more weight than likes. If you want your posts to be shared and show up on other peoples newsfeeds you need people to engage with them.

When people engage they are simultaneously contributing to a discussion and are creating genuine content on your behalf. This is why social media is a very cost efficient form of marketing, it could lead to infinite possibilities and cost you almost nothing.

In terms of ROI you can’t find a better marketing outlet than Social Media. If done correctly you can increase your brand equity while driving traffic to your website. Having a social profile is nothing, being active and consistent with posting quality content is a different story.

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What Users Hate About Brands

The treacherous waters of social media are not for the faint hearted. It can be hard to stay afloat amongst the constant stream of information that Facebook provides; birthdays, events, pictures of babies and dogs... How can your brand fit into that?

Answer: By acquiring ‘Likes’. Once a user ‘Likes’ your page, your brand will slot nicely into that stream, and your posts, offers and other content will appear next to that picture of the dog asleep upside down.

But how can you keep those ‘Likes’? You need to keep users engaged so that your Facebook page is seen as useful and helpful, and not something that needs to be removed from the home page.

When someone ‘unfriends’ you, no matter who it is, there’s still a pang of disappointment. Most people ‘unfriend’ another user because they annoy them. And it’s the same for brands.

A recent study by Lab42 found 73% of social media users ‘unliked’ a brand because of the following reasons:

1. 
   Brands posted too frequently.
2. The user stopped liking the brand.
3. The user had a bad customer experience.

They also asked why users don’t ‘like’ brands on Facebook:

• 47% said brands clutter their newsfeed
• 36% of people don’t want to be contacted
• 30% of people were concered about their privacy
• 27% only wanted to post relevant things to their life.

Facebook users may even be put off from ‘liking’ your page. 22% of users are embarrassed to like certain brands, for fear it may tell their other friends. The top three products people are embarrassed about are:

1. Adult novelty items
2. Diet/weight loss products
3. Health and wellness.

If your company falls into one of these categories, don’t worry. People obviously like your product – just give users the chance to hide that they’ve just liked your page. This can be done through the help centre on Facebook.

Of course, there are users that love brands on Facebook. In fact, 82% of people said Facebook was a good platform for interacting with brands. And of that, 50% of users found the brand’s Facebook page to be more helpful than the official website. So it’s definitely worth investing time and effort into. 

There are still ways to encourage your existing ‘likers’ to stick around and to entice new ones to ‘Like’ your page:

1. More giveaways
2. Post less often
3. Let the user hide that they like your brand

So now you know why people don’t stick around, and what users want from a Facebook page. Now you’ll need to learn how to implement this into your social media strategy.

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Ghost Town? Study Says 70 Percent Of Facebook Pages Are Inactive

“Ghost town” is a phrase that’s been tossed around when describing the apparent low activity levels on Google+, but a new study suggests that it could also apply to business activity using Facebook Pages.

Recommend.ly, a social media tools/analytics company that we’ve covered before when it looked at Wal-Mart’s Facebook Page strategy, is now out with a wider study that looks at overall Facebook Page activity … and it isn’t pretty.

In October, the company examined more than 5.7 million Facebook Pages with at least 10 “Likes”, and used a subset of about three million Pages to dig deeper into specific category activity. 

Recommend.ly found that 70 percent of the Pages it studied aren’t actively posting, with Pages in the Community, Company and Public Figure categories especially inactive.

That chart shows how many posts per month Page owners are making across different categories during the October study. The chart below also looks at posting activity by category, but compare the average posts made between March and October. As you can see, posting activity is down in every category except “Local business.”

Page inactivity is also shown in engagement rates and the use (or lack thereof) of cover images. Recommend.ly says 64 percent of Pages have no cover photo and 83 percent never participated in conversations on their Pages.

The study also found that Business category Pages have seen a significant drop in average fan count — from 6,400 fans per Page in March to 3,233 fans per Page in October.

It all begs the obvious question: Why is Facebook Page activity declining like this?

Recommend.ly mentions that the full rollout of Timeline this spring may be to blame. And there’s also Facebook’s move to what we’ve called paid organification — i.e., the need for brands to spend money to get more eyeballs to see their “free” (organic) posts and status updates. 

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How to Get More Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers & Social Friends

12 Tips to Get Real Results on the Social Networks, Not Just Likes, Clicks & Followers

1. Ask the right questions. Focus on the WHY. Why should your audience like, click, follow, tweet, retweet you? Why should they give a rip about anything you say, do, tweet, post or sing? Give them a reason to take action.

2. Have a plan. This post is not designed to give you a template for a plan. Bottom line you need a business strategy inclusive of a social media strategy and plan. You need goals, objectives and a plan to get there.

3. Know your audience. Bottom line if you don’t know your audience you won’t know how to inspire them to connect with you, let alone click, like, comment or share. Get in their heads as deep as you can. Know what they like to eat, drink. Know where they hang out. What do they talk about ? Where do they go for work, lunch, fun, dancing, talking, laughing, crying, and support? Where do they share their photos? Where do they talk about business? Talk about family? Talk about the services they like, need and want? The more you can know about them the better you can inspire them to connect with you and your brand. Download our audience analysis worksheet to help you get started on this step.

 

4. Polish up your social brand & know who you are. Develop your social brand in support of your corporate or overall personal brand. Everything you say and do online should be a positive reinforcement of  your brand promise. Check out these three articles for tips on developing your Facebook and social brand: 15 Must Know Tips to Rock Your Facebook Timeline Business Page, 10 Easy Ways to Rock Your Brand on Facebook, 20 Tips to Build a Brand that is a Sweet Orange in a World of Bitter Apples.

5. Develop a content plan. You must offer relevant content and conversation that will not only inspire but engage your audience. You must inspire them to take action. They are not going to do it without such. Remember, they are asking themselves how they can get rid of the spam and over hyped Facebook posts while you are figuring out how you can get more of the same in their face. Download our Content Inventory worksheet to help you get a grip and organize your content so you can begin by maximizing what you got and know what content you need to develop or enhance.

6. It’s what happens after the Facebook like that matters most. Focus on providing value both before and after the like! Check out this article: What Happens After the Facebook Like? 20 Tips To Engage Your Audience After the Like!

7. Give without expecting anything in return. Ask not what your fans, followers, friends can do for you but what you can do for them. Focus on providing the highest value possible.

 

8. Earn their trust. Your first goal should be to earn their trust. The quicker you earn their trust, the better and quicker you can inspire them to connect with you and your brand. Clicking, liking and following should not be a deep thought for them. They should be so engaged in your brand that clicking is natural because they have no reason not to trust you. Check out this page for more tips: Social Trust Factor: 10 Tips to Establish Credibility

9. Don’t be afraid of the data and insights. Most businesses we work with have never spent more than five minutes looking at their Facebook or YouTube analytics. As I always say “there is gold in them there analytics!” Dig into all the free data and insights available on the social networks. With a little digging you can find data that will help you make the right decisions to do better in the coming year.

10. Don’t get caught up in the social buzz hype. Don’t get caught up in measuring only the social buzz metrics. You must focus on the right metrics so you can  measure real results. Bottom line you need to set measurable goals and objectives and you need to measure them. Goals are nothing without a plan to achieve them and proof you did such!

11. Don’t forget the fans you already have! The biggest mistake we see brands make is focusing only on numbers and growing their community. A large community should not be your top goal. Instead you should focus on how you can offer the most value to your community. If you focus on value and the fans you already have as a top priority you’ll be amazed how your community will grow and how your results can be more easily monetized. Show those who have already liked your Facebook page or followed you on Twitter that you appreciate them. Offer them insight, knowledge, conversation and data that brings value to their life and business.

12. Inspire – connect – achieve. Focus on the goals of your audience first. Inspire your audiences to connect with you with a goal of helping them achieve their objectives. If you help them achieve their goals and objectives, you will achieve yours organically. 

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The Definitive Checklist for Effective Facebook Posts

While most in the industry think that copy can change the world, it’s quickly becoming apparent that you need to think of each individual post as a self-contained piece of marketing with copy, art, and targeting.

Facebook, while their stock hasn’t been showing it, has been consistently making improvements to the way brands can use their network to reach customers and advocates. But, with more functionality in posting come more things to think about when making that post.

This quick guide was created to help you remember the most-important aspects in making a successful post.

Message

This is where, traditionally, a team spends most of their time – in the copy. With Facebook’s advanced targeting, you’re able to create different messages for different audiences, which make copywriting actually easier rather than harder.

You have the chance to craft a super-specific and targeted bit of copy that truly speaks to your intended audience, rather than a watered-down, please-them-all bit of copy that may or may not even cause someone to pause in their news feed long enough to get to the meat.

Pro tip: Asking questions is great, but don’t just ask a question to get an answer. Have an answer in mind and ask a question that not only leads there, but goes further. Also, be sure to bring other pages into the conversation when you can by tagging them in your post.

Image

It’s been said many times over that a picture is worth a thousand words. Nowhere is this more apparent than in today’s social media landscape with Instagram still gaining and gaining and Pinterest taking the visual desires of many and turning them in to clicks.

Images are quickly becoming an important part of brand marketing strategy – and rightfully so. For the first time, the industry is seeing budget set aside for the creation of imagery especially for social media.

Pro tip: Aim for images with a 403 px by 403 px dimension. That way you can pin that post if needed. The largest size of a picture that Facebook will display in a slideshow is 960 px by 720 px.

Targeting

Since Facebook rolled out their advanced post targeting a few weeks ago (to pages with more than 5,000 Likes), brands have had the chance to provide a richer experience to their fans than ever before.

By giving brands the chance to target super-specific messaging, Facebook has cut down on that age-old nemesis of advertisers everywhere – noise. Also, they’ve provided a way for brands to more effectively manage their EdgeRank by making sure that users only see content that is hyper-relevant to their interests.

Facebook now allows you to target page posts by:

• Age
• Gender
• Interested In
• Relationship Status
• Language
• Education
• Workplace
• Location: Country, State, City

We aren't aware of any of the large publishing/CMS tools that have the ability to tap into Facebook’s advanced targeting features, but look for this soon.

Pro tip: Create targeting profiles for your target audiences and refine them often to make sure you’re delivering targeted, specific material to your audiences. Create multivariate testing with multiple copy/image combinations for different targets in order to test effectiveness.

Timing

Along with targeting, timing of posts is the second-most important thing you can do from a creation and distribution standpoint when thinking about Facebook posts. There are many views on when and how often you should post, and that’s another topic for another time, but there are definitely ways you can test and refine your posting cadence – as well as decide when to post to which targets.

One tool, Prosodic, uses a clock view to show when your fans are most active in regards to your posted content. One thing we’d like to see here is the ability to potentially splice data by targeting criteria.

Pro tip: Don’t just think about what times of day to post, think about wider events like planned press conferences, major sporting events, and other cultural events when you’re laying out your timeline. You don’t want a great post to be overlooked because of something you knew was coming. Also, scheduling posts in advance gives you a chance to move them around if breaking news fills the newsfeed.

Final Word

Facebook marketing is still what it has always been about – making a connection through interesting content. While that hasn’t changed, the way we go about making those connections has and will continue to evolve, creating the need for an educated and quick-to-learn team tasked with creating, delivering, and refining content for this channel.

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Facebook for Business: 10 Tips to Rock Your Brand!

It’s not news that the noise on the social platforms is getting louder. It’s becoming harder to stand out from the crowd. Many Facebook pages are finding themselves at a social table for one with little conversation going on despite all those “likes” they begged for in the early days.

Quality over Quantity!

Anyone who follows me knows that ever since I hopped on Facebook for business I have been preachin’ that it is not about the likes. It’s not the number of likes that will grow your business. It’s the quality of those likes, why they liked your page in the first place and most importantly what happens after the like. You can check out this post I wrote in 2010 and it is still relevant today!  “What Happens After the Facebook Like? 20 Tips to Engage Your Audience After the Like!

Imperfect Perfection

So the next question many ask me is “then how do I stand out from the crowd? How do I brand myself without being too over promotional?

Many think that it’s going to cost them an arm, leg and their Q3 budget to develop an online brand strategy that rocks. Yes, it is going to take time, resource, smart planning and eventually some cash.  However, there is much you can do to maximize your investment. You can start with baby steps and build as you go.

Remember when it comes to marketing and branding, there is no such thing as “perfection.” Learn to embrace imperfect perfection. A marketers work is never done. If you wait to launch until it’s perfect, chances are you will miss the bus entirely.

If you are new to branding, you should also check out a blog I wrote recently “How to Build a Social Brand That is a Sweet Orange in a World of Bitter Apples.”  It’s loaded with solid tips for building your social brand.

Here are a few tips to help you rock your brand on Facebook without going for broke! Most of these tips are applicable on any site, not just Facebook.

5 Essential Attributes of Rockin’ Brands:

1. Deeper than a logo: Your logo is not your brand. Your brand is the essence of who and what you are. It’s everything from your CEO to the receptionist that answers the phone. It’s your tweets, avatar, Facebook cover image and even the description on your LinkedIn business page.

2. Consistent: Did you know it takes 6-7 brand impressions for someone to remember your brand at all? Yup, so that means every impression must count. The more consistent you can be the more easily each and every brand impression is going to leave a memorable imprint in their brain. Even if budgets are tight, find a way to build consistency across the various platforms.

3. Unique: There is only one you so be that person and business. Do not copy your competition or partners. Focus on your unique value you bring to your target markets, partners and community as a whole.

Don’t just throw up your boring logo or a picture of your CEO. Think in terms of emotional brand connection. How can you truly connect with your target audience? How can you ensure you are a brand they remember, click like and want to come back and visit? Being a cookie cutter copy of everyone else is not going to get you there, sorry!

4. Relevant: Your brand must mean something and resonate with your target audience. They need to be able to connect with who you are, what you say, what you do and how you make them feel.

5. Simple: I love brands that make people think but at the same time are easy to understand.

 10 Tips to Brand Yourself on Facebook (and any social network platform in reality)

1. Profile Photo: Your profile photo (aka Avatar)  is the small image right beneath the Facebook cover image. This is an important image as it appears in news feeds and pages when you comment. It appears right next to your comment. You may need to mess with it a little bit to ensure that your logo or face is positioned correctly and can be seen or read in news feeds. Be sure to check it on several different types of devices such as a computer hooked up to a large monitor, laptop, iPad, and mobile phone.

2. Cover Image: Your cover image presents an amazing opportunity for you to present your brand to the world. It is a first impression that all visitors are going to see at least one time. Give them a reason to come back! Don’t just grab the closest photo you can find and slap it on there. Take some time to ensure you select an image and/or concept that is fresh, unique and represents you and your brand appropriately.

Try mixing it up frequently to keep your fans inspired and entertained. If they know you keep it fresh and it connects with them chances are they may be back to see what you have done next.

Both the cover image and avatar should support your brand promise, vision and mission. This is where the consistency begins. Colors, tones, design, overall look and feel should be consistent. If you fall down on consistency starting with your avatar and cover image you are headed for trouble. Keep them clean, simple, free of jargon and something that makes your fans say “wow!”

However, even with this don’t wait for perfection. Get something up there. If you are short on design resources go for simple over complicated. Make the message simple, inspiring and memorable.

3. Application Thumbnails & Icons: Each application offers the ability for you to assign a small image to it. Each of these images can be branded in a simple and unique way that can support your brand! Choose images that are descriptive of the content in the application / tab. Ensure they are simple and relevant.

Most application provides an opportunity to upload a custom thumbnail image as well as the smaller icon that is shown beneath the application thumbnail.

4. Applications / Tabs: The application pages are an excellent opportunity to integrate your brand. You can utilize many different apps that will help leverage content you have developed and published on other social and web platforms that you own or manage. This includes blogs, website etc. You can also create custom application tabs which include custom content, video etc. Even though Facebook no longer supports the custom default landing tabs you can still grab the unique url for each tab and leverage it as a landing tab when pointing to it from other social networks, status updates, blog posts or websites.

Take the time to research appropriate apps for your market, partners and community. Have fun with them and don’t be afraid to try something different? What’s the worst that will happen? People won’t click like? Who cares! They won’t click like if you bore them to death anyway! 

5. Video: Creating a custom video that represents your brand can be an amazing way to organically attract the right audience. You can see the latest video we created with the launch of our new agency,Marketing Nutz, here. The video highlights what we believe in regard to social media. We believe theheartbeat of social media is YOU. It’s the people, the conversation and connections made that keep the social heart beating lively. The more work you do up front on your brand foundation, the easier it becomes to create content in different mediums.

6. Content: How long has it been since you reviewed the description, about section and other content on your Facebook business or personal page? Many people and businesses set up their pages when they are still learning how Facebook works. They often forget to go back and modify the content so it properly aligns and represents their brand.

Even if you think your content on these sections is fine, I challenge you to go back and double check within the next week. Take a minute and refresh the content and be sure it is the best possible representation of you and your brand.

Check the urls and other contact information to be sure it is accurate and up to date!

7. Status Updates: Many people over look the simple status update or don’t see it as a branding opportunity. Remember, your brand is not just your logo. Everything you say, post, tweet and update can and will be used for or against you when it comes to brand perception. Your brand are the people you hang out with both online and offline. Your partners, clients and even Friday night dinner friends if you’re posting photos to Instagram and tweeting them to the world!

Take the time to plan an editorial calendar if possible. Doing this will help ensure your status updates align to your goals and objectives and are not simply Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs).

The more you can inspire your fans with good content, the more they are going to click like, comment and share with their friends. The more they do this, the higher your edgerank score will be and thus your chances of Facebook presenting your status update in the news stream of your fans increases. Facebook is definitely becoming an animal to manage when it comes to edgerank. The best thing you can do is focus on your audience, their needs and how you can help them. Spend more time focused on adding value than you do on tweaking the edgerank algorithm. The only guarantee with social media is change. So go figure, just as you think  you have mastered the Edgerank algorithm… guess what!? It’s going to change!

8. Contests: Contests are a great way to integrate your brand in a fun way. Are you launching a new product or logo? Leverage Facebook as a way to poll your community on their top preference. Or even use it to help them select a tag line, product name or logo. There are many apps that can help you do this without a whole lot of custom development or effort.

We have hosted some very successful campaigns for our clients even on limited budgets for helping them name products, businesses, select a logo etc. They can be a great way to engage your audience pre-launch and start to build a community who helps build you and your brand from day one. The benefit of this is that if you are humble and share your ups and downs as you grow, then when you win, your community celebrates with you, as they helped you get there!

9. Images & photos: Obviously the social networks are becoming more and more visual. Pinterest receives 1.3 million visitors a day! Ensure that images are a core component of your brand strategy. Select at minimum a handful of images that support your brand. Use them consistently on social profiles, for product descriptions etc.  Images can really drive home key messages and be the glue of consistency you need to make the most positive brand impression possible.

Use images as a foundation to demonstrate that you have developed and integrated a consistent brand across the various platforms. You can write a blog post and insert a branded image. You can then share that blog post to Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc. Each time you share the post the featured image will come right along with it. As a result it increases the ROI of the blog post, investment in the image and your brand as a whole. It’s a great example of why integrated marketing developed with a plan based upon goals and objectives delivers far better results than a set of random acts of marketing (RAMs)!

Did you know photos are the most viewed content on Facebook? Next time you are at an industry event or host a fun team meeting, take some photos! Post them to your different social profiles such as Pinterest, Flickr, Instagram etc.  Leak them to Facebook over time. Maximize their life time. I like to load a few at a time over a couple of weeks if it makes sense. Sometimes it is better just to upload them all at once depending on the event and purpose of the photo.

10. Be Available! Don’t just launch your page and never go back or only visit once a week. Ensure that you have the email notifications setup if you do not frequent Facebook often. Most people who ask a question want an answer fairly quick. If they happen to ask a question on your page and don’t get an answer, chances are they will hop right over to your competition. Every conversation you can have with your fans is an opportunity to build relationships. Don’t look at it as a negative. It’s a good thing when people come to you as a go to source of information. Embrace it and ensure you have proper resource to cover the demand and respond in a timely manner.

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