4 Fun Ways to Improve Your Facebook Engagement

Why Engagement Matters on Facebook

There are more than 15 million business pages on Facebook. Add in Facebook’s hundreds of complex algorithms that work behind the scenes to help people see what matters most to them, and it’s little wonder that page owners find it frustrating to maintain news feed visibility. Because of the algorithms, fans don’t see all updates from every page they like in their news feed.

But every time a fan likes or interacts with a particular type of post on your page, Facebook uses that information to determine what content your fan likes most, and makes that content more prominent in their news feed.

So if your fans are mainly interacting with your images, they’ll see more of your images; if they’re mainly interacting with your text posts, they’ll see more of your text posts. Get the picture?

Initiating social games is good for your Facebook page.

Using your business page timeline to feature fun social games creates community among your fans and brings them back to your page over and over again, giving them more opportunities to get to know you and your brand.

If you want to improve your visibility without spending lots of money on Facebook ads, initiate social games to draw your fans back to your page.

Each of these games can be run successfully on a page timeline or in a group—which is good news if you administer both!

#1: Take Your Best Guess

With the recent changes to the Facebook Page Guidelines, businesses can now run competitions on their timelines.

You can choose to run the “What’s Your Best Guess?” game as a timeline competition with a prize or simply to create engagement. Admittedly, it’s more fun for your fans if there’s a prize on offer.

The "What's Your Best Guess" game can feature anything in any quantity. Candy in a jar is a popular choice, though!

How the game works.

Buy a quantity of anything you think will interest your fans. You can choose candy, buttons, balloons, branded promotional items like golf balls or even toys. Fill a jar, then take a photo of the jar and post it to your business page timeline.

If you don’t offer a prize, all you need do is post the image with the words: “What’s your best guess? Post your answer in the comments below.”

If you run the game as a competition with a prize on your page’s timeline, you’ll need to ensure you comply with Facebook Page Guidelines and be very clear about what the prize on offer is so there’s no confusion for your fans.

As there is just one correct answer, let people know what happens if there’s a tie. If there’s only one prize, an easy-to-implement tiebreaker is to simply state that whoever posts first wins.

To determine the winner in case of a tie, check to see who posted first by looking at the time stamp on each comment.

See who posted first on a page by looking at the time stamp on each comment. You may also want to put a time limit on the game so people know to post their answer within a specific time frame. This will encourage fans to get in early and makes it easier for you to administer the game.

#2: Ask the Next Friend

“Ask the Next Friend” is a fun and simple game that quickly builds camaraderie and community.

How the game works.

Simply kick-start the thread by posing an “either/or” question and state that the next person to comment should answer in one word, then pose their own “either/or” question.

Keep games simple for lightning-fast engagement on your page or in your Facebook group.

In this example from Queensland Business Group‘s “Ask the Next Friend” game, 95 people commented and not one person went off topic in the thread.

#3: Name Your Life’s Feature Film

Games that help your community get to know each other are awesome for engagement and relationship-building on Facebook. In this game, your fans name a movie that reflects their business or life.

The answers will help fans forge closer relationships with one another.

How the game works.

Ask the question: “If your life/business was a (movie/book/song), which one would it be?”

Remember to kick-start the conversation by answering the question yourself andinvite your followers to share the thread so that more people can participate.

Games can help your community members get to know each other better.

#4: Tell the Story

Have you ever read one of those books where you choose what happens next? This game is kind of like that. One of the best things you can do on Facebook is to harness the power of storytelling. Involve your fans in the storytelling to make them the stars in your brand’s show.

Use this simple social game to co-create a story with your followers. Not only does this game result in a fun and engaging story, but you’ll also get to know some new fans on your page.

Use a graphic to share instructions on how to play the game.

How the game works.

Create a graphic that shares the first sentence in the story and outlines the instructions for participating in the game. You’ll also place the first sentence in the description.

It’s a great idea to post a follow-up status update to share the story as it evolves. This not only increases participation; it also lets you restore the story if Facebook mixes up the order of comments.

Post an update of the story every so often to encourage greater participation.

Things to keep in mind when you run social games on Facebook.

Make sure your pictures are clear, attention-grabbing and preferably square. I recommend making your images the optimal timeline size of 403 x 403 pixels or larger. You can actually size your images up to a maximum of 2048 x 2048 pixels, so when people click the image, it takes up the whole window.

Include the game instructions and any rules in the post description, not just on the image.

Keep the instructions simple for people to follow so they don’t balk at participating.

Kick-start the process yourself to encourage others to participate or tip off some avid fans to help you get the process going.

Round up some willing fans to help initiate the comments.

If your post is getting great engagement, consider boosting the post to further increase engagement and visibility.

via

The Importance of Telling and Retelling Your Story

More than twenty years ago, my brother came to me with a funny story. We were both out of college, married, and getting on with our lives. I had moved away but he was still living in the area where we grew up, and had become friends with one of my high school classmates. As they got to know each other, this classmate of mine carefully asked my brother about me, as if there was something wrong. As the conversation went on, it turned out that this friend had heard a few things about me that concerned him.

When I didn’t show up for my senior year of high school, people began to speculate. The rumors that went around were that either I went nuts and had to be institutionalized, or that I got really messed up on drugs, neither of which was true. In fact, both are pretty laughable. I has a reputation as a very straight edge kid (read: goody two shoes) in high school, that I have never even smoke a single cigarette!

So what happened? Where was I when I should have been in high school?

Well, I skipped my senior year of high school. Because I had completed most of the required coursework, I just went right from 11th grade to college, and the decision to do so was rather last minute, so no one but my closest friends knew where I was. I kept in touch with them via occasional letters, but others bought into the rumors and helped to spread them.

We’ve all done that. We hear rumors about individuals and businesses, and often pass them on to others with the assumption they are true. Sadly, this happens all too often, and I bet a lot of untruths, some of them damaging, are circulating the web.

If this had happened to me today, it would be very easy for me to battle. I would have been connected to my high school classmates on Facebook, and they would have known what was going on in my life. And if the rumors started, I could easily counter them by telling people what I was up to.

By being online and using various social networks, I have the ability to tell my story. In fact, I have the ability to tell it, and retell it, every day. It doesn’t mean the bad stories will go away completely. They will always linger. There are still people who swear up and down that Mikey died after ingesting Coke and Pop Rocks. This is why people continue to forward those crazy emails and perpetuate those crazy stories on Facebook, even though Snopes has disproved them years ago. People like scandal and bad stories.

If you monitor your brand online, you’ll often find these bad things. Often they come in the form of opinion or bad reviews on sites like Yelp or Google+. People post their opinions, and others buy into them, without the benefit of personal experience.

I got caught up in this the other day on Facebook. I was asking people where we could go to get a nice milkshake, and I got lots of responses. One response was for a restaurant I had heard not so great things about. I knew that they had had one of those infamous Facebook blowups where they got into an online rant and battle with some of their patrons who had posted not so nice things about their customer service. And while this was over a year ago, I still remembered this, and it turned me off about the business. Others weighed in telling me they enjoyed the place, and eventually someone else weighed in: the manager of the restaurant. I didn’t realize it, but I am connected on Facebook with the current manager, and he popped in to tell me that whatever happened must have been before his time, and he assured me things were different. In so doing, he told me a part of his business’s story, and now I’m eager to try it out.

It worked. I’ll give them a chance, after having written them off based on things I had seen and heard in the past.

This is why it’s important for a business to tell its story online. And to keep telling it. Not only does it tell people who you are, but it also corrects misinformation and tells them who you aren’t. In fact, every blog post, every status update, every photo, and so on, is a part of telling your story.

We need to tell our stories continuously so that there is no confusion about the facts. Just make sure that the story you tell, matches reality. If the two don’t match, people will call you out on it.

By telling your story day in and day out, and telling it well, you will make it more difficult for false stories and misconceptions to take root and grow. Oh, that will still happen. People will still say bad things and believe bad things, but  you can just keep telling your story and pointing them to the truth.

And an important part of telling your story is to listen to the story others are telling about you, so that you can tap into that, and make corrections where needed.

via

The Basics of Video Storytelling

For some time, marketers have been moving away from the traditional selling tactics of TV commercials. It is no longer enough to tell audiences that your product is great and that they should buy it. One of the buzzwords that characterises the shift away from pure selling is ‘storytelling’.

How long it has taken for this evolution to take place is unclear, however, it is evident in TV advertising and in online video that more and more marketers are using storytelling techniques to engage audiences. With online video, storytelling style videos are becoming increasingly common for one simple reason; they work. Videos that tell an engaging story are more likely to be shared, liked and commented upon. They are therefore more likely to go viral and they will be remembered.

In an age when anyone can produce an online video, professional video marketers are using storytelling techniques to set themselves apart from amateur online video makers. Online video marketing specialists work with clients to uncover stories about their businesses, which will allow their customers to connect with them on a deeper level. They then translate these stories into professional videos that can often seem like mini-blockbuster movies.

The strengths of video storytelling

Everyone can relate to a story

It is an obvious point, but storytelling is how information has been passed from generation to generation since the beginning of time. This includes visual storytelling in the form of pictures on cave walls and verbal storytelling as seen with many of the stories from the New Testament, which survived for decades solely through word of mouth and memory.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams by Werner Herzog is a documentary about the recently discovered Chauvet caves in the South of France, and their cave paintings which date back 32,000 years. I have linked to the trailer for your viewing pleasure because this documentary is a great example of how a filmmaker tells a story about a topic from which there are no living subjects to draw from but is still entirely emotionally engaging. Something that video marketers can definitely learn from.

The modern storytelling forms that people are generally exposed to include books and movies. The classic narrative structures that exist in these forms are something that people are highly attuned to – this means that we really notice when someone breaks from the norm and plays with different narrative structuring devices. Examples of breaking from the norm include movies like Memento with its non-linear narrative structure. For an artier example, see Jean Luc Goddards’ ‘Breathless’, a story told through apparently random events and characters with no defined motivations.

It is movies such as ‘Breathless’ that make us realise what it is about the classic narrative structures that we enjoy so much and are comfortable with. These features include:

• A good introduction
• A protagonist with an aim
• Obstacles to the aim which provide some tension/conflict
•  A climax or a crisis point
• A resolution

A weakness of these features is that they can make some stories seem predictable. However, this is a minor weakness in the grand scheme of things. Ultimately, stories are one of the most powerful ways to get a message across.

Storytelling is more concise than a sales pitch

When working with clients who have less experience with video, their tendency is generally to want to use the video to say as much as they possibly can about their business. They don’t realise how quickly a viewer will switch off from being bombarded with information that isn’t necessary for them to hear. Storytelling is a fantastic solution to this problem. It is not only an interesting way to get a lot of information across; it is also a lot more concise. It can also bring out an emotional response more easily than a more practical explanation; Google could have explained the benefits of their search engine from a technical algorithm perspective but that would not have helped people to understand the real benefit that they get from Google.

With a story, there is no need to state the obvious as so much will be read in between the lines.

Video storytelling can be cost-effective

There are a number of different ways to tell a story and not all of them have to break the bank:

a) Video Interviews

One really easy and inexpensive way to tell a story using video is to interview ‘storytellers’. However, this option shouldn’t be taken just because it costs less. It is only worth putting a storyteller in front of a camera if they are an absolutely fantastic storyteller and they are worthy of being the star of the show. They need to have a look and personality that will engage audiences without the need for other visuals to support the telling of the story.

TED Talks have a Master Storytellers section that archives some of the finest TED Talks by individuals (some professional and some not so much) who use storytelling to educate and inspire their audiences. The following example from iO Tillett Wright shows how a personal tale can connect people to the meaning you want to portray.

b) Stock video or archive footage

Using stock video or archive footage is another way to save on costs when making an online video. If you want to tell a story about your business and you have a load of old footage, from when your business first opened for example, think about how you can use it NOW to tell your story. This footage can be accompanied by interviews or voiceover. Be careful though as stock footage can easily de-personalise your video and make it plain. Video production does not have to be expensive but it must have personality.

Seeing is believing

Putting a master storyteller in a video is a great way to share their gift with lots of people. Aside from master storytellers, online video really should be seen as an opportunity to visually tell a story; show your audience something they won’t be able to see anywhere else. Depending on budget and time (and what is appropriate to your audience) there are a number of ways to do this:

Animation is a popular way to tell stories in online video:

What is Google+ (Google Plus) and do I need it?

Using actors can also very effective:

Coco Mademoiselle: The Film – CHANEL

Reportage or behind the scenes access can tell an audience a lot about a brand:

London Fashion Season – Backstage Beauty at Todd Lynn Nail Art

As soon as you become aware of this new buzzword, ‘storytelling’, you will start to see it all around you.

With the current shift to inbound marketing all of us will become more reliant on storytelling to help explain our unique benefits and differences.

via

26 Ways to Use Visuals in Your Social Media Marketing

#1: Add Text to Your Photos

Do you want to get more mileage out of the photos you share on your social sites? You can, when you add text to your images.

Adding text to a photo can help you get your message across faster. And these messages are more likely to be shared by others on social media.

Add text to images to heighten the message.

Do you want to find some easy tools to include text in the photos you share on social media? Check out the photo editors in #4 below.

#2: Break Through the Clutter

There’s a lot of content out there vying for our attention. As Krista Neher suggests, “Optimize your social content to break through the clutter with images. Most leading businesses are making use of images in their content on all social networks. Your Facebook, Twitter, blog and even LinkedIn strategies should include images.”

Visuals will help break through the clutter.

Consider varying the types of content you share on your social channels and be sure to include photos and other forms of visual content to keep your readers interested.

#3: Create a Collage

When you have several great images to choose from and can’t decide, why not create a collage? Here are some instructions for how to make a collage with PicMonkey and other free collage-making tools.

PicMonkey was used to make this collage of Social Media Examiner images.

Collages communicate a number of brand messages and offer a simple yet effective way to engage users. Think about your different social media outlets and see if there are places where a collage would work well for you.

#4: Desktop Photo Editors

Is the photo you have perfect for your needs? Or does it need some editing?

There are many paid and free options for desktop photo editors on Mac and PCs to help you crop, resize, enhance, add text and more.

Screenshot from the Mac App Store's selection of photo editors.

Photo editing apps have come a long way over the years. Years back, the average user may have felt that editing was out of their league completely but programs have made it possible to make quick and easy edits that strengthen a photo andcreate a better overall image of your business.

#5: Encourage People to Share Photos With Your Business

The photo-sharing tools available today provide companies another communication avenue with their audience.

One fun way to get users to submit photos is to make it part of a contest that you’re sponsoring.

Example from Nestle Kitchen All Things Chocolate Contest on Facebook.

Users enjoy sharing photos. And contests help businesses reach out to their users in a creative way, while at the same time making it possible to gather a large crowdsourced photo library of images related to your products.

#6: Facebook Covers

The cover photos for Facebook give you a lot of real estate (specifically 851 x 315 px) to demonstrate visually what your business is about. There are a number of great resources to help you create cool Facebook cover photos.

Cover photo from Starbucks' Facebook Page.

Create an inviting Facebook cover and don’t be afraid to change it periodically. For example, Starbucks currently has a photo album of 25 cover photos and may choose to profile one that shows a new drink or holiday theme.  The photo used above was replaced by another photo within one week.

#7: Generate Leads With Facebook Photos

Companies are finding that they can generate more followers and leads by posting a high percentage of photos on social sites.

Some of the brands with largest followings on Facebook have posted an impressive number of timeline photos; for example, Coca Cola 6,459 photos, Oreo 2,359 and Red Bull 5,299. And consider these Facebook facts, “Photos get 7 times more likes and 10 times more shares than links.”

People love Facebook updates that contain visuals. Brands of all sizes are beginning to use more and more.

Do you know what type of visuals will work for your business? Or are you struggling to keep up a good momentum? Think about visuals as part of your strategyand allocate time to brainstorm and create a library you can tap into over the next week, month or even longer.

#8: How-to Images

Sometimes photos can make things simple for your audience. What does your audience struggle with?

Photos are a powerful way to show your readers a step-by-step guide on how to carry out specific tasks.

From WikiHow, example of how to use Instagram.

Users respond well when you show how to carry out a task that may otherwise seem complex to them, even with simple screenshots.

#9: Infographics

Infographics are visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly (from Wikipedia). Users love them and they’re shared often on social sites.

There are a number of tools to help you create your own infographic.

Example from Wikipedia: Infographics.

Of course, yours may not be as intricate as the one above of the Metrorail, but taking a number of facts from a few studies and showing them visually may help to effectively communicate information and capture the attention of a user who may otherwise not have the time to read long reports.

#10: Just the Facts

Are there any other ways you can use visual content? There are times when a simple chart or visualization will help drive home the facts.

Example from Social Media Examiner's Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2012 .

Writers are often told to “show, don’t tell” and a simple visual representation of the information can do this well. For marketers, charts and illustrations can be very effective tools—for example, seeing the difference between percentages can give users a better picture of the significance of the statistics.

#11: Keep Landing Pages Simple

Many components of your marketing collateral can benefit with strong visuals, including landing pages.

Randi Lucius writes, “Have clear, relevant images—either of the product or something closely related. Don’t overdo it though—usually a large banner image is sufficient.”

Talk about what separates you from the competition.

The visual may be part of the message and it’s an important one. A distorted or out of proportion photo can even subliminally create a poor image of a business and their products and services.

#12: Lettered Quotes

Maria Popova of Brain Pickings worked with illustrator Wendy MacNaughton to create this amazing illustrated description of Susan Sontag and art.

A combination of words and illustration makes this visual highly eye-catching and memorable.

This type of image can help communicate a lot of information; for example, who you are, the benefits of your products and services, mission statements and how prospects can reach you.

#13: Make Certain Every Blog Post Has at Least One Pinnable Image

Pinterest is a fantastic way to have your posts shared with an even wider audience. When someone selects Pin It, they will see the image choices for  your article. Terry League suggests you make sure every post has at least one pinnable image.

The pin bookmarklet is an easy process for users to share articles on Pinterest.

Even while I’m in the process of writing this article, you can get the idea of what users would see if they tried to pin this post:

Example of some of the pinnable images in this post so far!

Pinterest has made sharing images incredibly easy and fun. An image pinned on Pinterest may help tap into users who may not have come across your blog post through other channels.

#14: Notetaking Visually

Wesley Fryer describes visual notetaking as a “process of representing ideas non-linguistically… visual notetaking can include concept mapping, but also more artistic ways of visually capturing and representing ideas.” Image below from Leo Babauta.

Example from The Map of Distractions and Focus by Leo Babauta.

Some people learn better visually than through the written word. When done well, visual notetaking is an effective communication tool and can also be a fun resource to take users on a journey with you.

#15: Optimize Images

JC Parmley emphasizes it is important that your images are properly optimized without sacrificing too much of the quality.

Optimize without losing image quality.

Your blog may also have specific dimensions for images, yet just resizing to fit within those dimensions may do the visual a disservice. There are times when one image works better than another—train your eye to recognize the difference.

#16: Photo Ideas

There are times when you may feel at a loss for how to create more exciting original photos. Anjelika Paranjpe provides some wonderful creative ideas represented below.

And keep in mind too that Instagram filters and a host of other mobile phone apps will provide a number of ways to make an ordinary photo look more unique.

Look for ideas to spark your photo creativity.

There are photos and there are photos. What draws you in? What makes you take a little extra time looking at an image? What feelings does the photo evoke? Users are making those types of conscious and unconscious decisions every day. How can your images stand out and stand the test of time?

#17: Quotes Are Highly Shareable

The sharing of quotes on social sites has also increased in the past year.  There are a number of tools to create quotes from something you’ve read online and even your own articles.

To make this quote, I used Quote with Quizio on my browser’s toolbar, highlighted the text I wanted to use and then was presented with choices for fonts, background color and attribution.

Step 1:

Highlighting the text you want to quote helps make a great visual from the written word.

Step 2:

You can create the look for your visual with a few easy selections.

Quotes have a way of generating a sense of authority and make readers take notice of a statement that could easily get lost.

#18: Reviews as Images

Positive reviews can go a long way. Why not take a screenshot of a review and save it as an image to include on your social sites?

Share customer reviews on social sites.

Reviews can be spread out and shared on different pages. Some users may not be inclined to see a review on Yelp, for instance, but posting it on your Facebook Page can ensure that more followers will see it.

#19: Stock Photos

Kevin Mullett‘s list of stock photography sites demonstrates that there’s no shortage of companies to choose from. Some stock photography sites offer a free image on a regular basis. And if it works for your business, how perfect!

Here’s a recent offering from iStockPhoto that had been promoted on their Facebook Page.

Example of a free stock photograph. What can be bad?

Some businesses may find that opening an account with one stock photo company that has images that speak to their audience works well. And others may choose to vary the sources. Allocating time to find applicable images will be an important step in your visual social media marketing strategy.

#20: Try to Make Your Visual’s Filename a Good Description of the Subject Matter

As Google writes, “my-new-black-kitten.jpg is a lot more informative than IMG00023.JPG. Descriptive filenames can also be useful to users. If we’re unable to find suitable text on the page where we found the image, we’ll use the filename as the image’s snippet in our search results.”

The name of this video on the New York Times website included Willy Burnett's name and that it was from an article.

Naming an image may take a little extra time in preparing it to publish, but it will be well worth the extra effort!

#21: User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) covers a range of media content. National Geographicis a great example of a site that asks for photos from their audience in the column, “Your Shot.”

Readers submit their photos to "Your Shot" on National Geographic's website.

How can you solicit creative ways for users to submit photos of them using your products or services?

#22: Visual Content Types

While it would have worked well to have covered video for the letter “V,” I wanted to be sure to include at least mention of a couple of other types of visual content that Maria Pergolino and Jason Lankow point out in their presentation—namely, comics and memes (an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture [from Wikipedia]).

There are many visual content types to choose from. Mix them up!

The Old Spice Guy is an example of a highly successful meme.

For video, there are a number of good articles on Social Media Examiner including this one by Cindy King with 29 Tips from Social Media Examiner writers.

Use a variety of visual content to strengthen your visual social media marketing strategy.

#23: Word Photos

I have to admit, I’ve always been very drawn to these word photos. Why not take a great image and see how it looks generated in words?

The app WordFoto was used to create this word photo.

Carefully selected photos and words are a win-win—communicating visually and with words all at the same time.

#24: e(X)treme Close-Ups

There are close-ups and then there are extreme close-ups: “tightly framed and shown at a relatively large scale.” Extreme close-ups are dramatic and can capture and hold a user’s attention.

In this extreme close-up from from a photo contest on BetterPhoto.com you can almost feel the bristles on the brush.

Extreme close-ups can be quite beautiful and help your audience see the details they may have missed in a regular close-up.

#25: Your Big Moments

You’re proud of your accomplishments and you should be. So why not show your big moments? The award, the handshake. It’s very compelling.

Example from Smart CEO 100.

This kind of image helps spread the word about your accomplishments and is a good example of visual brand storytelling.

#26: Zoom In to Engage Users

Good short videos can say a lot about your business. And zooming in is a great way tobring attention to a particular product, service or point you want to draw your audience to.

Zooming in takes control and literally puts a subject in the viewer's face.

What do you want to emphasize to prospective and existing customers?  Zooming in helps represent visually what’s important, while also distinguishing important features and aspects of a business.

Using more visual content

In the past year, there’s been an increase in the use of visuals across social sites, and for good reasons. As Ekaterina Walter writes, “Brands can use visual content on their social media to increase engagement and inspire sharing and viral marketing.”

via