We all want to see our Facebook Page skyrocket in numbers. And, there are many tactics for doing so. However, the fact is that numbers don’t necessarily equate to engagement and return on investment.

In the short run, an increase from 1,000 to 10,000 fans might look great to your boss or client, but when the fans start dropping off at a rate of 100 or 200 per week, and nobody answers the questions you put on your wall, you may not look like quite the hero anymore.

This article will reveal some effective tactics to gain quality Facebook fans and introduce the concept of engaging influencers.

While the actual worth of a single Facebook fan may be in debate, there’s no question that some fans are worth more than others. In addition, when quantity becomes a priority, there is a risk of driving low-quality fans by using general tactics that attract the masses.

However, there are ways to modify fan-getting marketing tactics to drive a more relevant consumer base and as a result increase the quality (and worth) of your fans over time.

One Key Strategy: Targeted Outreach

In my experience, new fans obtained will be at least 3 times as likely to stick around and participate over time if they’re secured through a targeted outreach.

For an example of how this strategy might work in practice, look at two fan-getting tactics: giveaways and limited availability offers.

Giveaways and limited availability offers are both great ways to quickly gain Facebook followers. I have seen Facebook Fan Pages jump tens of thousands of fans overnight from a simple giveaway campaign.

In January 2010, for instance, Einstein Bros. did a free bagel giveaway on Facebook that the company claims increased their Facebook fan base from under 5,000 fans to nearly 400,000 in less than one week.

From 5,000 to 400,000 in one week. Einstein Bros. Bagels takes off on Facebook.

However, there is a catch. General fan-getting giveaway tactics do not inherently attract the right people to your page. In fact, they may attract the complete opposite of whom you want to reach.

You Need a Filter Between Your Brand Message and Your Ideal Audience

The goal of a fan-getting Facebook promotion should be to use up as few resources as possible, while reaching the highest amount of relevant consumers along the way. The outcome, if executed properly, is more fans, longer stay times, and a higher level of quality participation and sharing over a longer period of time.

Without a filter, a promotion will inevitably reach the unfiltered masses of the web. Online giveaways that are not targeted properly nor protected with the correct barriers to entry will lead to a rush of people just out looking for something free. And, while some genuine consumers may be found in this group, the likelihood of your promotion capturing a high percentage of relevant consumers will be low.

Use Influencers

Influencers will vary based on your business. But, in short, influencers include relevant bloggers, popular individuals on Twitter, moderators of groups, and anyone else who has an extended and attentive online audience that fits within your target consumer group.

Influencers can also include those who are already in your direct fan network. I recommend looking at your existing fan base on Facebook and Twitter as an outlet for potential influencers. Active participants on your Facebook wall who have a large social network can be great influencers for your brand.

Tip: Look at the comments on your wall over the past month or two. Are there any individuals who continuously pop into the conversation and give positive feedback? If so, start with this group of fans. They are more likely to get excited by a direct offer and turn around and share your message with their social network.

Create an Exclusive Promotion For Influencers

In order to reach the largest percentage of relevant consumers through promotional efforts, create a mechanism by which an offer can be seeded to relevant influencers and not to the general public. Furthermore, implement a barrier that will prevent the general public from gaining access to the offer, at least for a certain amount of time.

One example of a mechanism is a digital gift card with an exclusive code.  Each influencer is presented a card with limited usage that they can seed out to their network and readership. The code is then redeemable on your Facebook page until it has expired.

CLEAN Perfume sent these cards out to beauty bloggers for their "Influencer Giveaway"

Tip: Create a digital gift card that an influencer can embed right on their blog, profile page or website. Encourage the influencer to link the card directly to your Facebook fan page so that readers can easily get to your giveaway page. The easier you make it for an influencer to participate, the better chance you will have of getting them onboard.

Make it easy for influencers to spread the message!

Not only do you get the public filter by using this method, but people are more likely to act on the offer when it has been presented by a trusted influencer source and not the brand directly. By the time the code does find its way out to the freebie hunters, it has already expired, or is close to expiring, and you’ve succeeded in reaching a larger percentage of relevant consumers.

Of course, this is just one example of integrating influencers and barriers to entry into your Facebook promotion. The proper method, in the end, will be determined by your brand, target audience and target influencers.

In the constant quest to increase return and decrease spend, don’t underestimate the power of influencers in your Facebook promotional efforts.

Have you used other mechanisms to reach influencers as a conduit for sharing a giveaway or limited availability offer? Please share it in the comments box below.

Are you looking to turn more Facebook lurkers into fans of your page? There’s no better way to do this than with a custom Facebook landing tab.

As interest in Facebook marketing increases, marketers are looking for new ways to improve their technique.

If you’re a regular reader of Social Media Examiner and also visit our Facebook Page then you’ve already heard about creating custom tabs using Facebook’s Static FBML for engaging first-time Facebook visitors.

Here are eight different ways businesses are using landing tabs on Facebook.

#1: Ask Your Visitors to Like Your Page

Your landing tab is a great place to ask first-time visitors to “Like” your page and grow your Facebook community, just as Apryl Parcher does here.

Notice how Apryl Parcher asks new visitors to like her business page to grow her Facebook community.

#2: Give Multiple Invitations for Engagement

Have a look at all of the different ways Starwood Preferred Guest incites visitors to interact with them on their Facebook page.  This is an example of some great landing page marketing techniques. Three things stand out:

• Long tab. A long tab where new visitors have to scroll down several screens to see everything is not always a good choice, but it can work for some businesses.

• Multiple opportunities to engage visitors. There’s a poll, a game, an invitation to share photos and three other ways to engage with Starwood.

• Geo-targeting.  It’s interesting to note that Starwood Preferred Guest uses Buddy Media’s new Platform +GLOBAL application where visitors “are served a customized page based on the language and country settings within their Facebook profile.”  The customization obviously also uses the IP address, because I’m based in France and as you can see below, the “Like” button is in French even though my Facebook preferences specify English.

Starwood Preferred Guest's Explore SPG tab gives many options for visitors to interact with them. CLICK IMAGE TO SEE IN FULL.

#3: Provide Multiple Doors to Begin Interaction

Here’s another interesting way to maximize your landing tab.  The Facebook application TabSite allows you to make a separate navigation bar within a Facebook tab you create using Static FBML.

TabSite offers a solution for business pages that need extra tabs.

See below how Digital Hill Multimedia uses their new tab setting.

It’s interesting to note the choices Digital Hill Multimedia made when selecting what to put on their main Facebook navigation bar compared to what’s in this secondary navigation bar created with TabSite.

See the eight tabs below the main landing tab in the main navigation bar.

#4: Use Current Events

The Volkswagen Facebook page used promotional videos related to the recent World Cup. Combining promotional materials with current events is a marketing tactic that can work well on your landing tab too.

Volkswagen uses slide navigation with a selection of promotional videos.

#5: Link to Custom Applications

Starbucks has a link on their landing tab that launches an application to manage your Starbucks account.

Starbucks uses their landing tab to link to their custom application.

#6: Get Straight to the Point

Best Buy sends new visitors to a “Shop & Share” tab where they make it easy to access different categories of their shopping application.

Best Buy asks new visitors to become a fan, incites engagement and provides an easy access to get straight to their shopping application.

#7: Make Interaction Easy and Fun

Cintas Corporation invites all new visitors to tell them about their tough job and send in photos to win prizes.

Cintas Corporation does a good job at inciting interaction and building community.

#8: Use the “Boxes” Tab

UPDATE SINCE PUBLICATION: Facebook is likely to phase out the boxes tab down the road, so we advise you transition over to creating a custom tab using Static FBML.

Prior to creating their landing tab above, Cintas Corporation directed all of their new visitors to their “Boxes” tab.  If you find it challenging to set up a specific Facebook tab using the Static FBML application, this may be the solution for you.  Facebook pages come with a “Boxes” tab and they are easy to use.

It’s interesting to compare this long Cintas Corporation tab created in a “Boxes” tab with the long Starwood Preferred Guest “Explore SPG” tab created in FBML above.

Cintas Corporation created a very long landing page by simply using the "Boxes" tab. CLICK IMAGE TO SEE IN FULL.

Want To See More?

Here are a few more Facebook pages with interesting landing tabs.

• Threadless is a great example of how to use the “Like” button on a tab.
• Revision Eyewear has a presentation of their products made in Flash.
• Harley Davidson has a variety of links on their landing tab pointing back to their own website.
• Social Media Examiner uses a “landing” video.
• 1-800-Flowers has a clear call to action.

What do you think about custom landing tabs? Please share the links above and tell us what you like most about them.  Leave your comments in the box below.

How can you quickly encourage people to become followers of your Facebook page?

This is the most common question I get from clients.  The truth is it takes time to build a new fan base from scratch.

From the day you set up a Facebook page, it does require an ongoing commitment to brand, monitor, and network with people who find interest in your product. Besides quality service, it’s important to build close-knit relationships with visitors.

How do you get people to like your Facebook page?  Here are 10 tips…

#1: Be Prepared With Quality Wall Posts and Consistent Engagement

If you want to be liked, be likeable first.  A disorganized Facebook page can turn off customers instantly. When reviewing a Facebook page, quality content and active engagements are great first impressions.

Several other factors people look for before joining a page include the brand itself, consistent posting of fresh information, and active engagement from both fans and admin.

#2: Reward Your Loyal Supporters

You may have just started your Facebook page, but your business is well-established. Encourage your loyal customers to join your Facebook page as supporters, reward them with customizable badges/tabs (to be placed on their profiles for visibility) and special deals for consistent support.

A shout-out from a happy customer is a lot more attractive than a marketing slogan, creating irresistible appeal for that ‘Like’ button.

#3: Leverage Your Existing Social Networks

If you’ve built a strong Twitter network for your business, utilize it to promote your Facebook page. Some people prefer not to overlap similar social contacts on both accounts, but why diminish your chance to be noticed? Your followers can broadcast your message on both of their social platforms by reaching out to a greater audience about your business.

A brilliant example of this is how Mari Smith rewarded her Twitter followers while attracting people to visit her fan page:

Did I mention that a few indirect promotions on your Facebook personal profile could work wonders too?

#4: Integrate Facebook Social Plugins to Your Website

It’s essential to have a main hub correlating all your social media activities. Your company’s website is the only place that gives you full control over content and brand management.

Integrate Facebook social plugins to encourage connections such as Facebook’s Likebox, Like button, and Comment stream.

As Facebook visitors increase, your page is more likely to show up on supporters’ news feeds and those of their friends, prompting people to find out more about your business page.

#5: Remind Your Fans to Like and Share

Facebook has some easy ready-made sharing buttons with which people can promote your tabs and pages to their friends.  Place a shout-out or reminder to ‘Like’ your status updates and instruct fans to click that little ‘Share’ button right next to your message so their friends will be alerted about the update.

#6: Utilize Forum Signatures and Membership Sites

If you’re an active participant in a forum or membership site, placing a signature with your fan page link is a plus. No-one will care about your information unless you stand out from the crowd.

Be an active helper in a LinkedIn Group or a frequent poster of special tips and tricks. As long as your participation in the niche community is appreciated, there’s a higher chance for other members to check you out.

Here’s an example of my signature at Chris Garrett’s Authority Blogger Forum.

#7: Take the Initiative: Request Help From Friends

It’s difficult to start a fan page with no engagement whatsoever. Why not initiate messages to your friends and buddies who are supportive of your business? Ask them to help out in some discussions, reward them with publicity or return the favor. It’s easier to ask a friend than a stranger if you’re worried about spamming people.

Make sure the question is interesting enough to get them talking. If you use your personal account and fan page strategically, you’ll discover a huge advantage of getting new friends to be your fans while they’re getting to know you better.

#8: Use Tagging and Acknowledgments

A great networking tool, status-tagging, can even drive in new connections.  Tag an author or a popular Facebook page to draw attention, but only if you have good reason to do so.

For example, selflessly promote a niche-post and how it benefits people who like your page. Be authentic, and the page admin (hopefully the fans as well) will appreciate you for it.

#9: Participate Outside Your Page

Use the Facebook Directory and Facebook Search to locate other Facebook pages in your niche and look for public discussions based on search terms related to your business.

Provide value to the popular pages; build credibility and relationships with the admin and members.  Get to know them better before asking them to look at your page. They just may reward you publicly.

#10: Collaborate With Other Page Admins for a Social Event

You can collaborate with other page admins to create a special event that may benefit both your fans and bring in new connections. I find this to be very successful.  There should be a mutual understanding and proper planning to make it work for everyone’s professional goals.

For example, Social Media Success Summit 2010 was a successful live online conference with 24 social media experts who shared how to use social media to attract quality customers and grow your business.

There are many ways you can increase your Facebook fan base.  Remember, showcase the quality of your service and why it matters to be a part of your page community.

Cut through the noise and let your message be heard. Intelligently apply Facebook Applications to enhance your Facebook page while learning from these superstars to empower your social media presence. Quality networking starts with effort and time, but the return will be worthwhile!

What have you done to be “liked”? What rewards have you used?  What have you done to increase visitors to your Facebook fan page?  Let us know in the box below.

Whether you’re planning a real-world event (like a conference, tweetup or political gathering) or a virtual event (like a webinar or teleclass), social media can be an inexpensive, cost-effective way to build buzz, fill seats, and turn a one-off gathering into a recurring event.

The trick is to know which social media tools to use and when to use them.  This article contains 12 useful social media tips designed to help your events shine.

Before Your Event

The first step is to make people aware of your event, to mark it on their calendar, and to

register. Here’s the game plan:

#1: Market Your Event Through Twitter

There are many ways in which you can use Twitter to raise awareness. Many conferences and events have their own hashtags, such as #smss10 or #metweetup. There’s no magic to creating one—just start using a hashtag in all your related tweets and encourage other people to do the same when talking about your event.

To encourage people to tweet out your hashtag and spread the word, sweeten the deal with a free pass, door prize or other giveaway for one lucky hashtag-er.

If your event is large enough, give it its own Twitter account such as @Blogworld or @socialmediaFTW, which serves as a customer service “hotline” and adds credibility to the event.

Mix up your event tweets by varying the message.

Mix up your event tweets by varying the message.

Constantly tweeting that your event is coming will annoy some of your followers, so mix it up: use tweets to announce new sponsors, speakers, an open bar, or to ask questions that might help shape the event.

Finally, ask for people to share your event with the simple phrase, “Please RT!” You’ll be amazed at the results. Just don’t overdo it; you don’t want to look desperate, do you?

Be sure to check out Cindy King’s post How to Use Twitter Events to Grow Your Network for more ideas.

#2: Market Your Event Through Facebook

Certainly you can update your status with news of your event, but don’t overlook Facebook Events, which Facebook guru Mari Smith calls “one of the most powerful tools on the platform.”

A page for your event attracts fans.

I’ve found success by first creating a page for the event, and then creating a “Facebook Event” from that. This is especially helpful if you have a recurring event, such as an annual conference or a tweetup, as it helps build a fan base over time.

A page for your event attracts fans.

Other benefits of creating a Facebook page include:

• You can add a “Like Box” to your website, blog or other web presence to promote your clambake.
• You can invite fans as well as friends to the March on Washington.
• You can take out targeted Facebook ads to reach people outside your network who would be interested in your Save the Whales Sit-In.

Mari Smith delves deeper in her post, 10 Tips for Creating Buzz with Facebook Events.

#3: Market Your Event Through LinkedIn

Promote business functions with LinkedIn Events to reach your professional network. As Lewis Howes points out in his excellent post, Top 5 Ways to Market Your Business with LinkedIn, “once someone RSVPs to your event, it shows up on the home profile of everyone that person is connected to, spreading the message for you.”

It’s simple and straightforward to create an event on LinkedIn. Once you’ve completed that task, it’s just as easy to invite up to 50 people from your LinkedIn network. It also shows up in the events search.

#4: Market Your Event Through Your Blog

Whether through an existing blog or a blog created specifically for your gathering, be sure to create posts announcing the event, calls for presenters, and sponsorship opportunities. Follow up with guest posts from presenters who should welcome the opportunity to reach a wider audience (and steal people who might have attended competing events!).

#5: Other Places to Market Online

There are plenty of online calendars, and you should list your event in any that seem appropriate.

Local papers, TV channels and radio stations’ websites often host a calendar of events that offer free postings. Tweetvite is a site for promoting and learning about tweetups, and Eventful is one of many sites where you can list all types of gatherings.

#6: Event Marketing and Registration Tools

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when handling online registration for your event. Eventbrite is a highly popular tool for the social media crowd, and Constant Contact, the popular email marketing company, has recently entered the market with their own competing product.

With these tools you can create and market your event, and even collect payments with registration. Registration forms appear on the event marketing company’s site and can be embedded into your website or blog.

Sharing tools let attendees post to Facebook and Twitter, which builds buzz and generates more registrations.

During Your Event

Just because your event has started doesn’t mean the marketing has ended! If you’re promoting an all-day affair like a boat show or arts in the park, people will be milling in and out all day. Keep the excitement and foot traffic high by leveraging social media well into the night.

#7: Foursquare and Gowalla

Events on Foursquare will encourage attendees to share.

It costs nothing to create an event in Foursquare or Gowalla, and attendees who are hip to location-based apps will want to check in to your event for the extra points!

Since many people link their Foursquare and Gowalla activity to Twitter and Facebook, check-ins reach well beyond early adopters of location-based apps.

Events on Foursquare will encourage attendees to share.

You can greatly increase the number of check-ins by adding signs and table-top displays reminding people to check in, and even sweeten the deal with a giveaway or random drawing.

#8: Use Those Hashtags!

Hashtags make your event more findable, searchable and memorable.

People will tweet out memorable lines from your event, so make sure everyone knows the Twitter hashtag: put it in your literature, on name tags, and announce it during your keynote.

Hashtags make your event more findable, searchable and memorable.

For more on how to leverage hashtags, be sure to read Adam Vincenzini’s post Live Events Need Twitter #Hashtags ‘Built-In’ Not ‘Bolted-On’.

#9: Live Blogging

If you’re putting on a conference, it might be worthwhile to have someone “live blog” the sessions. Instead of just taking notes, have them take notes straight into a blog post and publish it as soon as the session ends.

#10: A Picture Says a Thousand Words

Although Twitpics and iPhone photos are great and shareable, hire a photographer for the day. If you can’t afford one, consider an in-kind trade of a free pass. Make sure you come to an agreement on who owns the photos and how they can be used online to promote this and future events.

#11: Thoughts on Video

There are so many ways to use video at your event: quick interviews with attendees and speakers on Flip cams, recorded sessions, or live streaming the event with UStream.tv.

#12: After Your Event

After the glow of a successful comic book convention, bean supper or Tri for a Cure fades, it’s time to get back to work.

Create a blog post of your reflections on how the event went, what you learned, and even how the next one could rock even harder.  Ask for feedback and suggestions in the comments field. Post something similar to your Facebook page and encourage fans and friends to leave comments there as well.

Upload your photos to Flickr and other photo sharing sites and be sure to give them appropriate titles, descriptions and tags. Use the Creative Commons license to let them be shared as far and wide as possible.

After you’ve finished uploading your photos to Facebook be sure to tag everyone you know and ask them to “fill in the blanks” by tagging anyone else. This can have a viral effect as people love seeing photos of themselves and their friends, driving them all back to your Facebook page.

Post video to YouTube, Facebook and other video sharing sites. Ask your presenters to share their slides on Slideshare, again with appropriate tags, titles and links.

Wrapping Up

Undoubtedly, there are more sites and techniques to promote your event through social media. What platforms do you use, what techniques have proven especially effective, and how did you generate excitement and fill the seats at your last event?

Is social media taking over the web?

Just in the last year, the number of social media users has continued to climb at record speed and the audience demographics have widened. And marketers have noticed the trend.

For proof of social media’s steep rise, take a look at the number of statistics that surfaced in the last month.  These findings further support what most of us already believe:  Social media is only getting bigger.

75% of U.S. Households Use Social Networking

Nielson Company, in their report “Internet & Social Media Consumer Insights,” just released some impressive data on social networking activity in the U.S.  The company reported Internet users spent an average of 6 hours, 13 minutes on social networking sites, just in the month of May 2010. That number was just 3 hours, 31 minutes last year.

In addition, the research showed the average U.S. worker spends almost 5.5 hours a month visiting social network sites from the office.  Perhaps the efforts of many companies to ban social networks from the workplace might not be achieving the goal!

The data confirmed that Facebook is still the leading contender of social networking sites with a unique audience of 125.2 million visitors.  Twitter has a unique U.S. audience of 19.1 million visitors (May 2010).  This is a massive growth of more than 1,520% in the last two years!

Other interesting factoids from the Nielson study:

• 75% of all active U.S. Internet households visited a social networking site in May 2010.  How does that compare globally? In April 2010, the global number was 74%—almost identical to the U.S. percentage.
• 22% of the time spent online is attributed to social networking sites.
• 20% of U.S. adults online publish or own a blog.
• 55% have at least one or more social networking profiles.
• 20% of those surveyed frequently provide advice about movies, 18% share their opinions about TV shows and 16% often advise others about music.

Three of the World’s Most Popular Brands Are Social Media–Related

Facebook, YouTube, and Wikipedia have made the list of top online brands, according to a recent Nielson report.

Out of the top online brands such as Google, Apple and Yahoo!, users spent the most time on Facebook per month than any of the other online brands.  That’s pretty impressive considering Google’s and Apple’s worldwide popularity!

Considering that Facebook and YouTube are leading contenders with online powerhouses such as Google and Yahoo!, there's no doubt social networking is moving ahead at record speed!

Have you ever wondered how the U.S. compares to other countries in terms of social networking usage? It turns out that Brazil is actually the most active, with 86% of Internet users visiting social networks.  And Australia takes the lead for most time spent on social networking sites.  They clocked in at 7 hours, 13 minutes in April 2010!

When it comes to Facebook’s reach, Italy takes the lead, having two-thirds of the active unique audience in April 2010. Close behind are Australia, the U.S. and the UK with over 60% of active online consumers.  Take a look at the chart below to see how other countries compare.

Brazil is leading the way in active social networking users; however, Australia steals the lead for time spent on the networking sites.

Social Networking Use Will Reach All-Time High in 2014

In eMarketer’s recent report, “Social Network Demographics and Usage“, it was estimated that 127 million people (57.5% of Internet users) will visit a social networking site at least once a month in 2010.

They attributed the steady rise since 2009 as due in part to the ever-increasing popularity of Facebook. Not only is the number of users growing quickly, but also the audience demographics continue to widen from just teens and young adults. In 2010, they estimated that 59.2% of adult Internet users will visit social networks monthly, up from 52.4% in 2009.

“The connections and interactions that social networking makes possible didn’t even exist a few short years ago,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report. “Status updating, commenting and sharing openly are all activities that will not go away.”

The estimates outlined in the report show a steady rise by 2014.  Two-thirds of all Internet users (164.9 million people) will be using social networks on a regular basis.  Two age groups stand out the most:  In 2014, 56.8% of 55- to 64-year-old Internet users will visit social networks regularly (34.3% in 2009).  In addition, 37.9% of seniors 65 and up will be social network users (14.1% in 2009).

These two graphs show the steady rise in social networking use by 2014.

Now it’s your turn. What do you think of these stats?  Will the rise of social networking sites continue?  Will you continue to increase your social networking usage?  Leave your comments below—we want to hear from you!

Did you know that Facebook automatically lets anybody see every video, picture, and status update you’ve ever posted?

Whether you’re using Facebook for business or personal reasons, the good news is that new privacy settings enable you to change exactly who sees what within Facebook.  And those changes impact every prior post you’ve ever made.

New Facebook Privacy Updates

Public outcry over Facebook’s complicated privacy settings hit a peak in the spring of 2010.  See this AP video below:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q8-LSbMRPI

Facebook finally responded.  Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, describes the menu for their groundbreaking new privacy settings as the “Master Switch.”  He promises, “we haven’t removed anything in this update, we’ve just added a simple master switch to control all of your content at once.”

Master Switch: Control most of your settings quickly.

In just a few minutes, you can protect all the content you’ve ever posted, within the Facebook application at least.  There’s no perfect way to protect every bit of information online except not to post it at all, but in addition to the Master Switch controls, this post reveals Facebook’s deepest privacy settings (called granular settings) so you can easily navigate this jungle and take control of your content.

Facebook Privacy Video Tutorial

Watch this video to take control of your Facebook privacy.  Then follow the four steps below for added control.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnjH4n0-shA

Want more protection for your sensitive information?

Here are four more ways you can drill deep into your Facebook privacy settings:

#1: Disable Instant Personalizations

When you “like” or “share” a post anywhere online, Facebook puts it on your wall for you and your friends to see.  It also automatically sends this information to outside sites such as Yelp and Pandora, among others.  If you’d prefer to remain more private, do this:

• Go to “Account.”
• Choose “Privacy Settings.”
• Choose “Applications and Websites.”
• Choose “Instant Personalization.”
• Click “Edit Settings.”
• Uncheck “Allow select partners…”

#2: Take a Fresh Look at Your Photos and Videos

I recently interviewed a woman who lost a job because her Facebook profile picture showed a tattoo.  Another woman, a school teacher in Georgia, recently lost her job because her profile picture showed her holding a glass of wine.  Both people thought their privacy settings were enough protection, but Facebook still indexes pictures so that outside sites can search for them.

What’s the solution? Be more selective about your profile picture.  And while you’re at it, go through all photos and videos of you and untag those that you don’t want to share.  You can’t control which photos or videos your friends post, but you can remove your tag from them! Here’s how:

Go to your profile picture.  Just under it, you’ll see “View Photos of Me.” Click there and look at each photo.  If you want to remove a tag, click “Remove Tag” by your name under the picture.

Photo tagging can turn a private photo into a public one!

Repeat this process for videos—the link “View Videos of Me” is just under your profile picture also.

#3: Create Privacy Lists!

Facebook friend lists are one of the most powerful features they offer for communicating privately and with flexibility.  Once you’ve created them, you can easily specify different privacy settings for each list.  Only want family to see your child’s birthday party pictures? No problem!  You can designate only your “Family” list for that photo album and nobody else will be able to see it unless someone copies and pastes the code at the bottom.  This is an example:

These links are now at the bottom of all photos. Control who sees them with friend lists to minimize the chance of unwanted sharing.

Here’s how to create friend lists:

• Go to “Account” in the upper right-hand corner of your profile.
• Select “Edit Friends.” This will bring up an interactive menu with profile pics of your friends.
• Click on “Create New List” and get started!  Many people create lists for family, friends, business, news, sports, and food, for example.

Creating friend lists gives you much better control.

Creating friend lists for yourself will also give you the advantage of privacy in Facebook’s newly customized Chat feature.

Unless these settings are customized or turned completely off, anybody can interrupt you while you’re logged on and initiate a chat. Rather than ignore it or respond, I suggest going into the options and designating lists to block and lists of who can see when you’re logged on and available to chat.

It’s good to note here that Facebook never saves chat transcripts. Once a chat has concluded and the window is closed, any record of the chat is deleted.  So if you want to have a record of your communications with someone on Facebook, I suggest writing messages instead.

Here’s how to customize your chat privacy settings:

• Navigate to the bottom right corner of your profile and click on “Chat.”
• Select “Options” within the chat window that opens up.
• Designate whether you prefer to be “online” or “offline.”
• Select “Friend Lists.”  Once there, you can select which lists you prefer to chat with and which you’d prefer to block.

Nice Trick: You can easily change these for when you’re at work and when you’re at home.

#4: Review the Pages You’ve Liked

Facebook is paying an increasing amount of attention to Fan and Community pages and is exploring ways to use this information for potential advertisers. They’ve started indexing this information with your profile for the first time, so now is a good time to review and possibly discard page affiliations that relate to sensitive or controversial subjects.

Here’s how you to customize your “liked” pages:

• From your profile, click on your “Info” tab.
• Scroll down to the bottom of the “Pages” section, just above your “Contact Information.”
• Click on “Show Other Pages,” and a list of pages will show up.
• If applicable, click on “Show More Pages” to get a complete list.

(This next part is time-consuming, so I suggest you scan for the most important pages to unlike before you proceed, instead of going down the list of outdated pages.)

• Click on a page you no longer want to identify with.
• Once there, scroll to the bottom left corner and “unlike.”

You’re done!  Please note that you can only “like” up to 500 pages, so this is just good housekeeping if you plan to use Facebook for any length of time.

Protect your branding by reviewing your liked pages.

Congratulations if you’ve just worked through this tutorial!

You now have profile settings to be proud of and can share this information with others!

If you only have time for a few mouse clicks, please do yourself a favor and set your Master Switch settings to “Recommended” and you’ll be much more protected than ever before, thanks to Facebook’s new retroactive feature for privacy settings.

Please share this handy guide with your friends! What better use is there for a Facebook “like” button anyway?

Now you have a clearer understanding of how to navigate Facebook’s new privacy settings.  The Master Switch is a quick and convenient way to address lots of issues at one time; however, you can protect yourself and your professional branding better by also going into the deeper settings shown here.

So what do YOU think about Facebook’s new privacy settings? Do you think this new Master Switch adequately addresses Facebook’s privacy issues?  Are you happy with your experience and just wish everyone would quit talking about it? Are you excited about using the more hidden settings? Please share your experiences and thoughts in the comments box below!

Since Facebook announced the Open Graph API, the response has ranged from “Facebook is the future of the web” to “Facebook is ending privacy as we know it.”

Matt Schlict definitely believes the former.

Matt saw Open Graph API as an opportunity to connect people across the web—not just through personal connections, but also by their connection to the most popular content.  Instead of waiting for users to browse one of the 100,000 sites using a form of the Open Graph, he decided to post all of the most popular content in one place, on ItsTrending.com.

What Is ItsTrending.com?

Itstrending.com is a site that collects all of the content shared via Open Graph, and ranks it by the number of times it has been shared.  This guarantees that everything on the site is the most popular content of its kind.

Let me give you an official tour:

Why Is It Different?

I know what you’re thinking.  Reddit.com, StumbleUpon.com and Digg.com all do the same thing, right?

Wrong.

On those sites, all the content is physically placed there by individuals then voted on for popularity.

On ItsTrending.com, there is no bias.

All of the content is shared in its own online world, and the best of the best (or most popular of the popular) gets pulled into Matt’s site, giving a true, unbiased, “passive pulse” of the Internet.

Here’s an example of the most popular videos on Facebook.

Why Is This Awesome?

For individuals and brands on social networks looking to boost the quality of the content they share, ItsTrending.com is a lifesaver.  No more guessing if your audience will find a particular piece of content relevant/funny/useful, because you’ll have testimonials from thousands of ‘likes’ across the Internet to give you a good idea of the reaction you’ll get from it.

Looking to cash in on being around the popular kids of the Internet?  No problem, you can get your site featured on the right side of the page.  Just contact Matt if you’re interested.

Why Does This Suck?

The same reason that the Internet itself is a waste of time.  Think of ItsTrending.com as a site with nothing but the most popular versions of Fred, Will It Blend and Auto-Tune The News that constantly updates automatically with even more popular versions of those shows.

Remember what happened when Google replaced its logo with Pacman?  Yeah, it’s like a never-ending version of that…

Also, some may take issue with the lack of depth of categories to choose from.  Niche content providers will not like the “30,000 foot” approach to aggregation that the site takes now.  Even popular topics (*cough* “social media” *cough*) are missing.  This isn’t so much an issue for the functionality of the site, but it could lend frustration to some industries that are looking for a solution like this.

That said, it’s pretty early in the game; as the Open Graph becomes adopted more and more, the site should be able to expand its offerings… unless you think Open Graph won’t work.  If that’s the case, then this site is doomed.

Secret Marketing Ninja Trick

You won’t find this info on the site, but brands can reach out to Matt to set up their own Its Trending page.  Similar to Alltop.com, brands can have their own customized version of the most popular shared content on the Open Graph as it’s relevant to their industry.

Why Is It Ninja?

Think about this… If you’re a real estate guru, and you can collect all of the most popular information on real estate in one place, you can become the go-to guy for information.  By proxy, those visitors will look for answers to their questions from the person who has all of the information.

Creating a branded page on ItsTrending is more powerful than an Alltop.com page because the content has already been proven and tested.  With a simple collection of blogs, you never know which ones are dead, which bloggers are having bad weeks, or even which blogs change their focus without going through the entire list.

With ItsTrending.com, there’s no need for pruning, everything is preselected by the Open Graph and deemed popular by the Internet as a whole, not by a select few super-users.  In the very near future, the most powerful consultants, connectors, and speakers may see more traffic on an aggregated page like ItsTrending than their own websites.

Why do I say that?  Because the site is social.  Not only can you host a ton of great content, you can keep the conversations about the best content on YOUR page, something that won’t happen on other sites.

"Don't judge me for choosing this video... It just happened."

Let’s be honest, your blog isn’t Copyblogger.com, at least not in popularity, but if you could host Copyblogger’s conversations on your ItsTrending page, who’s in control now?  I always say, you want to host the conversation in your playpen, and ItsTrending gives you that option today.

Elijah’s Final Conclusion

ItsTrending.com will make my life a lot easier when I’m finding popular content to fill out my distribution schedule.  I hate scrounging around Digg or even Alltop for the best content to add to what I’m already releasing into our social ecosystem.

The premise is simple: Feature only the most popular stuff, as dictated by the people. It really encompasses my idea of what the social space should look like.

As excited as I am about the possibilities for brands to host their own ItsTrending page, I’d like to see if Matt has any intention of adding analytics for the page owners to really turn the site into a “brand profile” of sorts.  I can see a lot of possibilities here. Even the decentralization of power within the blogosphere—almost a shift from “where” a blog is to “what” a blog posts—will make finding great (read: popular) content easier.

ItsTrending may be a step toward better aggregation for content distributors—that’s a given.  By freeing up the time I would spend finding all of the popular content, I can now spend more time finding emerging content creators and building relationships with them.  It also gives me the power to host a share of the conversation on elite blogs and sites that I wouldn’t be able to tap regularly.

As a site by itself, ItsTrending is merely convenient; in the hands of the right marketer (taking into account the brand pages), it is a powerful addition to a brand’s social strategy.

My official review scores are (out of 10):

• Design: 5
• Usability: 8
• Common Use Potential: 5
• Marketing Potential: 8

How do you rate ItsTrending.com? Is it a massive waste of time or potential game-changer?  Let me know your thoughts in the box below.

Have you built a loyal following on Twitter but question the value of Facebook for business?  Have you tried and abandoned your Facebook account?

If so, I can relate.  I was there.  My first attempt at using Facebook for business was a big flop.  For the longest time I focused most of my social media marketing efforts on Twitter.

But now my tune has changed. Facebook offers far more opportunities for businesses.  I predict that in the near future, businesses of all stripes will soon declare Facebook as their number-one social media target.

In this article I’ll demonstrate why your business needs to invest heavily in Facebook.

My First Facebook Experience: A Waste of My Time

I got my social media start on Twitter, not Facebook.  Twitter is an amazing social media tool.  In fact, I invested countless hours growing and nurturing my 24,000+ followers. I was pretty convinced I could just use Twitter for business.

Then someone I respected introduced me to Facebook.  I recall the email.  My friend Ann Handley from MarketingProfs asked me, “Are you on Facebook?”

I thought it was just for college kids.  But since Ann was there, I quickly signed up.  To my great surprise, many of my personal friends were there. It was cool to connect with old college buddies and get a sneak peek into their lives.

But immediately I ran into a problem. I wanted to use Facebook for business and my personal friends wanted nothing to do with my business. Facebook was fun for personal reasons, but I struggled with the business side of things.

So I set up a Facebook fan page to promote my book.  I started rejecting friend requests on my personal profile from strangers and asked them to become fans of my Facebook page I had for my book.

It quickly became a pain to manage a personal profile and a fan page. In fact, some pretty high-profile people (like Darren Rowse) were dumping their Facebook personal accounts because of this very conflict.

I decided to simply feed my Twitter updates into my personal Facebook profile and my fan page.  I went back to using Twitter as my primary tool.

I had determined that:

• Facebook is mostly for personal connections: My wife found enormous value sharing pictures of our kids and updates of our whereabouts with friends.  But I couldn’t do that because I had a bunch of business peers (and some strangers) as friends.
• Facebook is a time suck: I spent a lot of time on Facebook and frankly accomplished little.  At least on Twitter I knew I could strictly talk business.
• Everyone who mattered to me focused primarily on Twitter: I knew it was wise to keep investing my time in Twitter.  My growth of followers was steady and my traffic from Twitter was great.

Then I Saw the ‘List’ Light

The strength of Facebook is its amazing breadth of capabilities.  The weakness of Facebook is ALSO its amazing breadth of capabilities.  There are so many options and settings that most people don’t realize what Facebook can do.  Count me among the former clueless.

My turning point came when Mari Smith introduced me to two little features that rocked my world: friend lists and privacy settings.

Facebook allows you to set up an unlimited number of lists.  But it gets better.  You can decide precisely what people in lists can and cannot see with a few privacy settings.

For example, I set up lists called college, personal, church, business, fans and so on.  Then I went into the privacy settings and made sure the ‘fans’ list had no access to photos of my kids, my personal contact details, etc.

Here’s how this works…

You can go under your privacy settings (click on ‘custom settings’) and declare specific personal items only be viewed by certain lists (see below images).

Here I chose custom privacy for displaying family.

Then I selected my "Specific People," typed in the name of my personal list and clicked "Save Settings."

The result is my family is now only seen by people who are on my personal list.

When I get new friend requests, I can classify people to one or more lists (see below).

Here I have assigned a person to my 'Fans' group.

This was huge.  Not only could I restrict what people had access to, I could also selectively share with specific lists.  For example, I could let my friends know I was on an airplane to New Jersey crafting this very blog post (with my new iPad), and know with confidence that strangers had no clue I was out of town.

Here is an example of a post only my close personal friends saw.

Facebook Page Redux: Getting it Right the Second Time Around

All along I was treating my Facebook page like Twitter.  I thought that by simply posting updates I would build a loyal following.

I was wrong.

When we launched the Social Media Examiner Facebook page, I was determined to push the envelope and see what Facebook could do.

This time around, we created a custom landing tab with a welcome video from me.  I asked people to become fans in the video and encouraged them to comment on our wall.

Here's our welcome tab…

We set up a tab introducing our Facebook team.  Yes, we have a team managing our Facebook page.

We put together an editorial guide.  It included some clear guidelines such as:

• EVERY single wall comment gets a reply.
• Break news or discuss controversial industry changes.
• Delete anything that is self-promotional.
• Post an interesting link to someone else’s article each day.
• Make sure to post a link to our daily articles AFTER our email updates go out (to ensure email folks get the news first).
• Regularly ask interesting (and sometimes fun) poll questions to get our fans engaged.
• And a LOT more.

The response from our readers was immediate and it was incredible.  In the first few days we had 1000 fans.  After just a few months we exceeded 9000 fans.

And these folks are active.  They post questions, support each other, reply to our questions and promote our articles.  A vibrant community was building right before my eyes.

Almost overnight, Facebook became the number-one source of traffic on Social Media Examiner.

Why Facebook Over Twitter?

#1: Facebook is communal.

Unlike Twitter, Facebook makes it very easy for group discussions.  Twitter is primarily a one-to-one or one-to-everyone tool.  With Twitter you can’t easily interact with two or three people at once, for instance.  And you certainly can’t easily see what others have had to say about a post.

But Facebook has grown to over 500 million active users for a reason.  They make it really easy for people to connect at a human level.  And Facebook knows what its fans are interested in.

For example, if you frequent a fan page, Facebook knows you care about that page and shows you popular posts and discussions from that fan page in your live feed, above others.  If done right, this is marketing gold!

When your Facebook page shows up in the live feed of your fans, it encourages rapid discussions and a chain reaction.  When your fans engage in those discussions, it shows up on their walls.  Their friends discover your page and your following grows.

In this regard, Facebook is like blog comments on steroids.  When people interact with your brand, you are building community.  This moves people from passive observers to advocates.  And that’s a powerful marketing weapon.

#2: Facebook pulls people to its site OFTEN.

Part of the brilliance of Facebook is how it taps into some of our innate human desires.  Every time someone posts something on your wall, tags you in a picture or tags your wall, you are notified in some way.  For most people, this is an email with topic like “Joe Smith commented about a picture of you.”  Or it’s a little red number at the top left of the screen when you are in Facebook.

These little mechanisms are intentional ways to get you into Facebook and interacting.  It’s almost impossible to ignore these cues.  If you’re like me, you’ve been conditioned to check Facebook almost as often as you check email.

Twitter doesn’t have the same systems to pull people back.

This is a huge advantage of Facebook and a primary reason you need to be there.  The more people connect with others on Facebook, the more this grows.  The upside is huge.  This is why Alexa ranks Facebook as the second most frequented destination in the world, just behind Google.

Your customers, prospects and fans are already there A LOT.  And when they arrive, they’ll likely see your page updates if you’ve figured out a way to get them to engage with your Facebook page updates.

#3: Facebook reveals powerful social proof.

This one is a brilliant move.  If you click the Like button on an article (inside or outside of Facebook), something amazing happens.  The next time one of your friends goes to that page, your name is displayed as someone who likes the page.

This is powerful.  “If John Doe (whom I respect) likes this page, then maybe I should take another look?” is the thought that might go through the mind of a reader.

But wait, it gets better.

If you use the “Like Box” feature on your website, Facebook displays the pictures of familiar faces that are also fans of a page.  For example, if some of your Facebook friends are fans of Social Media Examiner, you’ll see their pictures if you scroll up and look to the right of this page.

This is amazing social proof because it only shows people you know.  That increases the likelihood you too will become a fan.

So What’s the Business Advantage?

Now let me connect the dots.  With 500 million people on Facebook, chances are more of your customers are active on Facebook than any other network.

Remember the benefits early movers had with Twitter?  Think of Comcast, Ford, and Zappos and the early mover advantages they gained.

Now think about Facebook.  Businesses are just now figuring out how to use Facebook. This is your chance to connect with your customers and prospects in a totally new way and build powerful advocates.

Investing in Facebook now is the equivalent of purchasing real estate in downtown New York just before all the other businesses move into town.

Facebook is also investing in helping businesses succeed.  Beyond their powerful and granular advertising, they’re extending the Facebook experience off of their site with features such as the Like Box and the Like Button.  This is just the beginning of what’s to come from Facebook.

So what are you waiting for?

Your Action Plan

Here are a few simple things you should do right now…

• Customize your Facebook page using Static FBML.
• Leverage creative ways to grow your Facebook fan base.
• Work on engaging your fans.

Has Facebook become your new favorite social media site? Are you using it for business?  Do you have any tips to share?  Do you disagree?  Let’s talk.  Leave your comment in the box below.

Are you looking to take your Facebook page to the next level, but aren’t sure how to go about it? This article will provide four proven steps to Facebook success.

An interesting thing happened the other day that grabbed my attention.  Three different clients emailed me with a link to a recent article.  All three wrote some version of “Check out this case study. Can you make this happen for my Facebook page too?”

The title of the article was enough to hook anyone: Facebook Case Study: From 517 to 33,000 fans in two weeks (plus media coverage).

After reading the impressive case study and looking at countless other Facebook page success stories, I instantly noticed a common thread throughout these pages.

The Formula for Facebook Page Success

There’s a true winning formula to creating a successful, thriving and engaging Facebook page.

And here’s the good news: If you apply this formula, you grow your fan base, increase conversations with your fans and capture the interest of people who want to spend money on your products and services. Who wouldn’t want that?

The strategy behind a Facebook page does not need to be complicated—but it does need to be carefully thought out in advance. When it comes to growing Facebook pages, that’s where business owners and marketers get stuck—they overcomplicate things.  Let’s dissect the formula to see how it works.

#1: Create a Compelling Vision

The Facebook page of the case study I mentioned above belongs to the California State Parks Foundation.  It’s an outstanding example of a compelling vision.

In an attempt to save 210 state parks from closing, the foundation hired Adams Hussey & Associates to help create the “Friend Get a Friend” campaign.  The campaign was created to promote awareness and discussion around the looming closures and to also encourage people to take action to save their local state parks.

This Facebook page for the California State Parks Foundation achieved amazing media expose.

After reading the case study, one of my clients, who owns a successful medical spa, pointed out (in frustration, I might add), “Yeah, but their mission is noble.  It appeals to environmentalists and loyal supporters. They have a huge advantage.”

This is WRONG thinking at its best.  When you believe in what you’re doing, you can easily cultivate the passion and excitement for your mission.  The popular retail store Target and the popular sundae spot Dairy Queen have extremely successful pages with loyal followers.

The Dairy Queen page has more than a million fans

And here’s what’s important to realize:  Their mission is not necessarily going to change the world—but the people behind the brand are passionate and committed to creating an experience and making their customers happy—and that kind of passion is contagious. (Take note—you can create the same kind of excitement with your brand too!)

Brenna Holmes of Adams Hussey & Associates manages the California State Parks Foundation’s social media campaign. She works with both for-profit and nonprofit organizations.

Holmes sees real opportunity to spread the vision and message in both spheres of businesses.  “As long as people are driven and passionate about their issue,” said Holmes, “and commit to sticking it out with daily work and a real strategy, I believe pretty much any campaign can be successful.”

When you’re starting out with your page, your vision is only as strong as the individual or team behind it.  It’s up to you to spread the word.  The good news is that once you have a solid fan base, your fans will help spread your message and virally attract new followers. It’s up to you to “sell” your vision to get others to pay attention. One great way to accomplish this is to spend time online where it counts and make sure you’re connecting with the people who are most interested in your brand.  I call this “positioning your vision.”

A word about positioning your vision

If you spend any time in the online marketing arena, you’ve heard plenty about knowing your ideal client.  This is crucial when building a Facebook campaign.  Don’t waste your time in spaces where your message could fall flat.

Segmentation and niche marketing is ideal for your page’s success and you want to be laser-focused on whom you target.  Cast a wide net and you’re likely to come up short in the end.

(One great way to attract your ideal client is with Facebook ads.  For more info on what these ads could do for your business, check out Mari Smith’s recent Facebook article here.

#2: Smart Branding

Some of the most successful pages look like mini-websites inside of Facebook.  Branding is key to making your page serve as a mini-hub for all your customers and prospects who are likely spending a lot of their time on the social networking site already.

Meeting your customers where they are in the moment is crucial when searching for a captive audience in the social media space.

Smart branding allows you to create a bridge from Facebook to your websites—but the key is not to push your potential clients outside of Facebook before they are ready.

The more clicks you require your prospect to make, the less likely you’ll get them to where you want them to go.  Therefore, by using the Static FBML Facebook app, you can create many of the same features you have on your website.

Using this app, you can create a portal to sell your products and services, sign people up for your newsletter, and highlight your expertise directly from your Facebook page.

To better understand this, let’s look at a great example of a company that has mastered the concept of the “mini-hub” inside Facebook.  Chick-fil-A, a popular fast-food chain in the U.S., has a thriving page with over 1.5 million fans.

Not only do they offer coupons regularly, they also display their menu and their “coming soon” specials inside their page.  Here are a few screen shots of their well-branded mini-hub:

This screenshot shows the tab that new viewers see when they first visit the page. Chick-fil-A does a great job of enticing new customers by displaying attractive photos of the items on their menu.

In this screenshot, Chick-fil-A puts their menu directly on their page. By doing this, all of their fans currently on Facebook do not need to go any further to check out the menu options. Chick-fil-A makes it easy by putting everything their customers’ need right on the page.

Another great example of a well-branded page is the National Hockey League page.  With almost a half a million fans, this page is thriving. One post can generate over 1,000 comments.  Check out the welcome tab—it’s branding at its best.  Potential fans landing on this tab are sure to click the “like” button to be a part of this community.

In this image, check out how NHL displays the many different opportunities for their fans. This welcome tab does a great job of grabbing attention and creating excitement for the sport.

#3: Strategic Inbound Marketing

Business owners often overlook this piece of the formula.  It’s a no-brainer that we need to use marketing tactics to drive traffic to our websites, but when it comes to Facebook pages, many overlook the importance of using similar strategies to help grow their page. The “build it and they will come” concept is definitely not meant for Facebook pages!

Inbound marketing strategies, including the use of keywords, opt-in opportunities, video, blogging, and cross-promoting on your other social networks are all key factors to “getting found” by the people most interested in your products and services.

One great example of a Facebook page that also utilizes inbound marketing strategies is the Social Media Examiner page.

I was fortunate to work with the founder, Mike Stelzner, to create the page a few months ago.  And since then I’ve been blown away by the momentum of the page (it already has over 8,000 fans).

I recently asked Mike the secret to his page’s success. “We started with a plan from day one,” he said. “Part of that plan was to create a button on our site’s sidebar that simply said, ‘Join us on Facebook.’

“Another thing we did was to make sure our daily email blasts to our readers encouraged them to join our fan page; thus every day more than 26,000 readers are reminded about our fan page.

“Our fan base grew very quickly and has garnered about 100 new fans each day.”

The most important thing to remember is that inbound marketing is powered by content.

Just as you would on your website and blog, you must continually publish great content on your Facebook page.  How do you do this?  One way is to pull your blog posts onto your page via the “Networked Blog” app on Facebook.  Another way is to post a link directly to your wall and add some commentary about your recent blog posts to encourage your fans to comment.

Every day when we post a new article on the Social Media Examiner website, we also post it on our Facebook page.  When we do so, we often encourage comments directly to our page by asking a question when we post.

Here’s an example:

In this example, notice how we encourage comments on our wall by asking a question (about fans!) when we post a link to a new article.

#4: Real-Time Engagement

The last piece of the formula is engagement.  In a nutshell, engagement is about taking action. A well-executed engagement strategy takes time and effort.  More than anything, engagement is really about showing up daily and taking a genuine interest in the likes, interests and opinions of your fans.

The rule for engagement is to make it about your fans and not about you. (Remember that people love to talk about themselves—so craft your posts and questions around them, and you’re sure to see some great conversations begin to surface on your page.)

One Facebook page that does an outstanding job of connecting with fans is Teavana.  With over 32,000 fans, the page attracts tea-lovers worldwide.  Their secret to engagement is making their posts about their fans.  Here’s one great example of a post that received 68 comments:

This image shows how simple it can be to get your fans talking. What fun and interesting questions can you ask your fans that will get them to post their thoughts and opinions?

Also, a great engagement tool Teavana uses is their monthly “What’s in your cup?” game where they ask their fans to post photos of what’s in their cup at that moment—this type of game encourages photo sharing which can virally increase visibility of their page.

Another example of a page that has mastered the art of engagement is the NHL page.  As mentioned before, they not only have impeccably branded their page, but they’ve also mastered the art of engagement.

The page uses video in most of their posts.  Why?  Because they know their fans will respond well to short video clips and their content is sports clips, so what better way to get their fans engaged than to show them clips of the game they love most?  (This is also a great example of knowing your fans’ wants and interests!)

The NHL page actually takes it a step further and uses their video to create polls and surveys.  One example is a short clip of a recent game where there was much debate over the call of a goal.  The caption for the video read “Goal or no goal? Watch the NHL Situation Room, make the call.”

This one post, because it added a touch of controversy, generated more than 1,000 comments.  When you see successes like this, think about your audience.  How can you use video to encourage interaction and idea-sharing?

NHL excited fanatic opinions when they asked their fans if a goal in a recent game was a fair call. Take a look at how many comments it generated!

The NHL Page also used a really cool tool called TweetMixx.  This tool allows you to tailor the content categories, tags, users and groups to your specific audience and will deliver the top-rated content as chosen by you and people who share interest in your niche.

This is a great engagement tool because it allows your audience to get instant access to the content they’re most interested in, plus it adds a real-time component.

The interactive TweetMixx application keeps the conversation going strong on the NHL page.

This formula is meant as a guide to help you with your overall social media strategy.

Closing thoughts: There’s a lot of noise on the web about the dos and don’ts of social media marketing and it tends to be overwhelming.  This formula is meant to simplify your process.  If you add a bunch of extra components to the formula, you’re less likely to see the results you want (or worse yet, you’re likely to get overwhelmed and not take action!). In short, ignore the chatter and stick to the plan.

Now it’s your turn!  Do you have a Facebook page success story? Share it below and let us know what components of the formula work best for you. Do you find any of the components of the formula challenging? Share here and you’re sure to find advice from the other members of our community.

Think you know what World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is all about? You might be surprised to read about WWE’s emerging social media story.

But first, it’s easy to pigeonhole WWE as fringe cable channel with a small group of die-hard fans, but you likely don’t know all the facts…

WWE.com outperformed ABC.com, CBS.com, NBC.com, NASCAR.com, PerezHilton.com, NHL.com and UFC.com. More people attended Wrestlemania XXVI than the Super Bowl, held in the same stadium.

“WWE” ranked #3 for most searches on Yahoo! in 2009, behind only Michael Jackson and Twilight. (As I write this, WWE is the top-trending search term on Yahoo!) And WWE.com has more than 14 million average monthly unique visitors worldwide.

More significantly, WWE’s own social networking site has 610,000 registered users who participate in forums, comment on blogs, and consume the millions of photos and videos that WWE updates continuously.

Therein lies the conundrum for WWE’s web production team. When you already have millions of fans engaging with you, do you really need to add Facebook and Twitter?

For WWE, the answer was yes.

“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” said Mark Keys, VP of web production, digital media. “People were engaging on those sites and communicating about our products anyway, so we might as well embrace them and bring them into the fold.”

But even WWE, accustomed to its enthusiastic fandom, didn’t expect the welcome it received.

The Party’s at WWE – and Only at WWE

It’s not that WWE hasn’t embraced social networking. The brand actually came fairly early to the social media party – but held the party at its own house.

Two years ago, WWE launched its WWE Universe site, a hub for fans to interact directly with more than 200 performers – called superstars and divas in WWE lingo. The site features wrestler profiles, along with forums, photos, videos, chat and blogs. You can even “friend” other fans and performers Facebook-style.

Many of the wrestlers and commentators blog about recent or upcoming matches. And just like in the business world, blogging helps each WWE performer build his or her brand – or in this case personality – with the fans. In turn, the more engaged fans are with the performer’s story, the more likely they are to tune in.

Fans from all over the world post words of encouragement to superstars and divas, or debate who’s going to come out on top in the next Smackdown.

Superstar Randy Orton

They can peruse videos of the most recent events and more than 3.3 million photos, or even create their own “smash-up.” You pick the videos and the theme music to make your own two-minute video montage.

Fans can create their own “smash-ups” on www.wweuniverse.com.

One of the site’s most popular features, live chat, runs during live TV and pay-per-view events, with performers joining in from the arena and WWE hall-of-famers as hosts. On average, each fan stays active in live chat for an impressive 45 to 50 minutes each session.

Going Where the Fans Are

As social networking has become more and more popular, the question of whether to join was increasingly pressing. Keys and his team didn’t see a clear business case for jumping in.

“To be completely honest, two years ago we didn’t care about social networking because we didn’t have to,” Keys said. “Our audience was so engaged on our site that they consumed whatever we put up there. Why would I send my audience over to other brands? I don’t need their engagement because I have such a rabid fan base.”

The turning point? They realized that fans were talking about WWE on Facebook and Twitter – with or without them.

Moreover, WWE had a huge problem with imposters pretending to be superstars and divas, on Twitter in particular, pushing the network to establish an official voice.

However, WWE wanted to do it right. Three months ago, they quietly created corporate Facebook and Twitter accounts – without promoting them – as a test of sorts.

“We’re not rushing into anything,” Keys said. “We want them [fans] to have the best and highest-class experience they can have with the same robust quality experience of our TV and the website.”

Within two months, 500,000 Facebook users had hit the “Like” button to become fans on WWE’s Facebook page and more than 93,000 were following the brand on Twitter.

They also set up Twitter accounts for many of their top performers. Within just two hours of his first tweet, superstar John Cena had amassed 5,000 Twitter followers, with the number growing to 30,000 in his first week.

Now, WWE has more than 50 official and performer accounts and 90 official and star pages on Facebook.

In a couple of months, without any promotion, WWE has 106,000+ Twitter followers on its main account, and millions more through other official WWE accounts.

Protecting the WWE Brand

WWE is upfront about being a scripted TV show. In the arena and out, performers follow a set storyline. WWE superstars and divas can choose what to post on Twitter but mostly stick to their WWE storylines, with some reality peppered in.

When some of the stars got ash-trapped in Ireland, with flights halted because of the volcano, they tweeted about the predicament.

“We even created a funky map feature that followed stars from ferries to trains to buses, and then we produced a TV feature,” Keys said.

To maintain brand consistency across social networks, WWE created a “W” logo to distinguish Twitter and Facebook from imposters.

Though initially under the marketing team at WWE, the digital content division now manages social networks, realizing that it’s largely about online content.

About five staff members devote part of their time to the WWE Universe site, Facebook and Twitter. The team tweets about 10 to 15 times every day, posting news and links back to videos, photos and other content to encourage fans to come back to WWE Universe.

They schedule tweets and follow inbound social networking hits with HootSuite and use Omniture for more advanced web analytics. While WWE could outsource comment moderation to a number of professional companies, it has so far chosen to keep its hand in oversight and responses.

Opening the Two-Way Street

WWE has not yet started actively promoting its Facebook and Twitter accounts on the WWE Universe site. So far, the only evidence is a Twitter feed on its website that streams all WWE and performer tweets.

Yet growing traffic coming from Facebook and Twitter gives WWE confidence in this new direction.

In the coming months, it will put its “foot on the gas” and begin telling its community of users about Twitter and Facebook. Icons for both sites will encourage fans on the WWE Universe site to share any of that content with their friends and contacts – opening the whole world of WWE content for fans to post.

By having mainstream and its own social networks, WWE expects to increase traffic and content sharing going both directions exponentially.

“If you go to superstar pages, we have very close to three million total fans on branded pages,” said Corey Clayton, online community leader at WWE. “It’s a vast network to reach out to and we’ll easily triple that in two weeks.”

As the brand goes full-force with social networking outside of its own site, WWE aims to evolve less-frequent website visitors to more active users. In doing so, they indirectly hope to increase pay-per-view sales, website page views and product sales.

“If we engage someone on Twitter who is a lapsed fan or bring new people into the product, then we’ve done our job well,” Keys said. “We’re now following the philosophy of going where the audience lives instead of getting them over to our house.”

How about you? Are you a WWE fan? Are you meeting your best fans in the social networks where they hang out? How do you ensure you stick to your brand story in all of your social media activities?