Does Using a 3Rd Party Api to Publish to Facebook Decrease Engagement? Update!  Maybe Not.

Facebook claims they fixed the bug causing updates posted by 3rd party applications (like Hootsuite, Twitter, TweetDeck, etc.) to have 80% lower engagement than those posted directly on Facebook. Despite EdgeRank Checker tentatively agreeing (sort of), I’m skeptical.

We hypothesized that there were four possible reasons why this was happening:

1. Facebook penalizes 3rd party API’s EdgeRank – FIXED
2. Facebook collapses 3rd Party API updates
3. High chance of being scheduled or automated
4. Content is not optimized for Facebook

First of all, as they mention, they’re comparing apples to oranges. Impressions are a measure of who sees the content. Engagement is a measure of who interacts with the content. In addition, the actual algorithm penalizing apps is only part of the problem.

Given that:

1. to my knowledge, Facebook is still collapsing 3rd party updates,
2. the actual quality of the posts is often worse, and
3. people have the ability to hide all updates by certain apps from their feed,

I still believe 3rd party posted content will receive fewer impressions and (especially) engagement than content posted directly through Facebook and formatted accordingly.

Link to the study by EdgeRank Checker.

Facebook’s Hybrid News Feed Has Smaller Pages Swimming Upstream

Facebook released the hybrid news feed in September 2011. A subsequent month-long study found that “most Pages experienced a decrease in impressions, while larger Pages (especially those with 100k+ fans) tended to experience an increase in engagement.”

Link to the study by EdgeRank Checker.

Keep in Mind What Fans Are Expecting When They Like Your Page

• 33% of consumers say “When I want to communicate with a brand, I post on the brand’s Facebook Page.”

Source: CMO Council

• 47% of consumers say “When I connect with a brand online for a customer service or support issue, I expect answers within 24 hours.”
• 67% of consumers say “When I Like a brand on Facebook, I expect to be eligible for exclusive offers.”
• When it comes to “why I Like a brand” (what consumers said), vs. “why we think people Like brands” (what marketers said), marketers and consumers are on very different “pages” (pun intended).

Link to the study by CMO Council (PDF).

Why Fans Are Unfollowing Your Brand on Facebook & How to Stop Them

• 46% – The information was not interesting.
• 46% – The information was published too often.
• 39% – The brand is no longer of interest to me.
• 23% – The brand published information I did not appreciate.
• 14% – Information was not published often enough.

“Engagement in Facebook brands’ walls is down 22%,” said Syncapse CEO Michael Scissons. “But declining engagement has less to do with brand fatigue in general than with marketers doing a bad job and shoving boring [content] at consumers.”

“At DDB, Bernbach taught us to behave with respect for the consumer, recognizing that brands are in the hands of consumers, not marketers. Facebook is making it more relevant than ever today. Brands got blinded by the technology, forgetting about the basics of relationships in the way they interacted with consumers,” said Sebastian Genty, DDB’s planning director. “They need to learn to behave like any human being, with respect and transparency. Rhythm is key, as in any new relationship.”

Link to the Study by DDB & Oppinionway.

So What Have We Learned?

• Increase your Affinity score by consciously working to get fans engaged on an ongoing basis.
  • There’s nothing worse than being boring! Be interesting and controversial. Start a debate. Ask questions. Have people fill in the blank. Create a poll. Post trivia and quizzes.
  • Respond to Likes on posts with questions and always respond to comments to keep the conversation going.
  • Give things away and offer discounts. When you do, use the words  ”coupon” and ”$ off” (not % off). Here are 26 ideas and an app to help you out.
  • Promote your Page offline, on your website and use the Open Graph to make it easy for your fans to participate outside of Facebook.
• Improve Edge Weight by posting photos, videos and links which generally have the highest Edge Weight. This doesn’t have to be hard.
• Don’t overwhelm people.
• Keep posts at 40-80 characters or less.
• Post one to four times per week and never more twice per day.
• Optimize updates for Facebook.
  • Although using 3rd party tools can make it easier, avoid them when possible.
  • Tag other Pages and Events. When possible, use your personal profile to tag other people.
  • When posting links, choose a good picture.
  • Avoid hashtags, shortlinks and other evidence of cross-posting.

We’ll be posting a Part 3 all about the timing of posts soon. Stay tuned!

If you haven’t already looked at Facebook’s new Page Insights, look them over today. Do these studies back up what you’re seeing with your brand? Do they contradict? Let us know and be sure to Like the Big Sea Facebook Page!

What you see in your Facebook newsfeed isn’t magic; it’s controlled by a very important algorithm called EdgeRank. Facebook wants users to be engaged, so EdgeRank is a critical aspect of their business. The EdgeRank factors are:

• Affinity – How often you interact with others (be it visiting a friend’s profile or commenting on a Page’s picture).
• Edge Weight – The type of content it is. A few types are: photos, videos, status updates, place checkins, becoming friends with someone, Liking a Page, changing your profile picture, etc. Keep in mind, there are general rules, but everyone’s Edge Weight is different and Facebook has carte blanche to tweak things at will.
• Recency – The older something is, the less likely you are to see it.

Strategies for Effective Facebook Wall Posts

• Posts made between 8 PM and 7 AM receive 20% more user engagement.
• On Wednesdays, fan engagement is 8% above average.
• Posting one to two times per day produces 40% higher user engagement.
• Posting one to four times per week produces 71% higher user engagement.
• Posts with 80 characters or less receive 66% higher engagement. Very concise posts – those between one and 40 characters – generate highest engagement. Only 5% of all retail brand wall posts are less than 40 characters in length, even though these receive 86% higher fan engagement.
• Ask questions to spark dialogue – “question” posts generate comment rates double that of “non-question” posts.
• Fill in the blank posts receive 9 times more comments than other posts.
• Offer fans “$ off” and coupons. Posts containing these offer-related keywords receive the highest engagement.
• “$ off” offers receive twice the engagement of “% off” offers.
• Avoid complicated wall posts. Status-only posts receive 94% higher than average engagement

Link to the Study by Buddy Media.

DOES USING A 3RD PARTY API TO Post TO FACEBOOK DECREASE ENGAGEMENT? YES!

Source: edgerankchecker.com

Using a 3rd party API to update your Facebook Page decreases your likelihood of engagement per fan (on average) by about 80%. A Breakdown:

• HootSuite – 69% reduction
• TweetDeck – 73% reduction
• Sendible – 75% reduction
• RSS Graffiti – 81% reduction
• Twitter – 83% reduction
• Publisher – 86% reduction
• twitterfeed – 90% reduction
• dlvr.it – 91% reduction
• Social RSS – 94% reduction
• Networked Blogs – 76% reduction

Probable Causes:

1. Facebook penalizes 3rd party API’s EdgeRank
2. Facebook collapses 3rd Party API updates
3. High chance of being scheduled or automated
4. Content is not optimized for Facebook

Link to the Study by EdgeRank Tracker.

What do you think? Are you rushing to unplug linked posts? Have you noticed anything or found any cool studies we missed? Let us know and be sure to Like the Big Sea Facebook Page!

Check out Writing Effective Facebook Posts Part 2!

Facebook Pages Losing Ability to Send Messages (Pages Only)

Clicking Learn More takes you to an FAQ which says:

The Bad: Connecting with fans is hard enough and now Facebook’s pulling one of the tools to do so (and emphasizing things you have to pay for in the process, did you catch that?).
The Good: I don’t think this will be missed too much because:

• Most or all Messages from pages and groups have been going to the “Other” folder since the Facebook Messages overhaul in November 2010. That meant users didn’t get a notification (the little red box in the main navigation) about it and once users were inside of Messages they had to click into that folder to view them. (From the beginning it reminded me of the “Spam” folder in regular email. How often does anyone actually go in there?)
• Facebook had already moved the functionality some time back to an obscure spot. Go to your page > Edit Page > Resources > Send an Update.
• They weren’t used very often. I’m a fan of about 500 pages (not counting groups) and I only got about 3 in there per week.

I love that it will help organizations really focus their efforts on what will grab eyeballs. I also think Facebook tends to get really bloated and weeding out rarely used, ineffective and broken features is a great move for them in general.
Perhaps most importantly is that it’s a good attempt at making messages more relevant to users (something they’ve been working on for a while.)

Verdict: Good move!

You No Longer Need 25 Fans To Get A Custom Page URL (Pages & Profiles)

Facebook used to require you to have at least 25 fans (or friends) in order to claim the custom username (URL) of your choice. That meant that until you got 25 people to like your page, you had to share a really ugly URL (usually your full organization name with a bunch of numbers on the end). This wasn’t an official announcement, but some people are reporting the ability to set a URL without having 25 fans. Apparently some people are still having issues with this and getting the message “[Page Name] is not eligible for a username at this time. In the future, [Page Name] will be able to set a username.”, so we’ll see how it pans out.

The old rules still apply:

• You can’t change the username once you set it.
• You can’t transfer the ownership of a username to another party.
• You can’t violate anyone else’s trademark rights.
• If you are acquiring a username to sell it in the future (squatting), you will lose it.
• Usernames may be reclaimed for other unauthorized usages.

The Bad: People who create pages on a lark can now get usernames, and they may get one that you want (and would actually use). More people having usernames means less will be available.
The Good: Getting 25 people to like your page was difficult when all you had to share was an ugly, hard to remember URL that you wouldn’t want to put it on your marketing materials. Thus, most people would send it out to 25 friends and family, then set the URL, then share it with customers, add it to their website, etc. This makes that whole process a lot smoother. I also like the squatting clause.

Verdict: Good move!

See Who Has Shared Your Posts (Pages & Profiles)

Facebook is testing a new feature which allows you to see who has clicked the “Share” button from posts on your page.

The Bad: It doesn’t show that you were the original poster. When you “Retweet” something on Twitter, it links back to you as the original poster, same thing with “Reblogging” something on Tumblr, and that’s even the way it used to be on Facebook (posts that you shared would say via [Friend/Page Name]). That appears to be completely gone now. Also, this isn’t available for everyone (yet?).
The Good: I love data and analytics and this gives you new information, which is always cool. Plus, it makes liking and commenting on the shared post really easy. Bonus! How To Get Fans To Click Facebook’s New ‘Share’ Link

Verdict: Good move! (But bring back the “Via”.)

Photos Can Be Larger, Load Faster & An Improved Viewer (Pages & Profiles)

Facebook Says:

Now, the photos you share on Facebook are bigger (720 pixels to 960 pixels) and load twice as fast, giving you quicker access to more detailed images. Photos you’ve already uploaded to your profile will also be displayed at this higher resolution. … We are rolling out a more streamlined photo viewer that features a cleaner interface that makes it even easier to enjoy your photos. The light box is now set against a simple white background that puts more of the focus on the photo, and less on the surrounding frame.

Verdict: Good move!

Facebook Improves the “Recommendations” Feature (Pages Only)

A couple months ago, Facebook removed the ability for non-admins to “Suggest to Friends”, but added the very cool recommendations feature.

On the righthand sidebar on pages with an address, the “Recommend This Place” now appears with the text “Help your friends discover great places to visit by recommending [Page Name]”.

Users can write a short recommendation, set its new feed privacy setting, and submit it. The recommendation is automatically published to the user’s news feed:

It’s also automatically displayed in the sidebar. If friends have left a recommendation “Recommendations from Friends” is shown. If not, “Recommendations” (this is brand new) is shown:

Both have the option to See All which has tabs to filter the recommendations, allows users to like and comment on the recommendations and of course, to add their own:

The other new aspect of all this is that now, whenever someone new likes the page, they’re prompted to write a recommendation:

The Bad: Is there any? I’d love to see some other additions to this (it’s own tab, for starters), but I think it’s a great start!
The Good: This is a fabulous new way to get viral exposure! I think this makes up for the lack of messages tenfold. The implementation was simple and unobtrusive. As a page admin, you can push people to recommend you as often or creatively as you like. (Hey, now that I think of it… If you think we’re worth recommending, we’d love for you to take a second and leave us a recommendation!)

Verdict: Great move!

What do you think? Do you agree with my verdicts? Will you miss sending (or receiving) messages from pages? Do you like the Share features? Will being able to set up usernames quicker be helpful? Have you gotten any cool recommendations yet? Let us know and be sure to like the Big Sea Facebook Page!

In addition to the great networking and ideas that come with that many minds in one place, I came away rejuvenated and validated in my practices and approach.

The first session was Social Media Hospitality, presented by Brian Simpson, Director, Digital Media Vikram Chatwal Hotels, NYC. Brian spoke realistically and frankly about why we need to stop building our audience and start trying to engage the people who are already our fans. Stop worrying about the ‘Likes’ and focus on the conversation.

The lessons that he really hammered home for me included:

• Stop talking about how awesome you are and start engaging. Start working yourself into the conversation.
• An audience will watch you fight your battles; a community will help you fight. Use social media to help you build a community, not an audience.
• Don’t respond to every single social site comment – reduce the signal to noise ratio.
• An agency can never articulate as clearly or communicate as well as a voice from inside your organization.
• A great way to monitor your social media success includes taking lots and lots of screenshots of conversations, tweets, mentions, comments, and posts.

My favorite quote of the day reminds me that the social media space is crowded and loud. Its a noisy, busy place and we need to work hard to build true relationships organically and sincerely – not be the loudest voice. From Buddha, in all his wisdom, “Don’t speak unless it improves the silence.“

Facebook

I’d like Facebook to resolve not to use its power for evil instead of good. Seriously, Facebook has become the most important website on the Web besides Google. But unlike Google, Facebook knows everything about us. I understand why, but it still scares me.

I’d also like Facebook to resolve to expand the functionality of it’s Pages. Facebook Pages are the best way for small businesses to develop an online presence. A dynamic Facebook Page can be more useful to a small biz than a website in some cases. That said, they still have relatively limited functionality compared to the standard profile page. For instance, why don’t I get notices of Fan’s Birthdays? And why can’t I suggest my page to my people who aren’t my personal friends?

Finally, in 2011 I’d like to see Facebook Introduce some sort of eCommerce option, even if it’s very very basic. Maybe they could team up with Paypal or something. But I think it would really help small businesses if they could sell on Facebook. I’m sure it’d be a good revenue stream for Facebook as well.

Twitter

To be honest, I’m not the world’s biggest Twitter fan. It’s not that I don’t understand it … just that I’m not a big fan. I guess I like using more than 140 characters to say something. That said, here are a couple things Twitter could do to get me more interested.

First, I want an easier way to view threads. People are always talking about how great Twitter is for having a conversations and yet it’s almost impossible to read those conversations. Until last year, it was pretty much impossible. Why can’t they add a “view this thread” button that pulls together all tweets between accounts within a certain period of time.

A related wish is that Twitter would make it easier for people who like to read more than they tweet. For instance, I really like http://twitter.com/breakingnews. I probably read the breaking news feed more than my own friend feed. I’d like to see more of these “moderated” feeds. There’s just so much crap on Twitter sometimes.

WordPress

Since Big Sea Design is a WordPress shop, and I’m the resident expert, I guess I should have something to say about what they should do in 2011.

I’d like to see WordPress provide more mobile functionality out-of-the-box. They could simply provide a mobile.php file in the theme hierarchy and a nice peace of javascript to detect whether the browser is a mobile one. That’s easy enough right? Don’t get me wrong, making a mobile theme page isn’t the hardest thing in the world right now. But given the world is going mobile fast, I’m thinking we can get ahead of the game a little.

I’d also like to see WordPress work toward an easy way of integrating the site styles into the admin screens. In some cases you want your admin screens to look different. WordPress is great for this. But some times, for instance user profiles, you want your admin screens to reflect the overall site design. It’d be nice if there were a hook that could be added that would allow the admin pages (under certain conditions) to render front-end themes.

Apple

Apple is doing a good enough job of world domination without my help. But since we’re talking, we might as well talk Apple.

One, loosen up the iPhone App store regulations. I know you were getting a lot of junk apps and so you cracked down to protect the user experience. But you’ve also made it difficult for small businesses and non-profits to get RSS driven apps to serve their audiences. Chill man.

Also, get some deals going with other providers. Android’s gonna kick your butt because every provider has an Android phone. Let ATT have the iPhone4 , but at least start working with Verizon, T-Mobile et al, on the older versions.

(While you’re at it, why not just give everybody an iPhone. Please? I’m sick of my Motorola Cliq.)

Conclusion

Do you have any resolutions for the coming year? Either for yourself … or for someone else?

I’m stressing about it.

And I hear this from my clients all the time.

I got to reading, and realized I’m not alone. Social media is just one more thing on our plates; one more tool in our belts. It’s not the make-it-or-break-it key to success that so many evangelists make it out to be. It can be a very powerful tool if you are able to use it, but there are certainly other tools.

When you’re feeling overwhelmed or just tired of being social in social media, here are a few thoughts to help you.

1. When you want to do social media but don’t have the time, use HootSuite: Seriously a life saver. Set up a free account at this web-based social media manager. Load up all of your social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, whatever) and start posting. The best feature of HootSuite? You can schedule your posts. Schedule a few status updates for your business page to post over the weekend or while you’re on vacation or even periodically throughout the week so you don’t lost interested fans. Check in once in a while to respond to comments. Set it and forget it!

2. You don’t need to be everywhere. Read this great post about why you don’t need to be on Twitter, then stick with the social media that you think really fit your market. If your customers aren’t your fans on Facebook, you probably don’t need a page. Social media isn’t right for everyone and every business, and that’s ok. It’s not absolutely necessary to succeed.

3. Give yourself a break. Too much posting is just as annoying as a page that hasn’t been updated in two months, so ease up. Let yourself take a few days away without worry. Jump back in when you’re ready and make sure you reply to comments and start conversations. Set user expectations so that they know not to expect you online all day and night, unless that’s what you want to do.

4. Watch your competitors. There are probably a few of your competitors who are doing an awesome job with social media. They’re posting all day, replying on Twitter, starting really cool conversations with industry leaders. Then, there are probably quite a few who have no social media presence at all. Which of those competitors are most successful? You’ll probably find a balance. There are many ways to stay connected to your clients and customers; social media is just another tool in your belt.

5.  Enlist help.  Find an employee who has a good handle on social media that can spend 20 minutes a day posting for your business.  Buy a cheap netbook (or maybe an iPad!) and let them go at it.  Hand over the reigns. You’ll be sharing a much more realistic and genuine view of your business than trying to half-heartedly maintain control doing it yourself.  Give your employees a voice and let them build those relationships.

Business owners wear a lot of hats, and marketing has to be one of them, but no one is expecting you to be perfect. Do what’s best for you, keeping an eye on your competitors, and you’ll be fine.

1. Fans – not friends (page not profile)

• Don’t make people ask to friend you – fan pages are public; anyone can become a fan (vendors, clients, employees).
• Fan pages status updates are indexed by Google’s real time search results – use them to post links and it helps SEO for that website.
• Be sure to grab your business name (or something close to it) so you can easily share your Facebook page address.
• Multiple profiles are actually against FB terms and you can be banned.

2.  What to post

• Stay on topic (whatever that topic might be) and be present daily.
• Save your rants and tirades for somewhere else.
• Tell your story by sharing some personal information about your business.
• Add value to your fans – share news, links and stories (use Google or Yahoo blog search to find relevant content).
• Applaud your competitors – share good work and good ideas, give credit where credit is due.
• Speak in your own voice, not in business speak.

3. When to post

• When are your visitors online?   Chances are you can tell this by looking at your website analytics.
• Daily is not too often.  Hourly is too often.  Find a balance.
• Too many status updates clogs your fans’ newsfeeds; bores them and bothers them.  Don’t be annoying!
• Go slow and steady – don’t overdo it.  It takes time to build up the residual returns.

4. Use applications to increase engagement

• At the very least, Networked Blogs should be connecting with your blog.
• Connect your LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.
• Polls, contests and sweepstakes (there’s an app for that!).
• Others on Mashable

5. Develop custom tabs specific to your business

• Use Static FBML to create a custom landing tabs for your page – add your email subscription form, links to pages on your website – anything you can do with HTML/CSS you can do on this tab.
• Use boxes to add your business information, polls and surveys.
• If your wall is nothing to write home about (lacking comments or updates), use one of these tabs as your landing tab for new visitors.
• Hire a web designer if you need help – this is a quick and easy project that helps make your profile sticky and fun.

6. Join the conversation – but don’t control it.

• Respond to comments and make comments on your fan’s profiles and pages
• Add their businesses to your fan’s  “favorites.”
• Allow natural commenting and questions to happen (Dell is a great example).
• Respond kindly and swiftly to negative comments;  don’t delete them, but use them as feedback to improve your business – show your fans that you care enough to change.

7. Offer discounts and specials to your Facebook fans.

• Give people a reason to recommend you to their friends.
• Say thank you once in awhile!
• Track this  and use the information to improve the offer.
• Offer a choice of discount (which would you prefer?).
• Solicit feedback from your fans on your business decisions (would you rather see us open a new location in North Pinellas or add two more professionals to our current location?).
• Which incentives you use depend on the type of business you are running.

8. Leverage the power of Facebook Events

• Use events only for the notable, big events you’re hosting or involved in – not your weekly or daily specials.
• Only invite fans/friends to whom the event is relevant! (Local, likely to attend or interested in your business/topic).
• Promote your events with Facebook ads.
• Decide whether or not to show the guest list (small events = no; big events = yes).
• Enable the wall if it’ll spark good discussion, not just RSVPs.
• Add links to related pages on your website or partnering businesses.
  

9. Use your Facebook URL everywhere, like a website.

• Many brands have started using it instead of their website in print and web advertising
• Creates more of a relationship than a website does
• Fresher content and more easily editable than your website
• Add to business cards and especially email signatures

10. Use Facebook ads!

• They’re cheap, targeted and you can help build your fan base very affordably.
• Run campaigns that are compelling and promote your Facebook page, a promotion or an event instead of trying to sell something
• If you build a good FBML tab with good content, you can use ads to bring people to your uploaded presentations, white papers, even your events.
• Figure that you’d spend a few hundred dollars on a Yellow Pages advertisement so be willing to test out a similar budget on Facebook
• Use the ‘social ads’ – show the connections between your page and specific users who are fans

More tips and tricks

• Remember that Facebook statuses update mobile platforms (notifications are free mobile advertising!)
• Use FB to research business prospects/partners/clients/employees
• Combine with your other social media initiatives (Twitter, blogging)
• Use Facebook to find guest bloggers and connect with others in your industry
• Use FB to syndicate other web content, links to articles and news stories

Facebook Resources

• Facebook Advertising
• AllFacebook
• Mashable
• Chris Brogan
• Social Media Examiner
• Inside Facebook
• PDF eBook from Hubspot

You’re a small business owner, and you know that you need to use Facebook for promotion. You might even have a fan page already built.  But are you using it to its fullest potential? What are you leaving on the table, and how can you maximize the very little time in your day to get the most out of your social media marketing?

It’s important to understand  how, when, where and why using social media makes sense and what impact using them will have on your business.

Join us for lunch at Three Birds Tavern (pardon the music) on Tuesday, March 23 to learn:

• What to post and what not to post – and when
• How to make – and keep – fans
• Creative ideas for engaging your fans
• Why and why not to use Facebook ads
• How to translate fans into sales

Where:  Three Birds Tavern
When: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 12:00 pm
How much: $15 for paid LS1 members / $20 non-members / $25 at the door
(includes lunch, drink and tip + 45 minute workshop and discussion time)

Register in advance at LocalShops1.com »

A client asked me this weekend about how businesses can and should be using Facebook.  Best practices, things to avoid, etc. I told her a few things about sincerity, about creating relationships or maintaining boundaries – you know, the usual social media 101 jibber jabber.

But it got me thinking: what do you think businesses can and should be doing on Facebook? Do they belong on Facebook? Are you assaulted with promotions and sick of it? Do you like seeing what your favorite brands or small businesses are up to and supporting your friends (ahem)?

Be honest, and let me have it. I’m curious, from a professional perspective not in relation to Big Sea on Facebook (I won’t be hurt if you think business should stay off).

And go.