Saturday Stats: Facebook Page Reach Plummets to 1% - Here's What You NEED to Know

If you have a Facebook Page with more than 100 Followers, you know that over the past few months, fewer and fewer people have seen your posts.  It used to be about 5%, then 3%.  Now it's 1% or less.  And frankly, that just sucks.

As mentioned in the second article posted yesterday, a lot of it has to do with fan engagement.

However, there are other things you need to know in order to maintain your marketing presence via Facebook.

Ad Week published this article regarding how Facebook is slashing organic reach.  It has some interesting points as to why Facebook is doing this - Facebook is a company and it does need to make money, thus changing algorithms to encourage companies to pay for marketing.

Vocus, however, put together this article which tells you a lot of other things you may not know, including:

The new reality on Facebook is that 99 out of 100 Fans will never see your (unpromoted) Posts. And it may actually be worse: Facebook says that users are exposed to about 1,500 potential pieces of content per 20-minute session. 

That's a lot of information for individuals to process.

It continues to give advice as to what you should do to help your marketing on Facebook, including promoting posts.  Let's be honest here.  You know you have to spend money to make money.  Facebook has been free for quite some time, but they have to pay their employees too.  Use part of your marketing funds each month to promote important posts on Facebook to get the maximum exposure.

And check out other posts here for ways to encourage participation so more people see your posts.

Best of luck!

Friday Facts Part 2: Freedom of Speech = Money Article

While this article is a little extreme, it has some good points.

But, to make my little rant before I link it, I have to say this.

You do not have Freedom of Speech on Social Media.  Most social media companies are privately owned (or in Facebook's case, publicly owned, stock optioned technically owned by a private company) and what that means is that the Constitution does not apply to you.

Yes, you can get in trouble and be arrested for making threats on Facebook.  But Facebook is not a public forum or public entity.  It is owned by a private company and their rules and regulations are allowed to be enforced.

They are providing a "free service" which they "monetize" in many different ways.  So the article's title is really misleading.

That will end my soap box on Free Speech.

However, the point made in the article - engaging pages we like, engaging users we like, and interacting to keep our feed filled with what we want to see are good tips to help pages out.

To read the entire article: http://piecefit.com/index.php/en/wake-up-all/paradigm-shift/item/457-facebook-s-recent-changes-freedom-of-speech-money#k2Container

Friday Facts: Fun Infographic on What it Takes to Be a Social Media Strategist

Mashable put together a really neat infographic on what it takes to be a social media strategist.  While the article is almost 4 years old and it would be interesting to see how some of the statistics have changed since it was published, a lot of the tips in there are invaluable to both new, and old, social media marketers alike.

For example:

1. Be ready to wear many hats.
2. Be able to lead.
3. Be willing, and able, to take risks.

But that's just a quick paraphrase.  Check out the full article and infographic here: http://mashable.com/2011/09/24/social-media-career/

Thursday Tutorials: Adding Managers to Google+ Pages

This is the first Tutorial in a month or so - sorry about that!  And I realize while writing this that I haven't done a post on how to Create a Google+ page.  I suppose that will be added to my list of things to write.  So I suppose this is a little backward.  But if you already have a Google+ page but don't know how to add managers, this article is for you!

As mentioned this past Tuesday, it is a good idea for you to add staff to your social media so they can assist you.  This is just a tutorial guiding you on how to add staff to your Google+ Page(s).

Keep in mind, these tutorials are written for the new to social media sites and are written with that in mind.  If you already know how to do some of this, skip the first few steps and just read what you need to know.

So, first, you need to access your page.  To find this, click on the circle icon with your profile picture on it and scroll down - I don't show mine for the simple fact I'm a manager of several pages and don't feel everyone needs to know which ones I work with.  Click on the page you want to add a manager to.  This will pull up your page.

Scroll down your page.  You should see, on the right column, a "View Dashboard section.  It looks like this:

Click on that.  It will take you to your dashboard where you can see notifications, stats and other items.  Scroll down.  In the middle you should see the Add Managers to your page area in the middle, as seen below.  

Scroll a little further down and there's an "Add Manager" button.  Click on that.  That will take you to this next page - which is honestly kinda silly since you have to click "Add Manager" again to actually add anyone.

Click on Add Manager to generate this following screen:

Type in the name or email address of the person you want to add as a manager.  They will receive an invite and have to accept being a manager before they become a manager.  The drop down menu, as seen, offers two choices for manager selection.  Just a Manager or Communications Manager.  Each position has different abilities, as seen in the chart below.

Note:  There is no need to worry about making someone an admin and them having power over the page and able to remove you.  You, the page creator, are in charge and can add/remove staff as needed or delete the page account.

See?  Really simple!  Now, go add some staff to your pages!

Thursday Tutorials are a series of tutorials designed to help people who may not be as Facebook savvy as other people.  Some tutorials will be targeted towards newbies to the social media world, others will include tutorials for more advanced users.  Thursday Tutorials are written for the layman and are designed with everyone in mind.  You can find all the Thursday Tutorials by clicking on the Thursday Tutorials tag below.

Wednesday Words: HootSuite

If you've dabbled in social media at all, you've likely heard of HootSuite.  Hootsuite is a free app/Chrome Plugin which offers paid services that helps social media managers streamline campaigns across several social networks including Facebook, Google + Pages, LinkedIn and Twitter.  The app allows teams to collaboratively monitor, engage and measure results of social media campaigns in a secure, web-based dashboard.

Personally, I've used the free version of HootSuite to handle a few sites things.

The biggest advice I can offer is if you have Facebook connected to Twitter and it autoposts to Twitter, to be sure to schedule with HootSuite appropriately to where it won't post to Twitter.  I do suggest, however, that if you're going to use HootSuite, remove the option for Facebook pages to be connected to Twitter pages.

I have not used the paid version. If anyone who reads this has, I would love to host a blog post  by you about your experiences with it and how it can help with social media marketing.

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media.  These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media.   You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.

New Facebook Page Layout Coming Soon

If you're one of the lucky pages, you've already been converted over to the new Facebook page layout, if not, you may still have to wait a few weeks.

Personally, I like the new way pages look and you have a bit more control over things as well.

Facebook actually has a post that talks about all of this and how it is streamlined to help admins as well.

Check it out here:  https://www.facebook.com/business/news/A-Streamlined-Look-for-Pages

Tuesday Tips: Add Adminstrators/Managers to Your Fan Pages

At the beginning of March we provided a tutorial on how to add staff to Facebook fan pages.  Later this week, we'll add a tutorial for adding administrators to Google+ Pages and then to LinkedIn as well.  Today's tip, however, pertains to the previous and upcoming tutorials.

Add other administrators/managers/staff to your page(s).  This will allow them to post, respond and advertise for your page.

This is important for a small business, community or fanpage.  Often you and your staff are busy with other projects (I know I am) and having multiple people having access can allow them to take some of the load off your shoulders when it comes to maintaining a social media presence and engaging your fans.

And now, you don't have to worry about knowing who posted what - at least on Facebook.  Facebook now shows admins who of the admins/managers posted what to the page and who responded to who on the page - which can help deter negative engagement from staff too.  Remember, you want to try to stay as positive as possible with your fans on Facebook - even if they piss you off.

Facebook has several roles for page staff to assume, not just admin, so be sure to consider that when you add staff to a page.

As always, remember that admin's have a lot of power - be sure those you make admin are those you can trust.

Tuesday Tips are a series of tips released on Tuesday each week regarding a hint or tip to help you manage and market your Facebook presence better.  You can find all the Tuesday Tips by clicking on the Tuesday Tips tag below.