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Facebook Algorithm Change: Stop with the text updates!

As a Facebook marketer, to be successful, you need an edge over your competitors on Facebook. This way more of your content gets seen in the news feed by fans.

One way to do this was to post Facebook text updates on both Facebook profiles and pages. This was because they were seen more in the news feed.

Facebook even agreed and had this to say about how important text status updates were:

Through testing, we have found that when people see more text status updates on Facebook they write more status updates themselves. In fact, in our initial test when we showed more status updates from friends it led to on average 9 million more status updates written each day. Because of this, we showed people more text status updates in their News Feed.

But when you really stop to think about it, you were not reaching people in the news feed because you were sharing really great content. Instead, you were leveraging a flaw in the news feed algorithm.

And while this seemed like the perfect win-win situation for both Facebook Profiles and Facebook Pages because it allowed your content to reach more people, Facebook took notice and implemented Facebook text update changes for Facebook Pages.

Now before you get mad and cry foul over how Facebook keeps making it difficult for your business to succeed because of all of these changes, consider this.

The constant changes on Facebook are not the issue.

The main issue is the type of content that you share on your page. I’m not saying that all of the content you share is bad, it is just how you are sharing it.

Changes to Facebook text updates

Continue reading Facebook Algorithm Change: Stop with the text updates!

3 Things to avoid doing if you want to increase Facebook engagement – Infographic

Do you struggle with getting your fans to engage with the content you share on Facebook?

While Facebook has over 1.5 billion users worldwide that spend 700 billion minutes on the site per month , you would expect that your engagement would be much higher than it normally is.

Why it is difficult to increase Facebook engagement

If you are not seeing the levels of engagement on Facebook that you would like, there are a number of reasons why this could be happening.

Sharing low quality content

Your news feed is not a dumping ground. As a way to clean-up the Facebook news feed, Facebook reported they wanted to show more high quality content to users.

To do this, Facebook would penalize low quality content that was being shared.

What is considered low quality content?

Internet memes and status updates that are off topic are considered low quality content.

While these items tend to see higher engagement on Facebook because they are very “shareable.” Facebook doesn’t think so and therefore does not show it to users.

The takeaway here is that you will need to find another source of content to share. If you are a business and have a Facebook Page, I would recommend skipping all of the fluff and instead, share content about your brand and tell your story and what makes your business so great.

Posting when your fans are not online

If you are blindly posting on Facebook, you definitely need to consider a new Facebook strategy.

Think about it. If I am sharing content when the least number of users are not on Facebook, I am only reaching a fraction of my audience.

To increase your engagement, you need to ensure you are posting when people are on Facebook. This way they see your content and can interact with it.

There are plenty of tools you can use to help you figure out what the right posting times are.

For example, if you have a Facebook Page, one way to increase Facebook engagement is to use Facebook Insights and to look at when your fans are online.

Facebook Insights - When are your fans online — Use Facebook Insights to learn when your fans are online so you know the best times to engage with them.

Alternatively, you can also use the excellent Facebook tool, Agorapulse to measure how effective your Facebook content is and to tweak when you are sharing it.

Sharing the wrong type of content

While content is kind, it is important to know what type of content works best for your situation.

Instead of copying someone else’s Facebook strategy, you need to figure out what works best for you.

For example, some Facebook users see increased engagement from photo-sharing. For others who don’t have an audience interested in this type of content, text only status updates work well for them.

The takeaway here is to try different types of content to learn what Facebook users are interested in. Once you identify Facebook trends, keep using them until they no longer deliver the results.

Now that you are aware of some of the ways you can hurt your Facebook engagement, here are some tips to help you increase Facebook engagement.

What types of content can increase Facebook engagement?

Continue reading 3 Things to avoid doing if you want to increase Facebook engagement – Infographic

Maximizing reach with Instagram hashtags

How many of you include hashtags with your Instagram photos?

If you have been avoiding using hashtags on Instagram, it is time to re-consider.

Why you need to be using hashtags on Instagram

For those of you who need a refresher on how hashtags work, if you do not include them, photos you share are limited to the size of your network.

This means that while you may have a great photo, if you have a small following, not many people are going to see your photos.

When you include hashtags on Instagram, you increase your chances that someone else following the same hashtag will see your photo and engage with it.

Hashtags are to Instagram what blood is to the body.

Click To Tweet

Do hashtags really work?

While using hashtags on other social networks like Facebook do little to help with exposure.

Instagram users see higher engagement and get more interactions when using hashtags.

For example:

Instagram accounts with less than 1,000 followers and 11 hashtags receive 78 interactions.

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Source: Buffer

Instagram user stats:

While Instagram triggers higher engagement and more interactions, they also have a very active social network.

This means if you are looking to get more exposure and to grow your brands presence, this is a good way to go.

So how do you know which hashtags to use to increase your interactions on Instagram?

While some users will use random hashtags for giveaways and specific social media campaigns, it is best to try to stick with the more popular hashtags.

These include: #food, #beauty, #makeup, and so on.

This is so that you can insert your photos into the larger conversation and increase visibility with other Instagram users.

To help you get started, here is a list of some popular Instagram hashtags.

I have also included tools you can use to help identify the right hashtags to use.

Identifying relevant Instagram hashtags Continue reading Maximizing reach with Instagram hashtags

Getting more organized with Facebook photo albums

Are your Facebook photo albums a mess? Do you wish you could rearrange Facebook albums?

For those of you who plan to get more organized in 2014, a good place to start is with the Facebook photo albums. Not only is it relatively easy to create an album, but this action of getting organized can spillover into your personal life as well.

Here is a handy shortcut to help get your Facebook photo albums more organized on Facebook Profiles and Facebook Pages.

Rearranging Facebook photo albums can be time-consuming. Source: Joyoflife.

To rearrange Facebook albums, follow these steps.

How to rearrange Facebook albums

Continue reading Getting more organized with Facebook photo albums

Social Media mistakes of 2013

2013 was a banner year for social media. For example, Instagram won Time’s Photographer of the Year, which indicates a big shift in the role that social media plays in our daily lives. For every social media win though, there were also a number of social media mistakes that were made in 2013.

Just last week, you probably heard about the tweet heard round the world where a PR executive sent out an offensive tweet, which eventually cost her her job.

And while you can always go and delete a tweet or Facebook status update or even your account, someone can always take a screenshot of a social media mistake that can cause it to live on forever.

So the key takeaway to help you avoid making social media mistakes is to be mindful about what you send out. If you’re not sure if something could be considered offensive or even taken out of content, ask people you trust. If there is any hesitation, don’t share it because it is not worth the time or energy you’ll have to expend to try to fix a social media mistake.

Remember, most mistakes can have a negative effect on a business, but that isn’t always the case.

In honor of 2013, here are 10 social media mistakes – some good and some bad!

10 Social media mistakes made in 2013

Continue reading Social Media mistakes of 2013

The one Facebook privacy setting you need to check

Are you concerned that you might not have the right privacy settings marked when posting a status update on Facebook? Learn how to quickly check your Facebook privacy settings using the Facebook view as tool.

While it is very easy to use the Facebook view as tool, for one reason or another, we forget to use it.

By not using it, this can put us into an embarrassing situation if someone we didn’t intend to share our updates with see’s them. For example, if you didn’t intend to share that holiday party photo with your co-workers.

To use the view as tool to see what someone can and cannot view on your Facebook profile, follow these instructions.

How to use the Facebook view as tool

Continue reading The one Facebook privacy setting you need to check

Share Instagram photos and videos with Instagram Direct in 4 Simple Steps

After a failed attempt by Facebook to acquire Snapchat for $3 billion, they hit back in a big way when they announced Instagram Direct.

What is Instagram Direct?

Instagram Direct is a way for users to share photos and videos privately with up to 15 other Instagram users.

Here is what makes Instagram Direct so powerful and why it should be part of your Instagram strategy.

For example, one of the biggest issues that Instagram used to have was that every update, like, or comment was public.

Now, that isn’t the case because you can share Instagram photos or videos with everyone in your Instagram feed or use Instagram Direct to share them privately with a select group of followers.

Besides this new feature, Instagram also put Snapchat and Twitter on notice that they are a major force in social media.

Instagram Direct vs. Snapchat and Twitter

Previously, if you wanted to share a photo or video with someone privately, you had to look to Snapchat and Twitter because they offered the ability to send private messages while Instagram did not.

With 150 million Instagram users, by introducing private photo and video sharing, Instagram can keep its growing userbase within their platform.

Couple that with the fact that Facebook owns Instagram and you can start to understand why this feature is a giant step forward for Instagram.

So how easy is it to use Instagram Direct?

Follow the step-by-step guide and instructional video below on how to use Instagram Direct.

How to use Instagram Direct

Continue reading Share Instagram photos and videos with Instagram Direct in 4 Simple Steps

Changing your affiliation with the Facebook Pages follow button

Facebook has been making a lot of updates to Facebook Pages over the past few months. Not only did they roll out the Facebook reviews button, which let’s fans leave a review about a business, but now they have now rolled out the Facebook Pages follow button.

While the follow button was a feature they were testing for Facebook Pages in October, it’s finally here.

What this means is that instead of liking every Facebook Page, fans and customers have a choice. They can like a page or choose to follow Facebook Pages.

I consider this to be a major announcement because it changes the level to which fans and customers can engage with a Facebook Page.

Changing interactions with Facebook Pages

Previously, the Facebook follow button was a feature only reserved for Facebook Profiles.

This gave people the opportunity to friend people they knew personally and to follow people they didn’t.

For example, most people would send a friend request to a family member and follow a celebrity or public figure. This way they would be able to see updates from both people in their news feed without being friends with everyone.

Now, instead of liking a Facebook Page by becoming a fan and liking their page, you can choose to follow a page instead.

Following vs. Liking a Facebook Page

As I mentioned, this is pretty significant. Here’s why.

Previously, in order to interact with a Facebook Page, you could add them to an interest list or if you wanted to see their updates in your news feed, you had to like their page.

This is great if it’s someone you know and you support their business. But what if you want to see their updates in your news feed, but you don’t really want to endorse them (because that’s what liking a page essentially does). There really was no other option.

With the follow button for Facebook Pages, now you can selectively choose which pages you like and which ones you follow.

In both situations, this solves the problem of seeing their updates in the news feed and it let’s fans and customers be more selective about which pages they endorse to their friends.

How to use the Facebook Pages follow button

Continue reading Changing your affiliation with the Facebook Pages follow button

Building a Twitter Facebook landing page tab using Shortstack

Last week we showed you how to add a Google Calendar to your Facebook Page. Now we’re going to show you how you can use Shortstack to add a Twitter feed to your Facebook Page.

Here is an example of a Facebook landing page tab we built using Shortstack to display our tweets.

Example of a Twitter feed embedded on a Facebook Page

Example of a Twitter feed on a Facebook Page — Example of a Twitter feed added to a Facebook landing page tab using Shortstack.

Let’s get started teaching you how to display your Twitter stream on your Facebook Page.

Display Twitter on your Facebook Page using Shortstack

Continue reading Building a Twitter Facebook landing page tab using Shortstack

7 Ways to drive Instagram engagement

It’s one thing to push a lot of content out through your social media channels like Instagram. Anyone can do that.

It’s another thing to drive Instagram engagement.

So what is the secret to getting higher engagement on Instagram?

According to Curalate, a research firm, they analyzed some 8,000,000 Instagram photos and looked at 30 image features such as background ratio, dominant color, lightness, and saturation and here is what they found.

When posting images on Instagram, be sure to share images that are predominantly blue, spaciously cropped, bright, and slightly desaturated.

Facts on achieving higher engagement on Instagram:

Here are seven examples of photos you want to share to drive Instagram engagement.

7 Ways to drive Instagram engagement

Continue reading 7 Ways to drive Instagram engagement