This Week’s Social Media Top Stories
Facebook Confirms Targeted Page Posts
David Cohen via AllFacebook writes about another new feature that Facebook is rolling out. This feature is for page admins to use while scheduling posts. Now admins will the capability to target a specific group of followers by several criteria. The posts can now be targeted by: Age, Gender, Interests, Relationship status, Language, Education, Workplace, and Location (country, state, city).
What does this mean for marketing? Now admins will be able to post information that may relate to only to certain followers, and have that post show up only on those followers who meet those criteria. While this is a great way to personalize posts to show up in different followers news feeds, all of the posts will still be visible on your timeline. This is something to consider if you have special offers only for specific groups. You may not want to make it seem like you are hiding offers from your other followers, if it never showed up in their news feed.
Overall this will be a very useful addition to the already feature rich experience of Facebook. Not only will companies be able to interact more with individuals, through posts that are more relevant to them, but it will prevent a flood or clutter of posts in everyone’s newsfeed.
Why Hootsuite’s New AutoSchedule is a Game Changer
Guest author for Social Media Today, Chris Dessi writes about how the addition of auto schedule in Hootsuite will be a game changer in his opinion. While Hootsuite already has scheduling of posts, they have taken that and gave it steroids. Not only will the auto schedule save you time posting information, but it will optimize the times the posts go out.
One of the reasons why this is a great addition, which Chris mentions in his article, is the fact that it is very simple to use. Simply type in a message like you normally do but instead of choosing a time and date to schedule message, click auto schedule on and let Hootsuite do the rest for you. This feature is also available if you have the Hootsuite Hootlet for chrome.
It should be interesting to see if Hootsuite adds any other functions to this, like the ability to see what times are optimal and determine how many posts you want to go out a day. This would eliminate the need to use other tools like SocialBro and Buffer. With Hootsuite improving their platform it will help social media managers save time and optimize time in a better way.
Pinterest Drops Invites, Now Open to Everyone
Anita Li, who is a reporter for Mashable mentions that Pinterest has finally dropped the invite only registration and has opened up the network for all. Previously you had to request an invite with your email and wait to receive and invite to set up your account. Now everyone is free to join using email, Facebook or Twitter.
What does this mean for business? Well its fairly simple, with easier registration comes more users to the network. It also means businesses themselves are able to get on a lot faster. With Pinterest growing to one of the largest social networks in the market, it is no longer something that should be put on the back burner of things to do. Social media managers need to recognize the growth of Pinterest and start creating brand pages.
Pinterest is a great simple tool to use, allowing people and brands to share photos and information in a unique way. If companies have eye catching photos to post to relevant boards, they will have a better chance of engaging with potential followers. What’s great about Pinterest is each photo can be linked to any page on your website, bringing fans to the page of your choice. Not only does this create backlinks to your website but it also brings fans to your site to get more information on that particular picture or product you posted.
How to Increase Your Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers
In this blog post on Kissmetrics, author Zach Bulygo goes into an extensive list of ways to grab more followers. While there are many ways listed in this article, I will mention some of the ones I think are easiest and best to start on.
- Updating your Twitter Bio: Having a bio that states what you do, and including keywords for your field will help you get found a lot easier when people search on Twitter. The easier you are to find will most likely mean you will be followed.
- Running contests: As long as your follow the rules of Facebook and Twitter, running certain contests of promotion will help engage with potential followers and as well as spreading the word through current followers.
- Adding Social widgets to your site: This is a great way to have people like or follow you. When they are already on your site and see a like or follow me widget, the odds of them doing those are increased exponentially. They won’t even have to leave the current page they are on.
- Photo Tagging on Facebook: This is a great way to expand your reach on Facebook. If you hold and event, ask your followers there to check your page later and tag themselves in any pictures you have taken. This will maximize your exposure since their friends will end up seeing the tag in their own newsfeed.
These are just 4 of endless ways to increase Facebook and Twitter followers. Read through the Article that Zach wrote to see which ones may work best for you and your company. With all the possibilities out there, there should be no reason not to try a few. While there are lots of ways to try and increase your following, it isn’t a guaranteed overnight success. This needs to be a constant routine. Be patient, stay focused and in the end people will find you (as long as you have good information of course).
What strategies have worked for you in the past? Share your thoughts.