Sometimes the best information for your business isn’t always the most obvious. Case in point Facebook Insights.

Yes, Facebook has done a pretty good job of “handing” us the basic info: number of page views, unique views, likes, unlikes, etc. However, there is much more valuable information between these charts.

Here are my top 3 picks:

1.       How successful is your Landing Page? If you have a special welcome tab, as you should, then you can calculate the retention rate by looking at the tab views. Assuming all the views are unique and they are all from people who have not “liked” the page, you can do a ratio Total Likes for X period: Total Tab Views to get a “like” conversation rate. While there are lots of assumptions going on here, you can get a GENERAL sense of how successful and how much viewership your welcome tab gets. The higher the number, the higher your “new likes” should be. If not, then you have a problem that needs to be fixed ASAP.

2.       Loyal Followers. Like a blog, Facebook pages have their own set of loyal readers. To figure this number, you can look at the daily unique page views as compared to the daily page views. A high unique page view and low daily page view means you have lots of “one time” lookers on your page. These are people who go in for a quick scan and leave. If you have a high number of page views relative to your unique page views, this shows a loyal audience that visits on a daily basis. Again there are several assumptions in play here, but these generalities can help give your page reference in relation to the numbers.

3.       Posting Times. This one is probably the most obvious but also the most overlooked. Facebook Insights lists the number of impressions and feedback each post got, as well as the time you posted. This actually gives you two more pieces of info: 1.) The number of impressions relative to the time can show you when you should be doing your posts. Remember to try several different time ranges on different dates, as a Friday 8 p.m. post could garner far more attention than a Monday 8 p.m. post. 2.) The amount of feedback relative to the number of impressions can help you identify key words and topics that get the more interaction.

Facebook Insights is great, but reading between the lines yields even more information. Remember that while you have to take several assumptions in mind, these 3 hidden pieces of info can help you to place your page in the appropriate context and ultimately create a better environment for your consumers.

Facebook has really been making a big push with their pages and events recently, possibly to make the service even more attractive to businesses. The latest feature is the ability for users to tag Pages in their own photos. We’ll briefly show you how to do this and then explain the attraction from a business standpoint.

Users Tag photos just as they can with their friends. One great thing about this new feature for users is that they don’t have to “Like” a page in order to tag it (as you would with a status update). Being able to tag a business will definitely encourage people to Like businesses in their photos, though. Here are a few example shots I grabbed:

Tagging Doctor Who actor David Tennant.

Tagging a “public figure,” The Royal Shakespeare Company.

Tagging the Ferrari brand.

Privacy settings on the photos remain intact for the users. As a protection for businesses, tagged photos will not show up on their wall, but on their photos tab, like this (picture I tagged is pointed to):

As you can see, though, things that aren’t quite related can slip through, too (unless Ferrari is now making slippers that I’m unaware of). Pages also have the ability to disable tagged photos from showing on their tab.

Tagging a Page is currently limited to just pages in the Public Figure or Brand categories, but hopefully, Facebook will see fit to expand that soon. One indication I immediately thought of as I was searching for pictures to tag was landmarks in vacation pictures. Alas, I wasn’t able to tag The Statue of Liberty or the Leaning Tower of Pisa quite yet. For local businesses, this could be extremely advantageous. Imagine your customers tagging themselves at your Grand Opening, enjoying a delicious lunch from your restaurant or while posting a picture of the new entertainment center or haircut they got from you. With a large number of Facebook users looking at and uploading pictures daily, this is yet another way to get your business name and information out in front of your potential customers.

Screenshots and photos copyright Crystal Coleman.

Let’s face it. The world is so cluttered with “news” that getting any kind of media attention is nearly impossible. Whether your company is releasing a new product or doing something positive for the community, getting your press release, media alert or promo video out there can be challenging at best.

Well, as I’ve said over and over again… social media is here to help.

Talk to any reporter, journalist, publisher or blogger and they’ll agree. Sites like Twitter and Facebook have allowed news services to be tapped into the pulse of the communities they serve on a level like never before. Your goal should be to become part of this community and the news will follow.

Here are a few easy pointers to get started.

1. Ditch the plane old press release. Unless you’re sending a media alert or release DIRECTLY to media, posting a short, reader friendly informational piece about the product or event can help to garner that attention you need. Use lots of pictures, images and links.
2. Follow target media. Following trade pubs and local news outlets on twitter and Facebook can help you to understand what kind of information they are looking for. If a station is doing a specialty piece, they will often do an open call post. This is your foot in that can lead to a great relationship with news services.
3.  Make yourself accessible. TV stations are notorious for their last minute attitude. Not responding timely to an email, post or tweet can be the difference between vital media coverage for your business. Even trade publications looking for a whole to fill can be under a time crunch. That means you need to be on call, all the time. Let’s face it folks, it’s part of being in business.

Media is changing. Social media has become a main avenue for getting your business attention. With a few pointers, you too navigate the in’s and out’s to media greatness.

Best University, Favorite Ice Cream Flavor… these are some of the polls that have been circulating Facebook in the last few weeks, getting THOUSANDS of votes and comments.

Facebook polls launched somewhat quietly but has since exploded on to the scene.

So what makes it so great? Why should my business care about Facebook polls?

Here’s why:

1.       Exposure. When someone votes on your poll, it shows up on THEIR wall. This means you are getting impressions from not just your immediate followers but their friend network as well. With Facebook polls, your page will see a sizeable jump in “likes” in a matter of hours.

2.       Insight. As any marketing professional knows, polls are a great way to get data about a particular product or genre. For example, you want to offer a coffee flavor not on the menu, but not sure what, try doing an open Facebook poll that allows people to add flavors. Others can then vote on the flavors or add their own, giving you valuable data on your next flavor.

3.       Buzz. Getting people talking about your company is the goal and Facebook Polls is the medium. Voting on something means the person has to take at least 2 seconds to actively think about your product or business. This could lead to further investigation in to what you offer, prices, etc. and ultimately get people talking to their friends about it.

You should LOVE Facebook polls. It will get your company exposure, provide insight and create buzz for absolutely NO cost. So what are you waiting for? Start your poll now!

According to data released by Facebook, their 500 million users share over 30 billion pieces of content each month. This content includes web links, news stories and blog posts. Is your content coming across the best way it can when your customers share it? Make sure to check your website for the following three things to make sure that you’re putting your best face forward.

Meta Data – For traditional websites, when you share a link on Facebook, it will pull photos from the page and a description of the link from your Meta Description. To make your links pop, make sure to have a striking image that will grab people’s attention in a small thumbnail and a complete description (around 200 characters) and page title in your meta data.

Blogs – Make sure to utilize the description or excerpt boxes to give a brief summary of each article. This will help Facebook know where to pull information from. If you don’t take the time to do an excerpt, sometimes Facebook will pull a comment, something that might not reflect the best on your blog.

Like – Make sure that the Facebook “Like” button is installed on your website or blog posts. WordPress offers built in integration. For other sites, you can utilize Facebook’s “Like” Button Tool.

Check these settings on your site today and you’ll see a definite improvement on your content’s shareability tomorrow!

(Image: The Facebook Like Stamp, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from denisdervisevic’s photostream)

I’d like to piggyback on Matt’s post, 5 Reasons the New Facebook Page Set-Up Will Help Your Business, from yesterday discussing the new Facebook Page changes…incidentally, I LOVE them and actually find the changes to be very useful!

Some of the comments I have heard are that there have been too many changes, people don’t like the new photo viewer set up and there are even pages and groups created who’s intent is to bring the “Old Facebook” back. Here’s what I have to say about the changes…CHANGE IS GOOD…sometimes. Certainly, Mark Zuckerberg and his crew of merry Facebook developers have done plenty of research AND certainly, they have weighed all the options. Here’s the skinny. We’re not all going to like every change made BUT I’d ask you to look at them as new opportunities to make your page or profile work better, look better and most of all accomplish easier the goals you have in mind.

Check out some of the new things you can do with your profile page. You can create really neat looks for your photos on your main profile page by using FB Photo Magic, Pic Scatter or Facebook Tiles.  You can set up your pages to make a lot more sense now and you can filter information much easier than you used to. C’mon, give it a shot. Say it with me, gang. “Change is good!” Leave out the sometimes part on this one…play around with the “New Facebook” and see what cool things you can do AND then share them here, naturally!

Grand openings for any business can be stressful, nerve-wrenching times to say the least. Direct mail, e-blasts, press releases, soft openings… the list of things to do never seems to end.

But wait… there’s light at the end of that copy-ridden tunnel.

Social media!

Social media channels can not only provide the perfect place to introduce a community to your new business, but offer a way to get to know your future customers and hopefully use the data to better your business. Check out 5 easy ways for a successful grand opening with social media.

1. Create a Base. By now you should at least have an idea of what qualities describe your target audience. Age, gender, ethnicity, income level, hobbies, etc. Choosing what social media platform you use should mirror these qualities. For example, if you are targeting the middle-aged professional crowd with children, sites like Twitter might not be right for you while Facebook fits perfectly! Once you’ve selected the platform, be sure to include all the details anyone would want like what exactly you do, why you are doing it, what you can offer them, when you open, exact location, hours, etc.
2. Build the buzz. Next, you want to really find those target fans and get them excited about your opening. Running social media ads, following industry-related “prominent” users; Really educating customers about what you do and why you do it can help to build that buzz before your big opening.
3. Reward fans. Once an active base begins to form, show them just how much you care! Invite fans to a soft opening or give them repeat discounts that will get them to come back at least one more time. This is a great time to launch a loyalty program.
4. Get Feedback. Once you’ve opened the gates, let your online groupies (or haters) tell you what they like and don’t like. Let your customers dictate what you do and how you do it, not an overzealous business partner or outspoken marketing hire.
5.  Keep the Excitement. Businesses live and die on buzz. To really keep it going, continually offer new promotions that reward and educate. Give your fans a reason to want to read your page, visit your website or enter your store. Customized tabs, hashtags viral videos, photo galleries, blog reviews… all great ways to keep the buzz going.

So before you spend hours upon hours writing boring press releases, try social media. While traditional promotional methods are still key to a successful grand opening, the right social platforms can create buzz, offer feedback and sustain excitement about your business. So what are you waiting for?

Realtor and home improvement centric website Fixr recently released this infographic detailing the power that Social Media holds over return on investment in the Real Estate Market:

Click the image to enlarge

Via: Fixr

Here’s how Realtors can leverage the power of social media for their business.

Get yourself out there – Make sure that you are on Facebook and updating regularly with your newest properties. Make sure you’re connecting your inventory with Google friendly sites such as Trulia and Zillow so that your homes will show up when prospective buyers Google certain neighboorhoods.

Understand the medium – Find out how people use Twitter to search for homes (much in the same way Twitter can be used to search for jobs). Make sure that you’re using the same terms that searchers are. If there’s a preferred hashtag for your city (#phx for Phoenix, for example), make sure to use it.

Utilize the technology – With a $100 Flip video camera and some basic movie editing software, you can use YouTube as a showcase for home tours and customer testimonials. A very low entry cost to open up a whole world of buyers.

And of course, make sure to read over all the other advice we have for Small Businesses getting into Social Media; much of it is applicable no matter what industry you’re in.

… That’s the Social Buying question. With the recent launch of Facebook Deals and Groupon’s recent reported revenue of $800 million, Social Buying is becoming a a topic of interest for many businesses. Before you think about jumping in this pool, though, there are a few things you should know.

What services are available?

A new Groupon clone or deal site seems to pop up every day, but services tend to fall in one of two categories: Time limited, possibly group oriented deep discount or location based savings. In the time limited model, a deal is posted on a site, usually daily, and is usually available for purchase for one day only. The site Woot! was the pioneer in this format, offering daily deals of tech items. Sites such as Delight and ShirtADay have sprung up to serve other niches. Groupon entered the market in 2008, adding two features: deals specific to a handful of cities (usually working with small businesses) and introducing the group aspect. In order to have a Groupon deal go live, a minimum number of users must say that they want to purchase it. LivingSocial has also adopted this Group Buying idea.
Location based savings are usually offered through a location based app on a smart phone. Deals are advertised in the platform and when you check into a business through Facebook Places, Foursquare or Scvgnr, you unlock a deal. The deals are usually along the lines of 10% off a purchase, a free appetizer or sample size product or other added value service.

Should I use one of these Social Buying services?

As with any question about general marketing techniques, the general answer is “Maybe.” You definitely want to make sure to read all the fine print (like noting that Groupon takes a 50% cut; decreasing most company’s revenue from the deal to 25% or less of their normal revenue) and decide whether it’s feasible economically and geographically. If you live in Wazoo, Michigan and not many of your target customers use these services, you may want to steer clear. If you’re on the outskirts of a large city and looking to increase exposure of your product, they may be just what you’re looking for. The basic concept behind most services is one that is not new to any business owner: the loss-leader, drawing customers in with hopes of future, bigger sales.

Well, what should I use?

If you have a pretty regular customer base, but a few more customers couldn’t hurt or if a similar business has recently opened and you want a share of their buzz, a location-based deal if probably for you. As a bonus, when users check in at nearby businesses, they’ll see that there is a deal nearby… just the thing to snag those restaurant diners who surely want to stop at your cupcakery for dessert.
If you’re a more experience-based service or a new or fairly underserved business looking to get lots of people in the door, group buying is what you want to look at. These will get you a set number or higher of customers checking you out: after that, it’s up to you to wow them and convert them into regulars.

What’s the catch?

With group buying, especially, you want to make sure that you’re not creating more demand than you can handle. In an example posed by Christina Harris,

…if a massage therapist agreed to a one hour massage that is normally $50 for $25 and she said that ten have to sign up for the deal to be valid, she would have to give 10 massages for $25 each, but she would only receive $12.50/massage because Groupon gets their share for promoting it. That’s 10 hours of massages for $125.  But, typically if a Groupon deal is made, there are far more than the initial 10 who would sign up that the massage therapist could be stuck doing a whole year’s worth of massages for just $12.50.  That would like put her out of business.

Making sure not to skip the step where you put a limit on the number of people that can buy the deal is key, especially when you’re selling something service oriented. Also, make sure to take advantage of the fact that the customers using group buying sites are accustomed to having restrictions on their coupons that might not otherwise be in effect. Trying to pack the seats for the first week of a performance? Make sure that the coupon stipulates what showings it’s good for. Running a restaurant deal? Have the value be below the average spend for two people (more than likely, they’ll spend more).

The bottom line

Social Buying services can be a great way of both gaining exposure with new potential customers and endearing loyalty in existing ones. Before going with a service, make sure that you know your options, know the fine print, and have determined whether the deal will hurt you financially. And above all, Social Buying can only get customers in the door; it’s up to the business to keep them through great customer service, excellent social media communication and building a sense of community.

(Image: Gift of Yoga Foursquare Special , a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from lululemonathletica’s photostream)

Facebook thinks so…

Facebook currently has 500 million users…online retailers are falling all over themselves to leverage this relationship and who can blame them?

Need more proof? In August internet users spent 41.1 billion minutes on Facebook as opposed to 39.8 billion minutes spent on Google (figures provided by comSCORE Inc.)  E-commerce was worth $133 billion last year. Online retailers see that and want to rush to get a piece of the pie….specifically the Facebook pie. Amazon, already an online retail monster on its own, sees the benefit of Facebook and allows its clients to sign in through their Facebook accounts. While eBay doesn’t have such a relationship with Facebook, FB does use PayPal payment services and that directly benefits eBay. 1 -800- Flowers opened up a Facebook store last year and a third party provider confirms that it has helped 30,000  other companies set up sales portals on Facebook. Delta Air Lines allows customers to make reservations via Facebook. The company that helped them set it up has now been swamped with requests from other airlines…

Let’s recap, shall we? Facebook…Amazon, eBay, 1- 800- Flowers, Delta Airlines, 30,000 others…

Still need to be convinced?