You’ve probably noticed by now, or been notified, that Facebook Pages for business have changed. As of March 10, all pages will be in the new format. Gone are the tabs and the fan images down the left. Instead, photos march across the top and navigation has moved left. But beyond the cosmetic, what has changed and what does this mean for your business?
Categories and Subcategories
Once upon a time you could set a category and never change it. Now you can, and you can add a subcategory as well. These settings dictate what information you can fill out on your info page – for example, local businesses include addresses, brands generally do not. If you were stuck with the wrong category, change it now. And everyone should add a subcategory.
Use Facebook As Page
This is probably the most radical change to Pages. It used to be that if you were an admin on a page, you could only post to that page as the page, never as yourself. Now you can do both. Toggle the choice under Account – Use Facebook As Page, or while you’re on the Page, select to Use Facebook as [Brand] on the right side under the Admins section. While this allows for a great deal more interaction on the page from admins, do be careful that your admins are not the only people talking on your page – and, be careful to avoid the appearance of “astroturfing” – propping up your business by using hired guns (i.e., your administrators) to say nice things about you.
Relevant Posts
Facebook used to allow three choices for viewing the wall: [Brand] + Others, Just [Brand], or Just Others. Those choices have been simplified to Everyone or [Brand]. But beyond that, the Wall is no longer chronological. That’s right, just like your personal News Feed (which uses Facebook’s EdgeRank to determine which posts are most relevant to you), Fan Pages are now subject to a Facebook algorithm to determine which posts to show at the top. In fact, at this moment I’m looking at a client page that’s showing, from top down, a post from today, then a post from last week, then a post from yesterday, then another from today. Feels kinda weird to me, but it’s what we’ve got now. So know that your most popular posts will rise to the top and new visitors (because that’s who mainly looks directly at your wall) will see those first. It’s probably mostly a good thing, but it could also trip you up if content you think is timely or important is not Liked or Commented on, because it may get buried by more popular content.
Public Admins
An interesting new feature that I have not seen widely adopted yet is the ability to add your admins to the left side of the page as “Featured Page Owners.” This could be really good for brands with strong personalities involved, such as brand spokespeople or beloved community managers. It could also help avoid the astroturfing issue described above, because if it’s totally transparent who your admins are, then the fact that they’re posting on your page a lot shouldn’t be a mystery. Use this feature with caution, though – not all of your admins should necessarily be your front-facing social media presences, lest they get asked questions or connected to personally. There may also be some employees who don’t really want to be the public face of the brand.
Featured Likes
You’ve always had the ability to “Like” another fan page, and now you can feature five of them prominently (even in rotation with others) on the left side of your page. This option, and Public Admins, are both enabled from the main admin menu under “Featured.” This can be a great way to showcase partnerships, stroke a potential client/customer, or otherwise show off an affiliation with another brand. Remember, too, that brands can only tag other pages in their posts, and you have to Like the other page in order to do so – so even if you Like a lot of pages, you can still make some of them special with the Featured Likes rotation.
What are you doing with your redesigned Page? Have you included cool images? How are you managing the balance between page and admins? We’d love to hear from you in the comments?
As an industry that’s built entirely upon the exchange of opinions, the fashion world may seem like a field where social media would naturally take flight. After all, aren’t terms like “word of mouth” and “viral buzz” the same keywords that signify success on both the catwalk and on Twitter?
But there’s a catch: the fashion world is actually built on a scarcity of opinions. It relies on the reputations and influence of a select few tastemakers to tell the rest of the rabid audience what they’re supposed to like (and not like), and when.
So how did an industry that benefits from the existence of gatekeepers learn to embrace a new technology that essentially renders gatekeepers obsolete?
By turning their own world upside-down and offering everyone access.
In 2010, the vaunted New York Fashion Week — an event once so exclusive that access to it has been proffered as the grand prize on every season of Project Runway — went social in a big, big way. Brands like American Express, Womens Wear Daily and Aveda helped sponsor a Twitterizing of Fashion Week, which spurred a wave of tech industry buzz.
Today, the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week fan page on Facebook currently boasts more than 85,000 fans. And while this year’s migration of fashion brands to Tumblr has had its share of ups and downs, the future implications of fashion’s affair with social media are clear: this once-insular industry is now actively seeking new ways to build buzz, generate awareness and connect with the general public.
As for fashion’s gatekeepers, they’re certainly not obsolete. In fact, their expertise is actually even more valuable now, as a filter to help the public make sense of the flood of available fashion information that was once so highly restricted.
Who knew the industry that generates so much of the world’s art, imagery and gossip could get even bigger simply by opening their doors, pulling back their curtains and pressing the “share” button?
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the very first Ken doll, Mattel — the creators of Barbie, Ken and their vast plastic empire — launched a social media campaign to help Ken woo Barbie back. If you didn’t know, the iconic couple broke up a few years back — presumably to see other plastic people — but Mattel decided today was the right time to reunite the star-crossed lovers.
Normally, this would be a good thing… if the campaign was producing content worth discussing, or if it were actually taking the public’s opinion seriously.
But, since a happy ending was most likely in the works all along, any pretense of “letting the public vote” on the ultimate outcome strikes us as a sham for at least three reasons:
Do you seriously think Mattel would spend millions of dollars just to announce that Barbie and Ken weren’t reuniting on Valentine’s Day — especially after they broke up on Valentine’s Day in 2004?
The web is alive with trolls, and the likelihood that those digital misanthropes would hijack the voting process to ensure that Barbie and Ken would remain apart is quite high.
Millions of people already saw Barbie and Ken come together on the big screen in Toy Story 3. Creating an alternate, highly-commercialized “reunion” seems far less real — and less satisfying — than their Pixar rendezvous.
But maybe the largest problem of all with a social media campaign like this is…
Who cares?
Children and optimists will always vote for love. Cold-hearted cynics will always vote against it. And since cold-hearted cynics aren’t Barbie’s target audience, this entire campaign can be seen partly as “preaching to the choir” and partly as a public service reminder: “Hey, we’re still here.”
Ultimately, the entire campaign was really just a stunt meant to direct attention toward Ken’s 50th anniversary, in which the nearly 2 million Barbie fans on Facebook were used as leverage to catapult Ken into the mainstream news. However, with Compete.com only registering 12,000 unique visitors to the barbieandken.com website in January, its traffic would need a sharp jump in February to match likely expectations.
When it comes to social media, a small-yet-active audience is often more valuable to a business than a large-yet-passive audience.
Why?
Because the incoming feedback, suggestions, color commentary and positive word of mouth that an active audience provides to a brand are useful indicators that they are passionate about (and loyal to) that brand. And since you know they’re active, you can be sure that they’re out there… somewhere.
The trick is finding them. (They’re active, so they move fast.)
One such example is the recent (and repeated) success of our client Bigelow Tea‘s Facebook sweepstakes.
These are giveaways that are awarded among fans of Bigelow Tea on Facebook and are promoted across Facebook, Twitter and email during the active duration of each particular sweepstakes offer — sometimes a week, sometimes a month, depending on the prize.
These sweepstakes have boosted Bigelow Tea’s Facebook page past the 10,000 fan mark, which is obviously great from a sheer numbers standpoint. But it gets better.
It turns out that these newly-engaged fans have also stayed active on Bigelow Tea’s Facebook wall even after the sweepstakes have ended. This has led to a more robust and interconnected community of tea drinkers than Bigelow had before their sweepstakes began, and it’s simultaneously providing the company with rich, colorful and valid feedback, which doubles as market research, inspiration for Bigelow Tea blog posts, and more.
All that for the price of a free gift of tea — and the opportunity to connect with a company that responds, listens, and provides a community where their fans can do the same.
During the initial wave of social media adoption by businesses and brands, conversation was key. Brands were lauded not for using these tools to sell, but for using them to chat. To listen. To appear human.
But that mentality may be shifting.
Remember Seinfeld? It was one of the most popular TV shows of the ’90s, but it was also (in theory) “a show about nothing.” Each episode consisted of a tightly-wound series of in-jokes derived from absurdly pedestrian circumstances, which gave viewers a chance to relate. In short, it was the kind of show designed to be relived around the water cooler for not just the next morning but the next few months… or longer. (Personally, I have friends who still celebrate Festivus.)
Why did Seinfeld succeed? In part, it was because — at the time — no one else was talking about nothing. When everyone else has a plot, you can break the mold by only having subplots.
Social media works the same way. When everyone else is selling, it’s easy to stand out simply by offering customer service. But once everyone starts using social media to “join the conversation,” the conversation itself becomes diluted. That’s when people start needing something… else.
When we helped Bigelow Tea create their Twitter and Facebook channels, conversation was key. Just chatting with tea lovers was enough to help Bigelow gain traction with the social media users they connected with.
These days, every tea company with access to the web is on Twitter and Facebook, which means Bigelow needed to shift their focus away from mere conversation and back toward informational value like their content-rich blog. They’ve begun offering successful sweepstakes on Facebook and Twitter. And their Facebook page has become a conversation that’s heavy with links to their teas and gift sets.
The results? Facebook is now one of the primary drivers of Bigelow Tea’s online sales, with plans to expand their strategy even further in 2011.
What has this shift taught us? Yes, people still like to talk tea… but they haven’t stopped needing actual value from their brand interactions, either.
So… what’s your brand’s Seinfeld ratio? How much time do you spend talking about nothing?
When our client Ecover celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2010, we at Creative Concepts helped them develop a related 30 Under 30 contest to celebrate the innovative ecological ideas from young people across the country. During their celebration, they asked everyone a question:
“Where do you think sustainability will be thirty years from now?”
After all, for a company who designs every aspect of their cleaning products with the environment in mind — from their ingredients to their facilities to their packaging — the future really is their business.
This question may have initially been asked of some of the country’s top eco-bloggers and entrepreneurs, but that’s was just the tip of the iceberg. Who Ecover really wants to hear from is you.
(Yes, you.)
They’ve opened the discussion to everyone, because they believe everyone has a stake in our planet’s future. And Ecover is listening — on Twitter, on Facebook, and on their blog. They want to know what you think about sustainability, and what concerns or suggestions you might have.
Because reaching a business milestone is certainly something to celebrate, but if there’s one lesson Ecover has learned in their thirty years of creating eco-minded cleaning products, it’s that tomorrow is what really counts.
While recounting the top stories around the web can be instructive, inspirational or (oops) cautionary, don’t forget to look back through your own year of social media ups and downs. Ask yourself:
Where did we succeed at the individual and the campaign level?
Where did we exceed (or fall short of) expectations? Do we know why?
What did we learn?
Who did we meet?
What lessons can we apply to future endeavors?
Identifying the year’s high and low points, understanding what worked and what didn’t, and taking a wide view of your successes and failures can be critical in improving your results in the coming year. (Plus, in this era of nonstop media input, if you don’t occasionally take a moment to reflect on what just happened, you may not have another chance anytime soon!)
Here at Creative Concepts, 2010 has been an exciting and surprising year! In this year, we began working with the US division of Ecover, which has blossomed in ways the original RFP never foresaw. We continued our fruitful partnerships with longtime clients like Bigelow Tea and Ouidad, delved into the world of HD video, found several new and talented employees, and rebuilt our website — all while navigating new services like FourSquare and the ever-changing Facebook.
Thanks to our clients, our employees, our friends and families, and everyone who helped to make Creative Concepts successful in 2010. We couldn’t have done it without you! Here’s to a deep appreciation of everything we learned and had the pleasure of sharing during this past year, and an even more spectacular 2011.
When you’re the top specialty tea company in the United States, you reach a lot of tea lovers. Our client Bigelow Tea is using social media — from Bigelow Tea’s Facebook (and, yes, MySpace) pages to their YouTube channel, Bigelow loves to share their tea knowledge with the world. (After 65 years in busiess, they know a thing or two about tea.)
But how often do their customers have a chance to share what they know with each other? Normally, it’s not easy. Fortunately, we at Creative Concepts are helping Bigelow Tea bridge that gap.
Last month, the Bigelow Tea Twitter account asked its followers if they had any tea tips worth sharing. The results were instructive, and they formed the basis of a helpful blog post that allowed Bigelow’s fans to learn from one another.
This isn’t Bigelow’s first foray into customer connectivity. Earlier this year, they hosted their first Bigelow Tea Social in New York City, where bloggers and foodies alike came together to talk tea (and get their fill of free samples). How was that live event conceived of and managed? Why, on Bigelow’s blog and Twitter account, of course!
And while tea is obviously a communal drink to begin with, Bigelow Tea isn’t the only company finding new ways to bring their customers together. Our client Ecover celebrated their 30th anniversary of creating ecological cleaning products with a live event that united green bloggers, media-makers and innovators, all of whom swapped stories and tips until the party ended. How did we at Creative Concepts help Ecover organize this event? With a Facebook contest hosted on Ecover’s blog!
Social media: bringing companies and customers together — with the emphasis on together.
For example, our client Bigelow Tea has been doing some great contests, with prizes that range from free tea to free tickets for Wayne Gretzky’s annual hockey camp. The cost of entry? Simply liking Bigelow Tea on Facebook. Who wouldn’t trade the few seconds it takes to click a button in exchange for a chance to meet The Great One? (For all you non-hockey fans, that’s Gretzky.)
When Bigelow recently gave away the herb plus tea gift set on Facebook, the one-week contest earned them more than 400 new Facebook fans. That’s a 7% increase in their total number of fans, which rose from 5720 to 6162. If they did that every week for a year, they’d nearly double their fanbase in 12 months.
And what’s their investment in this venture?
A prize (obviously, the more interesting the prize, the better)
Time (planning, designing & promoting the contest)
Shipping the prize to the winner
What would your company be willing to invest in a year-long doubling of their marketing reach?
Because you can rest assured that your customers are willing to invest the time to click.
Back in February, we at Creative Concepts were scheduled to film a video for our client, Ouidad, better known to curly-haired fashionistas around the world as “the queen of curl.”
The video was supposed to be simple: a before-and-after interview with the winner of Ouidad’s “If These Curls Could Talk” contest, including a glimpse of her fabulous post-makeover ‘do, live from Ouidad’s New York City salon.
But we had one problem: the East Coast had just been buried by a blizzard.
In fact, the winner herself lived in Baltimore, which had just set a snowfall record. Amtrak wasn’t running, the highways were shut down, and there was a very good chance the shoot would have to be canceled.
And then, miraculously, everything came together.
Trains and buses began running mere hours before the shoot was scheduled, and the winner arrived just in time…
… and with straight hair.
For those of you who don’t spend your lives in a hair salon, this is the equivalent of winning free tickets to a hockey camp and then showing up with a broken leg. Whatever the camp intended to teach you, they suddenly realize they’ll have to heal you first.*
So Ouidad and her stylists set to work, not only to give their contest winner the curls of her dreams, but to help her understand why straightening her hair wasn’t the best idea in the first place. We’re pretty sure their advice worked, because the contest winner was awestruck by her new look and her newfound understanding of how to best care for her curls.
So remember: in social media, there’s no such thing as a true negative. Every stumbling block is really an opportunity for improvement, and another positive just waiting to happen — and when it does, you end up with an even better story to tell!
(Speaking of improvement, for more helpful haircare Q&As, visit Ouidad’s info-packed website. If you’re not curly by nature, you’ll wish you were!)
* And speaking of hockey, enter this Facebook contest from Bigelow Tea — who is also our client — and you could win tickets to Wayne Gretzky’s hockey camp in 2011! (But be careful about that broken leg. Seriously.)
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