Larger, highlighted and pinned posts

One of the best uses of Facebook is the opportunity ‘to tell stories’ about your band and to engage followers. To help you tell stories, the pictures and videos on Facebook are now larger and more eye-catching.

You can also highlight a story so that it spans all the way across the Timeline – by clicking the star icon in the upper right of a post.  Use Highlight to emphasize a particular post. You can also pin the story to the top of your Timeline for up to a week. To do this, click the pencil icon in the upper right of the post and select Pin to Top.

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If you use Facebook for your business you’ll know they like to change things, often with little or no warning! You need to keep on top of these changes for your page to remain effective and engaging.  The most recent changes emerged from Facebook’s fMC 2012 Conference. The overall message was that Facebook is looking at pages as a “mission control” point (which is where the MC comes from in the conference title).

Here’s a review of one of the key changes and how you can take advantage of some of the new features.

The new timeline cover photo and profile image

Obviously one of the biggest changes that we all knew was coming was the cover photo. No more photo strip across the top. You now have one large image to showcase your page. This image must be a minimum of 399 pixels across to be used as the cover photo. But you can have a photo cover designed to take advantage of the extra space you get. The cover photo maximum dimensions are 850 pixels by 315 pixels.

One of the biggest restrictions is the fact that you can’t have any calls to action in your cover photo. You can’t tell people to like or share your page or have any contact information at all, including your web address, phone number or mailing address. Get the full details about cover photos here . These restrictions will require some creativity in drawing attention to your business without some of the methods that have been used in the profile pictures recently.

The profile picture size has been changed to 180 pixels by 180 pixels. It appears next to every post in the news feed as a 30 pixel by 30 pixel picture and this is best used for your logo or other eye-catching picture without a lot of words.

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Just when you thought you’d got on top of all the new social media, along comes another one…  Pinterest .  Pinterest, an online bulletin board for your favourite images, is stepping up as a valuable marketing tool for businesses.

Launched in 2010 Pinterest is already experiencing phenomenal growth with more than 7 million unique visitors in December, up from 1.6 million in September, and it’s driving more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined according to recent stats. To check out Pinterest for yourself click here

Hot tips for small business social media marketing

Check to see if your Vanity URL is available.

Before you launch your brand presence on social media here’s a handy little tool to check whether your vanity URL is available. Remember that it’s important to make sure that whatever you choose it’s simple and easy to remember. http://namevine.com/

Use a thirdy party platform to distribute content.

It avoids logging in and out of  multiple social media channels. Tools such as HootSuite or Crowdbooster allow you to publish once and to distribute everywhere. You can integrate your Facebook Page, Twitter account, Google+ page, LinkedIn profile and other social networks – and manage them from within one easy-to-use interface.

Find out when and what to post on Facebook.

Stay on top of the latest information in your industry by knowing what your fans engage with most, and when to post it on Facebook,  by utilising a service called Edgerank Checker.

Google Alerts.

Even though it’s been around for a while still one of the easiest tools for businesses to monitor their online reputation is Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts). Each time Google finds a mention  of your business, it will send you an email as it happens, daily or weekly – it’s a free and indenspensbile tool!

If you’d like help with managing your social media give us a call for a friendly no obligation chat on 01202 788333

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We saw this and thought it was an excellent example of social media explained!

Particularly as they were using donuts as an example – our favourite food group…

(Image courtesy of Instagram).

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Here are 10 interesting things you need to know about Facebook in the UK as they're on track to be one of the biggest US stock-market debuts of all time.

1. There are over 1.3 billion visits to Facebook a month from the UK Internet population – making Facebook the second most visited website in the UK after Google.

2. 1 in every 6 page views in the UK is to a Facebook page. The social network accounted for 15% of all UK Internet page views in December 2011.

3. 500 million hours are spent on Facebook in the UK every month. The average session time for a user visiting Facebook is 22 minutes.

4. Facebook is the most popular social network in the UK, accounting for over 50% of all visits to social networks. Facebook is twice the size of YouTube and 17 times bigger than Twitter in terms of visits from UK Internet users.

5. Facebook receives an average of 40 million UK Internet visits every single day.

6. Facebook is the most searched for website in UK. The term ‘facebook’ is the most popular search term typed into all search engines including Google, Yahoo! and Bing and three of the top 10 most popular search terms online are Facebook related (‘facebook’, ‘facebook login’ and ‘fb’).

7. Facebook is the second biggest source of traffic in the UK after Google. 7.5% of all visits to a website came from Facebook in December 2011.

8. 1 Facebook fan = 20 additional visits to your website over the course of a year. Using the top 100 retail websites as a sample group, Hitwise data shows that for each additional fan acquired on a branded Facebook page companies can expect to see 20 extra visits coming to their main website over a 12 month period.

9. 25% of all visits leaving Facebook go straight to an Entertainment website, showing the close affinity between Facebook and people’s interest in movies, TV, music and games.

10. Manchester is the new Facebook capital of the UK with Internet users from Manchester 9% more likely than the average person to visit Facebook in a given month.

Source:

http://weblogs.hitwise.com/james-murray/2012/02/10_things_you_need_to_know_abo_1.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+hitwise%2Fuk+%28Hitwise+Intelligence+-+UK%29

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As it’s the first week in January, it’s crystal ball gazing time and not one to be left out we’ve taken a look at the many predictions around what will be the next big thing in Marketing in 2012. We’ve selected a few of what we think are the hottest trends. So read on to discover why the only place to be seen this year is on screen. And if you’re feeling downcast by tales of economic woe, how brands will be ready to divert your attention through gamification and interactive apps. Find out why your purse could soon become a collector’s item and community focused initiatives are set to capture the hearts of consumers.

Digital wallets
Contactless payment devices such as near-field communication (NFC) and QR codes will enter the mainstream in 2012. When used in smartphones, they encourage customers to merge their wallet with their mobile phones. Surveys suggest consumers are ready to embrace this trend. Two-thirds of UK shoppers say cash is inconvenient , according to 2011 surveys by Barclays and PayPal. According to Juniper Research, 300 million devices will be on offer to allow consumers to “tap and pay” through NFC by 2014. It is estimated the value of contactless payments and ticketing using NFC will reach $113bn (£72.4bn) per year by 2016 around the world. (Source: Stylus.com)

Welcome to the cloud
Businesses will invest large amounts of money in cloud computing and mobile technology next year. According to the report: IDC Predictions 2012: Competing for 2020, 2012 will see more money spent on mobiles and tablets than PCs and 80 per cent of commercial applications are set to be on cloud platforms. “The UK is underinvested in IT –  and with advertising and consumer spending rapidly moving online and kit becoming out of date, some rise there is likely,” points out chief executive of the Centre for Economic and Social Research, Douglas McWilliams. (Source: IDC.com, Insight.com)

Local marketing and partnerships
As the clean-up efforts following the London riots show, community love is on the rise. This year will see a resurgence of local marketing to tap into people’s collective devotion to their local community. While the internet by nature is international, there is a growing market for local websites and scope for businesses to tailor websites to specific localities. Brands are also set to tap into this trend for collective working as partnership marketing becomes more common. This will not just be about tactical value-based promotions but about strategic alliance with other brands. (Source:23red)

Screening
In 2012, if it is not on screen, it’s not worth seeing. Touchscreens and tablets have made it much more convenient for consumers to view online while they are on the move. UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has tapped into this trend by partnering with television provider Sky, allowing shoppers to watch sports events while they shop using in-cart iPad docks and speakers. In 2012, video consumption will soar as brands increasingly use this channel to engage with customers. Video brochures, video newsletters, and regular video communications will become standard features on websites. According to Cisco, 80 per cent of all internet traffic will be driven by video by 2015. (Source: Trendwatching.com, Milwardbrown). Running in tandem with this is the prediction that mobile is set to overtake the desktop PC and laptop – which is why it’s more important than ever to ensure that you have responsive web design to allow for the multitude of devices that your potential customers can access your site via.

Playfulness
In a bid to escape from the grim news about the economy, consumers will become more responsive to entertainment and escapism. Big brands will become more playful, using gamification and other “funware” that use points, puzzles and level progression to attract and engage customers. Social tools and technologies that enable people to interact with TV programmes will explode in 2012. Viewers will be able to interact with TV and producers will draw on this data for creative inspiration. Services such as Bluefin Labs and GetGlue indicate traditional TV ratings may be bolstered by “social ratings” as advertisers start to take into account how a show is travelling beyond the TV audience. (Source: Milward Brown)

LexisClick is a full service digital marketing agency, we specialises in helping businesses grow by using the power of digital marketing, with services such as web design and build, SEO, PPC, email marketing, and social media.

To find out how we can ensure your marketing is on trend in 2012 take a look around our website www.lexisclick.com or give us a call on 01202 788333.

From the LexisClick Marketing Team

(Adapted from Trends for 2012 from The Marketer January 2012)

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Everybody is talking about it. Social media is the latest technique in every marketing department’s hit list. Even though the research says that the majority of us are regularly using social media many businesses don’t understand how to make the most of it for their marketing.

Whether or not your business currently embraces social media, all the research makes a strong case for every business to evaluate social media opportunities.

Source Hubspot Inbound Marketing Strategy 2010

At LexisClick we’ve successfully implemented social media campaigns for a number of our clients. If you need help getting your social media off the ground, contact us for a free impartial discussion on how social media could benefit your business.

Download our social media whitepaper

Social Media Marketing

The following infographic shows some key stats from the Econsultancy report which was published earlier in November. (State of Social Report 2011).

We’d love to hear about what you measure in your social media metrics… drop us a line.  From the Social Media Team at LexisClick.

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