Facebook Marketing Secrets: Buddy Media Report Shows The Best Times To Post

Wednesday is the worst day of the week to advertise on Facebook, while Saturday and Sunday are the best, according to a new report analyzing user activity from brand pages of the world’s biggest companies.

On Wednesday, the rate at which users “like,” share or comment on Facebook brand posts is 7.4 percent below the average daily interaction rate, according to the report by Buddy Media, a social media consulting company. The weekends, however, show a spike in engagement. Brand posts published on Saturdays and Sundays receive 14.5 percent more interaction compared to weekday posts.

Yet many companies advertising on Facebook are doing it all wrong. Only 14 percent of posts published by brands appear on the weekend, while Wednesday is the most common day for brands to post Facebook content.

And that’s not the only mistake marketers make on Facebook. It turns out users are most likely to engage with brand posts in the evening and early morning. Yet few brands publish during those times. HuffPost found Coca-Cola, for instance, published all of its posts last week in the late afternoon. A lost opportunity given that brand posts published between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. receive 14 percent higher interaction than those published between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m, the report found.

The reason: "When not at work, people are more likely to spend time perusing Facebook and interacting with Page content,” the Buddy Media report says. (Obviously, social media marketers aren’t going to get up at ungodly hours to publish posts -- which is why Facebook scheduling exists.)

Not every industry is the same, though. For example, a clothing or fashion business is most likely to see users engage with its content on a Thursday. For a company in the retail or the technology space, Monday is the best bet. Perhaps unsurprisingly, leisure brands start to see interaction rates climb as the weekend nears on Thursday, peaking on Sunday.

Here are some other nuggets of social media wisdom from Buddy Media’s report:

• Limit brand posts to one to two times per day (brands that post one or two times per day see 19 percent higher interaction rates than those who post three or more times per day).


• Much like marketing on Twitter, brevity is key. Posts should be no longer than 80 characters (posts with more than 80 characters receive 23 percent less interaction).


• If you want comments, ask questions (posts with questions generate 92 percent higher comment rates than non-question posts).


• Use emoticons (posts that contain emoticons receive 52 percent higher interaction rates; the emoticons :D and :P have the highest interaction rates). But, as Buddy Media's report notes, "the use of emoticons proves most successful for health and beauty and food and beverage brands, while automotive, clothing, fashion and technology brands all have lower than average interaction rates when using emoticons."

By Nate C. Hindman, Article source: The Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/28/facebook-marketing-secrets-best-time-to-post_n_1924134.html

Can you double your time to make money?

We often cry for more time.  I remember that a few years ago when I finally decided I wanted to leave my job and have my own business, I attended as many seminars as I can to educate myself.

I stayed up till 1am every night reading books, and watching a lot of DVDs and MP4 files to learn internet marketing.

This media player called VLC Media Player has helped me double my time and productivity.  It is the #1 free media player, and great time saver!

VLC is quick and easy to install. You can make VLC your default media player for various (or all) file types, but if you just want to try VLC without giving up your current player, you can skip the file associations. 

The secrets of doubling your time and productivity is to choose faster speed x2 to play the educational DVD/MP4 files as illustrated below.  As such, you could halve the time to play a normal MP4 file, thus doubling your productivity.

You can download this #1 free VLC Media Player from http://www.videolan.org/

How to Start Making Money With Facebook

Facebook is now the most popular website for social networking. Half a billion people already use active Facebook accounts. Most of the Facebook members use the website to connect with friends or even to flirt. But there are good reasons why anyone who is into online-marketing should make use of Facebook. If you are just starting, you must understand that making money with Facebook will not be easy at first since you are still beginning to understand this type of money- making business.

Top Reasons for Making Money With Facebook

As mentioned, Facebook is the biggest social network site in the Internet, this is why it is a perfect place to make money and advertise. You can create a Fan page and invite people to join your page. You have to make you page attractive to members so that your site visitors and fan base will increase in time. You can offer promos or freebies to make sure that a lot of Facebook members will join your page. If you already have tons of people visiting your page, you can now market your product or service to anyone who visits your page. Through this, you will be able to make money online with Facebook.

Facebook apps are also very popular to members. Facebook apps enhance the experience of using Facebook such as games and quizzes. Integrating your app directly into Facebook is possible by using the Facebook app features. For example, you can integrate an app into Facebook using the 'Requests' feature. Requests are a great way to enable users to invite their friends to your application and for users to confirm connections from your application. Making money with Facebook using apps can be very rewarding because there are various apps that are already gaining incredible response from members.

If you have a product, service, or affiliate offer to advertise, Facebook paid advertising is a good option. You can launch an advertising campaign in Facebook at a budget that you can afford. You will create your own advertisement design and any user who will click on your advertisement will be directed to your website.

Tips For Beginners

Facebook has good features that impart itself to marketing. However, you have to do some research and use your creativity in making money with Facebook. It is not an easy endeavor but if you keep on trying and give it a good shot every time, you might just reach your goal. You also have to weigh the efficiency of your efforts by examining if your profit exceeds your advertising costs. If you are making profit, you then have to ask yourself if it is worth the energy and time you have spent. If all the answers are 'yes', then you have succeeded.

Article source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Birkett

Make money from your social-media efforts

David Jacobson has figured out something that has eluded many an entrepreneur: how to generate revenue through Twitter. Mr. Jacobson is the founder of TrivWorks, a 3-year-old Brooklyn-based company that runs corporate team-building sessions and live events built around trivia contests.

Since 2011, he has organized six public trivia competitions and several corporate ones with collaborator Pat Kiernan, the longtime news anchor on NY1 who is a pop-culture buff and former game-show host. They promote the events in a Twitter stream filled with fun trivia questions, as well as on the TrivWorks blog.

“This has resulted in direct revenue,” said Mr. Jacobson. Thanks mainly to his firm's success in spreading the word on Twitter, it will typically sell out the public events, which seat 275 to 300 people, at $26 a head. That adds up to between $7,150 and $7,800 a night in gross revenue.

According to a survey by the Social Media Examiner, an online social-media marketing magazine, nearly 38% of marketers spend one to five hours a week on social media, and another 26% spend six to 10 hours. If you have only a fuzzy idea of how much your efforts on these sites are helping you, you may be misdirecting them. As Mr. Jacobson's experiences show, it's very possible to go a step beyond raising brand awareness and pull in real paying customers by using social-media sites. Here are some tips from entrepreneurs and experts on how to boost your bottom line by using a well-focused approach.

Choose the right venues.

Paying attention to the social sites your target customers respond to—and directing your efforts there—can go a long way. Mastering YouTube, for instance, has paid off for Dan Nainan, a Manhattan comedian who has performed at venues such as the Democratic National Convention, a TED conference and three presidential inaugural events. He has posted videos of his live performances on the site. “If people like it, it will be forwarded to other people,” he said.

As a result of these efforts, Mr. Nainan, a former senior engineer at Intel who began his comedy career three years ago, said he now gets a “a fair chunk” of his domestic work and all of his international bookings from people who've seen those videos. His one-man business now generates about $200,000 a year in revenue as a result. (It doesn't hurt that he's been able to post a YouTube video of President Obama saying, “Dan is just hilarious.”)

Deliver the right message.

To attract corporate clients through his blog, Mr. Jacobson writes posts that target their interests and concerns. For instance, one candid entry, “5 Companies Trivia Team Building Activities Won't Work For,” discusses the types of clients who might not benefit from hiring TrivWorks (among them, “the incredibly small company” that won't be able to muster decent-size teams for trivia competitions). One client who booked Mr. Jacobson's services after reading the post “saw this as a level of transparency and honesty,” he said. “Showing that this is not just a faceless company resonated.”

Try deals and contests.

Although many professional-services firms are shy about offering coupons on social-media sites, they can help attract clients. Ask Nickie E. Robinson, a former compliance officer on Wall Street who is president of Good Girl PR, a three-person firm in Manhattan. She has attracted projects and retainer work for the company, founded in 2008, by sending out a deal on Twitter advertising $100 off on press releases. “If you do a nice marketing campaign around a coupon and send it out consistently, people are going to pick it up,” she said. Ms. Robinson estimates that, from Twitter, she gets about 25% of her more than $250,000 a year in revenue, which comes from a combination of publicity work, event planning and compliance consulting for banks.

Retailers often need to be creative to grab consumers' attention. For Cory N. Schifter, vice president of family-run Casale Jewelers on Staten Island, promotion on Facebook of the store's Race for the Ring, where couples complete challenges to compete for a $10,000 engagement ring, has been a powerful way to draw in customers—though it's costly. “People come in and say, 'I read your post on Facebook,' ” said Mr. Schifter. (His business is now getting some additional publicity because it is a winner in a contest run by American Express Open called Big Break for Small Business, where the prizes include $25,000 and professional marketing advice.)

Use search-engine optimization.

Many companies include keywords designed to pull in customers on their websites but neglect to weave them into their social-media presence—missing an additional opportunity to be found in customers' searches. “As you're tweeting or writing blogs, make sure to use your keywords,” advised Ms. Robinson. For instance, a publicist hoping to attract new clients through Twitter might use the hashtag #PR.

Stay alert to business development opportunities.

LinkedIn isn't the only site where you may find potential business partners, so pay attention to the notes and comments that arrive via other social-media sites. Mr. Kiernan, for instance, reached out to Mr. Jacobson at TrivWorks by a direct message on Twitter after seeing Mr. Jacobson's stream. “If it were not for Twitter, he would not have known about me,” said Mr. Jacobson.

Use search-engine optimization.

Many companies include keywords designed to pull in customers on their websites but neglect to weave them into their social-media presence—missing an additional opportunity to be found in customers’ searches. “As you’re tweeting or writing blogs, make sure to use your keywords,” advised Ms. Robinson. For instance, a publicist hoping to attract new clients through Twitter might use the hashtag #PR.

By Elaine Pofeldt, Article Source: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120907/SMALLBIZ/120909939

Five Factors to Social Media Success for Dealers

With a reported 141.2 million Facebook users in the U.S. and over 69 percent of businesses currently active on social media sites like Twitter and YouTube, dealerships are in heavy competition for the public’s attention. Successful social media marketing combines fundamental advertising principles with classic relationship building techniques. To create a social media strategy that’s both engaging and profitable, dealers must understand the following five factors for success:

Brand consistency

A successful social media presence should reflect the dealership’s showroom and website. Social media avatars, backgrounds, messaging, images, contact info, and overall persona should be consistent with the dealership’s brand. Brand consistency increases top of mind awareness and builds consumer trust. An attractive and reliable brand engenders loyal followers, setting the stage for new and repeat customers.

Authentic networking

In small towns, the businesses that thrive are the ones that everyone in the community enjoys doing business with. Successful networking, online or otherwise, depends on authentic interactions. Social network sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are ways to reach out to other businesses within your community. By subscribing, commenting, re-tweeting, sharing, liking, and following, your dealership is interacting with the community in a sort of online chamber of commerce.

Engaging presence

One of the biggest mistakes that dealers make is talking at their customers rather than engaging them. A one-way conversation is a fast way to drive customers away. Just as in small towns, social media participants prefer to “gather at the coffee shop” and join in on the conversation. Share information on your social networks that’s relevant, interesting, and adds value to your community. Monthly giveaways, photo sharing contests and other interactive promotions are great ways to attract new followers and initiating discussions on local topics, entertaining YouTube videos and celebrity news are good ways to activate your existing followers.

Integrated technology

First, integrating dealer chat on Facebook is an excellent way to seamlessly transition casual conversation into business interactions without being too forward. Providing direct access to your sales team should the need arise is typically perceived in context as helpful. Many dealers offer chat on their website, but some neglect to include it on their social media pages. Photo drop-ins with personalized photos from chat provider, Contact At Once! is proven to result in the highest number of online conversions.

Second, consider offering social media followers special, email-only content in the form of exclusive coupons and personalized video messages in return their email address. Many dealers have already discovered the power of customized video emails. Enhancing the social media experience with member-only video messages can be great for business. Video emails contain custom branded backgrounds, live links, and chat invitations for instant connection and can be used to announce secret sales events, new model rollouts and rebate offers.

Content that counts

Increasing website traffic is key to generating more online leads for your dealership. With its recent algorithm update (termed Panda) Google has made it clear that social media engagement and content freshness are two important factors in search engine rankings. Now more than ever, there is a direct link between content posting, social media interaction and organic traffic. Social media engagement impacts local search listings, and the fresher the content, the better the chance your dealership website has at attracting more visitors.

Parting shot

The debate rages on for some dealers as to whether or not social media can be used to increase online traffic and harvest sales. I’ll contend that if done in accordance with the factors outlined above, the answer to that question is: yes!

By Rachel Haro.  Article Source: http://dealermarketing.com/advertising-menu/internet-marketing-solutions/2767-five-factors-to-social-media-success-for-dealers.html