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Facebook Basics and Best Practices
By John Boitnott, VP, Business Development
Time Spent is High
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Which Countries Have Most Facebook Users?
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Which ones are recent converts?
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Massive Growth
• Facebook Says: In Dec. 2008 – 150 Million Users
• April 2010: 400 Million Users, 130 Million Uniques a month
• Jan. 2011: 600 million• Now: approaching 700
million• On Any Given Day 50% of
the users are using the site.• Fastest Growing Demo is
35+
And they’ve almost reached 700 million…
2011 Pew Study: 58% Facebook Users are
Women
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Becoming Increasingly More Mainstream
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Basic Navigation
Basic Navigation:People You May KnowTop News/Most Recent
Left Tab: Feed, messages, events, friends, groups, apps
How to use Facebook Properly• Update Manually, No Feeds on the
Wall• 7-10 posts a day - polls have shown
this is not too much for most people.
• Top News Algorithm• Tone = Whatever is appropriate, all
business or relaxed, humorous• Comment replies• At least 1-2 of the 7-10 posts asking
a simple question, without link back. “What do you think of the Casey Anthony decision?”
• Number of Likes• Number of
Comments• Upvoting of
comments• # of Impressions• “Feedback” – # of
comments, likes per impression• Age of Post
What Brings You to the Top of Top News:
More Facebook Tips• Identify Writers
in your posts• Promotions: Do
impromptu or planned giveaways (tickets, DVDs)
• Length of Post: Let it flow. Feel free to craft a huge or tiny intro. Just make sure it is organic and natural. Not canned. 400+ character limit
Why 7-10 Updates?
• If someone has smaller amount of friends, you dominate their wall. May look spammy.
• People will “hide” you.• Creates negative
Impression of the TV station, publisher or person.
Examples of Overly Spammy Facebook
Behavior:• "OMG GOING TO THE GYM”• LOL Back from teh gym!• LMAO MY CAT JUST DID
THE CRAZIEST THING!!!1111
• Framville!• I HAVE PRESENTED YOU
WITH A DRINK• TAKE THIS SURVEY• Battle my Vampire!
How to Counteract “Spamminess”• Authority and Authenticity:• Spend time crafting compelling teases to content and be yourself.• LAWeekly: “Highlight of the night for sure was Faith No More -- they
killed it, with a nice Danny Devito appearance as he ran across stage toward the end of the set near shirtless.”
• NBC Cameraman: “I had a very interesting day with well behaved neo-Nazis and poorly behaved counter-protesters.”
• New York Times: “Have a question on the new health care law? For the next few weeks, we'll be taking questions from readers about the legislation. Send your questions to [email protected]. Start looking for some answers here: http://nyti.ms/c0FcIG”
• “Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document.” (then link)
• NYTimes: Well written set up, followed by questions, thought provoking statements, then link. Hundreds of comments.
The Engagement Question:
• LA Weekly wants to know: did you feel the earthquake? (69 comments)
• Don't have to include a link• Build community• Help build buzz for your
Facebook stream.• On average these pull in
more comments and “likes” compared to other Facebook updates. That's on reason why it’s good 1-2 of them each day, in addition to the 3 link-out based posts you are already doing.
Examples: Engagement Questions
• Armed Robbery at Pink's Hot Dogs: How Much Do You Think Was In That Tip Jar?
• So, totally serious, who all is going to the Golden Gods Thursday?• Ah, yes. We can hear that work week slowly creeping to an end.
What's the weekend looking like?• Ok got another giveaway - Do you want to see Loverboy at the
Glass Cactus on 4/17? Well if you do! Tell me a joke - I don't care what kind, knock knock, a guy walks into a bar, How do you..
JUST SEND ME SOMETHING I CAN LAUGH AT :)• Happy Tax Day! (Is that a contradiction?) Who's up for drinks
tonight? If you're getting a refund, you're buying.• (Picture shown) Name that Celeb...(I'll reveal the answer at the
end of the day)
Acting as Ombudsman for
TV Station, Paper , News
Org• When people write to your
Fan Page on Facebook and say they had a picture taken of them that appeared in a slideshow on the actual site - can you help them find it? They appeared in a news story. Can you help them find it? Yes.
• Put solid contact info on Facebook page.... how to contact The Weather Dept, Sports Dept, Advertsinng Dept, News Dept -- with phone numbers and emails.
Facebook Promotio
n• Make sure to link to your
Facebook fan page in blogs/news stories and Twitter where appropriate.
• Put links to fan page on bottom of news blog posts or news stories.
• Throw in links to fan page on email blasts, newsletters
• Put links to the fan pages in your blog rolls if you have them. “ABC7 on Social Media” “CBS4 on Facebook,” etc.
• FB can serve as a great "compliment" to (not a substitute for) your station's Web site.
Why Facebook Buttons are Important: • Feedback: Gives number of shares, let's you know how viral a story is getting.• Clicks: Encourage Sharing = Pageviews among fans• Reputation: Improves Presence on Facebook, number of fans
How to Create a Fan Page
Bottom right hand side…
Pick what it’s about…
Pick a category….
You can get a Vanity URL when you have at least 25 likes
How to Toggle Back and Forth
Facebook Ads
• http://www.facebook.com/advertising/• Create Ad: Adjust what it looks like, Choose who gets to see it by demographic
(country, Age, Interests)• Pick your daily budget and time ad will air.• Price varies with how many placements you buy.
Sourcing
"NPR posts about three or four queries a week — asking, for instance, for
jobless 20-somethings who might be willing to talk to an NPR reporter about their experiences. And NPR’s Facebook
fans turn out to be very willing to respond. Typical sourcing requests
attract 750 to 800 responses… Getting less than 300 is rare. Out of 140+
sourcing requests, only two or three have had no results."
~Lois Beckett at Nieman Journalism Lab, Harvard Univ.
Some Points about Moderation:• Delete hate speech. But if there is
highly emotional conversation or swearing – let it exist. Let criticism stand.
• Facebook users will often take care of fake accounts themselves by reporting them to FB on their own.
• If you are a publisher Do not let folks post on your FB wall. Only allow staff to post there. Let folks have free reign to talk in comments or in "discussions," which is one of the options on the left hand sidebar.
A Few Observataions on Referrals from Fan Page
• ~Many publishers get millions of page views a month from Facebook. Often as a result from links they have posted - but now much of it comes from links that fans decide to share themselves. [keep in mind-The average user creates 90 pieces of content per month.]
• A publisher posting just 7 items a day will be doing 210 monthly
• What people click through on isn't always the same as what they say they like the most.
A Final Reminder:
What you share on FB isn't always the “Top Story” of the day. The question you are looking to answer
is “Will our fans want to talk about this?”
