Twitter seems pretty self-explanatory. You have something to say, and you tweet it. But, really, for business, there’s some work that can be done to optimize your Twitter process so that it becomes an effective marketing tool and helps you connect with your customers in a meaningful way. This presentation by Erica McGillivray is a great way to get started:
Social Networks
Will People Rate Businesses on Facebook?
Facebook has been testing a new feature that displays star ratings (out of five possible) on business pages. Obviously a star rating system isn’t a new innovation — it’s widely used on eCommerce sites. Will people spend the time to rate businesses more than just a thumbs up (like)? Or will this turn into another situation where businesses have to beg for ratings (or pay for them) in order to be seen as favorable? This sort of rating also seems to make more sense when you’re in the midst of doing business with a company, which rarely happens on Facebook. What do you think?
Facebook is apparently testing displaying star ratings, out of a possible five in total, on Pages on the desktop version of its site, according to a reliable tip received by TechCrunch this morning. Screenshots and live testing show that Facebook has turned on the star rating display for at least a small subsection of users, providing information to network users that goes beyond the somewhat sentiment-deprived basic Like. — A Like Is Not Enough: Facebook Tests Star Ratings Displayed On Pages by Darrell Etherington
Determining Success on Facebook
There’s a great article over on Duct Tape Marketing today about metrics to use to determine success on Facebook:
Feeling a bit lost with your Facebook Page insights? Good. Facebook Insights terminology was not built for humans, and now that we know you are not a killer robot from Mars, we’ll help you measure your Facebook Page’s performance without drowning in all that robotic Martian muck. — The 6 Metrics That Determine Your Success On Facebook by Emeric Ernoult
These are good metrics to understand. The key to determining your particular success on Facebook is to understand what you’re trying to accomplish there (you may have many different goals). Then pick one main metric for each goal to help you understand how you’re doing. Numbers can become overwhelming, but associating a number with a goal can help you gauge what’s working and what’s not so that you can improve. Lastly, it helps to think of all marketing in terms of continuous improvement — try something, see how it works, figure out how to improve and repeat!
How do you determine your success on Facebook?
