Social Success The Ultimate Retailers Guide To Growing Your Business With Facebook Copyright © 2012 by Wishpond Technologies Ltd All rights reserved Published, Edited & Designed by the Wishpond Marketing Team We have been working with retailers large and small for more than two years, helping them to get the most out of their social marketing During that time we have learned a lot, and answered a lot of the same questions We wanted to put together a simple guide to setting up a Facebook Page for your retail business, and ensuring that you are getting the most from your investment While this guide is geared mostly to those who are just starting out, we like to think that there is something in here for even the most experienced retailers We hope that this is useful for you, and look forward to seeing the results of your efforts Good luck! 4–7 8–12 13–17 Analysis & Research Strategy Getting Set Up: The Basics Budget & Resources Competitive Assessment What will you use your page for? How will you measure your progress? Who will be responsible for managing your page? What is your brand personality? How will people find your page? Anatomy of a Facebook Page How to create your Page Designing your Page 18–23 24 Community Management and Basic Promotion Additional Useful Resources Posting & managing content Analytics & insights Applications Advertising Analysis and Research Let’s start from the very beginning, after all, it is a very good place to start Getting a handle on what you have to work with, what you are up against, and what the most successful Facebook brands are doing is a great way to get your Facebook marketing activities underway DID YOU KNOW? 50 100 800 50 80 70 37 Facebook has more than 800 million active users More than 50% of active Facebook users log in every day Approximately 80% of Facebook users are outside of North America Facebook is available in 70 languages The average US-based Facebook user spends nearly hours a month on Facebook There are more than 37 million Facebook Pages with 10 or more fans Sources: http://newsroom.fb.com/content/default.aspx?NewsAreaId=22 http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/august-2011-top-us-web-brands Facebook SEC Filing Budget and Resources Before you get started you will want to come up with a realistic idea of what kind of budget and resources you can allocate to Facebook marketing While many of the activities you can engage in have no monetary cost, they certainly have a cost when it comes to resourcing This can escalate quickly, so it is best to set some expectations before getting underway Making managing your Facebook Page (or community management in general) a formal part of someone’s role helps ensure that your presence is actively and effectively managed It is unlikely to require a dedicated person immediately, but adding these tasks to someone’s existing role is a great way to start If you are able to, you should consider setting a budget to accompany your efforts also This budget can be used for a variety of things, from useful applications, to Facebook advertising Even a relatively modest budget (less than $500 a month) can make a big difference to the effectiveness of your Facebook marketing efforts As you progress through this guide, you will see how setting clear measurable objectives is an important way to ensure that you are getting real value from this investment These objectives should relate directly to how you measure your business sucess See what your competition is up to Before you dive right in, it is a good idea to take a look at what your competition is up to You can often learn a lot from them by looking at what they that gets people interacting with their brand This can help you avoid mistakes, as well as set some realistic goals for your Facebook presence It is also a chance to look at ways in which you can differentiate yourself Look for these things How active are they? Do they update their page regularly? Are they treating Facebook as a purely one-way communication channel, or are they actually listening, responding, and interacting with their fans? Are they using any special applications to run competitions, give their fans special offers, or anything else? How many fans they have? How many people are ‘talking about them’? You might also like to take a look at some of the biggest, most innovative brands in the world While these pages are often dealing with millions of fans, you can still learn some valuable lessons about what works when creating a great Facebook presence A brief list of brands you might like to check out to start with H&M Redbull Zara Coca-Cola Converse Skittles Starbucks Victoria’s Secret Walmart You can see a list of the biggest Facebook Pages for brands by fan count on fanpagelist com It is often good to get in a few pages and check out what some of the larger challengers are doing on Facebook, as it is often a little more edgy (and effective) than the biggest brands You are also able to sort the pages by their rate of growth Why not check in and see what the fastest growing pages are doing right? Strategy DID YOU KNOW? Having done your research it pays to sit down and spend some time on your Facebook marketing strategy before diving right in This helps ensure that the effort you and your team put in to your Facebook Page is directed toward achieving some specific, measurable goals 70% of active adult online social networkers shop online, 12% more likely than the average adult Internet user 47% Active adult social networkers are 47% more likely to be heavy spenders on clothing, shoes & accessories than the average Internet user 60% 60% of people who use or more digital channels for researching products learned about a Retailer through a FB or Twitter post 53% 53% of active adult social networkers follow a brand 23% 23% of companies offer customer support via Facebook 10x It costs five to ten times more to attract a new customer than retain an existing one 67% The average spend for a repeat customer is 67% greater than a new customer Sources: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-crm-2011-10 http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/08/get-more-sales-from-existing-customers.html http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/ What will you use your page for? This might seem like a silly question, but setting some high level objectives for your presence on Facebook is extremely important Having checked out your competitors you have hopefully got a rough idea of what you might be able to achieve (although don’t let that constrain your ambitions too much!) You can very easily spend significant time and money building a Facebook community, so you want to make sure that you are devoting these resources to achieving objectives that are closely tied to those of your business Some questions that you might like to ask Am I trying to make more people aware of my business? Who I want to attract with my Facebook page? What kind of impression I want them to have? Do I want to try and get my existing customers to spend more with me? Will my Facebook page be a place I actively encourage my existing customers to get help or support? How will you measure your progress? Once you have defined the objectives for your page, you need to come up with some metrics to measure your progress toward achieving these objectives Some examples of measures that you may want to use: Number of fans, or fan growth Engagement with content Referral traffic to your website Sales revenue or number 10 Who will be responsible for managing your page? What is your brand personality? It is important to define some clear roles and responsibilities when it comes to managing your presence on Facebook If you are an owner/operator then this is obviously a simple task, but if you are expecting multiple people to contribute to and manage your page then this gets a little more difficult Getting a collective understanding of your brand personality is particularly important if you have a team contributing to your Facebook Page In general, it is a good idea to give one person overall responsibility for the management of the page, and ensure that they have enough time to this job properly If you are getting more people involved then this person will need to ensure that content posted is appropriate, timed correctly, and contributes to your overall objectives One of the best ways to get your fans engaged is to show some personality, and not be afraid to have some fun Ensuring that all those involved in creating and managing content for your Facebook Page have an understanding of what is appropriate (and what isn’t) will ensure that they are able to show that personality without damaging your brand 11 How will people find your page? Something that is often forgotten in the rush to create your shiny new Facebook Page is just how people will discover your page There are hundreds of great, creative things you could potentially to get the word out, but you should always start with the basics, things like: Invite your friends to become fans Link to your Facebook Page from your customer newsletter Invite your staff to become fans, and ask them to invite their friends Write a blog post encouraging your customers to become Facebook fans Add a link to your Facebook Page on your website homepage Add a note to your printed receipts or invoices suggesting that your customers find you on Facebook Add a link to your Facebook Page on your company email footer It is also worth noting here that the search function on Facebook is far from perfect Don’t rely on people being able to find your new page by searching for it 12 Getting Set Up: The Basics Anatomy of a Facebook Page Time to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty This section takes you through the basics of getting your Page set up just right Admin Panel Click this button to display the admin panel for your Page This gives you a quick overview of the page activity, insights, and any messages that you have received Only visible to page administrators Profile Image This square image will display at either 125px square or 150px square depending on the size of the person’s screen who is viewing it You should upload a square image larger than 180px by 180px Your logo is a great choice, as this image is used around the site alongside any content you post Cover Image The single biggest opportunity you have to make visual impact with your Page Pick something that looks great, and really shows off your brand The dimensions of this image are 851 x 315px You may not include: • • • • Price or purchase information Contact information (no web, email, or physical addresses) Any reference to Facebook features e.g share or like No calls to action e.g “get it now”, or “tell your friends” Mini Timeline This is a quick way for people to jump backwards and forwards to specific points in the history of your company Page Stats On display for the world to see: the number of likes, people talking about you, and people who have checked-in at your business Messages If you have messages enabled users are able to contact you privately directly We recommend having this feature turned on as it offers people a way to get in touch without posting on your wall for all to see 13 Facebook Apps Up to applications will display along the top of your Page The Photos app is always the first app on the left, you are able to choose the other that will appear here If you have more than apps the remaining apps are accessed via a drop down menu (up to a total of 12) About You should make sure you write a short, punchy about blurb that captures people’s attention and accurately sums up what you You define the text for this in the ‘Basic Information’ section of the page admin interface Adding a link to your website here can be a good idea to maximize click throughs to your website (if that is something you are working toward) Friends Who Like This When people visit your page they will be shown any of their friends who already like you here Posts by Others All of the recent posts from fans are collected into a single box on your Timeline Likes If your page likes other pages then they are displayed here This can be a great way to network with your customers (for B2B businesses) or suppliers Pinned Posts You are able to pin a post to keep it at the top of your Timeline for days This means that it will not be pushed down by any subsequent updates that you make, and will get significantly more views and engagement Use this to promote special offers or important announcements Regular Posts Regular posts (not milestones, pinned or starred) show up on either side of you Timeline If there is an image (or images) associated with them then this will be displayed underneath the post You can choose to hide posts that you no longer wish to display Starred Posts Starred posts highlight content by displaying it across both the columns in your Timeline Use this feature on great visual content to get more engagement 14 Milestones Milestones are a great way to show off important dates in your company history Use these to show off the date you were founded, when you launched new products, or any other important dates These are displayed with an image which is 843px by 403px 15 How to create your Page Now that you know what is what, it is time to get down to business Creating your page is simple Head over to https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and follow the instructions that Facebook gives you The first step is to choose which category your page will fit in to Be sure to choose an appropriate category, as it will help your fans find you I know, we have all been tempted to jokingly list our business as a political party, or religious organisation, or something equally kooky, but in general this isn’t nearly as great an idea as it first seems Once you have chosen your category Facebook does a great job of taking you through getting the basic building blocks of your Page set up We would advise you to provide as much detail as you can during this set up phase, as it will limit the amount of time you need to spend going back and adding and changing information in the future A couple of handy things to remember Be sure to provide links to your own website, and your other social profiles when they ask you: Twitter, Yelp, Flickr, Google+ etc If you have physical stores provide the location and opening hours details Specifying a location will mean that your fans are able to check-in when they visit, promoting your store to their friends Complete the ‘about’ section details thoroughly These are very prominent in the new Facebook Timeline for Pages layout, and so you want to be sure that they represent your business as you would like to be represented 16 Designing your Page The most important piece of real estate on your profile is your header image This is your chance to capture your potential new fans attention, and show off your brand personality The dimensions for this image are 851px by 315 px Be sure to upload an image that is at least this large, or your image will be scaled up to fit (and therefore appear low quality) There are some limitations to what you can with this image According to Facebook you may not include: • Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website” • Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section • References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features • Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends” The next most important space is your profile image This is the smaller image that sits partially inside the cover image The display dimensions for this are either 125px by 125 px or 150px by 150px depending on the screen size of the person viewing your profile However, you should upload a square image that is at least 180px by 180px to get the best quality result Our recommendation is to go with something bold, eye-catching, and interesting for the larger cover image, and reserve the smaller image for your logo If you can come up with some way to integrate the two together this can be a great way to provide a little bit of an extra surprise factor to delight your fans You are also able to specify up to 12 apps that are displayed in the tile spaces at the top of your profile (more on applications a little later on) You are able to specify custom icons for some of these apps depending on whether the app developer allows this This can be a great way to drive people to things that you are not able to on your Timeline ‘wall’ Some resources that you might find useful: Free download of a PSD (Photoshop file) of the Facebook Timeline for Pages user interface How to change your application icons with Facebook Timeline for Pages (and a free set of icons for you to download) 17 Community Management and Basic Promotion DID YOU KNOW? Someone once said “build it, and they will come” That person was not a Facebook Page admin Community management is the foundation of great Facebook marketing Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a tech whizz to get this right, you just need to understand a few basic ground rules, and have an appetite for experimentation Facebook recently made a major change to the Pages platform, rolling out Timeline on the 30th of March, 2012 On average, your posts will be seen by approximately 17% of your fans Females are responsible for 62% of the pageviews on Facebook Sources: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-page-17-2012-01 http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/ 18 Posting and Managing Content Content is the lifeblood of your Facebook community Those Pages that are most successful provide their fans with regular, interesting content that keeps them engaged This is the simplest and most cost effective way that you can reach new fans You will want to get into the habit of updating your page regularly with new content How regularly depends on your fan demographics, but a general rule of thumb is to aim for between three and seven updates per week You need to be careful not to update too frequently and annoy your fans Fewer posts of better quality trumps a large number of low engagement posts In the end there is no substitute for experimentation Think about the various things you could that are relevant to your audience, and then try them With Facebook’s built in insights (which we will cover next) you will be able to see very quickly what is working and what isn’t What makes a great post? The right posts for you to get engagement will again depend in your audience, but there are some insights that apply universally: Posts with (relevant) rich media perform much better than those without If you can include a picture or video with your post you will get much more engagement than just posting a simple text update Treat Facebook as a conversation platform In a conversation there are two (or more) participants Each needs to listen to one another, ask questions, and interact The same principles apply on Facebook Ask and answer questions, encourage debate, get involved Use the built in polls function You will be surprised at how enthusiastic people are about making their opinion heard Polls are easy to create, and easy for people to participate in This low barrier to participation often means you can get really great engagement with the right question Pin and highlight your best content Pinned content (content that stays at the top of your Facebook Timeline) gets substantially more likes, comments, and shares than nonpinned content Similarly, highlighting your great images and video (which displays the content in the full width of your timeline) also helps get more engagement from your community Other resources to help you with posting content: Facebook’s best practices for Pages Admins 19 Analytics & Insights Understanding Facebook Insights is extremely important for effectively measuring the impact of your efforts Luckily Facebook Insights is a relatively simple tool to use The hardest part is getting your head around their terminology Accessing Your Insights When you visit your page you will see a button in the top right corner that says ‘Admin Panel’ Click this button and your administration options will drop down From here you can see a mini graph of your latest insights, which you can click on to get access to your full insights Understanding Your Insights Aggregate Insights Individual Post Insights The main graph you see is the aggregate insights for you page Here you can quickly see how your content posts (the pink dots) impacted your ‘reach’ (how many people saw your content), and the number of ‘people talking about this’ (this is Facebook’s indicator of engagement, and counts people liking, sharing, commenting, answering your polls, responding to your event invitations, checking into your location, or tagging you in photos) Generally the higher these numbers are, the better you are doing If you look below the main graph on your Insights home page you will see a breakdown of the performance of your individual posts For each post you will see: You can then break down your aggregate insights to look just at your reach, likes, or people talking about you Within these categories you can get useful information about their demographics and geographic locations Facebook also differentiates between paid reach, and organic reach Paid reach is the exposure you got due to advertising Ideally you want to generate as much organic reach as possible - that is people sharing and interacting with your content because they find it interesting and relevant, rather than having it pushed to them • reach - the number of people who saw your post • engaged users - the number of people who clicked on your post • talking about this - the number of people who interacted with your post (like, comment, share, etc.) • virality - the proportion of people who ‘talked about this’ out of the total number who saw it You are able to sort your posts by any of these different measurements, so you are able to quickly see which of your activities are performing best This is the information you need to act on when evaluating your Facebook Page performance 20 Applications There are quite literally thousands of applications that you could potentially use to help your Facebook marketing efforts If you are looking for a specific application it is worth shopping around to find the one that best fits with your requirements, and your budget Wishpond offers two Facebook applications that are specifically built specifically for retailers In our opinio, these are must have’s as part of your Facebook Marketing Toolkit SocialStore Wishpond Social Store is the fastest, easiest way to create a great-looking storefront for your Facebook Page With one click you can import your products from your existing e-commerce store, and then keep your inventory up to date automatically SocialOffers SocialStore Wishpond Social Store SocialOffers Wishpond Social Offers allows you to create exclusive, limited-time offers for your Facebook fans that then spread organically as people participate As people subscribe to your offers you are building a valuable database of customers that you can continue to make offers to in future You are also able to get valuable customer insights - demographics, interests, and more Wishpond Social Offers 21 Advertising DID YOU KNOW? Focusing on being interesting, relevant, and engaging will definitely help you grow your fan base If you want to really accelerate it, you may want to support your activity with advertising Facebook advertising, when combined with the other principles outlined in this guide, can be an extremely cost effective way to not only acquire new fans, but acquire new, real, moneyspending customers With a relatively modest spend you can focus very closely on acquiring fans that are most likely to convert into customers There are a few things you should think about when creating your Facebook ads: > $5 Billion Facebook is on track to achieve more than $5 Billion in advertising revenue in 2012 - including more than 6.5% of the total online advertising spend in the US Sources: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008858&ecid=a6506033675d47f881651943c21c5ed4 Target your customers The more you can narrow down your target market, the better results you can get Facebook allows you to target users using a range of variables It often makes sense to create different ads that specifically target different groups Geographically Demographically By interest Facebook allows you to target a specific geographic area Targeting those people who you are able to service is obviously an important thing to to avoid wasting advertising spend You are able to target your advertising by age, gender, relationship status, sexuality, language, education, and employer You can either select from broad interest categories, or provide specific interests This is an extremely powerful feature for retailers, as you are able to target users who have explicitly declared an interest in your products 22 Exclude your existing fans Target friends of your existing fans In most cases you will want to exclude your existing fans from your advertising Facebook allows you to this by ticking a simple checkbox while creating your ad A great way to grow your fan base is by targeting friends of your existing fans As the old adage goes “birds of a feather flock together” Hopefully your fans have already told their friends just how awesome you are, so a compelling ad might be just the prompt they need to make the leap and become a fan themselves Use ads to help spread your best content If you are using our Social Offers application ads are a great way to get new customers participating in your offer even faster Supporting your Social Offer with a small advertising spend, targeted strategically at those most likely to be interested in our offer can make your offer spread virally even faster Use ads to help support your special offer If you are putting time and effort into developing and curating great content it makes sense to expose that content to more people By supporting your best content with ads it will help you reach a whole new audience, and provide them with a great introduction to your brand An ongoing program of ads with a relatively small spend supporting your content can provide a huge boost to your fan base 23 Additional Useful Resources It pays to keep abreast of what is going on with Facebook Pages to make sure that you are always getting the most out of your investment The following resources will help you stay on top of developments with Facebook Pages Facebook Pages Help Center Facebook Best Practices for Pages Admins Facebook Ads and Business Solutions Help Center Facebook Marketing Solutions Page on Facebook We regularly post content that helps you get the most out of your Facebook presence, and your social marketing in general If you would like to keep up with the latest follow or join us: Facebook + Commerce Page on Facebook Wishpond on Twitter Facebook Pages Page on Facebook Wishpond on LinkedIn Wishpond on Facebook Wishpond Customer Group on Facebook The Wishpond Blog 24 Thanks! Thanks for downloading our Facebook Marketing Guide If you enjoyed reading it, why not share it with some friends: Wishpond develops applications that help thousands of businesses use the power of social media to reach new customers and grow their revenue Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn Share on Facebook SocialStore SocialStore Wishpond Social Store sales@wishpond.com SocialOffers SocialOffers Wishpond Social Offers | 1-800-921-0167 | www.wishpond.com [...]... downloading our Facebook Marketing Guide If you enjoyed reading it, why not share it with some friends: Wishpond develops applications that help thousands of businesses use the power of social media to reach new customers and grow their revenue Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn Share on Facebook SocialStore SocialStore Wishpond Social Store sales@wishpond.com SocialOffers SocialOffers Wishpond Social Offers... Social Store is the fastest, easiest way to create a great-looking storefront for your Facebook Page With one click you can import your products from your existing e-commerce store, and then keep your inventory up to date automatically SocialOffers SocialStore Wishpond Social Store SocialOffers Wishpond Social Offers allows you to create exclusive, limited-time offers for your Facebook fans that then... help you stay on top of developments with Facebook Pages Facebook Pages Help Center Facebook Best Practices for Pages Admins Facebook Ads and Business Solutions Help Center Facebook Marketing Solutions Page on Facebook We regularly post content that helps you get the most out of your Facebook presence, and your social marketing in general If you would like to keep up with the latest follow or join us:... to help your Facebook marketing efforts If you are looking for a specific application it is worth shopping around to find the one that best fits with your requirements, and your budget Wishpond offers two Facebook applications that are specifically built specifically for retailers In our opinio, these are must have’s as part of your Facebook Marketing Toolkit SocialStore Wishpond Social Store is the... to more people By supporting your best content with ads it will help you reach a whole new audience, and provide them with a great introduction to your brand An ongoing program of ads with a relatively small spend supporting your content can provide a huge boost to your fan base 23 5 Additional Useful Resources It pays to keep abreast of what is going on with Facebook Pages to make sure that you are... http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire /social/ 18 Posting and Managing Content Content is the lifeblood of your Facebook community Those Pages that are most successful provide their fans with regular, interesting content that keeps them engaged This is the simplest and most cost effective way that you can reach new fans You will want to get into the habit of updating your page regularly with new content How regularly... them With Facebook’s built in insights (which we will cover next) you will be able to see very quickly what is working and what isn’t What makes a great post? The right posts for you to get engagement will again depend in your audience, but there are some insights that apply universally: 1 Posts with (relevant) rich media perform much better than those without If you can include a picture or video with. .. just the prompt they need to make the leap and become a fan themselves Use ads to help spread your best content If you are using our Social Offers application ads are a great way to get new customers participating in your offer even faster Supporting your Social Offer with a small advertising spend, targeted strategically at those most likely to be interested in our offer can make your offer spread... valuable customer insights - demographics, interests, and more Wishpond Social Offers 21 Advertising DID YOU KNOW? Focusing on being interesting, relevant, and engaging will definitely help you grow your fan base If you want to really accelerate it, you may want to support your activity with advertising Facebook advertising, when combined with the other principles outlined in this guide, can be an extremely... likes, or people talking about you Within these categories you can get useful information about their demographics and geographic locations Facebook also differentiates between paid reach, and organic reach Paid reach is the exposure you got due to advertising Ideally you want to generate as much organic reach as possible - that is people sharing and interacting with your content because they find