Facebook Growth: How to Create Huge Facebook Communities Without Advertising

By Michael Stelzner
Published June 19, 2015

Wondering how to grow your Facebook following without resorting to paid advertising?

Want to discover the secrets to getting more fans and driving them to your blog?

To learn how one marketer has built several massive Facebook communities, all through organic growth, I interview Collin Cottrell.

The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode I interview Collin Cottrell, the founder of WhitetailOverload.com, a website dedicated to deer hunting. He's quickly built a massive following of more than 800,000 fans on his Facebook page, all without advertising. Collin also founded OutdoorOverload.com.

In this episode Collin will explore how he built his Facebook pages rapidly, without using paid advertising.

You'll discover how to cross-promote your Facebook pages to grow your following and what types of posts get the most attention.

Listen as Collin Cottrell shares how to create huge Facebook communities without advertising.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.

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You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher, SoundCloud or Blackberry. How to subscribe/review on iPhone.

Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:

Collin's background

Collin, who grew up in the Midwest, started hunting with his dad at an early age. He would go to hunting camps with his father and uncles, and they would sit around the campfire, tell stories about hunting and talk about life. Collin found he had a passion for hunting, and wanted to figure out how to make a living from it.

In high school Collin started building websites, doing graphic design and using social media (at the time it was MySpace and the beginning of Twitter) to build his way into the hunting outdoor industry. For example, he worked on Bowhunting.net (which was on AOL in 1994 and then launched fully in 1996). Collin also attended hunting and outdoor trade shows, such as the Archery Trade Show, where he would interview the different dealers and put the videos on their websites.

The hunting industry needed a new way to market to their growing customer base with social media, Collin says, and that's how he found his niche.

At the same time Collin was going to trade shows, he was building his own marketing company on the side. Developing relationships with major players in the hunting industry was a huge boost to his business.

Listen to the show to discover the similarity between how Collin and I got started, even though we're in very different niches.

Collin's start on Facebook

Around 2007, Collin launched a graphics/web design/marketing agency with a focus on the hunting and outdoor industry. Facebook pages were just being introduced, so Collin decided to create hunting-related pages to build communities.

In addition to the bowhunting page, he started pages for shed hunting, turkey hunting and more.

Facebook was different at the time, Collin recalls. If you put out good content, and you had a good following, you could reach a lot of people. He put interesting, informative, value-driven content on the page, such as questions, pictures and videos.

A short time later, Collin decided to create a whitetail deer hunting page, since it's the top tier in the hunting industry in America. He did crossovers from the other pages to get fans to the new one. This Facebook page grew organically very quickly through contests, content and posting several times a day.

A year and a half ago, when they were at 500,000 fans, they were able to reach 25 to 50 million people a month. Whitetail Overload launched August 1, 2014.

Whitetail Overload grew very quickly through giveaways and good content.

Since Collin is a web and graphic designer, he was able to build landing pages and apps for his giveaways right in Facebook, which drove people to his pages, as well as other large hunting-related niche pages.

Giveaways, Collin shares, do not work as well now. Today, it's better to drive people to your website to grow your following.

Listen to the show to discover how Collin's Facebook pages got him business for his agency.

How Collin built such a large following

Cross-promoting through pages is an excellent way to grow your following. (Check out podcast episode #144 where Dale Partridge explains his method of cross-promoting.)

Collin talks about the morel mushroom hunting page he started recently. To grow his following, Collin posted to his other pages: "If you are into morel hunting, check out this page." And he would share the link.

This type of sharing jumpstarts a fan base, Collin explains. After that, just provide good content for that community, which people share and comment on. Be sure to comment back.

The morel mushroom hunting page is up to 50,000 fans already.

Collin grew the Morel Mushroom Hunting page by posting about it on his other pages.

While he occasionally cross-posts content between pages, Collin mostly just posts to the other pages, and asks fans if they're interested in the other communities. He'll say "join" this page, since Facebook doesn't like to show posts that ask people to "like" something.

Collin explains what types of content he posts to Whitetail Overload. Since it's a deer hunting page, he shares hunting-related content, wildlife growth and more. It's the whole deer-hunting lifestyle. He posts products, memes, photos and videos. Collin is now creating blog content too.

Whitetail Overload shares content that is in line with the deer-hunting lifestyle.

The whole point is to share your passion and personality with the content you create. People don't want to talk to a robot. They know there's someone behind the page, so try to stay real. Collin shares the things he likes, because he thinks his community will like them too.

Listen to the show to hear how to find things in a seasonal niche to post in the off season.

How Collin connects his communities to his blog

Collin explains what led to his decision stop doing design and marketing for other companies and just focus on his niche blogs. He decided to experiment with creating original content for Whitetail Overload and posting it to all of his niche communities. This was in June 2014. He would put up a blog post, and it would get 30,000 to 100,000 people clicking through to the website. It was all the encouragement he needed to disassemble the agency and go full throttle with his niche.

Each month, he drives 2 million sessions from Facebook to Whitetail Overload.

Collin's strategy for driving traffic to his blog is twofold. He continues to run the community on the Facebook side, and posts good content organically within Facebook, which is mostly photos, status updates, and so forth. Plus, he mixes in content from his blog.

Collin now also posts links to original content on his Facebook pages.

Collin's priority right now is building up Outdoor Overload, since it encompasses a broader audience. For that, he is publishing three to five posts per day on the blog and then pushes them to his full network on Facebook. He posts frequently on Facebook (five to seven times per day on each of the pages and sometimes he posts the same blog link twice in one day).

Listen to the show to learn how Collin monetizes his blog.

Collin's tips

Find the niche you are passionate about, and do some research to find out what's out there on the other social networks. Then start a social community and build it up.

Take the time to create good content, including videos, and find people to help you do it. Do blogs, photos, etc., because that's what will help you build those communities, drive traffic and eventually monetize.

Listen to the show to discover the most important thing you need when developing your community.

This app lets you do Facebook Messenger without having to go to Facebook. It's called Goofy. The Goofy app is a free, unofficial Facebook Messenger client for the Mac.

Goofy is an unofficial Facebook Messenger app.

Using the app, you can message people on Facebook without getting into the time suck that is Facebook when you have other things to do.

Keep the app in the dock. Then when you need to send a message, just open it up. It's much less distracting than going into Facebook or checking Facebook on your phone.

Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how the Goofy app works for you.

The Social Media Marketing Society is a professional developmental, membership-based community where social media marketers come together to get monthly original live training and connect with peers.

Here are six reasons why you should consider it.

#1: Your peers trust Social Media Examiner.

"My experience with all things Social Media Examiner has been inspiring, and I couldn't think of a better group to be part of as we begin this journey together." – Tyler Sowinski

#2: Connecting with other marketers is valuable.

"I think it is essential to reach out to others online who are outside your professional circle, share content and create engaging conversations." – Carol Hartmann

#3: Step-by-step, tactical training is hard to find.

"I'm here because I'm hoping it will help me do my job better. I need to stay updated with recent social media platform changes, learn what works and what doesn't and I'm hoping to get all of that knowledge right here." – Shari Sultana

#4: It's hard to keep up with the pace of change.

"I've been in the marketing field for over 12 years. However, in all of those years, it has never had the rate of change that it has now. I'm excited to keep expanding my social media marketing knowledge and keep up with the ever-changing platforms!" – Ashlee Colliver

#5: Joining the Society will save time.

"Time is at a premium. Any help I can get in filtering out the time-wasters and turning my focus to tactics and strategies that work is welcome. I look forward to learning and improving what we are doing in many areas." – Erika Schanzenbach

#6: The Society is something you can afford.

"Having one central place to go to for training and support and a great community that has knowledge to share was a no-brainer for me." – Lauren Ridgeway

These people have already joined the Social Media Marketing Society. It's only $40 per month and enrollment is only open June 2015. It will not open again until 2016. You can cancel at any time.

Check it out at SMMarketingSociety.com and try the sample course.

Listen to the show!

Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Marketing podcast:

How to Subscribe to this Podcast on an iPhone

Watch this quick video to learn how to subscribe on your iPhone:

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What do you think? What are your thoughts on building Facebook communities? Please leave your comments below.

Tips for creating huge Facebook communities without advertising.

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=167506593384213&version=v2.0″; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));About the Author, Michael Stelzner

Michael Stelzner is the founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner, and host of the Social Media Marketing podcast. He also authored the books Launch and Writing White Papers. Other posts by Michael Stelzner »

View the original article here

Original source: Facebook Growth: How to Create Huge Facebook Communities Without Advertising.
http://www.jretechnology.com

Facebook Groups: How to Nurture a Community on Facebook

By Michael Stelzner
Published June 26, 2015

Do you have a Facebook group for your community?

Are you considering starting a Facebook group?

To learn how to use a Facebook group to build a loyal community that helps your business, I interview Jared Easley.

The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode I interview Jared Easley, host of the Starve the Doubts podcast and co-author of Podcasting Good to Great. He's also co-founder of the Podcast Movement, the industry-leading conference for podcasters.

In this episode Jared will explore how he uses Facebook groups to cultivate an active community of podcasters.

You'll discover the benefits of building a Facebook group, as well as tips for getting started.

Listen as Jared Easley shares how to nurture a community on Facebook.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.

Listen now: Play in new window | Download | Embed

You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher, SoundCloud or Blackberry. How to subscribe/review on iPhone.

Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:

How Jared's podcasting conference got started

In January 2014 Jared and co-founders Dan Franks, Gary Leland and Mitch Todd were at New Media Expo when they overheard several attendees asking why there wasn't a podcast conference. The group realized if they didn't take a step to create something, someone else would. They decided to move forward, even though there were plenty of things that could have prevented them from even getting started.

Jared explains how they reached out to a few people who had put on large events, and asked for their perspective and advice. One person who gave them a lot of feedback was Phillip Taylor, who does a conference for financial bloggers. Armed with information, they turned to Kickstarter to crowdfund the conference.

They just needed a small amount ($11,000) to validate the idea, and they weren't sure if it would take 30 days to raise the money or if they'd even get it at all. They asked the podcast community if they would support the conference, speak at it and share it with their network. A lot of people said yes, Jared shares, "but it's one thing to say yes and it's another thing to vote with your wallet."

Jared and his co-founders turned to Kickstarter to get an idea of interest and support for the Podcast Movement Conference.

When the campaign was published, they hit that $11,000 within 9 hours. At the end of the 30 days, they had over three times the amount needed, which was more than enough validation to sell tickets, pursue sponsors and follow through. Six hundred people came to the first Podcast Movement Conference.

Listen to the show to hear more about the Podcast Movement Kickstarter campaign.

Why Jared started a Facebook group

The Podcast Movement created a Facebook page so they could do ads and other promotions leading up to the conference, but they didn't initially have a Facebook group. Although they went to other podcast-focused Facebook groups to spread the word, they had to be careful, because some of the groups had a smart but strict policy on self-promotion.

As soon as the first event was over, there was so much excitement that they realized they needed to create a way for the attendees to continue conversations. That's when Jared and his co-founders started the Facebook group. Not even a year later, the group has 1,600 members and is growing every month.

The Podcast Movement Facebook group keeps growing rapidly.

The group is called Podcast Movement – Past, Present, and Future Attendees, so it's open to all past and potential attendees. This way, anyone who is interested in podcasting can be involved in the community and the conversations.

Listen to the show to learn the original intent of the group.

How the two Facebook communities have helped Jared's business

The Podcast Movement group and page have served two different purposes. The Facebook page has been essential for Facebook ads and for getting the word out to people who might not already know about the conference. The Facebook group has been a great way to communicate with the existing community about not just the conference, but also about podcasting news and information. They also share other meetups and podcast-related events across the country.

The group has also given top-of-mind awareness of their business. Whenever someone gets a notification from a group on Facebook, they see the name of that group.

It's the old "Rule of 7? marketing adage, Jared says. Someone has to hear or see your message at least seven times before they take any kind of action. People who get their notifications constantly see "Podcast Movement" throughout the year, and that's what keeps it on podcasters' minds.

Listen to the show to discover other benefits of having and belonging to a group on Facebook.

How Jared uses the Facebook group

For a Facebook group, especially one that has many members, Jared suggests having more than one admin, like they do. Not everybody can pay attention to the group at all times. When you have a few people in the admin role, everyone's on the same page and can help monitor. There are also better-quality posts and less spam.

People can find the Podcast Movement group in a search on Facebook, but they have to request a membership. Then the admin determines whether you get approved. Most of the time it's a yes, Jared says.

Search Facebook to find the Podcast Movement group.

The team constantly looks for appropriate posts to share, curating information that's relevant to the community. They also try to foster relationships in the group, and highlight people in the community who are doing something noteworthy.

Jared discusses their branding for the group, and makes some recommendations. The artwork for their Facebook group is clearly branded as "Podcast Movement" with the hashtag and dates of the event. Have your branding artwork set up, Jared suggests. If you have an announcement, consider including it into your image.

The Podcast Movement group is clearly branded with its artwork.

While they do make Podcast Movement Conference announcements, especially as the event is coming up, it's not constant. They post about it perhaps once a week so they don't overwhelm people with stuff that's only related to the event. Also, they share posts from the Podcast Movement Facebook page to the group, so members can reshare it publicly.

Share promotional posts on your Facebook page and then to your group. That way, other people can share the post publicly.

"We are at an organic phase when people are naturally sharing," Jared explains. "In the beginning, there was a lot of hype right after the event. Then there were less people posting. That's when we had to consciously go in and start conversations."

Listen to the show to learn about the different types of groups.

The challenges of running a group

While there can be a temptation to over-administer the group, Jared explains, it may or may not be necessary. They try to let people post freely, and if they notice a disturbing pattern, they'll contact that person and say, "Hey, these are the rules and we feel like this particular type of posting is not in line with that."

Podcast Movement has clearly posted rules.

Sometimes spammy profiles sneak in and someone will post something that has nothing to do with podcasting at all. In those cases, the post is deleted and the user removed.

If someone crosses the line with a post, Jared won't hesitate to delete it. He'll send a message to the person involved. Depending on how that conversation plays out, they'll determine whether the person needs to be in the group. Jared says they try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but there are some people who are out to cause trouble. If that's the case, they'll remove them.

Listen to the show to hear how Jared deals with community members' conflicts.

Tips for getting a group started

Although Facebook allows you to automatically add people to your group, Jared suggests you resist the urge. People generally don't appreciate it when you just add them to a Facebook group without getting their permission.

Ask people before you add them. Otherwise, just let it grow organically. Put out messages on your own personal timeline that introduce the group. Also, leverage hashtags.

Plus, if you are in the early stages, you can reach out to members directly and encourage them to share.

Finally, have rules in place and make people aware of them.

Listen to the show to discover what types of posts to use for your group.

The Great Suspender is a Google Chrome extension. If you use Google Chrome a lot and jump from tab to tab, you'll notice it can hog resources from your system. The Great Suspender keeps some of those tabs from running; it suspends them.

The Great Suspender app suspends open tabs from running, so your system is faster.

Set up the Great Suspender with different variables. For example, you can set it to suspend your tabs after about 20 seconds until after about three days. You can specify to not suspend pinned tabs and set it to auto-suspend if you're on battery or on the Internet. (It's kind of like TripMode, discussed in a previous podcast, that manages which programs use your data when you're connected to WiFi.)

Set it as Auto-unsuspend or Click to Unsuspend.

Whether you use Chrome or another browser, remember if you have lots of tabs open, it's data and CPU-intensive. Every now and then, restart your browser and it will definitely speed things up.

The Great Suspender is a free Google Chrome plugin. If anybody has an equivalent in Firefox, please let us know in the comments.

Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how the Great Suspender app works for you.

The Social Media Marketing Society is a membership community for social media marketers.

As of the publication date of this episode, the Social Media Marketing Society will close in just a few days. Up to this point, thousands of social media marketers, marketers who care about social media and business owners have already joined the Society. They are interacting with each other, getting great original live training three times a month and are keeping their businesses on the cutting edge of social media.

This is an exclusive Society, brought to you by Social Media Examiner. If you work on your own and want to know the latest in social media and learn about advanced social media tactics, then the Society is for you.

The cost for the Social Media Marketing Society is $40 per month and enrollment closes at the end of June 2015. It will not reopen until 2016. Check it out at SMMarketingSociety.com.

Listen to the show!

Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Marketing podcast:

How to Subscribe to this Podcast on an iPhone

Watch this quick video to learn how to subscribe on your iPhone:

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What do you think? What are your thoughts on Facebook groups? Please leave your comments below.

Jared Easley talks with Michael Stelzner about how to nurture a community on Facebook.

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Michael Stelzner is the founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner, and host of the Social Media Marketing podcast. He also authored the books Launch and Writing White Papers. Other posts by Michael Stelzner »

View the original article here

Original source: Facebook Groups: How to Nurture a Community on Facebook.
http://www.jretechnology.com

How to Optimize Facebook Custom Tabs for More Conversions

By Jim Belosic
Published July 1, 2015

Do you want to boost conversions from your Facebook app?

Have you thought about promoting it with Facebook ads?

Supporting your Facebook custom tab with complementary Facebook ads will drive more views and deliver more conversions.

In this article you'll discover how to combine Facebook custom tabs with Facebook ads to boost conversions.

Discover how to optimize Facebook custom tabs for more conversions.

You may have heard this saying before: Benefits sell, features don't. Focusing on the benefits for your target audience can make a big impact on conversions from your ads.

Whether your Facebook custom tab app is a promotion, contest or newsletter sign-up form, your goal should be to get the people who come to the page to take the action you want them to. How do you do this? You focus your messaging on how filling out the form will benefit your customer.

To figure out your most important benefits to promote, create a features and benefits chart and spend some time brainstorming. Start by filling in the features column of your chart. Next, think critically about each feature you've listed and the value that it provides to the audience you're targeting with your ads.

List your features and benefits (how each feature provides value to your target) in columns. Image: Shutterstock.

Once you've filled in both sides of your features and benefits chart, pick the top two to three benefits. Promote these two or three benefits with your ads and emphasize them in your app copy.

The bottom line is, to make a greater impact with your app's copy and drive up conversion rates, focus your copy on the solution that your product or service provides. In other words, focus on the incentive your brand is offering. If you keep your copy about your visitors' wants and needs, you'll see more success with your ads.

After you've identified the key benefits you want to promote, the next step is to determine the most important goal of your Facebook ads and design a custom tab app to reflect it. Here are some goals you might have:

Capture the email addresses of users who are interested in your product or service.Drive downloads of a lead-generating resource.Get people to take advantage of a special offer by downloading a coupon.Get sign-ups for an online marketing event you're hosting, like a webinar.Drive engagement (for example, voting and/or an image submission on a photo contest) on a marketing campaign you've built. This ad clearly supports the goal of driving downloads for a lead-generating resource.

Your Facebook ads should always direct people to an app that has a clear focus, rather than to your website. Why? Your website is full of distractions. The fewer distractions your ads' destination has, the more likely you'll accomplish your Facebook advertising goals.

To optimize conversions from your ads, design your Facebook custom tab app without any of these design elements: a navigation bar; social icons; unnecessary links, tabs and buttons; and drop-down menus.

The ad above leads to an uncluttered, custom tab app.

Remove any information or clickable link or button that doesn't support the goal of your landing page.

Split testing different versions of a Facebook custom tab app is tough for two reasons. First, if you don't have a large Facebook advertising budget, you may not get enough traffic to your app to make any valid assumptions.

Second, there are too many variables. You could end up going in circles testing a million little things, everything from the color of your call-to-action button to the copy of your secondary headline.

Instead of split testing your app, it's better to split test the three main components of your Facebook ads: the headline, body copy and image.

It's easier to split test ad components than it is to test custom tab app components.

Discover your best-performing Facebook ad, and then update your landing page's design to incorporate that ad's headline, copy and image.

After a few days of running your Facebook ads, you'll be able to determine which ad is performing best. Based on what you discover, update your app's headline and primary image to match your highest-performing ad. Doing this allows you to capitalize on your highest-converting Facebook ad messaging without getting caught up in time-consuming testing.

Of Facebook's 1.44 billion monthly active users, 40% use it on mobile devices only.

This statistic means one important thing: You should design all of your Facebook custom tab apps with mobile users in mind.

Consider Facebook's increasing number of mobile users when you design your Facebook ads' landing page.

Nothing will kill your conversion rate faster than mobile users clicking on a Facebook ad in their news feed only to discover the app or landing page it links to is blank, doesn't function well or is tough to navigate on a small screen. Including a form that's difficult to fill out via a mobile device is even worse.

Since Facebook doesn't support custom apps on mobile, consider using a third-party app building tool that will allow you to design apps (from templates or from scratch) that are automatically optimized for all mobile devices. No fancy coding skills are required.

You can also build mobile-friendly apps using HTML and CSS to build your own responsive web pages.

Whether you create your Facebook custom tab app with a tool or on your own, be sure to test it on your mobile device before you start running your ads. This is the best way to catch any errors or discover you need to tweak your app's design before you put money behind driving traffic to it.

Conclusion

If you want to get more bang for your Facebook advertising buck, your Facebook ads and corresponding apps need to work together to drive conversions.

What do you think? How do you design your apps/landing pages to optimize your advertising results? Do you have any questions about building apps for your Facebook ads? Feel free to leave your thoughts and questions for me in the comments section below.

Tips for optimizing Facebook custom tab apps for conversions.

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=167506593384213&version=v2.0″; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));About the Author, Jim Belosic

Jim Belosic is the CEO of ShortStack, a self-service software that allows businesses to create engaging campaigns for social, web and mobile. Other posts by Jim Belosic »

View the original article here

Original source: How to Optimize Facebook Custom Tabs for More Conversions.
http://www.jretechnology.com

Is Facebook Tracking Data on Users Who Use the Rainbow Profile Image Filter?

Have we become so skeptical? Last Friday, the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples would have the right to marry in all US states, an historic event and a major win for gay rights activists. To help users celebrate the announcement, Facebook unveiled a new option, enabling users to overlay their profile images with the rainbow flag, a symbol for the Pride movement. The option has been taken up by millions of users – as you would no doubt be aware, log onto Facebook or Facebook Messenger and your feeds will be awash with multi-colored images beaming back at you.

This was a good move by Facebook, a thoughtful gesture that enables users to show their support for the decision in a simple, subtle way. But over the weekend, several commentators noted that Facebook is probably tracking the implementation of this feature. Why, you ask? Because that's what Facebook does – possibly even more than a social network these days, Facebook is a data company, they track everything every user does with a view to building complex character profiles and audience segmentation analytics to help better target advertising. And it makes perfect sense that they do this – but should we really view everything Facebook does with such suspicious eyes?

Back in 2013, when the US Supreme Court began debating the future of same-sex marriage, The Human Rights Campaign urged Facebook users to change their profile image to the red and pink equal symbol to show their support for marriage equity. Three million people did, and Facebook subsequently went on to study how this implementation played out, most notably by who and where. Facebook data scientists went on to publish a study based on this, outlining the "complex diffusion characteristics congruent with threshold models". The study looked at the role the actions of friends played in the process ("most users observed several of their friends changing their profile picture before taking the action themselves"), demographic characteristics and general propensity of the individual to change their profile image. The research concluded that the "probability of adoption depends on both the number of friends and the susceptibility of the individual"

Estimated increases in profile changes for each US county after HRC call for profile change

In more basic terms, the researchers were able to model the likely demographic and relationship characteristics that would increase the likelihood of a person changing their profile image in support of this cause. In themselves, such findings means little – the report doesn't necessarily show more people support a certain cause so much as they want to be seen supporting a cause, hence the influence of their group of friends on their decision. This has no doubt also played a part in the spread of latest profile photo feature, with many people changing their profile not necessarily in support, but due to peer influence. And of course, the significance of peer influence in such cases isn't a revelation either, but what many people fail to see in such analysis is the wider picture.

Facebook has access to more personal data than any single entity in history. Sure, Google has search data, which is also of significant value in a profiling sense, but Facebook has access to personal preferences, more intimate details that tell the story of who we are. Indeed, researchers have found that building psychological profiles based on Facebook data can be more accurate than friends, family, even partners. Such findings are possible not through the attribution of a single data point, but through many, intricate layers of activity undertaken across the social network. In this sense, many fail to see the potential implications of Facebook data on such a minor detail – "what, so Facebook now knows I support marriage equity, so I'll get targeted with ads based on that?" While that's possibly true, it's more likely that Facebook will apply such data on a wider scale in order to categorize audiences into more specific brackets. In this case, it's likely not your personal stance that would be the standout factor, but susceptibility that's more likely to be taken into account.

Consider this – what if you were able to correlate that people who like 'The X-Files', 'Game of Thrones', 'Swimming' and 'Nutrition' who also changed their profile image with the rainbow filter were significantly more likely to be convinced by peer pressure than other groups? I'm not saying this is the case, this is purely hypothetical, but this is an example how Facebook categorizes and matches data to come out with more advanced audience segmentation models – and it's not just five data points they look at, it's hundreds, even thousands of actions they can use to find direct and causal relationships between users and their preferences. For the aforementioned Facebook psychological study, where they found Facebook revealed a more psychologically accurate profile of a person than friends or family, 150 Likes was the magic number at which they could outsmart family members. At 300 likes, the system bested partners on knowledge of that user. When considering how Facebook data matching works, it's not just one action that they're taking into account, but every action you undertake on platform (even some off-platform).

So that being the case, does it really matter if Facebook is tracking people who change their profile image? Nah, they probably already know all about you already, you've probably already been categorized into one of the many ad targeting brackets based on your historic behaviors and personal particulars. The more data we enter every day, the more Facebook builds its data banks, and with 936 million daily active users, that's a lot of insights to sift through and build upon. In the scheme of things, using a filter on your profile image is only one part of a much bigger puzzle that Facebook's constructing – if you're concerned about how Facebook might be tracking your data, there's a much wider scope than this at play. But is Facebook tracking you based on that action? Yes. As it is on every action. As it is with every user. Facebook is as much in the data business as anything else, and the more it can get the better.

So, you know, change your profile image if you want. As long as you're doing it for the right reasons.

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Original source: Is Facebook Tracking Data on Users Who Use the Rainbow Profile Image Filter?.
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How to Create LinkedIn Ads That Generate Results For Your Business

By Viveka von Rosen
Published June 17, 2015

Do you use LinkedIn to prospect for new business?

Want to reach a highly targeted professional audience with your message?

LinkedIn ads are an excellent way to increase visibility and generate leads.

In this article I'll explain the different types of LinkedIn ads and show you step by step how to set them up to reach the ideal audience for your business.

Discover how to create LinkedIn ads that generate results.

No matter what industry you're in, it's likely your business audience is on LinkedIn. The platform's 350+ million users are almost entirely businesspeople, so why not use ads to get in front of your ideal prospects? Ads increase your visibility, and therefore improve the "know, like and trust" factor.

If your advertising budget equals or is more than $25,000 a quarter, you can get access to some amazing (and premium) advertising tools such as Lead Accelerator, display ads, sponsored InMails and sponsored groups.

The alternative, which is perfect for small- to medium-sized businesses, is sponsored content (similar to Facebook news feed ads or sponsored tweets) and text ads (similar to PPC ads on Google, or Facebook ads).

While LinkedIn ads tend to be more expensive than other platforms, they can be worth the money if you use their specific targeting options (companies, titles, education, etc.) and do micro-campaigns (instead of doing one big campaign that reaches 50,000 people, do 50 micro-campaigns that reach 1,000 people each). This reduces the cost, is easier to track and gives you more visibility.

Sponsored updates, like this one, and text ads on LinkedIn are great for small- and medium-sized businesses.

There are two ways to set up ads: cost per click (CPC) and pay per impression (mille) (PPM).

When you do sponsored content, go with CPC, because people don't click through as much on sponsored updates. LinkedIn will keep showing your ad until they get their money, which is why micro-targeting is such a good idea. This is perfect if your strategy is to start getting recognition and visibility.

When you do text ads, go with PPM. These ads are a good option for lead generation. For example, you can send a white paper or another incentive to get someone into your marketing funnel. Once folks feel like they know you because of your sponsored updates, they'll be more likely to click on the link, and then you'll have them in your funnel.

To use any ads on LinkedIn, you need to have a company page, which is easy to set up. Just click Interests and choose Companies from the drop-down menu. On the next page, click the Create button. Then input your company name and email address, and click Continue. Upload logos and content, and you're good to go.

To set up an ad, go to the LinkedIn Ads page. Click Start Now to get started and then select the ad you want to set up.

Getting started with LinkedIn ads is easy. Image: Placeit.

To set up a sponsored ad, click on Sponsor Content. First, type in a name for your campaign.

Choose Sponsor Content, give the campaign a specific name and then select the relevant company.

Choose something specific that you can easily recognize and track. Then select your company. If you manage pages for a lot of companies, you'll get several options.

Now, choose an update that you've already created or create direct sponsored content. The limitation of doing direct (new) sponsored content is that you get fewer characters to work with.

Select the update you want to sponsor.

To promote an update you've already created, you can use 600 characters plus an image. If you choose to promote new, direct sponsored content you'll have to limit your ad to 160 characters, and it won't show up on your company page. If you want to offer something that you don't want to show up on your company page, this is the route to go.

Once you've selected the content, do your targeting. Choose your audience, and at the very least, you have to choose a location. Be as specific as possible.

Then you can target by company or category (industry or company size). Focus on job title, job function or job seniority, as well as education. Another option is to target by group, because if you share a group, it's easier to connect later on.

In addition to targeting who sees your ad, you can also eliminate specific groups, companies, skills and fields of study. So if you're targeting marketers, but don't want your competition to see your ad, you can exclude a specific company or companies. Or if you're growing your mailing list, but you don't want people with a specific skill set to click on your download (because it would be either over their heads or too simplistic for them), eliminate those skills.

There are many options for targeting ads on LinkedIn. Run many hyper-targeted campaigns.

You'll also notice an option called Audience Expansion. It's a good idea to uncheck this box, because it keeps your search as targeted as possible. According to LinkedIn, "Enabling this feature can increase your campaign's reach by also including members similar to the target audience you've selected." Test your ad for a week or so and if you don't see the results you're after, go back in and check it.

Once you choose your audience, it's a matter of paying for it. As previously mentioned, do cost per click on sponsored ads if your goal is brand awareness. Pay per impression is usually three to four times more expensive.

Start with a minimum bid. Then if you're not getting the results you want, update and increase your spend to somewhere between the minimum and suggested bid.

Next, set the daily budget. The minimum is $10/day. Be sure to include an end date.

Keep an eye on the campaign so you can adjust if necessary. You can edit an ongoing campaign, but you get cleaner metrics if you just start it over again, which is easy to do.

It's easy to duplicate existing campaigns. You also get cleaner metrics than you would from editing a current campaign.

To change a campaign, first end the current campaign. Then go back to your Campaign Manager and either duplicate the campaign with different pricing and targeting or start a new one.

To set up a text ad, click Create an Ad and then name your campaign. You don't have to choose a company for this kind of ad.

For each text ad, you need to add a 50 x 50 image, a 25-character headline and 75 characters to describe the content. Since the image is so small, the simpler it is, the better. Also be careful with the language you use. Similar to Facebook, you can't do words in all caps. For example, "FREE" will get tagged, and your ad probably won't pass.

Next, enter the ad destination, which could be a page on LinkedIn (such as your company page) or a URL.

For a text ad, name your campaign and upload the details.

Pick your audience and pay for the ad. For a text ad, you might pay for impressions, because you want more clicks. You can use text ads to feed people into your funnel.

You can do up to 15 variations of one ad. You can change the image, headline, text and destination. For example, use the same image three times with three different headlines, use different images with the same headline, etc.

Add up to 15 variations per LinkedIn text ad.

When you launch your ad, LinkedIn will run as many variations as you create, and you can see which one was most successful in metrics.

LinkedIn is really good about metrics. Sort by amount spent, clicks, impressions, click-through rate (number of clicks divided by number of impressions), average cost per click and social actions.

LinkedIn offers a variety of metrics for ads.

If you choose to change an ad, just click on it, view the details and then edit it.

Go to the Settings tab in the Campaign Manager for notifications.

There's also a check box to select called Network Updates. LinkedIn will send your ad to your network for free.

Go to the Campaign Manager to update notifications and to check the box that will send your ad to your network for free.

One more thing: Every now and then, LinkedIn will offer you an ad credit as an incentive to run ads. This is something you'll want to take advantage of. Just set your limits so you don't go over budget.

Final Thoughts

While it's true LinkedIn ads tend to cost more than Facebook ads or sponsored tweets, you may see some really positive results if you tweak your targeting strategy.

Try sponsored content and text ads, and experiment with different content and targeting to see what works best.

What do you think? Do you use LinkedIn ads? Which ones are most successful for you? Do you use pay per impression or pay per click? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Tips for creating LinkedIn ads that generate results.

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=167506593384213&version=v2.0″; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));About the Author, Viveka von Rosen

Viveka is author of "LinkedIn Marketing: Hour A Day", and listed on 2 of Forbes "Most Influential Social Media" lists. She is also host of #LinkedInChat and co-moderator of LinkedStrategies. Other posts by Viveka von Rosen »

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Original source: How to Create LinkedIn Ads That Generate Results For Your Business.
http://www.jretechnology.com