In the last 24 hours Facebook has been rolling out it’s ‘Questions’ functionality – you will see it on the left hand side of your Home Page or at the top of your Profile or Business Page.

the Answers and Questions feature of Linkedin have been a great way to build online visibility and be a source of lead generation for a number of years. This move by Facebook is another example of them looking to have people spend more time in their company and become a source for information and research about questions we have.

One of the most powerful features is that you can post a reply to a Question as the name of your ‘Facebook Page’ – unlike when you comment on a Facebook Profile or Facebook Page.

Here is a quick video review of the Facebook Questions feature which I published today over on my Biz Growth Media Facebook Page.

You can also ‘follow questions’ and edit the answers to the questions that you respond to.

However one potential disadvantage is that when people click on the links to the questions you ask using the ‘Questions’ feature it will take people away from your Facebook Page.

If you are monitoring your online reputation on Facebook it will be important for you to start to listen to the questions being asked and answered.

When you post an answer or a question it will be seen by the whole of the Facebook community irrespective of your Facebook Profile privacy settings – so be careful what and how you ask and answer questions.

More details about Facebook Questions are here on the Facebook blog.

Remember the novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams where the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything was 42 – perhaps Mark Zuckerberg is looking for that book to be re-written – and the answer now being Facebook.

What are your thoughts about Facebook Questions?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Access my FREE Facebook webinars about using Facebook Pages and Facebook Advertising

Access my guide to Facebook Pages best practice guide for colleges and universities

Perhaps Facebook not where your potential clients are networking online? If they are using LinkedIn you might want to access my FREE LinkedIn for business – make sure that you leave a valid email address so that you can access a discount off my forthcoming 4 week programme starting the 9 August 2010 called “LinkedIn for Business Leads and Profits”. The discount is valid until the 31 July 2010.

comScore, Inc. has today released a global report how women interact with the web called, “Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet” – it’s an extensive analysis of how women are are interacting online across social networks, online video, mobile communications, online retail trends and a number of other key areas.

The report comments that social networking sites reach a higher percentage of women than men globally, with 75.8 percent of all women online visiting a social networking site in May 2010 versus 69.7 percent of men.

Here are a few conclusions I drew from the comScore report.

1. Don’t just look to connect and reach women on women’s magazines, celebrity gossip and baby sites – the report comments that “women are more engaged than men on the Internet -you just have to know where to look”. Think beyond the obvious suspects when looking for online communities where you can reach the female consumer.

2. If you want to connect with women you need to understand how they interact in social networks – the report states “social networking is central to women’s Internet experience”. Women of all ages connect on social networks sharing photo’s, playing games, and watching online video. Globally, women spent an average of 16.3 percent of their online time on social networks in April 2010, compared to only 11.7 percent for the men.

3. Women in the US control the cash – more women than men get engaged with online transactions and collectively spend more.What does this mean then when it comes to the tone and content of your online marketing?

4. Act global but understand local influences – we need to deep our understanding of regional and cultural differences impact in Internet behaviour. The report goes into some depth about differences they have found across the globe.

5. Stop making the excuse that Social Networking is only relevant if you are marketing to a youth audience -  the 45+ female segment is driving the greatest proportion of growth for Social Networking sites, in terms of both visitation and time spent. Yes the 15-24 may use these sites more frequently and use them more however the 45+ age group visit and use Social Networking sites just as much as the 25-34 and 35-44 age groups.In fact older women are using Social Networks significantly more than men do. In North America, with 9 out of 10 female Internet users visiting a social network site in April 2010.

6. Men and Women use Twitter differently – the report comments that in an April 2010 comScore survey, men were found to be more likely to post their own Tweets than women; women on the other hand used Twitter more to find deals and promotions, as a place for conversing online and to follow celebrities.How does that change your content strategy for Twitter?

What other research and insights have you found about how female consumers use the web and how is it influencing your online marketing, PR and communications? What other insights did you glean from the comScore report?

I recently noticed a post from Jeremiah Owyang asking the readers of his blog for their input on Facebook marketing best practice.

Here is the feedback I shared:

1. Understand the online habits of your community – identify when your community are online so that you can time your Facebook update so that it has a chance to appear when they log on in their feed on their home page without too much scrolling. This simple online visibility tip could increase the possibility of them engaging with your update

2. Manage the frequency of posting – Take care not to publish content too frequently to your Facebook Page – if all people can see on their Facebook home page feed is your updates not their friends they may ‘unlike’ your Facebook Page or hide your feed

3. Don’t forget to promote your Page – When starting a Facebook Page we have found that also investing in engagement ads (on the home page of Facebook) has assisted in increasing the visibility and number of people joining your community quickly

4. Post relevant refreshing content – Keep your competitions relevant to the community on your Facebook Page. This may seem obvious but it is often overlooked. Your competition does not have to be for something that has an expensive price tag – but it is something valued by your community. Note – if you are hosting a competition or give way, make sure you comply with the guidelines for promotions and competitions (there are many brands who don’t and risk their Facebook Page being deleted)

5. Make it easy to do business with your app – When adding applications make sure you test it for useability – too many clicks as part of the process and people won’t add your application and if it’s not easy to use and does not add value (or fun) to them your Facebook app will remain a secret.

But what ideas would you add?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Access my FREE Facebook webinar about using Facebook Pages

Access my FREE Facebook webinar about Facebook Advertising

Access my guide to Facebook Pages best practice guide for colleges and universities

Perhaps Facebook not where your potential clients are networking online? If they are using LinkedIn you might want to access my FREE LinkedIn for business – make sure that you leave a valid email address so that you can access a discount off my forthcoming 4 week programme starting the 9 August 2010 called “LinkedIn for Business Leads and Profits”. The discount is valid until the 31 July 2010.

Here are some of the areas I covered:

• How LinkedIn can assist you if you want to be make sure that you are found online for professional expertise
• Tips for optimising your professional LinkedIn profile so that it can attract leads for you
• Guidance on how to develop a network of strategic business contacts
• How to ensure you never lose the important connections you make on LinkedIn
• The most important rule you need to follow when using LinkedIn to represent your personal brand online or offline
• Ways to expand your network to support your personal and professional goals
• Guidance to boost your online visibility and your visibility to your LinkedIn network.

Just head over to the opt in page and leave your name and email address – make sure that you leave a valid email address as there is also a special offer that will be emailed to you – a discount off my forthcoming 4 week programme starting the 9 August 2010 called “LinkedIn for Business Leads and Profits”. The discount is valid until the 31 July 2010.

I have delivered this programme in workshops with clients but this is the first (and possibly only) time I will be delivering the programme online.

I was also recently interviewed on a national radio show about LinkedIn for business and career success – you can listen to the recording here.

Kildare Village (opened in 2006) is home to over 55 designer outlet boutiques (Bally, Anya Hindmarch, Polo, Karen Millen, Reiss, Coast, Molton Brown, Clarks, All Saints, Designers Guild, Cath Kidson, Le Creuset, Kenneth Turner, Starbucks, L’Officina by Dunne & Crescenzi) offering previous seasons collections at prices reduced by up to 60% all year round.

You can listen to the podcast here – it’s the first of a new podcast series I am producing bringing you conversations about inbound marketing and social media communications.

00:00:00.0     An introduction to Kildare Village
00:04:03.8     The types of customers that come to Kildare Village
00:06:23.7     What is the shopping experience like?
00:09:01.5     Trends in retail in the current economy
00:10:34.1     The Kildare Village marketing programme
00:16:39.1     How Kildare Village is using social media
00:19:07.9     Tips for building a community on Facebook
00:22:15.1     Benefiting from customer feedback
00:24:34.2     Integrating marketing online and offline
00:30:29.0     Tracking and measuring the effectiveness of your marketing
00:35:07.2     Recent and current promotions
00:47:50.6     Key learnings and insights from the first four years
00:53:36.5     Show ends

Find Kildare Village on Twitter

Find Kildare Village on Facebook

In my workshops and mentoring about Facebook for business, many organisations are not aware that Facebook do actually have guidelines for promotions and competitions that you want to host on Facebook.

In the last week I have come across more than 5 Facebook Pages in Ireland (both large well known brands and start-ups) who are failing to comply to Facebook guidelines. And the consequence of this could be that Facebook comment that they will:

remove any materials related to a promotion at any time, regardless of whether the promotion was approved, where we determine the continued marketing or administration of such promotion may be unlawful under applicable laws, rules, regulations or guidelines or may cause unreasonable liability for us.

I do in fact know of one Facebook Page (not in Ireland) where the Facebook Page which had amassed a significant community was deleted by Facebook for failing to comply to the Facebook Promotion Guidelines.

Specifically take note of the fact that Facebook will not allow you to:

Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as making a post on a profile or Page, status comment or photo upload

Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page

Notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages.

Here are some essential tips for staying the right side of the Facebook Promotion Guidelines:

1. Read the Facebook Promotion Guidelines – this may seem obvious, but the guidelines do and can change so you need to be aware of the current guidelines and understand how they could impact the plans for your Facebook promotion or give-away:

6.3 We reserve the right to review promotion rules and promotional copy at anytime but is under no obligation to do so. Our approval of rules or materials related to the promotion does not relieve you of any obligations in these Promotions Guidelines

2. Comply with local and industry specific promotion guidelines – you need to ensure that your promotion is in accordance with any restrictions in your own local geography or within your industry sector, for example:

2.4 The promotion’s objective is to promote any of the following product categories: gambling, tobacco, firearms, prescription drugs, or gasoline;

2.5 The prize or any part of the prize includes alcohol, tobacco, dairy, firearms, or prescription drugs.

ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE TO MANAGE OR PROMOTE YOUR COMEPTITION ON YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE

1. Create and implement a bespoke Facebook application – You can of course still promote and run competitions on Facebook – you do however need to either work with a digital marketing or social media agency who will develop a specific application for you or work with a Facebook approved paid application. Especially in the case of bespoke applications, you need to account for time in your project plan for Facebook to approve your application:

3.6 You must submit materials for any promotion you plan on administering through the Facebook Platform to your account representative for our review and approval at least 7 days prior to the start date of such promotion. Promotions not approved in writing within such time period will be deemed unapproved.

2. Use a paid Facebook application service – There are a number of Facebook application services available that you can use to manage your competition, quizzes, gifts, promotion or sweepstakes, including Fanappz, Involver and Wildfire – or have your social media agency use one of these services to support your Facebook marketing programme. These offer great affordable solutions for small businesses, however be aware that the application will be braded with the name of the provider which I know may not be relevant for all organisations.

3. Manage your competition or give away on your website or blog – You do not need Facebook’s approval if you are publicising a promotion that is administered completely off of Facebook. However, Facebook reserves the right to remove any materials relating to the promotion or disable your Page or account if they determine that you violate their Promotions Guidelines, the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities or any other of their policies.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

And of course once you have your competition or promotion in place don’t forget that you then need a marketing plan to support you building awareness of your competition. I will be covering using Facebook adverts as a way to promote your business, product, service, page or even your Facebook application in a forthcoming FREE webinar.

You can register online to attend the event here.

It is taking place on Friday 11 June 2010 at 6pm and will last 45 minutes. I will also be featuring some real life examples in the Facebook advertising webinar. This is one of a series of FREE webinars this month that I am hosting as part of my reverse birthday celebrations. You see if was my birthday yesterday and I decided last week to host some live webinars an provide someone on the webinar guidance and mentoring for their business.

What is your experience of managing your promotions, competitions and give away’s on your Facebook Page?

Photo credit Nimbupani on Flickr

Perhaps you are wondering how you can leverage it further?

Perhaps you are thinking of getting started using Facebook to connect to more customers and attract more leads and profits for your business?

You have already set up a Facebook Page but are are you confident that it is delivering you the results you are looking for?

As you are probably aware I consult and teach many organisations about how to integrate Facebook into their marketing and communications and my team also support the development and implementation of Facebook pages. Over the last couple of years I’ve noticed 7 common mistakes that many businesses make when using Facebook for their business.

So I have decided to host a FREE webinar as part of the Irish Internet Association’s ‘Digitise the Nation’ week and will be sharing my observations on these 7 common mistakes so ythat you can avoid them when developing your own Facebook programme to support your marketing and communications plan.

Here are the details of how to join the FREE Facebook training webinar:

DATE: Friday 21 May 2010

TIME: 6PM/1PM ET for 45 minutes

REGISTER TO ATTEND AT: ONLINE

THE EVENT TWITTER HASH TAG: #dtnevent

This webinar is specifically for people who are thinking about using Facebook as part of their marketing and communications programme or who have recently set up their Facebook page.

What happens if you can not attend the live event? I will make sure that youl receive notice of how to access a recording of the event – just make sure you provide your current email address below, so you receive full details of this free event.

When you register online you will get access to the details of how to join the webinar – you can then add the date to your calendar.

And if you have friends who are just starting their businesses do please share this event with them.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

JOIN KRISHNA ON FACEBOOK FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TIPS

JOIN KRISHNA ON FACEBOOK FOR FACEBOOK MARKETING TIPS

I hope to ‘see you’ on Friday! and if you are at the IIA Congress tomorrow do come over and say Hi – I will be walking around with a digital recorder and microphone recording sound bites from speakers and attendees for the Conference Podcast and in the afternoon will be in the Social Media Working Group workshops where you can come and ask me your Facebook marketing questions in person.

But this video made me smile – it’s of the ‘Sienna’ family and their ‘Swagger Wagon‘. You can see the video here for the Toyota Sienna featuring the ‘Sienna family’.

You can even download the MP3 if you ‘dig’ the tune – and there are also a series of other videos on the Toyota Sienna video channel on YouTube.

The Swagger Wagon already has over 1.335 million views since it was uploaded at the beginning of May.

The Toyota video was created by Saatchi & Saatchi and directed by Eastbound and Down producer Jody Hill.

I wonder if this will breath life into the challenged brand? It will be interesting to see if this translates into increased brand awareness and sales. I can not wait to see the ‘remakes’ of the ad which I am sure will follow soon!

Oh and if you are parent make sure you check out 1.35 minutes into the video – I am sure you can recognise that scene!

When I noticed Meteor have developed a new Facebook Page and have been running some effective Facebook engagement adverts I invited Caitriona to answer some questions about the Facebook marketing plan that Meteor are implementing – so here is the interview.

Krishna: What inspired Meteor to implement their new Facebook Page?

Caitriona: Before the launch of our new Facebook page Meteor had previous successes on Facebook. We had 5 separate pages which supported promotional activities like our sponsorship of The Apprentice and the Meteor Ireland Music Awards. However, these pages had largely become inactive as the promotional activity came to an end.

With our new page we wanted to create a central ‘hub’ for Meteor on Facebook – a page that is inherently Meteor and a place where customers can engage with us and get to know us better.

Our new Meteor page will be ‘the’ page for Meteor on Facebook from now on and will house all things Meteor.

Krishna: How are you managing your social media marketing across Facebook and Twitter (and any other channels in social media?) and what kind of time commitment is this taking?

Caitriona: Since October there has been a new Head of Online role introduced and so there has been much more focus on the online channel generally and social media in particular.  As this focus on word of mouth and social media has grown my role has changed to working full time on social media. We also have another resource working on this part time. Between us we manage Facebook and Twitter internally.

Managing Facebook and Twitter does take time. We check the page several times throughout the day to ensure a real time interaction with customers where possible.  We also spend time gathering the content, posting the updates and planning future activity for these sites.

Krishna: How do you determine the content for your Facebook page?

We think it is important to strike a balance between fun, relevant content and promotional messages. Facebook fans would tire easily of being bombarded with sales messages so we try to post interesting and engaging content too. We want to give customers an insight into the people behind the brand and get away from the ‘corporate’ side of things.

Krishna: You have only launched your Facebook page in April so can you give us some ideas about how you have attracted almost 4,000 members of your community?

Caitriona: We’re really happy with the number of fans so far.

Our ‘Kiss, tag, tell and win’ quiz has a great viral element. Each time someone takes the quiz an update appears on their profile. Also, as the quiz involves ‘dishing the dirt’ on your friends, an update appears on the wall of certain friends too.

We have also used Facebook ads to promote the page, including one with a poll embedded, to encourage interaction.

We posted an update on Twitter telling followers about our new page as well as letting members of our online forum know that we had a new Facebook page.

To make sure our existing Facebook fans didn’t lose out we also posted on the wall of our older pages encouraging them to move over to our new page.

Krishna: How are you as a business now looking at Facebook as part of your integrated marketing and social customer relationship management?

Caitriona: We have had successes with Facebook so far and it is a good fit with our target audience so we are planning to continue to use it as part of our mix.

Krishna: How will you know if having a Facebook page has been a success for your business – what kind of metrics are you tracking?

Caitriona: We are monitoring the page insights provided by Facebook; we are tracking the growing fan base and interactions and we hope to integrate further with our own website and track through analytics.

Krishna: What top three tips have you for other marketing managers if you are looking to integrate Facebook into your marketing and communications programme?

Caitriona: Make sure there is a fit between Facebook and your potential customers. If they are not on Facebook, do you need to be? Secondly don’t use your Facebook page as a platform to bombard with sales messages. And finally have some fun with it!

I am sure you will agree it’s great to have the opportunity to learn from other businesses about their marketing on Facebook. So thanks Caitriona for sharing your insights and experience.

Remember to post your questions over at the Biz Growth Media Facebook page – I’ll be looking to answer as many of your questions as possible in the forthcoming Facebook for Business Webinar taking place the week of 17 May as part of the IIA Digitise the Nation week of events.

Here is a great example of a Facebook Page for the The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) – their ‘Lend a Paw’ Facebook campaign.

Every time a fan clicks the application then 1 US$ is donated to the ASPCA – so far they have had over US$22,000 in donations and have grown their Facebook community by over 10,000 people during April 2010.

The ‘Lend a Paw’ campaign is sponsored by Walmart who has committed to donating up to $100,000 over the length of the promotion.

The application has also integrated the Facebook Comments social plugin so that people can share their comments about the campaign to their Facebook personal profile therefore helping their Facebook friends hear about the fundraising campaign.

There is also the ability for each member of the Facebook ‘Lend a Paw’ to make multiple donations – you can click once per day – that encourages people to return to the Facebook page.

They have also integrated a link that allows people to make additional donations through the ASPCA site so that the Facebook page in integrated into their overall fundraising programme.

So why not become a member of the ASPCA ‘Lend a Paw’ Facebook programme?

What other great examples have you seen of Facebook being used by non profits?

Post your questions about Facebook for business or nonprofit communications at my Biz Growth Media Facebook page – I’m hosting a webinar as part of the IIA Digitise the Nation week about Facebook so would love to cover as many questions as you have.

And if you are interested in Facebook statistics in Ireland you can find the April 2010 statistics over at my Biz Growth Media Facebook Page.