Are you looking for ways to better engage Facebook fans and build your community? 2012 is set to be a BIG year for not merely improvements to social media as a whole but many are making well informed predictions that if you fail to embrace this new marketing medium your business will suffer. There are a range of fantastic existing apps you can use to engage people with your page and create connections and ultimately recommendations and there are some exciting things on the way…
Fan of the Week for Pages- This enables your fans ‘like’ to be recognized. This application keeps track of participation on your Facebook page and then automatically posts a “shout out” to your fan of the week. The application is free for the basic message, but you can upgrade to the paid version to post a custom message that perhaps rewards the fan of the week even more with a discount/ gift etc. The fan of the week application also adds a custom tab to your sidebar that features that week’s fan on the tab. To add it to your page, just go to http://apps.facebook.com/fanofthe/ and then choose the page to add it to. The app will automatically post to your page wall at the same time every week. Make sure you add the app to your page at the exact time you would like it to post.
If you have a YouTube channel, I recommend integrating it into your Facebook page so that people who come to your page can easily access your videos. There are many YouTube applications, but my favourite is YouTube for Pages by Involver. It’s easy to install, the layout is nice and it offers easy sharing. Your most recent video is automatically displayed as the largest. The application will not automatically post your newest video to the wall, but you can easily post it with just two clicks. The application is easy to install from http://www.facebook.com/YouTubeApp and then click the Add to My Page link on the left sidebar
ContactMe- Make it easy for people to get in touch with you with a contact form on your Facebook page. With the ContactMe app, you can add many different fields and customize the form to suit your needs. Install the ContactMe form at http://www.facebook.com/contactforms.
Ecwid- To open a storefront that operates within Facebook, add Ecwid to your page. Ecwid integrates with PayPal, Google Checkout, Authorize.net and several other payment processing options. Setting up a store is a little more involved than the other apps listed here, but can easily draw attention to your products and services. Ecwid has forums and very good customer support to help you on your way to becoming a social e-commerce pro. To get started, go to www.ecwid.com.
Scribd for Pages- Scribd is a document-sharing service that makes it easy to upload and share PDF, DOC, XLS, JPG and PPT files. People often want to be able to share a document with their Facebook community. While you could upload the document to your website and share the link, the Scribd application allows people to easily view the document right in the tab and download it if they wish. Involver also developed Scribd for Pages, and the easiest way to install it is to go to http://apps.facebook.com/involver_epdmxwnq/. You can also access it by going to www.Involver.com.
And Coming Soon…
Everybody knows that social commerce is going to be the next big frontier online, but for all the hype, there have actually been precious few tools for brands and businesses out there to use. The few social commerce efforts that have been created on Facebook have been hacked together on tabs by brands themselves, but it looks like Facebook are about to make a big move.
In the last couple of days, people are spotting new Facebook coupon ad formats popping up on the site.The ads are appearing in the sidebar and a button asking users to “click here for coupon” takes them through to an online Facebook coupon that looks like this one below. Although this is only being tested at the moment, you can see how this would work incredibly well and add a new commercial value to adverts. Coupons have always been huge in the USA (offline) and recently sites like Groupon have shown there is a wider appetite for them around the world. With brands and businesses starting to wonder why they are spending so much money on Facebook for so little financial return, these coupons could be the perfect solution. No news on this going live just yet, but we are delighted to see Facebook testing this new ad format.
This is just a snapshot of what is available to improve the connections for your business – to find out more contact us at Socially United and let us help make your company page work for you!
