When you work in the digital world, there are insightful, smart and good people you “meet” online that you really look forward to meeting in real life.  Ekaterina Walter is one of those people who I finally met at a BlogWorld conference 4 years ago.

Since then “E” has really made her mark as a social innovator at Intel. When I presented at Intel’s first global social media conference a few years ago,  Ekaterina had everyone leaning forward and focused on her approach to enterprise social media. She’s a force to be reckoned with for sure. “E” has continued her advancement and sharing by becoming an author: “Think Like Zuck: The Five Business Secrets of Facebook’s Improbably Brilliant CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Today’s guest post outlines Ekaterina’s practical advice on how to publish content on Facebook that results in better engagement with fans. Fan counts mean little if there is no engagement so read these though and put them into action today.  Then pre-order Think Like Zuck to get even more strategic lessons about doing business on the social web.

Besides being a part of the community and hoping to get discounts on your products, information is one of the most important reasons why your customers become your fans on Facebook, follow you on Twitter or engage with you on other networks. So add stickiness to your communities through great content and engaging status updates. Use 80/20 rule: 80% of status updates should provide value to the fan and 20% can be around your products or services.

There is a number of great ways to keep them interested as well as encourage interactions:

1. Share pictures. Pictures, images and photo albums are rather popular with the fans. For example, one of the top five Intel Facebook posts of 2011 wasn’t even technically a post; it was the photo album featuring images of new Intel museum in Santa Clara. In the community of over 4 million people then (now it is over 14 million), the post was liked over 17,000 times with over 1,000 comments.
2. Posting simple to follow how-to videos and useful tips can prove much more effective than posting a link to a specific product or service.
3. Fill in the blank posts are great, because they invite your fans to share their own perspective with you. Example would be “I love technology because _____”
4. Questions. Asking fans to share their story or point of view always is one of the most effective ways to increase engagement on your page. Though simple, this type of post is often overlooked by community managers. “Real or fake?” “What do you think?” “What is your story?” Or just plain “PC or Tablet?” would do.
5. Videos. This one is a no-brainer. Videos, especially the atypical or funny ones, are always welcomed by fans and shared a lot more than links.
6. Holiday wishes. Show the human side of your company by wishing your fans happy holidays throughout the year. Intel’s simple “Happy New Year! Cheers to an amazing 2012!” post garnered over 14,000 likes, over 900 comments and over 140 shares.
7. Celebrate milestones and say thank you. Did you reach an important milestone? Celebrate with the fans! When Intel reached 500,000 fans, 1 million fans, etc. we celebrated on our Intel page by changing the profile picture and thanking our fans for being a part of our amazing community. The response was overwhelming.
8. Encourage mentions, shares, likes. If you want your content shared or your posts to be liked or commented on, ask! Simple “Click Like if you agree” or “What do you think?” would do the trick. Likeable Media study showed that when you ask questions or asked fans to like the update, the engagement rates were up to 6 times greater than regular updates.
9. Offer interesting challenges. Quizzes or trivia questions might be interesting to your fans. Every now and then we post a comment within Intel communities written in binary code (hey, we are geeks and we are proud of it). Our fans/followed love it!
10. Bring experts for weekly chats. Offer an hour every Friday with an expert on a particular topic. Encourage your communities to post questions for your expert to answer in real time and help foster the discussion.
11. Run polls and ask open-ended questions. Your Facebook page is the best focus group out there. It’s free and real time! If you want to know something jusk your fans! And if you run out of ideas or if your content calendar suffers from the “boring bug” just ask your fans what they would like to see on the page and deliver on their expectations.
12. Draw attention to the most engaged members of your communities and share their creations.

Want more great tips? Pre-order “Think Like Zuck” today and receive a free copy of Ekaterina’s 100-page e-book “Social DNA – Becoming a Social Business: a practical guide to social media adoption within any organization” (the above was an excerpt from the e-book). 

For more great Facebook marketing tips, pre-order “Think Like Zuck” today and receive a free copy of Ekaterina’s 100-page e-book “Social DNA – Becoming a Social Business: a practical guide to social media adoption within any organization” (the above was an excerpt from the e-book).

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After an amazing three days at a recent conference, it was time to head back to Minneapolis.

One crucial pre-flight ritual: downloading enough new content to my Kindle Fire to stay entertained during the 3+ hours of flying and airport time.

As I flipped to the Kindle book store, the first place I started was my recommended list. I will say that, overall, I am always pretty impressed by how well Amazon “gets” me.

In less than two minutes I had made my purchase.  Without personalization, faced with the  1 million+ books which are part of the Kindle library, there is a 75% chance I would have never made a purchase at all.

When I think about a company that is personalizing my online experience well, I tend to go right to Amazon. But personalization extends far beyond product recommendations to devices, reviews, calls to actions, and more.  This is a subject which aligns well with TopRank’s approach to optimizing for customers. If many people can find your content through search but it’s not engaging, or if the content is hard to find but highly engaging, no one wins.  Optimizing customer experience and discovery through search is essential for a win all around.

Leveraging personalization for this purpose was the topic of one of the presentations at the conference I attended: “Personalization: Delivering Customer Content to People and Bots” given by Michael DeHaven of Bazaarvoice and Greg Ott of DemandBase.

I was really interested by the idea of moving beyond product recommendations to other types of personalization, Michael DeHaven outlined four types.

Four Types of Online Personalization

#1: Site Wide Personalization

Site wide personalization refers to serving site content which is personalized to my past behavior on the site, as well as other identifying information the site may know about me – like gender, demographics, etc. An example of this would be customizing the Webinar titles I see on the side bar based on webinars I have attended in the past.  A user is much more likely to convert if the content and call to action on the page is customized to them.

#2: Product Recommendations

As mentioned above, personalized product recommendations are pretty standard – although sometimes it’s done really well, and other times it’s not.  One of the best examples of doing this well is Amazon.

#3: Evaluation Personalization

Consumers today are highly likely to make decisions based on reviews.  Consumers hope that reading reviews, rather than just polished marketing speak, will give them the full story on a product or service. However, customers only want to read about 7 reviews.

As marketers we are charged with making people feel like they have received the full story after only seven reviews. This means that the typical strategy for sorting content – recency or votes of helpfulness – is likely not the key to providing the 7 best reviews.

It is best to serve reviews based on factors which are most compelling to users:

• Sufficiently long
• Inclusive of rich media – like images, video, etc.
• Inclusive SEO targeted keyword phrases
• Use of search terms

Personalization in the evaluation phase can have big results. Michael DeHaven shared an upward lift in conversion rate of 4% for big box retailers and hotel/travel businesses.   Of course, different types of reviews were more effective for different types of businesses.   For example, rich media was impactful for the retailer, but  not essential. Images and videos were key to conversion for the hotel/travel industry.

So don’t generalize.  Testing is key to personalization is all phases.

#4: Device Personalization

Personalization goes beyond content and extends to the device.  Delivery is very, very important to conversion rates.   If you don’t personalize the experience of an iPhone, tablet, etc, then you are likely missing an opportunity.

So now that you know the types of personalization – here are four steps to get started from Greg Ott.

4 Steps to Online Personalization

Step 1: Determine who you are Personalizing For

Personalization for every single visitor who consumes your content is difficult and inefficient. The best course of action is to determine who your best customer is and focus on personalizing their experience.

Step 2: Determine What you Know About Them

Once you know who you are targeting, then you flesh out what you know about that customer, from key attributes, 3rd party data, correlation studies, etc.

Types of Attributes:

1. Behavioral  (measures short term interest and intent): includes past purchases, previously views, keywords, traffic sources.
2. Identity based : includes gender, psychographics, company industry size, customer status (existing, competitive, etc.).

Step 3: Decide what to Show

Based on what you know about your customer, then you decide what you will show them. Use optimization tools, AB testing, and predicative modeling in order to optimize your content. This will be an iterative process, continuously optimizing content based on measurement and testing.

Step 4:  Find out if it Works

Use Google Analytics or another testing platform in order to determine if the content is working. Don’t be afraid of bad results.  A test isn’t always going to work, but you should publish the results so that your team can see the benefit of the ongoing process of personalization and optimization.

Personalization makes life so much easier for consumers. With each extra click the consumer has to take in order to take the action they want, the more likely they are to drop out of that funnel.  So look beyond product recommendations and consider all the aspects of a site you can customize and optimize for your customers.

So what’s your verdict on personalization? Convenient or creepy? Have you started personalizing content yet?

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Visual Gold

This new infographic from Marketo (client) takes a dive into content marketing campaigns of the future.  Those that focus on creating visually appealing content in a way that still creates value to the readers.  In this infographic you’ll find ideas such as:

• Content Formats
• The Five Pillars of Visual Marketing
• Promotion Distribution

Pope Joins Tweeting Masses With @Pontifex Handle
Benedict XVI will begin tweeting in eight languages beginning December 12th, 2012 using the handle: @Pontifex.  The pope will use Twitter to respond to questions live during his weekly general audience.  Not surprisingly, within only 10 hours of the announcement, Benedict had already reached nearly a quarter million followers.  Via The New York Times.

Google+ Adds Community Pages and Snapseed Vs Facebook and Instagram
It appears that Google+ Communities is Google’s strategy to go up against Facebook’s Groups.  These communities will allow users to create groups related to their passions and interests, and connect with similar people.  For ease of use, Google has made Google+ Communities easily accessible from the home screen.  Via Search Engine Journal.

Evernote For Business Is Here: Is It Right For Your Team?
Evernote’s personal organizer has now taken on organizing businesses.  One of the great features for business users is the Business Library.  This libray of content can be shared to with other team members and could be used for training, as well as a variety of other purposes.  Via readwrite.

Instagram Snubs Twitter: What Does That Mean For Brands?
If you’re a longtime Instagram user you may have noticed that recently your photos are not meshing well with Twitters platform.  Images are appearing too large and are cropped awkwardly.  Could this have something to do with Facebook’s recent purchase of the vintage inspired photo application?  Via PR Daily.

8 Ingredients of Effective Inbound Marketing for Generating and Qualifying Leads
Determining the exact moment when prospects will buy your products or services is next to impossible, but you can reach out to them at a time when they will be receptive to interacting.  This article shares 8 helpful tips for ways to begin targeting leads in a qualitative way.  Via MarketingProfs.

TopRank Team News

Miranda Miller - Promoted Tweets are now available in Asia through Twitter’s partnership with Komli Media
Twitter is partnering with Komli Media, who will manage all Twitter ad sales in the Southeast Asia. This is significant for Twitter, as they’ve identified the Asia Pacific region as one of their fastest growing opportunities. Komli are experienced in social advertising and already offer similar services to Zynga and Facebook, among others.  Via ClickZ.

Rob Bayne - Social Media: The Christmas Stimulus
Are you using a multifaceted social channel marketing plan this holiday season?  Read this article to learn entry level social strategies, backed up by social success stories.  Via Social Media Today.

Thom Craver – Five Fantastic Web Font Services
Previously, the Web was all about the same basic fonts everyone has installed. If you wanted to use a custom font, you had to use images of your text, which is not optimal for SEO. This article presents 5 services for Web-based fonts that use CSS so everyone can view – regardless of operating system or mobile device.  No longer do you have to be stuck with Arial and Times New Roman!  Via Website Magazine.

Alexis Hall – 5 Graphics that Recap the Most Important Google SERP Changes in 2012
2012 marked another year of big changes for SEOs, including quite a few changes to the Google SERP page, including the Knowledge Graph and personalized search results. Check out these 5 graphical representations of the biggest changes to the SERP page in 2012, and industry sentiment around those changes.  Via Search Engine Watch.

Evan Prokop – The New MySpace: Here’s How to Get Started
Myspace has been reborn!  This article includes a slideshow filled with tips on setting up your new Myspace profile.  Many of these new features allow for customization as well as exciting ways to interact with content.  Via Mashable.

Time to Weigh In: Have you experimented with visual content by adding it to your content marketing mix?  Did you find that the reward was worth the effort?  Does Google+ Communities have a chance of competing with Facebook groups or should Google+ just give it up already?  Has Facebook made a big mistake by messing with Twitter’s integration with Instagram?

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Picture this: your company has exciting news to share with customers, shareholders, suppliers and your target market. You’re launching a new product this week and it will be debuted at a popular industry event, sure to be attended by media, influencers and people who will want to buy YOUR product, just as soon as they learn about it.

You craft the perfect press release and send it to 1,000 of your contacts. Twenty of these people think this is such great news, they each send it to 500 of their friends, relatives and business contacts. Five of those people pass the news on to 250 of their contacts. Of course, these people are all fascinated, as you’ve been able to include pictures, a video, and they all received the message within hours!

Sorry, this type of viral messaging just doesn’t happen in real life… outside of Facebook, that is.

Facebook is fast becoming one of the most powerful PR tools on the web. Using Facebook as an online PR tool allows companies to increase their reach exponentially, getting in front of interested people with engaging content when and where they are receptive to the message.

A recent comScore study, The Power of Like 2: How Social Media Marketing Works, found that earned media exposure through Facebook amplification increases sales both online and in-store. Fans of brands spend more, but so do their friends, thanks to the viral nature of Facebook and the ability to more widely disseminate brand messages.

Many companies are doing this well, but we discovered a few standouts who are truly making the most of the Facebook PR opportunity. Check them out and see if taking a page from their book could help you generate buzz for your next newsworthy event or announcement:

Country Crock’s Army of Moms Are a Company’s Best Friend

How often can you talk about margarine on Facebook and keep the interest of your fans? Country Crock has the perfect solution for brands with a highly niche product: don’t talk about your brand at all. Talk about the problem your product solves.

Country Crock has an incredible 677,000 Facebook fans, with hundreds at a time sharing their content and generating conversation around the company’s Page. This is the best kind of online PR possible; their fans are advocates of the brand and regularly circulate Country Crock content. This puts the brand’s name and logo in front of a network of thousands of fans’ family and friends.

They encourage social sharing by asking questions of fans, including a call to action in their posts (Share this if you agree!), and sharing delicious recipes for Moms who don’t have time to scour the web looking for simple dinner ideas. Doing so consistently has made Country Crock’s Facebook page “the” place for their fans to find recipes and get inspired.

Facebook PR Pro Tip: Don’t expect fans to share your company’s advertising or PR messages. Deliver great content and they will share your content, putting your name, logo and messaging in front of their network of friends.

Alfa Telecommunications Rock Facebook with Multimedia Event Coverage

Alfa Telecommunications, Orascom Telecom Media Technology’s mobile network brand, have amassed over 89,000 Facebook fans and see an impressive level of engagement on nearly every piece of company news they share. They are skilled in maximizing their ROI from industry and company events by sharing high quality, interesting photos and videos with Facebook fans.

The metrics shown above seem to be about average for Alfa; hundreds of people Like and several more comment on and share their visual content. This is fantastic for them, as this expanded reach is putting their company in front of friends of fans who may not have connected with the brand. Their content mix is kept interesting and fresh with industry news, fun facts and statistics, and information of general interest to people in their geographic region. This means that when they have company news to share, they can do so without fans feeling as though they are constantly the subject of a marketing campaign.

Facebook PR Pro Tip: Use high quality multimedia content on Facebook to increase social sharing and expand the reach of your PR campaigns. For more great tips on event marketing using SEO and social media, be sure to check out Lee Odden’s Tasty Ideas to Maximize Online Marketing for Events.

iConstituent Increases Awareness and Boosts Engagement 300% with Facebook Ads

iConstituent’s success story flies in the face of a perpetual Facebook marketing myth: that Facebook users don’t want to be bothered by business or political messaging while using a social network. Who wants to chat with an elected official in their social time? A lot of people, as it turns out.

The legislative e-communications agency strives to reach constituents in their Congressional districts and deliver timely, important messages about issues in their districts. In one structured test campaign, they saw engagement on elected officials’ Pages increase 300% after running Facebook Ads and had 10 times the ROI, compared to a traditional, glossy paper mailer.  Ad creative typically included an eye-catching photo or logo; a few past examples included a graphic that said “JOBS,” or “I want to hear from you.”  iConstituent deployed ZIP Code targeting for the Congressional district, with precise interest and hashtag targeting to bring in relevant constituents.

Once constituents are pointed to and enticed to Like the elected official’s Facebook Page, PR is incorporated into their content mix. They are then able to connect and engage with constituents regularly, ensuring the people most receptive to their news are receiving it via the Facebook platform.

Facebook PR Pro Tip: Use the tools available to you to build a targeted audience, highly receptive to subsequent organic PR messages.

Are you using Facebook as a facet of your online PR strategy? Share your best tips and success stories in with other readers in the comments!

Image via Shutterstock.

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