Why I Like the New Facebook Insights

Facebook is tweaking its Insights again, and from what I’ve seen so far, it’s a change for the better.  Here is a breakdown of what’s changing:

• The People Talking About This metric has been broken out into people engaged, the number of unique people who’ve clicked on, liked, commented on or shared your posts, and other page activity, which includes Page mentions, check-ins and posts by other people on your Page.
• Virality (the percentage of people who created a story from your page, divided by the total number who’ve seen it) has been replaced with engagement rate, which is the percentage of people who saw a post that then clicked on, liked, commented on or shared it.
• Viral reach (the number of people who saw a post from a story published by a friend)  is included as part of organic reach, with total reach broken down into paid and organic reach.

I like several aspects of the new Insights. The graphics are simpler and easier to understand. You can see at a glance how many likes your page has gotten, your total reach for the last week, and how engaged your followers have been:

I also think Facebook has greatly improved their reporting of individual posts on a page. As you can see below, it’s much easier to see how well your fans have been engaging with your posts:

The photos above came from the overview section of Insights. Facebook also breaks down the numbers by Page:

You can also see when your fans are online. Facebook breaks this info down by day and time, so you can see when your content is getting the most reach. Now you can easily see at a glance when your audience is online, so you can make sure to post when they’ll be most likely to see your content:

And if you’re still not sure which type of posts get the most engagement, Facebook gives you that info in a new graphic format too:

Facebook is slowly rolling out the new Insights to users. If you get the option to try it out, be careful. Facebook says, “if you choose to participate in the new Page Insights, you can go back to the old version at any time, but you won’t be able to switch back to the new version until it’s available to everyone.”

What do you think of the new changes? I think it’s definitely going to help Page Admins map out a better strategy to boost engagement on their page. I have to admit that I haven’t paid as close attention to Insights for my own page as I should, but that’s definitely going to change now!

Why You Should Avoid Building Poor Quality Backlinks

One common SEO mistake small business owners and solopreneurs fall victim to is building poor quality backlinks. Often times, these business people maintain their own websites, yet they don’t fully understand what backlinks are.

Pinterest: Really Useful Tools to Measure Each Pin Impact

Looking for ways to measure your Pinterest efforts? This article Pinterest: Really Useful Tools to Measure Each Pin Impact. has some useful suggestions, including Pinalytics. I tested out their  search feature, and was impressed with the results, as you can see below. Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think!

 

6 Frequently Asked Questions about Twitter

If I had a quarter for every time someone told me, “I just don’t understand how to use Twitter,” I could buy a new Coach purse by now! 🙂

That’s how I used to feel too, until I started using Twitter more consistently. Now, I’ve come to appreciate the social networking site as a marketing tool.

3 Reasons Why Not to Post from Twitter to Facebook

Do you post photos, links and status updates from Twitter to Facebook? This appears to be a smart strategy. If you don’t have time to spend on both sites, linking Twitter to Facebook lets you post once and have the content appear in both places.

How to Engage Your Online Audience – The Fan Factor

Many business owners find social media challenging because they don’t see how to make money off of it. There’s no immediate return on investment. And as a result, many are quick to give up. But if they would just be patient, the rewards can be great. The key to making money online, especially through social media, is to generate engagement. Once you can engage your audience, it’s much easier to turn them into fans who will buy your products and services, and recommend you to others.

3 Reasons Why You Should be Using LinkedIn Groups

Do you belong to any LinkedIn Groups? If you do, when is the last time you participated in one? By participating, I don’t mean that you shared your latest blog article in a group, or posted the link to your newest webinar. I’m talking about taking the time to read through other people’s posts and commenting on them, and providing useful information. If you’re not doing that, you should start and here are 3 reasons why:

Big Brands Taking Over Twitter, Facebook at Expense of Small Biz?

Is it just me, or does it seem like Twitter and Facebook are squeezing the small business owner out of their networks as they chase ad revenues from companies like American Express, Nike and Coca-Cola?

I think Facebook’s recent addition of timeline for pages, and some new premium advertising platforms, that guarantee news feed distribution for up to 75 percent of a page’s fans, are going to benefit big brands because they have the deep pockets to sustain an ad campaign.

10 Small Business Facebook Cover Photos

Has the latest Facebook change driven you to Google+ or Pinterest yet? 😉 Yes, Timeline arrived on Leap Day for Pages, and even though the mandatory switch doesn’t take place until March 30, I’m surprised at the number of businesses who have “leaped on board” already. (pardon the pun) I’m still in preview mode, but the pic above gives you a sneak peek. Even though I’m tempted to make the switch, I think it’s best to wait until all the bugs get worked out. After all, if Facebook Diva Mari Smith isn’t rushing in, why should I?

SEO in a Minute: Twitter

Want more Twitter followers? You’ll learn the key steps to take in this SEO in a Minute video:

I’m Gloria Rand with today’s SEO in a Minute tip.

Want to know the secret to attracting Twitter followers? Use keywords that reflect your interests or business in your twitter username, your bio and in your tweets. My primary Twitter username is @gloriarand, so I created another profile to market my SEO copywriting services to the green products niche. That username is @GreenSEOcopy. If someone searches on Twitter for SEO, my username should come up.

Keywords are also useful to include in the bio section of your Twitter profile. Remember that you only have 160 characters to convey your business and personality, so make it concise!

The third place that often gets overlooked to include keywords is your tweets themselves. Whether you’re sharing a blog post or tweeting about an event you’re conducting, include relevant keywords so your tweets will show up when someone’s doing a search. If you’re tweeting quality information, people will start to follow you.

If you’d like more information on how to use Twitter to grow your business, visit my blog at gloriarand.me.