Why Should We Track The Facebook Page?

If you’re running a business, its a great idea to setup a business Facebook page. To know what is going on in Facebook, this set up is a must to know. UK WebDigi figured out how to get around Facebook pages to track it. Hats off & buy them a bottle of Guinness!

Why Must You Know?
If your business is active in your community and you’re engaging with your friends and fans in Facebook. Chances are some of that traffic are possibly turning into leads. On the internet, its about expanding your online presences. I’m not talking about SEO, but the more referral traffic you get the better. You want to have more referral traffic than the search engines. Its been reported that Facebook gets more traffic than Google, but this is at an overall picture. So we know Facebook is a big player in getting your business traffic. The reason is online presences again, hope you get the picture.

We’re currently trying this out with Ace Air a air conditioning service company, and Builders Interiors – laminate flooring service as part of their repetoire. Any Q’s let us know!

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When you perform a search on Google, a menu appears on the left side of the Google search menu. On the menu are links like Everything, Images, Videos, News, Shopping, and so on. These are various universal search options, for example, you can search only for blogs, images or videos depending on which link you click in that menu. There is also one link called Realtime, it may appear as updates in some areas.

Selecting the Realtime link, after you perform a search, lists you the latest news and information on the Internet which are usually from sources like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Friendfeed, Jaiku etc. This means, using the Realtime link, even people who have no Twitter account can see your links, news, offers etc., tweeted by you. With Google Realtime, all tweeters can get their tweets in the search engines. It is an easy way to get included in the search engines and almost instantly, regardless of a Twitter account’s age. An account a year or a minute old have no differences for search engines.

You just have to follow a few steps to ensure your tweet is included in Google Realtime results.

• Register/Sign up at Twitter or log in, if you are an existing user.
• Register/Sign up at Digg or log in, if you are an existing user.
• Now link your Twitter and Digg accounts via Digg.
• Post a link on Digg (try avoiding spam).
• Then elect (via Digg again) to post it to your Twitter account as well.

The first post might take some time before it appears in the Google Realtime results, but in future, they will appear almost immediately. For your posts to appear on their own, post quality content regularly and work on getting a good Twitter following with retweets and mentions.

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However, the analytics capability of for Facebook is pretty limited. So marketers spending all this money on facebook have very little insight into how their fan pages are performing.
Earlier this week I saw a tweet (message on twitter) with a link to Google Analytics hack for measuring facebook fan pages. We tried this hack but it had too many bugs and after wasting 2 hours we gave up on that solution.

As we were struggling with the GA hack, I got an email from Webtrends announcing their Facebook Measurement Capability. So I guess that is going to be our solution for measuring Facebook fan pages and custom apps but I will have to wait and see if it will live up to the expectations.

Here are some screenshots of Webtrends Facebook measurement reports

Here is a press release from WebTrends

“The ability to have concrete measurement on investments within Facebook and compare them apples to apples with other digital channels is critical to marketers,” said Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, vice president of marketing, Webtrends. “Our comprehensive approach to measuring Facebook, beyond just applications, allows marketers to understand the broader picture of how their Facebook investment is performing.”

Webtrends can now show you how your tabs, apps, and share features are working.

A few examples are:

• Twitter activity driving to Facebook Fan pages
• Facebook Fan page activity overlaid with corporate blog posts
• Conversion performance if they happen in Facebook
• Custom applications, Facebook page tabs, and Facebook ad click performance

Webtrends believes Facebook is one of the key social channels for brands to invest in and these capabilities will help them validate those investments.

Webtrends Analytics for Facebook
Webtrends’ new Facebook measurement capabilities utilize Webtrends Analytics 9, which combines our powerful real-time analytics engine with its best-in-class user interface. For the first time, marketers can view their Facebook measurement alongside other digital marketing investments such as websites, microsites, blogs, mobile apps, and more. Additionally, using Analytics 9’s RSS overlay capabilities, marketers can easily see the impact of promotional efforts. Tracking custom tabs, applications, and sharing provides the most complete measurement of Facebook available in the market.

How Webtrends Analytics Collects Data on Custom Tabs
Custom tabs and applications have critical differences for data collection, due to Facebook’s Terms of Service and its commitment to user privacy.

• Brands can’t use traditional analytics methods for tracking custom tabs because Facebook does not allow Javascript, and they aggressively cache images.
• To overcome these limitations, Webtrends developed a new method that uses their data collection API to bring Facebook data into Webtrends Analytics.
• In addition to tracking tab views, Webtrends can also measure:
• Tab views segmented by fans and non-fans
• Clicks on buttons and links, such as the Share button and its options

How Webtrends Analytics Collects Data on Facebook Applications

• Applications allow more tracking options both because they allow Javascript and because the Facebook’s Terms of Service allows for collection of user level data.
• Webtrends utilizes their Data Collection API to bring Facebook data into Webtrends Analytics.
• Webtrends can measure any type of application built on the Facebook platform.

The Great Data Giveaway – A Demonstration of Webtrends’ Facebook Measurement Capabilities
To demonstrate their new capabilities, Webtrends created a prototype Facebook campaign called The Great Data Giveaway. Webtrends is using this campaign as a model for their customers’ reference.

“Marketers are wrestling with how to earn and prove ROI from social media marketing,” said Kaykas-Wolff. “We designed The Great Data Giveaway to not only demonstrate our new capabilities in action, but to also show marketers that social channels like Facebook can generate qualified leads.”

The campaign is a drawing for prizes that appeal to Webtrends’ target market, which are data prizes like ReadWriteWeb premium reports and InfoChimps’ Twitter Census Data.

1. Webtrends created an application and placed it on a custom tab on Facebook to explain the contest details. KPIs: views segmented by fans and non-fans.
2. The user becomes a fan first (known as a “fan-gate”), then allows the installation of the app in compliance with Facebook’s Terms of Service. KPIs: Rate of fan interest, number of installs.
3. Once the app is installed, the user can enter the contest via a form driven by our Eloqua marketing automation system. KPIs: Entries, follow-up email opens, follow-up email conversions.
4. The app allows users to post the contest info to their wall. KPIs: Number of shares.
5. Webtrends marketing provides air-cover for the contest by mentioning it on Twitter and in blogs. KPIs: RSS overlay of promotion efforts on views (tab) and visits (application).

“We are so proactive in talking about Facebook measurement because it’s a critical area of growth for our customers. The new capabilities we have developed were shown at our recent user conference, Engage 2010, earlier this month, and we have several implementations underway,” said Kaykas-Wolff. “To meet their needs and keep up with the rate of change in this space, we have a series of capabilities we’re adding to Webtrends Analytics that will be released in the near term and ongoing basis.”

Webtrends Analytics 9 for Facebook Webinar
Webtrends will also host a Webinar in April discussing how companies can take advantage of Facebook measurement in Webtrends Analytics 9. For more information including registration, date and time, please visit us here.

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In the past, I have always divided the SEO landscape into 3 categories: On Page, Off Page and Site Wide.  On Page Optimization refers to aligning the content and Meta data of a Web page with the targeted keyword phrases that the page is relevant to.  Off Page Optimization refers to aligning the link connectivity of the Web site to the keyword phrases that are most relevant for the situation.  Off page optimization is further divided into two sub categories: Internal Off Page Optimization and External Off Page Optimization.  Internal link optimization is concerned with site elements like the global navigation template and breadcrumb navigation.  External link optimization is primarily focused on 3rd party links that point to your site and what keywords are being used in those links.  Site wide optimization refers to cleaning up all the technical issues which can cause problems for search engines in indexing and ranking your site.  Issues like URL structure, 301 versus 302 redirects, flash, Ajax and Java script, rel tags, xml sitemaps and many other details make up our list of Site Wide Optimization rules and tactics.

Until recently, this model was an accurate reflection of the issues that need to be addressed in any SEO campaign.  But as search has advanced and new metrics have been developed that affect search rankings, a new model is necessary to encapsulate all of the variety of new tasks that are important to any successful SEO campaign.  So for 2010, here is the new search periodic table of the Eight Elements of SEO:

1) Discovery

Analytics

Obviously there is a lot more to the optimization process in this new model, and that’s because a lot has happened in the world of SEO in the last couple of years. So today I would like to put some context behind this new model and explain what else it covers.

The first element in the new model is called Discovery.  This part of the SEO process refers to all activities that are required to understand the parameters and goals of the campaign.  The Discovery phase includes keyword research, competitive analysis, understanding the business model and a review of the current analytics landscape including keyword rankings to understand as much as possible the “current state” of the SEO campaign and what the goals of the campaign are moving forward.

Universal Search Optimization refers to all activities that affect rankings for universal search elements like video, images, news, shopping, reviews and local listings.  Activities include but are not limited to optimizing video content and title tags, image alt tags, shopping feeds through Google base, and local optimization through the Google Business Center.

Usability is a separate Web discipline that focuses on user experience.  Until recently, the correlation between usability and SEO was implied but not well defined.  With the recent advent of the Google Web site Speed Test and all of its associated recommendations, the first concrete metrics that tie usability to search rankings have been established and more will follow soon.  It’s in the best interest of search engines to reward sites that have superior user experience, so you can be sure that an increasing amount of emphasis will be put on usability metrics going forward.

Social Media has long been a favorite tool of SEO practitioners for link building, reputation management and user generated content.  But now that real time search has become a prominent feature of the major search engines, the subset of social media activities that affect SEO is worthy of special attention and those activities need to be part of any successful SEO campaign.

Analytics is the engine that allows you to make decisions about your SEO campaign in terms of understanding performance and deploying resources on an ongoing basis.  Having an understanding about the differences in paid and organic traffic, brand versus non brand keyword performance and the long tail performance of your campaign are a few of the basic essentials that must be in place to strategically run a successful SEO campaign.
In my next post, I will describe a two phase process for running an SEO campaign that addresses all of the Eight SEO Elements on both a foundational and continuous basis.

I hope this gives everyone a good foundation to describe the process of SEO.  I will be speaking more about the eight elements of SEO at the Online Marketing Summit here in San Diego later this month as well as SES New York in March.

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[...] According to an August 2009 survey by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education, 86% of professionals in a variety [of] fields said that they have adopted social media in some way. [...] it also indicated that some professionals or companies are adopting social technologies without having a way to actually measure how effective or useful the measures actually are. In fact, 84% of respondents said they don’t currently measure the ROI (return on investment) of their social media programs.

Even less encouraging, more than 40% of respondents said they didn’t even know whether they could track ROI from their social tools. This is worrisome because it indicates that industries and professionals are adopting technology without actually taking into account how it will impact their business and what value it will add.

via mashable.com

Unfortunately, it’s a similar picture to what I often see in the UK, based on many conversations during this year with organizations large and small.

Not only that, far too many people don’t seem to have a clear plan that sets out what the measurable goals are for their communication and what is the role of social media tools and channels alongside traditional forms of communication.

A point that sometimes crops up that I get asked is: what are we defining as “ROI,” meaning “return on investment”? Money spent?

Not necessarily. ROI can have many meanings as long as everyone agrees on which meaning you’re applying.

I usually illustrate how easy it is to set up your situation for measurement like this, when you’re doing your planning (and well before you execute), an example if you were setting up a business blog:

If you don’t set measurable goals, no wonder there’s not much actual measuring going on.

I wonder what KD Paine or Angela Sinickas would say on this topic.

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Consider the recent example of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, whose digital doppelganger created false identities spanning a range of social media sites and even claimed he had been diagnosed with skin cancer. ESPN advised in its NFL Rumor Central, “Not real, folks. In fact, if you see an athlete with a Twitter, you should assume — at least at first — that it’s fake. Assume it’s a Twitter twerp.”

What happens to celebrities happens to brands too. Identity hijacking is prevalent in social media largely because it’s easy to set up accounts and find an audience. The potential for the reach is enough of a lure. When I recently asked Facebook’s Chris Pan who Facebook’s audience is, he said something to the effect of, “Pretty soon it’ll be everyone.” He’s not that far off.

Major brands have increasing recourses in taking charge of their social identities online. If you’re in this elite group, you have a shot at pleading your case to sympathetic ears at various digital properties. MySpace has always restricted brand pages to paying marketers, Facebook is now aggressively cracking down on branded Pages not owned by someone affiliated with the brand, and Twitter will often turn over parked accounts to the rightful tweeter upon request.

Still, this strategy doesn’t solve two issues. One is that a reactive approach could occur after squatters have already damaged a marketer or brand. The other is that for the vast majority of businesses and brands, there’s no clear rightful owner. For instance, when I think of Sal’s Pizza, it’s the Sal’s Pizza on Mamaroneck Avenue in Mamaroneck, N.Y., with the best Sicilian slices I’ve ever eaten. But there are Sal’s Pizzas in Dallas, Boston, New Holland, Pa., and Little Neck, N.Y.; the last one even owns  myspace.com/salspizza. On Twitter,  @salspizza belongs to a restaurateur in Limerick, Ireland. I know the real Sal’s isn’t in Ireland – come on! – but it would be hard for Mamaroneck’s Sal to make a case, no matter how many of my old high school buddies sign a petition.

So, what’s a marketer to do? Here are ten steps to follow:

1) Run an audit of where your brands are. Note the usernames you use. If you have one flagship brand that’s also your company name, then it’s easy. If you have a stable of brands, this could be a long list.

2) Prioritize the usernames. In the Sal’s example, the business may be Sal’s Ristorante but it’s known as Sal’s Pizza, so salspizza (which is also easier to spell and type) would be the preferred name.

3) Use a site such as usernamecheck.com or knowem.com to enter see if your usernames are taken across scores of sites. Also check for other brand terms. Prioritize usernames that are both memorable and widely available — that’s the sweet spot.

4) For any sites that you know are priorities, register your key usernames. If you’re not sure which sites to prioritize, start with the ones you’ve heard of.

5) Eliminate any sites that are only for consumers and are off-limits for marketers or brands. For this and the next steps, call on the most social-media-savvy person you know, ideally someone you work with closely in your company, at an agency, or elsewhere.

6) Now you need to review all the other sites and prioritize further. If you’re at a total loss, use Compete or Quantcast’s free tools to see how much traffic the sites get, and pick a threshold. 7) For any of these sites, if you don’t plan on using them right away, fill in the minimal information required, post a link back to your homepage or the hub of your social marketing program, and adjust the privacy settings (where possible) so that’s they’re visible to the smallest audience. You don’t want to set false expectations for engaging consumers, and you don’t want to publicize a brand presence that falls short of your standards.

Check where competitors are. One easy way to do so is look for their most obvious usernames and visit those accounts to see if they’re really competitors or squatters. If you can’t find much, run some basic searches. Consider whether it’s worth joining competitors on those sites if you haven’t signed up already.

9) Share the list of registered usernames and passwords with a few trusted colleagues so you’re not the only one with the information.

10) Don’t be a jerk. You’ll find opportunities to undermine competitors throughout this process. Be one of the good guys. Try believing in karma.

Ideally, marketers will have clear-cut strategies for where they want to be and how they’ll develop their digital and social brand identities. But there are two problems with this approach. First, for many marketers, that’s just not the case. Second, if marketers think too hard about their strategy, they may never get around to covering some of the basic steps. If you don’t have a Twitter strategy, for instance, go ahead and register the most relevant usernames you can, make the profiles private, and then return to them when you know what you’re doing.

People will still impersonate celebrities and brands. It’s a price to pay for popularity, or notoriety if that’s the case. But if you’re in these arenas for real, it takes a lot of the fun off others trying to claim they’re you.

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As things stand right now, Rich Snippets will be most useful if your site employs Google Site Search.  This way, Rich Snippets can make sure that visitors conducting searches within your site see not only the information they want, but that they also see it presented in an appealing manner.

A post on the Official Google Enterprise Blog explains, “You can showcase key information, such as image thumbnails, summaries, ratings in your result snippets if you provide the appropriate markup on your pages.”

But Google may well expand the use of Rich Snippets in the future, letting its main search engine pick up on all the same cues.  If so, people who haven’t yet made it to your site would be able to see the same sort of interesting information.

And either way, using Rich Snippets won’t hurt anything.  Leverage them as best you can so long as you have a little spare time.

The Background: I’m not a coder. I know just enough HTML to fix a blog post, but not enough to code a blog or do whatever developers do. Whatever I was going to do was going to be on a TypePad template.

The First Step: Thanks to Andy, I found out about a great feature on TypePad that helps you enter HTML code. Already, I had cleaned up my blog a bit because of this. All you do is pick your blog, go to Design, go to Content, and scroll down the Modules tab and hit Custom HTML, and then add that module. Save the blog, as you’ll need to edit this a bit later. You can put multiple blocks of code in there. For instance, I have my code for Google Analytics in that box.

Googling Google Friend Connect: This was a ‘duh’ step. I went in Google and Googled “Google Friend Connect,” which not so amazingly took me to the GFC site. There’s a big button that says “set up a new site.” Click it. Click GFC for standard sites and enter your site name.

Create Pages: Now you have to start getting crafty. But again, you don’t have to get too technical. You’re supposed to download two pages from Google and upload those pages. The catch is that you can’t just upload files like this to your blog and have them in the right place. I turned to Google again, querying “google friend connect typepad blog.” I went to the third link and it showed me a great workaround. The gist: you create Pages on TypePad (instead of blog posts or uploading files).

For each of the files Google gives you, download them, open them in your browser, view the source, copy the code, and paste the code into the “edit html” part of the TypePad Page you’re creating. Name the page after the file name (in the title, but “canvas” for the Google “canvas.html” file, for example). The only change I had to make to the HTML was that somewhere in canvas.html, you need to change “site name” to whatever name the name of your site is.

By the end of this process, you’ve got two new pages on your site that have the same names as the Google files you need.

Check, Please: Go back to Google Friend Connect and test the code works. Then you can design it. You need to set the right width. I wasn’t sure the width of my right-hand bar so I went to my own profile photo on the right, right-clicked, hit “Properties,” checked the width, and used that as the width for Google Friend Connect on my blog.

Come Full Circle: Now take the code Google gives you and put it in that Custom HTML module you have on your blog.

Two me, there were only two catches:

1) I couldn’t control where GFC appeared on my blog. Not a huge deal.

2) It’s a little narrow the way it works on my blog. It would be nice if I had more room. But nto a huge deal. You can also expand the window.

What I Like about Goo: Now I’ve got a community on my blog. It’s not a very big one. But if I go to GFC or the expanded page on my site, I can connect with other readers of the blog. And more importantly, they can connect with each other. We can share information and get to know each other. All of it’s without a separate log-in. I like viewing this blog as a community rather than a sounding board. Sounds cool, eh? It’s not much, but given that it took me five times as long to write this post as it took me to implement a community on my blog, I’ll take it.

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