Quick, what’s the first thing you do when a commercial comes on the television. The standard answers without thinking about it are: flip through the channels, go to the restroom, or get up to get a drink.

Now, think about it more thoroughly. What do you really do when a commercial comes on. The answer for many Americans and people around the world is that they grab their smartphone or tablet and do things there until the show comes back. In fact, many people are using their smartphones or tablets while they’re watching television.

It’s the way of a mobile, always-connected digital world. Active social media users are checking their feeds during commercials. People check their email. They play games. They check out something on the internet that they thought about during their show. Some just do, well, something, anything, because it’s the right time to do it.

Most businesses are not taking advantage of this trend. We saw a glimpse of it during the Super Bowl when many advertisers read their market research and determined that they should use their spot to highlight social media hashtags, but it was isolated. Businesses aren’t moving forward as quickly as they should.

There are two real takeaways from this trend. First and most obviously, advertising on social media is a must, particularly on Facebook. Compared to television ads, they are pennies on the dollar and they’re reaching people at the intended time – during the entertainment mindset. This is what has made television so effective as an advertising venue and it’s what contributes to the effectiveness of social media advertising, just at a much less expensive scale.

As counter-intuitive as it may seem before you give real thought to it, social media is the most cost-effective way to reach your television audience. It sounds weird, but it’s true. It’s not just while they’re watching television. When was the last time you road on a train or a bus? What are people doing when they’re waiting for a plane? At restaurants, when you’ve put the menu up and finished placing your order, you may talk to the people around you or you might pull out your mobile device while waiting for the food. It’s what we do when we have nothing to do and social media advertising is the key to reaching these people.

The second takeaway is this – businesses should be addressing people through television to interact at that moment on their mobile devices. People are on them. Use that knowledge. I’ll be very impressed the first time I see a television ad that says something like, “You probably have your tablet or smartphone in your hand right now, so check out what we’ve done for you at…”

That would get their attention because you’d be talking directly to them. Even the people who aren’t on their device at that particular moment have a chance of grabbing theirs from the coffee table and checking out what you’re doing simply because you asked in a way that makes them feel connected. It’s basic psychology that is not being used today. Will you take advantage of the trends?

If you are a business that has a Facebook page, then you already know building a community on the page does not happen overnight. Often times you hear or read about how it takes time and patience to create a page on Facebook that is lively and engaging, which is true, but rarely ever do you learn about the gradual steps that will tell you if your page is growing in the right direction.

The first extremely important factor in building an active community on Facebook is Content. Think of the content you share on your page as a type of “invitation”. When you share a photo, link, video, or question on your page, you are inviting people to interact with your page and more importantly, with your business.

The types of content you share with your potential community will effect who will accept your “invitations” (shared posts) or not. Thus, it is important to share content that you are knowledgeable about and that is relative to your business. If you stray away from sharing these types of content then you will be “inviting” people to your page that have no real interest in your business.

For instance, if you are a car dealership and you post images of cats, than you are going to grab the attention of those on Facebook who love cats, not cars. If you want to attract a community who loves cars, then ensure your Facebook posts are about cars. If you also want to attract people who live locally to you, then post about local events, activities and landmarks. The key is to think about what you are posting first, put a reason behind it, and then listen to what the community is telling you on your Facebook page.

However, you may be wondering, what does “Listening” to your Facebook page mean? After all, it is a page, but keep in mind that with every action that happens on your page there is a voice behind it, which signifies, there are plenty of things you need to be listening to with every piece of content you share.

Once you begin sharing relevant content and start listening to those on your Facebook page, you will gradually see a change occur.

1. At first, your content will see a few likes and they may be sporadic at times. However, keep posting relevant content.
2. Once people on Facebook see a consistency occurring on your page with the type of content you post, you will gradually begin attracting those with the same interest as the posts you share.
3. Eventually, you will begin to see comments happen on your page, again, this may be sporadic, but make sure to respond to each of them. Show that you are listening, which will increase the chances that they will comment again.
4. Posts that are “shared” by people on Facebook does not happen as often as likes or comments do, but it is another component you should be listening to.
5. Overtime, you will see a larger amount of likes, comments, and shares occur on your page and as you continue listening, you will see your active community grow.

Therefore, in order to build a strong community, it is vital that you listen to the likes, comments, and shares on your page; for each will tell you a little bit more about your page and the content you are posting. Listen to the posts with the most actions and engagements, the people behind them are telling you something.

For instance, if you are a Chevrolet car dealership and you posted an image of a Chevrolet Camaro, which received more likes, comments, and/or shares than another image you posted on the page, then what you should have heard from this is that you need to post more content about the Chevrolet Camaro.

If the type of content you are sharing on your page isn’t receiving a lot of actions, again you are being told something, the people on Facebook are telling you that you may need to change to another type of content or become more creative with it. First, listen to what the people are telling you and then give them what they want to ensure growth of your page.

Your Facebook page not only tells a story to the community about your business, but the community tells you a story too, that is, if you are listening.

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Read more Share Worthy News on Sharocity’s blog.

In many ways, Facebook has lost some of its luster as a business tool. It isn't that it's not possible to properly market a business on the platform. It's that the complexity of the EdgeRank algorithm mixed with the touchiness of the advertising formats has many turning autopilot onto their pages instead of investing time or money into them.

They just weren't seeing a return on investment the way that they had hoped.

It seems to be an ebb and flow of sentiment. General Motors, for example, decided to dump their investment into Facebook advertising last year before returning to the platform this year. It's not an uncommon practice - try it, fail, give it up, hear that things are better, try again.

Those who are on the downside of their Facebook love affair often turn to automation. Once they've decided that they can't get the ROI out of Facebook, they either abandon their page altogether or continue to post to it semi-regularly or through posting tools that take care of the process for them. It isn't hard to see when a business has taken their eyes off the Facebook ball for a while as the posts quickly become unengaged. Users stop liking them. Comments stop coming in. These pages become virtual ghost towns.

The challenge is with the representation it offers to those who visit the page. Just because a business abandons their page or sets it on autopilot doesn't mean that people stop visiting it. Sure, the posts are no longer visible in the news feeds of fans and friends of fans, but there's still search. With very few exceptions, Facebook pages rank on the front page of searches for businesses by name. People visit them to get a feel for what the business is up to and how they're treating social media in general. What do they find when they visit abandoned or poorly managed pages?

It's not good. It leaves a bad taste in people's mouths in the best case scenario. In other cases, it can actually be a detriment as negative posts from spammers find their ways onto the walls of abandoned pages. Spammers love hijacking them and filling them with links to bad places because they're much less likely of getting reported. Spam posts on active pages are a quick way for someone to get banned, while on abandoned pages they can help spammers get more credibility in the eyes of the automatic Facebook spam filters. Facebook relies on pages and users to report spammers. When they can find friendly havens on pages that have been abandoned, it helps them build quiet credibility in the eyes of the filter.

Even pages that are checked on a semi-regular basis can be bad. They demonstrate very little effort in a very loud way. Many social media users are passionate about their networks and don't like it when a business is willing to dismiss their page. Is it worth it? Can investing 5 minutes a day help to prevent this from happening?

Absolutely.

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Post originally appeared on Techi.

What is important to your business when using social networks? Is a question many companies should be asking every time they log onto their social sites, such as Facebook or Twitter. Understanding what the purpose is for using these sites is vital in knowing the types of content your business will produce and share on them, as well as, what your company hopes to gain from using them.

For most businesses, the answer would be to connect, engage, and build reciprocal relationships with the right people, but finding the right people for your business is not always easy and usually takes a lot of time and effort to accomplish. Many companies have begun using sites that measure social influence, such as, Klout and Kred to discover their best customers and brand evangelists; however, besides a Klout or Kred score there isn’t much else to go on.

Little Bird, currently in private Beta, offers much more than the current social influence measuring sites, in that it analyzes data and provides reports about those you are connected to, the topics they discuss, and with whom they have made connections with. Not only is Little Bird about finding the right connections and engaging with them, but it is about helping your business become an influencer in your topic as well.

The founder of ReadWriteWeb and CEO of Little Bird, Marshall Kirkpatrick, says it best, when trying to define Little Bird, “… A robot librarian, finding the best sources of information in the chaos of social conversations online…”

The online world is filled with information about the topic of your business, which is often found through an online search for content displayed on web pages, but it’s not  just about the web pages anymore; it’s about the authors behind them and in ensuring your business is engaging and connecting with them.

Being the first to know about a particular topic and having online influencer research provided to you in reports, via Little Bird, will be extremely helpful to your business’ marketing and PR team, and ultimately; the overall extension of your brand.

Our business culture has always been to let the customer have the last word, they are always right after all and although some of this way of doing business can still work; it doesn’t on Facebook.

Customer service has advanced due to the easier ways of communicating with businesses through social media platforms.  Customers or potential customers are no longer lingering in cyberspace; instead, they are actively looking to interact with your brand.

Facebook has become the hub for such interactions as their pages platform have made contacting and connecting with a business the easiest. Through having the ability to comment on shared content, chat via a private message or even leave positive or negative feedback via the resistant recommendations feature.

No matter how a person contacts your Business on Facebook, your need to respond is a necessity. However, not only do you respond but now we have finally advanced enough for your business to have the last word.

At first thought, it may seem improper to have the last word, but if you have ever reviewed a Facebook page that didn’t, it looks like the business is not keeping up the page, which can give the perception to a potential customer that they cannot easily message you through the private message feature to get a response. This perception has a ripple effect; it then turns to, if the business isn’t responding online than in-store they may not be customer service driven either.

One of the many things we have learned from social media is its impact it has not only from reviews of others but from the expectations of an active presence to be available by the brand. Sloppy pages will get overlooked, non-relatable content will make your efforts mean less and non-responsive communication will make you look like you lack in customer service.

Your business’s social sites are an extension of your place of business. Just because they are not made of brick, does not lessen their importance. If a customer were to walk into your store and ask you questions, you would answer right? If they made a statement, had feedback or left with a smile, you would respond to the statement, ask how you can improve or say thank you for the feedback and smile back if someone smiled at you.

You must apply this face-to-face service to your online version of your business. Your website has now become the shelves on a store rack, your social networks is where your face-to-face time happens now and more often, especially on Facebook.

Facebook is where the people are. It is the place that people can contact and connect the quickest without having to stray too far away from what their original intentions of using Facebook within that moment was. It mixes what you share on your Facebook Page with what they have within their newsfeed and they can see more than you realize.

Therefore, when someone asks a question using the comment feature, answer it. If they leave feedback, ask how you can make their experience more helpful or thank them for it (even if it is not public) and an emoticon smiley face is a smile in return.

Your presence is important and you care about your business’s reputation and that means that every written connection should mean something to you. You would not ignore someone who came into your store nor should you ignore someone who comments on your social sites. Facebook has the largest impact and that is why having the last word especially on Facebook will have your business looking attentive and provide the quality of service that can lead from a conversation to a lead generation.

[Image Source: ventaboutit]

Content speaks for itself. It speaks for a company. It speaks to the people.

Most business websites are sorely short on content. Sure, they have sales content and information about the company, but so few today are actually putting out high-quality content about relevant topics that make their websites more of a resource. Today, people want to trust a company before doing business with them and content is the easiest way for them to understand that you know what you’re doing.

It’s not just about having information for visitors to see in order to convince them that you’re an expert. It’s also about having things to post about on social media. Many businesses spend time going through feeds and reading blog posts by industry professionals to find content for their Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ accounts. While pulling from outside sources has its benefits, why would one want to always drive traffic to other sites? Why wouldn’t they take advantage of their own expertise and post content that they put together on their own sites?

In  this infographic by Content Plus, we look at the anatomy of content marketing. It’s important to understand that just selling all the time isn’t effective, that being a resource means gaining trust, and that people can find you in more indirect ways than direct ways in today’s content-driven digital era.

There’s a fine line between making social media useless by posting things that aren’t relevant for business and making it ineffective by having posts that are too promotional, thus killing the posts through “death by algorithm”. Done right, businesses have the ability to be interesting enough to make the algorithms like them while being relevant enough to get a benefit out of the networks.

It’s a relatively complex formula used by both Google+ and Facebook when determining whether or not to present a post to people in their feeds, but the process to master them is pretty simple. The basics summed up in a sentence is this: by mixing in likeable content with business-relevant content at the appropriate levels and applying the right amount of advertising pressure (at least with Facebook), business posts have the ability to keep the algorithms happy while still getting the business messages out.

Understanding the Two Styles

There are two types of content that should be posted on Facebook and Google+. The first and most common type is the “happy” post. It’s the type of content that your fans will enjoy. It’s normally not business-relevant other than that it should pertain to the type of business or local area. In the image above, a Mazda dealer posts an image of a hot Mazda vehicle. It performed well – on a page with under 600 fans it received over 30 likes. This is positive for the algorithm and will help future posts find exposure on news feeds.

The other type of post is a “money” post. It’s business relevant. It is designed to drive foot traffic, website traffic, or both. It promotes a sale, a community event relevant to the business, or a message of some sort that the business wants exposed.

Mix it Up

There’s no formula for this, unfortunately. In other words, it’s not a matter of posting 4 happy posts for every 1 money post. Every page has different thresholds and diverse fans that make it necessary to test, test, and retest before determining the right strategy.

The key is to keep it changing. You don’t want to let your fans get fatigued. In other words, a dealership that posts car picture after car picture will eventually force people to stop liking the posts. Keep it fresh. Try new things. While we definitely do not recommend mixing in anything that isn’t relevant (cat pictures, for example), there are plenty of things going on in the local area and at the business itself that allows a page to continue to succeed against the algorithm.

A Warning About Facebook Ads

Facebook ads work. We use them efficiently as part of our client’s strategy. They have a caveat that must be noted, though, and it’s a mistake that more and more businesses are making every day.

They are a two-edged sword. While they’re great for getting more exposure to the page and to individual posts, they can also hurt a page. If the wrong posts are highlighted through Facebook ads, it can have the opposite effect than intended. Posts that get a ton of negative sentiment through Facebook ads can cause future posts to be invisible to just about everyone who has the potential to see them. Keep in mind that Facebook and Google+ are both aware of visibility.

In other words, they know when someone is scanning their news feed and when they pass over a post without interacting with it. Every time they see a post and do nothing with it, they are telling Facebook and Google+ that they didn’t find your content worthy of engagement. This effects their chances of seeing future posts.

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The algorithms are not difficult to master. They just take understanding and a willingness to test, test, and retest. Are you willing to make the effort?