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The key to finding success lies in fan engagement, which will provide smaller businesses with greater visibility

Time to face some Facebook facts

By Emily Mobbs • Former Editor

Facebook has undergone numerous updates and guideline amendments in 2013. Emily Mobbs finds many of these changes affect business pages and explains why it’s important for users to keep informed.

Facebook, with more than one billion users worldwide – about 12 million of those in Australia – is arguably the world’s most popular social media network.

It’s often the go-to platform for a business looking to enter the online marketing sphere, and rightly so given its potential global reach.

If you’ve been following Logged On, or any other social media news outlet, it would become obvious that Facebook has already introduced many changes in the past six months, often affecting the way a jeweller’s business page operates.

Layout
Earlier this year, Facebook announced a major redesign of its timeline and news feed that poses a challenge for business page owners.

While items in a news feed traditionally appeared on the basis of most popular and recently engaged content, Facebook users can now control what they see in their news feed through a filter function that allows them to opt out of page updates. Users could selectively follow
and unfollow a business or brand despite having “liked” it.

Social media experts have said that businesses will now need to work harder to draw visitors to their pages if they are to keep their audience. According to marketing software company Hubspot, the redesign means it will be even more important to “post content that is compelling and sharable.”

Have you been thinking about sprucing up your page’s cover photo? You’ll need to take note of the new “20% Text Rule” rule that limits the amount of text overlay in graphics used for business page cover photos and ads. Under the policy, cover images must not contain more than 20 per cent text. In order to minimise confusion, Facebook has developed the “grid tool” that helps determine what percentage of a photo contains text.

Recently, Facebook also quietly amended its guidelines to allow the use of calls-to-actions in cover photos. This is good news for jewellers, as it means businesses can now use their cover photo to invite potential customers to click, buy, like or visit a website. Prior to the policy change, pages were restricted from using data like price information and contact details.

Search revolution
The network has also introduced two major developments that will create more opportunities for businesses to gain exposure.

The first is the introduction of hashtags. Used in the same way as Twitter and Facebook’s own Instagram, hashtags make it easy for users to find content around a certain topic. When users click on a hashtag, they see a feed of posts related to what others on Facebook are saying about that subject.

When jewellers tag posts with a set of specific tags like business name and location, they have a greater chance of popping up in other people’s searches. Mark Mitchell from Social Media Today warns not to use generic keywords and to practice hashtag etiquette by placing no more than six in a post.

Furthermore, Graph Search allows users to uncover information on their network. A potential customer, for example, may search “jewellery stores in Brisbane,” which will bring up a list of stores in the region that they have engaged with through functions like checking-in or tagging. The key to finding success lies in fan engagement, which will provide smaller businesses greater visibility. As such, it’s a good idea to encourage customers to check-in and engage with your Facebook page more often – this includes promotions and deals that might be exclusive to the platform.

Know what’s happening
The Page Insights tool – Facebook’s analytics service – has also been given a makeover to provide businesses further insight into page interactions. Data will be broken down into elements like page engagement, page likes, page tags and mentions.

The update will not only show the demographic breakdown of who the business page has reached, but also who has engaged with the content.

As with most Facebook updates, many have a gradual rollout phase – which may mean that some functionality is not yet available. A wait list option is often available for users wanting to gain quicker access to updates.

Don’t miss a thing!
Facebook has a number of news update portals including, Facebook for Business, Facebook for Privacy and the Facebook blog, that provide regular updates regarding important changes that have been made. These are good resources for any jeweller seeking up to date information about changing guidelines.

Posted July 29, 2013