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Like-gating is a way to incentivize Facebook users who haven’t liked your page yet. It can be a simple image with a “like my page” call to action. Once a user liked your page then that’s the only time they get access to your freebie, prize or discount.

HERE IS SAMPLE FROM MY OWN FACEBOOK PAGE:

Under the ‘proper use’ policy, effective November 5th, 2014, Facebook admins are no longer allowed to give incentives for people to like a page or use social plugins.

Incentives include: rewards, freebies, discounts and gating apps to force people to like a page first.

It will still be acceptable to incentivize users, who already Liked the page every time they visit the page or login to the app.

This is stirring up some reactions among marketers online. This is what Facebook has to say:

“To ensure quality connections and help businesses reach the people who matter to them, we want people to like Pages because they want to connect and hear from the business, not because of artificial incentives. We believe this update will benefit people and advertisers alike.”

What this quote from Facebook implies is that in order for your Page Likes to grow organically, people must really like and connect with your brand in the first place.

Let us take a look at this study by Ignite Social Media.

It shows that incentives is still the top reason for people to like a page so it’s a bit shocking that Facebook would prohibit pages from doing so.  But it’s actually a VERY good thing.  If you have fans that have liked your page because you made them like your page to get something from you – they are likely not an engaged fan and the key to Facebook success is having fans that are ENGAGED with your page and your brand.

This update will challenge business owners, marketers and admins to:

• improve the content being shared on Facebook by creating genuine engagement
• maximize the use of Facebook Insights to know when your fans are online and what they “like” most
• use Facebook Ads to build a targeted audience

What do you think of the new update?  I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

Do you wonder if using your personal page is best?  Do you post listings to your personal page and wonder if your friends get irritated?

I often get asked these questions so I thought I’d write a blog post about it.

“I am a real estate agent, should I use my personal profile or create a Facebook page to post about my business?”

Without batting an eyelash, I would say you should use a Facebook Page.

Why should you set up a Facebook Page and not use your personal Facebook profile to get post on your page and get leads if you are a real estate agent?

Let me first define and differentiate the two before I go ahead and answer the big “why”.

WHAT IS A PERSONAL PROFILE?

• Personal Timelines, which are sometimes referred to as profiles, are for individual, non-commercial use.
• They represent individual people and must be held under an individual name.
• You can follow Timelines to see public updates of people you’re interested in but aren’t friends with.

WHAT IS A FACEBOOK PAGE?

• Facebook Pages look similar to personal Timelines, but they offer unique tools for connecting people to a topic they care about, like a business, brand, organization or celebrity.
• Pages are managed by people who have personal Timelines.
• Pages are not separate Facebook accounts and do not have separate login information from your Timeline.
• You can like a Page to see updates in News Feed.

As you can see, a Facebook Page can be utilized to get high-quality leads better than your Personal Profile.

Here are 10 more reasons why you should use Facebook page and not your personal profile:

1. BE SEARCHABLE

   Facebook Fan Pages are indexed by search engines which is important in building your online presence.

2. FACEBOOK TABS/ THIRD PARTY APPS

   You can practically create a website out of your Page using Facebook apps. You can add special Apps that could create beautiful landing pages, add a lead capturing-form and other integrations that you need to make your Facebook Page a lead-generating machine.

3. TAG YOUR PAGE

   Your fans, non-friends and other Pages can tag your brand on their posts. Therefore, creating more visibility.

4. RUN PROMOS AND CONTESTS

   You can run promos via the Ads Manager by simply posting an Offer on your Page. It may be discount offers or freebies when they respond to your call to action.

   In the same manner, you can run contests either by creating custom tabs.

5. ASSIGN AN ADMIN

   You can assign an admin to manage your Facebook page. You don’t need to give out your personal password to other people. This is more convenient and less risky for you.

6. COMMENT AS YOUR PAGE

   If you want to increase your online presence on Facebook, you will need to comment, reply, like and share to other Pages using your Facebook page.

   This allows other people to feel your presence by being active, not just being confined to your own page.

7. CHECK-INS

   As long as your location has a complete street address and is pinned on maps (like Bing Maps, Google Maps or Foursquare), people can check-in to your office location and share it on their own timelines.

   You cannot have that if you are using a personal page. This increases interaction between you and your clients.

8. FACEBOOK INSIGHTS

   This is a very powerful tool to learn about your Facebook audience. You can study your fan demographics, know which posts has more engagement and combining these information into improving your page activity. Which will in return get you more leads.

9. RUN ADS

   Paid advertising to promote your business can only be done on Facebook Pages and not in your personal profile.  You can do some super cool things with Facebook Ads such as advertising to your email database or promoting an open house.

10. NO “FRIEND LIMITS”

    Last but not the least, personal profile page is limited to 5,000 friends. Your Facebook Page can have an infinite number of fans.

Start setting up your Facebook page today if you haven’t yet. For more information about setting up your Facebook page, click here…

If you have any questions, I’d love to help you answer them. Just leave a comment below.

The streamlined look for Facebook Pages was rolled out last month. According to Facebook, it aims make it easier for people to find the information they want and help Page admins find the tools they use most.

In this blog post, let’s jump right in and see what the major changes are that you need to be aware of…

1. TIMELINE DESIGN

The right-side column of your timeline now displays all your Page’s posts. This one-column display means that all of your posts will appear consistently on your Page and in News Feed. Also notice that all posts are now displayed in one single column.

The left-side column of your timeline features information about your business, including a map, your hours of business, phone number and website URL, as well as photos and videos.

You can re-order all the blocks on the left column, except “People” and “About”. Here’s how:

• Go to the “Manage” button (the pen icon), then click on “Manage Sections”
• Then use the “drag and drop” interface to re-order the blocks in the left column.

2. COVER AND PROFILE PHOTO

Your Page name and category, along with the Like, Follow and Share buttons are overlayed on the bottom portion of your cover photo.

The profile photo is now moved up farther onto the cover photo image and a bit to the left.

3. APPS TABS

Apps tabs are seen in 2 places:

• Left sidebar below the fold.

• Top menu bar, in the “More” dropdown menu.

4. ABOUT SECTION

Your about section now prominently displays your website URL.

5. NOTIFICATIONS

All notifications are now easily accessible in one convenient page named “Activity”.

Very important notifications like new page likes, unread messages are displayed at the right-hand side.

6. PAGE SETTINGS

All of your page settings are in one place. Note that Activity Log and Banned Users have been moved to the Settings tab.

7. INSIGHTS PAGE

All of the Facebook Insights you will need are shown at a high level on one page and includes “Pages to Watch”.

8. ADS MANAGER

No matter where you are on your Page, you can now view information about the ads you’re running. The Build Audience menu at the top of the Page offers direct access to your Ads Manager account.

What do you think of the new Facebook page layout? Do you have any questions about it? I’d love to help. Add your comments/questions below.

Consistent with the Facebook’s aim to clean up the news feed, they announced another update to de-emphasize pages that practice “like-baiting”.

What is like- baiting anyway? “Like-baiting” is when a post explicitly asks News Feed readers to like, comment or share the post in order to get additional distribution beyond what the post would normally receive.

Here are 2 good examples of like-baiting:

1. If you run contests on your Facebook page with the following mechanics: “Share and like this post to win a FREE gift”. Be aware that you can no longer ask/require the person to share the contest on their personal timeline.
2. 

Here is the rule quoted directly from Facebook’s page guidelines: 3. Promotions may be administered on Pages or within apps on Facebook. Personal Timelines must not be used to administer promotions (ex: “share on your Timeline to enter” or “share on your friend’s Timeline to get additional entries” is not permitted).

How will this affect your Page?

It’s time to get creative with your posts. Share helpful information that your fans will share without you asking for it. Be original – be you!

What do you think of this Facebook update? How will it affect your page? Let me know your thoughts by adding a comment below!

As a follow up to this blog post that I wrote previously, I am sharing with you information on how to increase your Facebook engagement without paying for ads.

FIRST STEP: UNDERSTAND HOW FACEBOOK ENGAGEMENT REALLY WORKS.

So how does Facebook define “engagement”? In simple terms, Facebook engagement happens whenever your fans:

1. LIKE your post
2. COMMENT on your post
3. SHARE your post, or
4. CLICK a link in your post

SECOND STEP: PLAN.

While getting your fans to engage on Facebook is extremely important for organic reach, I believe creating a Facebook content & marketing strategy is equally important. And the best way to start with this is by creating an editorial calendar. Your editorial calendar doesn’t have to be anything complicated, a simple shared Google spreadsheet will do.

To get the planning started – consider these key elements:

• Your fans – Who are they? What are they looking for? How can you help them?
• Your content – Generally, share content that your fans can resonate with. Vary content type from text updates, images, videos and links to relevant articles.
• Your voice – This should be consistent with your business or brand. For me, I like to write posts that sounds like I’m having a chat over coffee with a friend. Be helpful. Create a standard turn-around time to reply to fans comments – within 12 hours is preferred.
• Your words – Write posts that are compelling and invoke strong emotion – at least strong enough for your fans to follow your call-to-action. Also “snackable” and straight to the point posts are most likely to have more engagement.

You now know the basics but don’t stop there. Be open to other ideas on how to increase your engagement with your fans. Here are other things you can do:

• Run a contest.
• Spotlight a fan.
• Host Facebook Fan Page Friday.
• Tag other pages when you mention them in your posts
• Ask close-ended questions.
• Ask your fans to vote.
• Repurpose content that you already have.
• Repost top performing posts you shared previously
• Host a Live Q and A hour.
• Post updates about trending events.

THIRD STEP: MAXIMIZE PAGE INSIGHTS.

Here are the key things that you should consider:

• Know when your fans are online and post updates whenever your fans are online – simple, right?
• Post updates 2-3 times a day. If you don’t you will definitely miss out.
• Monitor which posts created most engagement. Do this more often and fewer of the things that don’t get engagement.

FOURTH STEP: PROMOTE OUTSIDE OF FACEBOOK

Increasing engagement on Facebook doesn’t mean you can’t promote your posts outside Facebook.

• Add a link to your Facebook page in your email signature.
• Encourage people in your email list to like your page and comment in your posts
• Tweet your posts
• Pin image posts on Pinterest
• Embed top performing updates in your blog

Now, what are you waiting for? Use these tips to generate more engagement in your Facebook page! I would love to hear which of these tips worked for you.

Like what you’re reading?  Sign Up Here to get the most up to date Facebook info on the planet!

What other tips do you have for increasing reach and engagement for your Facebook page?

Leave me a comment in the comments section below and let me know what tips you’re using on your page that are working!  I’d love to hear from you!