The Facebook Marketing Book by Dan Zarrella and Alison Zarrella Copyright © 2011 Dan Zarrella and Alison Zarrella. Printed in Canada. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also  available for most titles (http://my.safaribooksonline.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional  sales department: (800) 998-9938 or [email protected]. Editor: Julie Steele Proofreader: Rachel Monaghan Production Editor: Rachel Monaghan Indexer: Denise Getz Production Services: Interior Designer: Ron Bilodeau Newgen North America, Inc. Cover Designer: Monica Kamsvaag Copyeditor: Linda Laflamme Illustrator: Robert Romano Printing History:   December 2010: First Edition. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and authors assume no  responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. This book presents general information about technology and services that are constantly changing, and therefore it  may contain errors and/or information that, while accurate when it was written, is no longer accurate by the time you  read it. Some of the activities discussed in this book, such as advertising, fund raising, and corporate communications,  may be subject to legal restrictions. Your use of or reliance on the information in this book is at your own risk and the  author and O’Reilly Media, Inc., disclaim responsibility for any resulting damage or expense. The content of this book  represents the views of the authors only, and does not represent the views of O’Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN: 978-1-449-38848-5 [TM] Contents 1. Introduction to Social Networking 1 Types of Pages  43 . . . Creating and Customizing a   Who Uses Facebook?  1 Facebook Page  45 Impact on Today’s Media   3 Facebook Page Tabs  49 Big Brands on Facebook  3 Page Applications  51 How You Can (and Should) Use Facebook  5 Page Optimization  55 Creating Valuable Content  7 Promoting Your Page  61 Page Interactions  63 2. Facebook Profile Basics 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary  65 What Is a Facebook Profile?  11 Facebook Profiles for Business  13 4. Facebook Group Basics 67 . . . . . . . . . . . . Facebook Profile Tabs  15 Groups Versus Pages  69 Setting Up a Facebook Profile  17 Groups Can Be Good—Sometimes  73 Profile Interactions  31 When You Want a Group  75 Summary  33 Creating a Group  77 Managing a Group  81 3. Facebook Page Basics 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Monitoring and Managing a Group  87 The Difference Between a Page   Using Groups to Supplement Your Page  89 and a Profile  39 Summary  91 What Requires a Facebook Page,   Not a Profile  41 v 5. Facebook Events 93 Branded Patterns and Days  141 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Exclusive Stuff  143 When to Use an Event  95 Custom Tabs  145 Creating an Event  97 User Applications  147 Breaking Through the Clutter  99 Summary  149 Sending Invites  101 Integrating with a Page  103 Promoting Your Event  105 8. Developing a Facebook Content Event Follow-Up  107 Strategy 151 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary  109 Competing with Other Content   on Facebook  153 6. Facebook Application Basics 111 Optimizing for Both Facebook   . . . . . . and Search Engines   163 Create Inherently Social Applications  113 Summary  173 Improve Existing Social Behaviors  113 Learn from Success  117 9. Cross-Promoting Content Clarity, Simplicity, and Speed   to Engagement   121 on Facebook 175 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Integrate with Viral Facebook Features  123 Least Shared Words  177 Development  125 Meta Mentions  179 Art and Copy  129 Most Shared Words  181 Launching and Promoting   Digits  183 Your Application  129 Linguistic Content  185 Summary  132 Video  187 Parts of Speech  189 7. Customizing Your Facebook Page 133 . . Readability  191 Page Icon  135 Social Plug-ins  193 Designing Assets and Media  137 Summary  202 Content  139 vi 10. Facebook Page Management 203 Budget  237 . . . . . Bidding  239 Exclusive Deals for Fans  205 Ad Stats  241 Frequent Status Updates  207 Summary  242 Timely Redesigns  209 Promotions  211 Monitoring  213 12. Analytics and ROI 243 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Moderation  215 Insights for Page  245 Responding  217 Insights for Applications  251 Advertising  219 Facebook Ads Analytics  255 Summary  221 Tracking  261 Summary  262 11. Advertising on Facebook 223 . . . . . . . . . . Where to Send Users  225 Acknowledgments 263 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creative Content Design   225 Targeting   231 Index 265 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii ChApTeR 1 Introduction to Social Networking At the time of this writing, Facebook reports over 500 million active users (Figure 1-1). If it were a coun- try, Facebook would be the third largest nation in the world, lagging behind only China and India. Half of  those “citizens” log in every day—that’s 250 million people using the site on a daily basis. Who Uses Facebook? Originally a network for select college students, Facebook first expanded into high schools, then larger  networks, collecting students and colleagues across the country and, eventually, the world. Now you  can not only identify your romantic partner and growing circle of friends, but also your parents and  siblings. Your mom is on Facebook. Your sister is, and your daughter as well. Your college roommate,  your first crush, and the former best friend you haven’t spoken to in years. Your grandparents may even  be tagging you in family photos you forgot existed. Seventy percent of Facebook users live outside  the United States. The fastest growing segment of users? Women 55 to 65 years old. Depending on  how you measure it, Facebook either has already surpassed Google in traffic levels or is about to. The  Facebook Application platform alone has been used by over one million developers to build more than  500,000 active applications.  Try to pinpoint the “average” user, and you’ll find most users are anything but average. Typically, a  Facebook user has 130 friends, is connected to 80 Pages, Groups, and Events, and has created 90  pieces of content. Where else could you find someone who talks to over 100 people a day? And that’s  not even accounting for “super users” or influencers who often have thousands of friends. 1 Impact on Today’s Media Newspaper circulation rates are in decline (Figure 1-2), and most television ads aren’t profitable.  Facebook has a far larger audience than old media. That alone has been enough to convince some that  it’s the perfect place to try a new marketing plan. If you need more incentive, consider the huge amount  of personal information that users give the site and, therefore, advertisers. Facebook provides brands  with new ways to target ads more effectively than ever before. The best part? All of this information has  been volunteered by users. In many cases, they have actively opted in to more targeted advertising by  “liking” ads or allowing Facebook to share their data with select external sites and partners. Big Brands on Facebook The world’s largest and most well-known brands are leveraging Facebook to build engaged and profitable  communities. Coca-Cola has over 11 million fans of its Page, while Starbucks is closing in on 13 million.  Vitamin Water launched an extremely successful contest on Facebook to choose the flavor, design the  package, and name its newest drink. The company now has 1.7 million fans. 3