Tag Archives: Facebook

What is Facebook Live? 6 Tips on How to Use It

While Facebook Live has been available for a while for elite users, the tool finally made its way to the average user. Facebook is beginning to push for users to take advantage of this great tool, even altering the Facebook News Feed algorithm so Live Videos rank higher. As a result, the tool is growing in popularity in the marketing world and is becoming a new resources social media marketers need to take advantage of. Using Facebook Live is relatively simple, but there are a few tricks of the trade to ensure the live videos meet a marketer’s goals.

What is Facebook Live?

Facebook Live allows users to share live video from their mobile devices. The option is included in the iOS app so there’s nothing you need to download. Individuals create a Facebook Live video from their personal account, and marketers can create this video and then share it to their organization’s page.

Mark Zuckerburg’s goal for Facebook Live is for the tool to offer “a way for people to have a more authentic and intimate experience sharing about their lives.”

This goal, of course, fits right into a marketer’s efforts to humanize their organization and foster relationships with their audience. Marketers can use Facebook Live in a variety of ways: sharing a daily/weekly message, hosting a question and answer session with someone, sharing breaking industry or company news, sharing industry secrets, walking audiences through the steps of a how-to, product or service demo, providing a behind the scenes glimpse, the list goes on and on!

fblivestream7 Tips on How to Use Facebook Live

Part of the beauty of Facebook Live is the opportunity for spontaneity by organizations-but that doesn’t mean marketers should abandon any planning or strategy! Marketers can be intentional about how they create videos to ensure they gain the most marketing bang for the buck when they create scripted or spontaneous videos. The tips below will help you be as effective as possible when creating Facebook Live videos, and follow the timeline of before the live video, during the live video, and after the live video.

  1. Identify the focus and purpose of the video. You don’t need to write a script word for word, but as with any social media marketing effort you do need a clear understanding of why you are doing it. Ensuring your video has a clear and concise focus prevents it from becoming a convoluted rambling video that will bore audiences. Articulating the purpose of the video helps shape the direction of the video, and provides a foundation for measuring whether the goal of the video was met.
  2. Inform followers of an upcoming live video. Make sure your followers know you are planning on streaming and what time they can expect the video with a simple post (“live streaming our fundraising event in an hour”). To kill two birds with one stone, you can later tweak that informative post to make it the description of the video when you create it. You can even have views subscribe to know when you are going live.
  3. Pursue variety in the video itself and among the videos you create. In each video, vary your voice and use front and back cameras to change up the scenery to keep your audiences engaged. Utilize a variety of topics and structures when you create videos. Just like you wouldn’t follow the same Facebook post structure each day, don’t fall into a predictable video pattern either.
  4. Interact with followers. During the live streaming, viewers can send in comments. When relevant, acknowledge individual users and answer their questions or respond to their comments. Give them a personal shout out! This is a great, simple way to really strengthen that relationship and show your organization’s devotion to its consumers.
  5. Include a call to action. Always. Always. Always. In your marketing you want your customer to DO something. Give them a task. Give them somewhere to go. Every social media effort needs a call to action, and live videos are no different. A call to action can be as simple as encouraging people to visit a website, sign up for your newsletter, or send them to your lead page. But use a call to action to keep the relationship going.
  6. Edit the video. After the video is published, go back and make sure the thumbnail, category, and call to action clearly represent the video’s focus. Always be thinking of your brand. Does this video match what you want to represent?
  7. Play around with various broadcast lengths and times. Just as you should be with post creation, vary up the length of video and the time you stream to see when your audience is most responsive.

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Make sure you go Live often and be creative. Have fun with it and enjoy getting to know your fans!

Facebook Live offers many different uses for marketers to reach their audience in an engaging and personable way. If you know you want to take advantage of this great tool, but aren’t sure how to get started or want guidance, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We’d love to help guide you through Facebook Live video (or any other aspect of business building). Just shoot us an email or call us on up!

An Introduction to Audience Insights

Audience Insights is an intelligent tool that allows you to discover demographic, behavioral, and social data on audiences before you ever target them with your ads. It’s a great method of gathering data and insight on your audience, and is easy to use.

How to Get There

To get there, you click on Ads Manager, click on tools, click on audience insights, and then everyone on Facebook. Your audience will be the dark blue bar graph, compared to the general Facebook user data. Once you begin selecting customizations (such as age, interests, and relationship status), you’ll be able to see how your custom audience differs from all Facebook users.

Studying Your Audience

icon-1250084_640You can study your audience as a whole, or break up your audience into segments (such as only looking at female followers, or only individuals 18 to 25). To segment the audience, enter in information (such as age bracket) on the left-hand side. How much you want to segment your audience depends on the campaign you’re gathering data for.

Once you’ve created your audience, you’ll be presented with data under six tabs. Each one offers unique information on your audience.

For example, the first tab provides you with information their lifestyle, relationship status, education level, and job titles. Another useful tool is “page likes,” which displays the pages that are most relevant to your custom audience. Once you know the pages most likely to be “liked” by your audience, you can add these pages to the interests when you create an ad.

Examining the data on your audience equips you to better tailor your advertising efforts and your content marketing efforts. You’ll want to check back into the audience data occasionally, as your audience demographics can change as you gain new followers.

Studying Your Competition

arm-wrestling-1020224__180The “Page likes” data can be used for more than tailoring your ad audience. You can discover other pages that resonate with your audience, which you can study to improve your own page. When you see what types of content they post, which messages perform best, etc., you can use that information to try to replicate their success (and avoid their failures). Again, you’ll want to check back up on this section occasionally as the most common “page likes” can shift as your audience grows.

Audience insights offers a large amount of free data on your audience and its many segments, which can be used to improve your social media marketing. If you want to take advantage of this tool, but don’t have the time, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We’re ready to assist with any aspect of small business building. Reach out to us with a phone call or email today.

For a more in-depth look at Audience Insights, check out this free informational webinar.

3 Step Recipe to Building a Kick Ass Team That Matches your Core Values

Think of your ideal virtual business like a delicious brownie. You’ll need the right amount of different but complementary ingredients like flour and chocolate. These are the positions and skill sets of your employees. You’ll need the right cooking process, like the stirring and heating; these are the actions taken by you and your employees. And you’ll need a good recipe to guide you to the end result; this is an articulation of your core values for your organization to uphold. When the ingredients and process match the recipe, you get a delectable brownie. When your employees and their actions match your values, you get team authenticity and trust.

recipe-575434_640Why is cohesion of core values so important? First imagine what happens when conflicting values are at play. Employees who value efficiency over relationship building won’t engage authentically when a boss encourages small talk among the team. A company that values timeliness will encounter conflict with an employee who sees deadlines as suggestions. Employees utilizing different values when handling customer service issues will undermine company consistency, which will negatively impacts the company brand.

These issues can become even more common and even more impactful with a virtual team, which by its nature works apart as much as it works together. While employees collaborate on projects, the majority of the work and communication occurs online. A need for consistency and cohesion is stronger when employees are scattered across the earth.

Now imagine what happens when employees are in sync with the organization’s values. Everything becomes easier! There’s no conflict over clashing values. Employees all prioritize the same values when making decisions, creating cohesion and unity among the team. The common understanding of the organization’s values helps build a consistent brand. The end result? The delicious brownie.

So how do you get this delicious brownie? You need a recipe, the ingredients, and the process.

Step 1: Articulate Your Core Values

book-1292854_640This is the writing the recipe stage, where you’re figuring out what you want the end result to look like. Explicitly stating the core values is the guiding direction to the authenticity and trust in a team, just like writing baking steps is the guiding direction to a delectable brownie.

For some inspiration, check out these core values from big organizations.

  • Starbucks “Contribute positively to our communities and our environment”
  • Procter and Gamble “We have a healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo”
  • Quicken Loans “Responding with a sense of urgency is the ante to play”
  • Wells Fargo “Exceed the expectations of internal and external customers-surprise and delight them”
  • Zappos “Embrace and drive change”
  • Google “It’s best to do one thing really really well”

Step 2: Find Team Members With Those Core Values

This is the ingredient gathering stage. Hire individuals who embody your core values. Granted it’s tough to know from an interview whether someone holds the same values. But there are some ways to find out. Question their references and ask for specific examples of values at play. In the interview ask the individual to articulate their top three values. Describe a scenario where values are at play, and see which the interviewee prioritizes.

Step 3: Establish and Reinforce Those Core Values

broken-943413_640This is the stirring, mixing, pouring, and heating of the brownie batter stage. Here are several steps you can take to reinforce values in your organization:

  • Articulate in writing the organization’s core values and distribute to employees. Write out the top values and provide examples of them at play. If your company values time with family, for example, write out how employees should not hesitate requesting a day off to care for sick child.
  • Model the values you want your employees to adopt. Be sure to showcase through your own actions the core values. Whenever possible, explain the thought process behind your decisions. For example, saying reliability is a key aspect of our customer service so disciplinary action will be in place if too many deadlines are missed.
  • Be intentional with communication. When we lose nonverbals (like tone and posture) in online communication, we attribute more meaning to the nonverbals we are left with (like emoticons, punctuation, and phrasing). If you want to create a more relaxed atmosphere, throw in smiley faces to the emails. If you want a more professional atmosphere, keep conversation concise and formal. Let these expectations be known.
  • chocolate-575497_640Focus on the process, not just the results. Bosses who narrowly focus on results don’t care how it gets done, just that it does get done. Employees internalize this mentality and will often lose sight of company values (learning and improving one’s work, positive collaboration with team members, etc.) while they work for the results. As much as possible, reinforce values in your employees’ process.
  • Praise examples of employees’ modeling the values. If you value timeliness and an employee consistently turns in work on or before the deadline, reference this work ethic in an employee of the month dedication or a “gold star” email.

A virtual team is a great opportunity to run a business with more efficiency and employee freedom, but it does come with challenges. We can enable you to tackle those hurdles through our many services, from online business management strategy and implementation to administrative services. Give a call or shoot us an email today!

10 Actions You Can Take To Help You Prepared Should The Unexpected Happen

My business is my baby. I nurtured it through many struggles, successes, and interesting times. But what happens when you can’t nurture business? What happens to your business, your clients, etc., when the unexpected happens? Getting a plan in place is so important to the success and legacy of your business.

Let me tell you a couple quick stories about how having a plan for the unexpected saved my sanity and my business.

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In 2013 on Halloween morning, my mother passed away from cancer. Like many that lost their battle, her cancer journey was awful and long. Being an only child, I was the only one other than my dad who cared for my mom. All our family lived out of state, so the responsibility of the devastation of her cancer weighed heavy on my father and me. Between doctors’ appointments, meal prep, physical therapies, and other tasks, caring for my mom was almost a full time job (not to mention the time I carved out to just sit and be with her so we could spend quality time together). My time was split very thin between my dying mother, my two young daughters, and my growing business . . . as well as all my other relationships with friends and my father. My mother was constantly in and out of the hospital, and there were countless crazy times that required me to drop everything and rush to her side. During this time, my focus was solely on healing and helping my mother. She was the most important thing to me, so my business had to come second . . . third . . . fourth to the more important things in my life which was my family.

11752535_10153383594025630_1500405601982719597_nIn July of 2015, I was at a peak in my business, but something unthinkable happened. Unlike my mother’s slow and prolonged illness, this tragedy hit me hard, fast and I was completely blindsided. It was a beautiful summer day and like I often did, I went and enjoyed some live bluegrass music with my two daughters and their friends at this quaint outdoor area. The kiddos didn’t want to listen to the entire set list of music and they asked if they could go and record a short movie instead. They are an artistic bunch and often made short films on their cell phones. I said yes as long as they stayed close. They stayed very close, but that didn’t matter because things can happen and change your life in a blink of an eye. My older daughter had an extremely hard fall and experienced a life threatening head injury that required her to be airlifted to Children’s hospital. We spent two days in the ICU and about a week in the hospital, followed by many doctors’ appointments scattered across town. I am happy to report she is okay today, but during those weeks after her injury my focus was on healing and helping my daughter. She was the most important thing to me, so my business again had to come second . . . third . . . fourth to the more important things in my life.

If I lacked a plan for the unexpected, my business surely would have failed (and as a result I would have fallen onto even harder times beyond the tragedies that hit my life). Here are 10 actions to take to be prepared should the unexpected happen to you, your family, or friends.

  1. Foster authentic relationships with clients. Always work to create an open and honest relationship with your client. Laying the foundation for solid relationships not only makes it businessmen-948021__180easier to do business, but makes it easier to be transparent with them if a crisis occurs and you need to renegotiate timelines or contracts. I am blessed with amazing clients that understood life happens, and they were super supportive. When you’re authentic with clients, they will often be understanding and supportive in return. People understand life and shit happens, and being real will gain you more flexibility, trust, and respect with your clients in the long run.
  2. Build a crisis team. You’ll want go-to people (or a go-to person, if your business is smaller) that you can confidently delegate to during a time of distress. Make sure your crisis team is equipped with the knowledge, resources, and personality traits to handle being in charge of projects in your absence. Talk over your expectations and their responsibilities to ensure everyone is on the same page long before a crisis occurs.
  3. Create a guide book to your business. Create a business Wiki or process manual that can serve as the “bible” for your business. Clearly outline how to complete various tasks (more detail is always better). When applicable, include screenshots to help visual learners. You’ll want to cover everything anyone might need to do, both the strategic and mundane. Remember it’s much better to put too much information than not enough. Whoever is in your crisis team will need to reference it to accomplish tasks they aren’t used to doing, so make sure they have all the information they need at their fingertips.
  4. Make business passwords easily accessible. Not only does your crisis team need to know how to handle various tasks, they need to know the passwords to access the technology to achieve those tasks. I recommend Lastpass, which allows you to easily share needed passwords with your team in a secure manner.
  5. Invest in a laptop. A laptop offers you incredible flexibility. During my difficult times, I was laptop-762548__180able to do some work away from the home office. While I wasn’t as productive as I was working in the office, I was still able to work some. It’s important not to allow your work to take you away from precious time with family. However, working some during a crisis can be really helpful. It gives you feelings of control and accomplishment to get work done, and can provide a temporary distraction from what you’re dealing with (which can give your heart and brain a much needed break).
  6. Be organized. Every important document should be in one place to make it easier on your staff. I use Dropbox and give access to my team and clients. That way, my team won’t have to search through multiple online and physical locations to find what they are looking for. You can also be organized with your method of contact. Use your forwarding call feature from your business line to your cell phone or your team.
  7. Do a test run. You can plan a solid strategy, but there’s bound to be kinks and hurdles to overcome. A test run will help you discover what areas need to be fixed to get to the smoothest transition during a crisis as possible. Coordinate with your team a day (or preferably a few days) where you simulate your absence due to a crisis. Remove yourself from the office, and only communicate with your staff as much as you think you would during a crisis. This will help everyone see what needs to be adjusted and improved, which makes you better prepared for an actual crisis.
  8. Invest in disability insurance. Disability insurance is helpful in case you get hurt and can’t work. This will help protect you financially if you are unable to work for any extended period due to an injury.
  9. Add a legacy contact in Facebook. In the event of death, your Facebook account can be facebook-box-1334052__180memorialized and serve as a place for loved ones to share memories. A legacy contact is a designated person who can write a pinned post for the profile (such as a message on your behalf or memorial service information), respond to new friend requests, and update your profile picture and cover photo. They can also download a copy of what you’ve shared on Facebook. To add a legacy contact (https://www.facebook.com/help/1070665206293088)

Click crisis  in the top right of Facebook and select Settings

In the left menu, click Security

Click Legacy Contact

Type in a friend’s name and click Add

To let your friend know they’re now your legacy contact, click Send

  1. Take care of yourself. Exercise consistently, maintain a healthy diet, get regular massages, do what you need to make yourself as healthy as possible. This will prevent illness and improve recovery time in the event you do get sick or injured.

While it’s difficult to think about life crisis and death, it’s important to. Creating a plan to deal with a crisis can make a huge difference in how your business, and you, make it through the crisis. I guarantee it’s worth the time and effort to put a plan in place-it will provide you huge piece of mind for the future.

6 Dos and Don’ts of Facebook Boosted Posts

Boosting Facebook posts can be an effective social media marketing strategy. Without knowledge on how it works or the benefits it offers, however, marketers may be unnecessarily wary of taking advantage of the great tool. Boosting posts is not a tactic to be used all the time, but is one that should be used intentionally to support your organization’s social media marketing efforts.

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What are boosted posts?

When marketers create a Facebook post, it enters the views news feeds and is seen by a fraction of the audience. This number varies based on a number of factors decided by the Facebook algorithm that attempts to measure the relevance of posts to audiences to avoid flooding their feeds with poorly written posts or ones that aren’t relevant to the viewers. Boosting a post ensures the post is found more frequently in the News Feed, which means more people will see your post (and hopefully in return your organization will receive more social media marketing benefits from the post). Below are some simple dos and don’ts of Facebook posting.

boosted3The Dos

  1. DO boost posts that help your audience. The point of boosting posts is to get more eyes on your post. Getting more people to see how your organization provides value for them is a great way to gain new customers or reinforce the relationship with existing ones. Besides, viewers can tell pretty quickly a promotional post advertising a product or service from one that’s helpful content for them. Why pay money for an advertisement-type post that viewers are just going to glance over and ignore?
  2. DO boost posts that offer a call to action. Posts that encourage visitors to check out your website, join an email list, download a free ebook, etc. (while still offering valuable content to the audience of course) are great ones to promote. Ideally, a boosted post will not only get more individuals seeing the value you offer them, but will direct them to an action that builds your business.
  3. DO know exactly what you want to gain from the boosted post. Strategy is key to social media marketing, and it’s no different with boosted posts. If you do not know what you are trying to achieve, you will not be able to measure whether it was successful and it will be more difficult to pin point what made it perform well or poorly. Clearly articulate what you hope to get out of the boosted post (x number of people read about our new website launch, reach new audience members with our content post, etc.) before you boost it.


The Don’ts

  1. DON’T be overly hesitant to spend money. It can be hard to press that button to spend money on a post. Besides, if you did your job right and created a great post it should perform as effectively right? Wrong! The Facebook algorithm results in organic reach having unpredictable and less effective reach. It’s part of Facebook’s business plan to gain money from marketers. Unfortunately, spending money to boost important posts is just part of the game. You don’t have to play the game with every post, but you should when it is relevant.
  2. DON’T boost the post and never look at it. After you boost a post, make sure you monitor its success to gauge whether the return on investment was worth it. If it was, figure out what made the post so successful. If it wasn’t, figure out how to avoid that mistake for the future. Analytics are a big part of being successful at digital marketing. You have to adjust your plan when it isn’t working, and you have to know what worked. Make sure you are watching.
  3. DON’T slide into a boosting rut. It’s important to always be tweaking social media efforts to figure out the most effective tactics and get the highest return on investment. If you boost an evergreen post that performs well, fantastic! But don’t hesitate to boost a timely post, a video post, and the like. Know that it’s important to test out different types of posts. Some might not work well for your organization or audience, and that’s okay. Trial and error is a key part of social media success.

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If you’re convinced you want to take advantage of the benefits of boosting Facebook posts, but are still hesitant on the best way to do so, do not fear. Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We understand the ins and outs of boosting Facebook posts to meet businesses needs and would love to help you use this tool to help your organization. Simply email us or give us a ring for help on this, or any aspect of business building.

A Case for Marketing with Promotional Products

In today’s fast paced digital world, the best form of advertising is online and social media right?

Wrong.

In many cases, you are better off marketing with promotional products. You know, those pens/bags/shirts/mugs/other random assortment of items branded with a company’s name and logo.

Sure, you may roll your eyes a bit when you get a pen from your dentist. Gee thanks I’ve always wanted a dentist pen. But you still own the pen don’t you? And you still see that dentist don’t you?

The promotional products industry is valued to be more than $21 billion for one clear reason: it works.

There are a number of reasons why your small business can benefit from marketing with promotional products. 

More Bang for Your Buck

The cost per impression tends to be among the lowest for promotional products compared to other methods of advertising.

The breakdown goes:

 

Newspapers: 3.2¢

Prime-time TV: 2.5¢

Targeted mobile: 1¢

Internet: .7¢

Promotional product: .7¢

For highly cost effective marketing, go with Internet or promotional products. But as the following reasons show, promotional products often edge out Internet in other arenas.

Customers View Promotional Products Highest

When ranking different forms of advertising, consumers rank promotional products as the most highly regarded form. Internet advertising came in sixth and mobile advertising came in seventh. Put your money where the consumer trust is.

Customer Generation

Promotional products help at every stage of customer generation.

For raising awareness among the target audience, promotional products lead to 22% more referrals and 14% more leads. Promotional products also help increase response rates to direct mail marketing by 50%.

Promotional products create a favorable view of the company in 76% of people.

For turning leads into customers, promotional products turn 52% of people into customers.

Promotional products help you reach your target audience, woo your target audience, and convert your target audience into customers.

Customers Better Remember Your Company

Consumers remember your company better when it shows up as a promotional product over other forms of advertising.

They say 76.1% of consumers can remember the company name off of a promotional item given to them in past year. Only 53% could remember from a TV or print ad they saw in the last month. A mere 27% could recall from an online ad.

There are a few possible explanations for this discrepancy. Customers are blasted with online ads every day, so they learn to tune them out (or install ad blocker). Customers are not bombarded with promotional products daily, so the ad stands out.

Promotional products also lead to repeat exposure, while an online, TV, or print ad does not. There, the customer sees the ad once. With a promotional product, they can see it multiple times. About 73% of consumers used the promotional product in the last week and 45.2% used it at least once a day. And 58% of consumers keep the promotional product from between one year to four years. That’s a lot of exposure, helping customers better remember your company.

A Case for Promotional Products

Choosing the right advertising medium for your company is a never ending quest. Various factors affect the “best” option at this given moment: the budget, the campaign project, the target audience, etc.

Promotional products are unfortunately often overlooked as a solution in today’s electronic world, but they should not be. Promotional products may be exactly what you need for marketing your company! That simple pen/bag/shirt/mug/other random item could be the ticket to capturing the attention (and the payment) of your target audience.

If you want assistance implementing a promotional product marketing campaign, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! Just give us a call or shoot us an email to get started.

How to Delete Facebook Apps

Today’s tutorial request comes in from Daniel.  Daniel was curious how to remove apps from his Facebook settings. He was worried that they were obtaining too much personal information.

 

Warning: Facebook will be Deleting Photos from Your Facebook Account and you may not even know it!

As of July 7th, 2016, Facebook will be deleting many of the photos you took using a smartphone unless you swap to its new Moments picture sharing service and anyone who used Facebook’s ‘syncing’ feature is at risk.


woman-638384__180The function stored all the pictures taken on a smartphone in a special private folder, so users could decide whether to share them publicly at a later date or just store them for their own personal keeping.

The only way to keep them is to download the new Moments app, which collects pictures based on when they were taken and who is in them. The social network began notifying users that it would soon delete all their synced photos if they did not install the app, which was released in June 2015.

The process actually started in January when Facebook discontinued support for automatic syncing of photos from the main Facebook app, forcing users to install the Moments app should they wish to continue automatically uploading their photos.

hands-1167617__180Rest assured though, the removal of the synced photos won’t affect any photos or videos shared on Facebook separately from the synced album, while users are being given the chance to download the photos before they are deleted to those that are synced. Actually, Facebook recently did a very similar thing with its Messenger app by removing chat from the main Facebook app and forcing users to install the Messenger app to keep sending Facebook instant messages.

These changes help Facebook by giving them other platforms to endorse and promote which in turn builds their name along with new apps that are now showing a rise in users such as the Messenger app and soon the new Moments app. Nonetheless, if you love your selfies, you should probably make sure they are saved permanently on your computer especially if you don’t fancy using Moment.

Anyone who’s used Facebook’s auto sync feature in the past has until July 7th to download Moments or a zip file of their synced photos. Otherwise, they’re going to disappear.

Not sure if you have any synced photos to be worried about, Facebook actually sent out an email to all its’ users telling them they are getting ready to retire the “synced photos” feature and in order to save them you must download and use the new Moments app.

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“Synced photos” is a feature that you had to take the time to turn on and it would sync the photos on your phone with Facebook in a private album. If you never turned it on, you have nothing to worry about. Facebook will not be deleting any photos you’ve shared with friends in albums or uploaded to your timeline. If you deleted the message from Facebook or never remember getting one it can be tough to know just how many photos will be deleted. However, there is a pretty easy way to see how many of your “synced” photos are at risk of being deleted.

First, make sure you’re logged into your Facebook account, then go to: https://www.facebook.com/photos. Now, look above your photos for a link that says “Synced from Phone” and click that. If you don’t see a link for “Synced from Phone” then you never used the feature and you don’t have to worry about this.

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Look for the link that says “delete them permanently” and click that. (Don’t worry, it won’t delete them instantly)

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Then you should see a popup window with a count of the photos that have been “synced” to your account.

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Facebook should then show you the actual photos you have synced so you can make an informed decision as to whether you need to download Moments to save them but they don’t.

Therefore, from here you have two decisions to make – you can follow the other link to “download your synced photos” and toss them into your other backup service like Google Photos/iCloud or you can download the Moments app to actually see the pictures in question.

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If it’s a low number I suggest just using the download link but if it’s a larger amount of pictures and you want to see which ones are at risk of deletion you probably want to download the Moments app.

While users will be able to save their photos if they wish, the forceful methods used by the social media network has drawn criticism from users, with claims that Facebook is using its enormous leverage to force users to install its apps.

10 Hidden Gems in Facebook Personal Pages

Facebook is a fantastic invention-you already love it, but there’s a lot hidden beneath the surface. We’ve dug deep into Facebook to find the top 10 hidden secrets.

  1. Message Requests

Not every message that’s sent to you on Facebook shows up in your inbox. Messages sent by someone you are not friends with on Facebook go into a “message request” section.

To access these, click the chatat the top right of your screen. Then click “message requests” (to the right of “recent”).

  1. Save Button for Posts

Sometimes we find great content on Facebook . . . right when we have the least amount of time to actually read it. Never fear-the save button is here! The save button allows you to privately save links to read later.

If the post you want to save popped up on your news feed, simply click the to the right of the post and click “save”.

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If you’re viewing the post from a page, click … and click “save.”

To view your saved posts, go to the left menu and click “saved” (or you can go to Facebook.com/saved).

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When you want to delete a post, go to the “saved” posts section. Click “archive” at the top and click next to the post you want to remove, then click “delete.”

  1. Download Copy of FB Data

It’s no surprise that Facebook stores a lot of data on its consumers—A LOT. While you can’t stop Facebook from storing this data, you can access it (or at least some of it). Facebook allows users to download their information, which includes information you can see by using your account (such as posts you share and your activity log) and information you cannot see from your account (such as ads you’ve clicked on and IP addresses that are logged when you use Facebook).

Facebook provides a long list of what types of data is available in the downloaded information (which you can access here: https://www.facebook.com/help/405183566203254) but there are a few key subjects that may be of the most interest to people: searches you’ve made on Facebook, removed friends, pending friend requests, any friends apps or pages you’ve hidden from your news feed, list of people who follow you, and a list of topics that you may be targeted against based on your status likes interests and other timeline data.

To download the information, go into your settings section. Click “download a copy of your Facebook data” below your general account settings. Click “start my archive.” Depending on how long you have been on Facebook and how much you post, it may take a while, but they will email you when it is ready for you to view.

  1. Adding a Legacy Contact

While it’s uncomfortable to think about, it’s important to decide what you want to happen to your Facebook account when you pass away. Facebook provides two options: delete your account permanently or leave up the account and allow loved ones to share memories on it. For the later, you’ll need to designate a legacy contact. They’ll be able to write a pinned post (which can be used to provide memorial service information or share a message on your behalf), accept new friend requests from loved ones, and update the profile picture and cover photo. They will not be able to remove any friends, read your messages, change or remove past posts, or actually log into your account.

To add a legacy contact, log into your settings and click “security” and then “legacy contact.” Type in your designated contact’s name and click “add.” If you later decide you want to change the contact, you’ll be able to click on the contact and click “remove.” Then you can add your new legacy contact.

It’s difficult, but important, to think about what will happen when you pass on. If you run a business, be sure to check out our post on how to prepare your business for an unexpected life crisis: link to post here.

  1. Edit Ad Preferences

Ads can be annoying. Ads that relate absolutely nothing to your life or preferences are even more annoying. Fortunately, Facebook allows you to edit your ad preferences. Simply click (www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/edit/). The link will bring you to a page listing topics and sub-topics that Facebook picked based on your activities on and off Facebook. You’ll be able to delete irrelevant preferences, as well as add preferences from a set list of topics.

  1. Send and Receive Money Through Facebook

Yes, you read that right. You can now send money to people through Facebook Messenger without a charge! First, you need to add a debit card. Click “settings,” then click “payments,” then click “add new debit card.” Currently, the only way to pay through Messenger is debit. You can also add a PIN if you wish for an extra security measure (click “settings” then click “payments” then click “PIN”).

Once your debit account is activated in Messenger, you’re ready to send money. Create a message and click the $ icon and enter the payment amount. Click “pay” in the top right to send it.

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To receive money for the first time, open the conversation and click “add card” in the message to add your debit card.

Just like with other transfers, it may take up to three business days for the banks to make the funds available.

  1. Embedding Posts

Did you know you can embed public Facebook posts onto your website? It’s simple and a great way to add visual content to your site. First, navigate to the post and click “embed post” from the drop down menu.

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A box will pop up with a code, which you will need to copy and paste into your website.

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Embedded posts are a great way to post testimonials, include examples, quote sources, show off your best content, and more!

  1. Friendship Pages

This feature was developed during a Facebook Hackathon. It is basically a timeline, but for a relationship instead of one person. It gathers all the communication (posts, replies, tagged photos, etc.) that involve you and a friend you choose, and places it all in the Friendship Page. You can view these posts, and even personalize the cover photo and profile picture.

To access the page, go to your friend’s profile and click and select “see friendship” from the dropdown.

  1. Play Chess With a Friend Through Messenger

Who doesn’t love a competition of intelligence and strategy between friends? Simply type “@fbchess play” into a conversation with a friend and Messenger will bring up a game of chess. To move type in the phrase “@fbchess” followed by the letter of the piece (K for king, Q for queen, B for bishop, N for knight, R for rook, and P for Pawn) and the letter and number of the location‑For example, “@fbchessPe4” would move a pawn to square E4. If you get confused, type in “@fbchess help.” If you wish to end a match, type in “@fbchess resign.” To pick which color to start with, type “@fbchess play white” or “@fbchess play black” (white goes first).

  1. Play Basketball With a Friend Through Messenger

Maybe chess isn’t your thing. How about a friendly basketball competition? Simply send a friend a basketball emoji and then click on the sent image to begin the game. The scores will be logged in the message feed so you can brag (or listen to bragging) easily.

To play the game, flick up on your phone to launch the ball into the hoop and try to get as many in as possible.

Facebook for personal use offers hours of endless entertainment, from dominating at a basketball game to reminiscing over old memories when viewing the Friendship Page. Facebook is a great tool for businesses as well. If you’d like help utilizing the benefits of Facebook for your business, simply call us or email us today! We are here to help with any aspect of business building, including social media marketing through Facebook.

Facebook Removes the 20% Text Rule

To the joy of marketers everywhere, Facebook finally altered the 20% text rule! This recent change will provide more flexibility and freedom to marketers, while likely impacting the ad experience for Facebook users. Below we break down some common questions about this recent change.

What was the rule before the change?

20%Previously, Facebook rejected ad requests where more than 20% of the image contained text. This caused frustration among marketers whose ads were rejected for containing just barely too much text, and for brands whose logo was text. Some arguably creative and effective ads were also rejected due to containing too much text.

Why did this rule exist if it caused so much frustration?

Facebook, as it repeatedly claims, is all about the user experience. Part of the user experience is the appearance and feel of the timeline. The line of thinking from Facebook went something like this… if ads appeared on timelines containing massive amounts of text, the timelines would appear cluttered and users would be less satisfied with the look of their timelines. Preventing advertisers from using too much text also helped push advertisers to make more creative ads that focused on “showing” rather than “telling,” since you rely on words to “tell.”

So with this change, can I now use as much text as I want on ads?

 

carrots-673201__180Marketers are now given the option to use photos in their ads that contain more than 20% text. No longer will beautiful ads be rejected for containing just a little bit too much text-marketers rejoice! The new change means Facebook will not stop advertisers from using an image simply because of an abundance of text (other restrictions, such as inappropriate images, still apply). However, Facebook still is pursuing the user experience as the priority. While it removed the “stick” form of motivation (punishing users for ads with too much text by preventing those ads from being published), it simultaneously implemented a “carrot” approach of motivation (providing an incentive to still use ads with minimal text). So even though it may not be a requirement, they still are going to make sure marketers keep limiting text at the top of their minds.

So, why would I still want to use ads with minimal text?

First, ads with too much text are not visually appealing. They make the photo appear cluttered and busy, two things you want to avoid because viewers will likely skip over it. Of course, there are exceptions where the cluttered and busy look is used to make a creative point, but generally speaking it’s a good idea to limit text from a graphic design standpoint.

thumbs upSecond, using too much text will negatively affect the amount of people who see your ad. Facebook has said that, given the same budget, ads with more text will reach a lower number of individuals than ads with less text. Hence the carrot again. They will motivate you to do what they like by giving you more views. Facebook won’t stop you from using too much text, but it makes it clear it is in the best interest of the marketer to continue using minimal text.

How will I know if my ad still uses too much text?

Images uploaded for ads will be placed into one of four categories. The one marketers should aim for is “image text: OK” because it will see no negative impact on reach. These photos contain no or minimal text. The next category “image text: low” sees a slightly limited ad reach. The third category “image text: medium” may see limited ad reach. The fourth category “image text: high” may not even reach the intended audience at all. When advertisers upload a photo in the grid tool, Facebook will let the user know which category the photo falls into.