business & innovation

Social Media is more than just "LIKES" - for companies in particular it should be an online encounter where they can have valuable conversations with their customers.  Social media can be such a valuable tool for business both big and small, for customer interaction and acquiring new customers as well.

I believe that companies can enjoy real benefits of social media without splashing their increasingly limited cash on relatively expensive ads such as those sold by Facebook as part of its much-touted advertising service.  And whilst you might not get 3000 new "followers" in a month, you can still strengthen your brand’s profile among the people who actually matter: new and existing customers.

Last week I attended the Chinwag and Our Social Times conference on Facebook Marketing which was excellent. The topic I found most interesting was Facebook’s EdgeRank, but when asked how many of us know about the algorithm, I was surprised by the lack of hands that showed.

It’s actually quite a simple concept and one all Facebook Marketeers should be aware of. The following Q&A explains all you really need to know about Facebook’s EdgeRank and how to manipulate it to boost your Facebook marketing activity.

Last Wednesday Chinwag and Our Social Times held the long awaited Facebook Marketing Conference. The day was packed full with speakers, case studies, stats and quotes, our favourite still being from Tom from We Are Social, asking "are you a dipper or a smotherer" (in reference to Heinz ketchup that is).

The day was a huge success with over 120 people through the door, 22 speakers and a twitter hashtag that not only trended during the day but reached over 76,818 people (baring in mind we ended up with two hashtags being used #fbmk12 and #fbkm12)!

For those of you that could not attend the conference, we've done a recap of the event highlights with links to some of the presentations. It'll almost be as if you were there... just without the free chocolate (thanks again Cadburys Dairy Milk).

TfL don’t do a lot right in my eyes. I feel overcharged often and daily moan about the lack of signs alerting tourists to stand on the right. But recently they made a social investment that made me smile. Their homepage proudly proclaimed they were on Twitter.

I wasn't that impressed at the time as I’ve been following TfL for a while, but clicked the link anyway. They now have Twitter accounts for every line. Ahead of the Olympic Games this is going to be useful.

As mentioned at Wednesday's Facebook Marketing Conference, comScore have released their latest whitepaper - The Power of Like Europe: How Social Marketing Works for Retail Brands.

Focusing on European brands such as H&M, ASOS, La Redoute, Topshop and Zara, the independent research illustrates how popular consumer brands are using Facebook to deliver media impressions at scale, acheive brand amplification and resonance, and ultimately drive desired behaviours among key customer segments.

This Tuesday (17th July) we held our second Facebook Marketing Bootcamp at We Are What We Do in London. With Facebook trainer, Tania Jackson of Red Idea on hand, the day-long workshop aims to provide a hands-on and more personalised approach where attendees can learn what they can do to improve their techniques and strategies and how to do it.

We thought we'd share just a few things we learnt from Tuesday's Bootcamp.

Facebook's timeline has been in effect for pages for a few months after changing on 30th March earlier this year. Anyone who's used it knows it can be a little tricky at times to make things, particularly images, the correct size to look good on their page.

The tabsite.com revealed this super helpful infographic earlier this year to help with exactly that problem, indicating exactly the dimensions you need. With our Facebook Marketing Bootcamp and Conference (17th / 18th July) coming up next week, what better time to refresh your page and brush up on your skills?!

The below infographic covers profile photos, cover photos, custom tab photos / logos, shared photo, highlighted photo and custom tab page.

The Facebook Marketing Conference (Weds 18th Jul) is only a week away and to give you a sneak peek into some of the insight that'll be shared, we've managed to grab a few minutes with some of the speakers.

Up first is Nils Mork-Ulnes, Head of Analytics at Beyond.

What better way to begin our Facebook Marketing Conference next week (Weds 18th July) than with Facebook themselves?!

After some essential tea & coffee and a short welcome, we'll kick things off with a keynote from Andy Pang, Measurement Solutions Group Lead from Facebook.

You'll then get to hear about BBC Worldwide, Cadbury Dairy Milk / Kraft Foods, Yorkshire Tea, Manchester City FC, TBG Digital, Beyond, Markettiers4DC, Edelman, GlobalWebIndex and more! The full programme is below...