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Tag: Google Analytics

Google Analytics is easily the best free tool out there for any webmaster or webmistress.

But why?

Actually, let’s go another step back.

Why Do I Need to Analyze My Site, Anyway?

If you are only using a website for fun, then this may not matter much at all. But if you are, then read on.

An Analogy

Get out a map. Whether it’s Google maps or paper is immaterial. Just, grab one. Let’s go to, oh, I don’t know. Manchester, New Hampshire.

It’s about 60 miles from where I live. For you, it may be more like 600 miles, if you live in, say, Norfolk, Virginia.

If you’re around 3700 miles away, then you’re possibly in Mexico. Are you 2000 miles away? Then welcome to Boulder, Colorado. And if you are around 6700 miles away, then you just might be in Beijing.

But wherever you may be, how do you get there?

A Fer-Instance

If I drive or walk or bike about 60 miles, then I can get to Manchester. Or Falmouth, which is on Cape Cod. I can also get to Newport, Rhode Island. Or Sturbridge, Massachusetts.

All of these are, give or take, around an hour away.

Look, Ma, No Map!

When we take away the map, it becomes trickier to determine what, exactly, is within a 60 mile radius. Before I started this little exercise, I had thought Maine would be included, but it’s not quite there.

My hunch means nothing. Here, there is cold, hard data that tells me that Maine is over 60 miles from my home.

Google Analytics is Kind of Like a Road Map and a Record

Using Google Analytics is a little bit like this. Let’s say you have 100 pieces of content on your site. If 5 of them are being seen by more people, then you have essentially a road map of what works.

Just as importantly, you have a map of what doesn’t work, as well.

Without metrics, you are reduced to guessing.

And what you think your readers want to see, and what you want to write, aren’t always the same thing.

Takeaways

If you haven’t started measuring, then start now! And if you’re measuring but not reading reports and the like, then start now!

Who knows? Your vampire teddy bear romance might be what your readers really want, as opposed to your story about a psychotic tuna fish sandwich.

But there’s no way you’ll know this, not for real, unless you measure.

And if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta keep my eye on my sandwich… ;)

How to Create a Writer Website: Writer Website User Experience DesignWeb design, Start a Writer Website, Writer SEO, Writer Website Design, Writer Website Copyright, Writer Website User Experience Design, Mobile Design, What to Write About, Website Planning, Technology to Help You With Writing, Website Plans, Website Speed

How to Create a Writer Website: Writer Website User Experience Design

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on June 13, 2023

Whether you’re just starting or are updating an older author website, writer website user experience design is something you must consider.

Fer realz, yo’.

How Writer Website User Experience Design Can Help or Hurt You

Do yourself an enormous favor, and Google the placement office at your alma mater. If you didn’t go to college, then any local college or university will do. The name might be something like career development.

I am a ridiculous overachiever and have the oddest resume you are ever going to see. So, I have three alma maters, heh. Let’s look at them in turn (but what does this have to do with writer website design, I hear you cry. Trust me, you’ll see).

Boston University

The BU Center for Career Development has of course changed a lot since I graduated. Which was before a lot of people were born, 1983. Colors are bold and it’s pretty easy to find stuff. BU also knows their audience. It’s a large university, over 100 years old, and has a variety of schools.

Just appealing to undergraduates would alienate alumni returning to look for work. Still, there’s no doubt that undergraduates are the main focus. If I wanted to look for work via BU, I would probably go straight to their alumni association—yet there’s no link or suggestion thereof.

I’m just left to founder.

Well, that kinda stinks.

I’d give BU a 3/5. What is there is very easy to read and navigable. But they are utterly neglecting a good chunk of their audience, and not even giving us an escape hatch.

Widener Law School (Delaware Campus)

The Widener Career Development Office has a rather different focus, as there are no undergraduates. There are certainly undergrads at Widener, but they aren’t at the law school. And, the jobs the Widener office is going to send people to with inevitably either be private practice, JAG Corps (the military), or something academic.

There may be a few government agency jobs sprinkled in there. Also, because it’s a regional type of school, jobs will most likely be in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. There may be a few in Maryland or New York. And if there are any federal jobs, then they’ll be in DC. But if you want to work in Indiana, you’re out of luck.

Notice anything else?

The font is larger than it was for BU, and it’s a serif font, whereas BU was sans serif.

Widener knows their audience is older, certainly at least about 20 years old (more likely to be closer to 25 at the youngest), whereas BU may have some audience members as young as 16. Also, Widener probably figures most people will read their site on a laptop or desktop. At BU? Tablets or phones.

I’d give Widener a 2/5. While it does account for user age and perhaps sensibilities, I didn’t see any way to get to any jobs! You have to click on students before you get to any place with jobs. If you click on alumni, the message is about mentoring and recruiting.

Hence the assumption is, you’ve already graduated so, you don’t need to look for work. Would that it were so easy, Widener.

Quinnipiac University

The QU Career Development Office is a lot more image-heavy. It’s another sans-serif site, and the font is smaller, like for BU. There isn’t a lot of information on the front page, but that’s by design.

Rather, you scroll down and you’re given a choice of six schools and their College of Arts and Sciences. You can go straight to the appropriate placement office from there. But once there, there’s not a lot beyond telling you to contact the director.

While there are listings to tell you where people have landed, you have no names or contact info. So, knowing someone ended up at Apple, for example, is lovely. But, what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

As an alum, I had to back out of the CDO and go to the home page for QU, click on alumni and then on career development, and then, finally, job postings.

And then I had to choose QUCC or an external link that ended up not working. Not a good look, QU.

I would give QU a 3.5/5. Triaging people by school was smart, but there was no accommodation for us older folks who might have less than stellar eyesight.

Writer Website User Experience Design is About Accommodations

For all three schools, the web developers did a decent job with functionality. Nothing was slow. Yet there were places where all three could improve.

Hiding what the readership was looking for was a problem for all three schools. Seriously—when I go to a placement office, I want to see jobs. At the barest absolute minimum, there should have been a way to sign up for notifications or to get into the system.

And that information should have been front and center. It was a use case that all three schools missed entirely, the concept of an alum out of work or a student over the summer, who just wanted to look for a job. No talk of careers or callings or majors.

Just. A. Job.

What really irks me is that these schools all have good budgets. So, why didn’t they do any better?

The Writer Website User Experience Design on YOUR Author Website

Most of us indie writer types do not have access to any sort of a meaningful budget. And, if we do, it’s likely better spent on cover designs, editor services, and paying for hosting, or for swag and accommodations for events.

So, you’re probably not going to be doing any sort of user experience testing. But that does not mean you cannot perform some thought experiments. Come with me, if you will.

Buyer Personae

Who is your ideal reader? Who buys your stuff? And, if you’re not selling yet, who do you think would buy it? This is  beyond your family, close friends, and fellow authors doing trades.

Name this person, and give them a face. Give them demographics. Here’s mine.

Meet Amy Shapiro

Amy Shapiro is a science fiction fan who’s older than the standard college crowd but still somewhat identifies with them (she’s between 35 and 70). She is college-educated and probably has three or fewer children, if any. She’s either married or in a long-term relationship. Her sexuality is more likely to be straight but she might be bi.

Amy is Jewish although not strict and does not keep kosher. But she does see that depictions of people just like her tend to be one-dimensional.

Where are the Jews in space?Alicia Silverstone (to depict buyer persona Amy Shapiro), to illustrate writer website user experience design

Amy loves sci fi but she still finds it hard to see herself on the page or the screen. After a certain age, women fall off a cliff in Hollywood, Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Fisher notwithstanding.

She also wants something unique and different, and is willing to read a number of different kinds of plots.

Amy is comfortable with some sex scenes, even explicit, if they aren’t gratuitous. The same is true of violence, but gore makes her squeamish.

This image (from Wikipedia, so it’s a creative commons license and therefore okay to use) is of actress Alicia Silverstone, a nice Jewish gal who was born in 1976 and fits the model perfectly.

Use Cases

I alluded to this already, but now let’s get more specific. A use case is essentially how you think a person will use a particular product or service.

Of course, people who buy books intend to eventually read them. So, I’m not talking about use cases for books. Rather, I mean use cases for your writer website.

Writer Website User Experience Design — Appropriate Use Cases

Why do people go to author websites?

What do they want to accomplish? What can they get there and nowhere else, online or off?

I believe the following use cases exist for my site. Most of them probably do for yours (or will) as well:

  1. Customers who want to buy my books
  2. Fellow indie writers (just like you!) who want to discuss and learn about the craft
  3. Fans looking to personally connect to me
  4. People who want to learn about using social media and some web design (mostly intersects with #2, but not 100%)

Buyers

This is a group who, I will be first to admit, I am not serving well. But they’re the easiest to serve. They need links to buy, a shopping cart, ways to pay, and a means to check out and go home (figuratively) happy.

Craft Discussers

These are people I serve with posts like this, but also posts about inspiration, plotting, editing, and beta reading.

Fans (hi!)

For fans, the more personal ways I serve them are with self-reviews and progress reports. They want to know what I’m working on, and I like to think they want to know how I feel about that as well.

Social Media/Web Design Students

Posts just like these serve this group. So do a lot of the book reviews I’ve done over the years. I’ve read a ton of books on social media, etc. These folks want to know if those reads are worthwhile.

Takeaways for Writer Website User Experience Design

I know Amy is a buyer/fan, or at least I would like her to become one if not both. To better serve her, I need to set up sales, a thing I have not done yet.

Here are takeaways for you:

  1. Consider your ideal reader/customer and how you can appeal to them
  2. Why do you believe they are coming to your author website? Offer them what they want and need
  3. Take the time to determine who your ideal buyer persona really, really is (yes, I’m repeating myself, but it’s that important)

Who’s your Amy?

Want More of Writer Website Development?

If my post on website speed resonates with you, then be sure to check out my other articles about how to create a writer website.

Writer Website Development

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U/X design will make a difference with your writer website! #amwriting

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Community Management Tidbits – AnalyticsCommunity Management, Scale. Freshening, Get Together, Love, Small Things, Without Management, True Community, Party Started, Terrible Netizen, Snakes, Circle Game, Look, Netizen, Corralling, Wandering off Topic, Facebook versus Forums, Superstar Users, Analytics, Community Roundtable, Community Management Haikus, Life of a Community Manager, Social Media Job Descriptions, Superstar Users, Community Roundtable 2010

Community Management Tidbits – Analytics

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on November 18, 2022

Community Management in the Context of Analytics

So, the truth is, analytics are a term that scares a lot of people. But don’t panic.

Let’s back up for just a second, all right?

You’ve got a community. And you’re working hard on it. It’s growing. But you have no idea whether what you’re doing is having any sort of an impact whatsoever. This is where analytics comes in.

Now, don’t panic if you don’t have a data analysis background. It’s not strictly necessary. What you do need, though, are (a) a means of measurement (preferably you should have a few of these) and (b) the willingness to measure. Really, it’s that easy. You do not need a degree in Advanced Statistics.

Google Analytics 4 (replacing Universal Analytics)

First of all, the primary measurement stick you want is Google Analytics. And it is free and very easy to use. It’s also a rather robust measurement system, capable of showing trends in Visitors, Absolute Unique Visitors, and more.

In addition, it shows, among other things, where your traffic is coming from, where your users land, and where they departed your site from. It also shows Bounce Rate, which is defined by Measurement Guru Avinash Kaushik as, “I came, I saw, I puked.” In other words, the visitor only visited one page of the site.

Keep in mind, though, that it’s entirely possible your visitor loved your site but got everything they needed in just one page. So, while they may have bounced right out of there, it might not have been due to any fault or failing on your part.

So, try not to take it personally, okay?

AHRefs

Thank God for AHRefs. While free website measurement tools have come and gone (apart from Google Analytics), AHRefs will review whatever is out there.

So, one thing to keep in mind is that as this post is updated, I keep finding new yardsticks. And then they go away after a while. At least AHRefs is still hanging in there. Whew.

Also, consider SEMRush and Ubersuggest.

Analytics From More Yardsticks

Furthermore, there are also measuring websites specifically designed to help you comprehend how you’re doing on Twitter and elsewhere, namely:

  • HootSuite – count the number of clicks you receive on shortened URLs, to supplement your Google Analytics click counts
  • HubSpot – measure how influential you are (with a hugely helpful diagnostic) and
  • Tweepsmap – analytics and info on who unfollowed or followed you on Twitter.

Facebook also has its own metrics, which you can see if you have a page.

Using Your Findings

So what do you do with all of this information once you’ve amassed it? Why, you act upon it! Does one page on your site have a far higher Bounce Rate than the others? Check it and see if the links on it are all leading users away from your site. If that’s not the culprit, perhaps its content just plain isn’t compelling enough.

Got a series of links you’ve tweeted that have consistently gotten you the most clicks? Then check to see what they all have in common, and offer similar links in the future. And maybe even build some onsite content around those subjects.

Has your HubSpot grade tanked in the past week? That might be due to external factors beyond your control, but check to see if any of it is within your purview. Perhaps your server was down.

Finally, small fluctuations over short time periods are perfectly normal and are no cause for concern. However, much larger hikes and drops, or trends over longer time periods, are more of an issue. But you’ll never know about any of these things unless you start to take measurements, and read and use them.

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Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (metrics and timing)Twitter, Twitter Stream, offsite connections, visual elements, Twitter followers, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, Demystifying Twitter, metrics, verbal elements, Amazoncart debuts, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, metrics, verbal elements, Bruins denounce Twitter hate, Twitter bigots, lost dogs, using Twitter to track, Shift in Twitter Trends

Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (metrics and timing)

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on May 12, 2022

Let’s Look at Almost Everything But the Tweet — Twitter Metrics and the Art and Science of Tweet Timing

Metrics and timing. When you tweet may not seem to matter too much. In particular, if you don’t tweet too terribly often, your tweets will still be out there, so why bother to even care about timing?

metrics and timing

Not so fast.

Patterns

According to The Science of Retweets, Twitter users tend to follow some recognizable patterns.

First thing Monday morning is prime time for retweeting; so is five o’clock on a Friday afternoon. And it’s always 5 o’clock … somewhere.

Yet that makes sense, as tweeters are either settling into the work week or are just about to start the weekend. Weekend tweeting is another animal as well.

Noon is another good time for retweeting—people are at lunch or are about to go. That’s true for people who go into an office and also those who work from home.

Plus there’s also the matter of accounts (often for job sites) that pump out a good dozen tweets, one right after another. These have little individual impact and seem only to be useful for later searching.

Timed tweeting seems almost counterintuitive. But for a business to use Twitter effectively, the tweets should be planned anyway. Why not plan not only their content but also their timing?

Scheduling Software

Here’s where services like Tweet Deck, Social Oomph (formerly Tweet Later) and HootSuite can provide some assistance. By scheduling the most important tweets for the very start and end (and middle) of each business day, you can add to their impact.

Separating out your tweets can also get them all out there while simultaneously preventing a flood of tweets which many users are generally just going to ignore.

Another positive upshot to spacing out your tweets is giving you content that can be used later. For Social Media platforms, it’s easy to initially attack them with an enormous amount of enthusiasm and then taper off or even fizzle out entirely.

If you regularly spit out twenty tweets per day, you’ll be tweeting 100 times during any given work week. Even your most dedicated followers are probably not going to read every single one. Plus, you’re setting yourself up for burnout.

Repeating tweets is pretty much a given, particularly when you consider how many touches people need before they buy just about anything. If someone missed your “Everything’s on sale!” tweet, then you want to catch them on the flip side, eh?

Time Zone Scheduling

So, instead, how about scheduling only two tweets per day (say, at 9:00 and 5:00 PM in the time zone where you have the greatest market share)? That way, you’ll have more people reading and no one will feel overwhelmed. Plus your 100 tweets will work for a little over a month or even two, if you are judicious and don’t tweet on the weekends.

So long as your tweets aren’t intimately tied to a specific time (e. g. announcements of an upcoming event), it shouldn’t matter. And, if they are, you might want to consider splitting them over several Twitter accounts. Perhaps open up one for just events in Seattle, for example.

Now, what about metrics?

URLs

Unfortunately, Twitter itself doesn’t do much, so you’ll mainly have to cobble things together yourself and use off-Twitter resources. One idea is to use a URL-shortening service that tracks basic metrics, such as Social Oomph or HootSuite. You may not get much more data from them than click count, but it’s still something. Hoot Suite provides .owly link metrics, with two free reports.

Another idea is to use a unique URL for the site URL in your profile, say, https://yoursite.com/twitter. If you’ve got Google Analytics set up, you can track when that page is used for landings to your site, and its bounce rate.

For commercial ventures, you might even make up a coupon code and tweet about it. Or use your Twitter landing page as a means of communicating certain special offers available only to Twitter users.

This is also useful for segmenting your audience when you want to send them email (with their double opt-in permission, of course!).

Follower/Following Ratio Metrics

Your number of followers, and the ratio of followers to who you follow, is all well and good, but it’s hard to say what you’re measuring. On Twitter, as on much of the web, popularity tends to breed even more popularity. And, it doesn’t really mean much if you have a number of purely spammy sites following you. They aren’t reading your tweets, anyway, so what’s the point?

This dilutes any idea of what these numbers might provide regarding influence, but if for some reason you really want to be followed by a bunch of spammers, just place the term weight loss into your profile and never block the spammers. In fact, follow them back, and you can get even more of them.

It hardly seems a worthwhile trophy to be followed by the biggest-ever village of spammers, eh?

And for God’s sake, don’t buy followers! That way lies madness. And it’s a fine ticket to being banned, or at least it used to be.

Some Metrics

Some sites, such as Audiense, show number of followers and their influence and activity. You can see which inactive people you follow (so you can drop them if you like), which famous people follow you, etc. Some of these are admittedly vanity metrics, but they are helpful.

Tweet Stats demonstrates, among other things, a graph of daily aggregate tweets. And it also contains your most popular hours to tweet and who you retweet. You’ll probably have to pay a different site for stats like exposure and reach. E. g. this means impressions and mentions of any topic, be it a word, a phrase, a user id or a hashtag.

In conclusion, keep up with Twitter, but don’t overwhelm your followers with floods of content. And measure your influence as well as you can, both using your own and external tools. If you can adjust your tweets to better serve your followers, your true influence will surely rise.

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… And Facebook for All – Offsite Sharing

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 7, 2021

… And Facebook for All — Offsite Sharing

Offsite sharing is a fascinating concept. Perhaps the most compelling feature of Facebook consists of the availability of the Like Button.

The Like Button and Offsite Sharing

Because the offsite Like Button dovetails beautifully with its presence on the site itself, i.e.,

“The Like button lets a user share your content with friends on Facebook. When the user clicks the Like button on your site, a story appears in the user’s friends’ News Feed with a link back to your website.”

Drag and Drop

Furthermore, the site tries to make it easy for even novice programmers (and people who can really only do drag and drop) to place a Like Button on their own sites for offsite sharing.

The premise is irresistible. You add the Like Button, people “Like” your own site, and that information transmits back to Facebook and to the Likers’ friend lists. In addition, their friends, who may not have know about you at all, suddenly do, and the offsite sharing spreads even more. They, hopefully, check you out, Like you, and the process repeats on and on, ad infinitum, or at least in theory. And with enough intersecting friends with enough non-intersecting additional friendships, a few Likes could translate into dozens, if not hundreds, or even thousands, of new people who know about you.

Engagement and Reach

However, engagement and reach are both going down. And Facebook actually has the gall to try to get people to pay for what it does! Quelle horreur!

But, seriously folks, how do you think Facebook pays its bills? They do it with advertising. If users won’t be charged (and Facebook would be mighty foolish to start charging all of those free sources of detailed consumer data), then advertisers will be. And of course that already happens.

What gets a lot of people’s undershorts knotted is that the freebie advertising is harder and harder to implement. Facebook seems to push everyone with a page to start buying likes to get more offsite sharing.

Thumb on the Scale?

Whoa, Nelly! Because that would be kind of unethical, if the site was deliberately putting a thumb on an imaginary scale and making it harder for people to reach their fans without paying for reach and engagement.

So, are they doing that?

While the jury is still out (after years!), I’m still inclined to say no. After all, the site grows by leaps and bounds on a second by second basis. And so engagement and reach dilute without Facebook having to do a damned thing.

Finally, does the site benefit from making it harder for page and group administrators to connect for free? Absolutely. But do they have to work in order to create this condition?

Nope. Life does it for them.

Offsite Sharing: The Upshot

Beyond issues with Russian interference and how the Facebook algorithm can sometimes tamp down third parties, offsite sharing can work pretty well there.

Political and other paid ads, though, are another story. They are a reminder that, every year, Facebook becomes more and more of a “pay to play” platform. Hence if you want to share something from off the site, your shared content might be lost amidst the paid stuff. So be it.

Want More About Facebook?

If this article resonates with you, then check out my other articles about the largest social media platform on the planet.

Facebook Features:

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Social Networking/Social Media Tips

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 7, 2021

Social Networking/Social Media Tips

Social Media Tips? Yes, please! A while back, Grassroots Giving Group published some great Social Networking tips. I agreed with their ideas but would like to expand upon them a bit.

And they were essentially exploring when Facebook and Twitter (X) are useful. Here are some of their ideas.

Ideas

Here are a few quickie ideas.

Announcements

Don’t just announce upcoming or new things but also add links in order to drive traffic. Agreed! However, I would add a targeted landing page.

If you’ve got people coming in from Facebook, why not create a new landing page to personally welcome them (e. g. Welcome to our Facebook Friends!). The best part about that is that, since it’s a separate page, Google Analytics will track the clicks separately.

You’ve got a fighting chance of getting good metrics, so you’ll know whether your announcement of the opening of a new branch of the Widget Factory played better on Facebook or on Twitter.

Sending shortened website addresses on Twitter – use an URL shortener. Of course! But why not use one (such as from HootSuite) where you can get some click metrics? Using both a personalized landing page and an URL with click metrics can give you an even clearer idea of how traffic flows.

Oh, and they don’t tell you why you should shorten an URL on Twitter (even if the URL fits), but I will: to make it easier for people to retweet.

Planning

Here are some tips for better planning.

Planning in Advance

There’s nothing new here. You should keep up with things and plan in advance. Absolutely. And that means, when you’re hot and creative, write, write, write! Keep drafts and ideas going, and also think about how you can expand on your own blog entries or others’ (such as this blog entry).

Get yourself a stable of other blogs/blog writers, news sources, etc. Who inspires you? Who interests you? And don’t repeat or steal, of course. Rather, expand and comment. These are perfectly legitimate ways to update your blog.

This Day in History

Commemorate occasions in your company! There must be something you’ve done that is good blog fodder. Of course, not every day is memorable, but it’s another way to keep the pipeline going. If July 12th is an important day in your organization, make sure that the July 12th blog post and Tweets are ready to rock and roll, and they are updated to the correct year.

Heck, in HootSuite and SocialOomph (mentioned above), you can schedule Tweets. Why not schedule the Tweets for July 12th (or whatever your special day just so happens to be) and be done with them?

Quotes

They said, “Quotes!”

Quote Collection

I like this idea, and I think it can be used for a lot of purposes. This is not only quotes about your specific organization or its work, but even more generalized quotations. Surely there is something from Shakespeare (“My kingdom for a horse!”) or the Bible that could work for you in some capacity or another. It can be another jumping off point for creativity.

Ask Your Audience Questions

I think this is more useful if you have a somewhat large and actively commenting readership. While a rhetorical question is lovely, I think it’s just better if you can get at least a little feedback. Otherwise, it feels like you’re just shouting out to the wilderness.

Staff Introductions

This is another great idea. While your site might already have staff biographies, that’s another way to get the readership acquainted with who’s making the product.

Notes From Your Day

I don’t know about this one. Your day, maybe. Mine? I guess this is, in part, centered around the event reviews I’ve done. But otherwise, my days tend to be spent, well, here, blogging. Which may or may not be thrilling to others. But I can see where my coworkers could have some very interesting days. The process of invention is pretty fascinating.

Social Media Tips: Takeaways

So there you have it. Some pretty amazing social media tips for getting and keeping things going. And, while the post wasn’t, specifically, about blogging, it rings very true for that very specific – and sometimes challenging and elusive – task.

Finally, many, many thanks to the Grassroots Giving Group.

For more information, see the December 16, 2010 edition of Grassroots Giving Group.com’s blog.

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… And Facebook for All — Company PagesFacebook, advertising, account settings, Profile Page Part, Home Page, Working, Facebook, Rest, Facebook versus Forums, Company Pages, offsite sharing, Facebook Page, demystifying Facebook, Facebook Video Ads, Facebook to Allow Users to Login with Less Info, Facebook video ads, Facebook Ads vs. Google, Organic Reach Decline,

… And Facebook for All — Company Pages

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 5, 2021

Liberty, Justice (?), … And Facebook for All – Company Pages

Company pages have become spots you put together on Facebook to support a business (not the same as a fan page).

However, like everything else on Facebook, these pages and their settings do evolve, and they’ve gotten simpler these days. Currently, the following features are available:

  • Change Background Image/Avatar
  • Edit Page
  • Promote with an Ad
  • Add to my Page’s Favorites
  • Suggest to Friends
  • Information
  • Insights
  • Friends Who Like the Page
  • People Who Like the Page
  • Favorite Pages
  • Photos
  • Links
  • Events
  • Wall
  • Info
  • Photos
  • This Week
  • Notes
  • Videos
  • Post Scheduling
  • Various Apps

Company Pages and Details: Change Background Image/Avatar

This one is rather self-explanatory. Furthermore, a good, bright background image is good, as it shows up when you share the page. In addition, you might want to change these on occasion as that generates an update.

Edit Page

Manage permissions, add an address or business hours, etc. here.

Promote with an Ad

This is fairly self-explanatory. Note that Buffer has said that Facebook ads are a mixed bag.

Add to my Page’s Favorites

So here’s where another company you can link your page to your event pages.

Suggest to Friends

Fairly self-explanatory.

Information

This is basic information such as the company’s location.

Insights

First of all, this provides basic click information, including the number of Likes and Views. In addition, you can also see information on age and gender demographics and, most importantly, when people are online.

Friends Who Like the Page

Fairly self-explanatory.

People Who Like the Page

Fairly self-explanatory, except this includes people you are not, personally, friends with.

Favorite Pages

This goes back to adding a page as a favorite. And it shows which company pages your company has favorited.

Photos

Fairly self-explanatory.

Links

Fairly self-explanatory.

Events

I’ve found adding events to be hit or miss. First of all, not everyone RSVPs, and not everyone shows up even if they’ve said yes. However, it provides more exposure and it will bring your page up to people as the event date rolls around. Because even people who are clicking “No” are still looking, at least a little bit. So use with discretion and don’t overdo this. Because not every activity is an event, and not everyone should be invited to everything. Since that’s just plain annoying.

Wall

Fairly self-explanatory. In addition, you can control who can add to your wall. However, keep in mind that if you are free and easy with this, you’ll get more posts but you might also get spam. Although if you shut this down, you end up with Posts to Page. And it’s easy to miss these!

Company Pages Info

Here you add more detailed information. Hence this includes the company’s address and its business hours.

Photos

Fairly self-explanatory. Posts with images nearly always do better than those without, so upload an image if the link you’re sharing doesn’t have one. Make sure you have permission to use the image!

Notes

Fairly self-explanatory. Hence add notes like you would on your own personal page. E. g. these are almost discussions. However, the responses are relegated to subordinate comments versus the kind of back and forth that comes from the wall or the discussions page. And this is, admittedly, a nitpicky distinction without much of a real difference. I would, though, suggest that you not use the Notes section for blogging. Instead, get a blog through WordPress (yay!) or the like and do it that way. Because the Notes section ends up a rather poor substitute for that.

Videos

Fairly self-explanatory. Hence if you’ve got videos uploaded, they can show up here. However, this is not the same as linking to a video hosted online elsewhere.

Company Pages: Post Scheduling

Fairly self-explanatory. So just post to your wall but pull down on the post button and select Schedule Post. In addition, if you’ve been looking at your Insights, you should know when people are online. And of course you want to try to post when people will see your posts.

Various Apps

Finally, go to Edit Profile and there is an option for Applications. However, these days, the only ones are Notes and Events.

Want More About Facebook?

If this article resonates with you, then check out my other articles about the largest social media platform on the planet.

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Responding to Facebook’s Organic Reach DeclineFacebook, advertising, account settings, Profile Page Part, Home Page, Working, Facebook, Rest, Facebook versus Forums, Company Pages, offsite sharing, Facebook Page, demystifying Facebook, Facebook Video Ads, Facebook to Allow Users to Login with Less Info, Facebook video ads, Facebook Ads vs. Google, Organic Reach Decline,

Responding to Facebook’s Organic Reach Decline

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on May 26, 2016

Responding to Facebook’s Organic Reach Decline

Are you responding to Facebook’s organic reach decline? Facebook’s organic reach is going down. That is, fewer people are seeing your posts (unless you cough up some dough. So, what’s a writer or social media marketer to do?

Social Media Today’s Pam Dyer has the scoop on how to respond.

Then in 2012, Facebook restricted brand content reach to around 16%. But in 2014, the figure plummeted to just about a dismal 6%.

Per Dyer

So, according to Dyer, “No one really knows for sure how Facebook decides what appears in news feeds, but some elements are well known as weighting factors:

  • Post types that receive the most user interaction
  • Posts that users hide or report as spam
  • How a user interacts with Facebook ads
  • The device that is used to access Facebook and the speed of its connection”

EdgeRank

EdgeRank has less importance than it had. But it’s not quite absent from the mix. So, it consists of –

  • “Affinity: The closeness of the relationship between the user and the content/source
  • Weight: The action that was taken on the content
  • Decay: The freshness of the content”

Responding to Facebook’s Organic Reach Decline: Four Steps

Dyer lays out four steps.

  1. Optimize Facebook content. Test what’s working, and what isn’t.  What are people clicking on? And are they clicking through to your site? Look at Google Analytics 4 for your site, and determine which content is the source for your Facebook-generated traffic.
  2. Create incentives for sharing content. Whether that’s offers, contents, or just can-you-believe-this types of posts, create the kind of content that people want to spread to their peers.
  3. Work a multi-network campaign strategy. Use hashtags; they show up in all sorts of places, and not necessarily on Facebook.  Also, put your hashtag in all of your promotions, e. g. blogs, television commercials, literature, etc.
  4. Track data, and act on it accordingly! What’s happening with your links? Where is your audience coming from? Dovetailing with step #1, be the company that knows where your traffic is really coming from. Know where your audience is clicking.

Knowledge is power.

Seven Years Later, Organic Reach Decline is Even Worse

But that’s probably something to expect. The number of Facebook users continues to rise exponentially.

Per Hootsuite, Facebook is flirting with 2 billion daily users. Yes, you read that right. But also —

About 15% of Facebook Feed content is recommended by AI from non-followed accounts

Mark Zuckerberg has said that he expects that percentage to more than double by the end of 2023. That’s loads of potential for brands to get in front of new audiences organically. All the more reason to stay on top of the latest changes in the Facebook algorithm.

This is heartening. Maybe Meta has listened to advertisers. After all, that’s how they make their money. If advertisers aren’t selling, then they will go someplace where they will. That place may be TikTok, Instagram (another Meta property), LinkedIn, or the like. Or it may be a bit more outside the box, like Twitch, Quora, or Google ads.

If Facebook doesn’t want its competition to eat its lunch, then Facebook has to make it possible for advertisers to do well on its platform.

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Online Advertising: Facebook Ads vs. Google AdWords vs. LinkedInFacebook, advertising, account settings, Profile Page Part, Home Page, Working, Facebook, Rest, Facebook versus Forums, Company Pages, offsite sharing, Facebook Page, demystifying Facebook, Facebook Video Ads, Facebook to Allow Users to Login with Less Info, Facebook video ads, Facebook Ads vs. Google, Organic Reach Decline,

Online Advertising: Facebook Ads vs. Google AdWords vs. LinkedIn

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on July 31, 2014

Online Advertising: Facebook Ads vs. Google AdWords vs. LinkedIn

Social Media Today several years ago compared these three types of online advertising, namely: Facebook Ads vs. Google AdWords vs. LinkedIn. To find out who the top dog was, read on.

Google

Google’s ads got more expensive at the end, and their success often seemed to be hit or miss. Wide geographic ranges could give dramatic numbers but few results – narrowing things down geographically seemed to accompany a commensurate rise in click quality.

According to the article, Google advertising, “… works if you have a unique and popular product or service. The interface feels professional, with excellent reporting tools, great usability and many various options.”

Facebook

So, the Facebook advertising experience seemed to be the most satisfying to the writer of the article.  With a demographic and geographic focus (and fast service by Facebook support), you can credit ads with near-pinpoint accuracy.

But when speaking of Facebook, which is much more of a leisure time site than LinkedIn or Google is, the article stated, “(t)he secret is not to become too serious in your ads and keep them simple.”

LinkedIn

LinkedIn was seen as being great for ads intended to reach strictly professional audiences. However, the LinkedIn admin team took significantly longer to approve advertisements than their counterparts at Facebook and Google took.  Also, the reporting also had some serious restrictions. And it only offers a CSV file for download.

Facebook Ads vs. Google, Etc.

I agree with the conclusions drawn in the article – Facebook was overall the best, Google would be helpful for targeted ads for specific, unique or well-known products. And LinkedIn lagged, big time.

To my mind, this also dovetails well with these sites’ overall purposes. Facebook is where people go for socializing. And so it seems to work with ads in the same way that we view television commercials. Google and LinkedIn have other purposes. And so we are less likely to expect such a marriage of content and online advertising.

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