People Talking About This (PTAT) is an important metric because it provides you feedback regarding how much your fans are interacting with you via your Facebook Fan Page.  The more your fans interact and engage with your page, the more your reach extends beyond just your fans and includes the friends of your fans.

• Talking About This
  • The number of unique users who have interacted with your page in the past 7 days.
    • Like your page
    • Post on your page wall
    • Like a post
    • Comment on a post
    • Answer a questions
    • RSVP to your event
    • Mention your page in a post
    • Tag your page in a photo
    • Check in at a place
    • Shared a check-in deal
    • Wrote a recommendation
  • In June 2012 Facebook added viral shares to the who’s talking about this count.  This means when a fan shares your posts, any additional likes, comments or re-shares are counted in the PTAT
  • The count is usually 2 days behind – so it isn’t an immediate representation of who is interacting with your page right this minute

Weekly Total Reach (WTR) is the Facebook metric that tells you how many users have really seen your content in the past seven days.  This is an important metric as well, because in order to engage or interact with you and your business via Facebook, users need to see your content first.

Total reach is a more accurate representation of your fan base.  You may have 5000 fans, but if only 200 are reached, you’re communicating with fewer fans then you may realize.

• Higher reach will result in the potential for more user interaction and engagement.
• User engagement and interaction should be your Facebook Fan Page goal.  If you are seeking new expand your brand exposure, implement a strategy to encourage more user engagement.
  

So ... while your watching the game tomorrow, you'll want to engage online with all of the other fans! Check out this infographic that provides all of the information you'll need.

Images are an extremely effective tool to use on your website.  Photos are the item we interact with the most on social media sites.  Simply put … you need more images on your website!

But don’t just find and slap a bunch of images up on your site.  If you’re thoughtful and methodical about it – you can also get a search engine optimization bang for your buck.  Here are a few things to keep in mind, as you’re adding more images to your website:

Start with the name of your image.
Always rename your images to include the same keyword phrase you are using on the page where the image is displayed on your site.  Search engines read the file names and use that information to help your images be found in image searches.  Most search engines are smart and can figure out separate words, but you can use hyphens to separate multi-word keyword phrases.

Use alt text
Search engines can’t read images, but they can read the alt text associated with your image.  Use the alt text field in your website editor (or tell your web designer) to add alt text with every image on your site.  Use your keyword phrases in the alt text, as well as describe the content of your image.

Pick the right place on your page.
Always place your images near the text content on the web page that contains the same keyword phrases you’re using on that page.  Search engines are drawn to the keyword phrases, and are more likely to find and index the image when they are crawling your page.  You can also use variations of your keyword phrases to expand the reach of your images being found.

Don’t forget about social media
Great content is sharable … and this includes your images.  Share the images you use on your website also on your social media sites.  Go further by tagging the images with your keywords and descriptions when you can.  And for a power boost, include a link back to your website in the description of the image.

The Yellow Pages recently released statistics about the most popular searches conducted during 2012.  One thing is certain, local search is gaining in popularity.  Yellow Pages experienced over 350,000 more local searches per day during 2012, than during the previous year.

The top ten search categories for 2012 are:

• Restaurants
• Financial Services
• Auto Repair & Service
• Beauty Services
• Physicians & Surgeons
• Real Estate
• Automobile Parts & Supplies
• Building Contractors
• Legal Services
• Lodging

Are you in one of these industries?  If so … what’s the state of your local search strategy?  If you are in one of these industries, and haven’t done so already, it’s time to ensure your local search strategy is working for you.

Additionally, last year searches conducted on mobile devices increased over 30%.  Have you checked to see how your website displays on a mobile device?  If not, check out the site:  http://mobiletest.me/   It may be time to make some updates and changes to ensure your site works on mobile devices as well.

The top search categories that saw the greatest growth in mobile search last year were:

• Industrial Manufacturing 105%
• Party Planning 94%
• Medical Services 85%
• Maintenance & Cleaning Services 71%
• Dentists 71%
• Building Contractors 62%
• Physicians & Surgeons 51%
• Legal Services 35%
• Moving & Storage 34%

The upshot is … a local search strategy is an important part of your overall Internet marketing plan.  And, a mobile strategy can’t be ignored either.

As you all know, your Facebook Fan Page works better when you engage your fans to interact with you.  One way to accomplish engagement is by running an OFFER.  Although Facebook Offers used to be free, they will cost you a few bucks to run – you can usually run one for less than $100).

A Facebook Offer is a coupon created and shared via Facebook.  You can create an offer on your Fan Page and then Facebook users can claim the offer.  Claimed offers are sent to user through email.  You can create online, offline, or both types of offers.
Below are the steps for creating an offer … give it a try!  Post a comment to this blog, with a link to your Fan Page to share your offer with our readers!

Offers can be extremely beneficial for your business.  Using Facebook Offers allows you to quickly and easily spread the word about your products and services to both your fans and their friends.  Additionally, you can further advertise your offers and reach even more people!  Offers are posts on your Fan Page wall.  They are promoted via Page Post Ads, so when an offer is claimed, stories will appear about the redemption in your fans’ newsfeeds.  Additional you can further promote offers through ads and promoted posts.

• In the status bar, on your Fan Page, click on the OFFER, EVENT+

• Next, select the OFFER that appears in the drop down list.

• Select the type of Offer you would like to create.  We chose Online Only.

• Creating an offer is a 4 step process.
• Enter Web address – where people are redirected to get the offer.
• If your offer includes a discount coupon code to use on your online store, add it as well.
• Select NEXT.

• Step 2 is where you’ll add the details about your offer.
• Add an image – the image needs to be 300 x 300 pixels.
• Write headline for the offer – 90 characters or less.
• Limit the number of times the offer can be claimed.
• Set the expiration date.
• Add terms and conditions.
• Click to preview your ad.
• Go to your email and preview the confirmation email your customers will receive when they claim your offer.

• Select the SET BUDGE button.

• Pick your budget … and target market for your ad.

• Or, you may choose to check the box to promote your ad later.

• If you select the promote later option, your offer post won’t be added to your wall until after you create a Facebook Ad for your offer.

As always, if you have questions, or need some help trying out a Facebook feature – call Wendy at 425-885-9976 … our experts are standing by <grin>!
 
Oh yeah … don’t forget to go back to your wall and promote your post as well.  It may cost you a few more bucks … but many more people will have the chance to view (and claim) your offer!