Stacey Marone says, “You have now seen the light and brought your business to social media platforms. You have a well-populated Facebook fan page, a Twitter account, and a great Pinterest board. You have taken all the lessons to heart about maintaining these social networks by keeping them updated, responding to all comments and inquiries promptly, and following followers. However, how do you know that your social media marketing strategy is actually working? How do you know what you need to change or improve? The best way to do that is to check the metrics. It is not hard, because there... [...]

Greg Finn says, “Since released more than 3 years ago, Facebook Lookalike Audiences have been the gold standard for matching like-minded audiences. A new release from Facebook is now bringing the powerful matching across borders – International Lookalike Audiences. This new resource will give marketers the ability to target international audiences similar lists of customers or leads. Simply upload a custom audience list (at least 100 people from a country) then target the audience to a specific country. A full list of targeting options can be found in the Facebook Business section. According... [...]

Tim Peterson says, “Facebook made clear earlier this year that it’s cool with marketers paying publishers to produce branded videos and distribute them for free through the publishers’ Facebook Pages. Now it’s making it easier for the brands also to distribute the videos through their own Pages without needing to upload the videos themselves. On Thursday Facebook announced that any Page can cross-post a video, including 360-degree videos and soon for videos that had been live but aren’t anymore, originally uploaded by another Page, so long as that cross-posting Page has the originating... [...]

Andrew M. Smith says, “Visual content garners a huge amount of engagement on social media. There’s a reason why 71% of online marketers use visual assets in their social media marketing: People respond to it. Being able to share this content across multiple platforms, then, is an asset. And one of the best ways to do that is to link Instagram to Facebook — that increases the number of eyes on your visual content. Before you move forward with your Instagram strategy, you’ll want to connect these accounts. Sharing your posts with your company Facebook Page, rather than... [...]

Annie Pilon says, “With the recent introduction of a raft of new features for Facebook Slideshow, there’s probably been a better time to try this easy to use video ad feature from Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) Slideshow ads are particularly popular right now, since they provide businesses with the opportunity to present ads in a really visual format without the need to produce a full video. And now the addition of new features like text, music and ore never possible with the original feature have only added to the appeal. To learn more about what goes into slideshow ads and to learn how to make... [...]

Tim Peterson says, “When Facebook introduced Offers in February 2012 for brands to distribute coupons on the social network, it was more or less a me-too product. Now Facebook is trying to make it more of a Facebook product. Facebook is updating its four-year-old Offers product to make it easier for people to see, save and use these coupons, especially when on their phones, and give brands more control over who those people are. For years brands have been able to use Offers to distribute online or in-store coupons on Facebook as ads or organic Page posts by linking to a brand’s site and... [...]

Tim Peterson says, “When Facebook introduced Offers in February 2012 for brands to distribute coupons on the social network, it was more or less a me-too product. Now Facebook is trying to make it more of a Facebook product. Facebook is updating its four-year-old Offers product to make it easier for people to see, save and use these coupons, especially when on their phones, and give brands more control over who those people are. For years brands have been able to use Offers to distribute online or in-store coupons on Facebook as ads or organic Page posts by linking to a brand’s site and... [...]

Tim Peterson says, “A little over a year since announcing Facebook would support vertical videos, the social network is making that support more obvious in people’s mobile news feeds, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed. “We know that people enjoy more immersive experiences on Facebook, so we’re starting to display a larger portion of each vertical video in News Feed on mobile,” the spokesperson said in an email. Previously vertical videos were cropped into squares when displayed in people’s news feed, and people had to click to see the vertically oriented version. Not anymore.... [...]

Josh Denning says, “The story is an all-too-familiar one: A business owner reads several success stories for Facebook Advertising and decides to try herself. After all, how hard is it, really? She reads everything she can and does everything she’s supposed to. She writes a compelling headline, chooses an image, writes persuasive copy, but, when she launches her campaign – crickets. Failing to recoup her ad costs, she gives up on Facebook Advertising, altogether, when really, it wasn’t the strategy that was at fault; it was her execution. Maybe you’ve been there yourself. Maybe... [...]

Greg Sterlng says, “Facebook introduced “Slideshow” advertising for emerging markets and small businesses (SMB) last October. In March of this year, Facebook said that its related “Your Business Story” SMB ads had more than three million advertisers. The Slideshow technology has two primary objectives: to make it easier and cheaper to create “video” ad units (typically photo montages) and make them accessible in markets with slow data connections. Today the company is announcing a range of new features and enhancements for Slideshow: “Advertisers can add text, select templates... [...]