Weekly Reading--All About Social Media

Brands Favor Social Shares Over Likes

Marketers have been asking consumers to Like their brands on Facebook for a long time. But Likes are the "digital grunts" of Facebook and the absolute minimum commitment you can request from a Facebook fan, according to an article in Adweek published on Monday. As Scott Monty, social media director at Force noted, "Likes, comments, shares—it goes in that order of importance."

Facebook's News Feed algorithm gives up to 1,300% more weight to shares than likes, affecting the viral performance of a promotion. An Eventbrite study found that Facebook shares are worth $4.15 each when it comes to event ticket sales, whereas retweets are worth $1.85 and LindkedIn shares are worth $.92.

Some are calling "shares" the new "retweets" because they indicate that people endorse your content to their networks and are willing to link their names to it. Ultimately, shares generate real engagement.

Make Facebook Marketing More Mobile-Friendly

About 680 million Facebook users access the channel from mobile devices, so it is important to make your marketing mobile-friendly. Here are five things to try to improve your results:

1. Target sponsored stories to mobile users. You can pay for a Sponsored Story targeted to mobile users when you have an important update and it will show up in your fans' news feeds and networks on their mobile devices.
2. Make sure your email is mobile-friendly. MailChimp reports that 40% of Americans who use mobile devices read email on them. Therefore, it is important to ensure your promotions can easily be viewed on mobile devices. Econsultancy discovered that people close emails immediately when they are not optimized for mobile. You should also keep subject lines short, use direct calls to action and consider special offers for mobile users only.
3. Integrate mobile with your other efforts. Promote your Facebook page in stores with signage that feature QR codes, offer whisper codes on Facebook and provide incentives to check in at stores.
4. Make sure your Facebook apps have mobile capability. Some apps for Facebook won't work on mobile unless the developer uses "smart" URLs that detect whether the user is on a mobile device or desktop.
5. Test everything. You want to confirm on multiple devices that your images load quickly, your links work and your message appear correctly.