Over the past few days, Facebook has unleashed an overhaul of their news feed that I believe has implications for marketers that go deeper than the surface. With hundreds of thousands of Facebook users revolting, only time will tell how long this particular feature will remain in its current design. In any event, one trend does seem clear. Like the sidebar Highlights that proceeded this particular redesign, Facebook seems to be in favor of delivering content that is based on a user’s prior engagement history.

What has changed?

Prior to this redesign, users would log on and see their home page streaming the most recent updates from all their friends and all the pages they are fans of in reverse chronological order. Now Facebook has changed this landing page to include only the stories they believe the user will be most interested in based on an algorithm that looks at the user’s prior engagement history.

A number of my Facebook friends today were passing on tips on how to configure their settings to see all their updates on their home page proves that there are users who dislike the filtering enough to learn how to disable it. Yet these types of users are not the majority, so any business using Facebook as a channel for delivering marketing messages to customers must understand the implications of the new feed.

Marketing implications of the new feed

The bottom line is that Facebook’s algorithm is determining what level of importance your message is  to your fan. Facebook decides whether your message should be included in the landing page News Feed, or whether your fan will need to click on the Live Feed option to find your message with all the others from their friends and pages which didn’t make the cut of importance.

In order for your Facebook messages to be effective, they first need to be seen. You can increase the chances of your messages getting seen by increasing your chances of getting them picked by the Facebook algorithm as important or relevant stories.

Clues to what Facebook deems important or relevant

I will not pretend to be an expert on Facebook algorithms, but observations I have made from studying the updates selected for my own News Feed give me some insight about how updates get chosen.

Criteria I have observed:

• Updates from people I have sent direct messages to recently
• Updates from people I have commented on the most
• Exact keyword match with another status update I commented on

How to use this information

Once you understand a bit about what Facebook looks at, you can then begin to incorporate this knowledge into your messaging strategy.

Do you have more observations to add from your experience? I’d love to learn and pass them along here.

Those of us who have been marketing directly to consumers since the 1980’s or before have experienced the evolution of channels from mailbox to internet and email. My work now involves encouraging clients to begin to look at Facebook as another prime environment for managing communications with customers and prospects.

While thousands of companies have hopped on board Facebook from pure instinct that they need to be there, few really understand Facebook well enough to be able to design a contact strategy that is effective.

What follows is a primer meant to help you to relate the old ways to the new.

Key #1: Think of Facebook as a public online environment for building your “house” lists.  In days past, we’ve referred to this process as acquiring names and addresses. We can thank Facebook for adding a human element by introducing the term “fan”.

Your fans will include:

• Current or past customers
• People who are becoming familiar with your company

Key #2: Think of Facebook as a public online environment for broadcasting messages to your fans and visitors to your page who are not fans.

These messages are:

• Broadcast on your page wall
• Streamed into your fans’ news feed

Key #3: Think of Facebook as a private online environment for sending messages to your fans.

• Messages are delivered to your fans’ inbox as status updates
• Updates can be sent to all fans
• Updates can be targeted

Questions? I’m happy to answer them.

First we examined how to write a call to action in Susan’s Your Social Media Messages: Strategic or Waste? The next step was to understand what to say and where to find that content. Now it is time to examine how to vary your message.

The worst mistake companies make, across social networks, is to hard sell everything. These companies push their products, services, and ideas non stop like a used car salesman. The following should help you avoid this fatal marketing mistake. Let’s take a look at this from a winery’s perspective.

What is Signal?

Signal are messages you deliver, within your social networks, that provide value to your audience. Signal should never be a sales pitch. These messages have the following characteristics:

• Subject: these messages are about your industry, peers, region, or your company
• Value: these messages add value to your audience by bringing them information that teaches, informs, or is breaking news
• Ratio: signal should make up 65%+ of the total messages you create

What is Noise?

Noise are messages you deliver, within your social networks, that provide your audience a sales message.

• Subject: these messages are entirely about your wine, discounts, pricing, specials, or anything you are selling to your audience
• Value: the value is centered on your winery more than the audience. This is your time to be “selfish” and pitch your products
• Ratio: noise should make up no more than 35% of your total number of messages

Become a Go-To Source of Value

The most critical reason you must vary your message, with more Signal messages, is  to create value for your audience. By creating value for your audience, you become a go-to source of valuable information. Wineries, or any companies-entrepreneurs, that position themselves as go-to sources of information create:

• Trust for their products and services with their audience
• Return readers who are motivated to learn more including information about your winery
• Perception that you care about engaging, informing your consumers, and providing them a “voice”
• Partnership where information sharing becomes viral

One of the biggest and most image tarnishing mistakes people make in social media is the blind collection of numbers. Whether it is collecting meaningless followers on Twitter or blatantly soliciting people to “friend” a Facebook page, the idea behind such hard sell activities is to artificially increase the number of people “using” a particular network. The motive behind these activities is the idea that the larger a person’s follower base, friend base, or Linkedin connections are (no matter who they are or where they are from) the more valued or validated that person is as an expert or authority on their subject matter.

Collecting numbers, you can buy 4,000 followers on Twitter for $12.95, is simply just that-a collecting of numbers. The worst scenario of all for “false expertise” through collecting of numbers is the collection of Linkedin recommendations.

Quality Over Quantity

The number of people that recommend a person is not a perfect indicator of that person’s abilities, expertise, or authority in their niche. It is more meaningful to acquire, without blatantly soliciting, solid recommendations from people with expertise, industry authority, or well respected people

3 Steps to Quality Linkedin Recommendations

1. Don’t Blatantly Solicit: The worst approach to receiving  a recommendation is to ask for one. This approach puts undue pressure on your friend, leaves them with a decision, and it can make for awkward communications and weaken your connection to that person
2. Write Recommendations: With a top down approach to clients and collaborators (start with the most relevant or important), begin writing recommendations for people. The benefits are goodwill with your network, top of mind reminder of your work, and status updates with your name attached
3. Request: Write a well thought out and powerful recommendation. Before sending it, attach a message asking:

• Does the recommendation meet their expectations and is it accurate?
• Ask them for their feedback on the recommendation
• Close by asking them if they would consider writing a recommendation for you if they feel they have benefited from your relationship together

If you are someone looking to get hired for a job of any kind, whether it be long-term or contract, you increase your chances of being discovered by ranking high in a Linkedin search. Just like managing your Google search presence, there are steps you can take to increase your chances of rising to the top.

How to rise to the top of a Linkedin People search:

1. Get clear on the keywords people will use to look for your talent. Sprinkle these keywords generously throughout your profile. The more times they appear, the more relevant your profile will be considered a match.
2. Complete all areas of the profile. Leverage the past experience section as opportunities to sprinkle more keywords where appropriate. A bare bones profile diminishes your ability to be searched and found.
3. Build an expansive network of connections. Some Linkedin users will choose to sort search results by relationship. A large network means a greater number of opportunities to show up as a 1st, 2nd or 3rd connection.

Experiment for yourself. Run an Advanced People Search on your most vital keywords in your local zip code area. See what comes up. If you are not at the top, look at who is. Study the keywords highlighted in their profile to determine why they are ranking higher than you. Make any appropriate adjustments that you can.