I have been closely watching the news and sentiment surrounding the launch of Facebook Places over the last two days. Like most new Facebook announcements, it has been greeted with dislike, distrust, and much harumphing and discussion in the user community – despite the fact that we all knew it was coming for months now. Continue reading Facebook Places

Last October Facebook announced plans to remove the application boxes and application info sections from facebook pages, as well as reduce the width of application tabs in order to slim down for a new sleeker look.

Sometime during the week of August 23rd, those changes will be going into effect. Continue reading Facebook is making changes to your Fan Pages

Today I received a free $50 credit from Facebook in my inbox to try out Facebook ads. So I clicked the link in the email and walked myself through the process of creating an ad – and snagged screenshots along the way.

While I didn’t actually end up completing the process, I thought I would share the images of my test walk through with you in order to give you a rough idea of the INITIAL process.

(Keep in mind that Captico can handle all of this as a part of our campaign/packages for our clients.)

Step 1: Design Your Ad

You can have your Facebook Ad link to any website you wish. In this example I chose to link to the Captico Facebook page as opposed to the Captico website because the goal of my fake ad is to get people to connect with us on Facebook as opposed to drive traffic to our website.

Next, I enter my title. I want to catch the eye of people who are interested in Social Media as our Captico Facebook page provides information specifically related to social media and Facebook news. The Body text I enter tells the reader exactly that.

I chose the Captico logo for the image, but you can choose anything you want.

Step 2: Targeting

This is where we choose to whom the ad will appear. In my example I have selected DC, MD, and VA because those are the primary locations where are clients come from (though Captico does serve clients alla cross the country). If you are a small brick and mortar store in Cleveland that sells radioactive puppies, you may only what to target to Cleveland and cities that surround it. You can be as specific or as broad as you wish.

Demographics will further refine who your ads appear to. I have specified users who are 21+, of either gender, who have “Social media” listed as an interest in their profile and who graduated college. You can get very specific here targeting hobbies, ages, gender, and even companies or schools!

Step 3: Campaigns, Pricing, and Scheduling

This final step will be familiar to those of you who work with Google AdWords and Keywords. Here you specify how much you are willing to spend per day (you are charged each time your ad is clicked) and how much per click you wish to “bid”.

You can also choose the dates and frequency with which your ad will appear.

Well, I hope this brief walk through helped lift some of the veil around Facebook Ads! Please feel free to contact us with any questions or to help get YOU started with a Facebook campaign!

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You may also be interested in:

How to add Facebook Like and Share Buttons to Your Website

Facebook: Like

Facebook Ditches Fans in Favor of Likes

The newest update in Facebook’s attempt to get you to Like everything on earth and thus connect with each and every thing through their portal which they can then monetize in some way is the ability to Like a comment. Continue reading Facebook wants you to Like everything!

The social networking behemoth Facebook offers a number of Social plugins to better connect your website with users and allow your content to spread organically. Below you will find links and information on how to take advantage of these features and where you can find plugins.  Continue reading How to add Facebook Like and Share Buttons to Your Website

What is it?

The recent f8 announcement from Mark Zuckerberg signals Facebook has stepped up to the plate and assumed a responsibility long pushed upon it by its user community – The responsibility for enabling and encouraging users to extend their dialog and interactions beyond the borders of Facebook’s domain and into the web at large. It’s without doubt a very ambitious project that aims to add a social aspect into every website that wants one, and judging by the adoption so far many indeed do. Facebook likes will hopefully add a social and personal layer based on people’s interests, to every page sporting them.

Continue reading Facebook: Like

Evidence of this coming change has been appearing in information about Facebook and I know I have commented that this was the way Facebook was moving. It appears today the big step has been taken. At the top of your “Facebook Fan Page” (if you manage one) you will see this notice:

Continue reading Facebook ditches Fans in favor of Likes

A national (US) study of social media usage by market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies was conducted in February 2010 with the goal of learning more about why people become fans of company pages on Facebook or followers of brands on Twitter. Researchers wanted to know if these activities changed their behavior towards the brands themselves.  A survey was conducted of 1,504 adults (ages 18 and up) between February 8, 2010 and February 9, 2010 by Chadwick Martin Bailey, and iModerate Research Technologies held individual interviews to better understand participants’ behaviors. Continue reading Consumers Engaged Via Social Media Are More Likely To Buy

Now that you know HOW to Create Your Facebook Fan Page, lets talk about the basics of managing it. If you are familiar with Facebook and have a personal account, managing your fan page will be fairly easy. If not, I’ll walk you through the basic steps and share some advice. Continue reading Managing Your Facebook Fan Page (Basics)

In this 3-part video series, Emily Paterson presents Social Media for Businesses, beginning with an Introduction to Web 2.0, then a quick look at Blogging 101, and finishing with an overview of Twitter 101. Continue reading Video: “Social Media for Business” Series with Emily Paterson