Month: January 2020

Facebook Page Posts 04 – Media

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In the earliest days of online life, the world was limited to text-only interactions. But the pace of technological advancement has been amazing these last 30 years. Now, many of us hold computers in the palm of our hands that are vastly superior to those early desk top units that squealed and screamed when connecting with another computer over a landline.

It was only a few years ago that watching a video online was frustrating, and posting a 30-second video required a thick manual, a ritual sacrifice, and the luck of the gods. Well. . . almost.

According to several studies, a plain text post now receives the least attention. In order for a post to grab eyeballs, at minimum it should have a picture attached. (A post no longer has to include text – it could be just a still picture, or even just a video clip, but we’ll get there in a few minutes.) This is why you might see a post on Facebook about almost any subject, and attached will be a picture of a pet, or a sunset, or a tree – something totally unrelated to the subject of the message. If you can get a person to stop and look at your picture, there’s a chance they’ll also read the text of your post.

The picture you add to your post doesn’t have to be a photograph. It can be a graphic – clipart, perhaps – with or without text in the image itself. It could also be all text, stylized in one or more interesting typefaces; you’ll often see those created for quotes. Whatever type of image you attach, try to make it directly related to your post. If you announce that your business now sells blue widgets, post a picture of a blue widget. Now taking appointments for plumbing visits? Show your workers in their best uniforms smiling as they step from a truck with your company’s logo on the side.

In between the still picture and a full-motion video is the “animated picture” – often a GIF (graphic interchange format) image. These are still pictures arranged into “loops” a few seconds long, where the subject is often funny and/or shocking. The use of GIFs has changed drastically over the last few years, and I could write a whole dissertation on their use in personal posts. For now, we’ll just say that Facebook considers GIFs a category of still picture, and they’re attached the same way.

As I said a few minutes ago, your posts no longer need to include any text. If you’ve got what I call a self-contained image – with a picture, some explanatory text, and connection information – then post that by itself. FB also allows you to upload video clips, and the same goes for video posts. If you’ve got raw footage you’ve shot with your phone, you’ll probably want to add text explaining the context of the video, and adding any commentary you think necessary. Of you can post a fully-produced video, complete with an intro, closing credits, and mood music. Producing video clips for your business is a completely different subject. I tackle that in another series of articles.

The one type of medium that FB does not currently allow in posts is stand-alone audio. So if you’ve got an audio podcast, or an audio recording of a book or article you’ve written, you’ll have to produce it into a video clip in order to upload it. Again, the specifics of this are beyond the scope of this article, but the “video” can be as simple as a single still picture (or multiple pix chained together) taking up the image track, while the audio track plays. You can find these type of videos on YouTube, often created by home enthusiasts for songs where there’s no video recording of the artist.

Currently, the maximum file size for a video uploaded to Facebook is 1.75GB, which at HD format is a run-time of around 45 minutes. However, you should keep video posts as short as possible. You’re pushing it with videos longer than 30 seconds. Only people who are surfing FB to relieve boredom will watch videos longer than a minute, and you’d better have completely unique content that people feel will change their lives if you post a video with a run-time over 5 minutes.

Regardless of the media you use, any post you make on Facebook or elsewhere should have a specific intent – a set goal you want to accomplish. The message should be crafted using the principles of immediacy and scarcity when appropriate. Any time your post attempts to sell, or you ask a question, give the reader the contact info or link needed. In almost all posts, you should tell the reader exactly what you expect them to do once they’ve read the post, and give them any tools they need to do that.

11 best business post types, worst to best

11) Text-only post – long
10) Text-only post – under 25 words
9) Text post with unrelated still picture
8) Audio post with still picture
7) Text post with related still picture
6) Text post with self-contained image
5) Self-contained image, no text
4) Text post with raw video clip
3) Long (5+ min) fully-produced video clip
2) Medium (around 1 min) fully-produced video clip
1) Short (30 seconds) fully-produced video clip

Facebook Page Posts 03 – Page Ownership

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You may control your Facebook page, but you shouldn’t try to own it. Not if you really believe in the concept of social media, and want to provide your target audience with exactly what they want (and will therefor pay for).

As I have repeatedly said – and will say again – “It’s called social media for a reason.” But some business owners, or page administrators, see their page on Facebook as a sort of personal property. “It’s mine, and I’ll decide what’s posted here.” Okay – you don’t want someone promoting another company’s business on your page, I get it. Or starting flame wars (arguments). But I’ve seen companies take it way too far.

There’s a well-known restaurant in Toronto that technically allows people to post messages on their FB page, but within hours these posts are all deleted. It could be a question, or even a positive comment – they have someone who monitors the page and removes ALL posts that they themselves did not make. That’s doubly ridiculous – not allowing fan posts to remain, and paying some guy to sit around and actually remove them.

There are many, many places that also have a “no posting” setting on their pages – anyone who isn’t the administrator simply cannot post on the page. There’s another restaurant down the street from my house that has that option set on their page. One of their first posts was to tell people they didn’t want people to post on their page. Several months later, they posted for a dishwasher, and a few days later left a reply complaining that no-one had expressed interest in the job!

Here’s the thing: you want to encourage a camaraderie between your satisfied customers, a place where you can begin to develop a relationship with them. Imagine an old-time general store, where folks sat around the stove and talked about a bunch of stuff. This is the kind of environment you want to develop. You want to set up a place where your customers can like owners.

I train and teach karate. One night I was mopping the training floor, when a kid came out of the changing room and laughed at me. “You have to wash the floor!”

“No,” I said. “I GET to mop the floor. I feel like I own this facility, and I want it to be clean when you get here to train. When you come to love the place like I do, we can be co-owners. The real owner HAS to pay the rent, but I GET to clean up and stock the shelves.”

This kid looked at me like I was crazy, but 12 or so years later when he was running his own landscaping business, he approached me and reminded me of that conversation. “That’s how I want my employees to feel – like their responsibility is a privilege, not a burden.”

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying – “People do business with people they know, like and trust.” They will learn to trust you when they can know and like you. A great place for that to happen is on your FB biz page.

Be a director there, and not a dictator!

Like this article? Please feel free to repost it, or recommend it to people. I’d love to have your thoughts and comments below!

Getting Me To Take A Chance On You

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Here’s what really ticks me off about LinkedIn –

I routinely get emails from my connections, offering to “help” me. Usually it’s web site design and/or SEO.

First, they have no idea what Agile’ does – who it’s target markets are, or what kinds of services it provides for clients. These folks routinely refer to Agile’ as a “digital marketing company.” For your info, a digital agency specializes in things revolving around the Internet, like search engine optimization, web site design, and so forth. We’re not that – just ask our clients for whom we design and install banners, roadsigns, posters for their windows, and for whom we set up and man live events. (But we do all that other Internet-specific stuff, too.)

Today’s Offer

Today’s winner contacted me, offering to “work together on projects.” I asked for a clarification. “You know,” he said, “I can develop apps, or perform SEO for your clients, and if I know someone who could use your services, I could maybe refer you.”

Not specific, not decisive. But I literally – 2 minutes before – had given a young man the opportunity to quote me on SEO for a client site and my own. I told this new guy the same thing I’d told the original kid:

  • Give me your email, and I’ll set up a low-level account for you on each site
  • You make a proposal for each site – max 250 words in each proposal
  • Tell me what you want to do, how long it’s going to take, and how much you plan on charging me
  • Tell me the success criteria, how we’re going to measure it, and when we’ll measure

Crickets. Total silence. This person couldn’t wait to make a sales pitch, and now that I give him my conditions, he disappears.

Use Your Chance

  1. Do some research on your prospect – get to know what my business does, and for whom
  2. How many other people do you think are approaching me with their hand out? Offer me something of value, at no charge to me. Demonstrate your worth before asking me to pay you.
  3. What does your prospect want to achieve with your product or service? Offer to prove that your service or product will provide them with measurable results. Back it up with a money back guarantee.
  4. Have a plan in place for how to proceed immediately if the prospect responds to your advances, and put that plan into action

My Offer to You

I’m offering you a free copy of my book, Profile Your Target Market, in digital form. You can grab a copy for your Kindle, Nook, or even a PDF copy for your computer.

No catch – I won’t even save your email address for my mailing list. I just ask that if you find it helpful, come back here and leave a note. Let your friends and business connections know about the book – if you think it would be good for them, please give them your personal recommendation.

Here’s the link:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/xhqbhusj3a