As a developer of mobile apps, we are often asked by business owners how can they grow their apps like Tumblr?  The answer is:  Don't dream about being the next Tumblr, but instead, go for a more realistic goal, like DonorsChoose.org, which has raised over one million dollars using a seldom used feature of Facebook's API – the Open Graph, without much marketing.

I am very glad to read this post by Charles Best of DonorsChoose.org.  A business that helps organizations raise funds for good causes takes advantage of Facebook's Open Graph to raise over $1 million dollars. What is there not to like about that?

Here is how Facebook's Open Graph works:

When developers create a web or mobile Facebook app, they can specify certain actions that are automatically posted to the user's Facebook timeline. Examples of verbs are :  Run, Donate, Cook, Draw, etcetera.

When a user does certain actions inside the app, the app can publish the verbs at the timeline.

DonorsChoose.org used this clever Facebook feature to publish the verbs “donate”, “fund” at various points of the app.

Back in 2007 working only on weekends, I took advantage of Facebook's API to create quiz apps that reached 10 million monthly active users.  In these days, the Facebook apps are a lot less viral than they used to be.  But there are still tons of opportunities to use Facebook's ecosystem to grow your apps without much marketing spend.  If I were a developer starting out today, I would think about a “pain point” that needs to be solved.  I will then create a Facebook mobile app, integrate Facebook's Open Graph, and Facebook's  Native Share Dialog.

Introduced early this week, Facebook announced the availability of this feature (which you can read about here). The AppAddictive team caught a glimpse of this technology during Facebook's invite-only event for mobile app developers held last April.

What exactly is this “Native Share Dialog” and what does it mean for developers and their users? If a user is logged on in their native Facebook App, in this case the iOS version (Android to come soon), other apps (and websites) that would like to share items on their respective users' timelines will no longer be required to log-in. This more or less mimics the ubiquity of the Like button embedded on other websites, making your Facebook experience seamless. The same applies for native mobile apps through the introduction of the “Native Share Dialog”

Facebook reported last May that they currently have over 751 million Active mobile users, and it's quite natural for the company to introduce new innovations like these.

According to Facebook, “The Share Dialog offers a lightweight and consistent way to enable sharing from your apps. People now have the option to share activity from apps through this dialog without needing to login to Facebook first. This eliminates 1 – 3 extra steps required for login when sharing via the feed dialog.

The Share Dialog further improves upon the iOS6 share sheet by adding support for publishing Open Graph actions to make it easier for people to tell their stories on mobile. In addition, people can now tag friends and share where they are enabling them to share in a more meaningful and engaging way, while helping even more people connect with your app.”

Pretty neat isn't it?

When we started AppAddictive, building tools for brand marketers as early as 2007, we took advantage of all these new features right after Facebook rolls them out. We've been fairly eager to try these things, and one of our apps eventually had a monthly active user base of 10 million users. And this was before AppAddictive became a “formal startup” – we were just doing this on weekends as a hobbyist!

If we were to do it again as a developer, we'd certainly build a mobile app and take advantage of Facebook's mobile users.

1. Community managers (and their agencies) live and breathe social media

If your job is not living and breathing social media 24/7,  chances are you are not able to keep up with what’s happening on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, etc.  While adding the odd tweet and keeping an eye on Facebook comments might be manageable, you might not have time to do a great deal more.

Creating content calendars that ensure that every post is optimized to create the maximum impact and ensuring that your Twitter account follows all the key influentials in your market may be enough to fill your day.

Also ask yourself if you are keeping up with the latest Facebook competition rules? Or working out how the Twitter API changes could impact your brand’s output? And what about other platforms – should you be focusing on Google+ this year or Pinterest?

Community managers will be up-to-date on all platforms, what they can offer and how they can potentially work best for your brand. It is their job after all. Why not let the experts worry about the finer details?

2. Community managers can offer a fresh perspective

Sometimes working on one specific thing or brand can make things jaded after a while. Outsourcing your social media efforts will invite a fresh perspective to the table and stimulate discussion around the brand and how to make it stand out in the fast-changing social media sphere.

Your community manager will have worked on or read about other branded online campaigns. They know what has worked in the past, what could work in the future, and what could potentially be a social media disaster.

They will also be able to advise on and devise the social media strategy that is essential to ensure your brand flourishes online and offline.

3. Community managers are enthusiastic about what they do and will be backed up by a team

If you divide the community management duties between individuals in your company, chances are the actual management of the online entities end up falling through the cracks as other tasks take precedence.

Also, unless proper guidelines are set, your brand’s social voice and tone could end up being fragmented across the social media entities.

An agency can provide the important neutrality good community management requires and will have a team set to ensure your community management is kept consistent regardless of summer holidays or staff turnover. They have also actively pursued this career, so will be eager to do it well.

Finally let’s not forget one very important thing. If you outsource your community management then you can be assured that your Facebook pages will always be updated and that someone is responding to questions on Twitter and other social networks in a timely and coordinated manner.

Your brand won’t be joining the thousands of others whose Facebook and Twitter accounts lay dormant and are an embarrassment to the company and the staff that were supposed to populate them.

Very interrelated to WOM is customer loyalty.  Although the need to provide an after-sales experience that inspires loyalty and therefore repeat purchases isn’t new, not all loyalty is equal in today’s increasingly competitive, complex world. There are 2 types of loyalty:  Active loyalists, who not only stick with it but also recommend it; Passive loyalists, who choose to stick to the brand either because of complacency or confusion caused by too many choices,  and stay with a brand without being committed to it.  Despite their claims of loyalty, passive consumers are open to messages from competitors who give them a reason to switch.    

Some key concepts related to WOM

3 Main Classifications:

Experiential

WOM is the most common and powerful form, typically accounting for 50% to 80% of word-of-mouth activity in any given product category. It results from a consumer’s direct experience with a product or service, largely when that experience deviates from what’s expected. (Consumers rarely complain about or praise a company when they receive what they expect.) Complaints when airlines lose luggage are a classic example of experiential WOM, which adversely affects brand sentiment and, ultimately, equity, reducing both receptiveness to traditional marketing and the effect of positive WOM from other sources. Positive WOM, on the other hand, can generate a tailwind for a product or service.

Consequential

Marketing activities also can trigger WOM. The most common is what we call consequential WOM, which occurs when consumers directly exposed to traditional marketing campaigns pass on messages about them or brands they publicize. The impact of those messages on consumers is often stronger than the direct effect of advertisements, because marketing campaigns that trigger positive WOM have comparatively higher campaign reach and influence. Marketers need to consider both the direct and the pass-on effects of WOM when determining the message and media mix that maximizes the return on their investments.

Intentional

A less common form of WOM is intentional—for example, when marketers use celebrity endorsements to trigger positive buzz for product launches. Few companies invest in generating intentional WOM, partly because its effects are difficult to measure and because many marketers are unsure if they can successfully execute intentional WOM campaigns.

Measuring Word-of-Mouth Equity

A starting point has been to count the number of recommendations and dissuasions for a given product. There’s an appealing power and simplicity to this approach, but also a challenge: it’s difficult for marketers to account for variability in the power of different kinds of WOM messages. After all, a consumer is significantly more likely to buy a product as a result of a recommendation made by a family member than by a stranger. These two kinds of recommendations constitute a single message, yet the difference in their impact on the receiver’s behavior is immense. In fact, our research shows that a high-impact recommendation, from a trusted friend conveying a relevant message, for example, is up to 50X more likely to trigger a purchase than is a low-impact recommendation.

Loyalty Platforms and Social Loyalty Platforms

The growth of online social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube has made online word of mouth a channel for businesses to acquire customers.  Offering your customers membership to loyalty rewards club can incentivize your customers to spread positive reviews and experiences about your product.    For the first time ever, merchants can have their loyal customers share their activity on Facebook to bring in new customers. The cloud based loyalty platform saves merchants IT costs versus existing desktop server solutions.  Sign up today to learn how Social Loyalty can save you 88% on new customer acquisition cost. Visit SocialLoyaltyApps.com to learn more.

According to eMarketer, the  new report, “Social Loyalty: From Rewards to a Rewarding Customer Experience,” analyzes findings from dozens of third-party research providers and interviews with industry executives.  Here are some of the best practices for improving social  loyalty.

Why? Because many traditional loyalty programs are not highly effective, eMarketer notes. While loyalty programs have been popular in the US for years—with the average American consumer belonging to 18 loyalty programs according to loyalty marketing publisher COLLOQUY—it is not clear how many of these consumers are actually active.

eMarketer further notes that points, coupons and freebies are great for grabbing initial attention.  But in the long run these promotions can’t make up for a lackluster customer experience. However, through the use of social media, retailers and brands can identify and interact with the most profitable internet users.  And for the first time ever, social networks such as Facebook makes it easier for businesses to acquire new customers through social loyalty programs.  Why?  Loyalty can be won through encouraging word-of-mouth and creating advocates or evangelists, by raising a user’s social status, by surprising and entertaining shoppers in unexpected ways and also by listening to customers’ needs and suggestions and responding in a mutually beneficial fashion.  Brands that most often succeed typically encourage sharing, raise customers’ social status, develop highly entertaining loyalty programs, and listen and respond to feedback quickly.  Social loyalty programs provide brands with an unprecedented amount of customer data, both online and offline.

Though leads follow up may sometimes look daunting, successfully following up on a lead and starting the process that will take it to a sale doesn't have to be a trying and disappointing process.

Here are seven tips for following up on leads effectively.

1. Strike while the iron is hot.

In many cases, a lead is an asset that depreciates in value very, very quickly. Thus, it's worth trying to respond to qualified leads as soon as humanly possible.  This is because your response time will often determine whether you close a sale or lose a sale you could have easily closed.

2. Read the lead.

COMMON SENSE: it's important to read a lead so that you know who you're dealing with and what your opportunity may be.  But the FACT: this doesn't always happen.

To avoid looking unprepared or taking things for granted, it is a tremendous help to create a checklist that your inbound marketers should use as part of the lead follow-up process.

3. Have the right (and preferably same) person respond and follow through from the get go to establish rapport.

To make the most of a lead, ensure that the person best capable of following up on it is the same person who responds. While new prospects may necessarily have to deal with several people throughout the sales cycle, it is often desirable to ensure that their first point of contact is someone they can start to build a rapport, if not a relationship, with.

4. Don't be afraid to pick up the phone

Thanks to technology, phone calls are more and more infrequent for many individuals, especially to younger members of the workforce. However, the phone is still a powerful sales tool and,  if your lead contains a phone number, make a habit of picking up the phone and dialing it.

5. Get on the same page

When speaking with a prospect, walk before you run. Even if your lead came with a lot of detail, it's important to confirm that you have a good understanding of what the prospect needs and haven't made any assumptions that could unnecessarily limit your opportunity, or ruin it altogether.

6. Set expectations and timeframes

In every aspect of sales and business cycles, expectations are everything and it's never too early to set them. If an initial conversation with a lead confirms that there's an opportunity, take control. Once you're on the same page with the customer and understand his/her needs, you should at a minimum lay out what you think the sales cycle will look like. This includes proposing dates for key milestones.

7. Always respond

Not all leads are created equal. Some, unfortunately, are less-than-desirable for a variety of reasons. Nevertheless, assuming that the individual who submitted the lead is a real person, a response should always be provided no matter what. Not only can this help maintain your reputation in the marketplace, it also ensures that you will be remembered  for future opportunities that may be a better fit.

Here are 12 brands identified by Econsultancy that used such principles and have worked.  You might want to test them out yourself for your own brand and explore.

Social Proof

One of the most effective things you can bring to your site to increase the confidence of buyers is ‘social proof’. Social proof is the phenomena where people tend to believe that the decision and actions of others reflect the correct behavior in a specific situation.  So, we have to create an experience which convinces our visitors they’re not the only person making this decision.

Basecamp Social Proof Techniques

Basecamp

In this design we see a prominent mention of the sheer number of other people who have made the same purchasing decision that the visitor is considering.

Raven SEO Tools

One of the most common ways to integrate social proof into your site is by including testimonials into your site, especially if you can include a picture of the person providing the social proof. Software as a Service (SaaS) companies are the kings of this. But it’s a sensible addition to most B2B sites and can also work well in B2C environments.

Wish.co.uk

There’s a huge number of clever CRO techniques in place on this page but we want to highlight one of the easiest ways to implement social proof into your site, using the off-the-shelf Facebook Like button/widget. It really simply shows you the profile pictures of other people who’ve liked that page on Facebook, also prioritizing those who are connected the to the visitor of the site.

It is not just social proof, but personalised social proof. Actually it’s even better than that.  It’s automated personalised social proof.

Groupon

Yes Groupon. It might have been getting a lot of stick recently but it, more than nearly every other major internet business, has a deep understanding of human behavior. Here it illustrates how they’ve built social proof into the very DNA of its business.

By showing how many other people have bought the same offer,  Groupon hopes to persuade the visitor to do the same, and place an order.

Loss Aversion

The disutility of giving up an object is greater than the utility associated with acquiring it.  This  is known an Loss Aversion. ‘Disutility’ simply means that human tendency prefers not to lose  something more than we love to gain something. Sometimes this is about a subtle re-framing of your copy to concentrate on loss rather than gain. We need to ask ourselves ‘How can we make visitors think they’d be losing something if they don’t buy?’.

Agoda

Many travel websites are particularly good at communicating loss aversion.  A good example is Agoda. It makes it clear what you would lose if you don’t book now. This serves to instantly increase urgency.

Qwertee

Qwertee has built an understanding of human behavior right into its business model. Its t-shirts are only available for 48 hours and after the first 24 the price increases. Every time you visit the site  there’s a huge ticking clock showing exactly what you’re going to miss out on if you don’t purchase soon.

Amazon

Amazon is the king of using cognitive biases to increase conversion rates. One particular example where it uses loss aversion is for its ‘Prime’ customers. Prime users are a subset of their most frequent customers who have paid upfront fees to have access to next day delivery by default. If you’re a signed-in Prime customer, every product you visit that has next day delivery reminds you how long you’ve got before that day’s cut-off point.

Argos

It’s not just online giants like Amazon making use of our innate loss aversion to increase purchases. High street retailer Argos taps into our aversion to loss to drive footfall to its shops using this clever lightbox.

Anchoring

One of my favourite cognitive biases that influences the way behave, is known as anchoring. It is the tendency to rely too heavily – or ‘anchor’ – on a past reference or on one trait or piece of information when making decisions. These anchors can often be numerical. Our challenge is to ask ‘How can I reference an ‘anchor’ that influences visitors to my site?’.

Hotels.com

One of the oldest anchoring tricks in the book is what the price was reduced from. Cross-hatched higher prices showing the available discount is a simple way to anchor the price of an item and make it seem better value.

Mailchimp

SaaS companies like MailChimp often make use of a clever anchoring technique that more businesses should be wise to try and use. You’ll notice they have one high price that’s much higher than all the other price points. This maybe be because it’s a popular option.  However many anchoring experiments have found introducing one higher price point can lead to people spending more in total even if nobody chooses that option.

This concept is worth repeating because it is a bit counter-intuitive: Adding an extra expensive option to your page can increase the average order value of the page even if nobody selects that option.  This is because it makes your other expensive options seem less expensive. This is one that’s well worth testing.

Broadband.co.uk

There’s also a case of possible anchoring taking place on the homepage of Broadband.co.uk, where the BT offer is significantly more expensive than the other options. That’s because the package is very different to the others. If we believe in the principle of anchoring, this may be increasing the value of the traffic to this page by encouraging them to assess the relative value of the other options differently.

Wiggle

Adding related products to a page can be a great way to increase the number of items people add to a basket. There’s also a possibility that the selection of these products might also have an anchoring influence. We don’t expect too many retailers bear price anchoring in mind with their related product algorithm, but it’s something you would expect some retailers to have tested.

As we noted at the beginning of this article, we don’t always know in every case that these changes have been implemented to increase conversion rates.  However,  if we understand human behavior and some of our cognitive biases, they would certainly seem worthy efforts to try.

Get the basics down.

Be succinct. Posts between 100 and 250 characters (less than 3 lines of text) see about 60% more likes, comments and shares than posts greater than 250 characters.

Post regularly. Post at least five times a week to stay top of mind for fans. Consistency is also key. For example, post new product announcements on the same day every week so fans know what to expect and can look forward to hearing from you.

Post at the optimal time. Only you know what’s right for your business, and you can use your Page Insights to figure out what’s working (for instance, try posting at different times of day and see when you get the most engagement).   For example, FB reports show that restaurants post from 7am-12pm when people are making plans for the day, while retailers post in the 8am-2pm window. User engagement with Facebook Pages is highest from 9-10pm and the 18-24 demographic is the most engaged during this time.*

Be specific and relevant.

Know your specific audience. When posting to your page, your message will reach fans who are likely to be familiar with your brand, so insider content can make them feel in the know.  To reach new audiences, you should create an ad from your page post and keep the content more general while still using your brand voice.

Be seasonable and timely. Fans are more likely to engage with topics that are already top of mind, such as current events, holidays or news. For example, posts mentioning Independence Day on July 4th generated about 90% more engagement than all posts published on that day.

* All engagement data and statistics are based on internal Facebook studies and represent average results.

Be relevant.  For example, local businesses can reference community events, while national businesses can link to articles that their community will care about.

Make a visual impact.

Post photos and videos. Posts including a photo album, a picture or a video generate about 180%, 120%, and 100% more engagement than the average post, respectively.*

Use bold visuals. Grab your audience’s attention by using simple images with a clear focal point. Images with highly saturated colors also help the creative stand out against the site’s white background.   An internal study showed that top performing ads (those with >.3% engagement in the form of likes, comments and shares) feature close-up images and a single color that stands out.*

Feature images that capture your brand. Ideally your profile image will be your logo or other brand  symbol, but people should also recognize your brand in the images you feature. An internal study showed that when a brand was immediately identifiable in an ad, it performed better in terms of recall and purchase consideration.

Craft compelling content.

Speak from your specific brand voice. Include key words that are unique to your brand identity. If your brand has a fictional spokesperson, use their voice. If not, imagine how your brand would sound if   it was a person.

Position your brand as a hero or problem solver. Highlight a specific product feature, such as anngredient or the convenience factor, and the impact it made. Reinforce this in the image if possible.  An internal study showed that this was a characteristic of top performing ads.

Give fans exclusive access to content, products, events, and offers. Fans are 2x more valuable than non-fans, so you should reward them for their loyalty.* Take fans behind the scenes of events and product launches to make them feel special. Announce new products to fans on Facebook before anywhere else, give fans early access to sales, or post exclusive photos from events.

Deliver value to fans. Post limited-time offers or coupon codes, or use your Page to promote a sweepstakes or giveaway.  Social loyalty rewards programs would make an excellent strategy.

The main hub on Facebook now between a brand and its fans is the newsfeed — the only place to reach a brand’s Facebook audience. To implement an effective strategy on Facebook, brands need

to engage more earnestly with their audience by focusing on content that breaks through the clutter. In turn, this compelling content heightens engagement and increases the likelihood that the Facebook Edgerank algorithm will incorporate these types of updates in the future. And for brands, this means knowing and thinking like their audience.

For starters, explicit calls to action get the best response. Here are other ways to tap into the mindset of a Fan, demand attention in the newsfeed and maximize engagement. 

1. Establish connection with the Fans.

Once customers become Fans, brands need to remind them why they “liked” them in the first place. Insight on company culture, employees and events allows Fans to connect with a brand in a more direct and personal way.

2. Keep the message short and sweet.

Facebook users scan their newsfeeds multiple times a day. Multimedia updates that stand out next to long text blurbs tend to catch their attention and attract more comments, clicks and shares. Avoid text overload with visuals.

3. Set industry trends.

Fans like to learn more about the brands they follow and look to them for new ideas as a leader in their industry. Sharing white papers, interesting assets and positioning posts helps to showcase brands as thought leaders and set them apart from competitors.  Use continuous newsfeeds to teach and inspire with leadership.

4.  Be more than interesting – be helpful

Surprising Fans with interesting content that is not expected makes it fun, such as games, puzzles, etc.  Nothing makes Fans more excited than accidentally finding something in their newsfeed that they were looking for.

5. Be relevant – a.ka. Be Local

Fans based in New York do not share common interests as fans in San Francisco. Facebook’s new promotion capabilities can unlock specific targets/markets.  So use them wisely.  Target updates based on personal location or interests. Share the right content with the right people to make your brand relevant. 

6. Interact with your Fans in Real-Time

Social media allows brands not only to broadcast to their audience but to interact with them in real-time. Customers have now learned to use brand pages to express problems and concerns with the company.  Hence, it has become even more important to address them in a timely manner. Positive experiences with customer service and extra help from brands build customer loyalty.  These loyal customers create word-of-mouth marketing which, in essence, is free advertising.

7. Actually ask what Fans think

Opinions matter.  Fans get excited knowing their opinions matter. The newsfeed is a great place to find out how Fans use a product or what they think about an issue through comments and polls. As they interact with a brand’s content, the newsfeed encourages their friends to chime in, as well.

8. Make your Fans feel special

Who does not like a VIP treatment? Fans appreciate knowing that they are valued. One way of showing their value is by giving away discounts, specials and exclusives on products and services just for Fans – This gives them incentives to try something new, and they would also spread the word about the exclusive deals to friends.  Using a social loyalty program would be a good strategy, as well.

9. Lure your Fans back to the page

Fans need a reason to check out the “full view” of brand pages — and the newsfeed is a perfect place to do circle them back to the page.  Promos, contests and engagement opportunities posted in the newsfeed are a great way to heighten interest and direct them to a brand’s Timeline or even a custom-designed application.

 10, Create and Repeat

Facebook gives brands the platform to master the creation of compelling content,  raise interest in Facebook content, inspire engagement, then better secure placement of future content in the newsfeed. And loop back again.

The Fewer, The Better – Liking with Limited Quantity

Scarcity is a powerful tool. Offering a product with limited time period or quantity can be very enticing.  This is what drives impulse buys in social commerce. If your customers know they can’t get it anywhere else and there’s only a few left, they are much more likely to buy. Scarcity will attract new Likes (and customer acquisition) by word of mouth.

Quality Over Quantity

Popularity may be awesome but can be a tricky thing.  A brand with 20,000 fans on Facebook is popular compared to one with 100 fans, but pales in comparison to the brand with 20 million fans. The real lesson is what you do with your fans and less about how many you have.   So engage with your fan base and continue to offer a unique and awesome experience. In turn, your community will grow. The bottomline is that authenticity, consistency, and great content that generates a reaction are big drivers in developing a community. Posts with photos and powerful videos encourage sharing, and therefore expand a brand’s reach. An authentic brand voice will build trust, leading the casual brand fan to have a deeper sense of personal connection and ownership.  This makes them pay more attention to your updates that appear in their news feeds.

Go Directly to Your Customers – Remove the Middle Man

So you have a community of fans.  They are there for a reason – they like your products,  your customer service, your stores, your marketing, etc. You are the authority on your brand and your fans want to directly deal with and buy from you.  So take out the middle man and go directly to your fans. That way, you’re in control of the experience. Fans appreciate that direct experience much more than just buying your products at a big retailer. This is a big factor in the conversion funnel. People buy from the direct source because the sense of trust is very high. They know that the direct source cares more for the customers more than anyone else.  Thus, a great social experience that ends with a sale builds affinity and is an opportunity for brands to build repeat business.  The keyword here is “experience”.  The experience flows all the way from the initial introduction to the offer through the message a person receives after the transaction.  The experience ensures repeat customers.

Friends get Rewards

Reward your fans for being loyal to your brand and you can easily turn them into your evangelists or advocates of your brand or products.  This is the beauty of the social loyalty program.  You don’t only retain your existing customers. (Remember, new customer acquisition costs 8 times more than retaining your existing customers.)  In essence, your evangelists give free testimonials and help you acquire new customers.  You get free advertising.  And for the first time ever, Facebook makes it so much easier to do word-of-mouth marketing and use existing fans to acquire new customers. Find what reward system works for your brand and make it a part of your overall strategy.  It does not only drive down your costs, but it is a very effective marketing tool.

Be Consistent

The key to success in any endeavor is consistency – Show Up!  When it comes to Facebook Commerce, you need to just stay on top of it. Your fan base is built over time.  This can be accomplished in the form of polls, photo caption contests, giveaways, quotes, choosing a fan of the day, anything that engages your fans or get them involved.  Facebook Commerce is about building a community. When used well, the Facebook conversion funnel is a loop. By being smart with the offer and providing a great experience along the way, you can build your audience’s expectation and make them shop through your Facebook page.  So what else are you waiting for?  It is right at your fingertips!