Month: April 2015

9 Best Practice Tips for Facebook

Top Practices for Facebook Posts

facebook likeWe all know that organic reach is in decline, that just means you have to work extra hard on creating great Facebook content that people will love. Struggling? Check out these top tips for a successful Facebook post:

  • IMAGES: Great images tell your story and are eye-catching. Statistics show that posts with images perform almost 40% better than those without. Also, bare in mind image sizes
  • INFORM: Make sure you’re giving useful, interesting and engaging information – something that people will want to start a conversation with you about.
  • SHORT AND SWEET: Recent numbers show that the average character count for a high performing post is just 40. Many profiles are using links with images to attract people and then just posting a small comment as content. See this example from Mashable.
  • TIME: Keep an eye on analytics that show when the best times to post are. That’s not to say you have to only post then, but maybe get out important messages at peak times.
  • TIDY: Consider removing URLs and unnecessary information from the main content of your post. Review it and ask yourself what it can do without.
  • HUMAN: Maintain a human approach to Facebook business accounts. People like to know that there are real people behind businesses and their social accounts.
  • INSIGHT: People love to find out things that they don’t already know. What exclusive and ‘behind-the-scenes’ content can you give them? Think of great imagery to complement.
  • ENGAGE: Got comments or posts to your page? Reply where appropriate. Even if you direct someone to the correct page of your website, they will appreciate the time you took to answer their specific query.
  • BALANCE: Obviously you need to push a sales post every now and then, but be sure to strike a balance between selling and informing.

11 Best Practice Tips for Twitter

Top Practices for Twitter

If your Twitter account just isn’t working out for you, take a look at a few of the pointers we’ve put together. Make a tick-list. How many are you currently achieving?

 

  • IMAGES: Tweets with images perform approximately twice as well as ones without an image.
  • DIRECT: You’ve only got 140 characters – make ‘em count! If you want your followers to take an action, tell them.
  • TO THE POINT: Tweets less than 100 characters get better engagement on average.
  • TIME: There are ALWAYS people browsing Twitter, but lunch time shows a general peak in activity and engagement.
  • LOOKS GOOD: Use short URLs, stick to one hashtag and throw in a nice image – it’s easy to make a tweet look messy, so cast your eye over it one more time before you click send.
  • BACKSTAGE: Twitter is great for behind-the-scenes footage. There is free reign to talk about a single event all day, without your followers getting tired of seeing one thing covered.
  • CHAT: Don’t be afraid to reply to others, interact and converse about relevant topics.
  • REPLIES VS MENTIONS: Remember to put a “.” before an @ at the beginning of a tweet if you want everyone to see it. If you don’t, it will be a reply rather than a mention, and only followers of the account you tweeted will see it.
  • FORMAT: A good format to use for tweets is: Content. Link. Opinion.
  • ORIGINAL: Your own content gives better results for your analytics than retweets, unless you edit or ‘comment’.
  • TIMELY: People use Twitter to find out about things that are happening now, not last week. Keep it fresh, current and relevant.

10 things you need to know about ‘Mobilegeddon’

10 things you need to know about ‘Mobilegeddon’

 

If the situation was a film the tagline would be, ‘today is the day – the online world is changing…forever!’ but our advice for you is not to panic.

As with all online changes, see the opportunity in change.google_flat_logo

Still not sure what’s going on? Here are 10 things you need to digest:

 

  • Google’s new algorithm will reward sites that are mobile friendly. This reflects the increase in people accessing the Internet via mobile devices
  • The changes will ONLY affect mobile searches, not desktop or tablet. But still, if you’re getting more than half of your website visits from users                                                    searching on mobile, that’s a big hit to be taking
  • You can use Google’s Mobile Friendly Test to see if your website will be affected by the changes
  • Don’t panic. There are ways to make your site mobile friendly and Google has put together a small guide to help you out
  • Work harder on your social media strategy in the meantime – your Facebook, Twitter and Google+ pages will all be highly visible on Google, with the right approach
  • Research shows that out of 25,000 top ranked website, 10,000 are unsuitable for a mobile audience
  • Up to 60% of website traffic is from a mobile device – seize the opportunity to go mobile while you remember
  • The good news is, as soon as you’ve got your website sorted, it will return to its rightful place in the mobile search rankings
  • Line spacing and font size are common features of a site that doesn’t pass the mobile friendly test
  • All of the algorithm changes may take a few weeks to be completed, so don’t be fooled if your website isn’t mobile friendly but still showing high up on a Google search today

Facebook Image Dimensions for 2015

One of the biggest social media trends for 2015 is the extensive use of visual content. Deciding which images to use is a crucial element for any business and can be quite difficult to master.

Kong Digital has created a guideline to help your business understand the correct image dimensions to use when uploading and editing pictures on Facebook.

 

Facebook Cover Photo Size

Facebook cover photos are displayed as 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels high on desktop computers and 640 pixels by 360 pixels on smartphones. The image you upload must be at least 399 pixels wide and 150 pixels high.

Although your cover photo can be in a PNG, JPG or GIF format, Facebook suggest using a PNG format to get the best results.

cover-image-and-profile-pic-size mobile-cover-image

 

Facebook Profile Picture Size

For Profile pictures, uploaded images must be at least 180 pixels by 180 pixels. The picture which is cropped to fit the square available for profile pictures is then displayed at 160 pixels by 160 pixels. For smartphones the picture is displayed at 140 pixels by 140 pixels.

 

Shared Link Thumbnails

The Thumbnails for shared links on Facebook are scaled to fit within a box that is 484 pixels by 252 pixels.

shared-links

 

Images Uploaded to timeline

When an image is uploaded to a timeline it is automatically scaled to fit within a box that is 504 pixels by 504 pixels.

The orientation of the image also plays a huge part in determining how Facebook will display it.

Images which are horizontal (landscape) in size will be scaled to 504 pixels wide and images which are vertical (portrait) will be scaled to 504 pixels high.

single-image

 

Mulitple Images Uploaded to timeline

These dimensions vary depending on how many images are uploaded and what orientation the images are. Take a look at the examples below to see what dimensions are relevant to your uploads. (Click to enlarge)

multiple-images

Facebook Event Image Dimensions

For events created on Facebook, the cover photo uploaded is displayed at 784 pixels by 295 pixels. Images uploaded to the events timeline are scaled to fit a box within 470 pixels by 390 pixels.

The orientation of the image also plays a part in influencing how these images are displayed. For horizontal (landscape) sizes, the image will extend across 470 pixels and for vertical (portrait) images, the full image will be displayed, however, it will be aligned to the left and leave white space to the right.

 

Got any questions? Feel free to drop us a line on Facebook, Twitter or email.

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