It’s not enough just to have a Facebook or Twitter page,  you have to consistently and creatively use the tools in front of you. Although the numbers of users are steadily increasing, engagement remains limited: Those companies that use social media sites aren’t really using them. Only around 17 percent of businesses have more than 1000 likes or followers, and according to this report, that means they aren’t engaged.

As Businessweek writes, social media is worth your time.  Make sure you stay in the game.

But just how valuable are these 20 website visits? E-Marketer found the top reason most become a fan of a brand on Facebook is because the Facebook user is already a customer.

That leaves the burning question: Is Facebook simply another way to connect people who would already visit your site or is it possible to draw in new costumers? Does it matter? Often, keeping a customer is much more profitable than getting a new one.

Just having a fan page does NOT equal successful advertising of your brand, but a Facebook fan page can be useful if you are doing a good job communicating with your customers.

Here are a few tips:  Update your page frequently. It’s also a good idea to offer specials and contests that are unique to your Facebook fans. Facebook is a pretty cool tool for free advertising, but for it to work, it takes time and effort.

1. Timing: Interestingly, certain times and days of the week give a post a better chance to be read. Although in 2009 ViTrue found the best day to post was Tuesday, a recent report by Buddymedia found that posts made Thursdays and Fridays generate 18% higher user engagement.   People generally are on Facebook more when they want to be distracted from work which tends to be the case by the end of the week.  Posting outside of business hours (first thing in the morning, at night, or right after the work day finishes) to be on the top of fans’ news feeds when they are most likely to check their Facebook. You should also experiment to determine which days work best for you.

2. Chose your wording selectively: Facebook uses algorithms to determine what posts make it to the top of someone’s Facebook news feed. According to Dan Zarrella, the Social Media Scientist, choose keywords like “today,” best,” “why,” “world,” and “exclusive” to increase your rank.

3. Profile Picture: A thumbnail of your picture is what people see before they chose to visit your page. Make sure yours is a high resolution in a square shape to best fit the available space. Chose a photo that is interesting or pretty that engages the viewer.

4. Increase interaction: The more likes and comments on your post equal greater visibility. Directly asking your fans or friends to “like” or “share” something will certainly help. Post a link or image to your page to get people talking.

5. Ask a question? Posts that ask a question show higher engagement and comments. Ask where, when, what, should or how.

The number one piece of advice to always keep in mind is to tweet for your customers. Twitter provides businesses an opportunity to interact with customers and vice versa.  Don’t waste an opportunity to build relationships with customers by robotically announcing new products or company news, but provide content that followers want to read and respond to. Here are a few examples of exactly what you should tweet:

1. Share videos, blog posts, or pictures related to your company.

2. Comment on major news stories (wisely) or other people’s tweets.

3. Focus on answering customer comments (positive and negative).

4. When Twitter followers post messages to your account, RESPOND (through posting @Twitteraccount or direct message).  People are on Twitter to be heard, and by responding to their comments or concerns, you are letting them know your business listens.

5. Ask questions. Twitter provides a great tool to hear opinions.

6. Humanize your company. Introduce a staff member or share funny / exciting updates from your office.

7. Use Twitter to promote new products or activities, but in a way that makes Twitter followers feel special. Announce a new product or campaign first on Twitter, give insiders tips on your company’s activities or share unique stories about your company’s news.

1. Coca-Coca’s Expedition 206

In 2010, Coca-Coca sent three travelers and a video camera around the world to all 206 countries that sell Coke products to search for “what makes people happy.” The responses around the world were posted on their website where anyone could follow the heart-warming and funny experiences. By connecting Coke with an uplifting message of happiness that was fun to watch,  Coke created a buzz worthy campaign.

Coca-Coca Expedition 206

2. Old Spice’s Smell Like a Man, Man

Isaiah Mustafa became the face for Old Spice through an online campaign that used 180 web videos and Twitter.  These online videos have received millions of views and were some of the fastest-growing viral videos of all time. In addition, Old Spice used the brand successfully created by these humorous videos in other media outlets.

3. Blendtec’s Will It Blend?

The company Blendtec made online videos in 2006 available at http://www.willitblend.com/ that showed their product blending items from iPads to a garden hose. Following this campaign, sales of the blender increased by 700%.

4. Burger King’s Subservient Chicken

Burger King produced a successful campaign in 2004 to promote their TenderCrisp Sandwich that allowed users to command a person dressed in a chicken suit to do activities ranging from the moonwalk to making a sandwich. The campaign received over 15 million hits in just five days of being on the internet.

5. Office Max’s Elf Yourself

Starting in 2006, Office Max created an online campaign that allowed users to see their faces on an elf dancing to holiday music. The campaign became viral and during the holiday season, and over 122 million elves were created.

Having a blog requires more than an interesting idea or story – you need to format and write in a way that speaks to the fickle online reader. Here are six tips to make your blog better:

1. It’s all about the title. The title is the most important part of a blog. It is what initially gets someone to click on your post through a search or from another website.  Use something funny, creative, exciting, or iconic, but remember to keep it relevant to what you are writing about. There is nothing worse than false advertising.

2. Short and Sweet.  We have already established that people get bored easily. In your blog post, remember to get to your main point quickly and don’t babble on for too long. You want to get them hooked on your idea, and keep them engaged until you finish. What’s the right length? I prefer 250-300 words, but most say that 500-800 is acceptable.

3. List, list, list. Lists organize your blog into a reader-friendly format. People find them interesting as well as easy to follow and read. Kinda like this blog entry…

4. Visual Aids. Use interesting pictures or videos to break up text and keep readers engaged.  Talking about shoes? Give the readers some pictures of shoes. Talking about Facebook? Use screen grabs to show the readers what exactly you are talking about.

5. Findability. The blogging world uses the tools of keywords and links to help readers find your post. Keywords trigger your blog post to come up on search engines so use relevant ones throughout the title and body. Also, links to other websites or blogs increase notice of your work.

6. Have Something to Blog About. There is so much competition for information and ideas on the Internet; make sure you have something original and interesting to talk about that people actually want to read. For example, humor or an engaging story always appeal to readers.

TECHDIGEST compares Farmville to SecondLife’s “long lost cousin.” Like Second Life, the creators of Farmville got obscene amounts of money (a $200 million investment), but it is just another fad? To be fair, the investment wasn’t necessarily for the development of Farmville but for a host of new games that the developers wants to get us to play.

As you know, the biggest challenge of games like this is figuring out a way to make money. Of course, there is the ad revenue from the page views associated with playing the online game, but I”m sure that the developers would prefer a more direct form of cash flow. I happen to play Farmville (level 70, thank you very much), and I have yet to pay real money to buy virtual farm dollars – even if those farm dollars are needed to get my final blue ribbon.

What Farmville’s growth does show us is that there is a desire to play games online (duh) and that people like the social interactions afforded from games like Farmville. Is Farmville the end? No. Just like Second Life, it is merely a precursor to future development.

7. Free Stuff – No, I”m not talking about the free tickets that advertisers get. I”m talking about free placements. Often, media buyers will negotiate additional free advertising into the contract. Not only that, but with posting, we find that our clients often get lots of ads that they would have missed out on if they had been placing their media themselves.

8. Much Less Work – If you take away all of the accounting hassles, calls from sales reps, research into shows and networks, and all of the other miscellaneous work that goes into good media buying, then you can save lots of time. If you”ve worked with a media buying services agency, you know that working with one contact and company saves tons of time over placing on multiple media outlets.

9. Media Strategy – One of the biggest benefits of working with a media buyer is that they can often see the big picture in a way that the individual sales reps cannot. Your buyer knows all of your placements; they know your targets. Instead of ordering a buy based on open inventory (that”s the word that TV stations use for commercial slots), a buy is based on what you need.

I hope that you have found the Nine Reasons to Use a Media Buying Services Company useful. Of course, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to post below or send me an email.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

4. Posting – When you buy television advertising, you are buying based on the estimated number of people that might see your spot. What happens if you pay based on a million viewers and only half a million viewers tune in? It happens all the time. A good media buyer will review the ratings to make sure that you have gotten all of the eyeballs that you paid for. This can be huge benefit if you haven”t been getting all that you have purchased. As a matter of fact, in 2008 we were averaging about 20% under-delivery in our market. This isn”t the fault of the television station, but they aren”t going to point out under-delivery either.

5. One Contact – I was just talking to a potential client about our buying services, and I mentioned that any media salesperson that calls should be forwarded to us. As you might guess, he was very excited. When you work with a media buyer, you only work with your buyer – meaning, you don”t have to take all those media calls from sales reps.

6. Avoid Accounting Hassles – No matter how hard you plan, television advertising billing fluctuates and is sometimes incorrect. With a media buyer, you have an accountant that is accustomed to working with television stations to make sure that budgets are kept. This helps you avoid surprises in billing, and it gives you piece of mind that your invoices are correct.

Part 3

I’ve come up with 9 reasons that you might want to use a media buying services company instead of forging ahead on your own. Look for parts 2 and 3 on Wednesday and Friday, respectively.

1. It Doesn’t Cost Anything – When you use a media buying services agency to buy radio and television, they are paid through an agency discount offered by the station. For example, let”s pretend that you want to buy an ad spot that costs $100. If you work directly with the station sales rep, that spot costs $100. If you were to call a media buyer, that ad would still cost you $100, but you wouldn”t have any of the headaches. The station gives the media buyer a price discount (typically 15%) that is only available to media buying agencies. So, although you pay the media services agency $100 on your ad, the buyer only pays the station $85. In our example, it might seem like overkill to introduce a buyer into the mix. If you were buying just one ad, you could probably do it yourself. On the other hand, real buys often are complex with multiple stations.

2. Economies of Scale – Media buying services agencies often have quite a bit of influence – especially in local markets. Because media buyers typically have a few clients for which they are placing advertising, they can easily be one of the largest clients of the station. As you might guess, this has some real advantages when negotiating contracts.

3. More Experience – Most buyers will tell you that negotiating media buys is more art than science. A really good buyer understands the stations that she is buying. She knows how to create a compromise that helps both her client and the station. She also knows all of the tricks and traps that could cause problems with a buy. For example, did you know that if you negotiate a price that is too low that your spot will probably get bumped in favor of an advertiser that”s willing to pay more? Unfortunately, television stations have to bump spots all the time. Of course, there are ways to avoid this problem, but it takes some experience.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3