We all hate Facebook, right?
Sure: but look at these numbers.
In a recent 30-day cycle, Facebook sent me 76% more visits than Twitter. That’s an increase of 196% from the month before.
You’re going to kick yourself when you learn how I did it.
It has nothing to do with time or numbers. I’ve been on Twitter seven times longer than Facebook, and my Twitter audience is 894% larger than my Facebook audience.
Facebook is sending 76% more traffic than Twitter.
Your Facebook traffic has nothing to do with the size of your fan page or how long you’ve had it.
I’ve already proven that, but what’s the explanation?
It’s simple: your audience is more likely to visit your site from a friend’s link than from your fan page.
Humans are social creatures. Word of mouth is far more powerful than broadcasting.
Social media isn’t about promoting yourself. It’s about persuading others to promote you.
Fine. But how am I blowing up Facebook?
1. Promote Your Share Button, Not Your Like Button
It’s no secret that Facebook’s share button is occasionally broken (it doesn’t show the share count). Facebook prefers you use the like button instead. I told you Mark’s crazy.
Ignore Facebook’s push. The like button doesn’t offer a thumbnail and teaser copy – both of which are important to Facebook traffic.
Use that share button. Embed it on every single post.
2. Use Expensive Images – More Expensive the Better
Are you here to just mess around, or play a big game?
Open your wallet and get serious. I spend cold cash for each image at Two Hour Blogger. Dreamstime.com is a great place to shop; iStockphoto.com is even better.
“That’s ridiculous! Why waste my Starbucks money? Nobody even looks at images. They’re insignificant.”
Maybe that’s true with blogs, but not with Facebook.
What we’ve found is that people like photos.
- Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO
Shop for half an hour, pay $10, and Facebook will go nuts.
3. Hack Your Teaser Copy to Make It Insanely Seductive
On Facebook, how do they decide to click? Once past the headline, they read your teaser copy.
By default, this is the opening sentence(s) of your article. That’s unfortunate: Facebookers aren’t looking for your introduction; they’re looking for your summary.
The fix is simple: customize your meta description, and it’ll replace the default teaser copy.
This is a cinch with the Genesis Framework. In the Edit Post page, scroll to “Custom Post/Page Meta Description” and write what you want Facebook to see.
Write an elevator pitch in 255 characters. That’s how I do it.
Got to be honest, I’m reluctant to share this article with you.
This information could be dangerous in the wrong hands.
I’m counting on you to be responsible.
Interesting, although I was already aware of the advantages of the share button and how you can tweak the data it uses. I’ll pay more attention to the images, though.
A good example of a site that generously uses images is cracked.com, by the way. Looks like each paragraph gets an image there.
Not sure how the balancing guy helps this post, though
So Raymond, what image would you use for this article? Send me the link. I’m curious.
Nice article buddy, I think the reason people prefer the ‘Like’ button instead of the ‘Share’ button is because they think it’s somehow related to their Page, which it isn’t because if someone ‘Likes’ a post it doesn’t mean they will automatically Like their page too.
I found a great article which talks about Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm here if you fancy having a read – http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/7885-edgerank-the-most-important-algorithm-you-ve-never-heard-of?utm_medium=feeds
Wow that’s a rock solid tip, glad that you are generous enough to share the real good stuff with your readers
Oh I wish I could use Facebook more often.
What do you mean, “more often”?
You know, Facebook and almost all social networks are blocked, it’s really annoying to use a proxy, so I can’t really go on it much.
I thought I somewhere read you’re in Australia. Not so?
Oh no, that was half a year ago.
Why not promote your Facebook page more prominently on THB so we can find/like your page?
I don’t promote social media here. I get a lot more emails when the sidebar’s call to action is nothing but subscribe.
It’s smarter to capture email addresses and let the list know how to connect.
There’s some really good insight here. It’s proven that people are way more likely to “Like” than to “Share”, but it’s way more likely that a “Share” will bring more referral click throughs.
I’m with you on the images too. I would take it a step further and say it is vital to choose at least one relevant image per blog post. If you don’t have the cash, http://sxc.hu is a great place to find free images. I craft every image in every blog post because I believe it helps make a visual (or sometimes emotional) connection with the reader.
Good stuff, Martyn — thanks.
This is the kind of content I enjoy reading on a Monday morning while enjoying my coffee. Great way to kick off the week!
While we’re on the subject of using images with your posts …
I like the offerings at Dreamstime, too. Another cool site to check out is “Morgue File”.
Looks like I ended up in the “minority” regarding the question you posed in your email. No big deal. So far, I’ve never gotten lost on my way to your blog.
I generally don’t like to be emailed an entire article because the way they’re usually formatted is really hard on my eyes. The text is usually all scrunched together and the blinking things look like a big fuzzy blur.
Have an awesome week and thanks again for the tips!
Melanie
Oh that sounds terrible! Do my emails look like that? :O
No. Your emails look just fine. Easy on the eyes.
Oftentimes when I get entire blog posts or articles emailed to me, people will use a really large font or all bold text, for example, with absolutely no spacing of any kind throughout. Have you seen that, too? It’s pretty frightening.
Nope, I’ve not seen that. People are stupid.
I’m glad you’re discovering this, Martyn. I found this out a few months ago — a post that maybe gets 10 shares on Facebook by 3-4 times that on Twitter gets a LOT more visits from Facebook (for me). The payoff is a lot higher.
I read somewhere that over half of the content shared on the web is via Facebook. Insane. I’ve admired your descriptions and images on Facebook, so I may have to pull a page from your playbook. Thanks for the inspiration.
The stats don’t lie, do they, Martyn and Jeff?
I’m living, breathing, (blogging) proof. The majority of my traffic comes from Facebook.
It’s fascinating Jeff.
Tweets disappear quickly, and Twitter is often (sadly) automated.
Not so with Facebook. I’m realigning my whole social efforts.
Images? Who needs those? Not I. I could never see putting 17 images in one post. That’s crazy… oh wait… That’s me. I would never spend money on them either. Make your own. It’s fun. Plus, it makes you stand out in a crowd, allows you to brand yourself, and gets you tons of visits from G. And that, I like!
Richard, if you’re able to make images that look as good as iStockPhoto, go for it.
You’ll certainly save a bundle of dough.
Hi Martyn, Thanks for the article. I currently have the facebook ‘like’ button automatically embedded on every post and have had moderate success. I’m going to try swapping it out with the share button to see how that affects my facebook shares.
For non-genesis users, WordPressPlugins plugins like All-In-One SEO allow you to edit the post meta description.
Thanks for the tips!
Your audience probably won’t use the share widget as much as the like button, but you’ll get far more traffic per share.
Interesting update: It appears that facebook has gotten rid of the share button all together, and combined it’s functionality with the ‘like’ button. Does anyone know where we can still find the code for the share button?
Personally I recommend using this plugin: Facebook Share (New) Button.
If you insist on hardcoding it, here’s the code:
<a name="fb_share" type="box_count" expr:share_url="data:post.url" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php">Share</a><script src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share" type="text/javascript"></script>This is really enlightening.
I’ve positioned my site more for the ‘share’ button now, so it’ll be interesting to see the results.
Keep up the good work here, Martyn. Great stuff.
Be sure to weigh in your results Mel! You’re definitely rocking Thesis over there.
Ahh another limitation of WP.com-the FB share button.
I do try to use images for Facebook, but I take them myself in the office since my clients are local. I think it gives the “community” feel, which is what I want.
Good reminder on the teaser copy.
You didn’t take the images on your Wp.com site, did you?
Good gosh no, but I did take the ones on my FB page.
I’m a little confused, Martyn. Ethan said above that the Like button’s seems to now do what the Share button does. This Mashable article reaffirms that:
http://mashable.com/2011/02/27/facebook-like-button-takes-over-share-button-functionality/
Since that article was written way back in February and your article was written just a few days ago, your information is obviously more current. Has the “Like” button been changed back to what it used to do, or is it true that it does do what the “Share” button used to do?
Say Tom, looks like maybe you’re right – the like button does what the share button does. Guess you can use either one.
Yep, I’m kicking myself!
Thank you so much for your blog – another great post. I just started a few months ago and am putting quality over quantity. I too, spend a long time on every post and I was wondering if I spent too much time until I found your blog.
Heh, you’re not spending too much time. You’re spending just the right amount.
Martyn,
Great tips!
How do you promote your Facebook page or rather – how do people find you on Facebook?
You don’t have Facebook Social Plugin on your sidebar.
The reason I’m asking, because I want to do a major overhaul to my blog design and move it more and more towards minimalistic style.
By the way … thanks for the inspiration – you site looks great and the content is super valuable
Cheers,
Timo
Timo, I don’t care about Facebook. Emails are a lot more important to me.