You must not incentivize people to use social plugins or to like a Page. This includes offering rewards, or gating apps or app content based on whether or not a person has liked a Page. It remains acceptable to incentivize people to login to your app, checkin at a place or enter a promotion on your app’s Page. To ensure quality connections and help businesses reach the people who matter to them, we want people to like Pages because they want to connect and hear from the business, not because of artificial incentives. 

Fan Gate*> The “darling” of most Facebook marketers, it has been the most effective (cost included) way to build LIKES on your page by incentivizing your fan base to participate in a contest. Surely you have “sold your soul” for a chance to win something before?

What is it to a Consumer like me? 

We believe numbers are fast dropping in Singapore for Facebook active users, a probable result of an explosion of social media platforms in the past 3 years. The truth is it is still the no. 1 social media platform in Singapore & Malaysia. Believe it or not, your “LIKE” to a page is worth a great deal to a business. From our digital agency, the average cost per like can cost businesses here in Singapore and Malaysia between $1.50 – $5.00. 

In recent years, businesses have been more intrusive in their methods of reaching out. Even with a lure of great incentives, you will no longer need to join up with a business page. That’s a great deal for keeping your wall feed uncluttered and relevant to the news you would like to hear. 

What is it to a Business like me? 

Wakie Wakie.
Content was, is, still KING. 

If you haven’t been asking questions on your strategy to reach out to your fan base, you should after Nov 5th 2014.
Too many businesses have been looking religiously at the growth of their fan base (as if it is a price in stock exchange) without understanding what digital marketing is really all about. Social Media is after all about the power to consumers and staying relevant is the no. 1 metric that should ever matter.

Here’s some useful tips by our digital agency  on how you can stay more effective with your digital marketing.

Organic Reach vs Boosted Post

Be prepared to pay to use Facebook as a business channel. They have not crossed the 10% mark by reaching out organically via Facebook. Reach out between an organic and boosted post can pull as far as 75X. Understand Facebook is now a listed company, everything is revenue generated focus. 

Emails vs Likes

Don’t neglect your emails subscribers. Industry’s average open rates are 25% and click throughs are 3%. Keep track of the conversion rates between these 2 mediums and channel your budget correctly.

Not about your product but its relevance.

Have an editorial strategy. By identifying your personas, you will have a good understanding of how your products can stay relevant with your potential customers. Whatever your product unique selling points maybe (brand, design, price, functions etc), work out with your team what your editorial content strategy maybe.

Watch for the  birth of Independent Social Platform

If you had clicked on one of those “10 reasons why you should be…”, you are probably hooked on 1 min bite sized content that oozes clever and entertaining information. The world may still take 365.25 days to make a full turn but everything around us has accelerated pretty much faster. From publications, blogs, microblogs, tweets to IG, we are definitely consuming content faster than our previous generation. 

If your brand strategy is still to push your products out like an honest salesman, chances are there are many alternatives out there that are probably either better or cheaper than your ware (somewhere in China). We are sitting on way too much noise in the ad world today. If you belong to a big brand organization that could buy out a media space anytime soon, this article probably makes no sense to you. But for most brands, it’s increasingly to difficult to garner campaign impression (even worse with Facebook’s recent implementations) 

Digital Influenza is an independent media platform not because it is free from brand influences but because it produces creative contents that end consumers can relate to. There are many independent growing social platforms (smart local.com, therealsingapore.com, etc) that craft their content in different interesting angles. Working with some these platforms (be selective) can give you the additional advantage if you are

- thinking about giving life to your products (or services) but yet there isn’t an official platform to do so.
- creating a blog for that reason is either just too tedious to maintain
- regional brand guidelines are too restrictive
- improve your search engine optimization
- increase sustainability for campaign/brand reach out

The post The Death of Facebook App. What’s next. appeared first on Digital Influenza.

Mooncake Festival is actually today and it coincided with the school’s holiday as well. If you have some time over this weekend fun, it is an inexpensive and fun way to interact with your kids.
Step 1:: Anyone can do this with some hard metal which you could get in hardware stores. For the material, you could either use tracing paper or lantern paper (available in bookstore).

Step 2:: With a bit of creativity, draw your 2-dimensional design on a wooden board. If this is your first time, don’t be afraid to copy it from somewhere else and modify it. Work with your kids on this creativity part. It’s really fun!

Step 3:: Build a frame. With a design that you have done, nail down the boundaries. Trace the metal wires unto the boundaries once you are done. Use a pincer to cut the metal and twirl the metal tight. Duplicate the 2d frame you have created and add “bones” to your structure. It might require a bit of brute strength here so kids may require parental guidance here.

Step 4:: Here’s a more detailed look. Lots of metal twirls to stabilize the whole structure.

Step 4:: Skin your lantern. There is patience required as inexperience hands may end off with a lot of frustration. Keep the paper taunt throughout. I added a personal touch to the pig’s ear with a little moving mechanism that you can view below. Otherwise, let the kids’ play with their imagination with the coloring. For better effects, try to use fluorescent colors.

Step 5:: So there you have it! With a candle light, you are good to have the best moon cake festival this year with your kids! Enjoy!

The post How to make your own lantern to impress your kids… appeared first on Digital Influenza.