Tag Archives: social media tips

How to setup and use Pages to Watch to track competitors

Facebook Pages to Watch is a useful feature that was recently added to Facebook’s Page Insights. Not to be confused with the new Audience Insights, it’s a tool that enables Page Admins to monitor and measure the performance of their Page.

Pages to Watch lets businesses and brands create a list of Pages similar to their own and compare their performance. I’d suggest adding peers, competitors, suppliers and others that you work with.

Here’s how to setup Pages to Watch:

• Go to your Admin panel and select Add Pages in the Pages to Watch section (see above)
• Use the handy Search for a Page you want to watch or choose from suggested Pages
• Click +Watch Page
• After adding up to 5 Pages, click Done.

From your admin panel, you can see the total number of people who like each Page you’re watching and how much this number increases or decreases each week.

If you visit the the Page Insights, there’s a wealth of additional information. You’ll see the total number of people who like the Page, plus the following info for each week in the Overview section:

• Percentage increase or decrease of people who like the Page
• Number of times the Page posted
• Amount of engagement the Page received
• Recent posts (click the name of the Page)

If you visit the Posts section of Page Insights, you can see the five most engaging posts from the Pages you’re watching by selecting Top Posts From Pages to Watch.

When you add a Page to watch, the people who manage the Page will get a notification, but this notification won’t include your name or the name of your Page, so you can stalk your competitors without them knowing its you:

Here are four ways that you can use Pages to Watch:

Learn from Pages that are getting results and understand what is working for them. You can then model your own strategy and tactics based on their approach. Don’t directly copy but use parallel ideas and adapt. Use Top Posts From Pages to Watch (see above).

Build your followers by adopting a similar approach to fast growing Pages and avoiding the strategy of less successful Pages.

Monitor Pages that have a similar audience to yours to better understand your audience and visitors - You can search for ‘Pages liked by people who like <name of your Page>’ and then add suitable Page/s from the results. Note: You’ll need to have Graph Search to be able to do this - find out how.

Look for questions you can answer - keep an eye on questions in Comments of Pages You Watch that can provide you with subject matter for Facebook and blog posts. Posting and blogging about people’s concerns is very likely to create engagement.

In summary, by using Pages to Watch you can learn from best practice and then create your own original and engaging content.

For more advice on Facebook, download my 100 Facebook Tips or book some time to receive advice over the phone.

Top 6 Social Media Tips for 2014

If you’re looking to improve your use of Social Media for business in 2014 and achieve real results here are my top 6 Social Media tips:

1) Produce a Social Media Strategy - The beginning of a new year is a great time to create a Social Media Strategy. You shouldn’t have a Facebook Page just because everyone else has one. Having a strategy ensures that you’re clear on the purpose of your social networks and social media activity and that it’s integrated with your business strategy. If it’s your priority to increase sales then you can set objectives for your social networks to help achieve this. For example, increase visitors to website from Facebook by xxxx visitors per month. It can also help you focus on ideas for posts and tweets (see point 2 below).

2) Plan and schedule - With increasing demands on our time, it’s important to plan and schedule your posts and tweets. Start 2014 by creating a Content Plan - plan content around events you’re organising or attending plus seasonal events such as Valentines Day, Easter and Christmas. If you’d like a Content Plan template let me know. You can then schedule using a tool like Buffer - read my review here. Scheduling enables you to implement your Plan in an effective way. In a single 30 minute session you could schedule updates for the rest of the day, week or even for later in year. It also has the benefit of increasing your reach and awareness of your business.

3) Post and tweet visuals - Posts and tweets with images or video receive more engagement. Fact. The growth of social networks like Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat in 2013 illustrate (pun intended!) that people enjoy visuals. In 2014, change your priorities when planning your content (see point 2 above). Put images before text. Start by thinking about what image, photo or video you’re going to upload and then how to describe it. Remember, you can also include text in images, for example; quotes.

4) Talk ‘with’ and not ‘to’ people - In 2014 make a real effort to have more conversations with your audience on social networks. It’s called Social Media for a reason.

5) Always engage when someone shows an interest in you - If someone retweets, favourites a tweet or mentions you; make sure you return the favour. Retweet them, follow them, comment on their blog or Like their Facebook Page. You wouldn’t ignore an outstretched hand when someone greets you offline so don’t ignore the outstretched digital hand.

6) Include key words in your posts and tweets - With search engines such as Google placing increasing importance on ‘social signals’ when ranking search results, it will be important to include key words related to your business and industry in your updates. If someone tweets you asking what time your conference starts don’t just reply with 9.30am, tweet back, “The 2014 Digital Marketing Conference at Olympia London starts tomorrow at 9.30am”.

If you’d like help with any of the above please get in touch to arrange a one-to-one social media consultation or in-house social media workshop. 

I wish you the best of luck with your use of Social Media for business in 2014!