10 Ways to Leverage Facebook for Startups Part II http://www.ryanspoon.com

1. 10 Ways to Hook Into
& Onto Facebook.
Part II: On-Facebook
Ryan Spoon: ryanspoon.com
Polaris Venture Partners: polaris.vc
Dogpatch Labs: dogpatchlabs.com

2. About Us:
Sample Companies

3. On-Facebook.

4. 6. Interact. Don’t Push.
It’s not an advertisement.
It’s a conversation.
Remember, you’re asking fans to follow you.
Ask yourself, is this worthy of an SMS?
“The biggest mistake we see companies make… is to
think about it as a channel to push out information.”
Tim O’Reilly.

5. 6. Interact. Don’t Push (example)
Broadcast. Interaction. Fun.

6. 6. Interact. Make Fans the Stars!
Dunkin Donuts spotlights one fan with most
interesting picture each week in their Facebook Icon.
Drives significant page activity & photo tagging.

7. 7. Optimize for Engagement
Conversations have at least two participants!
And if you don’t optimize for engagement…
Facebook will assume fans don’t want to interact.
Meaning: Facebook penalizes low engagement by hiding
from the feed. Effectively killing that relationship.

8. 7. Optimize for Engagement. How?
Understand Edgerank: Facebook’s algorithm to
determine what content gets surfaced.
According to Tim Chae (PostRocket) four components to
optimize for. Each dependent on your users, brand:
1. Time: optimize for when to post based on users, geo.
2. Type: status update vs. images vs. polls, etc.
3. Frequency: stay relevant without annoying.
4. Content: must be interactive & more than marketing.
Read more

9. 7. Optimize for Engagement. How?
Track, test, repeat.
Facebook Insights reveals
what’s working with your
content. Study time, format &
frequency.
…Then study what works
for other high engagement
brands.

10. 7. Optimize for Engagement (example)
Best example? The Rock.
Unique, fun, fresh, &
personal content.
Mix of content type.
Frequent poster.
10 hours after last night’s
picture:
50,000 likes, 6,000
comments, 2,000 shares.
Higher engagement than
Starbucks: rate & total.

11. 7. Optimize for Engagement (example)
And users take notice… organically.

12. 8. Target & Refresh Ads
Use Facebook Ads to test & validate:
- Demand
- Conversions
- Demographic relevance
- Site creative
- Landing pages
- etc
At scale though, it can require full time dedication
and/or working with platforms like: AdParlor, Context
Optional, TBG, etc. Larger list here.

13. 8. Target & Refresh Ads
Facebook Ads work differently than AdWords.
At highest level, they require:
- sensitive demographic targeting
- great attention to visuals
- greater refresh rates
- and flighting numerous campaigns to optimize
creative + copy + targeting + cost
… And it’s getting more expensive by the day.
So test & optimize now.

14. 9. Drive Likes, then Conversions
Many brands try to convert Facebook ads to
off-Facebook transactions. It’s tough.
- Try driving Likes and converting fans to traffic
& transactions.
- Might find better success and get fans /
relationships / virality atop that.
-
More likely to “like” and build relationship
than transact click and transact in-line.

15. 9. Drive Likes, then Conversions
Applicable off-Facebook as well.
Use your web product to drive brand fans.
Try building more topical hubs as fan pages too.
Content more topical = engagement is higher.

16. 9. Drive Likes, then Conversions
Leverage fan page & canvas applications to boost likes

17. 10. Be a First Mover
Facebook is continually rolling out new features for
consumers & brands.
Be a first mover.
It’s an opportunity to:
- test & learn
- find market inefficiencies
- distinguish yourself (to users & to Facebook)
- strike gold (hello Spotify!)

18. 10. Be a First Mover (example)
Facebook Photo Tagging for Brands

19. 10. Be a First Mover (example)
Facebook Open Graph & Verbs

20. 10. Be a First Mover (example)
New Ad Formats

21. 10. Be a First Mover (example)
Publishing: Subscribe, Comments, etc

22. Learn more.
Connect with us.
polaris.vc dogpatchlabs.com ryanspoon.com
@polarisvc @dogpatchlabs @ryanspoon
fb.com/polarisventures fb.com/dogpatchlabs fb.com/ryanspoon